Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying's Regular Press Conference on January 22, 2018

2018/01/22

Q: According to reports, the US Department of Defense published the 2018 National Defense Strategy Summary recently, which made much criticism on China and said that China's strategic intention in the future is to seek displacement of the United States to achieve global preeminence in the future. What's your comment?

A: The Spokesperson of China's Defense Ministry already stated China's solemn position on this US report on January 20. I believe you are all aware of that.

This above-mentioned report is full of the outdated cold-war mentality and zero-sum game mindset, which intentionally distorts China's foreign and national defense policies and plays up strategic competition between major countries. This is fundamentally wrong.

Unswervingly sticking to the path of peaceful development and following a national defense policy that is defensive in nature, China has always been the builder of world peace, contributor to global development and defender of international order, which is there for all to see.

Who is really applying international rules in a selective way? Who is wantonly interfering in other countries' internal affairs and even resorting to the threat of force? I believe people around the world can see that clearly and have their fair judgment.

We hope the US will discard the cold-war mentality, put the world today and China-US relations in perspective, stop distorting China's strategic intention, and work for the shared goal with China. We need to respect each other, focus on cooperation and manage differences in an effort to uphold the long-term sound and steady development of China-US relations. This is truly the right choice that serves the interests of both China and the US and the world at large.

Q: According to reports, a US government official said on Friday that the US mistakenly supported China's membership to the WTO, which has failed to open China's economy. What is your comment?

A: Since its accession into the WTO, China has strictly observed the organization's rules, faithfully fulfilled its obligations and made important contributions to the effective functioning and development of the multilateral trading system. Moreover, other countries have benefited from their trade with China. China has always been committed to the path of reform and opening-up, firmly supporting an open world economy, continuously improving business environment as well as upholding, building and contributing to the multilateral trading system. In fact, there is wide approval among the WTO members of China's commitment to the multilateral trading system and they look forward to a bigger role played by China in the system.

At the same time, as we all can see, it is exactly the US that acts and speaks in a unilateral manner and poses an unprecedented challenge to the multilateral trading system, over which many WTO members have expressed their concern. We hope the US can look at China correctly and take concrete actions to uphold the multilateral trading system.

As we said many times, the trade between China and the US is mutually beneficial and win-win in essence. As important members of the WTO, both China and the US should jointly uphold the authority of the WTO rules and improve the fair, open and rules-based multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core.

Q: According to reports, Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu said at the Raisina Dialogue recently that the situation in the South China Sea has eased, and the momentum needs to be maintained in a favorable way for the sake of common interests. He also added that we need to appreciate China's goodwill in opening itself and readiness to work together in strengthening the regional security architecture in Asia. What's your comment?

A: China appreciates relevant remarks by the Indonesian Defense Minister. As a Chinese saying goes, "treat others with sincerity and you will be treated the same way in return". This fully testifies to the willingness of China and ASEAN countries to jointly uphold peace and stability in the South China Sea.

The trust between China and ASEAN countries is so precious and the stability in the South China Sea is a hard-won outcome. Guided by the principle of comprehensive and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), China stands ready to continue to work with relevant parties to vigorously advance the consultation on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC) and maritime practical cooperation and commit ourselves to upholding peace, stability, prosperity and development in the South China Sea.

Q: We have noted that the Japanese TV station NHK broadcast a documentary on Unit 731, which revealed its hideous crimes of secretly conducting living-body experiments and developing bacteriological weapons in the Northeast of China. What's your comment on this?

A: During World War II, the invading Japanese troops waged a heinous germ warfare against the Chinese people. The relevant evidence is ironclad and undeniable. We appreciate the courage of those insightful Japanese people to reveal the historical truth and hope the Japanese side can carefully listen to the call for justice at home and abroad, correctly understand and deeply reflect upon the history of aggression by the Japanese militarism, and earnestly respect the feelings of the Chinese people and people of other victimized Asian countries.
Floridas LGBT population will be protected under proposed changes to the states hate crimes laws.

On Monday morning, members of the Florida Hate Crime Coalition gathered at Broward Sheriffs Office to announce critical amendments to Floridas hate crime law are needed.

Its just common sense, said Florida Senator Kevin Rader (D-Boca Raton). It just adds a few words.

Protected statuses in Raders bill include race, color, ancestry, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, homeless status, advanced age, gender, gender identity and disability.

Hate crimes target victims simply for who they are, Rader said, standing behind a podium flanked by law enforcement officers.

Increased sentences for criminals who commit hate crimes, Rader said, are a way for society to recognize that these crimes strike special fear within victimized groups, fragment communities and tear at the basic fabric of our democratic way of life.

Wilton Manors Police Chief Paul OConnell attended the press conference on behalf of Broward County Police Chiefs Organization.

We can never say mission accomplished, OConnell said. This bill is a step in the right direction.

The Florida Hate Crime Coalition includes more than 45 departments, agencies and organizations. Leading the way is the Anti-Defamation League, which organized Monday mornings press conference. Lonny Wilk, the ADLs Senior Associate Regional Director, said hate crimes do not punish thought or speech.

Americans are free to believe and say whatever they want, Wilk said. Hate crimes only punish criminal acts, such as aggravated assault or vandalism.

Prosecuting hate crimes is difficult, Wilk said, because there is a very high legal threshold.

Raders bill, SB 588, adds gender, gender identity and disability to the current statute on hate crimes. It has a companion bill in the Florida House, co-sponsored by Representatives Joseph Geller (D-Dania Beach) and Al Jacquet (D-West Palm Beach). Geller spoke to the media Monday at BSO headquarters.

The hate crimes law is very essential to what we do in the state of Florida to try to keep prejudice out of peoples motivations as much as possible, Geller said. There are people in our society who are haters, but what we need to do  wherever possible  is to take action to make sure that those prejudices do not impact our citizenry.

Geller said there were holes in the law that needed to be fixed. He acknowledged gender identity and physical disability had resulted in people being targeted.

When asked about the bills chances in Tallahassee, Geller said, Were very optimistic.

Luis S. Caso, an assistant state attorney in Katherine Fernandez Rundles Miami office, said crimes against LGBT people are often violent and many times go unreported.

In 2016, the Florida Attorney General reported 124 hate crimes were reported by state law enforcement  a 22 percent increase from the year prior. Getting law enforcement agencies to record this data is a challenge, Caso said. In 2016, only 49 of Floridas 396 law enforcement agencies reported hate crimes.

Col. Jack Dale of the Broward Sheriffs Office, said BSO is united behind Sen. Raders bill.

As an organization that values diversity and protection of all individuals we propose changes to current legislation to give law enforcement better tools to hold those accountable who commit criminal acts of hatred against members of our community, Col. Dale said.
For Brazils LGBT community, 2017 proved to be even worse than the year before in terms of safety.

There were 387 murders and 58 suicides in the South American country, which set a new record for deaths according to PinkNews. The previous high was a reported total of 327 in 2016, a 30 percent increase from year to year.

Luiz Mott, the president of advocacy organization Grupo Gay de Bahia, said a combination of having more very conservative politicians and television stations comparing homosexual activity to Satanic practices have added to the unsafe environment.

Its a discourse that destroys solidarity and equates LGBT people to animals, Mott said to PinkNews.

Other human rights groups have spoke out against Brazils lack of protection for LGBT people. Executive director at Amnesty International Brazil Jurema Werneck said that while the countrys government has made efforts to create laws that provide safety, those measures have not been successful at all.

In the last decade Brazil looked to produce policies that could protect vulnerable groups like gay and trans people but they mostly failed, due to lack of investment or change in vision of policy, Werneck said.

Other countries also saw struggles with protecting LGBT individuals. The United States had its deadliest year for transgender people ever, with 28 reported deaths according to the Human Rights Council.
Indonesian authorities have already asked Facebook to ban LGBT emojis. Now the government has stepped up its anti-LGBT digital crusade by planning to ask Google, Apple, and other companies to remove LGBT smartphone apps from their stores.

Indonesian authorities are moving to block at least three apps: Grindr, Blued and BoyAhoy, a government official confirmed after a request from police, Time Magazine reports. But the ban may stretch farther than that, according to BuzzFeed. They report over 80 websites and apps geared towards LGBT people could be affected.

We are starting to block LGBT applications, Communications Ministry spokesperson Noor Iza said to Agence France-Presse, according to TIME.

The discriminatory request reportedly comes after the recent exposure of a pedophile ring supposedly linked to hookup app Grindr.

Human Rights Watch Asia Deputy Director Phil Robertson denounced the governments actions. This ban on what Indonesian authorities called LGBT applications is discriminatory online censorship, pure and simple, and yet another blow against the rights of LGBT persons in the country, he told Time.

In a report published August, HRW blamed the rise of Indonesia anti-LGBT intolerance on a combination of extremist government officials, militant Islamists and bigoted religious groups.
Le Collectif Cheikh Yassine a organise un certain nombre dactivites et de festivites pour les enfants de Gaza sous le theme  La joie des enfants de Gaza pour lAid . Ces activites ont commence le premier jour de lAid et continue jusquau 4eme jour de lAid dans la bande de Gaza.



Plusieurs activites, ont ete organisees parmi lesquelles : des competitions recompensees par des prix, des jeux, des animations et des chants presentes par un groupe ainsi que des distributions de cadeaux et daides financieres.




A pair of barn fires made the news last week, one of which proved deadly, as the blaze claimed the life of a horse.

The first of the fires took place on Tuesday, January 16 in western Kentucky  in Murray, to be exact  when a neighbour alerted the barn owner to the fire at the structure.

The blaze took place in the afternoon, and the owners of the barn were on their way to a round of chemotherapy when they were informed of the situation

The owners did what they could to get all of the animals out to safety, and some of the animals were extricated, but a horse and rabbit perished in the fire.

The barns owner, Lance Harper, said, "Black stall, black horse, black smoke. He was bucking and kicking, and we just could not get him out. We tried, and that's the worst part of this whole tragedy."

Members of the community are doing what they can to help the owners rebuild the barn and focus on the future. For more, click here.

Two days after the first blaze, fire crews in Ida, Michigan were called to a barn in the 4100 block of Secor during the morning hours of Thursday, January 18. The barn in question burned to the ground, but, luckily, all of the horses that called the barn home were saved.

(With files from LEX18.com and 13ABC.com)
Natasha Day took one look at the flat tire on her race bike, sighed, and figured it wasnt going to be her night. But, as the harness driver showed then, and time and again, its never wise to bet against her.

She wasnt going to throw in the towel on a rainy night two years ago at Hanover Raceway, a night that began in a deflating manner, literally and figuratively.

At the end of the card, the native of Australia had made a pair of trips to the winners circle, including a victory with Cold Shadow, a son of Cams Eclipse.

It was, in many ways, a perfect example of how Day deals with adversity on and off the racetrack.

TIME FOR A CHANGE

When the local racing scene in the Gold Coast, a city in the Australian state of Queensland about an hour from Brisbane, began to show signs of struggle, Day started looking for other opportunities to continue her involvement in the sport.

It eventually led her to New Jersey, specifically, Freehold Raceway.

Racing, in my opinion, was starting to come to an end where I lived, said Day. The track that I raced at the most shut down for the Commonwealth Games. When that happened, I decided to move on to other opportunities. I ended up going to the U.S. for three or four years. I was second trainer for Ross Croghan. I did a little bit of driving, but I was more focused on the training as far as the horses were concerned. I picked up a few drives here and there at Freehold, Pocono, the Meadowlands, Yonkers and the Grand Circuit at Lexington.

Those little opportunities, nine drives in 2012, 28 the following year and 38 in 2015, would eventually pay big dividends.

I competed in one of those Mildred Williams International races for women and that helped get my name out there a little bit, recalled Day. It was just hard getting visas to the U.S. and going back and forth to Australia. Its a lot of money. I went home for a year and ended up coming to Canada in 2015, and got a job with (high-profile trainer) Richard Moreau. I thought Id try it out up here because its a Commonwealth country like Australia. It was a lot easier in terms of the visas.

It also proved to be a wise career move.

In 2016, Day, who had 258 starts in the sulky, won 21 races along with $120,356 in purse earnings.



Natasha Day, pictured giving instructions through the lane at Hanover Raceway (Image courtesy Hanover Raceway)

I slowly started working on the driving side of things, she said. I bought my own horse, Beachside Bungalow, when I got here. He helped me put my name on the map a little bit, too. He was a $10,000 claimer. He could get me out there with him and drive, and people would notice me. That was at Grand River (Raceway) and around that area. Slowly, it just progressed from there.

(Trainer) Becky Geisel, she noticed me the most, continued Day. I was qualifying one day at Flamboro and she needed a driver. I said, Ill do it. I was there with Beachside Bungalow qualifying and she gave me the chance. From then on, she put me on everything. She really was the one who helped kick off my driving in Canada. She still keeps me on.

Check back on Tuesday, January 23 for Part 2 of the feature.

(Ontario Racing)
National Council of Catholic Women Board Members from Around the Country Met in Washington, D.C. and Continued Their Decades Long Pro-Life Tradition

Contact: Laraine Bennett, 703-224-0990, lbennett@nccw.org

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22, 2018 /Standard Newswire/ -- The Executive Committee of the National Council of Catholic Women, along with board members from nearly forty provinces around the country convened in Washington, D.C. for the annual NCCW Board of Directors meeting. They discussed new national initiatives such as NCCW's collaboration with the US Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking to provide mentoring and other support for victims of human trafficking, a new Education Committee initiative to share Pope Francis' Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium with Councils of Catholic women across the country and the creation of new Councils of Catholic women for young women from high school age to young adult. The Board also unveiled their new program linking school students in the US with their counterparts in the Holy Land.

Board members attended the Pro-Life Leadership Mass on Thursday, January 18th at the Franciscan Monastery in Washington, D.C., and the National Prayer Vigil for Life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

NCCW President Maribeth Stewart said, "It is always so wonderful for our Board to gather as it highlights the dedication to and work for our Mission of spirituality, leadership and service for all Catholic women. We were excited to explore our new initiatives and to mark the progress of all our programs."

NCCW members then continued the long-standing tradition of participating in the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. This year NCCW joined hundreds of thousands of marchers on January 19th where the mood was hopeful as attendees were addressed by President Trump in a live feed video, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and many other influential pro-life leaders.

Photos on file. For more information or to schedule an interview with Maribeth Stewart, please contact Laraine Bennett at lbennett@nccw.org. Please visit nccw.org.
National Sanctity of Human Life Day

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22, 2018 / Standard Newswire / -- Since January 22 marks the 45th year since the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, along with its companion case Doe v. Bolton, that purported to legalize killing a pre-born baby's life for any reason and at any stage of development, President Donald Trump proclaims today as National Sanctity of Human Life Day.

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan issued a proclamation designating January 22 as the first National Sanctity of Human Life Day. Part of the proclamation states: "I call upon the citizens of this blessed land to gather on that day in homes and places of worship to give thanks for the gift of life, and to reaffirm our commitment to the dignity of every human being and the sanctity of each human life."

Reagan's successor, George H. W. Bush, continued the annual proclamation throughout his presidency. Bush's successor, Bill Clinton, discontinued the practice but George W. Bush, resumed the proclamation, and did so every year of his presidency. President Obama had never issued a National Sanctity of Human Life proclamation during his presidency.

In President Trump's proclamation, he states: "Today, we focus our attention on the love and protection each person, born and unborn, deserves regardless of disability, gender, appearance, or ethnicity. Much of the greatest suffering in our Nation's history -- and, indeed, our planet's history -- has been the result of disgracefully misguided attempts to dehumanize whole classes of people based on these immutable characteristics. We cannot let this shameful history repeat itself in new forms, and we must be particularly vigilant to safeguard the most vulnerable lives among us. This is why we observe National Sanctity of Human Life Day: to affirm the truth that all life is sacred, that every person has inherent dignity and worth, and that no class of people should ever be discarded as 'non-human.'"

Since that tragic day in 1973, approximately 60 million innocent children have been brutally killed by abortion. Approximately 3,000 Americans lost their lives as a result of the destruction of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11. Every day, more than 3,000 American babies are killed by abortion. Approximately 98 percent of abortions are performed for convenience, unrelated to health. Less than one percent occur because of rape and/or incest.

"January 22 is a tragic day in American history," said Mat Staver (photo), Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. "We carry the blood of innocent children on our hands every day. We cannot escape the consequences of this human genocide unless we stop the slaughter and repent of this terrible sin. Abortion is outright rebellion against God, the author of human life. Abortion kills innocent children and leaves emotional scars on mothers, fathers and families. We are grateful that President Trump declared today as 'National Sanctity of Human Life Day.' The Trump administration is taking action in favor of human life and we pray that the Supreme Court's decision will be overturned very soon. Until then, Liberty Counsel continues fighting the battle to make the womb a safe place again," said Staver.
The school district, which began its 2021-22 academic year on Aug. 25, confirmed Pacific Elementary had nine positive cases of COVID-19 within the first week or so of classes, eight of which were among fifth graders.
By Olivia Rose

THE CHANCE for Change programme, aimed at giving former prisoners an opportunity to get their lives back on track, will be rolled out soon.





It will assist ex-convicts with getting a job in private sector companies and help them to re-enter into society.





On Wednesday, January 10, Cabinet approved the launch of the registration process for the programme in 2018-2019 and discussed budgetary issues related to the initiative.





Minister of Home Affairs Vaden Williams told the media last year that efforts were being made to forge partnerships between several private sector entities and the prison.





He said: "We are also exploring the possibility of extending the farm at the prison so we can supply Grand Turk and the island of Salt Cay with various food items.





Premier Sharlene Cartwright Robinson has continuously pleaded with employers and members of the community to give those who have served their time in prison a second chance at leading a law-abiding and productive life.





She has consistently called for increased rehabilitative initiatives to be put in place so as to help ex-prisoners with their re-assimilation into society so as to prevent reoffending.





"We are very quick and very easy to lock up and enforce the law but there is very little public education, rehabilitation and prevention.





"What we can do as a government, we are committed to doing that, and we are focusing quite a bit of our efforts this year on rehabilitation and ensuring that we reduce the repeat offender ratio.





She pointed out that the majority of people who are locked up in Her Majestys Prison are repeat offenders.





She added that the community has a very important role to play in ensuring that it does not aid and abet criminals by alienating them, thereby forcing them back into a life of crime to sustain themselves.





"When young men or young women are released from prison, as employers and as citizens we do not embrace them; and sometimes by our lack of action and lack of support they are forced back into a life of crime.





"We need to accept responsibility and recommit ourselves to ensure that no young person, or no person who has served their time in the Turks and Caicos Islands is left behind, kicked out or booted out of society forever, she said.





She added that the Grand Turk prison is bursting at the seams and that something needs to be done to keep people out of jail.





"That should tell us something as a people that we are quite content to sit leisurely by on occasions and watch our young men go to jail and not be in uproar about it.




By Olivia Rose

NO BANKS will be operating in South Caicos after CIBC First Caribbean suspended its services to the hurricane ravaged island.





This week the bank announced that customers will have to take a ferry or flight to complete their banking at either the Providenciales or Grand Turk branch.





On Thursday (January 18) a statement from CIBC First Caribbean said that weekly visits by staff to provide banking services through its agency there will be suspended with immediate effect.





Country head Larry Lawrence explained that following Septembers storms the bank undertook a comprehensive review of its premises and facilities across the TCI.





"Our premises consultants have advised that the facilities on South Caicos are not fit for use by either our employees or our clients, he said.





"The bank also has some safety concerns around the temporary alternative accommodation provided as a short to medium term measure immediately after the hurricanes.





He said the decision was not an easy one, but one that is crucial.





"This is not a decision that we have come to lightly and we sincerely regret that this action has become necessary, but it is with regard to the safety of our staff and clients.





He added that "clients on South Caicos are invited to travel by ferry to Providenciales to conduct their banking.





"Persons visiting Grand Turk may also use that opportunity to do their banking at our branch located there. Additionally, they can use our online banking services.





"We sincerely regret any inconvenience these new arrangements will cause to our clients in the TCI.





"We commit to providing the best possible service to our clients from our remaining locations, Lawrence said.





South Caicos was one of the hardest hit islands during the hurricane is recovering at a slow pace.




GOVERNOR John Freeman chaired the meeting of the Cabinet on Wednesday (January 17) at the Hilly Ewing Building in Providenciales.





All ministers were present except the deputy premier.





At this meeting Cabinet:

-Noted the recommendations of the Procurement Board to award a contract in line with the Public Procurement Ordinance 2012 as follows - TR17/30 Supply of fencing materials for the TCI Ports Authority.





-Approved the waiver of import customs duty on furniture and appliances which qualify under the list of approved items in the Customs (Import Duty Exemption) (No.3) Order which were imported by a number of applicants to replace items damaged by the hurricanes and which were paid for before but not received by the deadline of 31 December 2017 as stipulated in the Customs (Import Duty Exemption) (No.3) Order.





-Advised the governor to approve, subject to amendments being made, the draft Liquor Licensing (Amendment) Bill 2018 for forwarding to the House of Assembly for Approval.





-Advised the governor to approve amendments to the Micro, Small, Medium Enterprise Development Ordinance 2015 subject to compliance monitoring of approved concessions being conducted by Invest TCI and summary reports being prepared for Cabinet.





-Received an up-date by the Minister of Education, Youth, Culture and Library Services on the

re-opening of schools in TCI following the September hurricanes and on plans to re-open those that remain closed or are still in need of repair, including support from the private sector.





-Received an up-date by the Minister of Home Affairs, Transportation and Communication on discussions with Digicel and FLOW on plans to restore IT and telephone connectivity on Grand Turk and other islands in TCI which continue to suffer severe communications disruption following the September hurricanes.





-Received feedback from the governor on a meeting which he chaired on January 16 involving the Department for Disaster Management and Emergencies (DDME) and other agencies involved in TCIs disaster management response.





The meeting discussed hurricane preparedness priorities to be addressed ahead of the 2018 hurricane season as well as a revised TCIG command response structure and implementation timescales to ensure that TCI is fully prepared for this years hurricane season.





The governor undertook to forward to ministers a list of priority hurricane preparedness issues drawn up at his request by DDME for urgent consideration.





-Discussed the issue of access to the beach at Taylor Bay.





-Received an update from the premier on action taken following the fire at the control tower at Grand Turk airport on January 14.





-Received an update from the premier on measures to repair and restore facilities at Grand Turk airport following damage as a result of the September hurricanes.





-Received an update from the Minister of Tourism, Environment, Heritage and Gaming on problems of banking and ambulance services on North and Middle Caicos.





The minister further requested an update on the situation regarding vector control on North and Middle Caicos and the temporary clinic on North Caicos.





-Received an up-date from the Minister of Tourism, Environment, Heritage and Gaming on problems encountered by a visiting overseas film crew.





-Received an up-date from the premier on the forthcoming National Honours and Awards ceremony in Grand Turk in Grand Turk on January 20.





Further information on these matters will be provided by ministers in due course.




IN ITS first warning for 2018 to citizens of the United States visiting other countries, the US Government has strongly criticised the Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force and emergency personnel.





The level two warning was issued on January 10 and advises US citizens to exercise "extreme caution when visiting the territory due to crime.





"Violent crime, such as armed robbery, shootings, and home invasions, is common, the advisory read.





"Police presence and emergency response are extremely limited.





The warnings come at a time when the territory is still reeling from a flood of bad press generated following a number of serious assaults on and shooting of US tourists to the TCI in 2017.





The advisory further cautioned US tourists: "If you decide to travel to the Turks and Caicos Islands avoid walking alone and at night; do not answer your door at your hotel/residence unless you know who it is, do not physically resist any robbery attempt, enrol in the Smart Traveller Enrolment Programme (STEP) to receive alerts and make it easier to locate you in an emergency and follow the Department of State on Facebook and Twitter.





Up to press time, the TCI Commissioner of Police James Smith had not responded to a request for a response to the United States criticism that his officers presence around the TCI are extremely limited.





The advisory can be found at: https://bs.usembassy.gov/turks-caicos-islands-level-2-exercise-increased-caution/

(Delana Isles)
BUNDLED up in warm clothing and sheltered under a big tent on Taylor Beach several residents danced to Jack Nastys impromptu hit single The Beach Belong to We as they protested the illegal erection of a gate that cut access to a public beach.





The protest action which was organised by former premier Michael Misick was sparked by an altercation between a Chalk Sound homeowner and a local man who had taken his family to Taylor Bay beach for a New Years family fun day.





Wellington Williams, a young entrepreneur, was accosted by the homeowner and asked to leave the beach in an encounter he subsequently described as racial profiling.





Since posting the video he shot of the incident to social media many residents and officials have spoken out against the action to cut off access to the public beach, with Misick taking the decision to protest in the form of a beach party on the same beach.





Beach goers were also given the opportunity to sign a petition appealing to the Government to address the issue of beach accesses being demarcated across the entire territory.





The Weekly News caught up with the former premier on Saturday and he shared his thoughts on the issue.





"Today we are having a beach fun day protesting the actions of a gentleman who last week Monday on New Years Day basically tried to chase Turks Islanders off the beach, this same beach.





"And so we decided to come here and have a fun day and to illustrate that no beach in this country is private and we are not going to allow not even an inch of our beaches to become private or persons to believe that the beach is private.





Misick said he believes the actions were racially driven as there were tourists on the beach at the time of the incident who were not asked to leave.





"Racism in none of its forms will be tolerated in these Islands and when people come and live amongst us they have to respect our laws and respect our people.





He continued that the illegal erection of the gate that prevents people from accessing the beach is something that should be rectified immediately and called on the Government to have it removed.





Over the weekend, the former premier had also posted what appeared to be an application to the Department of Planning seeking permission to erect a fence and gate on the property.





From the image posted by Misick, that permission was denied, and attempts to find out if there has been an appeal of that decision have so far been unsuccessful.





He explained that the gate was built illegally, after which the homeowner sought to regularise his illegal action by applying for planning permission and that permission was denied.





Despite this denial, the illegal gate remained and was locked when beachgoers arrived on Saturday to stage their protest.





Misick said that someone subsequently opened the gate and they were able to access the beach.





However, he stated that this is not good enough: "We want no barrier or control mechanisms that stop people from accessing public beaches.





"I think this is an era of citizen action - we have a situation in this country where we have a weak Government and an unworkable constitution so citizens are going to have to begin taking matters into their own hands - in a peaceful manner.





"Whether its beach access, gratuity, changes to the constitution or any other issue that arises, we have to begin to take action in our own hands to begin to ensure that these things happen.





He said the petition basically says that all of the beach is public and calls on the Government to make sure that there is access to all of the beaches on the island, not only Taylor Bay.





"Not only public access but we want also areas to park and other facilities like bathroom, because as the island is growing and people are building homes on the beaches it is becoming an issue because people think the beach is private.





Misick noted that what is being allowed to happen in relation to the beach access issue could potentially be bad for tourism as many people who are renting villas are advertising private beaches and when tourists come here on vacation they expect to have a private beach when in actuality the beaches are not private.





"Its false advertising because its public, he maintained.





Also in attendance at the protest were former premiers Rufus Ewing and Oswald Skippings.





"I am so pleased that we have two other former leaders that are here, honourable Skippings and honourable Ewing out there lending their support with a combination of tourists and residents alike who are here supporting this initiative.





"We are not going to rest until this matter is rectified even if we have to be back here the next Saturday and the next Saturday, sunshine or rain, Misick said.




Saraswati Puja celebrated amid festivity

Worshippers offering prayers seeking knowledge from Goddess Saraswati at a puja mandop of Jagannath Hall of Dhaka University on Monday on the occasion of Saraswati Puja.



Hindu community in the capital like elsewhere in the country celebrated Saraswati Puja on Monday, worshiping the goddess of knowledge, wisdom and culture.

Puja mandaps, temples and a large number of educational institutions were colorfully decorated as thousands of devotees sought blessings since morning from the goddess with traditional gaiety.

The celebration also included offering of Devi Aradhona, puspoanjoli, archanas, anjolis, aratis, distribution of prashad, arati competitions, cultural functions and staging of dramas at temples, educational institutions and domestic residences in the country.

People of Hindu community of the country of all ages came to the Puja venues with their family in the early morning.

In most places including the Dakeshwari National Temple, the Puja began at 8am with the offering of "anjali", which was followed by "hatekhori" (introduction to learning of children) and distribution of prashad.

Saraswati, a mythological companion of Lord Brahma, is the personification of knowledge - arts, science and crafts.

According to Hindu faith, she represents power, creativity and inspiration and presents herself when the weather is pleasant and nature is in its full grandeur.

Students from different departments and institutes of University of Dhaka arranged the puja at 65 Mandaps on the Jagannath Hall playground this year.

Rokeya Hall, Begum Shamsunnahar Hall, Bangladesh-Kuwait Maitree Hall and Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib Hall of University of Dhaka, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka Medical College, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka College, Eden Girl's College, Shakhari Bazar, Tanti Bazar and different places of Old Dhaka, Khilgaon Tilpapara Deb Mandir and different educational institutions in the city also organised puja mandaps.




Turkey in new assault on Kurdish militia on Syria

Turkish police used tear gas against members of pro-Kurdish (Peopleas Democratic Party (HDP) during a protest in Ankara against Turkey\'s \"Olive Branch\" operation in Syria on Monday.

AFP :

Turkey on Monday shelled Kurdish militia targets in Syria and claimed progress in a cross-border offensive that has stoked concern among its allies and neighbours.

The Turkish military on Saturday launched operation "Olive Branch", its second major incursion into Syrian territory during the seven-year civil war.

The operation, where Turkish war planes and artillery are backing a major ground incursion launched with Ankara-backed Syrian rebels and Turkish tanks, aims to oust the People's Protection Units (YPG) militia from its enclave of Afrin.

Turkey considers the YPG to be a terror group and the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has waged a bloody three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.

But the operation is hugely sensitive as Washington relied on the YPG to oust Islamic State (IS) jihadists from their Syrian strongholds and the Kurdish militia now holds much of Syria's north.

France has called for a UN Security Council meeting Monday to discuss concerns over flashpoint areas in Syria including the Turkish offensive.



Turkish television quoted military sources as saying the ground forces had already taken 11 villages in their advance into Syria.

"The cleaning up is taking place step-by-step," was the headline in the pro-government Yeni Safak daily.

Meanwhile, Turkish artillery were firing shells on YPG targets inside Syria on the third day of the offensive.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a total of 21 civilians-including six children-had been killed in the operation.

But Ankara has denied inflicting civilian casualties, with Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu accusing the YPG of sending out "nonsense propaganda and baseless lies".

The YPG also said it had been preventing the Turkish advance with fierce resistance but this has not been confirmed by Ankara.

"God willing, this operation will be finished in a very short time," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told supporters Sunday. "We will not take a step back."

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said the operation would be short and would not have a negative effect on the economy.

"Investors should be calm," he said. "This will be an effective, and limited operation and, God willing, it will be short."

In a sign of the risks to Turkey, 11 rockets fired from Syria hit the Turkish border town of Reyhanli Sunday, killing one Syrian refugee and wounding 46 people, 16 of them Syrian, the local governor said.

The operation is Turkey's second major incursion into Syria during the seven-year civil war after the August 2016-March 2017 Euphrates Shield campaign in an area to the east of Afrin, against both the YPG and IS.

But as well as a complex military task, Turkey has to wage a sensitive diplomatic campaign to avoid alienating allies and provoking foes.

Western capitals are particularly concerned that the campaign against the YPG will take the focus away from eliminating IS after a string of successes in recent months.

In its first reaction, the US State Department urged Turkey "to exercise restraint" and ensure the operation remained "limited in scope".

Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said Turkey had been "candid" and had provided Washington with advance warning of its operation.
UAE-backed group vows to `overthrow` Yemen`s government

Aidarous al-Zubaidi held a meeting in Aden on the future of South Yemen

Al Jazeera News :

A group of separatists in southern Yemen, backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have declared a state of emergency in the port city of Aden and vowed to overthrow the country's internationally recognised government within the next week.

Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the leader of the Southern Transitional Council (STC), said Yemen's parliament would be barred from convening in Aden or anywhere else in southern Yemen unless President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi replaced Prime Minister Ahmed bin Daghr and his entire cabinet.

Speaking at a meeting on Sunday, al-Zubaidi accused Hadi's government of "rampant corruption" and of "waging a misinformation campaign against the southern leaders using state funds".

"The Southern Resistance Forces (SRF) declare a state of emergency in Aden and announce that it has begun the process of overthrowing the legitimate government and replacing it with a cabinet of technocrats," a statement issued by the STC said.

The SRF, an armed group that has clashed with forces loyal to Hadi for control of strategic areas including Aden airport, will "become the core of a new force that will rebuild South Yemen's security and military institutions," the statement added.

WAtCH: The war in Yemen explained in 3 minutes (3:22)

Several commanders from security forces set up by the UAE attended the meeting and declared their support for the announcement.

The statement, however, did not give details on how it intended to topple Hadi's government, only that he had a week to comply.

The announcement underscores rising tensions between Hadi's government, which is supported by Saudi Arabia, and the southern separatists, who are backed by the UAE.

The UAE entered Yemen's war in March 2015 as part of a Saudi-led coalition after Houthi rebels, traditionally based in the northwest of the country, overran much of the country, including the capital Sanaa, in 2014.
A discussion meeting was held on the occasion of the Annual Urs of Moulana Shah Sufi Syed Ahmed Ullah at Karnophuli Upazila recently.
US, led by an erratic Trump, seeks to undermine UN

Thalif Deen :

The continued erratic and outrageous comments by President Donald Trump - and his attempts to undermine the United Nations - are threatening to cause irreparable damage to the world body.

The signs are ominous: the US withdrawal from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); the threats against member states voting for anti-Israeli resolutions; slashing funds to a 69-year-old UN agency for Palestinian refugees; withdrawal from the 2016 Paris climate change agreement; threats to "totally destroy" a UN member state, North Korea; a US-inspired $285 million reduction in the UN's regular budget for 2018-2019, and the insidious attempts to wreck the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement.

And more recently, Trump triggered a global backlash when he singled out Haiti and African nations as "shithole countries" eliciting protests from the 55-member African Union (AU). Trump has also come under fire for his insulting statements that "all Haitians have AIDS" and Nigerians who visit the US "would never go back to their huts."

But running notoriously true to form, he has reversed himself again and again - and denied making any of these statements, despite credible evidence. In its editorial last week, the New York Times rightly declared that Trump "is not just racist, ignorant, incompetent and undignified. He's also a liar."

That's quite a mouthful to characterize the supreme leader of the free world: a crown which he may lose, paradoxically, to President Xi Jinping of totalitarian China.

James A. Paul, Executive Director of Global Policy Forum (1993-2012), an NGO monitoring the work of the United Nations, told IPS the Trump administration poses a grave threat to the future of the UN and to the development of international cooperation more generally. "But we have to ask: how much does the present differ from the past and how close are we to a collapse of the UN under assault from Washington?."

Every day, there appears new confirmation of the problem, whether it is President Trump's crude statements about world leaders, his harsh commentary and stereotypical remarks about other countries and peoples, his upsetting of carefully-constructed international agreements, and his utter disregard for the tactfulness of diplomacy, said Paul.

"In terms of the UN as an institution, we see such blows as the US withdrawal from the Climate Change Agreement, looming US defunding of the UN's Palestinian refugee aid, and US-led slashing of the regular UN budget."

Crude blackmailing to enforce favorable votes in UN bodies, said Paul, has also been practiced by Washington more than ever.

"At the same time, there is an increasingly-harsh US government rhetoric about the UN as a useless bureaucracy, undeserving of respect and support." Paul said "right-wing nationalism has arisen in many lands in recent years, of course, and we should remember that the US has often in the past acted towards the UN and the international community with condescension and domination".

Recent developments, he argued, are therefore not so much unique as they are extreme, posing deeper-than-ever threats to the viability of the UN in an extremely unstable and dangerous time. Meanwhile, the US has already announced it will cut about $65 million in funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which providence sustenance to millions of Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Jordan and Lebanon.

Responding to a question at a press conference January 16, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "very concerned" about the US funding cuts. "I strongly hope that, in the end, it will be possible for the United States to maintain the funding of UNRWA, in which the US has a very important share."

And he made it clear that UNRWA, contrary to a misconception, is "not a Palestinian institution. UNRWA is a UN institution created by the General Assembly."

Last December, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, who has hinted at linking America's financial leverage as the biggest single donor, to Washington's political demands, claimed the US had successfully negotiated the $285 million reduction of the UN budget for 2018-2019.

And it was Haley who threatened to "take down names" and cut US aid to countries that voted for a resolution last December condemning US recognition of Jerusalem as the new Israeli capital.

Ian Williams, UN correspondent for Tribune and Senior Analyst, Foreign Policy in Focus, told IPS "Trump's ignorance and arrogance makes a dangerous compound mixed with Nikki Haley's ambitions and her pro-Israeli prejudices."

Her job as Permanent Representative of the UN includes letting the US government know the views of the rest of the world, but it is clear from her counterproductive threats that she does not really care, he said.

Sarah Palin (a former Republican Vice Presidential candidate), announcing her foreign policy credentials, once remarked she could monitor Russia from her backyard in her home state of Alaska.

"And it is clear that Haley can only see Israel from the US mission on First Avenue," said Williams, author of "UNtold: The Real Story of the UN in Peace and War," recently released by Just World Books.

That seems to reflect some deep prejudices as well as blatant domestic political ambition. While Bush appeased his right wring by letting John Bolton bluster, Washington and the White House made sure that he did not break up the playground, he added

"Trump shows no signs of restraining the damage that Haley is doing to the UN and international law - nor indeed to American diplomacy which Haley even more than some of her predecessors is making an oxymoron."

But unlike earlier times, a newly involved, and newly affluent China is waiting to pick up the balls that Haley and Trump throw out, said Williams who has been covering the United Nations since 1989.

Mouin Rabbani, Contributing Editor, Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP), told IPS history is demonstrating once again that there is an inherent threat to international peace and security "when powerful states are led by volatile airheads."

The United Nations is as exposed to these risks as any other state or institution, and arguably more so given its dependency on not only American funding but also US engagement, he added.

"At the same time, it would be a little unfair to assign blame solely to Trump and his diplomats, in this case led by the extraordinarily vulgar Nikki Haley."

This is because UN-bashing has become something of a national sport if not civic requirement in the US for decades, fed by a ceaseless stream of morbid, utterly fantastical conspiracy theories of the type that Americans excel at concocting and revel in ingesting, he noted. "We are witnessing, in real time, what happens when powerful states cease to properly invest in the education of their children."

The problem for the UN is that making the world body a more effective organization is the one item not on the agenda of its US critics, he declared. With Trump, they smell a unique opportunity to administer permanent and irreparable damage to the UN (and for that matter pretty much everything else they identify with modern civilization).

"It will be for the international community to decide whether to yet again roll over and play dead or prevent the lunatics from taking over the asylum," Rabbani declared. Paul told IPS that to get perspective and avoid idealizing earlier years at the UN, "we should remember the negative effects of the Cold War on the UN, including the proxy wars, the fierce battles over decolonization, and the negative pressure constantly brought to bear on UN budgets."

The Congo crisis in the early 1960s had a deadly effect on the UN in more ways than one. Recent information points to the assassination of UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold in 1961, showing how far Washington and its allies were prepared to go to weaken the UN so as to protect mining and other interests in Congo and throughout Africa, he noted.

"Today, the budget cuts may be the UN's most serious danger. In the previous biennium, the Obama Administration already forced budget reductions but this time the cuts have been deeper and more fundamental."

After years of "doing more with less," the UN system is desperately short of funds for basic programs. Still, the Trump people in Washington have declared that cuts must go deeper and further shrinkage is necessary.

"Beyond the Regular Budget, Washington is imposing deep austerity on UN agencies, funds and programs. Will the Trump administration simply strangle the UN with steadily more draconian under-funding?," he asked.

This has apparently been the Trump plan for US government agencies as well, from Environmental Protection to the State Department. "Kill the Beast!" chant the alt-right ideologues to the applause of their neo-liberal corporate backers. said Paul, author of the newly-released book "Of Foxes and Chickens: Oligarchy & Global Power in the UN Security Council."

To assess the danger, "we need to go beyond calculations about whether Trump will be voted out of office in 2020." Such possibilities, he noted, are a reminder that Trump's own peculiarly odious politics could be short-lived.

"But they do not answer the larger question: what is happening in the world that has given rise to so many thuggish right-wing populists and so many corrupt, rightward-leaning centrists as well?"

Could it be the rising hegemony of the multinational corporations and their owners, who think they can rule over the global system with a minimum of interference, from old-fashioned states and ineffective intergovernmental bodies?, asked Paul, a former editor of the Oxford Companion to Politics of the World.

"We, the peoples," the globe's citizens, have been lured into this trap, to the surprise of so many intellectuals, globalists, and internationalists. This, not Trump, is the existential threat that the UN faces.

"Can a new leadership arise, with new ability to bring the public to its senses? Can the climate crisis stimulate a new transnational political movement? Can a global constituency for a revived national politics and a new and transformed UN come soon into being?," he asked.



"The UN's future almost certainly depends on it", he said.

(Thalif Deen, a Senior Consulting Editor at Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency, has been covering the United Nations since the late 1970s).


Banking sector is doomed, merger or no merger

FINANCE Minister AMA Muhith has recommended Bangladesh Bank to start merger of problem banks, but experts fear that such a move would not stop the rot the country's banking sector is facing.







On December 28, Muhith wrote a letter to BB Governor Fazle Kabir pointing out that it was the most suitable time for the central bank to merge some of the banks 'now in a pathetic state' because of errant entrepreneurs, directors and infighting among many directors, as per a report of a local daily.





But experts, including former BB Governor Salehuddin Ahmed, said that stopping political interference and restoration of good governance could be more effective than the proposed merger. Though Muhith did not name the problem banks, the central bank in a report to a Parliamentary Body on October 29 said that Farmers Bank Limited and NRB Commercial Bank were in trouble and put the whole banking sector at risk.





Ignoring earlier warnings from experts, Farmers Bank and NRB Commercial Bank along with seven other new banks were given banking company licences in 2012-13 by the government allegedly on political considerations. Farmers Bank, established by former Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir, has failed to keep adequate liquidity against the backdrop of growing bad loans while classified loans of the NRB Commercial Bank, operated by Sylhet-origin expatriate businessmen, rose to over Tk 191 crore in 2017 from only Tk 19.3 crore in 2016.





Among state-owned banks, BASIC Bank is in the most deplorable condition because of shady loans of over Tk 6,000 crore offered by previous board of directors led by controversial chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bachchu from 2009 to 2014. Once a profit making bank BASIC Bank now faces severe liquidity shortage despite receiving more than Tk 2,700 crore as bailout fund from the government exchequer in 2014-16.





Muhith in his letter blamed entrepreneur directors, in-fighting among directors and changeover of bank ownership through hostile takeover for abysmal condition of some of the banks in the crowded banking sector with the presence of 57 banks. He forecasted that mergers of banks were 'imminent' and the central bank should 'float the primary initiative'.





Merging bad banks is like locking the stable after the horses have been stolen - it solves nothing. Merging problematic banks will not magically root out their inept and malfeasant officers who were responsible for giving out the loans in the first place. Rather the government should stop political interference in the sector for its systemic improvements. It must be remembered that the Chairman of BASIC Bank was appointed by the government and his tenure was extended even though two directors of BASIC Bank urged the government to dismiss him -- but no action was taken.







The current political move to award banking licenses is wrong as many bankers are saying that the entry of new banks would bring more harm to the sector. What is needed now is good governance and depoliticisation. Banking officials who are crooks in all but name should not be allowed to taint the sector by their presence. Passing laws which strengthen the power of families to run banks is yet another way to get banks in the red through the possibility of financial misconduct. All of this must end. But not under this government.






Rich people are getting richer through illicit ways not for economic growth

According to a report of Oxfam International, more than $8 of every $10 of wealth created last year went to the richest 1 percent. And in terms of percentage, 82 percent of all wealth created in 2017 went to the named and unnamed 1 percent richest people - or even less. Definitely, the revelation includes the wealth made and grabbed in Bangladesh too. But, we are, however, yet to know their identity.







The alarming disparity is also evident at home since tenders, power plants to infrastructure mega-projects to almost all businesses have gone into the grips of businessmen linked to the ruling party for the past few years. It would have been quite a shocking revelation to learn if think-tanks or research bodies carry out a similar type of study in Bangladesh. The nouveau riche class in Bangladesh is booming too, and in most cases the source of their wealth are unknown.







The government, in an attempt to showcase financial prosperity during its rule, has quite often tried to say that the per capita income has increased and now stands at $1610 and people have money. In reality, wealth in any form actually went to the wealthy and nouveau riche people. The fact is - the millionaire and also billionaire boom is not a sign of a thriving economy but a symptom of a failing economic system. Particularly, in Bangladesh the people who are manufacturing RMG products, sending remittance from abroad, assembling our phones and grow our food are being exploited in order to enrich the local corporations and the wealthy. Their lives are not changing for the better in any aspect.







This rising inequality has hit the country hard because the rich has become richer through exploitation of poor and corruption. It would be different if the gap between rich and poor was the result of economic growth in the country. The poor people suffer more because the super rich have too much unearned income to spend making life difficult for others. The cost of living has gone sky high making it near impossible for the honest people to live honestly.





We cannot expect that the government will care to have competent people in responsible positions to change things for the better. The government must change itself to help the poor.
4 Ijtema devotees killed in Sylhet road crash

UNB, Sylhet :

Four people, including a union parishad member, were killed and 10 others injured as a bus carrying Biswa Ijtema devotees collided head-on with a truck on Dhaka- Sylhet highway at Lalabazar in Dakkhin Surma upazila on Monday morning. The deceased were identified as UP member Abdul Khalek, 45, Abdul Zafar, 45, a resident of Kolaiya village, Abu Bakkar, 45, of Ulutulu Noagaon village and Ali Akbar, 50, of Kandagaon village of Kathoir union.

Khairul Fazal, officer-in-charge of Dakkhin Surma Police Station, said the collision took place when 30 devotees were returning to Sunamganj from Biswa Ijtema ground around 6am in the 'Balaka Pahibahan' bus, leaving four people dead on the spot. The injured were admitted to Osmani Medical College Hospital.
3 Bangladeshis among 9 killed in Saudi road crash

Nine workers, including three Bangladeshis, were killed and six others injured in a road accident in Al-Baha province in Saudi Arabia on Saturday evening, reports the Saudi Gazette. The Bangladeshi nationals were identified as Malam Mia, Alam Shah Mia, and Saiful Islam Abu Basheer.

Four Egyptians and two Indians were among the deceased. The workers, belonging to a catering company that supplies food to patients in Baljurashi hospital, were going to Qunfuda corniche to spend their day-off when the van they were travelling in overturned on a mountainous road. Apparently due to time constraint, they opted to take the mountainous route. Prince Dr. Hossam Bin Saud Bin Abdul Aziz, Emir of Al-Baha region, offered condolences to the families of the deceased workers and wished speedy recovery to the injured.

Saudi Red Crescent Authority along with the Ministry of Health and Civil Defense emergency teams rushed to the site of the accident and shifted the injured to Prince Mishari hospital in Baljurashi.

Two critically injured victims - an Indian and a Bangladeshi - were shifted to King Fahad hospital in Al-Baha where the Indian worker succumbed to his injuries.
DU student's body found in Shitalakhya, 3 held

Staff Reporter :

The body of a student of Dhaka University (DU) was found in the Shitalakhya River in Narayanganj district on Monday morning.

The deceased, Parvez Ahmed, was a second year student of Social Welfare and Research Institute of DU, and son of Joynal Abedin, hailing from Borabu in Rupganj upazila of the district, Police said.

Quoting Parvez's family, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Rupganj Police Station, Sajjadur Rahman said that Parvez Ahmed was a part-time employee at the Meghna Sramajibi Samabay Samity (a workers' cooperative association) in the area.

Parvez did not return home after someone called him out over the phone around 8:00pm on Sunday. On Monday morning, local people found Parvez's body on the bank of the river, the OC said.

The police sent the body to Narayanganj General Hospital for autopsy, the police official said.

The OC also said that no injury marks were found on his body.

He suspected that he might have been suffocated at night, the police official said.

The filing of a case was under process in this regard, he added.

Meanwhile, police have arrested Jahangir, Sohag and Sharmin of the association for interrogation, the OC said.


Businessmen block road to resist building illegal market

Staff Reporter :

The New Market businessmen blocked Mirpur roads for about five hours against the Dhaka North City Corporation's move to build the second floor of the market on Monday.

They started the blockade at about 12:10pm and dispersed at 5pm after getting assurance from the local MP Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh that no second floor in the market would be constructed.

"I assure you that no construction will be started without discussing with you (Businessmen). I will talk to the city corporation's top bosses in this regard. Now I ask you to withdraw blockade," Taposh said.

Officer-in-Charge (Investigation) of New Market Police Station Matlabur Rahman said the agitating businessmen returned to their business houses. No incident took place during their blockade.

But, the commuters faced tremendous sufferings due to the blockade. A gridlock situation prevailed on the Mirpur Road and its adjacent areas.

"I had to wait in the bus for at least four hours to go to Mirpur from New Market. It was very disgusting day in my life," Anika Tahmid, a resident of Mirpur, said.

Jamal Uddin, a driver of VIP-27 Paribahan, said that his bus took at least three hours to reach Azimpur from Kalabagan.

Meanwhile, the traders claimed that the building, a part of the heritage, was built in 1952. Besides, according to the original plan of New Market, the building is supposed to be one-storied, they said.

Aminul Islam, a jeweler shop owner in the market, said the businessmen will again take to the streets in case of DNCC's return to the construction.


BSTI destroys 600 jars of 'filtered' water

BSTI mobile court detained six persons from different city areas involved in selling of contaminated waters and penalized them. Photo shows huge water containers being dumped at Palton area on Monday.

bdnews24.com :

Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution or BSTI has raided Motijheel and Paltan neighbourhoods in Dhaka to stop sales of 'filtered' water jars without its approval.

Ninety-seven percent of these so-called filtered water jars supplied to households, shops and offices in and around the capital contain pathogens from faeces of humans and animals, according to data disclosed in a government report about a month ago.

Until 12pm on Monday, a mobile court led by BSTI Executive Magistrate Nazma Siddiqa found 10 companies guilty of supplying water jars without valid licences from the BSTI.

The mobile court destroyed 600 water jars and seized six vans carrying those to different offices.

Only one out of the 10 companies, Everest Drinking Water, received BSTI approval but it too did not purify the substance duly, said BSTI Assistant Director Arafat Hossain Sarker.

A group of researchers at Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council studied the level of minerals in jars and bottled water in Dhaka in December last year.

The researchers sampled 250 jars from across the city's Farmgate, Karwan Bazar, Elephant Road, New Market, Chawk Bazar, Sadarghat, Keraniganj, Jatrabari, Motijheel, Basabo, Malibagh, Rampura, Mohakhali, Gulshan, Banani, Uttara, Airport, Dhanmondi, Mohammadpur, Mirpur, Gabtoli, and Aminbazar, Savar and Ashulia.

The level of coliform bacteria in the samples collected from Elephant Road, Chawk Bazar, Basabo, Gulshan and Banani areas was found significantly high in the research.

Coliform bacteria are organisms that are present in the environment and the faeces of all warm-blooded animals and humans.

The bacteria will not likely cause illness. However, their presence in drinking water indicates that disease-causing organisms or pathogens could be in the water system, according to the US Department of Health.

BARC Director Monirul Islam, who headed the research, told this news agency that level of coliforms should be zero in drinkable water.

According to the researchers, BSTI has set the standards of water commercially supplied for drinking, but the business of contaminated water is continuing due to lack of regulation.
Government services closed as working week begins

Hundreds of thousands of federal workers will be unable to report for work on Monday, as the US Senate struggles to end a government shutdown.

Some will not be paid until the stalemate is resolved.

A rare Sunday session of the Senate yielded no agreement between Democrats and Republicans, with immigration one of the main sticking points. Essential services will still run but famous sites such as the Statue of Liberty have already been affected.

The monument was closed on Sunday but New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he would dip into state funds to pay the daily employment bill and reopen the popular tourist site.

It missed a deadline. At midnight on Friday, lawmakers failed to agree on a spending bill. The bill was not a plan for funding for the whole of 2018, but would have kept things running until the middle of next month.

Democrats refused to back a temporary deal until their concerns on immigration reform were dealt with.

Efforts to reach a compromise ahead of the working week failed late on Sunday.

A vote to end the shutdown was postponed until midday (17:00 GMT) on Monday, meaning many federal government offices will not open and the shutdown enters its third day.

Under Senate rules, the bill needs 60 votes in the 100-member chamber. The Republicans currently have 51 senators, so they need some Democratic support to pass a budget.

Democrats want President Trump to negotiate over immigration as part of a budget deal, but Republicans say no agreement is possible while federal government services are closed.

Republicans want funding for border security - including a proposed border wall with Mexico - and immigration reforms, as well as increased military spending.

On Saturday, Mr Trump said the "nuclear option" of a simple majority vote was necessary to end the impasse.
Edn Ministry officials held based on info: Asad Action to be taken if found guilty: Nahid

Staff Reporter :

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on Monday said that the officials of the Education Ministry were arrested based on specific information.

"The Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police arrested the Personal Officer (PO) of Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, Motaleb Hossain, Lakehead Grammar School owner Khaled Hasan Motin and the Ministry staff Nasir Uddin with strong evidence," he said.

The Home Minister said this while talking to the media during a visit to a Puja Mandap at Rajdhani High School in city's Manik Mia Avenue yesterday.

Meanwhile, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid on Monday said that departmental action would be taken against his detained Personal Officer and another Education ministry staff, if they are found guilty.

"If the duos are found guilty of corruption, the Ministry and the Department will take stern action against them. No one will be spared in the case of corruption; I am very strict in this regard," Nahid said.

The Ministry will render all kinds of assistance to the law enforcers for their investigation, he said.

Earlier, Motaleb Hossain, Personal Officer of Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, had reportedly gone missing from the capital on Saturday. Motaleb's brother filed a general diary with Hazaribagh Police Station in this regard.

Lakehead Grammar School owner Khaled Hasan Motin also reportedly went missing on Saturday.

Nasir Uddin, an Upper-Division Clerk of Education Ministry reportedly went missing from the city on Thursday afternoon.

Nayem Ahmed Julhas, brother-in-law of the victim, filed a general diary with Banani Police Station in this connection.
Rohingya return delayed

Staff Reporter :

The repatriation of Rohingya Muslims scheduled to begin from today will not commence as the process is not completed - a 'lot of preparation' remains undone, sources in Dhaka and Cox's Bazar involved in the process, said yesterday. The arrangement is wide apart.

Myanmar says it has set up border arrangement to receive refugees; resettlement camps in Rakhine State to house them and also set up medical team to take care of the returnees. But Rohingyas said appropriate arrangement is entirely absent which include government guarantee for safety return to their village homes and property, citizenship rights, access utility services and right to livelihood. They are not ready to accept bondage again in confinement without right to free movement.

A Rohingya refugee told media yesterday at a Cox's Bazar camp that they know they are burden on Bangladesh. They want to go back but many of them also returned home in 2012 after fleeing massacre only to face bullets again and escaped to Bangladesh. He said they want safety and security; only bare promise is not enough to ally fear.

The UN special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar Yanghee Lee visited different Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar on Saturday and Sunday in presence of officials from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and other foreign aid institutions and talked with some refugees in those camps. She came at a time when the repatriation was scheduled to begin and wanted to know whether the right situation has been created for repatriation. Refugees told her that they are ready to return but with guarantee for safety in all aspects.

In recent days refugees have gathered by the hundreds chanting slogans and holding banners demanding citizenship and guarantees of security before they return to Rakhine.

Five senior Rohingya leaders met with UN special rapporteur Yanghee Lee in Cox's Bazar late Sunday and handed her a list of their demands before repatriation would be considered.

"We do not want to go back home because we have not got our rights," community leader Abdur Rahim, who met the visiting UN rapporteur said during her tour of the camps.

Meanwhile repatriation is facing a situation when Myanmar can claim they are ready to accept the refugees but if they don't go Myanmar has nothing to do. But by all intents they are apparently playing deceitful game avoiding to creating the proper environment and commitment to make life easy for the returnees.

Bangladesh is going to be an unwilling hostage of the situation. It wants quick repatriation to get rid of the burden but it cannot also push refugees to be killed again. It is a big humanitarian crisis.

Bangladesh's Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Mohammad Abul Kalam announced Monday that there was much more work to be done and therefore repatriation is not starting.

"We have not made the preparations required to send back people from tomorrow. Kalam told AFP. Since August last year around 688,000 Muslim Rohingyas have escaped ethnic cleansing and taken shelter to Bangladesh.

They were sheltered here in ill-equipped and over-crowded camps but back home they left behind harrowing tales of rape, murder and torture by Myanmar military and Buddhist vigilantes.

The two countries agreed earlier in November 23 to start the repatriation and also signed a physical arrangement document in January 16. But looking at any meaningful arrangement, things are not even closer to open the repatriation.

Meanwhile, rights groups and the UN have said any repatriation must be voluntary, with recent reports that many Rohingya settlements have been burned to the ground in Rakhine State and the situation is violent. Rohingyas are still keeping coming when Myanmar says the situation is back to normal.

The UNHCR said it must have a role in the repatriation and any repatriation must be voluntary and with full safety. Bangladesh has sought to assure the international community that only those wishing to go back to their homelands in Rakhine State would be sent to Myanmar, and the process would essentially involve the UN's refugee agency. Without completing many necessary steps, we cannot send these people back all of a sudden. This work is ongoing," Abul Kalam said.

He gave no revised date for start of the repatriation, but said two sites near the border had been identified for possible transit sites.






Myanmar`s neighbours eager to see progress in Rakhine

Five of Myanmar's neighbors including Bangladesh are eager to see the progress made so far on the ground in the Rakhine Sate as Myanmar and Bangladesh are now at final stage of starting Rohingya repatriation.

Bangladesh Ambassador to Yangon has called upon the Myanmar government to organize a trip of the diplomats of the five countries to norther Rakhine to see for themselves the situation there ein the ground.

He along with envoys of four countries bordering Myanmar - China, India, Thailand and Laos, visited northern Rakhine couple of months ago from where thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled and took shelter in Cox's Bazar district due to the atrocities orchestrated by security forces.

"Bangladesh wants to see that Myanmar invites them again to see the progress," an official told UNB.

He said Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali is also likely to visit the place after envoys of the five countries.

Minister Ali briefed the diplomatic corps on Sunday on the recent developments on the issue of return of displaced Rohingyas to their homeland in Myanmar through bilateral arrangement of return signed between the two countries on November 23 and the subsequent agreements towards the implementation of the arrangement.

After the briefing, the Foreign Minister told reporters that he suggested involving the European Union so that Ambassadors of the EU countries in Myanmar can see the progress in the Rakhine State.
A President not sure of what he wants complicates shutdown impasse

The New York Times, Washington :

When President Trump mused last year about protecting immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children, calling them "these incredible kids," aides implored him privately to stop talking about them so sympathetically.

When he batted around the idea of granting them citizenship over a Chinese dinner at the White House last year with Democratic leaders, Mr. Trump's advisers quickly drew up a list of hard-line demands to send to Capitol Hill that they said must be included in any such plan.

And twice over the past two weeks, Mr. Trump has privately told lawmakers he is eager to strike a deal to extend legal status to the so-called Dreamers, only to have his chief of staff, John F. Kelly, and senior policy adviser, Stephen Miller, make clear afterward that such a compromise was not really in the offing - unless it also included a host of stiffer immigration restrictions.

As the government shutdown continued for its second day on Sunday, one thing was clear to both sides of the negotiations to end it: The president was either unwilling or unable to articulate the immigration policy he wanted, much less understand the nuances of what it would involve.

Both sides have reason to be confused. Each time Mr. Trump has edged toward compromise with Democrats, he has appeared to be reined in by his own staff, which shares the hawkish immigration stance that fueled his campaign. And Republican leaders, bruised by past experience with a president who has rarely offered them consistent cover on a politically challenging issue, are loath to guess at his intentions.

The result has been a paralysis not only at the White House but on Capitol Hill, complicating the chances for an ultimate resolution of how to protect hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants, the problem underlying the shutdown. And it has raised questions not only about Mr. Trump's grasp of the issue that animated his campaign and energizes his core supporters, but his leadership.

"There's a real sense that there's a disconnect between the president and his staff on immigration issues, and people on all sides are seeking to exploit that disconnect," said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist who advised Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, one of Mr. Trump's rivals, in his 2016 bid for the White House. "This is what happens when you have a president who is not clear and consistent on what he will accept: It emboldens all parties to take positions that they won't compromise."

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, suggested that Mr. Trump was in the thrall of extremists on his staff pulling him back from more moderate instincts on immigration. "His heart is right on this issue; I think he's got a good understanding of what will sell, and every time we have a proposal, it is only yanked back by staff members," Mr. Graham told reporters on Capitol Hill on Sunday. "As long as Stephen Miller is in charge of negotiating immigration, we are going nowhere. He's been an outlier for years."

Mr. Miller, 32, has been the ideological architect behind much of Mr. Trump's immigration agenda and a tart-tongued and unapologetic true believer in the president's "America First" approach to the issue. A former aide to Attorney General Jeff Sessions when he was in the Senate, he cut his teeth on Capitol Hill as a lonely gladiator against bipartisan efforts to overhaul the immigration system and provide a pathway to citizenship for roughly 11 million unauthorized immigrants.
Presidential poll Feb 19

Staff reporter :

The Jatiya Sangsad will elect the next President of Bangladesh on February 19 as the tenure of incumbent President Abdul Hamid nears an end.

"I came to know from the Election Commission that the presidential election will be held on February 19," Law Minister Anisul Huq told media last night.

According to Article 123 of the Constitution, presidential election should be held between 90 and 60 days before the five-year term of the President expires.

The next President will be elected for a five-year term, and the tenure of the



President will be until the last year of the next government.

Abdul Hamid took office on April 24, 2013, and his five-year term expires on April 23.

"We can hold the election in the current session of the Parliament or another brief session can be called to hold the election," Anisul Huq said. The current session of the Parliament began on January 7 and will continue until February 28.
UAE healthcare operator NMC Health has announced two new acquisitions worth over $200 million and also the completion of new operating and management (O&M) contract as the company moves to expand across the Middle East.



Among the acquisitions are a 70 per cent stake in CosmeSurge, a cosmetic surgery and aesthetic medicine provider, for $170 million.



The Emirati group also signed a new O&M contracts with Emirates Healthcare Group to manage its Egyptian hospitals, Dar Al Fouad and As Salam International.



The deal is expected to generate revenues of $2 million for NMC in the first year of operation, said the company in a statement.



In a statement, NMC noted that the transaction includes a chain of 17 operational clinics, with the business expected to deliver 2017 revenues and ebitda of $67 million and $20.5 million, respectively.



The Abu Dhabi-based company also bought an 80 per cent stake in Al Salam Medical Group, a major healthcare group in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.



The transaction, which is expected to be completed in the first half of 2018, includes the 100-bed Al Salam Medical Hospital, the Al Salam Medical Center, and the Ishbilia Medical Center.



On the strategic deals, CEO Prasanth Manghat said: "These value accretive and earnings enhancing transactions fit well with our growth strategy. CosmeSurge represents a continuation of building NMCs capabilities and Al Salam further extends our geographic footprint in the Saudi Arabia, cementing our leading position as a non-domiciled provider."



NMC sees substantial opportunities for revenue and cost synergies across both acquisitions," he stated.



The cosmetics business in particular has the potential to be further developed into an independent business vertical at a later stage, remarked Manghat.



Moreover, Saudi Arabia remains a key focus market for us and despite already reaching 800 beds across existing and under-construction assets in the country, we continue to see strong growth opportunities in the kingdom, he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Nebosh, the leading health, safety and environmental management awarding body, will be promoting a brand new qualification and the availability of an existing qualification in Arabic at the upcoming Intersec expo in Dubai, UAE.



One of the world's largest trade fair for security, safety, and fire protection, Intersec runs from January 21 to 23 at Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.



The event presents an opportunity for delegates to talk to Nebosh about its new qualification, the Nebosh HSE Certificate in Process Safety Management, developed in partnership with the UKs health and safety regulator the Health and Safety Executive, said experts.



This certificate-level qualification has been designed for high-hazard industries where process safety management is critically important.



This introductory-level, one-day qualification provides understanding of environmental impacts, responsibility, and risk control, and can be tailored to specific industry or company requirements, they stated.



By making the qualification available in Arabic, even more people will be able to make a contribution to help their organisations reduce waste, improve energy efficiency, achieve cost savings and help protect the environment, they added.



Matthew Powell-Howard, Nebosh's qualifications development manager, said: "The rapid economic development of many Arabic-speaking countries - such as the UAE - presents a variety of environmental challenges such as air pollution, waste management and high carbon footprints."



"The Environmental Awareness at Work qualification helps all kinds of organisations to give their employees a greater understanding of environmental issues and how to manage them," he stated.



"By making it available in Arabic, we hope it will be even more accessible to businesses wanting to make positive changes in managing their environmental responsibilities and culture," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Drake & Scull International (DSI), a regional market leader in engineering and construction services, has announced that the foreign ownership limit (FOL) used to calculate its free float weight on the FTSE Russell Index has been increased to 39 per cent following a positive December 2017 review.



The upgrade comes following DSIs official inclusion in the MSCI GCC Index last month and reflects growing market confidence after the successful completion of the companys major recapitalisation programme, said a statement from the Dubai contractor.



DSIs stock is currently assigned a 39 per cent FOL free float on the FTSE Russel Index but is expected to gain a 5 per cent headway in March after the groups efficient execution of a turnaround plan geared towards revitalizing financial and operational performance.



The Emirati companys entry into the MSCI GCC Index last November was welcomed by regional and international investors and analysts as a strong vote of confidence in the groups market competitiveness.

The move by FTSE Russell adds further credence to DSIs strong market positioning and complements strategic initiatives currently being undertaken by the group to regain business momentum, the company statement said.



Rabih Abou Diwan, the investor relations director for Drake & Scull International, said: "The upgrade by FTSE Russell marks a very positive step for DSI as we reorient the organization towards recovery and growth."



"It comes just a month after our inclusion in the MSCI GCC Index, affirming the resounding success of the turnaround plan we initiated last year. We are firmly committed to continue our comprehensive recovery and undertake more proactive measures to enhance our transparency, governance and efficiency," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Bahrain Investment Wharf (BIW), a 1.7-million-sq-m model industrial city ideally located in the heart of Salman Industrial Area, has confirmed its Strategic Sponsorship of the upcoming Gulf Industry Fair 2018.

Gulf Industry Fair (GIF), the Northern Gulfs leading event dedicated to promoting industrialisation in the GCC, will take place from February 6 to 8 at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre under the patronage of HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Prime Minister of Bahrain.

BIW is the brainchild of Inovest Groups real estate arm Tameer. The industrial area was developed to contribute to the kingdoms industrial growth by acting as a magnet to attract both local and foreign direct investment looking for facilities to enhance their global business development strategies.

Inovest Group CEO and BIW managing director Murad Al Ramadan noted: Our strategic sponsorship highlights our mission to work with our stakeholders in the government and the private sector towards supporting and developing light-medium industries in the kingdom through our global standard facilities. Our focus is on embracing a greater commitment to supporting the kingdoms start-ups and SMEs, and better facilitation of industry-based business requirements. We aim to empower the national economy through our facilities, to be an engine for growth, diversity, and prosperity.

BIW has seen a flurry of activity recently, from new appointments to on-the-ground operational developments. Commenting on this and its participation in Gulf Industry Fair, Engineer Abdulla Alabbasi, director of technical affairs for BIW, said: As a world-class industrial park, Bahrain Investment Wharf is pleased to be part of an event that targets industrialisation in the kingdom and wider GCC area. In line with this focus, BIW provides pre-serviced plots for industrial, logistic, commercial, and labour accommodation use, to support manufacturing and industrial business activities in the kingdom. It also has state-of-the-art infrastructure in place and access to key national transportation routes. Through our participation in the GIF, we aim to highlight our recent rebranding initiative, as well as our focus on stronger business-government exchanges.

Jubran Abdulrahman, managing director of HCE, the organiser of Gulf Industry Fair, said: Bahrain Investment Wharf is a key driver for the development of the industry as part of the economy of Bahrain. Their decision to join Gulf Industry Fair as a Strategic Sponsor is an important milestone in the development of Gulf Industry Fair as a valued showcase to promote industry, business and manufacturing in Bahrain and the GCC.

BIW sits as a Strategic Sponsor of Gulf Industry Fair with power players Bapco, National Oil and Gas Authority (Noga) and Aluminium Bahrain (Alba).

Supporting organisations for Gulf Industry Fair include: AHK Saudi Arabia, the German Saudi Arabian Liaison for Economic Affairs, PHD Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, Bahrain Solar Association and the Bahrain Industrial Association.
A delegation from the Abu Dhabi International Boat Show (ADIBS) managed by Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company (Adnec) attended Boot Dusseldorf, one of the largest premier marine shows for yachting, watersports and fishing currently under way in Dusseldorf, Germany.

The ADIBS teams participation, alongside partners British Marine and Superyacht UK, is aimed at increasing awareness of industry prospects within the burgeoning leisure marine industry. The UAE capital set to host the inaugural edition of ADIBS from 17 to 20 October 2018 at Adnec.

Saeed Al Mansouri, director of Idex, and organiser of ADIBS, said: We are delighted with the tremendous interest ADIBS 2018 has already generated among the attendees, representing several prominent names in the maritime industry. In hosting the show, we aim to provide an unrivalled opportunity for boat manufacturers and marine companies and stakeholders to showcase their latest offerings.

Organised by Adnec in association with British Marine, ADIBS is expected to draw the participation of 150 exhibitors and 30,000 visitors.

Catering to marine industry professionals, boating enthusiasts and families that enjoy a great day out on the water, the event will feature 75 boats berthed at the on-site show marina that has been lately extended to increase capacity in order to meet demand.

Local and international marine industry related companies who have already confirmed their participation in ADIBS 2018 include: Al Suwaidi Marine, ART Marine, Azimut, Bayliner, Belize, Beneteau, Benetti, Bertram, Boston Whaler, Cantieri di Pisa, CRN, Custom Line, Delma Marine, Ferretti Yachts, Greenline Yacht Interiors, Hanse Yachts, Hatteras, IMG Boats, Integrity Boats, Itama, Jeanneau, Lagoon, Mercury, Mochi Craft, Monte Carlo Yachts, Monterey, Pershing, Prestige Yachts, Riva, Riviera, Savage Lighting, Sea Ray, Sunseeker, Williams Jet Tenders, and The World of Yachts and Boats.

Among the sponsors of ADIBS 2018 are Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism, Al Suwaidi Marine, Mercedes EMC, Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA), Integro, Delma Marine, Marine Concept, Emirates Palace, Greenline Yacht Interiors and Agility Logistics.

Through generating considerable overseas interest in ADIBS and its offering, Adnec seeks to promote Abu Dhabi as a global leisure marine industry hub in line with the objectives of the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030 that includes a large-scale expansion of the citys marinas from 32 to 45. - TradeArabia News Service
Netherlands-based Damen Shiprepair Oranjewerf has completed the final outfitting and modifications on a second subsea-support walk-to-work (W2W) vessel for Vroon Offshore Services (VOS).



VOS Stone was built at Fujian Southeast Shipbuilding in China before coming to the Netherlands for completion, said a statement.



This follows a similar project successfully completed in July this year at Oranjewerf, involving sister ship VOS Start, it said.



The eight-week programme for VOS Stone involved a wide range of activities, including installation of a 50-tonne active heave-compensated, knuckle-boom crane, along with taut-wire, RadaScan, and Hipap from Kongsberg for the vessel-positioning system, a boat landing and system for fuelling crew-transfer vessels (CTV), it added.



Jeen van der Werf, commercial manager at Damen Shiprepair Oranjewerf, said: We were very pleased to welcome VOS Stone following the very positive experience with VOS Start.



Based on the experiences gained from VOS Start, and working with the same expert in-house team and group of sub-contractors, the target completion date was achieved with no compromises to our very high standards, he added.



Damen, and Damen Shiprepair Oranjewerf in particular, has a strong and long-standing relationship with the Vroon Group. The yard offers a skilled and experienced workforce, operating from excellent facilities that include a 135m floating dock.



VOS Stone is the fifth new vessel that Vroon has entrusted to Oranjewerf for final outfitting after construction in China.



Both companies can be proud of the completed VOS Stone, a vessel now able to guarantee fast and efficient execution of complex projects in the offshore renewable and oil and gas industries.



Vroons Newbuilding Department commented, It was a pleasure to be back with our number-five vessel, VOS Stone, for completion prior to entering the market. It was great to see the various teams working together in such a smooth and professional manner. This yard has again reached a high standard when it comes to timely and efficient cooperation between owner and yard.



VOS Stone has been purpose-built to support offshore operations in the Renewable industry and walk-to-work projects in the oil and gas industry.



The vessel has already been awarded a contract by VBMS, a subsidiary of Royal Boskalis to support inter-array cabling operations at the Arkona Offshore Windfarm, located in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Germany, during the first half of next year.



In summer 2018, the vessel will undertake operations for EON, working on commissioning of the wind turbines at the same Windfarm, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
Ahlan Business Class Lounge by Dubai International Hotel has been awarded the Priority Pass Middle East & Africa Airport Lounge of the Year Award.



Now in its 13th year, the awards are based on ratings provided by Priority Pass Members and recognise excellence within the worlds largest independent lounge membership program that includes more than 1,000 airport lounges, in over 500 cities, and is this year celebrating its 25th Anniversary.



The winning lounge, with a capacity of 177 guests ensures that visitors can find a dedicated area that caters to their personal and professional needs. A Personalised Meet and Greet service, great food and beverage options, wi-fi connectivity, express spa treatments, child-friendly play area, special kids menus and a business centre all contributed to the lounges win. The lounge was also highly commended in the Best Business Facilities category.



Jan Freida de Leon, manager, Ahlan Business Class Lounge, said: We are extremely honoured to receive such an important award from Priority Pass. We are grateful for the recognition received for the teams hard work. Thank you.



The Dilmun Lounge at Bahrain International was also recognized in this years awards and highly commended in the region.



This years overall winners are:



 Global: Club Kingston at Kingston Norman Manley International

 Europe: Tallinn Airport Business Lounge at Tallinn Lennart Meri

 Africa & Middle East: Ahlan Business Class Lounge at Dubai International

 Asia Pacific: Sats Premier Lounge at Singapore Changi International

 North America: Salon VIP Lounge, Quebec Jean Lesage International



Justin Banon, director of Priority Pass, added: Were seeing major investment in new and existing airports across the Middle East. The region is renowned for its quality carriers and distinctive; luxury lounges so this is a strong endorsement for Ahlan Business Class Lounge in Dubai and Dilmun Lounge in Bahrain. The continued focus on lounges we are seeing from airports, airlines, financial institutions and other organisations worldwide can only be great news for both business and leisure customers, translating to a wider choice of venues offering exceptional service, refreshments and unique facilities to meet different travellers needs.



Priority Pass received over 72,000 ratings from its members in this years awards using the lounge rating function on the Priority Pass website and app. Its members provide ratings on a wide set of criteria including overall lounge quality, refreshments, staff, business facilities and ambience. - TradeArabia News Service
By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net

New Delhi: At least 187 different universities across India submitted hundreds of proposals to conduct different course under Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) in order to garner the best international experience into the educational system in the country and enable interaction of students and faculty with the best academic and industry experts from all over the world. But minority institutions like Maulana Azad National Urdu University and Jamia Hamdard surprisingly didnt submit even a single proposal for conducting any course, reveals RTI.

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The Govt. of India had approved Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) in Higher Education in 2015 and launched it on November 30 the same year. The program was aimed at tapping the talent pool of scientists and entrepreneurs, internationally to encourage their engagement with the institutes of Higher Education in India so as to augment the countrys existing academic resources, accelerate the pace of quality reform, and elevate Indias scientific and technological capacity to global excellence.

According to an RTI reply which Twocircles.net filed with Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, which was designated as the National Coordinating Institute for GIAN, zero proposals were submitted by Jamia Hamdard and Maulana Azad National Urdu University whereas Jamia Millia Islamia submitted 63 proposals out of which 35 were accepted and Aligarh Muslim University submitted 23 proposals out of which 17 were accepted.

MANUU should have submitted the proposals in the interest of the students. I dont know the reasons why no proposal was sent. It was a good opportunity for the students and their exposure,Tajamul Islam, MANUU student and Ex-President of its student union told TwoCircles.net.

A total of 1,417 courses were approved after proposals were submitted by 187 universities across India out of which 921 courses have been completed. Thirty-three proposals were withdrawn and 153 courses are upcoming.

Pertinently, the proposals are submitted online by the local institute coordinator, which intends to organise the course through the national GIAN portal. Each proposal is submitted to a sectional committee. The proposing Institution has to ensure that the International Faculty can communicate in English or a suitable language that is clearly the appropriate medium of instruction for the said course.

The Chairperson of the Sectional Committee will designate all or some members of the Sectional Committee to review the proposal and give their views. The recommendation will be finalised by the Chairperson of the Sectional Committee.

The courses are primarily for credit and cover 10 to 14 hours for a typical 1 credit course over a period of at least one week covering 5 working days and 20 to 28 hours for a 2 credit course over a period of at least 2 weeks covering 10 working days and have regular evaluation mechanisms.
Davos (IANS): Indias richest, just 1 per cent of its 1.3 billion people, grossed 73 per cent of the wealth generated in 2017 while the wealth of the poorest half of Indians  some 67 crore  rose by only one per cent, according to a report by Oxfam.

The report, launched on Monday ahead of the gathering of some of the worlds richest at the World Economic Forum here, said the wealth of Indias elite went up last year by Rs 20,913 billion  an amount equivalent to the governments total budget in 2017-18.

The Davos event is being attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Oxfam India has urged him to ensure that the economy works for everyone and not just the fortunate few in line with the governments sabka saath, sabka vikas slogan.

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It is alarming that the benefits of economic growth in India continue to concentrate in fewer hands. The billionaire boom is not a sign of a thriving economy but a symptom of a failing economic system, said Nisha Agrawal, CEO of Oxfam India.

Those working hard, growing food for the country, building infrastructure, working in factories are struggling to fund their childs education, buy medicines for family members and manage two meals a day. The growing divide undermines democracy and promotes corruption and cronyism.

The report, Reward Work, Not Wealth, has also found that Indias top 10 per cent of population have 73 per cent of the total wealth in the country.

Indian billionaires wealth increased by Rs 4,891 billion  from Rs 15,778 billion to over Rs 20,676 billion, it said, adding the amount of Rs 4,891 billion was sufficient to finance 85 per cent of the budget on health and education in all Indian states.

It said India added 17 new billionaires last year, raising the number to 101. But 37 per cent of the these billionaires inherited the wealth from their families.

It said 51 billionaires out of the total 101 were aged 65 or above.

If we assume that in the next 20 years, at least Rs 10,544 billion will be passed on to the inheritors and on that if 30 per cent inheritance tax is imposed, the government can earn at least Rs 3,176 billion.

This will be sufficient to finance six crucial services  medical and public health, family welfare, water and sanitation, housing, urban development and labour and labour welfare in the country.

The report said at least one in every two workers in the garment sector in India were paid below the minimum wage. By those standards, the report said, it will take 941 years for a minimum wage worker in rural India to earn what the top paid executive at a leading Indian garment firm earns in a year.

Oxfam called upon the government to promote inclusive growth by ensuring that the income of the bottom 40 per cent of the population grows faster than of the top 10 per cent to close the income gap.

This can be done by encouraging labour-intensive sectors that will create more jobs; investing in agriculture; and effectively implementing the social protection schemes that exist.

It said the government must also seal the leaking wealth bucket by taking stringent measures against tax evasion and avoidance.

The income gap can also be reduced by taxing the super-rich by re-introducing inheritance tax, increasing wealth tax, reducing and eventually do away with corporate tax breaks and creating a more equal opportunity country by increasing public expenditure on health and education, it said.

The charity said the government must also bring data transparency, produce and make available high quality data on income and wealth and regularly monitor the measures it takes to tackle the issue of rising inequality.
Despite bad weather conditions, thousands turned out on the streets of London today to join the Women's March for Gender Equality.

Time's Up

Women today called 'Time's Up' on sexual harassment in the workplace, after 2017 was plagued by a year of sexual misconduct controversies in Hollywood and the corridors of Westminster. One of the most prominent being the Harvey Weinstein scandal which opened the door to the #MeToo movement.

The protest took place in Whitehall, strategically placed near the monument to the Women of World War II. Uplifting speeches were given by women's rights activists including Helen Pankhurst - the great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst who was a key player in the Suffragettes movement and helped women gain the right to vote in 1918.

The MP for Walthamstow, Stella Creasy, also gave a speech in which she called Westminster "Hogwarts gone wrong". This comes after a year of sexual misconduct allegations in Westminster including the resignation of high-profile Cabinet minister Sir Michael Fallon. The former Secretary of State for Defence admitted to sexual misconduct towards a party activist in 2001.

March than just about Trump

The march was attended by both men and women, all with varying backgrounds and ages, in order to end the oppression of women. Organisers made it clear that this year's Women's March was more than just about Donald Trump, stating "it's about any person in a position of leadership". Topics ranged from domestic violence, gender pay gap to climate change.

Last year, a record 100,000 joined the march to protest against the election of President Trump. Sarcastic puns and sassy slogans dominated media headlines such as "pussy grabs back". It was reported that 3.2 million turned out to Women's Marches across the world's seven continents in 2017.

This year's slogans included: "keep crude oil in the ground and crude men out of office" and "my little black dress doesn't mean yes".

Others wore pink pussy hats similar to those worn at last year's protest against Trump's presidency. Marches also took place across major American cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Washington D.C.

The centenary

2018 marks the centenary of the Representation of the People Act 1918, which gave women over the age of 30 the right to vote for the first time.

This year no doubt will be celebrated by many as a key step towards gender equality.

Organisers of the Women's March in London urged protesters to "step up, show up and speak up" to end discrimination. However, with recent light shed on a number of sexual assault and harassment scandals, it remains clear there is still much to march about.
In case you were not aware, the TLC Reality Television Show Sister Wives was officially renewed for a new season set to start airing in January 2018. TLC has just released a brand-new super teaser for the show, and it is full of drama. For instance, in the teaser, it is revealed that the family is returning to Utah to for the first time since 2012 as they are marching for the Legalization Of Polygamy relationships. It is also worth mentioning that earlier this year the Brown family did indeed march with hundreds of people who were also in a polygamy relationships in protest of a bill that would make polygamy a felony in Utah.

You can continue to read below to find out what else was in the super teaser for the Brown familys show Sister Wives.

What else was in the teaser for 'Sister Wives'?

The family marching for the legalization of polygamy is not all that was in this trailer for the new season of "Sister Wives." For example, one of Browns wives, Meri is seen in the trailer struggling with her marriage to Brown. Meri is seen visiting a therapist for her marriage, and it just goes to show how the pair have grown apart. Brown commented on the situation by saying, Meri is ready to go back to a deep and intimate relationship, and Im not. That is not all that Meri is dealing with as she is just starting to patch things up with her daughter Mariah, who only recently came out as a member of the LGBT community and is ready to introduce her girlfriend to the family.

What is the Brown family up to now?

There has recently been a lot of backstage drama in the world of the "Sister Wives" family, which a number of media sites reported. An example of this was when Browns friend Kendra Pollard spoke out about how Robyn would leave if he introduced another woman into the family. Pollard talked about the controversy with Robyn to Life & Style about her threat to leave Kody Brown and the family: If he takes on new wives, she said shell leave.

This isnt what she signed up for.

Pollard also said to Life & Style that Brown was worried about losing the "Sister Wives" show before the network renewed it, saying Kody is really, really sweating losing the show and hes doing everything he can to keep it. The reason to why he was so worried about the show being canceled is because filming the series is his main income. None the less, you can catch up with the rest of this family on their new season of Sister Wives, and you can also follow them on their social media profiles.
Following the first government shutdown since 2013, Donald Trump has made sure to place the blame on the Democratic Party. As expected, the president has faced much criticism, including from veteran actor Alec Baldwin.

Baldwin on Trump

The government shutdown became a reality at midnight last Friday when Democrats and Republicans in Congress were unable to find common ground and strike a deal on funding. For Republicans, they are standing by Donald Trump and holding out for the Democrats to agree to funding for border security, including the construction of the president's border wall.

As for Democrats, the party is not looking like they are willing to budge on DACA as they look to secure protection for DREAMers. After the government shut down, the former host of "The Apprentice" wasted no time attacking his political rivals and blaming them for the government not being open. Despite this, recent polling shows that more Americans put the blame on Trump and the GOP, mostly due to them having majority-control in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as the White House. Commenting on these issues in a pair of tweets on January 21 was Alec Baldwin, who didn't pull any punches.

Trumps presidency is like a home invasion and must be treated as such.  ABFoundation (@ABFalecbaldwin) January 21, 2018

Using the offical Twitter account of his non-profit organization on Sunday, Alec Baldwin, who plays a satirical version of Donald Trump on "Saturday Night Live," ripped into the president and Congress over the government shutdown.

"The way the government is conducting business right now is one of the reasons Trump won in the first place," Baldwin tweeted out.

The way the government is conducting business right now is one of the reasons Trump won in the first place.  ABFoundation (@ABFalecbaldwin) January 21, 2018

Not stopping there, Alec Baldwin compared Donald Trump's first year in the White House to someone invading a home.

"Trumps presidency is like a home invasion and must be treated as such," he wrote. Baldwin's tweets come just days after using the social media platform to call out Donald Trump Jr. in an open letter to the president's son where the actor referred to his opinions as "worthless."

Next up

Alec Baldwin has been in the political spotlight since being hired by "Saturday Night Live" at the start of the 2016 general election.

Following his first appearance as Donald Trump on the show, "SNL" quickly received rave reviews, despite the increased outrage from the billionaire real estate mogul, who made it a habit at the time to call out the program on Twitter. With "SNL" recently returning from their holiday break, Baldwin is expected to reprise his role as the president in the near future.
The wife of "Teen Mom OG" star Ryan Edwards is at the center of some big rumors. Some fans of the MTV reality series believe that Mackenzie Standifer may have lost custody of her 4-year-old son, Hudson, whom she shares with her ex-husband, and if the rumors prove to be true Ryan Edwards could be to blame.

Did Mackenzie lose custody due to Ryan's drug problems?

According to the latest "Teen Mom OG" speculation, some fans believe that Mackenzie Standifer may have lost custody of her son due to Ryan Edwards' drug use. As many fans know, Ryan has been dealing with addiction issues, and after a scary scene, in which MTV cameras caught him driving under the influence of drugs, swerving all over the road, slurring his words, and falling asleep at the wheel, he decided to get help and head to rehab.

Ryan went to rehab for less than a month and promptly returned home to Tennessee.

Later, while speaking to a lawyer about taking his ex-fiance, Maci Bookout, to court in hopes of getting a custody agreement for his son Bentley, Ryan Edwards revealed that he had been addicted to heroin. Mackenzie Standifer also revealed on a recent episode of "Teen Mom OG" that Ryan was spending up to $10,000 a day on drugs, and that she was afraid and worried that he could relapse at any time.

Child support news has fans speculating

Meanwhile, court documents reveal that when Mackenzie Standifer and her ex-husband, Zachary Stephens, divorced back in 2016 a custody agreement was made and Zachary was ordered to pay his ex-wife an amount of about $500 a month in child support.

However, in June of 2017, the court reversed the child support agreement and ordered Mackenzie to pay Zachary the amount of $250 a month for child support. This has lead many "Teen Mom OG" fans to believe that Mackenzie may have lost custody of little Hudson due to the fact that she is now married to Ryan Edwards and living in the same home with him.

Ryan's admitted drug use may have actually hurt Mackenzie's relationship with her son. However, Standifer has yet to address the rumors or reveal whether or not she still has majority custody of Hudson, who has been seen on the reality series this season.

It seems that Ryan Edwards' addiction issues may have caused some major trouble for himself as well as Mackenzie Standifer when it comes to their custody arrangements with their sons. As the current season of "Teen Mom OG" continues to air new episodes, fans will likely get more insight into Ryan and Mackenzie's life and parenting struggles.
Tu BiShvat, the "new year of the trees," is coming at the very next full moon, the night of January 30. If you'd like to celebrate Tu BiShvat at home with friends or family, it's easy to do -- and it's a beautiful holiday that can open the heart to growth, renewal, and sweetness. Here's what you need:

1) Tree fruits. Ideally, you need at least one fruit in each of the following categories:

tree fruit with an inedible shell (e.g. oranges, bananas, nuts, coconut)

tree fruit with a pit or seed (cherries, plums, apricots, olives)

tree fruit that's edible all the way through (figs, mulberries, apples, pears)

You can use fresh fruits, or dried. You can have one fruit in each category, or several. You can opt to try a new fruit that you've never had before, and say the shehecheyanu for trying something new. This can be as simple or as elaborate as you want.

Some also have a custom of sipping a nip of either maple syrup, or etrog vodka, at a certain point in the seder. If either one of those appeals to you and is accessible to you, lay in a supply of that as well.

2) Grape juice or wine, both white and red. You'll need enough for four symbolic cups: one white, one white with a bit of red in it, one red with a bit of white in it, and one red. (Since you'll be mixing the liquids to create different colors in the glass, I don't recommend using expensive wine or juice for this purpose, but that too is up to you.)

3) A haggadah that will walk you through experiencing the four worlds and consuming the symbolic tree fruits and wines / juices that facilitate each step on the journey.

There are a ton of haggadot for Tu BiShvat online, and I've shared several here over the years. Here's the one I'll be using this year, co-created by myself and my fellow Bayit co-founder Rabbi David Markus (it's an update of the one we created and shared a few years ago):

It's a digital slide show, intended to be projected on a screen. If you'll be a small group around a small table, you could just page through the slides on your laptop.

That's all you need! If you want to be minimalist: three pieces of tree fruit, two bottles of juice, and a haggadah. If you want to be maximalist, you can arrange a table laden with tree fruits and even decorations: bare branches representing winter, leafed-out branches from the florist, photographs of trees, whatever calls to your heart.

Living as I do in a place where this time of year is deepest midwinter, I've come to love this holiday as a first step toward the coming of spring. I hope you'll explore Tu BiShvat and see what it opens up for you, emotionally and spiritually. If you do use our haggadah, let us know what works for you and what doesn't -- we're eager to hear. Leave a comment at the Bayit Facebook page or ping us @yourbayit on Twitter and let us know your thoughts!

You can also find this haggadah archived on the Spiritual Resources page at Bayit.
Germany welcomes a Bulgarian initiative to organise a European Commission-Turkey summit and the construction of a gas hub in Varna, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday (20 January) in Sofia, after talks with Bulgarian PM Boyko Borissov. As EurActiv writes in an article "In Sofia, Merkel gives her blessing to summit with Turkey", Merkel visited Sofia at the beginning of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU, one day after she met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris to discuss EU reform, and one day ahead of a crucial vote at the SPD congress to back up another grand coalition in Germany.

Merkel said that a meeting, with the participation of the presidents of the three European institutions (Commission, Council and Parliament), was a good idea. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been pushing for a EU-Turkey summit during the Bulgarian Presidency. Borissov visited Istanbul on 7 January and the former culture minister, Vezhdi Rashidov, who accompanied Borissov in Istanbul, said the prime minister raised the question of two imprisoned journalists, as a condition for such summit. Altan and Sahin Alpay, jailed for more than year amid large-scale purges of the media and state institutions after a failed 2016 coup, were accused of links to terrorist groups and attempting to overthrow the government, charges they deny. On Friday (19 January), Istanbuls High Criminal Court rejected a demand for release of the two journalists, despite a decision by Turkeys Constitutional Court to free the jailed journalist that was published on the same day in the Official Gazette. In the meantime, the Turkish government has put two more journalists, Veli Buyuksahin and Veli Haydar Gulec, from the now-defunct pro-Alevi television channel TV10, behind bars. It is therefore strange that Merkel makes opening to Turkey without any gesture from Ankara on the journalists dossier.

Merkel complimented Borissov for the well-prepared presidency and gave her backing for its main priority  giving a clearer perspective for the EU accession of the Western Balkans. However, she stressed that this accession is subject to criteria. We expect a lot from the Bulgarian Presidency. It is well-prepared. The motto United we stand strong is the motto we need in the European Union. We fully share the goals of the Bulgarian Presidency, she said. According to her, Bulgaria can do much about good neighbourly relations in the region. Merkel mentioned the importance of connectivity for the region and promised to work with Bulgaria for better transport connectivity.

Regarding Turkey, she said: We thank Bulgaria for how it keeps our common border, especially the Bulgarian-Turkish border [] I welcome the initiative of the Bulgarian Prime Minister Borissov together with the President of the European Commission and the Commission to meet with the President of Turkey and to talk openly on all issues. The meeting will most likely take place in Varna.

Answering a question about Bulgarias membership in Schengen, Merkel said: We have been discussing for a long time the issue of Bulgarias accession to Schengen. We see what efforts Bulgaria is making and we support them. I cannot say a specific date for the countrys accession to Schengen.

The Federal Chancellor welcomed the idea of building a gas hub in Varna to diversify natural gas supplies to Europe. The so-called Balkan gas hub to be built near Varna makes no sense in the absence of a pipeline bringing Russian gas under the Black Sea. Previously this was the South Stream project, cancelled in December 2014, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced it during a visit in Turkey. The project was replaced by Turkish Stream, designed to bring Russian gas under the Black Sea to the European territory of Turkey. But one of the two pipes could still go to Varna, following the route of South Stream.

Borissov thanked Merkel for the support for the Balkan gas hub. He stressed that European funding for infrastructure projects was an incredible gesture towards the Balkans that helps to the young people to stay, as well as to attract tourists and investors in the region. I am especially happy that the EU is conducting a peaceful, good-neighborly policy and we will do our best to normalise relations with the big neighbors because Europe needs peace and tranquility, Borissov said. Thank you for finding time during the weekend to come and to hear from us what we think of the Western Balkans, the prime minister said to the Chancellor. We all look forward to the more recent creation of a government in Germany, a country that is a motor for Europe. It is in the common good to have a government as soon as possible, the Bulgarian Prime Minister said.
Moscow center of culture "Dagestan" marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of legendary Dagestani tightrope walking collective, founders of the world famous circus dynasty "Tsovkra", people's artists of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Dagestani ASSR, Rabadan Abakarov and Yaragi Hajikurbanov. They were the first among highlanders who decided to become artists and turned tightrope walking into a circus art.

The Moscow House of Nationalities hosted a sold out event, dedicated to this anniversary. A large number of guests came to learn about the history of circus arts. Among them - descendants of famous dynasty - grandnephew of Rabadan Abakarov, Honored Artist of Russia Mukhtar Abakarov and his son Rasul, as well as famous disciples of Abakarov, circus performers and tightrope walkers Hussein Hamdulaev, Asiyat Agayeva and Zulfiya Agayeva. Other circus performers, representatives of ethno-cultural associations and youth organizations of the capital also participated in this event.

Opening the event, Arsen Huseynov, president of the Moscow center of culture Dagestan, noted that the village of Tsovkra brought up many famous personalities, including pilot, two time Hero of the Soviet Union Amet-Khan Sultan, founder of the State Academic Dance Ensemble "Lezginka", People's Artist of the USSR Tankho Israilov, 18 honored artists of Dagestan and Russia, a large number of scientists, professors, doctors and candidates of science. "Every Dagestani should know about Abakarov and Hajikurbanov, they are worthy representatives of this high-mountain village and Tsovkra ensemble is its business card," he stressed. Speaking about skills of artists, deputy permanent representative of Dagestan under the Russian president said: "These people have revolutionized circus arts. Their names are on par with artists from such famous dynasties as Durov, Kio, Filatov, Bagdasarov, Kantemirov and are forever inscribed in the great history of the Soviet circus."

The audience welcomed each performer on stage, when they shared their memories of fearless art of Tsovkra tightrope walkers and their uneasy but bright circus life. Each presented video material was received applause. Concert part of the evemimg had the same mood. There were spectacular circus numbers as well as national music and dances performances. Honored Artist of Dagestan Rashid Bagataev came to honor the memory of his world-famous compatriots. The evening ended with a spectacular circus act with daggers, performed by fifth-generation tightrope walker, frequent guest of prestigious events of Moscow and world's largest cities Rasul Abakarov.

History of Tsovkra group

Rabadan Abakarov (1917-1995) and Yaragi Hajikurbanov (1917 - 1997) were born in Dagestan's Tsovkra-1 aul, which has been known since ancient times for its tightrope walkers - Pahlivans. In 1935, after successful performance of Tsovkra residents at the Folk Art Olympiade in Makhachkala, they were invited to the Kiev Circus School, where they formed Tsovkra circus national group.

Performances of Dagestani tightrope walkers in the Kiev Circus had huge success, each act received applause. In addition to performing most complicated acrobatic elements, they managed to dance on the rope, performing national lezginka. Their popularity grew day after day.

In 1939, Tsovkra group was invited to perform in the capital in honor of the opening of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, where masters of circus art from all over the country participated. An unforgettable risky attraction of Dagestani Pahlivans is included in anniversary program of the Moscow Circus.

During the war the group continues to work hard, performing in military units, hospitals, field garrisons in order to raise morale of soldiers. During this time they had over 650 performances.

During post-war years tightrope walkers became members of the country's strongest collective, the Moscow Circus, where they were invited to work. Soon, triumphal tours around the world began. Audiences in more than 30 foreign countries in Europe, America and Asia received them really well.

In 1968 Tsovkra collective was awarded the title of "Honored Collective". In total, famous circus ensemble received eight government awards, while Rabadan Abakarov and Yaragi Hajikurbanov were awarded the titles of People's Artists of Dagestan and the RSFSR.

Throughout their creative activity, tightrope walkers of Tsovkra troupe gave more than 20 thousand performances at various circus venues and stadiums.

Rabadan Abakarov and Yaragi Hajikurbanov trained a lot of remarkable performers and tightrope walkers, many of whom were awarded the titles of Honored Artists of Dagestan and Russia. Their names are known all over the world, including Magomed Magomedov, Rasul Agayev, his daughter Asiyat Agayeva, Kurban Mejidov, Ahmed Abakarov and Shamkhal Abakarov.

Yaragi Hajikurbanov seven daughters, Jaryat, Elmir, Aishat, Almaz, Zuleikhat, Fatima and Izumrud, are also very famous. They became well-known and popular artists of Dagestani ASSR. In the beggining they performed together with their famous father, and then independently with other artists.

New generations of Tsovkra vollage don't forget about the skills of their ancestors. This village has the only tightrope walking school in the republic. During summer it hosts Dagestan's festival of tightrope walking named, which is often attended by circus performers from all over the Caucasus. Ancient art is preserved thanks to them.
Syrias authorities believe that Turkeys military operation in Afrin is geared to support terrorism, Syria's President Bashar Assad said.

"Turkeys aggression in the Syrian city of Afrin cannot be separated from the policy pursued by the Turkish regime since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis and built on support to terrorism and various terrorist groups," SANA news agency cited him as saying.

On Saturday, Turkeys General Staff announced beginning of the Olive Branch operation against the Kurds units near Afrin, where about 1.5 million Syrian Kurds live. On Sunday, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim confirmed that Turkeys army has launched a ground operation in Syria. By now, Turksih troops have taken an area of 5 kilometers.
Chief of Staff of Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri discussed Turkeys military operation in Syrias Afrin in a telephone conservation with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar.

Bagheri noted that it is imperative to maintain the Syrian territorial integrity and that Turkeys military operation should not harm the tripartite political talks which have to be successful so far. He also stressed that no harm should come to the innocent civilians within the operational zone.

Moreover, Akar explained to Bagheri that the main reason that Turkey started the military operation in Syrias Afrin was to confront the terrorist groups which had gathered in the area and the threat they posed against Turkeys villages and towns of Turkey.

He assured Bagheri that Turkey remains committed to its agreements with Iran and Russia, even as it respects Syrian territorial integrity, the Mehr news agency reported.
Syrian troops and militia forces have started to eliminate Jabhat al-Nusra militants surrounded in the eastern part of the Idlib province, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, a 1500-strong group is armed with tanks, infantry combat vehicles, field artillery and mortats.

The ministry said that during the offensive operation the Syrian troops had moved 6 kilometers north of Abu al-Duhur airfield over the past 24 hours, with 24 inhabited communities liberated from militants, TASS reported.

The Syrian army and militia forces have completed the operation to encircle a large group of Jabhat al-Nusra militants on January 21. On January 10, news came that the militants had been driven out of Abu al-Duhur airfield.

Military operations against Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists and their allies have been going on in Syrias northwest for over a month now.

The editor-in-chief of 'National Defense' magazine, Igor Korotchenko, speaking with the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, recalled that Jabhat al-Nusra is one of the main military opponents of the Syrian government and the Russian Armed Forces. "Therefore, the complete destruction of this group's organized military structure will dramatically improve the situation in Syria, would deprive the terrorists' ability to effectively use available forces and means. Eventually, it will positively affect the format of the future political talks on the future of the Syrian Arab Republic," he stressed.

After the destruction of this group, according to the expert, Damascus will have to cope with all those who provide real armed resistance. "All officially declared terrorist organizations are actively engaged in provocations. A complete elimination is needed. Roughly speaking, if you join in the negotiations, you should be absolutely loyal. Those who goes against the regime with an armed resistance - must be destroyed," the editor-in-chief of 'National Defense' magazine drew attention.

"Of course, we cannot be sure of the full stabilization of the situation in Syria even after eliminating terrorists, because the United States and other players actively intervene in the situation. But the destruction of organized armed structures would create a very good basis for political decisions take precedence over military ones," Igor Korotchenko concluded.

The deputy head of the Council of the Russian Diplomats Association, Andrey Baklanov, stressed that the international community is very carefully monitoring the events in Idlib, as this province has been one of the main battlegrounds in recent years.

"Moreover, Idlib is a platform where the opposition forces occupied almost the entire territory of the province at a certain time. And if now it is possible to completely remove the militants from Idlib, this will mean that after the first stage, that is, the liquidation the largest part of the opposition groups in the form of ISIS, the process of liberation is developing further. Which is fundamentally important. As it means that after the liquidation of the main organization that fought against the legitimate regime, the fight against terrorists will continue," the expert said.

At the same time, according to him, it is necessary to competently resolve issues in place related to a supply to the population and the strengthening of power. "When Jabhat al-Nusra will be destroyed, some temporary obscure self-government structures should not obtain power, as required by the US and some other forces. They need to return to the bosom of the administrative and political responsibility of the central Syrian government," Andrei Baklanov pointed out.
Turkish public prosecutors offices in Istanbul and Diyarbakir issued detention warrants for at least 35 people on accusations of disseminating the propaganda of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in social media messages concerning a Turkish military operation in the Afrin region of Syria, according to security officials.

The office in Istanbul issued arrest warrants for 18 suspects, as part of the investigation, and the office in Diyarbakir - for 17 people, RIA Novosti reported.

On Saturday, Turkeys General Staff announced beginning of the Olive Branch operation against the Kurds units near Afrin. On Sunday, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim confirmed that Turkeys army has launched a ground operation in Syria.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking in Ankara about the country's military operation in Syrias Afrin region, said that Ankara would not take a step back from the operation.

"We are determined. Afrin will be sorted out. We will take no step back. We spoke about this with our Russian friends. We have an agreement," Erdogan told a televised meeting in Ankara.

He expressed impatience with demands, including from some US officials, to set a clear timetable for the length of the operation.

According to the President, the operation would be over "when the target is achieved."

"How long have you been in Afghanistan? Is that over in Iraq?" Erdogan said, referring to the current US military presence in those countries.

"There is no maths in such a war. How dare you ask us? We will stay as long as we need, we have no interest in staying there, we know when we will leave," the Daily Sabah cited President Erdogan as saying.

"We struck the first blow against those who want to form a terror corridor along our borders with the Operation Euphrates Shield. It is a matter of eliminating the terror corridor. The US brought 5000 truckloads of military equipment to this region. This was distributed to terror organizations," he said.

He also commented on a missile that hit the Turkish border province of Hatay, threatening that the attackers will pay a heavy price for hitting Turkish territory.

Erdogan said Turkey would take control of Afrin, as it had done in the Syrian towns of Jarablus, al-Rai and al-Bab, and that Syrians would be able to return home.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the Olive Branch operation against the Kurdish People's Protection Units in Afrin will be completed in a short period.

The President said that the operation started against the YPG in northern Syria on January 20 would be completed in "a very short time," as Turkish ground troops entered Syria.

"God willing, this operation will be finished in a very short time," the Daily Sabah cited Erdogan as saying.

The president said that the PKK-linked YPG cannot rely on US support to defeat Turkey, while noting that some of Turkey's allies have provided 2000 planes and 5000 trucks of weapons and ammunition to the terrorists.
Iran's army has launched two-day military exercises involving the ground, naval, and aerial forces under its command.

The military drills, codenamed Mohammad Rasoulallah, started early on Monday on an order by the Army's deputy commander for coordination, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari.

The exercises cover an expanse of three million square kilometers in area in Irans south and southeast, the Makran Coast, and other areas in the Gulf of Oman. The ground, marine, and air forces of Irans Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Base will be drilling their defensive combat skills, practicing interoperability, and conducting self-evaluations.

Later on Monday, Rear Admiral Seyyed Mahmoud Mousavi, the spokesperson for the drills, said the Armys Ground Forces fired a Fajr 5 rocket and a Nazeat missile as part of defense exercises, PressTV reported.

Admiral Mousavi explained that the first day saw operations by naval surface and subsurface vessels as well as aerial craft to monitor, track, and destroy mock enemy units to prevent them from approaching Iranian waters.
A Kazakhstani citizen was among those killed in the Saturday attack on Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel, the spokesman for Kazakh Foreign Ministry Anuar Zhainakov said.

"Tragic news has come from Afghanistan. A citizen of Kazakhstan, born in 1978, was killed today as the result of the attack by militants on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul," Zhainakov posted on his Facebook page.

Eighteen people, including 14 foreigners, were killed in the Saturday attack, according to Afghanistan's Interior Ministry.

More than 150 people were rescued or managed to escape the attack at Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel. Eleven of the 14 foreigners killed were employees of KamAir, a private Afghan airline. Two were identified as Venezuelan pilots. Six Ukrainians and a citizen from Kazakhstan were among the dead.
Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili will participate in the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Georgian Cabinet's press service reported.

He will visit the Swiss Confederation on January 22-24.

During the World Economic Forum, the Prime Minister will deliver a speech at the Strategic Outlook-Eurasia discussion. Kvirikashvili is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with political leaders from different countries, European Commission leadership, and founders of large international companies.

Georgia's delegation under the leadership of the Prime Minister includes the country's Vice Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze, Finance Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze, and co-investment fund CEO Giorgi Bachiashvili.
The situation that has arisen as a result of the Turkish army's operation in Syria's Afrin will be discussed at the urgent debate at the PACE January session, the new chairman of the assembly Michele Nicoletti said.

"There was a proposal to hold debates in connection with Turkey's military operation in Syria. This debate will be held on Wednesday (January 24) in the afternoon," TASS cited Nicoletti as saying.

The PACE speaker said that another extraordinary discussion will be devoted to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. There were no objections from the MPs for both proposals.
Russia's envoy to NATO Aleksander Grushko was relieved of his duties by Russian President Vladimir Putin, as follows from a January 22 decree published on the official legal information portal.

By another decree signed on the same day Putin appointed Grushko as Russias deputy foreign minister, TASS reported.

Grushko was appointed Russias envoy to NATO in October 2012. According to official information available on the Foreign Ministrys website, he has been on the diplomatic service since 1977. His current diplomatic rank is ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary, which was awarded to him in July 2004.
North Caucasus republics are actively participating in interstate and interregional projects with the Islamic world, the chairman of the State Duma Committee for Development of the Civil Society and the Issues of Public and Religious Associations Sergei Gavrilov said, speaking with the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza.

"All North Caucasus republics, including Ingushetia, Dagestan and Chechnya, participate in various cultural and economic ties with the Islamic world to varying degrees, with its various representatives - Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Syria. In particular, Russian servicemen and law enforcement officers from Chechnya and Ingushetia actively participated in the peacekeeping mission in the Syrian Aleppo and showed the highest moral and combat qualities," he said.

"I know that this activity of our Caucasian regions has reached especially high levels thanks to the activities of Chechnya's leadership, which is actively working with the Gulf countries, and the leadership of Ingushetia. I think that this work allows making relations between Russia and the Islamic world more multilayered, more fundamental, especially since it is not solely based on the high level state meetings or major global investment projects. It is also about the activity of regional business and about joint cultural and tourist programs, this is largely due to the performance of the hajj pilgrimage by muslims of the North Caucasus," Sergey Gavrilov said.

The chairman of the State Duma Committee for Development of the Civil Society and the Issues of Public and Religious Associations stressed that such a deep, interregional and interpersonal level of relations between the North Caucasus republics and the countries of the Islamic world "should be welcomed".

"We plan to visit a number of the North Caucasus republics this year and meet with its leaders, including spiritual leaders, with whom we have regular contacts, since we are in active collaboration with the muftis and the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church to solve common social problems of assistance most suffering segments of the population," the deputy said.
A fire killed seven children today near the eastern city of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, the education ministry said in a statement.

The victims from the Rabia family ranged from kindergarten age to the eighth grade, the ministry added on its official Twitter page.

Gulf News cited a local police and civil defense officials saying that their mother reported the fire at dawn and though the cause of the blaze remained unknown, a short-circuit was suspected, Reuters reported.

Police said the blaze killed four girls and three boys, their ages between 5 and 13. It said all suffocated in the smoke while their mother was unable to save them. An investigation into the fire is underway.
Syrian militias and Turkish special forces 'Maroon Berets' said that they have captured villages inside Syria's Afrin.

In response, the Kurdish militia known as the YPG struck the towns of Killis and Reyhanli in southern Turkey with rocket fire on Sunday, killing a Syrian refugee.

Turkish officials have dubbed the offensive 'Operation Olive Branch' and said that their intention is to create a 30 kilometre "safe zone" inside Syria, the National reported.

Turkish military trucks carrying tanks and other armoured vehicles cross through a border gate into a Turkish-controlled region of the Oncupinar border crossing with Syria.
HA NOI  Ride-hailing giant Uber appointed the companys new general manager for Viet Nam, Cambodia and Myanmar, with an aim towards enhancing its services in the three Asian countries.

The new leader, Charity Safford, has 20 years of experience in leadership roles in the telecommunication sector in Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia.

Ridesharing is changing the way cities in these countries move, and providing economic opportunities to thousands of people, she said in a statement, adding, Growing Ubers business in this dynamic and fast-growing region is a fantastic opportunity, and one that I couldnt turn down.

According to Uber, Viet Nam was one of its first countries in Asia, while Cambodia and Myanmar are some of Ubers newest markets globally and the company says the countries represent some of the fastest-growing markets in the region.

Safford will be supported by Cambodian General Manager Pascal Ly, who was CEO of the Credit Bureau Cambodia, and, more recently, advised SMEs in the country.

Ly has had previous stints in France, Australia, Singapore and Cambodia.

With government recognition and support for ridesharing in Myanmar, Cambodia and Viet Nam, Uber expects to see strong growth and city launches in 2018 in all three countries, said Brooks Entwistle, Asia Pacific Business Officer.

Southeast Asia is ripe with opportunities for Uber, and we are leaning into the region this year and investing heavily in people, product and partnerships, said Brooks, adding, The entrepreneurial spirit shown by the people of Cambodia, Myanmar and Viet Nam never fails to amaze me, and Im thrilled we will be able to serve them better with Charity and Pascal joining the team.  VNS
HA NOI  As 2018 brings newer and bigger free trade agreements (FTAs), Vietnamese enterprises are faced with tough choices. They can either adapt and move up the global supply chain, or stand by while imported goods flood the countrys market.

Tran Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Industry and Trades (MoIT) Import-Export Department, told Vietnam News Agency (VNA) that from 2018 onward, 85 per cent of Vietnamese exports will be subject to significantly lowered tariff levels of zero to 5 per cent.

As part of the Governments policy to increase economic self-reliance and promote sustainable imports and exports, exports of Vietnamese goods to FTA markets grew strongly in 2017, contributing US$213.8 billion to the years turnover of $408 billion, per the MoITs data.

Hai was optimistic that Vietnamese businesses will benefit more from bilateral and multilateral FTAs with partner countries such as Hong Kong, Japan and the Republic of Korea (RoK).

Nonetheless, Hai admitted that the process of raising Vietnamese exports value might not be as easy as expected. Since each FTA is tailor-made to suit member countries needs, they have different levels of commitments and standards.

For example, he was greatly concerned by the fact that a Vietnamese automobile company would only be able to enjoy a zero per cent tax rate when exporting to ASEAN countries if their products have at least 40 per cent of components originating in Viet Nam.

Therefore, Hai suggested domestic enterprises focus on meeting standards set by the Vietnam-Korea FTA (VKFTA) and the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (AJCEP), since they offer more special tariff treatments at fewer standard requirements than others.

The origin rules would encourage the country to produce locally, rather than importing materials and parts. But this could prove a long and difficult process for Vietnamese firms, he added.

Buy less, sell more?

Le Tien Truong, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas), told VNA that textiles and garments exports growth rate to European market may not get an immediate boost from the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), due to preferential rules of origin.

Currently, the Vietnamese textile and apparel industry has to import 70 per cent of its raw materials, 42 per cent of which come from China and the rest from ASEAN and the RoK.

On the other hand, starting in 2018, many preferential import tariffs to Viet Nam will be progressively eliminated to zero per cent, provided the imported goods meet the MoITs provisions on origin of goods and Certificate of Origin (CO) and be listed in the 17 FTAs of which Viet Nam is a member.

Pham Tuan Anh, Deputy Head of the International Relations Department under the Ministry of Finance, told the Ministry of Planning and Investments online portal last week, that import tariffs reduction and elimination must be carefully carried out, lest it harm the State budget and domestic production activities.

Imports eligible for zero tariffs mainly come from ASEAN-related trade agreements, though pacts signed with Japan, China, RoK and the Eurasian Economic Coalition also boast a significant amount, according to 2017 year-end reports from the General Department of Vietnam Customs (GDVC).

For example, the VKFTA requires Viet Nam eliminate 704 import tariffs lines in 2018, while the AKFTA demands 477 tariff lines eliminated and 588 for the ASEAN-China Bilateral Trade Agreement (ACFTA).

Similarly, the Vietnams Special Preferential Tariff Schedule for the Implementation of the ASEAN Goods Trade Agreement between 2018 and 2022 indicates a drop of 0.9 per cent in average tariff levels across all imports from 2017s number, as calculated by the GDVC.

Since these reductions were made public once the FTAs were signed, the MoF and the Vietnamese business community had ample time to prepare, said Tuan Anh.

Despite fears that cutting import taxes will lead to a drop in State budget revenue, the GDVC reported overall income of VN293 trillion ($13 billion) from import tax in 2017 alone, with a 2018 target of VN295 trillion ($13.1 billion), he added.

Though Viet Nam had a trade deficit with China, ASEAN and RoK, the countrys annual export turnover to these markets was growing strongly, up 60.6 per cent, 24.5 per cent and 31 per cent respectively in 2017, Tuan Anh said.

Therefore, Viet Nams FTAs would help promote economic growth, attract foreign investment, increase State budget revenue, create jobs and solve social security issues, instead of harming import-export balance, he said.

A helping hand

Surrounded by immense opportunities and challenges requiring initiative and flexibility, domestic enterprises should improve product quality, increase competitiveness and develop business plans to meet these FTAs requirements.

Bui Kim Thuy, Deputy Head of Origin of goods Division, MoITs Import-Export Department, told VNA that in recent times, the ministry had made efforts to cut administrative procedures to help domestic enterprises take advantage of tariff preferences and rules of origin.

She listed a significant improvement in administrative procedures for issuing certificates of origin, which helps enterprises spend less time and costs via online registration.

Still, Thuy admitted that Vietnamese enterprises had not shown a desirable level of interest in the issue, due to lack of awareness.

She hoped that if domestic businesses understand and follow these FTAs rules of origin, they will be able to take advantage of upcoming opportunities to enhance added value and ensure sustainable growth.  VNS
Compiled by Thien Ly

At a recent meeting Vietinbank chairman Nguyen Van Thang said increasing the lenders legal capital is one of the most urgent tasks.

If it cannot do so in the first quarter its capital adequacy ratio (CAR) would go below the minimum level stipulated by the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) and under Basel II norms, he said.

CAR is expressed as a percentage of the banks capital to its risk-weighted assets and is one of the main metrics used to promote the stability and efficiency of financial systems.

The SBV has issued a circular stating banks must maintain a CAR of at least 8 per cent starting in 2020.

The new circular will replace Circular 13/2010/TT-NHNN that stipulates a CAR of at least 9 per cent.

According to a recent report by the National Financial Supervisory Commission (NFSC), the average CAR of the banking sector has been consistently falling since 2017.

It had dropped from 11.6 per cent at the end of 2016 to 11.1 per cent at the end of last year, and is expected to go further down in the near future.

Analysts say this is because banks assets have grown much more rapidly than their equity.

In 2016 the sectors total assets went up by 16 per cent but chartered capital by only 6.11 per cent.

In 2017, all big state-owned commercial banks including VietinBank, Vietcombank and BIDV had total assets exceeding VN1 quadrillion after rising by 9.3 per cent while their equity grew by only 4.6 per cent.

Experts warn that when BASEL II norms are applied banks CAR will plunge due to an increase in the quantum of their risky assets.

Meanwhile, the group of State-owned banks have average CAR of 9.69 per cent, close to the stipulated minimum.

It will plunge below 8 per cent when BASEL II standards are applied.

If they fail to increase their capital, it will have a strong negative impact on their credit plans. Since they are the largest banks by a wide margin, this will have an impact on the entire banking sector. They would not be able to serve the economy as well as they ought to, according to an SBV official who asked not to be named.

As for state-owned banks, Vietcombank bears the least pressure because it has many options for raising capital while the time is not limited.

Meanwhile, Vietinbank needs to improve its CAR soon and increase tier-1 capital more than tier-2 capital.

Of three state-owned banks, BIDV has the lowest CAR. It has no more room to increase tier-2 capital, therefore, it has the fewest options for raising capital.

As the government has decided not to pump more capital into state-owned banks, it still requests the banks to raise capital to satisfy requirements in Basel 2. Private capital will play the key role.

The State giants have made many efforts to augment their capital, but with modest results.

A top Vietinbank executive said the bank now had no choice except to issue shares to existing shareholders to hike its charter capital.

He also suggested that his bank should be allowed to issue bonus shares and supplement charter capital as proposed to the central bank and the Government.

At its meeting on January 12 Vietcombank announced some ambitious targets: achieving asset growth of 14 per cent; increasing deposits by 17 per cent; reducing bad debts by 1 percentage point; and achieving pre-tax profit of VN12 trillion.

It is also committed to soon achieve Basel II norms as required by the central bank.

A Vietcombank official admitted that while the lender has taken many initiatives that have significantly improved its business performance, it has not increased its charter capital to optimum levels.

The situation is similar at Agribank and BIDV.

Analysts said the main task in front of the banks now is to increase their charter capital to not only meet the SBVs requirements but also to realise their other important goals such as ensuring credit growth, improving their financial capacity, getting more foreign investors, and expanding to overseas markets since the Vietnamese banking industry is deeply integrating into the global financial market.

But they stressed the need for the central bank to support them, saying it should allow the State-owned banks to retain some of their earnings to supplement their capital.

Rubber giant cannot find strategic investors

Late last year the government approved the equitisation plan of the Vietnam Rubber Group (VRG).

It envisions the State retaining three billion shares, equivalent to 75 percent of VRGs chartered capital of VN40 trillion (US$1.76 billion), after the equitisation.

The company will auction off more than 475 million shares, equivalent to 11.88 per cent of its capital, to the public.

Another 475 million shares will be offered to strategic investors while the remainder of the stake will be sold to the groups employees and trade union.

The shares will be auctioned at a reserve price of VN13,000 ($0.57).

At this price the company will be worth VN52 trillion, and the free float, or the stocks traded in the market, will be worth nearly VN6.2 trillion.

But VRG has yet to identify any strategic investor though its initial public offering (IPO) is approaching and the company will be a good buy for any investor.

One of VRGs attractions now is that the price of latex is recovering sharply, though even if rubber prices plummet VRGs business results and prospects are quite convincing.

Its after-tax profit in 2016 was VN1.5 trillion. In the first half of last year its turnover was VN10.537 trillion and pre-tax profit, VN2.292 trillion.

Another very important attraction is VRGs ownership of huge parcels of land estimated at up to 420,000 hectares.

Yet VRG has found it difficult to identify strategic investors.

Why?

Some analysts say the companys capital is too large that not many investors have the capacity to buy even a part of the States stake in it estimated at VN6 trillion.

In Viet Nam only a few companies in the agricultural sector have access to this kind of money.

Earnings in the agricultural sector are usually lower than those in others, also affecting the VRGs attractiveness to investors.

The company is a behemoth with a complex organisational structure, which intimidates some investors. It has 124 member units including 75 second-class and 48 third-class enterprises.

The company has non-core investments in 17 enterprises involved in hydropower, tourism, real estate, cement, and securities, while the Government has asked it to focus on growing rubber, exploiting latex and processing rubber wood.

Some analysts however said the biggest obstacle is that the Government does not allow the company to sell stakes to foreign investors.

Why?

Its possession of many large land parcels in premier locations in major cities is the foremost reason.

Besides, VTG also has 120,000 hectares in Laos and Cambodia, and any sale of stake requires permission from the governments of those two countries.VNS
Banks are investing significantly in retail banking services instead of only focusing on corporate lending in the hope of gaining higher profits from the potential segment this year. Photo enternews.vn

HA NOI  Banks are investing significantly in retail banking services instead of only focusing on corporate lending in the hope of gaining higher profits from the potential segment this year.

With more than 93 million people and sharply increasing consumption, Viet Nam is considered a hot destination for the retail banking segment, which is why banks have strategically planned to boost the segment.

In fact, the in-cash habit of Vietnamese people is no longer an obstacle to the development of card network and non-credit services. Thus, several banks are aiming to bring customers a variety of non-traditional credit services, such as savings and transactional accounts, mortgages, personal loans, debit and credit cards.

Notably from the beginning of this year, many banks have considerably improved the quality of retail banking services to enhance competitiveness in the market. They are also focussing on other aspects such as marketing, technology and human resources to attract more individual customers to non-credit services.

Nguyen Thanh Nhung, general director of VietBank, said retail banking services would be a key to make a sustained and stable profit for the banking sector this year. The development of non-credit services contributes to diversifying banks services, thereby bringing more customers. This type of service would also disperse risks and create higher profits for commercial banks, said Nhung.

According to Nguyen inh Tung, general director of the Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank, his bank is expected to earn a pre-tax profit of more than VN1 trillion (US$44.05 million) in 2018, thanks to specific strategies in sales of financial products, especially in non-credit services.

According to Tran Du Lich, a member of the National Financial and Monetary Policy Advisory Council, banks currently not only gain profits from lending but also live on retail segment, so the move to invest in retail services is inevitable in the future.

The move was decided after the retail banking segment contributed to a large amount of the total profits of many banks last year.

The Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam, for example, gained a record high in profit last year, thanks to a focus on retail banking segment. Specifically, the banks segment last year grew by 33 per cent against the previous year, helping net income from the segment increase by 35 per cent from 2016.

Military Bank also saw a sharp increase of 34 per cent in net income from retail banking services last year.

Based on the results gained, leaders of commercial banks said they would continually apply this business strategy, with a focus on retail banking services next time.  VNS
HA NOI  Vietnamese shares are forecast to move marginally this week as investors could realise their earnings after having priced in the growth prospects of both the market and local stocks.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange gained 1.13 per cent to close at 1,062.07 points. After the last two sessions, it has almost regained a loss of 2.66 per cent on Wednesday.

The minor HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange edged up 0.41 per cent to end at 122.39 points. The northern market index has increased a total 1.6 per cent in the last two days.

Both stock indices posted weekly growth this week with the VN Index rising 1.1 per cent after the last five trading sessions. The figure for the HNX Index is 1.3 per cent.

More than 387.4 million shares were traded in each session last week, worth VN9.44 trillion (US$420 million).

The trading figures fell 4.5 per cent in volume but increased by 1.9 per cent in value compared to the previous week.

The stock market indices increased on a weekly basis as investors were optimistic about the companies quarterly and yearly earnings reports and the market outlook this year.

Strong confidence kept market trading liquidity high as investors continued to look for opportunities in stocks that declined on Wednesday.

According to analysts and securities firms, the stock market will continue to grow in the coming week but the growth will be narrow as investors try to lock in gains after the indices performed well in recent weeks.

The benchmark VN Index has moved up a total 7.9 per cent since the beginning of the year and the HNX Index has increased by 4.7 per cent.

Investors have made big profits as they purchased stocks when the benchmark index was rising in the first two weeks. They tended to lock in profits when bad news appeared and threatened their profitability, Ngo The Hien, a lead analyst at Sai Gon-Ha Noi Securities Company (SHS) told tinnhanhchungkhoan.vn.

Nguyen Hong Khanh, head of market analysis at Sacombank Securities Company (SBS) said investors had priced in local stocks on expectations that both the market and corporations would perform well.

However, they remained defensive and were willing to offload their portfolios if they saw any news that could hurt the market, Khanh said.

Its a normal market sentiment at the moment, especially when the stock market is recording strong gains recently, he said.

The stock market would need to settle at the range of 1,020-1,070 points before making a further improvement, Hien at SHS said.

The benchmark VN Index is accumulating at the range of 1,020 and 1,070 points, which were also the lowest and highest levels of the benchmark last week, he said.

A positive signal for investors was high trading liquidity, which proved investors were still attracted to the prospects of the market and stocks and they were willing to bottom-fish stocks that decline, Hien said.

However, he warned that investors should stay calm and avoid making new investment decisions as the stock indices were near their resistant levels and the market would become volatile in the near future.

Khanh at SBS said the growth momentum of the market had mainly come from investors confidence in corporate earnings and such expectations had priced in stocks.

When the companies are about to release their earnings reports, stocks will be mixed and the market will grow slowly, he said.  VNS
HA NOI  Viet Nam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank) posted a pre-tax profit of more than VN8.1 trillion (US$356.6 million) in 2017, registering a 65 per cent year-on-year increase.

VPBank Finance Company Ltd (FE Credit) accounted for 51 per cent of the banks total profit in 2017.

VPBank on Monday announced its financial report for 2017 showing it had outstanding results in all the basic criteria and sustainable and effective growth, as a result of its strategy to focus on retail banking.

The banks total assets last year reached nearly VN278 trillion, increasing 21 per cent from the previous year.

Customer lending rose by 24 per cent to VN196 trillion in 2017, and the deposit was VN200 trillion, up 16 per cent from the previous year.

Its turnover growth rate in 2017 was VN25 trillion, posting a 48 per cent year-on-year rise. Of this, the net profit rose by 36 per cent and net services by 70 per cent. It used more than VN8 trillion for its risk prevention fund.

In recent years, VPBanks growth rate has been higher than the average level in the market. Its average total assets rose by 22 per cent a year since 2012.

The banks leaders said the outstanding loans of FE Credit accounted for 23 per cent of its total integrated assets.

With its listing on HCM City Stock Exchange (HOSE) in 2017, VPBanks charter capital and ownership capital rose to VN15.7 trillion and VN29.6 trillion, respectively, up 70 per cent from the previous year.

The positive growth has created a firm foundation for the bank, both in mid- and long-term periods, contributing to further development.

The banks growth quality was also seen through a return on equity (ROE) of 27.47 per cent and a return on assets (ROA) of 2.54 per cent.

The business results have helped the bank complete its target to become one of the largest joint stock commercial banks in Viet Nam in the 2012-17 period.

Its strategy of focussing on retail banking products and services, which was launched five years ago, brought the achievements to the bank.

The turnover from market segments of individuals, consumption finance and small- and medium-sized enterprises accounted for 80 per cent of its total turnover.

Its most bright point was that it has maintained high quality of growth owing to flexible business strategies and effective risk management system, though it has focused on segments with high risks.

VPBank has applied effective solutions to collect debts totalling VN3 trillion in 2017. Its bad debt was kept at 2.33 per cent.

The bank said it would continue to maintain its retail banking strategy in 2018, specially focusing on digitalisation of financial products and services to better meet with customers demand and create a new growth momentum.

It will also enhance association with fintech companies and strategic partners to create a diversified financial ecosystem, which could provide better products to all market segments.  VNS
ang Van Thanh.  Photo theleader

ang Van Thanh, Chairman of the Management Board of the Thanh Thanh Cong Group, talks to the newspaper Nong Thon Ngay Nay (Countryside Today) about the countrys great potential to develop biomass energy.

What do you see as the countrys potential to develop biomass energy?

I should say renewable energy is a current trend of development internationally, given the threat of of climate change. Viet Nam is no exception.

With favourable natural conditions, Viet Nam has great potential for the development of clean energy, such as solar energy, wind power and bio mass.

Viet Nam has more than 3,000 km of coastline running from the North to the South. Viet Nam is next to the equator, so it has a large volume of radiation from the sun  a very important factor for enterprises which are interested in producing solar energy.

These are the two opportunities for the country to develop its renewable energy from the wind and the sun.

Two years ago, Thanh Thanh Cong Group and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) jointly conducted research on Viet Nams clean energy potential. We then agreed to enter into cooperation in clean energy production.

Do you think Vietnamese enterprises have the capacity to develop biomass energy?

Regarding biomass energy, I can say that we have big potential for the development of biomass energy, particularly sugar cane refuse from more than 40 sugar mills nation-wide. In addition, biomass energy is a good source of electricity backup for our hydro-power.

In Viet Nam, when the rainy season comes to an end, the winter season is approaching. And it is time for the biomass energy to connect to the national grid to add power for electricity consumers.

However, regarding the cost of biomass electricity, I would like to call on the Ministry of Industry and Trade to consider a universal price for a unit of electricity nation-wide, regardless of whether it is produced from coal, hydro power, wind energy or biomass.

If my proposal is accepted, it will encourage the development of biomass energy or other types of energy.

Will you please share with us your experiences in seeking funds for clean energy development?

At present, many banks and financial institutions have expressed their interest in the development of renewable energy.

In my project, IFC is our strategic shareholder while the Singapore Armstrong Clean Energy Fund is also our stakeholder.

In Viet Nam clean energy development is still in a new area. So in my point of view, we should consider carefully which agency would become our stakeholder in both capital investment and technical support. IFC and Armstrong are committed to accompanying us toward the goal of achieving 1,000 MegaWatt (MW) of electricity by 2020.

Does the IFC require any special conditions from the Thanh Thanh Cong Corporation?

The most important principle that the IFC requires us to observe is that we protect the environment. This is a guiding principle in our co-operation.

Will you please share with us some of the challenges that your corporation has faced in producing renewable energy in Viet Nam?

The weakest point is that at present the infrastructure for Viet Nams electric transmission line is still weak.

The current transmission line system is still concentrated, not yet distributed according to geographical conditions. This is a stumbling bloc for wind energy or solar energy when they want to join the national grids.

In addition, the construction of a hydro power plant or thermo plant with 50-100 MW should not take several years as it does at present. It should take around 10 months as it does in Thailand now.

Do you have any comments on the current electricity price in Viet Nam?

The Government has assigned Electricity Viet Nam as the sole agency to buy all electricity generated from the solar energy projects with the price unit of VN 2.086/kWh (9,35 US cents). This price does not include the value added tax. If it is possible I would like the Government to raise the price unit a bit higher so that more companies will be interested in producing clean energy in the future.

Dont you think that quite a few Vietnamese enterprises are also interested in producing renewable energy?

In the context of climate change and negative consequences of energy produced from fossils, I think it is high time for Vietnamese enterprises to further complete their plans or change their strategies towards the development of clean energy or renewable energy. VNS
HA NOI  So Villages communal house on the western outskirts of Ha Noi will provide a platform to showcase the traditional customs of the Vietnamese Lunar New Year on February 10.

The event is an annual gathering hosted by the inh Lang Viet (Vietnamese Communal House) Group, a Ha Noi-based community keen on preserving the ancient values of communal houses.

The event will include a ceremony to erect cay neu, a tall bamboo tree, in the houses yard. The bamboo pole is stripped of its leaves, except for a tuft on top so that it can be wrapped or decorated with red paper for good luck. Bows, arrows, bells and gongs are hung on the treetop with the hope that the bad luck of the past year is chased away and everyone has a happy New Year.

A traditional worship ceremony will be held, apart from events featuring the art of calligraphy and folk singing.

Researcher Tran Hau Yen The will deliver a talk on nghe (a holy animal made of stone, with the body of a dog, and head, legs and tail of a dragon, that stand guard at temples or communal houses) and researcher Tran oan Lam will speak on traditional customs during the lunar new year.

Ambassador Pham Sanh Chau poses for a photo with children and teenagers at last years event at So Villages Communal House.  Photo courtesy of inh Lang Viet Group

Participants will have the opportunity to cook traditional food such as chung (square, sticky rice cake) and che kho (sweetened bean pudding).

Both men and women participating in the gathering are encouraged to wear the Vietnamese traditional long dress.

The event will take place in Cong Hoa Commune, Quoc Oai District, some 20km to the west of Ha Nois centre, between 8am and 9pm on Saturday, February 10 (the 25th day of the last lunar month).

Interested people can register at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeOfZhp0yUliIG6eFJDsrpIKu6s5j265mOh9DZcAY6oYI-TSw/viewform or contact Nguyen uc Binh (in charge of the group) at 0904179673 or log on to https://www.facebook.com/groups/DinhlangVN/.

The cost for an adult is VN600,000, while that for children under 10 is VN 300,000. This covers transportation with the groups members, two meals at the site and all relevant fee for organising the event. A part of the contribution will be used to gift ao dai (traditional long dress) to elders at the communal house.

The event last year gathered hundreds of people including the groups members, locals, tourists and representatives from 27 embassies and diplomatic organisations in Ha Noi.  VNS
HCM CITY  The HCM City Television (HTV) on Sunday organised a live broadcast to celebrate the 88th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam (Feb 3, 1930) and the 50th anniversary of the Mau Than General Offensive and Uprising in Spring 1968.

The broadcast, titled Ban hung ca mua xuan: Chan Tran  Chi Thep (The Spring Saga: Bare Feet  Iron Will), was held at three locations significant to the historic event, including Thong Nhat (Reunification) Conference Hall in HCM Citys District 1, Tan Nhut Ward in Binh Chanh District, and Binh My Ward in Cu Chi District.

Politburo member and Secretary of the HCM Citys Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan, together with former leaders, seniors, and officials from the HCM City Peoples Council, Peoples Committee and Viet Nam Fatherland Front Committee, among other agencies, attended the event.

Other participants included Vietnamese Heroic Mothers, veterans and representatives of forces that took part in the offensive, as well as locals.

The event comprised three sections, including Chan Tran (Bare Feet), Chi Thep (Iron Will), and Khat vong hoa binh (The Desire for Peace).

Speakers during the broadcast praised the significant contributions, strong will and commitment to peace of the soldiers who took part in the historical offensive in Spring 1968, one of the largest military campaigns launched by the northern Peoples Army of Viet Nam and the southern National Liberation Front during the Vietnam war.

Among other people interviewed during the live broadcast were: o Thi Kim Lien, o Manh Hung, o Anh Chien, o Thi Thom and o Thanh Cong, who are the children of o Van Can, builder of an armoury in 183/4 Tran Quoc Toan Street in District 3 (now 3/2 Street, District 10); Tran Kien Xuong, a son of Tran Van Lai, builder of an armoury in 287/70 Nguyen inh Chieu Street in District 3; and Phan Van Hon, former member of Unit 5 under the Sai Gon  Gia inh Liberation Army Commandos.

Though 50 years have passed, the General Offensive and Uprising in Spring 1968 remains a significant milestone that emphasised revolutionary heroism, providing valuable historical lessons for todays society.  VNS
HCM CITY  Many family households in HCM Citys District 1 are storing motorbikes at their homes after the decision by the District 1 Peoples Committee on January 11 to suspend operation of 48 parking sites on street pavements.

In the centre of District 1, households on Ham Nghi, Ngo uc Ke, Mac Thi Buoi, Huynh Thuc Khang and Ho Tung Mau streets are offering in-house parking services for VN10,000 (44 US cents) per vehicle.

Existing in-house parking lots in District 1 are now overloaded with motorbikes.

Mai Lan, owner of an in-house parking lot on Nguyen Sieu Street in District 1, said the number of vehicles has increased by 20-40 a day since the closure of the 48 parking sites.

Luu Trong Hoa, deputy chairman of District 1 Peoples Committee, has ordered the districts Economic Bureau to work with local wards to inspect 121 parking lots for licence registration, parking fees, fire prevention, and tax payment.

The order came after many people complained about high fees.

Bui Xuan Cuong, director of the citys Department of Transport, said the department would work with the District 1 Peoples Committee to resolve the problem related to the 48 parking lots on pavements.

Parking lots which can ensure traffic safety and space for pedestrians will be permitted to reopen soon, he said.

The current parking fee of VN5,000 will be raised, creating favourable conditions to attract private investment in parking lots, according to the department.

Last Thursday, the municipal Peoples Committee ordered the citys 24 districts to inspect and close most parking lots on pavements by the end of March.

Camera monitors

Many areas in the city are using cameras to monitor public security, traffic safety and illegal use of pavements.

In District 12, for instance, local authorities have installed 600 monitor cameras in 11 wards.

Le Truong Hai Hieu, chairman of the District 12 Peoples Committee, said besides monitoring public security and traffic safety, the cameras help local authorities to resolve problems quickly and discover violations related to the use of pavements.

In Go Vap District, Ward 14 has also installed 193 cameras.

ang Cong Tuan, deputy chairman of Ward 14 Peoples Committee in Go Vap District, said the cameras had helped reduce the number of violations.

In District 5, cameras recently installed have also helped curb violators at the Tan Hung  Thuan Kieu intersection in Ward 12.

Tran Phuong Nam, chairman of Ward 12 Peoples Committee, said the ward has 92 camera monitors.

The camera installation has helped increase awareness about pavement use, he added.

Last April, Binh Thanh District launched a complaint app that can be used by the public to report violations related to garbage dumping, illegal construction and pavement encroachment.

The public complaint app has seen positive results and the city plans to expand the app to all of the citys districts.  VNS
HA NOI  A report from the Labour Safety Department shows that 33.8 per cent of construction-related accidents are caused by employer negligence.

The report says little attention is paid to work-safety procedures, which often involves the use of low-quality scaffolding structures and outdated equipment.

It adds that many labourers are not given proper safety training or equipment, leading to many accidents because workers do not know safety rules.

Many workers also do not use safety equipment and violate labour safety regulations, the report said.

Construction experts say that many necessary inspections of equipment never happen. Contractors and subcontractors sometimes use poor quality and outdated equipment.

Experts say workers should be aware, protect themselves and pay attention to work-safety rules.

They say more attention should be given to inspections that can increase investors awareness of work safety issues. Equipment and machines must be inspected before putting them into operation.

Injuries occur in many work places, but they are much more prevalent in the construction industry because of the often dangerous nature of the work.

In the first six months of 2017, construction-related accidents accounted for 25.8 per cent of accidents in the workplace and 24.2 per cent of workplace deaths, according to statistics from the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Labour Safety Department.

Some of the most common accidents at construction sites involve scaffolds or other types of lifts or ladders.

Last Wednesday morning, at a construction site owned by Toyota Mo Lao Ltd Co on To Huu Street in Ha Nois Nam Tu Liem District, three workers died and three others were injured when scaffolding collapsed.

Local authorities claim that overloading was the main cause of the accident.

In September, a scaffolding collapse at Vuon Xanh Kindergarten, also in Nam Tu Liem District, created panic but no deaths or injuries.

Experts say workers should be aware, protect themselves and pay attention to work-safety rules.

They have made a plea for more attention to be given to inspections that can increase investor awareness of work-safety. This includes inspecting equipment and machines before putting them into operation.  VNS
HCM CITY  The HCM City Peoples Committee has asked district peoples committees, departments and other agencies to ensure everyone has a warm and sufficient Lunar Tet, which falls on February 16.

The citys Department of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs has plans to allocate nearly VN1.3 trillion (US$57.2 million) from the city budget for these programmes.

Tran Cong Khanh, head of the labour affairs division at HCM City Export Processing Zones and Industrial Parks Authority (HEPZA), said that 400 enterprises in HCM Citys 15 industrial parks and export processing zones will spend more than VN73 billion (US$3.2 million) for free tickets, gifts and year-end parties for poor workers, ethnic minorities, and workers at companies that have been closed because of bankruptcy or a slowdown in production.

Workers who cannot return to their hometown for Tet holiday will benefit from HEPZA and their companys social welfare programme.

HEPZA has called for nearly 6,000 free bus tickets for workers who are trade union members and have financial difficulties, and want to return to their hometown for Tet but cannot afford to buy tickets.

Workers affected by floods and storms last year will be given priority to receive tickets on January 27.

Trade unions at the citys industrial parks and export processing zones will present 3,000 gifts to workers who have lost jobs due to their company reducing or stopping production.

Enterprises and other agencies in the citys industrial parks and export processing zones will organize a Spring Fair to help workers buy standard goods for Tet at proper prices.

The 400 enterprises unveiled bonuses for their employees, with the highest of VN950 million awarded by a domestic company and VN359 million by a foreign-invested company.

Most employees of all companies in the citys industrial parks and export processing zones will receive one month salary as a bonus from VN6.2 million each at domestic companies and VN 7.8 million at foreign invested firms.

The citys Women Union has plans to spend more than VN2 billion for gifts for its poor members and ethnic minorities, poor residents on the countrys islands and those from other provinces who are not returning to their hometown for Tet holidays.

The Trade Union for the citys Department of Education and Training this year has unveiled its welfare plan for teachers. Teachers whose wives or husbands have had a labour accident or have an incurable disease will be presented VN500,000 each.  VNS
HCM CITY  Vocational training providers should pay more attention to quality to help Vietnamese workers integrate globally and prepare for the fourth industrial revolution, experts have said.

Speaking at a seminar on solutions for improving vocational training quality and meeting HCM Citys demand for human resources on Friday, Nguyen Van Lam, deputy head of the city Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said the city has 484 vocational training establishments, comprised of 50 colleges and 66 schools which provide two-year courses, 65 training centres and 303 others.

More than 2.55 million students have graduated from them since 2011.

Improving the quality of human resources is vital for the city, and finding proper solutions for training to meet demand is an urgent need, according to Lam.

The city has high demand for quality human resources for its services and industrial sectors and export of labour.

The training available now does not meet the needs of enterprises, the market and global integration, according to other participants.

Many vocational schools offer the same courses. The training facilities are not keeping pace with modern needs.

Assoc Prof Dr o Van Dung, rector of the HCM City University of Technology and Education, suggested that training methodologies should be changed.

The quality of teachers at vocational training establishments also needed to be improved since good teachers would train good students, he said.

He pointed out the need for practice-based training rather than theory.

Nguyen Thi Ly, rector of Thu uc College of Technology, said establishing links between vocational training facilities and the labour market was very important and held the key to the success of training programmes.

According to Tran Anh Tuan, deputy head of the citys Centre for Forecasting Manpower Needs and Labour Market Information, during the fourth industrial revolution, IT application and foreign languages are imperative in every field, but these are the weaknesses of Vietnamese workers.

Vocational training establishments should therefore focus on these, he said.

Huynh Van Chum, deputy head of the city Party Committees Propaganda and Education Board, said the committee would instruct relevant authorities to ensure vocational training establishments can get soft loans and land to build new facilities or expand.

However, their investment should focus on the citys key industries, he said.  VNS
KON TUM  An illegal gold mine tunnel was found on Sunday by the Central Highland province of Kon Tum Department of Natural Resources and Environment and the provincial environmental police.

The tunnel, 1.5m in width and 1.1m in height, was carefully covered up and located in Nguyen Van Lys passion fruit farm in ak Kan Commune, Ngoc Hoi District.

Upon inspection, law enforcement forces arrested five miners from ak To and ak Glei districts. All of the miners said they had been hired to work at the gold mine tunnel for 25 days.

The forces also seized several machines, tools and nearly 10 tonnes of gold ore. Van Ly confessed that two men called Nghien and An from Plei Kan Town, Ngoc Hoi District had been asked to mine gold in his farm.

As they promised to share the profit with me, I agreed to create a mining operation, he said.

According to e-newspaper infonet.vn, the mining area was protected by four layers of doors and guard dogs.

In 2013, competent authorities of Kon Tum Province fined Van Ly for operating the illegal gold mine in his farm.

The case is being processed by the provincial environmental police.  VNS
LONDON  Britain would struggle to match Russian military capabilities on the battlefield and risks falling further behind potential adversaries without more investment, the head of the army will warn Monday.

In a rare public speech, Chief of the General Staff Nick Carter is expected to say that Russia is building increasingly aggressive and expeditionary forces while it has already demonstrated the use of superior long-range missiles in Syria.

Last year Moscow also initiated simulated attacks across northern Europe, from Kaliningrad to Lithuania, Carter will outline in an afternoon speech at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London.

"The time to address these threats is now -- we cannot afford to sit back," he is expected to say, according to the Ministry of Defence.

"Our ability to pre-empt or respond to threats will be eroded if we dont keep up with our adversaries.

"We must take notice of what is going on around us or our ability to take action will be massively constrained.

"Speed of decision making, speed of deployment and modern capability are essential if we wish to provide realistic deterrence."

The stark comments, rare for a serving defence chief, will be delivered in a speech focused on "the increasingly real threats that pose a risk to the UKs way of life," according to RUSI.

They come as years of austerity and public sector funding cuts have left Britains armed forces strained and finance minister Philip Hammond under pressure to act.

Defence minister Gavin Williamson, who only took over the role in November after his predecessor Michael Fallon stepped down over a sexual harassment scandal, is reportedly calling for increased funding.

Carters expected remarks will add to the pressure on Hammond to bow to those demands.

"State-based competition is now being employed in more novel and increasingly integrated ways and we must be ready to deal with them," the general is set to tell an invited audience at RUSI.

"The threats we face are not thousands of miles away but are now on Europes doorstep -- we have seen how cyber warfare can be both waged on the battlefield and to disrupt normal peoples lives -- we in the UK are not immune from that."

Carters anticipated warning follows similar comments from retired defence chiefs in recent months.

Sir Richard Barrons, until last year the head of Britains Joint Forces Command which prepares for future conflicts, called for the defence budget to be raised to ensure the countrys armed forces could adequately protect against potential attacks from China or Russia.  AFP
BEIRUT  Syrias main opposition group said it will send a delegation Monday to regime ally Russia to discuss with officials Moscows "real stance" on the Syrian political process.

The visit by the Syrian Negotiations Commission (SNC) comes as Moscow gets set to host peace talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on January 30 along with Syrian regime backer Iran and rebel supporter Turkey.

The SNC has said it will attend fresh UN-hosted negotiations before then but has not yet announced if it will also go to the Sochi talks, which dozens of rebel factions have already rejected.

A statement by the SNC said Mondays visit was "in response to an invitation by the Russian foreign ministry" and that its delegation will hold talks with the foreign and defence ministers as well as members of parliament.

The visit aims at "understanding Russias real stance towards the political process, since it is a partner in the conflict, a godfather of talks with Syria and a guarantor of de-escalation zones", it said.

SNC spokesman Yahya al-Aridi said the opposition wanted "simply to make sure that Russia is serious about the entire peace process", particularly UN-led talks.

Numerous rounds of UN-brokered peace talks have been held in Geneva, and the last one concluded in mid-December with no notable progress towards ending the countrys war.

They are to resume January 25-26, this time in Vienna, ahead of the Sochi talks.

Key players Russia, Iran and Turkey have been sponsoring parallel peace talks since the start of last year that have looked to still the fighting.

The Sochi meeting is now part of a broader push by Moscow to start hammering out a path to a political solution to end the war and has sparked concerns that the Kremlin is looking to sideline the UN.

The Damascus government has said it would attend the Sochi talks, which are aimed at setting up a new constitution for post-war Syria.

Syrias nearly seven-year war, which began as the regime crushed anti-government protests, has claimed more than 340,000 lives, forced millions to flee their homes and left the country in ruins.  AFP
KABUL  Gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in Kabul and killed at least 18 people, most of them foreigners, sparking a 12-hour battle with Afghan forces backed by Norwegian troops that left terrified guests scrambling to escape.

Six Ukrainians were among those killed in the Taliban-claimed assault on the six-storey Intercontinental Hotel in the Afghan capital, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said on Twitter.

Afghan interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said 14 foreigners were among the dead, but did not specify their nationalities, in comments to Afghanistans Tolo News hours after the overnight attack that ended Sunday.

Terrified hotel guests climbed down bedsheets tied to balconies to escape the gunmen rampaging through the hilltop hotel overlooking the Afghan capital.

One lost his grip and fell in Tolo News television footage, which also showed black smoke and flames billowing from the hotel.

Special forces were lowered by helicopters during the night onto the roof of the landmark 1960s building. Afghan security forces killed all six attackers, the interior ministry said.

They were aided by Norwegian troops, Norwegian military officials told public broadcaster NRK. Norway has helped train Afghan elite forces since 2007.

"I want to say this explicitly and frankly and precisely... in total 14 foreigners and four Afghans were martyred in the attack on the hotel," Danish said on Tolo, adding that more than 160 people had been rescued during the attack.

Afghan officials have been known to understate death tolls in high-profile attacks.

Danish also said preliminary information showed the attackers may have already been inside the hotel before launching the assault, but gave no further details and warned an investigation had to be carried out.

But he did say that among the dead were 11 people from Afghan airline Kam Air. The companys CEO, Captain Samad Usman Samadi, earlier said 42 of its personnel had been at the hotel during the attack -- at least 16 of whom were still missing.

"We fear for their lives," he said.

A foreign ministry official said that senior Afghan diplomat Abdullah Poyan was among the fatalities.

Mufti Ahmad Farzan, a member of the High Peace Council, responsible for reconciliation efforts with militants, was also killed in the attack, Danish said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault via email. The attack followed security warnings in recent days to avoid hotels and other locations frequented by foreigners in war-torn Kabul.

"We are hiding in our rooms. I beg the security forces to rescue us as soon as possible before they reach and kill us," one guest, who did not want to be named, told AFP by telephone during the siege.

His phone has been switched off since then.

Fleeing like crazy

Officials said four gunmen burst into the hotel, which is not part of the global InterContinental chain, on Saturday night, opening fire and taking dozens of people hostage.

Afghan Telecom regional director Aziz Tayeb, who was one of dozens of people at the hotel attending an IT conference, said he saw the attackers enter.

"Everything became chaotic in a moment. I hid behind a pillar and I saw people who were enjoying themselves a second ago screaming and fleeing like crazy, and some of them falling down, hit by bullets," Tayeb said.

Local resident Abdul Sattar said he had spoken by phone to friends who are hotel staff and had been trapped inside.

"Suddenly (militants) attacked the dinner gathering... (then) they broke into the rooms, took some people hostage and they opened fire on some of them," he said.

Interior ministry deputy spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said the attackers were armed with light weapons and rocket-propelled grenades when they stormed the hotel.

Security in Kabul has been ramped up since May 31 when a massive truck bomb killed some 150 people and wounded around 400 -- mostly civilians.

Devastating attacks

But the resurgent Taliban and Islamic State are both scaling up their assaults on the city.

The attack on the Intercontinental was just one of several bloody assaults Sunday.

In a village in the northern province of Balkh, Taliban militants went from house to house in the middle of the night, pulling police from their homes and shooting them dead.

At least 18 officers were killed, deputy police chief Abdul Raziq Qaderi said.

In Herat in the west at least eight civilians were killed when a car hit a Taliban-planted roadside mine, officials there said.

The last major attack on a high-end hotel in Kabul was in March 2014 when four teenage gunmen raided the Serena, killing nine people including AFP journalist Sardar Ahmad.

In 2011 a suicide attack claimed by the Taliban killed 21 people at the Intercontinental including 10 civilians.

Danish said authorities were probing how the attackers got past the hotels security, which was taken over by a private company three weeks ago.

"We will investigate it," he said.

A hotel employee said that as he fled the venue he saw the new security guards running for their lives.

"They didnt do anything, they didnt attack. They had no experience," the man said on condition of anonymity.  AFP
With the recent feature article that WarbirdsNews published HERE concerning Curtiss Kittyhawk Mk.1A ET574 that recently re-emerged in Egypt following a rather unfortunate makeover, we thought we might followup with a story from the other side of the world on the somewhat better fortunes of another Kittyhawk representing the desert campaign during WWII in North Africa.

Our good friend John Parker at Warbirds Online in Australia has allowed us to share a nice piece he recently wrote showing fascinating insight into the efforts at Vintage Fighter Restorations in Scone, New South Wales to return a P-40E/Kittyhawk Mk.1A to the skies following a significant hiatus on the ground. Before heading into Johns article, we thought we should share some of the Kittyhawks history, as despite her current Desert Campaign markings, this fighter is a South Pacific combat veteran that flew and fought for two different nations. Interestingly, this aircraft was originally destined to join the RAF as ET433, but never took up that identity officially. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. War Department intervened and diverted the Kittyhawk to the U.S. Army Air Forces as P-40E Warhawk 41-25109 instead. They shipped her to Australia in 1942, from where she left to join the 68th Fighter Squadron at Fuamotu on the South Pacific island of Tonga. However, on October 27th that year, the 68th FS transferred their 23 P-40s to personnel from the newly-arrived 15 Squadron of the Royal New Zealand Air Force. P-40E Warhawk 41-25109 then became Kittyhawk Mk.1A NZ3094 with the RNZAF. 15 Squadron were heavily engaged with the enemy, and moved with their Kittyhawks to Espiritu Santo in February, 1943 to continue the fight as the Allies began retaking Japanese-occupied territory. Following combat operations, the Kittyhawk returned to New Zealand for eventual retirement. In March, 1948, the RNZAF sold NZ3094 for scrap. She ended up at the now famous Asplins Supplies yard in Rukuhia, along with the remaining RNZAF Kittyhawk fleet, and indeed their Corsairs as well. NZ3094 and a handful of other airframes survived long enough at Rukuhia to be worthy of rescue. John Chambers recovered the Kittyhawk from Asplins in 1971, but by this point she was a stripped-out hulk. The Kittyhawk remained this way until the late Col Pay acquired her in 1994 and took the fighter back to his workshop in Scone, Australia. She flew again for the first time following restoration in 2004. Pay restored her to represent Kittyhawk Mk.1A ET953 during her time in the North African desert campaign with 3 Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force. The real ET953 was the regular mount of 3 Squadrons Commanding Officer, the renowned Australian ace Bobby Gibbes.

Overhauling A Kittyhawk

by John Parker

Over the past few months, the team at Vintage Fighter Restorations (VFR) in Scone, NSW has been working on several warbirds within Ross Pays fleet, and this provided an opportunity to view the aircrafts interesting internal details that the public rarely sees.

Curtiss P-40E 41-25109/Kittyhawk NZ3094 (registered in Australia as VH-KTY) has been hangar-bound for some months now undergoing maintenance, the most significant aspect of which has been the overhaul of its Allison V-1710-115 liquid-cooled V12 engine. The aircraft has been flying since 2004, and was in need of routine engine work. Interestingly the aircrafts engine has undergone its refurbishment in-house at the VFR engine shop under the expert hands of Alf Morgan. At the time of our visit, the engine was largely stripped down, which revealed much of its interior, including the unusual rocker arm arrangement which uses just one rocker to operate two valves as opposed to the Rolls-Royce Merlins one rocker per valve  quite an innovative feature. One of the Allisons cylinder banks was under reassembly after having the cylinders honed and the valves reground. This was an interesting process to witness, as its not usually possible to get a good look inside one of these mighty V12s.

The Allison will soon be fully reassembled and refitted to the Kittyhawk for testing, while other routine work takes place on the airframe in readiness for a test flight in the next month or so. It will be great to see this magnificent P-40E back in the sky where she belongs.

The other major activity in Vintage Fighter Restorations hangar was the maintenance work on Canadian-built Hawker Hurricane XII RCAF 5481 VH-JFW. The aircrafts radiator required an overhaul, and given its location within the fuselage, this has been an interesting operation. Once the radiator had been removed, a number of options were considered in order to have it refurbished, with the eventual decision being to farm out the work to a well-respected company in New Zealand. The radiator has since returned from overhaul and is now in the process of being refitted to the Hurricane.

The Hurricane is also undergoing other routine maintenance, and it too should fly again within the next four to six weeks. More history on this aircraft is in our earlier story on the restoration and flight of Hawker Hurricane, Serial No 5481.

Additional work on other aircraft within Pays fleet is taking place in the hangar in anticipation of the much awaited Warbirds Over Scone Airshow which will take place on Sunday the 25th of March, 2018. This will be an excellent gathering of warbirds and will include Pays P-51 Mustang, Hurricane, Kittyhawk and maybe a special arrival mystery attraction as well as the T-6 Harvard and some of the resident Fire Bombers. Paul Bennet will also attend with his aerobatic aircraft and the much loved Grumman TBM Avenger and CAC Wirraway.

Also attending is the FW 190 from Albury, New South Wales. This will mark the first time that this impressive German fighter will share the skies with a Hurricane in the Southern hemisphere. Both aircraft are the only airworthy examples of their kind in Australia today and bringing them together will really be something special.

Many other warbird attractions will be attending including a Spitfire and other Mustangs, so it promises to be a must-see event for any dedicated vintage military aviation enthusiast.

WarbirdsNews wishes to thank John Parker very much for his article and images, and we look forwards to more of his updates in the future. We hope our readers feel the same way.
I follow and if you read WtR? You follow the Russian gold reserves. I also follow the Chinese and their buying of gold also. I do not follow the USA gold reserves, because? Well there 99% likely is not any reserves to talk about.

Russian Central Bank Adds a record 223 tons of gold to reserves in 2017. Russian Central Bank Adds 300,000 ounces (9.331 tons) of gold to reserves in December. Since June 2015, the Central Bank of Russia has added over 558 tons of gold to reserves. Decembers 9.331 ton gold addition brings Russias Central Bank holdings  Read More Source: The Central Bank of Russia Added a Record 223 Tons of Gold in 2017  Smaulgld

Until I see positive proof that Fort Knox has real gold and an independent audit from an outside source verifies it, then hogwash is what I say. So I go with who is at least telling a little bit of what they actually buy, produce and store

I do not even think that China and Russia report the amount they really have stored and buy each year. I think it is under reported by a whole bunch. It makes sense, what would you do with your antagonist paper/cloth based non backed dollars that are being shoved down your throat. Buy gold? Buy silver? Buy anything that has usage when no one else has it?

When Russia and China talk about gold, they talk about physical gold and not paper gold. paper gold is worth about as much as paper money. Not much

The chart tells you all you need to know and something I find interesting.comment I found and it says a bunch in a short sentence and question

Time to wake up people

WtR
The nation-wide medical strike ended days after the president threatened legal action against the doctors who continued the strike despite the deal.

The Bolivian government and representatives of Bolivias Medical Association ratified their earlier agreement Tuesday night, putting an end to the 47-day-long medical strike against Presidential Decree 3385, which created the Supervision Authority for the National Health System, and Article 205 of the newly-proposed Penal Code that would sanction professional negligence and medical malpractice.

The deal was announced during a press conference close to midnight by Minister of Government Carlos Romero and the Medical Associations President Anibal Cruz. Romero celebrated the decision to lift the strike calling it an intelligent and reasonable decision.

Bolivias President, Evo Morales, also commended the decision via Twitter saluting "the workers who never stopped" and "those who enabled the end of the strike that caused such harm to thousands of sick people," reiterating his commitment to work for a sensitive, solidary, universal and free health service.

Saludamos a medicos y trabajadores que nunca pararon, tienen vocacion de servicio; y a los que permitieron levantar la huelga politica que tanto dano causo a miles de enfermos. Reiteramos compromiso de trabajar por un servicio de salud sensible, solidario, universal y gratuito.  Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) January 9, 2018

The move comes just days after Morales announced legal actions to restore health services, arguing the measure had affected the poorest Bolivians, violating their constitutional right.

Earlier this month, the Bolivian government and Bolivias Doctors Association agreed to end the nationwide medical strike and protests while the Bolivian government agreed to revoke the controversial articles of the Penal Code. However, doctors and medical professionals didn't re-establish health services leading Morales to lament the attempt of a political and anti-democratic conspiracy.

Morales responded by saying the medical professionals were maintaining the strike as a conspiracy carried out by opposition sectors that are intent on hurting his 2019 presidential bid.

The transport sector also joined the strike as professional drivers temporarily blocked several highways Monday before the police dispersed them using tear gas and restored traffic. The president of Bolivias Senate has invited the transport sector to dialogue to resolve their demands, saying that Article 137, which they oppose, will also be eliminated from the Penal Code.
Local Events

Groundhog Day Celebration



The Benld United Methodist Church will hold their 43rd Ground Hog Day celebration to fight world hunger on Saturday, Jan. 27, at the church. Potluck dinner begins at 6 p.m. with music by On Eagle's Wings Quartet.


Late Saturday afternoon a Tundra Swan was reported from the south end of the East Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. A regional rarity around New York City, Tundra Swans are only regular at Hook Pond in Suffolk County, way out on the eastern end of Long Island. Id only ever had two encounters with Tundra Swans in Queens, one in November of 2006 and a flock of thirty-three, believed to have been forced down by a storm, in November of 2014. I was psyched to see the one that had been reported but first I had to do some other birding on Sunday morning to keep my year list moving along. Once I got my trip out to Breezy Point (four year birds!) and a visit to Big Egg Marsh (one year bird!) done I headed over to Jamaica Bay.

Heading into the south end of the East Pond in winter is much more pleasant than in spring or summer. Ice covers the mudflats and you can step out on it to get a view not obstructed by phragmites. I set my tripod on the ice and scanned through the birds with my binoculars, ducks, ducks, ducks, two Mute Swans, ducks, gulls, gulls, gulls, ducks, two Mute Swans, ducks. No Tundra Swan. Sigh.

Oh well. I put my eye to my scope and started scanning the ducks, picking out a couple drake Northern Pintails and a Hooded Merganser amid the Mallards, Northern Shovelers, and American Black Ducks. Then I started on the gulls and, wait, what? The Tundra Swan was hiding behind them the whole time? Yes!

The Whistling Swan (the American type of Tundra Swan as opposed to the Eurasian Bewicks Swan) is the basic swan. No bells or whistleser, no fancy field marks on this bird.

I watched the swan for awhile, occasionally being distracted by Snow Geese flying over, a Northern Flicker calling from nearby, and other birdy distractions. The swan fed and preened and generally acted like you would expect a swan to act.

I didnt see any of the dabbling ducks dabble. I assume the water was too deep. But both species of swans present had enough neck to reach something to eat on the bottom of the pond.

Then, lucky me, the Tundra Swan got out of the water and onto the ice near a Mute Swan for some nice side-by-side size comparisons.

Mute Swans are larger, heavier, and longer necked. If the Tundra Swan was a Trumpeter Swan (the only other swan it could be) it would have been essentially the same size as the Mute Swan.

Yeah, this is a Tundra Swan.

Not bad for a twenty-minute twitch. I got my bird with a minimum of drama, got to spend some time with it before other birders got out there, and it stuck around for other birders through the end of the day. If only they were all so easy!
Fans of Superstar Mahesh Babu and Stylish Star Allu Arjun and trade circles are waiting with bated breath for the release of Bharath Ane Nenu and Naa Peru Surya Naa Illu Indias release. Both the movies are poised to hit the screens on the same day, April 27.

However, the ongoing buzz is that this epic box-office clash may be averted as there could be a change in the release plans of both the movies eventually. While its still unclear which movie will make the first move and defer its release date, the coming few days will be quite crucial. Stay tuned to 123telugu for more updates on these highly-anticipated movies.









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Jan 22, 2018 | By Tess

An interdisciplinary team of medical and archeological specialists recently collaborated to reconstruct the face of a teenage girl who lived roughly 9,000 years ago. The reconstruction, which relied on 3D scanning and 3D printing technologies, suggests that teens from the period looked quite different to teenagers nowadays.

In 1993, the skull of a girl was uncovered in the Theopetra cave in Greecea location that has provided archaeologists with many insights into how humans lived up to 130,000 years ago. The skull in question is said to date back at least 9,000 years and is believed to have belonged to a girl of about 15 to 18 years of age. (The scientists have named her Avgi, which means Dawn in English.)

Though the skull has not provided many answers as to Avgis lifestyle or the cause of her early death, researchers have put the fossil to good use by recreating what the young woman would have looked like.

The recreation process consisted of a number of steps and required input from various professionals, including an endocrinologist, orthopedist, neurologist, pathologist, and radiologist. Orthondist Manolis Papagrigorakis led the effort in partnership with Oscar Nilsson, a Swedish archeologist and sculptor who specializes in reproducing the faces and facial features of ancient humans.

The first step in revealing Avgis face was to capture a CT scan of the skull. After an in depth analysis of the skull, the researchers were able to estimate the girls skin thickness at varying parts of her face and determine what her features would have looked like. The collaborative team added to the digital skull model gradually, building the face up layer-by-layer.

The Theopetra cave in Greece

During the process, the researchers also uncovered what seemed to be conflicting information about the girls age. While the bones seemed to belong to a girl of about 15 years of age, the teeth suggested that she was slightly older, maybe 18-years-old.

Finally, when the model of Avgis face was complete, the team used a 3D printer to produce a physical copy of the skull. Final elements, such as the girls features, were selected based on what would have been most common in the region at the time.

The resulting 3D printed model reveals some interesting things about what a teenage girl might have looked like 9,000 years ago. Some of Avgis features, such as her heavy brow and large jaw, indicate that people of the time may have had stronger, more masculine features than people nowadays.

Avgi has very unique, not especially female, skull, and features, explained Nilsson. Having reconstructed a lot of Stone Age women and men, I think some facial features seem to have disappeared or smoothed out with time. In general, we look less masculine, both men and women, today.

To contextualize, Avgi was living in a time when humans were just beginning to settle in Greece and were turning increasingly to agriculture rather than foraging for sustenance. This shift in lifestyle could be part of the reason why Avgis features are so different from peoples softer faces today.

The 3D printed reconstructed face was recently presented at the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece.

This is not the first time 3D scanning and 3D printing have been used to reproduce ancient likenesses. Last summer, scientists in Peru used the technology to reconstruct the face of the Lady of Cao, an ancient female leader who lived over 1,700 years ago. 3D printing was also used to reproduce the face of a 2,000-year-old mummy from Ancient Egypt.

Posted in 3D Printing Application

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Kim Cox wrote at 1/24/2018 6:27:06 AM:I thought it was Heath Ledger. !Isaac wrote at 1/23/2018 2:51:41 PM:Ellen Ripley? is that you?Richard wrote at 1/23/2018 12:30:58 PM:My first thought upon seeing this face is that this is a face that could walk down the street almost anywhere in the U.S. and not draw a second glance. Very different? Hardly. The 3D reconstruction is something amazing. Its amazing to see how 3D printing of a scull can be the basis of recreating such a realistic visage.




by Claire Chambers

At a Sheikh Zayed Book Award event in 2017, Marina Warner told the audience that the Arabic root word for water and story is the same. Both nouns, she claimed, relate to the verb 'to transfer', rawin being one way to say 'storyteller', while rawiya is 'to drink one's fill' or 'to be irrigated'. If the link between liquidity and storytelling is less immediately apparent in Urdu and other South Asian languages than it is in Arabic, nonetheless in the eleventh century Somadeva collected together Indian myths as the Katha Sarit Sagara ('Ocean of the Streams of Stories'), suggesting a similar understanding of the link between words and watery worlds.

All this resonates with my new book, Rivers of Ink: Selected Essays, which was published by Oxford University Press last month. I eventually chose Rivers of Ink as my title when I realized how many words I'd written in my journalistic outpourings for this fine blog 3 Quarks Daily, as well as for Dawn and other outlets, over the course of five years. The phrase comes from the Spanish idiom verter rios de tinta meaning to pour rivers of ink, corresponding to the English saying, 'much ink has been spilt'. If even a fraction of the ink cartridges I drained over the last half-decade were in service of equality, anti-racism, and internationalism, or (re)introduced readers to a confident and diverse body of texts, I will be happy.

Coincidentally, Rivers of Ink recalls the titles of two influential subcontinental novels: Qurratulain Hyder's Aag ka darya (River of Fire), which deals, amongst other subjects, with Partition and the post-Second World War South Asian diaspora; and River of Smoke, in which the nineteenth-century Opium Wars enable Amitav Ghosh to impart wisdom on present-day globalization and the political grounds of free trade arguments.

Through my image of a fast-moving body of dark, blackened water  a liquid usually associated with purity, vitality, and the capacity for cleansing  I was also extending a brief but heartfelt nod to two feminist texts. Turkish novelist Elif Shafak's memoir of her postnatal breakdown and her writing life, Black Milk, has meant a great deal to me as a scribbling mother. And, as if in photographic negative, the title of French feminist Helene Cixous's collection White Ink also calls to mind breast milk, suggesting the distinctiveness of women's writing, or what Cixous terms ecriture feminine.

Especially to British readers, the idiom also has troubling, violent connotations in light of Enoch Powell's racist 1968 'Rivers of Blood' speech. Since a crucial section of my book is about the British multicultural context in which racism is sadly still rife forty years after Powell's speech, this title seemed apt.

The book is divided into five sections. The first part, 'Play on Words', comprises four essays on various aspects of contemporary writing, from multicultural adaptations of Shakespeare to representations of journalists in Pakistani fiction. Next comes a section about Pakistan's cities and regions, which benefits from my nationwide explorations during a formative pre-university year teaching English in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa  travels which provided insight into the country's diversity. After that, a grim segment entitled 'Human Rights and Inhuman Wrongs' examines cultural production and human rights abuses, including torture and acid attacks.

The longest part, 'Muslims, Islamophobia, and Racism in Britain' brings together some of the research into these hot topics that I have been conducting for the last 13 years. From the travel writing of women authors who visited Britain in the Edwardian period, via the history of the British curry industry, to Boris Johnson's, Steve Bannon's, and Donald Trump's latest iniquities, this part of the book deals primarily with the view from outside Pakistan. The diasporic outlook matters because migration is perhaps the defining condition of the twenty-first century, despite it regularly being misunderstood and dehumanized. The book's final part scrutinizes education, theory, and the culture industry. It encompasses chapters on the literary theorists and activists Frantz Fanon and Edward W. Said, on the theoretical concepts of postcolonial feminism and 'self' versus 'other', and on literature festivals and higher education from a global perspective.

Overall, I look at a range of authors  emerging as well as established, and working in genres including the novel, short stories, poetry, film, and drama  who write in various languages but most often English. Rivers of Ink makes a case for drawing this writing into the mainstream canon, as well as sounding a clarion call for expansion to understandings of contemporary global literature.

Although we seem to be heading in to murky political waters with Brexit around the corner, the Trump presidency entering its second year, Vladimir Putin's continued sabre-rattling, and Narendra Modi seeming to consolidate his power, I dare to hope that less ink will need spilling in the coming years over basic issues of human rights and social justice.

To end, ouroboros-like, near where we began, here is another Western author talking about Arab culture, Jean Genet:

You can select a particular community other than that of your birth, whereas you are born into a people; this selection is based on an irrational affinity, which is not to say that justice has no role, but this justice and the entire defense of this community take place because of an emotional  perhaps intuitive, sensual  attraction; I am French, but I defend the Palestinians wholeheartedly and automatically. They are in the right because I love them.

In this passage, taken from his essay 'Four Hours in Shatila', Genet proclaims his 'irrational', somewhat solipsistic affiliation with Palestinians. I feel a similar emotional attraction towards Pakistani culture, despite its many problems. I hope that in Rivers of Ink I have managed to articulate the deep affection I hold for the South Asian country and the awe I feel at its impressive literary output.
by Gerald Dworkin

In October, 1961, I was sitting in The Jazz Workshop, a San Francisco nightclub, listening to Lenny Bruce doing his infamous routine Are there any Niggers here tonight?

It begins with asking that question and proceeds to make comments using racial slurs for every racial group he couldkikes, guineas, wops, spics, polacks, sheenies, etc. His point, as he explains in the routine, was to routinize the words, so that they lost their shocking impact and obtained the status, as he says, of "I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth" He was arrested that night not for the racial slurs but for obscenityhis "to is a preposition, come is a verb" routine.

Bruce spent most of his professional life being arrested and prosecuted by the police in various jurisdictionsalways for obscenity. He was convicted in New York State, died during the appeals process, and in 2003 given a posthumous pardon by Governor Pataki.

I was therefore both amused and shocked to see in recent weeks that Bruce was under attack again. This time by some angry students and faculty of Brandeis University. An alumnus of the University had written a play about Bruce and it was scheduled to be performed on campus.

Some members of the theatre department raised objections and felt that more time was needed to produce the play "appropriately" and some students objected that the portrayal of its black characters was "ridiculous and vicious." The playwright decided to take the play elsewhere for its premiere.

This was one of the calmer instances of an attack on expression. In recent months student protests have led to cancellation of speaker talks, to disruption of invited speakers, to violence and destruction on campus. The names of Charles Murray, Milo Yiannopoulos, Ben Shapiro, Ann Coulter, Richard Spencer and the campuses of Evergreen State College, Middlebury, University of Michigan, UC Berkeley, University of Florida, Yale, University of Missouri, are known to many. For a view of what one such protest looks, and sounds, like, click here.

Less well known are impingements on the speech of faculty by their peers and administrations. Faculty at Bard protested Marc Jongen, a PhD in Philosophy, and affiliated with a far-right Nationalist party in Germany, being invited to be a participant in a conference at Bard College. The history faculty of the Federated History Department at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and Rutgers University, Newark called for Jason Jorjani, a humanities lecturer at NJIT with a PhD in philosophy from SUNY Stony Brook, to be fired because of his alleged alt-right sympathies. Lest one think that the attacks on faculty come only from the left a recent article in Inside Higher Education lists Keeanga Yamahtta-Taylor, Johnny Eric Williams, Sarah Bond, Tommy Curry and George Ciccariello-Maher as recent targets of the right's campaign against higher education.

A graduate student teaching a tutorial on language to communications student at Laurier University in Canada was hauled into a meeting with two professors and an administration official and accused of having created a "toxic climate" on campus. Her crime was that in discussing the current debate over gender and pronoun use she had shown a film clip of a debate on the topic between two University of Toronto professors. One of themit was a debate after allwas known as a provocative critic of campus culture and opposed a proposed bill that would protect gender identity from hate speech.

In this case the outrage against the student's treatment was so widespread that both the individual faculty member who brought her to tears and the President of Laurier apologized. When asked what she learned from the incident the student replied: "A university must be repeatedly publicly shamed, internationally, in order to apologize."

Although I think of myself as a "free-speech fanatic", and believe that John Stuart Mill basically got it right, even if he was more confident about the truth winning out in a free debate than he should have been, I do not doubt that there are sometimes legitimate limits to free speech on campus.

There are real costs to allowing speech to those who have mistaken, immoral, and hateful views. And so the argument is always going to be of the form that in spite of such costs we ought to allow the speech in question.

It is agreed by all that certain types of speech are not protected by the First Amendment. In particular as the Supreme Court held in Brandenburg v. Ohio, speech that intentionally and effectively provokes a crowd to immediately carry out violent and unlawful action may legitimately be forbidden. This is quite a high bar to hurdle and many have proposed that it be lowered. In particular students have argued that allowing white- supremacists to spread their views does not merely offend minority students but harms them.

The Supreme Court does make a limited exception for "fighting words." But it is quite limited. Only when speech is directed at a specific individual, face-to-face, and only when the speech is likely to provoke a violent reaction. It does not apply to speakers talking to an audience even if the speech causes offense or emotional pain.

What about the display of symbols of hate such as swastikas? They are also protected if displayed before an audience but not if displayed on private property, or painted on a student's door in order to threaten.

But these, it may be argued, are matters of constitutional law, not morality. Indeed, these laws only control state actions against speech so that while Berkeley cannot ban speakers based on their message, Harvard can. Should it?

The philosopher Jerry Cohen once said after listening to a philosophical talk: I would like to make a distinction here; but cannot think of one. On our topic I can think of many. I believe that the differences between those who support and those who oppose limiting speech because of its content are, in many, but not all cases, due to not distinguishing between different things

1) a) Not inviting a speaker (or dis-inviting her once invited).

b) Protesting a speaker in a manner which prevents the speaker from being heard.

2) a) Invitations to a speaker which are forms of honoring the speaker (commencement).

b) Invitations to a speaker which are intended to allow them to express their views with no endorsement attached.

3) a) Speech which is intended to convey ideas, opinions, views, etc.

b) Speech which is a form of performance intended to attract attention, or publicity for the speaker or speech which is intended to shock by being insulting, hostile, and/or abusive to groups or individuals.

4) a) Speech on a university campus.

b) Speech in other fora, e.g., workplace, town square, private auditoriums, etc.

5) a) Speech conveying factual and theoretical claims, theses, views about which there is (almost) total consensus among the relevant authorities in the field that they are unsupported and false. For example, holocaust or climate deniers.

b) Speech conveying moral or evaluative claims, views about which there is no or incomplete consensus. For example, abortion, capital punishment, assisted-suicide, gay marriage, etc.

6) a) Direct harm, or a call to direct harm addressed to particular individuals who hear the speech.

b) Indirect harm to those not in the audience. E.g., those students in the community who may be harmed because of the increased influence of the message of the speaker.

There is also the bedrock issue of what counts as speech. This will be a central question in the Colorado case of a baker who refused to bake a cake for a gay couple. The case will be heard in the Supreme Court this fall. The current administration has filed a brief on behalf of the baker's right to refuse his baking services on free-speech grounds.

We might be better off thinking about freedom of expression which is broader than freedom of speech. When Gandhi took salt from the sea and consumed it publically he was expressing his defiance of the British tax on salt.

I think that reflecting on each of these distinctions would be useful in thinking better about Free speech and its limits. It is not that the two sides would necessarily resolve their disputes In discussing these distinctions. But it would be helpful in clarifying what the real basis of their dispute is. It would complicate in a useful way the tensions in the debate.

I cannot examine all of these distinctions here but let me illustrate how things might go with respect to distinction 3.

I think there is an important distinction between inviting speakers such as Milo Yiannopoulos on the one hand and Charles Murray on the other. Yiannopoulos does not even claim to have expertise in some area of public policy. To the claim that he is a journalist consider the title of one of his contributions to Breitbart: Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy. Some claim that his defense of pedophilia indicates he has views to propagate. But when some statements he made suggesting he supported pedophilia aroused much outrage he quickly defended them as the "usual blend of British sarcasm, provocation and gallows humour." I do not think that he is a "speaker" in the sense of one who asserts views, and attempts to provide reasons why others should accept them.

Murray is a different storyas is, in my view, the controversial Ben Shapiro. Murray has factual and normative theses he wishes to defend. Murray says that the strongest thesis he defends with respect to genetic differences among races is the following:

"It seems highly likely that both genes and the environment have something to do with racial differences on IQ tests. What might the mix be? We are resolutely agnostic on that issue; as far as we can determine, the evidence does not yet justify an estimate."

Now there is a lot that could be said about thisseemingly innocuousclaim. It presupposes many things which the best science believes is false. But, unless one thinks that a critical discussion of such a view is beyond the pale, there is no case for disrupting his appearance. Which is not to say that no form of protest is legitimate.

There could be a lecture held at the same time which featured speakers who take a critical view of the normative and empirical assumptions and claims made by Murray. Classes in the relevant fields ranging from behavioral genetics to political philosophy could devote class-time to these Issues. Students could stand silently at the back of the room with placards.

There are certainly difficulties in defending the rather crude distinction made here between performance and thesis presentation. And relatively few invitations go to the Yiannopoulosi of this world. Even accepting something like this distinction does not address issues running parallel to it. If we grant rights to student organizations to invite speakers do we interfere with their invitations when they invite a performer rather than a speaker? Given the recent criticism of Larry David's SNL monologue which included jokes about concentration camps, what about inviting a comic whose entire act consisted of jokes about concentration camps, lynchings, and rape?

But what makes a campus a special forum, one in which there must be a very wide latitude for speakers and hearers to debate difficult, unpopular, possibly hurtful views, is an ideal of a university as a group of people devoted to the discovery and propagation of knowledge.

It is true that in many cases speakers are not invited to add to our knowledge of history, or science, or politics. They are there to affect attitudes, allegiances, and to promote future action of one kind of another. They appeal to our emotions, values, and commitments.

Even If one does not think these are matters of truth or falsity it still is the case that many of the arguments for free speech apply. Listening to others who differ from us in values, attitudes, moral commitments, Is necessary if we are to be reasonable in determining what to value, what kinds of person to become, which social policies to support or oppose.

This is not true of slurs, or the kinds of anti-semitic cartoons that were published in Nazi Germany. Insults, slurs, racial caricatures are not necessary , and are indeed counterproductive, to reflecting about how to believe and how to act. Their prohibition may be morally permissible.

They still may be legally unconstitutional as the court held in the case in which a demonstrator wore a "Fuck the Draft" message on his jacket. But this case arose in the context of whether the protester was disturbing the peace. Campuses are in the business of disturbing peace of mind. They should act accordingly.
Oops, we did it again!

On Saturday January 20th, thousands of Bay Area women brought their posses and marched en masse in the second annual Women's March in San Francisco and Oakland, as well as in cities across the U.S. This year's signs sent messages of girl power, peace and unityhere's a look at some of our favorite moments. You go with your bad selves.
The tradition of the much-hyped restaurant opening plays an undeniably important role in the business, drawing customers into a heavily leveraged dining room at a critical juncture. But a restaurant's debut isn't necessarily a defining eventrather, one of a multitude of events in the circuitous path that constitutes the evolution of a restaurateur. Or in the case of the two-and-a-half-year-old restaurant, Lord Stanley, two restaurateurs.



Of equal importance here are three historical facts. 1: When Rupert Blease was 10 years old, his parents emigrated from England to the South of France, exposing their son to a kind of cuisine, and attitudes about food, that he was unlikely to have encountered in Britain in the 1980s and '90s. 2: When Carrie Blease (then Carrie Puffer) was studying at San Francisco State University in the early 2000s, she paid a visit to the California Culinary Academy, and decided her future was in restaurants. 3: In 2004, while learning the ropes of entremets (vegetables and garnish) on the second day of her internship at Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Oxford, Carrie Puffer met Rupert Blease, who, at the time was on fish, which, owing to the structure of the brigade de cuisine, works closely with entremets.



For Carrie, Le Manoir was something of a baptism by fire. "It was my first restaurant job evera crash course in restaurant work. I learned very fast that it's a you-get-it-quickly-or-you're-not-going-to-make-it kind of thing. It's a big kitchen. If someone was struggling, it was apparent that it was hard for everyone." For Rupert, meanwhile, who moved to Oxford with somewhat more work experienceincluding several stages in southern France; and jobs at L'Amphitryon in Toulouse and at Les Fermes de Marie in Megeve in the French AlpsLe Manoir "was awesomean extremely good kitchen. The food was very, very good, all the techniques were very good, and everything was done properly. It was a game changer, to see how good food could be, and how much I had to put into it."



A romance developed as well. "As we spent so many hours working together," Rupert explained, "we got to know each other very quickly." By the end of the following year, said Carrie, "we were obviously going to go somewhere together."



Somewhere turned out to be New York, where they married, and quickly found work: she at Blue Hill; he at Per Se. Then to London, where the pair worked side by side at Texture, the Icelandic chef Agnar Sverrisson's restaurant in Marylebone; and at an upscale nightclub among whose appeals was a relatively leisurely schedule that allowed them time to travel, as well as enjoy the city's attractions, including a pub in Camden Town called The Lord Stanley, which became a ritual haunt. In 2010, the two moved to San Francisco. While Carrie worked at Commonwealth, and Rupert at Central Kitchen, they began laying the groundwork for their own venture: something something refined yet casual, based in classical French cuisine, but incorporating elements from other European traditions, as well as an emphasis (inspired by a culinary tour of Japan) on a kind of elemental simplicity.



When a decades-old Thai restaurant on the corner of Polk and Broadway ended its lease, they made their move, and in June of 2015, opened Lord Stanley, an ode both to Rupert's late father, and to the couple's favorite London pub. Within months, they earned a Michelin star, which they've retained ever since.



On a chilly evening last week, my wife and I found ourselves seated, somewhat appropriately, between a couple from Britain and a French family. With the excitement that sometimes overwhelms a person contemplating an exceptionally enticing buffet, we chose a la carte (which offers four "bites," four starters, four mains and four desserts) rather than the $97 tasting menu, and considered our options while sipping a 2012 Bourgeois-Diaz 3C Cuvee Champagne, an enchanting duet, equal parts lemon and ripening pear. (The restaurant's wine director, Louisa Smith, who merits a story of her own, has won accolades for her work, which focuses on small-production natural wines. Smith is also a winemaker, and bottles under the label Louisa Mary Smith.)



Gougeres seem to be a thing nowwhy it took them so long to become a fad is a bit of a mysterybut I've never enjoyed any quite like Lord Stanley's, which were filled with a Gouda mornay and garnished with piccalilli, a British take on Indian pickles, seasoned in this instance with mustard and turmeric. Previously, I wouldn't have thought to try to improve on a gougere's essential perfection, but the tangy, relishy sweetness of the pickly bits, and their soft crunch, unquestionably added a new dimension of deliciousness. This is to say nothing of the shavings of Piave Vecchio, a hard cow's-milk cheese from the Veneto similar to Parmigiano Reggiano, only more subtle in flavor.



Lord Stanley sits at the intersection of Polk and Broadway, the nexus of the Marina, Russian Hill and Pacific Heights. (Robin Stein)

On the subject of improvements, the Bleases have devised a way to make salt codsomething of an acquired taste, which you will know if you've ever studied the Portuguese bomblet, bolinho de bacalhau, or its Venetian counterpart, baccala frittoappealing to the masses. Their trick: cure the cod in-house, mix it into a Provencale brandade, and serve it in the form of a beignet, fried to a soft crisp in a light sourdough batter.



A fan of fungi, I couldn't resist the idea of trumpet mushroomsgreat, meaty representatives of the species, grilled to a T and served with a sweet-nutty-umami squash-and-miso dip, which played nicely off the pleasingly sour notes of a 2015 "La Corte dei Merli," made from the black-skinned Freisa grape, by the Piedmontese producer, Enio Ferretti.



Then a scallopbig and tender, with a fine, delicate flavorseared to a golden crust, and garnished with sweet, stickily-chewy slivers of candied parsnip and a softly savory buerre blanc and poultry jus. And grilled Berkshire pork ribsin a scrumptious glaze made from pork stock, apple juice, molasses and honey caramelfinished with a bit of salt and lemon juice, and accompanied by a salt-baked apple which, decorated with a tiny flower and an arugula leaf, resembled a confectioner's marzipan folly.



Although we hadn't ordered it, we were more than grateful when the kitchen sent out a dish of cabbage, cooked sous vide with butter and salt, dressed in a sauce of buttermilk (a happy by-product of the restaurant's own cultured butter), and garnished with sea beans (the tender and salty green shoots of the native succulent, Salicornia pacifica), dill, and shavings of cured sea urchin whose flavor somewhat resembled that of dried caramelized onions dipped ever so briefly in the sea.



Figuratively, I could have gone on like this forever, but literally, not, and deferred to the powers that be on the matter of dessert: a Pavlovaan understated dollop of meringue filled with mandarin oranges and citrus jellythe thought of which has been haunting me ever since. Whether it will be there on my next visit, I don't know, as every week, a new dish or two comes along, displacing one or two others. Perhaps the Pavlova will circle back some day, like a small planet.



Lord Stanley isn't the sole locus of evolution. The Bleases are working on another project, which they were hesitant to describe in more detail than to say that it would be "something more casual." As its debut approaches, it will no doubt be accompanied by the usual flurry of hype, which never excites me particularly, as hype has no flavor. But as soon as their new idea should become a reality, I hope to be among the first through its doors. // 2065 Polk Street (Nob Hill), lordstanleysf.com


Namdini Infill Drilling Results Returned

Perth, Jan 22, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Cardinal Resources Limited ( ASX:CDV ) ( TSE:CDV ) ("Cardinal" or "the Company") is pleased to report assay results from its continued infill drilling programme of the Namdini Gold Project in Ghana.Cardinal's Chief Executive Officer / Managing Director, Archie Koimtsidis said:"These results are particularly encouraging as they lie outside the expected starter pit area and continue to confirm the wide and ubiquitous extent of mineralisation at Namdini."Confidence in the continuity and robustness of the Namdini gold resource is increasing with the return of more results from the 9,000m infill drilling programme which began following the release of our September 2017 Mineral Resource update."When completed, we anticipate that results from this current 9,000m programme to lead to an upgrade in the current Mineral Resource in both size and category, which is anticipated to be reported during Q1 2018."Separate to the infill programme at Namdini, we have drill rigs active testing some of our regional exploration licences, and we look forward to providing information from these first pass drill programmes."We are also continuing to advance the Preliminary Economic Assessment which is expected to be reported in Q1 2018."HIGHLIGHTS FROM NAMDINI 9,000m INFILL DRILLING RETURNED TO DATE- 12m at 7.6g/t Au from 343m - NMDD132- 27m at 6.0g/t Au from 231m - NMDD145- 11m at 4.9g/t Au from 184m - NMDD128- 17m at 4.8g/t Au from 368m - NMDD132- 12m at 4.9g/t Au from 394m - NMDD144- 10m at 4.3g/t Au from 447m - NMDD135- 28m at 4.1 g/t Au from 318m - NMDD144- 72m at 3.3 g/t Au from 348m - NMDD135- 65m at 3.0 g/t Au from 189m - NMDD132- 23m at 3.0g/t Au from 147m - NMDD135- 16m at 2.7g/t Au from 431m - NMDD133- 25m at 2.7g/t Au from 190m - NMDD123- 37m at 2.6g/t Au from 254m - NMDD134- 64m at 1.8g/t Au from 415m - NMDD136- 30m at 2.2g/t Au from 100m - NMDD124- 61m at 1.4 g/t Au from 277m - NMDD138- 29m at 2.0g/t Au from 473m - NMDD136- 54m at 1.5 g/t Au from 127m - NMDD145- 26m at 1.7g/t Au from 208m - NMDD137- 130m at 1.0g/t Au from 295m - NMDD150Individual gold intersections are >0.5 g/t Au with no more than 3m of consecutive internal dilution at <0.5 g/t Au. Detailed results of the drill programme are included below and in the attached schedules.DISCUSSION OF RESULTSInfill drilling results have been returned from the comprehensive campaign to continue to add definition to the Namdini Mineral Resource. The infill drill results continue to support strong continuity of the mineralized zones.Assay results are pending from a further nine diamond holes already completed, which will be incorporated into the database that forms the basis for a Mineral Resource upgrade expected in Q1 2018.Figure 1 (see link below) illustrates a plan view of the collar locations of drill holes and a typical interpretive section through the mineralization which is displayed in Figure 2 (see link below). Meta Data for significant intercepts are tabulated in Table 1, Schedule 1 (see link below). Details of all significant intercepts are provided in Table 2, Schedule 1 (see link below).To view tables and figures, please visit:About Cardinal Resources Ltd

Cardinal Resources Ltd (ASX:CDV) (TSE:CDV) (OTCMKTS:CRDNF) is a West African gold exploration and development Company that holds interests in tenements within Ghana, West Africa.

The Company is focused on the development of the Namdini Project with a gold Ore Reserve of 5.1Moz (0.4 Moz Proved and 4.7 Moz Probable) and a soon to be completed Feasibility Study.

Exploration programmes are also underway at the Company's Bolgatanga (Northern Ghana) and Subranum (Southern Ghana) Projects.

Cardinal confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information included in its announcement of the Ore Reserve of 3 April 2019. All material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning this estimate continue to apply and have not materially changed.


High Cobalt & REEs Upgrade Potential at Historic Copper Mine

Adelaide, Jan 22, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Investigator Resources Limited ( ASX:IVR ) is pleased to announce verification of cobalt and the discovery of rare earth element (REE) mineralisation at the 19th century Cartarpo copper-cobalt mine within the Company's new tenement EL 5999 (see Figure 1 in link below).- Shallow grab samples assay up to 1.78% Co & 1.1% Rare Earth Elements- On prospective corridor 20km from Burra copper mine- No evidence of prior drilling- Exploration potential for 10km of covered extensions within IVR tenementThe Cartarpo mine comprises small largely infilled workings scattered along about 400m strike length (see Figure 2 in link below). The mineralisation was recorded as cobaltite and malachite in quartz veins with iron and manganese oxides. About 6 tonnes of high-grade ore were reported to have been mined during 1867 - 1872 with one ore parcel estimated to grade 5% cobalt and 6% copper. The main shaft has been infilled, likely with mullock which is absent on the surface.The Company conducted its first field visit in November to verify the cobalt mineralisation and exploration potential. Sampling of the remaining gossan exposures 200m apart returned strong values of up to 1.78% cobalt and 1.1% combined REEs including heavy REEs, along with copper to 0.5%, nickel to 0.4% and lithium to 0.3% (see Figure 2; Appendix A in link below). The workings were not accessible to determine mined widths or potential haloes.The Cartarpo mine is interpreted by IVR to be situated on a north-west corridor of substantial historic copper and gold mines extending from Burra. During the 1800's, Burra was the largest metals mine in Australia and modern work has identified the copper mineralisation is associated with an intrusive.The metals recognised by IVR at Cartarpo point to a new deposit style in the corridor that is more akin to alkalic or carbonatite/kimberlitic intrusions. Cartarpo is interpreted as coinciding with the intersection of the Burra corridor with the fold nose of a fault-enhanced stratigraphic horizon that hosts other manganiferous cobalt occurrences in the district (see Figure 1 in link below).It is evident the early prospectors located the Cartarpo mineralisation where gullies incised the western side of the soil- and calcrete-covered ridge corresponding with the trend of the workings (see Figure 2 in link below). There is potential for intrusive-related mineralisation under the ridge within the 400m trend of workings and in the surrounding 50km2 area that is interpreted to have a prospective combination of favourable faults and stratigraphy.The only effective prior exploration was a 1989 regional stream sediment survey that returned an anomalous gold sample of 0.8ppb in the north-westerly drainage dispersing from Cartarpo (see Figure 1 in link below). This implies further targets as no gold was detected in the Cartarpo gossans.Investigator considers the potential of the Company's Cartarpo tenement is significantly raised by the verification of high cobalt grades and the new identification of REEs, lithium and nickel at the historic Cartarpo copper mine.Further mapping and geochemical surveys are planned during the current quarter.To view tables and figures, please visit:About Investigator Resources Ltd

Investigator Resources Limited (ASX:IVR) is a metals explorer with a focus on the opportunities for greenfields silver-lead, copper-gold and other metal discoveries in South Australia.

The Company's priority is progressing the development pathway for the Paris silver project with the preparation of a pre-feasibility study. The Paris Mineral Resource Estimate is 9.3Mt @ 139g/t silver and 0.6% lead, comprising 42Moz of contained silver and 55kt of contained lead, at a 50g/t silver cut-off. The resource has been categorised with an Indicated Resource estimate of 4.3Mt @ 163g/t silver and 0.6% lead for 23Moz contained silver and 26kt contained lead, and an Inferred Resource: 5.0Mt @ 119g/t silver and 0.6% lead for 19Moz contained silver and 29kt contained lead.

The Company has applied an innovative strategy that has developed multiple ideas and targets giving Investigator first-mover status. These include: the Paris silver discovery; recognition of other epithermal fields and the associated potential for porphyry copper-gold of Olympic Dam age; extending the ideas developed at Paris-Nankivel and using breakthrough government Magneto-Telluric surveying to rejuvenate targeting with the Maslins IOCG target as the next priority drill target.


Appendix 4C - quarterly

Melbourne, Jan 22, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Australian Securities and Frankfurt Stock Exchange cross listed iSignthis Ltd ( ASX:ISX ) ( FRA:TA8 ), the global leader in RegTech for identity verification and transactional banking/payments, is pleased to provide the following business update and Appendix 4C for the quarter ended 31st December 2017.Highlights:- Total recurring transactions (Tx) for the December quarter outperformed expectations, increasing +153% vs the September quarter:o This outperformance was driven by stronger than expected platform usage from existing customers and the addition of new customers in November and December 2017o The Company expects growth to normalise to more sustainable levels and provides guidance for the March quarter Tx volumes of approximately 30% QoQ- Settlement processing for customers commenced in the quarter, with revenue booked for the first time and initial settlement GTPV values processed by customers are very encouraging.- Unaudited revenue of A$553k for the December quarter, representing an increase of 100% from the September quartero Total unaudited revenue for the 1HFY18 of A$829k- Cash Receipts for the December quarter increased to A$392k- Subsequent to the end of the quarter, iSignthis announced last week that the partnership with Worldline to provide payment settlement services to EU based customers went "live". iSignthis will now move to contract its pipeline of prospective EEA merchants, and seek to onboard them as quickly as possible.To view the full report with tables and figures, please visit:About iSignthis Ltd

iSignthis Ltd (ASX:ISX) (FRA:TA8) is a hybrid monetary financial institution and also a RegTech leader in remote identity verification, payment authentication with deposit taking, transactional banking and payment processing capability. iSignthis provides an end-to-end on-boarding service for merchants, with a unified payment, electronic money and identity service via our Paydentity(TM) and ISXPay(R) solutions.

By converging payments and identity, iSignthis delivers regulatory compliance to an enhanced customer due diligence standard, offering global reach to any of the world's 4.2Bn 'bank verified' card or account holders, that can be remotely on-boarded to meet the Customer Due Diligence requirements of AML regulated merchants in as little as 3 to 5 minutes. Paydentity(TM) has now onboarded and verified more than 1.5m persons to an AML KYC standard.

iSignthis Paydentity(TM) service is the trusted back office solution for regulated entities, allowing merchants to stay ahead of the regulatory curve, and focus on growing their core business. iSignthis' subsidiary, iSignthis eMoney Ltd, trades as ISXPay(R), and is an EEA authorised eMoney Monetary Financial Institution, offering card acquiring in the EEA, and Australia.

ISXPay(R) is a principal member of Mastercard Inc, Diners, Discover, (China) Union Pay International and JCB International, an American Express aggregator, and provides merchants with access to payments via alternative methods including SEPA, Poli Payments, Sofort, PRZ24 and others.

Probanx Solutions Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of iSignthis Ltd, provides API based access to CORE Banking solutions, SEPA Core, SEPA Instant and SEPA business scheme, for neobanks, banks, credit unions and emoney institutions, and provides a bridge to the Eurosystem's Central Bank of Lithuania's CENTROLink service.
BELFAST, Maine (AP)  Police in Maine have accused a man of punching himself in the face three times to avoid a sobriety test.

Police in the town of Belfast say they found 27-year-old Brian Fogg in his car, stuck in a ditch last week.

WGME-TV reports police said when they tried to test for his blood-alcohol level, Fogg punched himself in the face, causing himself to bleed. Police tended to his injuries instead of giving him the test, but later charged him with operating under the influence, falsifying physical evidence and criminal mischief.

Foggs been released on bail. He has an unpublished number and it wasnt immediately known if he had a lawyer.

___

Information from: WGME-TV, http://www.wgme.com
The Supreme Court on Monday asked one of the four death row convicts in the sensational December 16, 2012, gangrape and murder case to file his plea seeking a review of its verdict upholding the death sentence awarded to him soon.

The apex court said it cannot wait for long.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra was informed that one of the four convicts, Akshay Kumar Singh, has not yet filed a plea for the review of the apex courts May 5 verdict delivered last year.

The top court had upheld the death penalty to the four convicts last year, namely, Mukesh (29), Pawan (22), Vinay Sharma (23) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31), saying the brutal, barbaric and diabolic nature of the crime could create a tsunami of shock to destroy a civilised society.

A 23-year-old paramedic student was gang-raped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a moving bus in South Delhi by a gang of six persons and severely assaulted before being thrown out naked.

She succumbed to her injuries on December 29, 2012, at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

During the brief hearing on Monday, the court asked advocate A P Singh, who is representing Akshay and two other convicts, as to why a review petition has not yet been filed on behalf of Akshay.

Singh told the bench, which also comprised Justices R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan, that he has filed review pleas on behalf of convicts Pawan and Vinay Sharma but because of some exigencies in Akshays family, he could not file the same for him.

This matter cannot go on like this. We cannot wait for you to file review petition for long, the bench observed after which the council said he would soon file a review plea.

Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, representing the Delhi Police, also told the bench that much time has gone by since the apex courts May last year verdict.
Former Mumbai police commissioner and now a politician, Satyapal Singh always wanted to become a scientist before he joined the IPS in 1980 and got Maharashtra cadre. After a long time his hidden ambition to be a scientist hit the headlines condemning Charles Darwin theory. The next day all the scientists over-react to personal opinion of a politician; over-reaction gave unnecessary credibility to a view, as a matter of fact many schools managed by conservative religious authorities even in US were teaching Biblical theory of creation in preference to Darwin. Charles Darwins Theory of Evolution is been challenged time and again, but this time it was by a politician who wanted to be a scientist.

Singh was factually wrong in saying that the scientific community has rejected the evolutionary principle. Besides, so much of hullabaloo Satyapal Singh still stand by his statement and not only that he is hell bent on proving Darwinism a myth.

Be it, but what surprises me is the attitude of right-wingers. President Ram Nath Kovind drew a similarity between APJ Abdul Kalam and Narendra Modi, saying while the former President was a space scientist, the Prime Minister is a social scientist. Singhs statement questioning the evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin has been sharply criticised by influential voices from the scientific community, including a former president of INSA (the Indian National Science Academy), the top body of scientists in the country. But no one objected to Kovind for the comparison that he made.

Satyapal Singh has said Darwins theory was scientifically wrong since there are no witnesses to humans evolving from apes and it should be removed from science books. The minister is right. Opposition to Darwin theory has come up in USA decades ago. Thousands of new molecules are invented every year in US. Even Charles Darwin thought his own theory was grievously hypothetical and gave emotional content to his doubts when he said, The eye to this day gives me a cold shudder. To think the eye had evolved by natural selection, Darwin said, Seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree. But he thought of the same about something as simple as a peacocks feather, which, he said, Makes me sick. Of course, anyone who has knowledge of the intricacies of the human eye and other living structures immediately realises the problem Darwin sensed. How could an organ of such an intricate magnificence ever have originated via random chance?

The observation that no religious or historical account ever mentions that man was evolved from ape is not non-scientific and is a valid point. All religions unanimously accept that all mankind came from one man and woman and not evolved from monkeys. A very recent theory even proposes that mankind is aliens to earth and not a result of earthly evolution. Top scientists would do their job better if they keep an open mind.

The controversy is yet to settle with Satyapal Singh, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat said that India has forgotten all enmity against Pakistan but same is not the case with the neighbouring country. Bhagwat said all ancient civilisations such as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa and our culture developed in places which are now in Pakistan. Why didnt Pakistan tell (India) to take another name since everything of Bharat has emerged from here? So we are Bharat and you take any other name. They did not say this and rather wanted to separate from the name Bharat. Because they know that with the name Bharat, Hindutva comes in. And Hindutva is there, so is Bharat.

Moving from science to history and history to fiction and facts, further BJP plans #RashtraRakshaMahayagya for victory in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, PM Modi to give first aahuti in 7-day event, so dont we need to vote? 108 hawan kunds, 2,100 priests and 51,000 attendees will pray for Narendra Modis re-election. What if voters decide not to vote? The recent elections witnessed the strongest-ever polarisation in electoral process.

In addition, BJP is not only re-writing science but they are possibly rewriting every subject that will benefit their agenda. With early references, Jawaharlal Nehru has been deleted from the new social science textbook for Class VIII. There was no longer any mention of who Indias first prime minister was. The rewriting of history textbooks is an old priority of the Hindu nationalist movement. In the 1970s, former Jana Sangh members in the Janata Party and the Morarji Desai government had asked for changes in textbooks. In May 1977, Desai was presented a memorandum that sought the withdrawal of four history books  of which three were intended for use in teaching  from public circulation. The books in question were Medieval India by Romila Thapar, Modern India by Bipan Chandra, Freedom Struggle by A Tripathi, Barun De and Bipan Chandra, and Communalism and the Writing of Indian History by Romila Thapar, Harbans Mukhia and Bipan Chandra. The memorandum criticised these works above all for not condemning forcefully enough certain Muslim rulers  including Aurangzeb  and emphasising that freedom struggle leaders such as Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Aurobindo were partly responsible for the antagonism between Hindus and Muslims. The RSS campaigned separately for the withdrawal of these textbooks (Organiser, July 23, 1978). The attempt failed because sections within the Janata Party opposed the demands in the memorandum.

However, the BJP succeeded in changing parts of textbooks in the state they formed a government in the 1990s. After BJP leader Keshubhai Patel took over as chief minister in 1995, the Gujarat State Board of School Textbooks published a Class IX social studies textbook in which Muslims, Christians and Parsis were presented as foreigners. It was also written that in most of the states, the Hindus are a minority and the Muslims, Christians and Sikhs are in a majority. A Class VIII social studies textbook also included a highly derogatory description of Christian priests: The accumulation of power and wealth in the hands of the priests resulted in a perversion of the religion. Some of the priests became pleasure-loving and badly behaved.

In the early 2000s, another social science textbook for Class X described Adolf Hitler in the following terms: Hitler lent dignity and prestige to the German government within a short time by establishing a strong administrative set up. He created the vast state of Greater Germany. He adopted the policy of opposition towards the Jewish people and advocated the supremacy of the German race.

There is lot more to talk on BJP and its changing behaviour, but we never imagined that one of the leaders of the party will change science too.

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on [email protected])
Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Satyapal Singhs comment pertaining to Charles Darwins Theory of Evolution has evoked sharp reactions from the science fraternity. Singh had claimed that Darwins theory of mans evolution is scientifically wrong and had called for amendments to be made in school and college curriculum. Ever since the BJP government came to power it has been trying to change history. The Class VII History text book had omitted several chapters of Mughals and gave more prominence to Maratha Empire and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. They also went a step further by rewriting history by mentioning the Maharana Pratap had won the battle of Haldighati against Akbars army. From distorting history the government is now trying to tinker with Science. On one hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen to take the development agenda forward and on the other hand his ministers keep on issuing irrelevant statements thereby inviting controversy.

When AV spoke to Dr Vasant B Helavi, Director of The Institute of Science, he said that one cannot say that Darwin theory is completely wrong. He also said, Since it has come from evolution theory hence it cannot be wrong. Some part may not be matching with others but one cannot say that it is incorrect. Darwins theory is based on many proofs. Whatever we have been taught during our school days is not totally wrong.

Why do the ministers of Modi government issue such statements? Are they trying to derive some publicity out of it? Instead of delivering good governance leaders are only trying to divert the mind of people by making controversial comments! Even netizens criticised Satyapal Singh for questioning Darwins theory. Actor Prakash Raj known for making scathing attacks against the Modi government also posted a sarcastic comment on social media.

In a tweet (and a Facebook post) Raj said, our ancestors have not seen ape evolving in to man says minister. But dear sir,..can you deny that we are witnessing..the reverse.man evolving into ape by digging the past and trying to take us back into STONE AGE#justasking.

The three top Science Academies of India in a joint statement said that they wish to state that there is no scientific basis for the ministers statements. According to them there is no scientific dispute about the basic facts of evolution.

On the other hand, Satyapal Singh defended the statements made by him and said, Darwins theory was very hypothetical and he never conducted any experiments. His contemporary Gregor Mendel had conducted the experiments on mouse. After the experiment they concluded that the concept of man having a tail and it vanished with time is not correct. One of the greatest scientists of the world, Albert Einstein had suggested that there are three criteria to judge whether the theory is scientific or not. The first one is simplicity and it has basically two components  it can explain smallest to the grandest i.e. all sides of the nature and it also has economy i.e. nothing is beyond the story and nothing is useless.

He further added, Another renowned scientist also conducted the experiments and tried to produce the analysis and he mentioned that DNA cannot be changed. Evolution from animal to bird or animal to human cannot happen. Darwins theory is wrong because not a single trace of supporting evidence is available. Those who are criticising my statements are propounding an ideology. I think our educational curriculum should also include the other side of Darwins Evolution Theory.
Delhi police on Monday arrested a dreaded terrorist affiliated with banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI)  Indian Mujahideen (IM).

Abdul Subhan Qureshi of SIMI-IM was arrested by the Special Cell of Delhi Police after a brief exchange of fire.

According to police, Qureshi was involved in 2008 serial blasts in Gujarat and was in the national capital to execute a big conspiracy ahead of the Republic Day. He is a software engineer.

The 2008 Gujarat bombings were a series of 21 bomb blasts that hit Ahmedabad, India, on July 26, 2008, within a span of 70 minutes. 56 people were killed and over 200 people were injured.

Abdul Subhan Qureshi is one of the most wanted terrorists in India and has been called Indias Bin Laden. He is suspected to be associated with the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), and is thought to have been responsible for participating in the Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Delhi bombings. He is also a suspect in the 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings.

On 17 September 2008, his family held a press conference in Mumbai.

His mother Zubeda Qureshi claimed that she had not seen her son in seven years and did not think he was involved. She said if he was guilty, he should be hanged.

We know Subhaan is innocent. We want him to come forward and clear his name.
By Kim Rossi



"This email that came through [last night] was different." Dr. Suzanne Humphries.



A vicious death threat email was sent to Dr. Suzanne Humphries from a secure server in Germany that is designed to protect users from tracking. You and I might have been tempted once or twice to anonymously post a nasty comment here or there (well, never here at A of A.) I remember commenting something snarky on an old autism blog a decade ago not realizing that IP addresses were trackable - dopey me! I got caught. That said... We don't seek out specially designed servers to use a version of the dark web. Nor do we threaten torture in technicolor, gleeful detail. That's beyond the pale and into psychopathy.





Dr. Suzanne Humphries is doing the right thing by reading this vile email to the public. Hatred dies in sunshine.



Many of us have been subjected to threats, sometimes veiled as jokes. Remember when one pro-vaxxer joked that Dan and Mark should be "shot?" Ha ha - vaccine pun. I think it was that woman... Lordy I can't even remember her name. She had a popular blog and a son with severe autism name Charlie. Vox something or other?



I had a cartoon removed from Science blogs many years ago, because the tone went beyond a joke. Just two weeks ago, Mark Blaxill and I sat with Dr. Andy Wakefield at an art gallery in Massachusetts. Anyone could have been in the audience. And as much as I love my martial arts, in the rock scissors paper of life, guns from 6 feet away beat kicks and punches every time. I rarely carry my nunchaku in my purse. (Oy!)



I hope Paul Offit, Brian Deer, Orac Gorski, Dorit Rubenstein Reiss, Amy Pisani, Dr. Richard Pan and any and ALL pro-vaccine advocates come out and say "NO," to this violent threat. To ANY violent threat. It's the human thing to do, even if opinions are diametrically opposite.



Please keep Dr. Suzanne, Polly and everyone in our community in your thoughts of safety and care. May archangel Michael wrap all of us in his shield of protection. And as much as Dr. Suzanne says God is her bodyguard, nothing replaces vigilance. And a bodyguard may be a good idea at least short term for her.



If you see something, say something. Trust your alarm bells if they ring in your head.
Reframing Indigeneity: The Case of Assyrians in Northern Mesopotamia

Looking over the IS-controlled Nineveh Plains from Saint Hormizd Monastery, June 2016. ( Daniel Joseph Tower) In June 2014, the so-called Islamic State (IS) gave Christian residents of Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul (ancient Nineveh), an ultimatum: conversion, expulsion, payment of jizya (a tax on non-Muslims), or death. IS marked Christian houses with the Arabic letter nun for na?ara (a Nazarene), and more than 500,000 people were forced to flee the city. Almost simultaneously, the 35 Assyrian villages along the Khabur River in Syria were attacked; many women and children were taken hostage and held for ransom.

Northern Iraq and the Syrian Jezirah are both currently described as Kurdish-controlled or Kurdish-majority regions. True to form, news reports and official statements from politicians and religious figures highlighted the plight of the region's Christians, but characterizations of their ethno-cultural heritage did not include the fact that the majority of them were Assyrians, an autochthonous people who have lived for over two millennia as Eastern Christians, and for thousands of years earlier as players in the rise and fall of the great Mesopotamian empires. The media coverage implied two things. On one hand, these reports did aid the Assyrian community in gaining international sympathy briefly, especially from Western Christians, at least as far as all Christians in the region benefited from the visibility. But on the other, Assyrians were not usually named directly in these reports. Their antiquity and distinctiveness remained invisible, drowned out by the focus on the Arab and Kurdish character of the region.There are three primary reasons for this denial. First, the Kurds continue to command political and popular attention in the region. Their trials and tribulations are real, but they outshine others because of their geopolitical significance--now largely accepted in such spheres as academia, media, culture, and literature. Second, the Kurds are viewed as the major ethnic group in the region without a homeland. Third, additional communities are either lumped into the conversation about the Kurds or are described as religious minority groups, such as Christians or Yezidi. This misunderstanding has important consequences, not only for Assyrians but also for human history. Statuary, wall reliefs, churches, and shrines that have been standing for millennia, artifacts of the Assyrians' ancient past, are also irreplaceable components of world heritage. Before Iraqi forces ousted IS from Mosul last summer, Islamists managed to destroy many Assyrian antiquities. In one video, a spokesperson from the IS media office for the Mosul/Nineveh Province narrates in Arabic the destruction of antiquities dating to the historical period before the prophet Muhammad, or the age of jahiliyyah (ignorance). The forced mass exodus from the city separated Assyrians from the land of their ancestors. In the wake of this destruction, Assyrians have increased their claims to indigenous status, but being separated from their ancestral lands and communities makes international recognition of their case less probable: rights are harder to assert in this context, especially for a transnational people. Moreover, unending conflict in the homeland makes mass displacement and emigration the only means of survival for a transnational ethnic, religious, and cultural minority. Assyrians are not recognized by any constitution or regime in the region as a distinct ethnocultural group, and when they are mentioned, it is only in terms of their sectarian religious identity. But Assyrians face obstacles in their claims of indigeneity that are vastly unlike those of indigenous communities in Western countries. Assyrians' attempts to seek indigenous rights--accommodated under the United Nations Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007)--are rejected due to regional tensions and rivalries. The United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) provides a platform for elevating indigenous voices to the international arena and for highlighting their culture, history, and claims to land. In 2014, the Assyrian Aid Society (AAS) represented Assyrians at the 13th session of the UNPFII. The organization outlined the indigenous heritage of the Assyrian peoples, the necessity for recognition from their host state, and the overall goal of autonomous governance to help preserve Assyrians' culture and history within the Iraqi political system. But the Iraqi response to Assyrian claims to indigenous status--and indeed to all ethno-religious minorities of Iraq who have made such claims--was outright denial.1 What's more, at the 2014 UNPFII session, Assyrians were yet to experience the force of IS attacks on Mosul. Even afterward, when the Yezidi delegation joined forces with the AAS in 2015, the Iraqi position remained unchanged. As has been seen in the past few months with the Kurdish vote for independence, the Iraqi government fears that claims for independence will threaten the nation's stability. Hence, there are officially no indigenous peoples of Iraq. Formal political channels have made Assyrians' position ambiguous at best. This situation finds echoes in the academic realm, where there is little attention to the legitimacy of indigenous claims in the Middle East outside of debate on the Israel/Palestine question. Generally, discourse about indigenous issues works within a European colonial and postcolonial paradigm--that is, case studies of peoples colonized by Europeans dominate the literature, from Native American nations to the Ma'sai of Kenya to the Temuntikans of Costa Rica. Indigenous peoples such as the Assyrians break the mold of the discussion, because the actions of European colonizers form only one part of the group's history. Briefly, Assyrians were colonized by the British and French, as were most other Middle Eastern peoples. They had also experienced colonization in a different context at the hands of Western Catholic and Protestant missionaries, who were unable to make much headway in predominantly Muslim communities. Even earlier, Assyrians had experienced multiple waves of Arab/Islamic colonial conquest. They now live amid a burgeoning Kurdish nationalist project. In other words, colonization is not a solely European-oriented matter. Most of the voices that have addressed indigeneity in the Middle East have arisen from the debate over the Israel/Palestine question.2 In academic circles, the leftist argument for a native-Palestinian narrative squares off against an analysis that supports the Jewish claim to the "land of milk and honey." But leftists often see Israeli subjection of the Palestinian community as Western colonial action, enfolding it into the normative discourse about indigeneity. Similarly, among leftists there is a propensity to see the Palestinians (and interestingly, more recently the Kurds) as victims of oppression but also as heroes--people who actively resist Western colonization. Middle Eastern indigeneity, it seems, doesn't exist without a Western gaze. In this way, limiting the concept of Middle Eastern indigeneity not only fails to acknowledge the many indigenous peoples of the region, it also inadvertently legitimizes their persecution. In the Assyrian case, it may be that few know about them or their case because their movement has refrained from violence. Looking forward, how can Assyrians and other indigenous groups find a place in the Middle East and in their homelands? Recognition and reconciliation require that both parties--the dominant and the indigenous--agree on their roles within the national structure. As long as Middle Eastern states do not recognize Assyrians and other peoples as indigenous, the process cannot commence; first peoples will be unable to negotiate in the political forum as long as their host countries monopolize their rights. The configuration of the current Middle East does not allow for the cathartic opportunity of reconciliation, leaving acts of past aggression, massacre, and even genocide unrecognized and erased from history. Assyrians lack official recognition of their ethnocultural existence in all of the Middle Eastern states containing portions of their homeland: Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. This restricts Assyrians' rights. Without recognition, no case can be made. Due to internal conflict and the continued Western/Eurocentric gaze, the Middle East has been seen as an exceptional case and is thus absent from many discussions of indigeneity. This lacuna brings into question our own scholarly analyses, as well as our very integrity. As scholars, we must extend to the histories of Middle Eastern indigenous peoples the same urgency we bring to more normative cases--of communities resisting European colonization--by accepting that there is more than one historical framework through which to see indigenous peoples. Sargon George Donabed is associate professor of history at Roger Williams University. He is the author of Reforging a Forgotten History: Iraq and the Assyrians in the Twentieth Century. Daniel Joseph Tower is a PhD candidate in the Department of Studies in Religion at the University of Sydney. He is the co-editor of Religious Categories and the Construction of the Indigenous.

Notes 1. The Iraqi delegation's official position is that Iraq does not have an indigenous people; instead, it has various ethno-religious minorities. This position, however, stands in contrast to the definition of "indigenous peoples" set out in the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 2. There has been some discussion of Armenians' claims, including to land in Turkey, but this has been largely a legal response to genocidal acts and mass expulsions, separate from any rubric specifically concerning "indigenous" rights.
https://www.aish.com/ci/s/Revlon-Award-Winner-has-History-of-Anti-Semitism.html

Amani Al-Khatahtbeh endorsed blood libels against Jews and 9/11 truther conspiracies.

Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, founder and editor-in-chief of MuslimGirl  an online magazine where Muslim women talk back to combat misconceptions surrounding Islam  made headlines last week when she turned down an award from multinational beauty giant Revlon because of the companys engagement with Israeli actress Gal Gadot.

I cannot accept this award from Revlon with Gal Gadot as the ambassador, Al-Khatahtbeh announced in a statement on Twitter. Her vocal support of the Israel Defense Forces actions in Palestine goes against MuslimGirls morals and values.

The rejection, of course, is well within Al-Khatahtbehs rights, but its also an invitation to examine precisely what MuslimGirls morals and values truly are. A good place to start may be a piece, published by MuslimGirl in 2016, entitled Israels Organ Harvesting and the UKs BDS Movement.

Written by Yelena, a mysterious doula from San Francisco, the piece is mostly a rehash of professional anti-Semite Alison Weirs riff on the blood-libel  a conspiracy theory in which Israel occupies Palestinian territory in order to murder the locals and loot their body parts. But like all knockoffs, the pieces craftsmanship is poor, so Yelenas version is helpful in that it sheds Weirs usual scrupulosness and directly cites anti-Semites as sources. What sources does Yelena offer to document the ghoulish crimes of which she accuses the Jewish state? These include Irans PressTV and 9/11 Truther Michel Chussodovskys conspiracist web site, GlobalResearch. Both are classic fake news media, distributing anti-Jewish conspiracy theories by the shipping container throughout the Internet. Most troubling, however, is the articles quotation of retired Cal State psychology professor Kevin MacDonald, a darling of far-Right anti-Semites, who couches standard white-supremacist teachings about Jewish white genocide in trappings of evolutionary psychology. Heres what Yelena took from MacDonald: Organized American Jewish lobbying groups and deeply committed Jews in the media are behind the pro-Israel U.S. foreign policy that is leading to war against virtually the entire Arab world.

Of course, even the most scrupulous publications sometime publish regrettable pieces, although its hard to imagine how Al-Khatahtbeh, in her role as editor-in-chief, could let such blatant hate speech see the light of day. And its even harder to absolve Al-Khatahtbeh of responsibility considering that she had also published, in her past capacity as editor of Rutgers Universitys Daily Targum, a piece by a student named Colleen Jolly which complained about the Jewish nature of Hillel and Jewish misuse of money.

Sadly, Al-Khatahtbehs history of bigotry doesnt end there. In a 2012 video, which Al-Khatahtbeh has apparently tried to scrub off of her YouTube account but which remains archived online, she is seen boarding a C Train in Manhattan and delivering a spoken word piece called, This is a Verbal Vendetta. Spitting out angry and vaguely threatening lines like You made us all one face of terror / You created the problems ensuing / And the mask you placed upon us, will be your own undoing, Al-Khatahtbeh soon starts talking about the puppet media and at one points barks out 9/11 was an inside job!

These vile examples of anti-Semitism werent concealed, and took no more than a moderate search online to find. That neither Revlon nor the media covering Al-Khatahtbehs rejection of Gal Gadot bothered doing minimum due diligence to accurately report on Al-Khatahtbehs views and beliefs is deeply troubling.

The implicit assumption here is that honoring a young Muslim woman means embracing stomach-turning extremes of racism, anti-Semitism and conspiratorial lunacy. Luckily, in reality, nothing could be further from the truth. The cultural ignorance and condescension displayed by misguided people who honor outspoken bigots as token representatives of large population groups is both a symptom and a cause of bigotry.

Reprinted with permission from Tablet Magazine.
A traffic safety advocacy group says Alabama has some significant traffic safety laws on the books, but needs more to curb a rising tide of highway fatalities happening nationwide.

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety released its 58-page 2018 Roadmap of State Highway Safety Laws, ranking all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Alabama was one of 31 states receiving a "yellow" rating, indicating that improvement is needed because of gaps in the advocacy group's recommended optimal laws.

Only six states and the District of Columbia received "green" ratings, meaning their laws had significant effects on traffic safety. 13 states got the "red" rating, meaning they are dangerously behind.

Catherine Chase, the group's president, said stronger laws are needed to safeguard teen drivers and reduce the deadly consequences of alcohol impairment and distraction.

"It is time for state elected officials to take leadership roles in pushing enactment of laws that protect every occupant on every ride in every seating position," she said.

Alabama has about half of the 16 laws the group is pushing for nationally. The state's rating is based on its passage last year of an upgrade to its graduated driver's license laws, which include restrictions on the number of passengers allowed in the vehicle with 16 and 17-year-olds.

According to the group, Alabama needs laws mandating rear facing booster seats through the age of two, a minimum age of 16 on its learner's permit, stronger supervised driving requirements and nighttime restrictions on younger drivers, and restrictions on using cellphones until 18 while driving.

The Advocates say the laws they seek nationally address distracted and impaired driving, teen driving, seat belts, motorcycle helmets and child safety seats.

According to the report, Alabama has seen more than 9,000 people die over the last decade due to motor vehicle crashes, resulting in an annual economic cost to the state of $4.4 billion. In putting together its report, the Advocates relied on national traffic safety statistics, advocacy groups and academic sources. According to ALEA, troopers investigated 598 traffic deaths in 2017, 73 fewer than 2016's 671 traffic deaths.

Nationally, highway fatalities went up 8.4 percent in 2015 and another 5.6 percent in 2016.
Historic Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham

Twenty African-American heritage sites in Birmingham, Montgomery, Selma and Greensboro were named to the 2018 World Monuments Watch List.

The designation is an "unprecedented commitment to save 20 churches, hotels, schools and homes that were places of inspiration, shelter and comfort in Alabama," said Birmingham Civil Rights Institute President Andrea Taylor. Some of the sites date back to the Reconstruction era and the Civil Rights Movement.

BCRI nominated the sites to the watch list, which helps preserve sites of social conscience and architecture and historical importance, a year ago, she said. Following the nomination, the groups came together to form the Alabama African-American Civil Rights Heritage Sites Consortium.

The Alabama sites are among 25 cultural heritage sites -- that present compelling conservation opportunities or face daunting threats, such as human conflict, natural disaster and rapid urbanization --included on the 2018 Watch List.

"The Alabama Civil Rights Sites Consortium embodies World Monuments Fund's efforts to support conservation work that can drive positive social change for communities around the world," said Joshua David, president and CEO of World Monuments Fund. "The churches, homes, and meeting places we have recognized represent our best and most treasured human values. We aim to celebrate and share these inspiring stories of courage and resolve, paving the way for a sustained legacy of action and social justice."

Taylor said the listed Alabama sites are in danger of being destroyed due to neglect or development. The designation doesn't come with funding, but it makes the sites more visible, she said.

The BCRI will work to seek donors on behalf of the consortium, Taylor said.

The No. 1 priority of the consortium is to record oral histories to preserve the stories of those who lived during the Civil Right Movement and significant points of history, she said.

Priscilla Cooper, director of the consortium, said the next steps will be to document all of the sites, collect oral histories, build a web presence for sites that don't have one and get young people involved in the process.

An exhibition of the sites on the watch list could be added to the BCRI or at other locations in the state.

Many of the sites are already included in the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument and Civil Rights Trail.

Alabama sites included on the 2018 World Monuments Watch List are:

Birmingham

1. Old Sardis Baptist Church

2. Sixteenth Street Baptist Church

3. Historic Bethel Baptist Church

4. St. Paul United Methodist Church

5. The Ballard House

Selma and Black Belt

6. Brown Chapel AME Church

7. First (Colored) Baptist Church

8. Jackson Family Home

9. Tabernacle Baptist Church - Selma

10. Jackson Family/SNCC Compound - White Hall

11. Safe House Black History Museum - Greensboro

Montgomery

12. Ben Moore Hotel

13. Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church

14. Dexter Avenue King Parsonage

15. First Baptist Church

16. Dr. Richard Harris House

17. Jackson Community House and Museum

18. Mt. Zion AME Zion Church

19. Old Ship AME Zion Church

20. United (formerly Trinity) Lutheran Church Parsonage

Representatives from many of the heritage sites were in attendance at a Monday press conference at the Historic Bethel Baptist Church to announce the 2018 watch list and consortium.

The Rev. Thomas Wilder of Historic Bethel Baptist Church said he hoped the church's inclusion on the watch list will bring more exposure and needed funds for the historic church.

"We believe this is one of the most sacred places in the world," he said, of the church which was pastored by the Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth and bombed three times during the Civil Rights Movement.

Wilder said the 92-year-old church building needs funds for maintenance and upkeep, including the installation of new lighting, fencing and security cameras.

Project consultant Georgette Norman told attendees that the new consortium is about allowing the historic sits to tell their stories. She asked the representatives to think about the stories they want to tell about their church or historic site.

"Now it is time to take our stories back," she said.
Though remains found last year by loggers in Tuscaloosa County have been long believed to be those of 82-year-old Emmett Kyzer, authorities on Monday said that has now been officially confirmed.

The Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences on Monday formally identified the skeletal remains found on March 28th, 2017 as those of Kyzer, who disappeared from his home in June 2016. Tuscaloosa County Metro Homicide Capt. Kip Hart said witnesses and evidence show that Kyzer was beaten and stabbed at his home before being dumped at the Ed Stephens Road location where his remains were later found.

The announcement comes just one day after authorities announced an arrest in the case. Investigators on Sunday charged Clifford Sinclair Madison, 53, with murder. He remains in the Tuscaloosa County Jail with bond set at $150,000.

Authorities have not released a motive in the slaying, but said the killing followed an argument between the two. More arrests are unlikely, but investigators said they're not ruling out the possibility.

Kyzer was last seen June 26, 2016, at his home on Keenes Mill Road. Law enforcement officials initially were called in by family members after a welfare check on Kyzer, who had not been able to contact him for at least two days.

Family members made entry into his home, and Kyzer was not there. His vehicles were on the scene, as was his wheelchair and authorities said he didn't get around well without it. Kyzer's family on Sunday said Madison had previously stayed at Kyzer's home.

The remains were discovered March 28, 2018. The Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office responded about 1:30 p.m. thatTuesday to the area of Ed Stephens Road and Progress Drive after members of a logging crew found what they believed to be a human bone.

Investigators responded and worked through the night processing the scene. They found several other pieces of human remains, Hart said. With the help of a local anthropologist and his team, the remains were confirmed to be human.

The remains were sent to Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for examination and identification.

Tracking dogs and helicopters were used in multiple searches for Kyzer. The Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office and the Sheriff's Office Posse - a group of trained searchers - scoured the area near Kyzer's home and multiple other remote areas before his remains were discovered.

Court records show Madison has previous arrests for domestic violence and felony DUI. He is currently awaiting trial on a first-degree theft of property charge after being indicted last year. In that case, he is accused of stealing a generator and air compressor.

Two years prior to his disappearance, Kyzer was seriously injured during a robbery which caused him to use the wheelchair and mostly stay close to home. A man was arrested in that case, and is not a suspect in this case.

Family members posted this statement regarding Madison's arrest on the Facebook page Missing Emmett Kyzer: "On behalf of myself and my family, I want to give our gratitude to everyone who has stood behind us since our nightmare with Emmett began on June 28, 2016. There are so many friends, acquaintances and even strangers that have shown care and concern since day one. I've never prayed harder for anything in my life as I have for closure with this situation. Today we finally have some closure! Clifford Sinclair Madison, who was staying at Emmett's home 2 weeks prior to his disappearance has been charged with murder. I do not have a lot of the details at this time. I can't even find the right words or enough words to give thanks to Marcus Bell with Tuscaloosa County Sheriffs Office. He has been the lead investigator on Emmett's case. He has maintained constant contact with me throughout this ordeal and he never gave up. He told me when this started that he would solve this and holding onto his word is what got me thru many days. From the bottom of my heart Marcus, THANK YOU!! Most of all, I am praising God because I know without him, this would not be possible. I will try to keep everyone informed on where we go from here. Thank you all so much!"
A Fultondale woman is charged with a felony crime after authorities say she used thousands of dollars from the school PTA fund to shop and pamper herself.

The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office on Monday announced the arrest of 26-year-old Mary Katherine Humphreys. Chief Deputy Randy Christian said Humphreys was the PTA treasurer for Fultondale Elementary School when the money disappeared. She is no longer in that position.

Investigators were notified about the possible wrongdoing in November 2017. A sheriff's school resource deputy was summoned to the school office on a report of suspicious transactions on the PTA account, Christian said.

It was reported that a PTA board member had retrieved the mail from the PTA post office box and discovered the bank statement was unusually large. A review of the account in detail revealed several suspicious transactions involving the debit card for the PTA account.

Christian said the board member reported the suspicious activity to the PTA board president and the school principal. They checked the school safe, and found the account's debit card was missing. That's when they called Humphreys, the treasurer, to the school.

Once she arrived, officials showed the charges to her and she admitted to taking the money. At that point, she promised to pay back the money.

Sheriff's detectives were assigned to investigate the theft. The investigation revealed that Humphreys had been using the debit card to make unauthorized purchases and cash withdrawals since September 2017. The total dollar amount taken from the PTA account was more than $10,000. The money was used to pay personal bills and purchase of jewelry, manicures, and online shopping items.

On January 18, detectives presented the case to the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office and obtained an arrest warrant charging Humphreys with first-degree theft of property. She surrendered to the Jefferson County Jail on Friday, Jan. 19, and was released on $5,000 bond pending court proceedings.

"I guess the temptation was just too much for her to overcome. I'm sure this funding is supposed to be used for student needs,'' Christian said. "What a shame anyone would steal from these kids simply to enhance their lifestyle with the really important stuff like jewelry and manicures. That's about as selfish as it gets."

Updated at 10:35 a.m. to correct information initially provided by the sheriff's office. Humphreys was the PTA treasurer at the elementary school, not the high school.
The nation's highest court has denied to review the cases of two men on Alabama's death row.

Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court released its weekly list of orders. On today's list, the court announced they have denied a writ of certiorari (or a request to review the case) to both Michael Brandon Kelley and Mohammad Sharifi.

Kelley was convicted in St. Clair County on two counts of capital murder and one count of sexual torture. He has been on death row since 2010.

Kelley was 29 at the time he was convicted of killing 23-year-old Emily Lynn Milling, whose body was found off River Road in Leeds in November 2008. Witnesses testified at Kelley's trial that Milling had been choked and beaten to death.

Sharifi has been on death row since 2005. He was convicted in Madison County for the 1999 shooting deaths of his ex-wife, Sarah Sharifi, and her friend, Derrick Brown. Sharifi is Iranian, but was living in Huntsville on a visa at the time.

Before a Rule 32 hearing in 2014 regarding his trial, Sharifi sent at least five letters to the judge. One was headed, "Urgent, with pure facts and no legal arguments" and states that he was in Los Angeles when he heard about the killings, which devastated him.

The letter stated the judge had just two choices: One to honor her responsibilities, uphold the law, and drop all the charges against him; and the other to disobey the law and follow in the footsteps of the forces aligned against him.
A 68-year-old St. Clair County school bus driver was arrested following a two-vehicle crash with young children aboard.

Ragland police Chief James Bubba Brown said Linda Bice was taken into custody Friday morning. The chief said she is charged with driving under the influence of a prescribed drug.

The crash happened shortly after 7 a.m. on Denas Cove Road. Brown said Bice reportedly sideswiped one vehicle. A witness spotted the erratic driving, followed her and called 911.

There were several elementary school children on the bus at the time, but they weren't injured. Bice was taken into custody by Alabama State Troopers, and then taken to a hospital for the require drug-testing procedures. Brown said he did not know what medication Bice was taking.

Following the testing, she was booked into the St. Clair County Jail with bond set at $500, and released a short time later. She is on leave with pay pending the ongoing investigation for the misdemeanor charge.

Brown said the entire incident is heartbreaking. "It's unfortunate. She is very well-liked in our community,'' he said. "But the safety of our kids come first, and it's not going to hinder us from doing our job."
Authorities have released the name of a Georgia man killed Friday in a rush-hour crash between two 18-wheelers on Interstate 459 in Bessemer.

The Jefferson County Coroner's Office on Monday identified the victim as Justin Lee Wheeler. He was 28, and lived in Douglasville.

The wreck happened about 7:15 a.m. on I-459 north at the Eastern Valley Road exit. Bessemer police Lt. Christian Clemons it appears traffic was slowing down from an earlier vehicle fire when one 18-wheeler began to brake or stop because of that. Wheeler, the driver of a second tractor-trailer, apparently didn't notice that was happening and crashed into the back of the first 18-wheeler.

The force of the impact crushed the cab of the second 18-wheeler. Wheeler was pronounced dead on the scene.
A 22-year-old Alabama woman is believed to be endangered since she went missing at Christmas, authorities said.

Jaclyn Rae Gilbert (Vaughn) is described as 5 feet 3 inches and about 100 pounds. She has blue eyes and may have red or auburn hair, according to the Jackson County Sheriff's Office.

Gilbert last was seen in Bridgeport on Christmas, the sheriff said. She hasn't been in contact with family or friends since that evening nearly a month ago. A sheriff's office spokeswoman said Gilbert has a history of disappearing for periods of time.

"Jaclyn has medical/mental issues and did not take her meds or have access to them," the sheriff said in a public statement on social media. "She is considered endangered due to her history of medical and addiction issues."

Anyone with information is asked to call the Jackson County Sheriff's Office or Lt. Tracy Holman at 256-574-2610.
Carol Robinson | crobinson@al.com

Kathleen Dawn West, 42, was found dead around 5 a.m. January 13 in the 100 block of Green Wood Circle in Calera. The case is being treated as a homicide but the cause of death has not been revealed and no arrests have been made.

West, a wife and mother found partially-nude and dead outside of her home, ran a subscription-only website where she went by the name Kitty Kat West.

Family members have not responded to requests for interviews, and these words from her mother, Nancy Martin, is thus far the only first public statement from West's family:

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Carol Robinson | crobinson@al.com

"It seems so impossible for the extreme sadness and grief we feel as the loss of our beautiful daughter Kat to ever diminish or decease however, the Lord is our hope and our salvation, and he can turn our mourning into comfort. God wants to encourage us and relieve our suffering if we will just go to him at all times. And his word is powerful enough to bring healing and solace even during our darkest hours.

My family asks for your prayers and support in our time of loss. My beautiful daughter Kat was not just my daughter but a cherished wife to Jeff, as well as a loving mother to their daughter. So much negativity is out there, but with God all I see and hear is the goodness of my Kat. My family and I ask for help in the services to lay our daughter to rest with the good Lord, to where she will be guiding her daughter and husband through this. If you're not able to make a donation we ask for prayers."

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Carol Robinson | crobinson@al.com

Calera Police Chief Sean Lemley the day of West's death said the case is being treated as a homicide but has not revealed the cause of death, citing the ongoing investigation. No one is in custody. Three days later, Lemley declined to answer additional questions from AL.com. Nine days after the death, the department said Lemley will no longer take media questions on the case.

Neighbors said they are baffled as to what is going on in the case. Police investigators spent most of that Saturday (Jan. 13, 2018) at West's home and have worked around the clock since then.

West and her husband Jeff West, an unsworn Birmingham Southern College campus police officer, kept to themselves, neighbors said. They lived at the home, which they built in 2015, with their 12-year-old daughter.

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Carol Robinson | crobinson@al.com

West touted herself on social media as a stay-at-home mom but also had a subscription-only website, where she went by the name Kitty Kat West. Her Twitter and Instagram accounts, also under the name of Kitty Kat West, featured revealing photos of West, and directed viewers to her paid adult website, which cost $15.99 per subscription.

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Carol Robinson | crobinson@al.com

Her husband and parents have not responded to requests for interviews. Two private Facebook page groups were launched almost immediately and are devoted to theories about West's killing. Now with thousands of members - many from out of state - those theories are as expansive as the membership of the groups.

Neighbors said they didn't hear any commotion Friday night or Saturday morning at the West home. One man, who asked that his name not be used, said his daughter made the gruesome discovery when she was heading to work.

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Carol Robinson | crobinson@al.com

She saw the woman in the roadway and went back home to get her father. He said West was face down, partially in the street and partially in the grass of the across-the-street neighbor's yard. He touched her back to see if she was breathing, and she was not, he said.

The witness said West was wearing only a sports bra, and that she was bleeding from the head. A cell phone was nearby and a green liquor bottle was on top of it, as if it had been placed there, he said. West's husband was briefly on the scene, and then neighbors called 911. Police have not confirmed that account.

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Carol Robinson | crobinson@al.com

The slaying shocked the normally-tranquil neighborhood, the community and beyond. Calera is a city with few violent crimes, and averages only about one homicide a year.

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Carol Robinson | crobinson@al.com

Friends and family have been tight-lipped on Kat West's death. She was a member of a Facebook group called The Cougar Club, which emphasized that it is not a dating site, but rather a place to "spread the word that a Cougar is a beautiful, intelligent, classy older woman who men of all ages find attractive."

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Carol Robinson | crobinson@al.com

The administrator for that page declined a request for an interview but sent AL.com this statement: "We're heartbroken to hear that such a beautiful, sweet young woman had her life ended so suddenly. Although we never spoke with her, any correspondence with her was always pleasant and professional. We will miss her and pray for her family and friends."

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Carol Robinson | crobinson@al.com

Private memorial held

A private funeral was held for Kat West on January 22, 2018.

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Kat seen in liquor store video

West was in a liquor store just eight hours before her body was discovered, according to video shown Jan. 25 by Inside Edition.

The television news magazine obtained surveillance footage from R & R Wine and Liquor in Calera, and reported that 42-year-old Kathleen Dawn "Kat" West, along with an unidentified man, bought a bottle of Lucid Absinth and a bottle of Jameson Irish Whiskey. The video shows her laughing and, at one point, getting a pat on her bottom from the man.

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Carol Robinson | crobinson@al.com

Calera police provides update

Nearly a month after West was found dead, Calera Police Chief Sean Lemley provided AL.com with an update on the investigation.

"We are continuing to actively work this case and we are making progress,'' Calera Police Chief Lemley said on Feb. 8, 2018.

Lemley said it's important to the integrity of the investigation and their primary objective - an arrest and conviction - to withhold their evidence until the appropriate time. "Ultimately, it's not about me providing information to the community or the media but about catching criminals,'' he said. "We have an objective and we're going to remain professional. How do I lay it all out there without hurting the case?"

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Jeremy Gray | jgray@al.com

Jeff West arrested

After more than a month-long investigation, authorities charged 44-year-old William "Jeff" West with murder on Feb. 22, 2018. Chief Sean Lemley said a press conference will be held at 11 a.m.

West was taken into custody Thursday morning, reportedly outside his home. He was being transported to the Shelby County Jail as of 9 a.m.

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Kitty Kat Wests husband Jeff West arrested in her murder: Authorities in Calera are holding a press conference to discuss the arrest of William Jeff West in the murder of his wife, Kat West, 42. More in the pinned link below: Posted by al.com on Thursday, February 22, 2018

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Lucid Absinthe bottle was the murder weapon

West was hit in the head and killed with a liquor bottle, according to court records made public Friday Feb. 23, 2018.

The arrest warrant charging William "Jeff" West with his wife's murder said Kathleen Dawn "Kat" West was killed with a bottle of Lucid Absinthe. Jeff West, 44, was arrested Thursday after the warrant was issued on Wednesday. He remains in the Shelby County Jail with bond set at $500,000.

The warrant states Jeff West did, "with the intent to cause the death of another person...caused the death of Kathleen Dawn West." Police said she died from blunt force trauma to the head, but did not say whether the deadly assault happened inside of the home, or outside on the street where her body was found.

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(file photo)

A double life?

Jeff West's attorney, John Robbins, on Feb. 25, 2018 filed a motion to reduce bond for his client. According to that motion, Jeff West's bond is excessive and he has no possible way of making it.

Robbins told AL.com they will be looking into Kat West's "double life," among other things, to see how her "other" lifestyle is connected to her death.

"Jeff loved his wife and his daughter,'' Robbins said. "He was fully aware of his wife's online activities and he was not jealous or angry over her 'Kitty Kat West' personality."
A north Alabama judge ruled today that "Nosey" the elephant's future is in the hands of a local animal control officer -- not the owners who are accused of cruelty and neglect.

Nosey is a 35-year-old African elephant who was seized by Lawrence County Animal Control in November. Since then, Nosey has been living with other elephants at a sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee, about 90 miles of Moulton, Alabama. Elephants can live to be 60 or older.

The elephant's owners Hugo and Francizka Liebel are scheduled to appear in district court for a hearing Feb. 8. The Liebels are charged with animal cruelty and accused of neglecting Nosey. Court records allege the elephant had an "inadequate food supply" and showed "signs of stress." The national People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals organization has said the elephant was tightly chained and forced to stand in her own bodily waste.

A federal inspection of Nosey in Cullman late last year found "thickened areas of dead skin" on the elephant that "does not provide for the health, welfare and well-being" of Nosey. But Hugo Liebel said he was bathing her regularly and following a prescribed health regimen. Liebel's family has denied mistreating Nosey.

Nosey was seized from Liebel's small traveling circus after complaints about the animal's condition, according to Kimberly Carpenter, the animal control officer who led the investigation.

Lawrence County District Judge Angela Terry today ruled Carpenter will maintain custody of Nosey and make decisions about the animal's treatment and placement.

"Compassionate people the world over can breathe a sigh of relief with today's ruling that Nosey the elephant will not return to the people who left her chained and swaying back and forth in her own waste with urinary tract, skin, and roundworm infections as well as painful osteoarthritis and signs of dehydration and malnutrition," PETA's Rachel Mathews said in a news release. Mathews is the PETA Foundation Associate Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement.

"PETA thanks local authorities for initiating this course of events and everyone who worked to keep Nosey away from the man who used chains and intimidation in order to force her to give rides for decades," Mathews statement continues. "As she finally experiences the benefits of a sanctuary, beleaguered Hugo Liebel is facing cruelty charges and the realization that there's no room for animal abusers in a civilized society."

Animal Control Officer Retains Custody of Nosey the Elephant by Ashley Remkus on Scribd
The 2018 government shutdown could prove to be short-lived.

Senators have passed a continuing resolution that funds the government through Feb. 8. The measure also includes a six-year extension of the Children's Health Insurance Program.

The Senate measure now goes to the House, where it needs only a simple majority. From there, it will go to the president's desk for his signature. Once done, the government could reopen as soon as today.

Alabama Senators, Republican Richard Shelby and Democrat Doug Jones, voted in favor of the motion. Jones was one of only five Democrats to support the earlier versions of the funding plan.

Jones, who took office in December 2017, praised the bipartisan work that went into the deal.

"With more moderates in the Senate today than in recent memory, it's no surprise that together we were able to rise above partisan politics and find consensus," Jones said. "I am hopeful that the relationships and trust we have built together in recent days will translate to more progress in the future."

He said the deal is far from perfect, however.

"Make no mistake: there's still plenty of work to be done. This bill is not a perfect solution. It fails to provide a lifeline for health care access in rural communities, does not fully address the opioid epidemic or the looming crisis with pensions, does not protect DREAMers, and does not fully fund our military."

The vote comes after an impasse over immigration shut down many government offices and services as of midnight Saturday. The late-night Friday shutdown resulted in the furlough of hundreds of thousands of federal employees and the closure or partial closure of parks, agencies and other government operations.

If the shutdown had continued, essential federal employees and uniformed military personnel would have remained on the job but would not have been paid until the shutdown ended.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a move towards Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, said the Upper Chamber would discuss legislation to protect some 800,000 young immigrants from deportation before the February deadline. Democrats had blocked funding votes over the Trump administration plan to deport Dreamers, young immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Schumer called on McConnell to abide by the agreement reached by a bipartisan committee working to hammer out a DACA/budget deal.

"While this procedure will not satisfy everyone on both sides, it is a way forward. It is a good solution," Schumer said.
Mutasim Ali was hopeful as the Jewish diaspora was sympathetic to the Sudanese cause, but he has seen racism in Israel.

Indefinite imprisonment or a one-way ticket.

These were the options Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered to African refugees and migrants in Israel earlier in January.

Describing the 40,000-strong community as infiltrators, Netanyahu said they had to cooperate with us and leave voluntarily, respectably, humanely and legally, or we will have to use other tools at our disposal, which are also according to the law.

The bid to remove African refugees  mostly Sudanese and Eritreans  is not new.

Those who have made their way across the Israeli border irregularly have for years faced discrimination, exclusion and imprisonment.

But the decision to offer imprisonment or relocation to a third country, presumably Rwanda or Uganda  though both countries deny having an agreement with Israel  has outraged human rights groups and the United Nations.

In the latest chapter of its long-standing quest to dodge its refugee protection duties, Israel is threatening to lock up thousands of asylum seekers who refuse to leave, said Gerry Simpson, associate refugee director at Human Rights Watch, on Monday. Instead of jailing them, Israel should fairly identify and protect refugees among them.

Despite being party to the 1951 UNHCR Refugee Convention, acquiring refugee status in Israel is close to impossible. Only 200 people have been given refugee status since 1948; the African Refugee Development Center says Israel recognises fewer than one percent of refugee claims.

Thousands have languished in jails as Israeli policy looked to preserve the Jewish nature of the state.

Mutasim Ali says the Jewish diaspora supported Sudans refugees, which motivated him to flee to Israel [Courtesy of Mutasim Ali]

In 2016, 30-year-old Mutasim Ali became the first Sudanese to be granted refugee status in Israel.

Born in Darfur, Ali fled Khartoum then travelled to Egypt and later to Israel, where he faced racism and alienation.

The African community, he says, is horrified with the relocation plan.

He told Al Jazeera his story.

On Israels decision to relocate Africans

It is horrifying. It is a shame that the Israeli government is doing this. When you have politicians who all rally and label us as infiltrators, thats really dehumanising. Attacks are happening all the time. Theres no justification for it.

I am not in a position to talk about the treatment of Palestinians, that would be unwise for me to do so. But now is the time for Israelis to decide how they want their society to look like.

The plan is to deport African asylum seekers to Rwanda and Uganda, but I believe many people will rather go to Saharonim (a prison near the Egyptian border) because they have nowhere to go. The community is so desperate and lost faith and spirits are down.

On being the first Sudanese with refugee status

Refugee status gives me temporary residency and the same rights as an Israeli citizen, except I cant vote for the national parliament. I dont want to do that anyway.

In Israel, there is racism and mistreatment and humiliation.

I understand when people decide to leave Israel to go nowhere because they are tired of whats happening. I was the first Sudanese to receive refugee status. The Ministry of Interior says there there is one more, but we dont know who it is.

On escaping Darfur

My village Dabba-naira in Northern Darfur was attacked in 2003 and then destroyed in 2005. I was there during the first attack, aged just 16. The Janjaweed militia came on horses and camels. People were murdered.

My family and I ended up displaced; we were separated and they ended up in an IDP camp in North Darfur. I searched for an alternative and walked on my own to the south, through different cities. I took a train to Khartoum. The journey took 15 days. There was no way to communicate with my parents, there were no phone calls at that time.

I was in Khartoum from 2003 to the beginning of 2009. I went to the Omdurman Islamic University and engaged with political activism on campus. A few of us there started to rally and were labelled as rebel groups supporting the revolutionary movements in Khartoum.

For that reason, we were threatened and followed by the security services. I was also imprisoned several times. As it became more dangerous, I decided it was time to leave. And I went to Egypt. The problem with Egypt is that they have diplomatic relations with Sudan, so this was not the safest place to be.

On racism in Egypt

I wasnt persecuted in Egypt, but I felt continuously under threat. Sudanese security would let it be known that they were watching us. There was a lot of racism as well in Egypt. There is racism in Egypt and Jordan. No one is there for you.

Egypt is not a place to host or protect genocide survivors, because it itself committed these crimes.

Mutassim Ali

I didnt want to go anywhere that had diplomatic relations with Sudan such as Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. I decided on Israel for two reasons.

The first reason  there were no diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Second, when the genocide began in Darfur in 2003 and there was bloodshed every day, [Sudan] was supported by China and the Arab League Countries  despite them being mostly Muslim and sharing a language.

In the eyes of those countries we are not even Muslim, so they were supporting the government in those actions by giving money or indirectly through the Arab League.

On moving to Israel

The only people standing with us at that time were the Jewish diaspora from America. They launched campaigns such as Save Darfur.

An African migrant holds an Israeli flag after being released from Holot detention centre in Israels southern Negev desert August 25, 2015 [Amir Cohen/Reuters]

I was surprised because in school we had been taught a lot against Israel. But they were supporting us because they had experienced this in their part.

That motivated my decision that Israel was the safest space for me.

It was not the state of Israel that supported us, but the American Jews. Israel is a Jewish state, and so that gave me the impression that if Jews were standing up for us, Israel might be a safer place.

I crossed the Israeli border in 2009 and the Israeli army took us in. They gave us food and water. The day after, I was taken by border police to prison.

On life in an Israeli prison

I saw hundreds of African prisoners from Eritrea and Guinea, Togo and Cameroon. In the compound I was in there were about 500. [Note: There are currently 1,200 Africans at the Holot prison]

As a person who had been through solitary confinement and who had fled genocide in Darfur, I was not angry about the conditions of the prison. I was upset that the prison services were not giving me an opportunity to apply for asylum.

The vast majority [of inmates] were from West African countries. The idea was to make it to Israel as a final destination, no one was using it as a springboard. When youre escaping danger, you dont worry about where to go, you take the closest possible option.

On applying for asylum

After three years of going to the Ministry of Interior, they finally allowed to me apply for asylum. Nothing happened for two years. Instead they sent me to Holot Detention Facility. It was at Holot that I started legal proceedings and was supported by the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants rights group.

In Israel, there is racism and mistreatment and humiliation. Mutassim Ali

Israel has made it difficult for asylum-seekers. Because Israel knows that refugees from Sudan or Eritrea cannot be sent back home (under the Refugee convention), they have made life hard for refugees in the hope that they would leave on their own. They do not directly deport people. They try to assist organising a third country, like Uganda or Rwanda; they give money and let you go.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Follow Azad Essa on Twitter: @AzadEssa
Are India and Israel actually being more humane by using weapons that blind and maim, as opposed to kill?

Amnesty International India recently launched a postcard campaign calling on the Indian government to ban the use of pellet guns in Jammu and Kashmir. Indian authorities argue that pellet guns are non-lethal and continue their use.

There is some truth to Indias claims. Pellet guns overwhelmingly blind, injure, and maim, but do not instantly kill. They are, therefore, posited as more humane and acceptable instruments of crowd control.

A similar logic is behind Israels use of rubber bullets in Gaza.

The question then arises: Are India and Israel actually being more humane? Or is there a political strategy behind their decision to blind and maim Kashmiris and Palestinians, as opposed to killing them?

According to Amnesty International, while at least 14 people were killed in Kashmir in 2016, thousands were injured. Incapacitated in myriad ways from being blinded to disabled, victims have suffered the loss of livelihood, trauma, and immobility  experiences that squeeze out life, gradually.

Amnesty International reports: People injured by pellet-firing shotguns have faced serious physical and mental health issues, including symptoms of psychological trauma. School and university students who were hit in the eyes said that they continue to have learning difficulties. Several victims who were the primary breadwinners for their families fear they will not be able to work any longer. Many have not regained their eyesight despite repeated surgeries.

A more appropriate way to describe these pellets and rubber bullets, then, is lethal over time. The language of non-lethality is simply a rhetorical excuse by cruel governments to wage wars while carefully eliding responsibility for mass debilitation.

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Indeed, with the rise of human rights watchdogs, prior approaches of catch and kill are less plausible. States have, therefore, moved on to what gender studies scholar Jasbir Puar has described as shooting to maim.

This strategy entails causing bodily injury and inducing mass debilitation to bring about a gradual humanitarian collapse. Rather than killing their targets instantly, they leave them to die painful, slow deaths.

Feminist scholar Lauren Berlant theorises slow death as the physical wearing out of a population and the deterioration of people in that population that is very nearly a defining condition of their experience and historical existence.

Debilitated bodies become the everyday reminders of the immense capacity of the occupying force, even in its absence. The occupier is, hence, always present. This is an effective tool for the occupying state to puncture resistance, suppress dissent, and eventually break the will of the people.

The state justifies its actions by using terms such as mobs, thugs, and rioters to describe those protesting occupation. These terms criminalise resistance and paint unarmed protesters as violent, lawless, and a public nuisance.

Cultural Studies theorist Stuart Hall has described how clearly political containment of popular protest [has historically been] effected under the ambiguous cover of public order and its sanctions. He points to the changing definition of crime as imposed by governing classes on different groups of people for the purpose of legal restraint and political control.

In occupations, the indigenous always appear on the wrong side of the law. They are conceptualised as an undifferentiated mass, perpetually in a state of illegality. The state can, thus, invent weapons that are indiscriminate and undiscerning.

As thousands of pellets descend upon the unarmed bodies of Kashmiris and Palestinians, the henchmen of the colonial regime  the soldiers and politicians  maintain an air of impunity by appearing as a benevolent, well-meaning force that is simply restoring peace.

How ironic since there is nothing humane or benevolent about the iron pellets that pierced the eyes and face of 14-year-old Insha Mushtaq last year; or the rubber bullet that fractured the skull of 14-year-old Mohammed Tamimi last month.

In the words of Kashmiri poet Muhammad Nadeem:

these coal black eyes that were like suns,

with rays of happy dreams that leaped from each lash

are now bottomless black wells

The use of pellet guns in India and rubber bullets in Israel must be banned, and militarisation and occupation must end.

We must demonstrate transnational solidarity against state violence that masquerades as non-lethal and humane. In addition to tallying the dead, we need to also hold these forces accountable for the injured, the blind, the disabled, the arrested, the raped, the disappeared.

And we have to remain vigilant. Occupying forces are ever so agile and nimble, adapting to human rights criticisms and inventing new forms of population control, policing, and torture. India, for instance, is not only considering rubber bullets but also experimenting with chili-pepper-filled ammunition, which contains irritants stronger than those in pepper spray  all in the name of being more humane!

Indeed, Kashmiris and Palestinians are brought together by their occupiers shared interest in slow deaths. That, perhaps, is the slyest form of extermination.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
With a misleading new report, Trump is trying to convince Americans that terrorism is an exclusively foreign crime.

Rafia Zakaria is an attorney and author of The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan; and Veil.

New report from DHS DOJ shows that nearly 3 in 4 individuals convicted in terrorism related charges are foreign born. We have submitted to Congress a list of resources and reforms. So tweeted US President Donald Trump on the afternoon of January 16, 2018, days before the US government shut down.

President Trumps tweet, like so many others that have come before, was incorrect even by his administrations lax standards. The International Terrorism Report (pdf) prepared by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice found that three out of four individuals convicted in the United States on international terror-related charges are foreign-born. International here means that this number includes individuals convicted for acts committed outside the US.

That detail, of course, did not matter to Trump. His goal ever since he took power a year ago is to paint terrorism as a foreign problem, and immigration as the root of all that ails the US.

Unsurprisingly, the report itself, which has been described as misleading and confusing, creates more problems than it solves. In its effort to pad the numbers of foreign-born or first-generation immigrants convicted of terrorist crimes since 9/11, it misstates statistics and creates new definitions of terrorism.

It does this to get Americans into thinking that terrorism is a foreign and particularly a Muslim crime that must be addressed by bans and banishments. It excludes white supremacist terrorists from the numbers it reports.

The report, prepared under a March 2017 presidential executive order, finds that 549 individuals were charged with terrorism in US federal courts between 2001 and 2016. Of them, 254 were not US citizens, 148 were born abroad but later received US citizenship and 147 were US citizens by birth. Based on this, the White House declared that the current immigration system jeopardizes our national security.

The conclusion drawn from these statistics is false. The numbers suggest that all those included went through the US immigration system, even as they count cases like that of Ahmed Abu Khattala, who was convicted of attacking the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. He was captured by a team of US military and FBI officials in Libya and transported to the US aboard a navy vessel in 2014. Obviously, Khattala never applied for a visa to be admitted to the US.

In trying to increase the numbers of foreign-born terrorists, the Trump administration has included those who were extradited to the US or even committed crimes in other countries, neither of which would pose a national security threat and neither of which represents a failure of the immigration vetting system.

The report also fails to put the threat of terrorism into context. As Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration analyst with the DC-based CATO Institute pointed out in his analysis of the report, the individual risk of an ordinary American being killed by a foreign-born terrorist is one in 145 million. Conversely, the average risk of being killed by a native-born American (a category left out by the report) is one in 40.6 million. The cumulative risk of being killed by any kind of terrorist was one in 32 million. And to put all this in perspective: The chance of an individual being killed in a non-terrorist homicide in the US is one in 19,325.

What the report does with numbers it also does with categories. In noting the number of total convictions, it doesnt simply count crimes categorised as terrorism, but also includes the non-existent legal category of terrorism-related offences. The only definition available within US government databases describes this category as any offence related to terrorism, homeland security and law enforcement as well as any other information. This could mean anything, and what can mean anything means nothing.

It is indisputable that the Trump administration manipulated statistics to paint terror as a foreign crime committed largely by Muslims. The illustrative cases presented in the report are all Muslim men.

To be fair, this is not entirely a Trump administration habit; many US statutes, such as the Material Support for Terrorism statute, define terrorist organisation as one having foreign affiliations. The consequence is that white nationalist or domestic terrorism is excluded from prosecution under those statutes. With domestic terrorists never convicted under terror statutes that use these definitions, the only criminals considered terrorists are the foreign-born.

The Trump administrations attempt to link terrorism to immigration has been evident from its very first days. The timing of this reports release, coming as it does in the midst of a stalemate over granting relief to undocumented Dreamers who were brought into the country as children, is proof of this.

The premise of the report is that unless borders are sealed, bans enacted, walls constructed and deportations executed, terrorists would continue pouring into the country.

Days after the report was released, the US government did in fact shut down; a major point in Congress deliberations was a deal on immigration. In the weekend that followed, hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets to mark Trumps one-year anniversary in office, many whetted by the administrations treatment of immigrants.

Trumps aggressive anti-immigration efforts, even when employing cheap scare-mongering tactics, will continue to face massive resistance and are, in the end, doomed to failure.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
Arab Knesset members stage a protest against US decision to declare Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Palestinian members of the Israeli parliament have been forcibly removed from the chamber after staging a protest at the start of US Vice President Mike Pences speech.

Pences visit in Israel, the last leg of a regional tour, was boycotted by Palestinian leaders following US President Donald Trumps decision last month to declare Jerusalem as Israels capital.

On Monday, he became the first US vice president to speak at the Israeli Knesset, but his speech was initially interrupted by a group of politicians with the Joint Arab List alliance who voiced their anger over Washingtons controversial move.

They shouted Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine and held up posters of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound before being thrown out by security.

This is the moment Palestinian MPs were kicked out of the Israeli Knesset after protesting the US Vice President Mike Pences speech. pic.twitter.com/w7CSJx6MSb  Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) January 22, 2018

We oppose the policies of Mr Trump. He is not only the enemy of Palestinians, he is the enemy of peace, Jamal Zahalka, a protesting MP, told Al Jazeera.

We stood up today to protest Pences speech. He is an unwanted visitor to the region. We raised the slogan that Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine in response to Trumps decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

A success

Al Jazeeras Harry Fawcett, reporting from West Jerusalem, said the Palestinian members of the Knesset had warned that they would protest against Pences speech.

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They wanted to do something big, something demonstrable in public, said Fawcett, adding that they provided a very clear message of defiance and opposition towards the US position on Jerusalem.

Despite being ejected, Zahalka said he considered the Knesset members action a success.

Israeli security forces knew that we would protest. They attacked us in a savage way but this came in our favour because even though they assaulted us, the international media gave attention to this scene and recognised there is a voice in Jerusalem that says Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine.

Later in his speech, Pence told Israeli parliamentarians that the US embassy in Israel will be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by the end of next year.
Governments across Southeast Asia have been using laws and the judiciary to curb press freedoms  now, they have found a handy crutch to lean on as they intensify clampdowns: US President Donald Trumps fake news mantra.

Most worrying to media rights advocates is that several countries are promoting new legislation or expanding existing regulations to make publishing fake news an offence. The fear is that, rather than focusing on false stories published on social media, authoritarian leaders will use the new laws to target legitimate news outlets that are critical of them.

When the leadership of the United States consistently targets legitimate media reporting as fake, it opens the way for leaders the world over to do the same, said Shawn Crispin, who represents the Committee to Protect Journalists in the region. Its a dangerous trend that is giving authoritarian and democratic regimes alike justification for targeting or shutting down reporting they dont like.

The term fake news has entered the lexicon of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), whose leaders commended the work done by their governments in countering its spread, in a statement issued at the end of a November summit.

Like everywhere else, Southeast Asia does sometimes have a problem with information on social media that is intentionally false. But there is little sign that the problem has been anywhere as bad as it was, for example, in the run-up to the November 2016 US presidential election.

Last week, after the Philippines corporate regulator revoked the operating license of Rappler, a news site whose scrutiny of President Rodrigo Dutertes deadly war on drugs has been a thorn in his side, Duterte told reporters it was a fake news outlet that had been throwing trash and shit all along.

Duterte denied influencing the regulators decision, which was followed by the justice minister ordering an investigation into Rappler for possible criminal liability, and the National Bureau of Investigation summoning its CEO to answer a complaint related to cybercrime.

John Nery, associate editor and columnist at the Philippine Daily Inquirer, which has also come under attack from the government, said fake news is now glibly used by people who dont like what they hear.

Unfortunately for us, those parties include the government of the Philippines. So it is used to intimidate, he said.

Anti-fake news legislation, which would impose fines and prison terms of up to 20 years for spreading false information, is under consideration in the Philippines.

Philippines presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the legislation was being promoted by two senators, not the Duterte administration.

Asked if the government felt the need to regulate fake news, Roque said: We believe in free marketplace of ideas.

Like poison or a gun

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen regularly accuses critical media outlets of spreading fake news.

Huy Vannak, undersecretary of state in Cambodias Interior Ministry, told Reuters: Everyone, including ordinary citizens, has to fight against fake news because fake news is like poison or a gun and it can kill our beautiful society.

Singapores Straits Times newspaper this month cited seven cases of fake news that came up in a parliament discussion: Three were about other countries and one was about an image of halal pork allegedly being sold in supermarkets that went viral in 2007.

Law and Home Affairs Minister Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam told legislators that combating falsehoods is not contrary to the exercise of freedom of speech but, rather, it enables freedom of speech to be meaningfully exercised.

A Singapore government spokesperson, asked to comment, referred Reuters to Shanmugams speech and to a paper presented to parliament that said the dissemination of deliberate falsehoods  attacks the very heart of democracy and, if unchecked, undermines faith in the country and its institutions.

In Malaysia, Prime Minister Najib Razak has accused opponents of using the media to spread fake news on a scandal over state fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

1MDB is being investigated in at least six countries for money laundering and misappropriation of funds, including an alleged $681 million transfer into Najibs personal account. The US Department of Justice filed several lawsuits last year to seize more than $1.7bn in assets, believed to have been stolen from the sovereign fund that was set up by Najib.

The prime minister denies any wrongdoing.

Najibs government has suspended media and blocked websites that hounded him over 1MDB, and  with elections looming  he recently launched a website to counter fake news.

Locking up reporters

Thailand already has a cybersecurity law under which the spread of false information carries a jail sentence of up to seven years, and the military government strictly enforces lese-majesty laws that shield the royal family from insult.

Still, military government leader Prayuth Chan-ocha has warned that tough action will be taken to enforce laws against fake news and hate speech.

Myanmar has assailed foreign news organizations for fake news about a military crackdown in Rakhine state that triggered the exodus of more than 650,000 Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh.

It has jailed at least 29 journalists since Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi came to power in 2016, including two Reuters reporters who had covered the attacks on minorities in Rakhine and are being investigated for alleged breaches of the Official Secrets Act.

Philip Bowring, a former editor of the news magazine Far Eastern Economic Review, which closed in 2009, said fake news is a convenient phrase for governments that would, in any case, find ways to crimp press freedom. He sees the mantra as just a new gimmick that allows governments to justify their behaviour.
Government blames rebels as five people die and 11 others suffer injuries in attack on Bab Touma neighbourhood.

Five people have been killed in artillery fire in the Syrian capital, Damascus, according to a UK-based war monitoring group.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which gathers details of casualties from a network of sources inside the country, said on Monday that 11 others were wounded in the attack on the neighbourhood of Bab Touma.

The governments official news agency, SANA, confirmed the reports, saying those killed in the attack were civilians.

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A source in Damascus police reportedly told SANA armed groups deployed in several areas of Eastern Ghouta targeted the neighbourhood of Bab Touma with artillery shells, one of which hit a bus stop at the neighbourhoods roundabout 

SANA cited the source as saying that some were critically wounded, meaning the death toll was likely to go up.

It remains unclear who was responsible for the attack. No group has claimed responsibility.

According to the SOHR, at least seven others were wounded in shelling on other areas of Damascus.

Eastern Ghouta is an opposition-held area adjacent to Damascus, where the government of President Bashar al-Assad sits.

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The proximity of Eastern Ghouta to Damascus makes it a key target.

Since 2013, the government has maintained a suffocating siege on the area in an effort to weaken the rebel groups, and continues to shell it despite a so-called de-escalation agreement meant to lessen the violence there.

The area is under the control of groups loyal to the Free Syrian Army (FSA), a loose conglomeration of armed brigades made up of Syrian army defectors and ordinary civilians, which receive financial and logistical support from the US, Turkey, and several Arab Gulf countries.

The four-year siege has led to a major humanitarian crisis, with severe food and medicine shortages.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has strained the patience of his hosts since taking up the offer of asylum in 2012.

Ecuadors President Lenin Moreno has described WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as an inherited problem that has created more than a nuisance for his government.

Earlier this month, Ecuador announced it had granted citizenship to Assange, in an unsuccessful attempt to provide him with diplomatic immunity and usher him out of its London embassy without the threat of arrest by Britain.

We hope to have a positive result in the short term, he said in an interview with television networks on Monday.

Moreno said his country was continuing to seek mediation involving important people, without specifying whom he meant.

Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden for alleged sex crimes. The allegations came after WikiLeaks published, in 2010, a series of leaks that included the Afghanistan War Logs, the Iraq War Logs and CableGate.

Assange has denied the allegations levelled against him and maintain they are politically motivated. He has remained in the embassy building ever since.

Following the leaks, the US government launched a criminal investigation into WikiLeaks and asked allied governments for assistance.

Sweden later shelved its investigation, but Assange faces arrest by British authorities for fleeing justice in the Swedish case.

He fears British authorities will then allow his extradition to the United States where he is wanted for publication by WikiLeaks of classified information in 2010.

The WikiLeaks founder has strained the patience of his hosts since taking up the offer of asylum made by then-president Rafael Correa in 2012.

He was publicly reprimanded for publishing hacked emails from the campaign team of Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US election.

More recently, he drew the ire of Correas successor, President Moreno, when he used Twitter to send messages of support for Catalonias independence drive.

Moreno was forced to respond to complaints from the Spanish government.

Commenting on the move to designate Assange a diplomat, Moreno said: This would have been a good result, unfortunately, things did not turn out as the foreign ministry planned and so the problem still exists.

Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa has confirmed that Ecuador will maintain the asylum granted to Assange by the government of former president Rafael Correa.
A general strike has been called for by the private sector in the Gaza Strip to protest worsening living conditions amid the ongoing blockade, which is threatening to collapse the enclaves economy.

In a statement published last week, the Gaza Businessmen Association (Arabic) announced that the strike in commercial and economic institutions would start from 8am (06:00 GMT) and last for six hours on Monday.

This urgent appeal comes as a last resort, after the catastrophic economic and living conditions of the Gaza Strip reached the point of zero, the statement said.

The statement pointed out the economy has reached an unprecedented level of decline.

Most notably, the unemployment rate is at 46 percent, the rates of poverty have exceeded 65 percent, and the rate of food insecurity for households in the Gaza Strip has reached 50 percent.

Furthermore, rising unemployment rates among graduates have reached 67 percent, and a growing number of commercial traders who have been imprisoned as a result of their inability to pay their debts is a reflection of the general economic deficit, the statement added.

We wish through this strike to send a message to our leaders  Arab leaders, international leaders, and to the United Nations, Maher al-Taba, a member of Gazas chamber of commerce told Al Jazeera.

The Gaza Strip will collapse soon, and we need immediate help. If the economy collapses, it will have impact everywhere  health, education and all services.

Breaking point

Ramadan, a shopkeeper, also told Al Jazeera that Gaza is reaching a breaking point.

We will be on strike and we want the world to listen, to know our suffering and to help us find a solution, he said.

The Gaza Strip has been under Israeli land, naval, and air blockade for more than 10 years. Egypt has also facilitated the siege by controlling the Rafah border crossing in the south, which is the only gateway to the rest of the world for Gazas population of 1.8 million.

Until recently, the coastal enclave was ruled by the Hamas movement but under the auspices of a unity government deal signed last October between Hamas and Fatah, the Palestinian Authority now controls the strip.

However, hopes that the unity government would relieve the Gaza Strip of its many economic woes were dashed as the national reconciliation process has seemingly stalled.

Issues such as the salaries of government employees, the electricity and water shortage crises, and the lack of available medicines remain unresolved, further contributing to what Palestinians say is already an unbearable situation.
Violence followed rally by hundreds of thousands of nationalists Thessaloniki over Macedonia name dispute.

Far-right violence gripped a northern city in Greece after hundreds of thousands of nationalists took to the streets for a protest.

Greek far-rightists on Sunday burned down a building used as an activist squat in the northern city of Thessaloniki.

The violence took place after a rally staged in opposition to negotiations over a name dispute with Greeces northern neighbour, Macedonia.

Protesters set the Libertatia social centre alight, according to Greek-language media.

No injuries were reported.

The far-right group also attacked a nearby squat known as The School, but were confronted by anarchists and anti-fascist activists who pushed them back, witnesses wrote on Twitter.

A statement later posted on Athens IndyMedia, an anarchist news site, called for a an immediate, militant mobilisation against far-right attacks.

Images posted to social media also showed a Holocaust memorial in the northern city vandalised with far-right graffiti.

Cops and fascist thugs attacked an #antifa demo and several squats and social centers yesterday in #Thessaloniki The greek state once again tolerated and acted side by side with armed nazis. Nothing is forgotten#skg # # pic.twitter.com/K2zQpRiRVB  Souidos (@Souidos) January 22, 2018

More photos: Fascist burn #squat (active from 2008) in #Thesaloniki, during the nationalist rally today. pic.twitter.com/DOmbQGMz5e  City Plaza Squat (@sol2refugees) January 21, 2018

Earlier in the day, anarchists who held a counter-demonstration clashed with police officers and far-right protesters in the seaside city.

Sundays rally was dubbed Macedonia for Macedonia.

Members of the Greek clergy and neo-fascist Golden Dawn party attended.

Ignoring a plea not to attend, members of the right-wing New Democracy party also turned up.

Long-standing name dispute

Sundays rally was held in opposition to the use of the name Macedonia in any agreement struck between the two countries.

For many Greeks, Macedonia refers only to a province of northern Greece and accuse Skopje of having territorial designs over that region.

On the other hand, leaders in Skopje maintain they have a historical right to the name.

The country, which has an estimated two million citizens, was part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia until that countrys breakup. Macedonia declared independence in 1991.

Greek opponents to the deal insist only calling the neighbouring country the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), the name by which it joined the United Nations in 1993.

Right-wing and far-right parties have accused the Greek government, currently headed by the left-wing Syriza party, of betraying the country.

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Speaking to Greeces Skai television on Monday, New Democracys vice president, Adonis Georgiadis, accused Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of start[ing] the story with the Macedonia [name talks] to create problems with [New Democracy].

Tsipras has expressed flexibility in negotiations over the name dispute.

Its totally groundless historically and absurd to seek the exclusivity of Macedonia, Tsipras said on Sunday, as reported by the Greek-language Ethnos newspaper.

But it is not unreasonable to have the term Macedonia included in a compound name, with either a geographical or a chronological qualifier, for all uses, to make absolutely clear that nobody claims other peoples land or history.

The UN oversaw talks between the two countries last week, but a solution has yet to be reached.

Sundays incident comes amid an apparent uptick in far-right violence targeting migrant labourers and refugees, mostly Muslims, across the country.

Last week, a far-right group known as Crypteia  believed to be a breakaway from Golden Dawn  issued death threats to the Muslim Association of Greece and other civil society groups.

Earlier this month, the Athens-based activist group Keerfa announced that a spate of anti-immigrant attacks had seen more than 30 homes of Pakistani migrant labourers attacked in fewer than two weeks in Piraeus, a port city adjacent to the Greek capital.
Bottom half of population saw just one percent increase in their wealth last year, says report by anti-poverty charity.

New Delhi, India  Up to 670 million Indians, who comprise the poorest half of the population, saw just one percent increase in their wealth while the richest one percent cornered 73 percent of the national income generated in the country last year, according to anti-poverty charity Oxfam.

The wealth of the elite 1 percent increased by 20913 billion rupees [$327bn], equivalent to the total budget of the Indian government last financial year, Oxfam said in its report published on Monday.

Indian billionaires wealth increased by $76.5bn (4891bn)  from $247bn (15,778bn) to over $324bn (20,676bn)  making the country one of the most unequal in the world, the report said.

It is one percent versus the rest. This is nothing short of loot. Thats why you are seeing starvation deaths in India, Nikhil Dey, rights-activist and founder of a workers group, MKSS, told Al Jazeera.

At best, those in power are saying one thing and doing another. At worst, their only deliberate concern is about the generation and pocketing of wealth for people in power.

The rich are being subsidised in India in every which way  . The poor are not being allowed to function. Land is being taken over, employment does not exist, schools are being privatised. You cant have 73 percent of wealth in the hands of one percent.

The report was released as Narendra Modi, Indias prime minister, flew to Switzerland to woo global investors at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Modi, who is being accompanied by the finance and commerce ministers, was scheduled to host a dinner for global industry bosses from 18 countries on Monday night, according to the Indian Express newspaper.

Worsening inequality

Overall global inequality figures further worsened according to the Oxfam report, with the richest one percent cornering 82 percent of the wealth created last year.

Activists and development economists are worried at the accumulation of wealth in the hands of the rich in India. Last year, 58 percent of national income went to Indias richest one percent.

It is a direct result of these neo-liberal policies whose modus operandi is to pamper the rich in the name of achieving higher growth, Prabhat Patnaik, professor emeritus at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, told Al Jazeera.





But the growth that occurs is accompanied by the absolute impoverishment of large numbers. Such inequalities undermine the foundations of modern India and its survival as a secular democratic republic.

Oxfam said the figures suggest that approximately two-thirds of billionaire wealth is the product of inheritance, monopoly and cronyism.

The report, Reward Work Not Wealth, blames the race to the bottom between countries on tax and on wages as a top contributor to deepening inequality, along with the crushing of workers rights.

It would take around 17.5 days for the best-paid executive at a top Indian garment company to earn what a minimum wage worker in rural India will earn in their lifetime (presuming 50 years at work), Oxfam said.

Falling short

Since taking office in 2014, the Modi government has announced schemes to increase spending on infrastructure, including ports and roads, to boost economic growth.

But it has fared poorly in combating poverty, say critics.

The Indian governments efforts at reducing inequality and combating poverty faster are woefully inadequate. It needs to stop the super-rich and the corporates from continuing to rob India of its wealth, Nisha Agrawal, CEO of Oxfam India, told Al Jazeera.

The government needs to invest more in agriculture; and implementing fully the social protection schemes (such as rural job scheme and the Food Security Act) that already exist.





Indias wealth inequality also contributes to lack of access to quality medical care for the poor.

Those living on $2 a day have a mortality rate three times the global average, according to the Oxfam report.

Healthcare spending during accidents or emergencies for low-income households often means a reduction in the consumption of food or other basic needs that can push people below the extreme poverty line, the report warns.

Indias health budget is at 1.15 percent of the countrys GDP, one of the lowest proportions in the world.

Oxfam India on Monday urged Modi to tax the super-rich and ensure that the Indian economy works for everyone and not just the fortunate few.

In an online survey conducted by Oxfam, 73 percent Indians said they wanted the gap between the rich and poor to be addressed very urgently.

Global wealth databook

In the survey with a sample size of 11,000 Indians, a majority of respondents said CEOs should accept pay cuts up to 60 percent.

Oxfam said it used calculations to compare returns to shareholders and CEO compensation with returns to ordinary workers for its analysis.

It used data from Credit Suisses annual Global Wealth Databook and the Forbes billionaires list.

India lifted 120 million people from extreme poverty between 1990 and 2013, according to the World Bank. However, one out of two Indians remain vulnerable to falling back into poverty, it says.

Indias march to reducing poverty has been significantly slower compared to neighbouring China. Over the same 1990-2013 period, China reduced the number of people living in extreme poverty from 756 million to 25 million.

The message in the Oxfam report is not new. The main question is: Is the government willing to acknowledge the message? Reetika Khera, Development Economist at the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, told Al Jazeera.
A battle is ongoing over a collection of Iraqi Jewish heirlooms, as few agree on where it should be based.

Baltimore, United States  A group of men and women celebrate a young mans bar mitzvah, the Jewish rite of passage when boys turn 13, as a rabbi wraps tefillin  black leather straps used during prayer  around the boys arm.

The crowd of revellers is both Jewish and Iraqi and the celebration was not uncommon: this was Baghdad in 1963.

The black-and-white photograph is part of a treasure trove of ancient pieces of Judaica retrieved from the headquarters of Saddam Husseins General Intelligence Service during the United States 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The heirlooms include documents dating from the mid-16th century to the 1970s and more than 2,700 books in Hebrew, Arabic and Judeo-Arabic, a version of Arabic written in Hebrew letters and spoken by Iraqi Jews.

They cast invaluable insight on Iraqs ancient Jewish community, which dwindled from an estimated 130,000 people to fewer than five today.

The archive was uncovered in the basement of a Baghdad building in 2003 [Dalia Hatuqa/Al Jazeera]

But the rich collection is not without its share of controversy as Iraqis have criticised the delay in repatriating the archives to Baghdad and accused the US of benefitting from the spoils of the occupation of their country.

The general sentiment is that the Americans took documents that belong to the Iraqis, said Orit Bashkin, a University of Chicago historian and author of Impossible Exodus: Iraqi Jews in Israel.

And thats also connected in the Iraqi memory of the destruction of libraries and ancient collections that occurred during the US invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Found in 2003

The collection  crate loads of rabbis sermons, school textbooks, and university applications that were waterlogged, muddied or stained  was discovered in a basement that had flooded when the Americans bombed a building in Baghdad 15 years ago.

However, some items were spared because the missile failed to explode.

The collection has books in several languages, including Hebrew and Arabic [Dalia Hatuqa/Al Jazeera]

Following an agreement with the provisional Iraqi government, the US post-war viceroy, the rare collection was sent to the National Archives and Records Administration in the state of Maryland to be restored.

For a decade, the artefacts underwent an arduous $3m restoration process. Preserved, catalogued and digitised, some pieces were put on display in a touring exhibit that has gone across the US.

At the exhibits last stop at the Jewish Museum of Maryland this month, visitors could see tiks (cases for Torah scrolls) shaped like minaret towers, a testament to Iraqs architecture; a Hebrew Bible from 1568; and a Haggadah (Passover guide), hand-written and decorated by an Iraqi youth.

Washington had assured the Iraqis the archive would be repatriated after the restoration process was done. But after pushing back the return date several times, the relics are still here.

US officials now say they are slated to be sent back in September 2018.

Rich history

The personal pictures and letters found in the archive paint a vivid picture of a well-integrated community whose members held prominent positions in government and commerce and excelled in the world of arts.

Hit songs such as Foug el-Nakhal by Iraqi-Jewish composers Saleh and Daoud al-Kuwaiti remain popular across the Arab world. Sassoon Eskell, a legislator, minister and financier, is still remembered fondly as one of the architects of modern-day Iraq.

Iraqs Jewish population once numbered about 130,000 people [Dalia Hatuqa/Al Jazeera]

In 1910, records show Jews living in Baghdad made up one-quarter of the citys overall population.

By 1949, Iraqs Jewish population totalled about 130,000 people, mostly living in Baghdad, but also in Basra and Mosul.

Many documents capture snippets of their communal life: a letter details the allocation of sheep during Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, while another asks the communitys patriarch to persuade a man to grant his wife a Get (religious divorce).

The archive talks about public life  and most of the period it covers is the interwar period [between the two world wars] and the 1950s and 60s of Iraqi Jews who didnt migrate to Israel and lived in Iraq, said Bashkin.

And you see the degree of Arabisation of the Iraqi Jewish community, she told Al Jazeera.

It shows you that you could be an Iraqi and a Jew and that theres not an inherent contradiction there, and it shows you can be an Arab Jew.

Repatriating the collection

But in the US, legislators and Jewish and pro-Israel groups say the archive should be conserved in a more stable environment where the descendants of Iraqi Jews can access them. They have been lobbying to keep the collection from being repatriated to Baghdad.

In 2014, the Senate passed a unanimous resolution urging the Obama administration to come to a different agreement with Iraqi officials.

Charles Schumer, the Senate minority leader, asked the Department of State in October 2017 not to send the archive back and instead find a location thats more accessible to Iraqi Jews and their descendants.

Iraqs ancient Jewish community was well-integrated in the country [Dalia Hatuqa/Al Jazeera]

Groups such as the Zionist Organization of America have made similar arguments, as have members of the Israeli parliament who have been pushing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pressure the US to back out of its commitment to Iraqi authorities.

Its pretty clear that a lot of artefacts didnt reach the West in a very ethical way, said Assaf Shalev, an Israeli-American journalist whose paternal family hails from Baghdad.

Its very clear that the US holding on to it would activate [the] sensitiveness around Third World countries getting their cultural heritage stolen, he said, adding he saw the other side of the repatriation debate as well.

If this collection goes to Iraq, Iraqi Jews wont have access to it for the most part. Im not sure where I fall exactly. I see merits in both arguments, Shalev said.

Painful memories

When Israel was established in 1948, it began to push for Iraqi Jews to immigrate to the newly established state. Many in the community believe that several explosions targeting them in Baghdad were instigated by Israeli operatives or local Zionist groups to hasten their exodus.

This was coupled with a right-wing campaign inside Iraq against Jewish people that was spurred by ultra-nationalists who conflated Zionism and Judaism, as well as a government crackdown on the communist party where many young Iraqi Jews were active.

In 1950 and 1951, about 90 percent of the Jewish population left Iraq with most families moving to Israel, US-based historian Michael Fischbach estimates.

Many Iraqi Jews faced discrimination once they arrived in Israel, however, and they were not given proper work or education opportunities, said Yael Ben Yefet, director of HaKeshet HaDemocratit HaMizrahit (the Democratic Mizrahi Rainbow), a social justice coalition of Middle Eastern Jews in Israel.

Ben Yefet said most of the Iraqis in Israel today would be unable to see the archive if it remains in the US because of the educational and social-economic status of Iraqi Jews, which has declined from one generation to the next.

On a personal level, and if I want my mother to be able to see [the archive], Id like it to come to Israel or to a place where Iraqi Jews can have access to it, she said.

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A recent idea has been to permanently house the archive in Iraq, but allow it to tour museums that are accessible to Jewish communities worldwide.

Thats a proposal that Ben Yefet said she supports.

In the meantime, Bashkin said the collection remains close to the hearts of many Iraqi Jewish families, for whom it also raises painful memories.

Those include the Farhud  a 1941 pogrom that claimed the lives of 180 members of the community and ended in mass looting of their property  and the killing of 40 Iraqi Jews in 1968 when the Baath party came to power.

These traumatic memories are often projected onto the archive, Bashkin said.

They know they cant go back to Iraq and they do want access to it. And this genuine sentiment is being politicised and tied to the question of who represents world Jewry.
Kashmiris mark 28th anniversary of Gaw Kadal massacre

On January 21, 1990, at least 52 people were killed on the Gaw Kadal bridge in Srinagar.
Mahmoud Abbas urges EU to swiftly recognise Palestine as US announces plan to move embassy to Jerusalem by 2019.

Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, has urged European Union (EU) countries to swiftly recognise the state of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital.

His comments from Brussels on Monday came on the same day as Mike Pence, the US vice president, told Israels parliament that the US would move its Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by the end of 2019.

Palestinians leaders boycotted Pences visit amid continued anger at the US decision last month to relocate the embassy and recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital.

At a meeting with the EUs foreign ministers, Abbas called the 28-nation bloc a true partner and friend and urged it to step up political efforts in the Middle East

EU recognition of Palestine would not disrupt the the resumption of negotiations with Israel on a peace settlement, he said. Instead, it would encourage the Palestinian people to keep hoping for peace and to wait until peace is brought about.

Later on Monday, Abbas said, The Europeans agreed with us about the issue of Jerusalem  they understand it but they have not made a decision about the recognition yet because it needs another meeting.

Pence snubbed

US President Donald Trumps Jerusalem announcement on December 6 drew widespread international condemnation and prompted deadly protests in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The status of the city  home to sites holy to Muslims, Christians and Jews and claimed by both Palestinians and Israelis  is one of the core issues in the perennial conflict.

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Al Jazeeras Jamal Elshayyal, reporting from Brussels, said Abbas decision to visit the EU headquarters rather than holding talks with Pence was a snub to the US.

Palestinian officials no longer see Washington as an honest broker in the stalled peace process, and want to place the EU, in the driving seat of the peace effort, he added.

Two-state solution

For her part, Federica Mogherini, the EU foreign affairs chief, reiterated the blocs commitment to a two-state solution with Jerusalem as the shared capital of the two states.

Speaking alongside Abbas, Mogherini said that was the only realistic and viable way to fulfil the legitimate aspirations of both parties, adding that we need to speak and act wisely and consistently with a sense of responsibility to order to achieve a two-state solution, which has been advocated by international powers since the Oslo accords of the 1990s.

Based on the UN resolution 242, the accords called for a two-state solution with occupied East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestine state.

Al Jazeeras Elshayyal said that as far as the Palestinians are concerned  the Oslo Accord does not merit celebration, pointing to ground realities such as lack of self-governance and free movement.

Abbas, who last week said the accord had ended, stressed on Monday that Palestinians were still committed to a negotiated settlement, and would continue complying with the treaties that we signed.

Palestinians are keen on continuing on the way of negotiations because we believe it is the only way forward to reach a negotiated solution and peace between us and Israel, he said.





Call for closer ties

France, meanwhile, said on Monday it wants the EU to work on an agreement on closer relations with the Palestinian territories through a so-called association agreement that would enshrine trade, political and other ties.

The pact is usually signed with recognised states, and the EU already has one with Israel.

Concerning relations between the European Union and Palestine, we want to move from an interim agreement to an Association Agreement and immediately engage a process in that direction, Jean-Yves Le Drian, Frances foreign minister, said.

Nine EU governments already recognise Palestine.

The EU parliament, in 2014, overwhelming backed the recognition of a Palestinian state in principle, but said such a move should go hand in hand with the development of peace talks.
Scuffles erupt as Mike Pence tells the Knesset recognising Jerusalem as Israels capital chooses fact over fiction.

The American embassy will be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by the end of next year, US Vice President Mike Pence told Israeli parliamentarians to enthusiastic applause.

Greeted by a standing ovation on Monday inside the Knesset, Pences speech was in its introductory phase when a scuffle broke out as Palestinian politicians from the Joint Arab List alliance raised posters of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in protest before they were forcibly removed by security.

America stands with Israel, Pence said, undeterred by the disruption. We stand with Israel because your cause is our cause. Your values are our values, and your fight is our fight.

We stand with Israel because we believe in right over wrong, and good over evil, and in liberty over tyranny, Pence said to loud applause.

In an unprecedented move, the US embassy invited leaders of settler movements in the occupied West Bank to attend Pences speech in the Knesset  the first ever by a US vice president.

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman is a staunch supporter of illegal Israeli settlements, and, in the past, he headed an organisation that donated millions of dollars to one in the occupied West Bank.

Ushers scuffle with members of the Joint Arab List who held protest signs before Pences Knesset address [Ariel Schalit/Reuters]

Gift to extremists

Al Jazeeras correspondent Harry Fawcett said Pences address was directed at two groups: Israelis and his Christian conservative base at home.

It was a speech full of religiosity, talking about the Hebrew bible and its significance here in Israel, Fawcett said, speaking from inside the Knesset in West Jerusalem.

Chief negotiator for the Palestinian Authority Saeb Erekat derided Pences speech for its controversial religious nature.

The messianic discourse of Pence is a gift to extremists and has proven that the US administration is part of the problem rather than the solution, Erekat said, according to a tweet by the Palestinian Liberation Organizations negotiations affairs department.

His message to the rest of the world is clear: violate international law and resolutions and the US will reward you, Erekat added.

Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeeras senior political analyst, highlighted the scary tone of Pences address, noting the American vice presidents Christian Evangelical background.

This is a Catholic turned Evangelical. Its like almost a Wahhabite turned Ayatollah politician that is really bent on a religious war in the Middle East, Bishara said.

He also noted Pence spoke in terms of defending the Christians of the Middle East, while Christians in the region have refused to meet him.

Its quite frustrating to analyse a person who speaks in terms of wanting peace while at the same time demolishing the entire basis for peace, said Bishara. An entire sermon goes on without mentioning once that the Palestinians have been forced either into refugees or under occupation for the last 50 to 70 years.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, meanwhile, met European Union leaders in Brussels on Monday and urged them to quickly recognise Palestine officially as a nation-state.

We truly consider the European Union as a true partner and friend and, therefore, we call its member states to swiftly recognise the state of Palestine and we confirm that there is no contradiction between recognition and the resumption of negotiations, Abbas, 82, told reporters.

Pence visit to Egypt, Jordan

Pences visit to the Middle East marks the first by a senior US official after US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last month, exacerbating tensions with Palestinians who have protested against the declaration.

The vice president spent a whirlwind 36 hours in Egypt and Jordan, capping a visit that was marked by tense discussions with the two leaders who are opposed to the US decision.

King Abdullah of Jordan urged Pence to stick to the two-state solution, which would see East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Pence earlier told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi if the Israelis and Palestinians accept it then the US would adopt that solution.
Pope Francis farewell mass in Peru ends tour

More than half a million people gathered in Peru to pray with their pope for the first time in nearly 30 years.
Carles Puigdemont is the candidate to head the Catalan regional government, continuing the independence saga in Spain.

Catalonias former president vowed to form a new government in the region that recently elected politicians seeking to break away from Spain, brushing aside what he called Madrids threats and oppression.

Carles Puigdemont made the comments after it was announced on Monday he will be the candidate for president of Catalonias regional government.

Separatist parties maintained their absolute majority in the Catalan parliament in late December, after a vote in a snap election called by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

We will not surrender to authoritarianism despite Madrids threats, said Puigdemont during a debate on Catalonia at the University of Copenhagen.

Soon we will form a new government  Its time to end their oppression and find a political solution for Catalonia.

The former president led the charge to separate from Spain as head of the Together for Yes coalition from 2015 to 2017, when the Catalan government was dissolved after declaring independence.

Puigdemont fled Catalonia for Belgium shortly after the declaration, which was not recognised by any sovereign nations.

He risks being arrested if he returns from self-imposed exile, following rebellion and sedition charges the Spanish government and judges levied against him.

The Catalan parliament will vote to decide its leadership roles and the presidency by January 31.

Puigdemonts presidential candidacy was confirmed on Monday by Roger Torrent, speaker of the regional parliament.

I am conscious of the warnings that weigh upon him, but I am also conscious of his absolute legitimacy to be candidate, Torrent said.

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Puigdemont left Brussels for Copenhagen to attend the conference on Monday.

Spanish prosecutors attempted to have a European arrest warrant for Puigdemont re-issued as he arrived in Copenhagen, his first trip outside of Belgium since fleeing Spain.

But Supreme Court Judge Pablo Llarena turned down the request, arguing Puigdemont had gone to Denmark to provoke this arrest abroad as part of a strategy to help his chances of being allowed to be sworn in as president of Catalonia again.

The Spanish government has charged roughly a dozen former Catalan ministers with various crimes, including sedition and rebellion, in relation to their actions leading up to the declaration of independence.

Puigdemont was charged after he fled Spain. The Spanish High Court issued an EU-wide arrest warrant for him, but it was not enforced by Belgium.

Deja Vu

The results of the December vote were similar to those of a 2015 election that put separatists in power. Rajoy hoped to restore stability to the restive region, but results failed to put pro-unity parties in power.

The pro-unity Citizens party, which refuses to place itself on the political spectrum but consistently votes right-wing conservative, won the largest number of seats, with 36.

Puigdemonts party, Together for Catalonia, won 35, and the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), another separatist party, garnered 32.

ERCs leader Oriol Junqueras is the only Catalan politician who remains in prison.

The previous Catalan government was dissolved in October, when parliament voted to declare independence from Spain following the disputed referendum, wherein roughly 90 percent of voters chose to secede, but less than 50 percent of the electorate showed up at the polls.

The Spanish government enacted the previously unused Article 155 of the constitution, which gives it the power to directly administer regions.

It sent national police to prevent the referendum from taking place, which ended in violence against voters that rights groups called an excessive use of force.

Rajoy said last week that Puigdemont cannot govern from Brussels. If he attempts to do so, Rajoy promised to continue the implementation of Article 155, which does not have a time limit.
Saudi Arabia pledges $1.5bn in Yemen aid

Saudi has vowed to donate half of the UNs humanitarian appeal for Yemen, which has been largely devastated by years of war.
Ground operation advances east in Syrias Azaz as Turkish jets hit mountain strategic for Kurds, state media says.

The Turkish army has intensified an offensive against Syrian Kurdish positions in the enclave of Afrin, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said there would be no stepping back in Ankaras operation, now in its third day.

Anadolu, Turkeys state-run news agency, reported on Monday that Turkish forces continued to shell Kurdish-held areas in northwestern Syria in support of Free Syrian Army (FSA) forces, who are on the ground in Afrin fighting alongside Turkish troops.

Al Jazeeras Stefanie Dekker, reporting from the Turkish-Syrian border near Afrin, said that relentless, heavy shelling and artillery fire could be heard kilometres away from the centre of the operation.

Turkish jets also hit targets at Afrins Bursaya Mountain, which holds strategic importance for the Kurdish fighters, Anadolu said.

Turkey claims Kurdish forces are using Bursaya to target civilians in the Turkish province of Kilis.

Ground forces also advanced east of Afrin, in Syrias Azaz district, according to Anadolu.

Meanwhile, YPG fighters claimed they were able to repel the advance of Ankara-backed FSA forces and Turkish troops in four villages in two districts of Afrin.

Ankara says its Olive Branch operation is aimed at ousting the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG), which it brands as terrorists, and create a so-called safe zone 30km deep to protect its border.

France has called for a UN Security Council meeting later on Monday to discuss developments in flashpoint areas in war-torn Syria, including the Turkish operation.

Earlier on Monday, Erdogan said the Turkish army was determined to press ahead with its push, saying that there is no stepping back from Afrin.

Turkey launched the Afrin military operation on Saturday [Anadolu]

Afrin residents told Al Jazeeras Dekker that while some women and children had fled to Aleppo, many others remained holed up in the city.

On Sunday, the YPG reported that six civilians and three fighters had been killed.

On the Turkish side, one person was reportedly killed and two others injured in the province of Hatay on Monday, following a cross-border YPG attack, according to Anadolu.

A soldier was also reportedly injured, but there were no reports of any Turkish military fatalities.

Meanwhile, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Monday it was studying the possibility of sending reinforcements to the Afrin region to fight the Turkish and FSA forces.

We are in the framework of looking at the possibility of sending more military forces to Afrin, SDF spokesman Kino Gabriel told reporters, even as he urged Turkey to stop the operation.

The SDF is a multi-ethnic but predominantly Kurdish alliance of armed groups in Syria, and was a critical part in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.

Turkey considers Syrias Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed wing, the YPG, terrorist groups with ties to the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long fight inside Turkey.

Erdogan has previously said that all Kurdish armed groups are all the same and that changing their names does not change the fact that they are terror organisations.
Sudans press freedom: Concern about confiscations

A wave of arrests and a bill that gives national security agents unprecedented powers to shut down media offices have raised concerns that Sudans press freedoms are being further eroded.
Attack in Yala was the first in months in the southern province, where Malay Muslims are fighting for autonomy.

A motorcycle bomb has exploded at a market in southern Thailand, killing three civilians and wounding dozens more.

Mondays attack in the southern province of Yala was the first of its kind for months in the region, where ethnic Malay Muslims have been fighting for autonomy.

No one has claimed responsibility.

Police said the attacker parked a motorcycle rigged with explosives near the market and bought goods there to blend in with the crowd.

Yala province, one of Thailands three southernmost provinces, has been the scene of a years-long fight between the Thai army and Malay Muslims.

The three provinces are the only ones with Muslim majorities in the predominantly Buddhist country.

Thailand, which colonised the ethnically Malay south roughly a century ago, has for decades been confronted by ethnic fighters seeking more autonomy, but the conflict flared up into its bloodiest phase in 2004.

Rights groups have accused both the Malay armed groups and security forces of widespread human rights abuses.

The death toll in 2017 from the uprising was the lowest in 13 years of conflict as peace talks edged forwards and the Thai government boosted its lockdown on the region.

More than 6,500 people have been killed in the violence since 2004.
Flights originating from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Jordan and Egypt will have to undergo extra screening.

Cargo flights from five Middle East countries will have to undergo extra security screening when flying to the United States, the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said on Monday.

Flights originating from Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates will have to undergo extra screening.

The measure was taken as part of an effort to raise global aviation security, according to TSA.

The programme uses US Department of Homeland Security threat information and other data to employ a risk-based approach to improve air cargo security through targeted vetting.

Growing concerns about bombs being sent in cargo aircraft were cited by the TSA as the reason of the new rules.

The new screenings will focus on last points of departure locations where the threat is greatest, the administration said.

The six points of departures and its corresponding airlines are:

All cargo flights originating from these airports will have to adhere to the Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS) protocols, which state that carriers must submit data about the origins and sender of the cargo before it gets loaded onto a plane.

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The ACAS protocols were already being voluntarily applied by airlines around the world, but the TSA said the new rules will make it mandatory for the flights originating from the seven airports to hand over the information to the US authorities.

A spokeswoman for Royal Jordanian Airlines told Reuters news agency it had received this new amendment from TSA to be implemented on air cargo shipments, and we were given one month period to apply the new amendment.

In March 2017, the US and UK implemented stricter rules for people flying to the United States from the Middle East and North Africa.

The ban required personal electronic devices larger than a mobile phone  such as tablets, laptops and cameras  be placed in checked baggage for US and Britain-bound flights.

In October, the US unveiled tough new security measures for international flights arriving in the country, including enhanced screening of devices, passengers, and explosive detection for the roughly 2,000 commercial flights landing daily in the United States from 280 airports in 105 countries.
We take a look at key players as Turkey launches operation to push out Kurdish fighters from Syrian border towns.

On Saturday, Turkey launched an operation in the northern Syrian enclave of Afrin aimed at rooting out armed Kurdish groups, which Ankara considers a threat to its security.

Turkish ground troops followed a day after, crossing the border into Syria alongside thousands of Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters, as part of the so-called Operation Olive Branch.

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Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said that the operation in Afrin would be followed by a push into the northern town of Manbij, which the US-backed Kurdish forces captured from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) in 2016.

Al Jazeeras Stefanie Dekker, reporting from the Turkey-Syria border, said different regional players are trying to carve up different parts of Syria, expanding their spheres of influence.

Here are some of the major players in the Afrin operation:

Turkey

Turkey has been battling armed Kurdish fighters for decades in the southeastern part of the country. Among those groups Ankara is fighting is the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which had separatist roots, and later pushed for more autonomy from the Turkish central government.

The violence has left 40,000 thousand civilians, soldiers and armed fighters dead, costing the country hundreds of billions of dollars. Turkey considers the PKK a terrorist organisation, and sees the armed Syrian Kurdish groups as an extension of the PKK.

Justifying the military operation, President Erdogan said the PKK and the Syrian Kurdish group are all the same, and changing their names does not change the fact that they are terror organisations.

Turkey fears the establishment of a Kurdish corridor along its border. Going into Syrian territory, Turkey says it wants to establish a 30km safe zone in Afrin to prevent such a Kurdish corridor from being established.

Syria

The Syrian government forces have been losing territory to the opposition and various armed groups, including ISIL, since the beginning of the conflict in 2011. But the Russian intervention in 2015 turned the tide in President Bashar al-Assads favour. At the end of 2016, the Syrian army took Aleppo, one of the main battlegrounds in the conflict.

The Syrian government forces fought against the opposition fighters in Idlib province in eastern Syria while its forces continued to battle ISIL in the west.





By 2018, the forces loyal to President Assad regained most of the Syrian territory, but the biggest area remaining out of its reach was under the Syrian Kurdish control in the north of the country.

For days leading to the Turkish operation in Afrin, Damascus warned that Syrian air defences stood ready to defend against an air attack. But since the operation was launched, Syrian defence has not materialised.

Russia





Russia officially announced intervention in the Syrian conflict in September 2015 to support President Assad. With the Russian air support, the Syrian government has regained most of the territory lost to ISIL, as well as other Syrian opposition forces.

Russia controls the airspace over Afrin entrusted to it by Damascus, but ahead of the Turkish operation, it withdrew hundreds of its soldiers deployed near the city.

Last November, Assad thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for saving the country. A month later, Putin claimed military victory in the war-torn country and announced that a significant part of the deployed force could return home. However, Moscow kept its Khmeimim airbase in Syrias Latakia and a naval facility in the Mediterranean city of Tartus.

Russia complained earlier in January that the US was trying to split Syria by establishing a Kurdish-controlled entity in northern Syria.

United States





The US has an estimated 2,000 troops stationed inside Syria, according to the Pentagon. That does not include classified mission and special forces personnel. Recently, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Washington, DC intends to maintain an open-ended presence in Syria, not only to fight ISIL and al-Qaeda, but also to counter the influence of Iran, one of the strongest allies of the Syrian government.

Since the conflict began in 2011, the US has sought to remove the leadership in Damascus by supporting different opposition and rebel groups. That effort, however, failed. But it was more successful in leading a coalition against ISIL.

The US is allied with Turkey against Syrias Assad. But it has also aligned itself with Turkeys adversaries, the Kurds. Recently, it was revealed that the US was working to create a border security force in northern Syria consisting of 30,000 mostly Kurdish armed personnel. But Tillerson walked back on that plan, after igniting outrage in Ankara.

Most of the American troops are believed to be in Manbij, where the US-allied Syrian Kurdish armed fighters have a large presence. Turkey has vowed to target Manbij after Afrin, creating a potential flashpoint between Turkey and the US.

YPG/PYD

The Peoples Defense Units is more popularly known by its Kurdish acronym YPG. It is the armed wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), an opposition political party in Syria. The YPG and its other Syrian Kurdish affiliates control a swathe of land in northern Syria, and was credited for defending the Kurds from ISIL and al-Qaeda.

The YPG was also instrumental in retaking of the ISIL stronghold of Raqqa.

In Afrin alone, there are between 8,000 to 10,000 Kurdish fighters, according to estimates. Kurdish fighters in Manbij also number in the thousands.

Turkey considers both the YPG and its political wing PYD terrorist groups with ties to the banned PKK. The YPG also has a all-female unit known as the YPJ.

Free Syrian Army (FSA)

First established in 2011, the opposition Syrian armed group FSA, sought to bring down the government of Syrian President Assad. Its founders were composed of Syrian military officers who defected from the Syrian Armed Forces.

Since its establishment, it was considered as the best hope for Syrians against the government in Damascus. But it was also ridden with infighting, and many of its fighters were suspected of abandoning it in favour of other more extreme armed groups.

When Turkey joined the Syrian conflict in 2016, an alliance of Turkish-backed fighters under the Free Syrian Army name was established.

In the latest operation in Afrin, Turkey mobilised thousands of FSA fighters within Turkey as well as in Syria to fight the Kurdish fighters.
Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum publishes new map showing Musandam as part of the UAE, in addition to omitting Qatar entirely.

A new map published by the United Arab Emirates Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum appears to have removed the border demarcation between UAE and the Omani enclave of Musandam, in addition to removing Qatar.

It is the second time in a week that a map by the museum created controversy by reshaping the geography of the Arabian Peninsula after a previous map omitted the entire State of Qatar.

According to images published on social media, the new map shows Musandam, an exclave of Oman in the northern tip of the peninsula, as part of the UAE.

On social media, some Omani activists accused the museum of deliberately trying to distort the geography of the Gulf.

The Louvre Abu Dhabi is lying and deliberately spreading misinformation, said Twitter user @BARQ_OMAN1.

 #  #                 #   # !!!   #      #    #. pic.twitter.com/dl6tTelnzx    (@ABurdenOnSoc) January 20, 2018

Twitter user @MajedFakhar said it was second time the UAE had annexed Musandam in recent months after a map published on the Mohamed bin Zayed Award for Best GCC Teacher also removed the demarcation line.

   ..                            pic.twitter.com/DEPpXBnHeU    (@MajedFakhar) January 21, 2018

Last week, the Washington Institutes Simon Henderson reported that a map at the museum had completely omitted Qatar.

In the childrens section of Abu Dhabis new flagship Louvre Museum, a map of the southern Gulf completely omits the Qatari peninsula  a geographical deletion that is probably incompatible with Frances agreement to let Abu Dhabi use the Louvres name, Henderson wrote.

Qatar Museums chairperson, Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, responded tweeting: Throughout history museums were a source of reference. People would visit to acquire knowledge and learn about world cultures through the exploration of objects on display. Although the notion of museums is a new one to Abu Dhabi, surely the @MuseeLouvre is not okay with this?

Throughout history museums were a source of reference. People would visit to acquire knowledge and learn about world cultures through the exploration of objects on display. Although the notion of museums is a new one to Abu Dhabi, surely the @MuseeLouvre is not okay with this? https://t.co/k5ikOmSpsd  Al Mayassa Al Thani (@almayassahamad) January 19, 2018

Anwar Gargash, the UAE minister of state for foreign affairs, later responded, calling it a small mishap and accused those pointing it out of looking to create unnecessary controversy.

Following the tweet by the chairperson of Qatar museums, I was surprised by the exaggerations made regarding a small mistake made by the gift shop in the Abu Dhabi Louvre. There were other observations from individuals who were clearly looking to create unnecessary controversy, but culture remains regarded on a higher standard than these small mishaps, he wrote.

                             .  .   (@AnwarGargash) January 20, 2018

At the time of publication, Louvre Abu Dhabi had not replied to Al Jazeeras request for comment.

The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain cut ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of supporting terrorism, an allegation Doha has vehemently denied.

As part of the blockade, the UAE made expressing sympathy towards Qatar a punishable offence, with a jail term of up to 15 years and a fine of at least 500,000 dirhams ($136,000).








South Yemen separatists, backed by the UAE, declare a state of emergency and vow to topple Yemens government.

A group of separatists in southern Yemen, backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has declared a state of emergency in the port city of Aden and vowed to overthrow the countrys internationally recognised government within the next week.

Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the leader of the Southern Transitional Council (STC), said Yemens parliament would be barred from convening in Aden or anywhere else in southern Yemen unless President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi replaced Prime Minister Ahmed bin Daghr and his entire cabinet.

Speaking at a meeting on Sunday, al-Zubaidi accused Hadis government of rampant corruption and of waging a misinformation campaign against the southern leaders using state funds.

The Southern Resistance Forces (SRF) declare a state of emergency in Aden and announce that it has begun the process of overthrowing the legitimate government and replacing it with a cabinet of technocrats, a statement issued by the STC said.

The SRF, an armed group that has clashed with forces loyal to Hadi for control of strategic areas including Aden airport, will become the core of a new force that will rebuild South Yemens security and military institutions, the statement added.





Several commanders from security forces set up by the UAE attended the meeting and declared their support for the announcement.

The statement, however, did not give details on how it intended to topple Hadis government, only that he had a week to comply.

Different agendas?

The announcement underscores rising tensions between Hadis government, which is supported by Saudi Arabia, and the southern separatists, who are backed by the UAE.

The UAE entered Yemens war in March 2015 as part of a Saudi-led coalition after Houthi rebels, traditionally based in the northwest of the country, overran much of the country, including the capital Sanaa, in 2014.

Nearly three years on, Saudi Arabia has said it wants out of the war, but the UAE has become more involved in the conflict, indicating a divide in the two countries agendas.

The UAE has been financing and training armed groups in the south of the country who answer to al-Zubaidi, a 50-year-old militia leader who emerged from relative obscurity in late 2015 after helping purge the Houthis from Aden.

Al-Zubaidi was initially rewarded and made governor of Aden by Hadi, but soon fell out of favour after reports emerged he was receiving patronage from the UAE to campaign for secession.

The Middle East Eye news website, quoting sources, reported that Hadi was incensed with the UAE, accusing Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed of acting as an occupying force, as opposed to a liberation force.

Hadis weakening has gone hand-in-hand with the UAEs growing power in southern Yemen.

The Gulf nation has financed a network of militias that only answer to it, set up prisons, and created a security establishment parallel to Hadis government, according to Human Rights Watch.

The Arab coalition has so far failed to achieve its stated aims as Houthi rebels continue to hold the capital Sanaa and much of the north.

The war has taken a huge toll on the country with more than 60,000 people killed and wounded by fighting, and millions of Yemenis at risk of famine amid a massive cholera outbreak.
Former state official imprisoned for life, as 21 others also jailed for up to 22 years in crackdown on oil giant.

A court in Vietnam has sentenced a former oil executive, who was allegedly kidnapped by Vietnamese agents in Germany last year, to life in prison for embezzlement and violating state rules.

Trinh Xuan Thanh, the former head of state-run subsidiary PetroVietnam Construction (PVC), was given the life sentence by the Hanoi City court on Monday, as part of a widespread corruption crackdown, state media reported.

The court also jailed Thanhs former boss and board chairman of the parent company PetroVietnam (PVN), Dinh La Thang, for 13 years for his role in incurring million-dollar losses at the oil giant.

Twenty other officials at PVN and PVC were given nine to 22 year sentences.

After the start of the investigation, Thanh fled to Germany in 2016.

Germanys government claimed the oil executive was kidnapped in July 2017 from a park in Berlin as he sought political asylum. But, Vietnam police say he returned voluntarily and turned himself in.

In its ruling on Monday, the court said the defendants had abused their key roles at the oil company regarding projects of national importance, according to the state-run VNExpress news site.

Thang served as PVN board chairman between 2006 and 2011 before taking on political positions as the transport minister and later party leader of Ho Chi Minh City.

According to the indictment, he directly appointed Thanh as general director of PVC in December 2007 and boosted his power through various corporate decisions.

Under Thanhs leadership between 2008 and 2012, PVC incurred losses worth more than $5m.
The 2018 World Economic Forum is to focus on the effect of globalisation, which critics say has widened inequality.

The four-day 2018 World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting begins in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday.

International politicians and business leaders will ascend to the Swiss Alps for the summit, which is focused on Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World, according to the WEFs website.

Discussions range from Saving economic globalisation from itself to Finding a new equilibrium in the Middle East.

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But critics have questioned the WEFs vision for globalisation, and say the talks are unlikely to help redistribute the worlds wealth.

Is this years meeting significant?

The WEF says this years summit is important because of the debates surrounding globalisation.

But critics expect more of the same, claiming the WEF is a talking shop incapable of delivering meaningful change.

The main critique is that it is a manifest failure of imagination, Max Lawson, Oxfam Internationals head of inequality policy, told Al Jazeera.

WEF attendees have had many years now of handwringing about the growing gap between rich and poor, and very little to show for it  This is clearly because business as usual is good business for those at the top.

Ultimately it is public mobilisation and public anger that will lead to progressive change.

A report by Oxfam published in advance of the Davos summit revealed that half of the worlds population received no share of all wealth created globally in 2017.

Instead, billionaires increased their wealth by $762bn last year, enough to end global extreme poverty seven times over, the UK-based charitys annual inequality report said.

The model of globalisation pursued for the last 40 years had clearly had one set of major winners, the very richest in society, Lawson said, as he warned the current vision on globalisation will create further political, social and economic instability. There has to be a complete change in the economic model.

What is WEF?

WEF is a Geneva-based non-profit foundation committed to improving the state of the world, according to the organisations website.

It aims to shape global, regional and industrial agendas by bringing people together through dialogue.

Established in 1971 by the German economist Klaus Schwab, the WEF was originally known as the European Management Forum, until a name change 16 years later, in 1987.

What happens in Davos?

The WEFs flagship event sees world leaders and business chiefs among some 2,500 attendees, from more than 100 different countries.

They hear cases for international collaboration as a means of solving global challenges.

Mirek Dusek, a member of WEFs executive committee, told Al Jazeera more than 65 heads of state will flock to the historic annual meeting.

But what is even more important is that these political leaders are going to engage  [with] the issues that really matter to the global agenda, he said.

Those issues include the future of mobility, production, the environment and international peace, Dusek said.

Mirek Dusek, WEF executive committee member

A report published by Oxfam ahead of the summit revealed that billionaires increased their wealth by $762bn last year, enough to end global extreme poverty seven times over [Matthias Schrader/AP]

Whos attending?

US President Donald Trump, Indian leader Narendra Modi, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are expected to attend.

Trumps attendance, which comes amid an ongoing US government shutdown, would mark the first visit to the annual summit by a sitting US president since Bill Clinton in 2000.

Trumps America First agenda runs contrary to the WEFs pro-globalisation approach.

Trump is expected to become the first sitting US president to attend a WEF summit since Bill Clinton in 2000 [Evan Vucci/AP]

What is important is that the biggest economy in the world is represented here, and for people to understand the economic, and overall international priorities, of the current [US] administration, said the WEFs Dusek.

But it is Modi who will have the first word, with the Indian prime minister due to give the summits opening address on Tuesday morning. He is expected to urge international businesses to invest in India, which is on track to becoming the worlds fifth-largest economy this year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the IMF, are also expected to attend.

Max Lawson, head of inequality policy for Oxfam International

More than 1,900 individuals representing private sector companies and 900 members of non-governmental organisations are also expected to participate.

Critics use the phrases Davos Man and Davos Woman as shorthand for attendees, alleging the meeting is little more than an exclusive gathering of global elites.

It probably sends out the wrong message, namely that globalisation benefits a jet-setting elite, when in reality everyone benefits when economies open up to trade, Sam Dumitriu, head of research at the UK-based Adam Smith Institute, told Al Jazeera.

Politicians need to stand up for trade, migration and markets, [and] if Davos nudges them to speak out, then its worthwhile. But, little of note appears to be accomplished at the summit.
A Gainesville man, who was being followed by police, stopped his car and yelled at the officer he was almost home  then he kept going, Gainesville Police said.

Jordan Lee Curtis, 19, was speeding in a dark-colored Honda at about 1 a.m. through Northwood Pines when a police officer turned on emergency lights and tried to pull Curtis over, according to the report.

Curtis continued to drive west on Northwest 53 Avenue, ignoring the lights and sirens behind him, police said.

Curtis stopped only long enough to open his car door, lean out and yell at the officer to turn off his lights and sirens because he was almost home, according to the report. Curtis closed the door and continued to drive for nearly a mile from where the officer started following him to his home, police said.

The officer handcuffed Curtis and searched his car, finding less than two grams of marijuana in two plastic bags, according to the report.

Curtis said he didnt stop because he didnt have a drivers license. The officer found Curtis has never had a Florida drivers license, according to the report.

He was charged with having no valid drivers license, possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana and attempting to elude an officer. He was taken to the Alachua County Jail where he was released Friday morning on his own recognizance.

He could not be reached for comment.

Contact Robert Lewis at rlewis@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter at @Lewis__Robert.

Jordan Lee Curtis

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Earl P. Powers Park on Newnans Lake reopened Friday after four months of repair from damage caused during Hurricane Irma.

The park, located at 5910 SE Hawthorne Road, experienced severe flooding, damaging the boat ramp and fishing pier. Fallen trees and debris blocked canal access to the lake, said county spokesperson Mark Sexton. The boat ramp was rebuilt, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission cleared out vegetation from the canal. The parking lot and restrooms reopened Friday, but the playground, picnic area and fishing pier will remain closed for further repairs, he said.

It was quite a complicated process and big job to make sure that access to the lake was safe, he said.

Sexton said the county hopes the Federal Emergency Management Agency will pay for the repairs, a sum they do not yet know.

Gainesville resident Tony Ivey sat on the sparkling metal boat ramp and lobbed his fishing line into the murky waters of the canal Saturday morning. The park has been the 59-year-olds favorite fishing spot since he was 5 years old.

It means a lot, he said. (Being) around the water is really relaxing.

Ivey said flooding left most of the park underwater. Even the picnic tables were floating, he said.

Despite the damage, Ivey said he was grateful to have his fishing spot back.

I really missed it the months that its been down, he said. I really missed it.

Contact Jessica Giles at jgiles@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter at @jessica_giles_.

Earl P. Powers Park on Newnans Lake experienced severe flooding from Hurricane Irma, damaging the boat ramp and fishing pier.

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Ten-year-old Jose carefully poured cups of flour and rice through a funnel attached to a balloon to create his very own stress ball.

His name is Timmy, he said, after drawing a green smiley face on his new handcrafted creation.

Jose was one of the 25 people who went to the free community health fair Saturday afternoon at Iglesia Hispana de Alachua, located at 13719 NW 146th Ave. Joses mother declined to give his last name, citing privacy concerns. The event was held by Children Beyond Our Borders, a Florida nonprofit organization focused toward ensuring the social well-being of immigrant children, their families and additional under-represented groups.

This was the fourth time the event has been held, but the first with dental volunteers from UF Dentistry, said Juan Leon, a volunteer director for the nonprofit.

The 20-year-old UF biomedical engineering sophomore said he helped organize the event to provide free health care to anyone in the community who might need it.

Health care should be a human right given to all, he said.

The UF Mobile Outreach Clinic provided checkups and assessments, said Dr. Diana Montoya-Williams, a UF Health pediatrician and board member of Children Beyond Our Borders.

Mariana Piedrahita, a 21-year-old UF international studies senior and Child Beyond Our Borders intern, leads children activities.

The overall importance is reaching out to the community and educating them about their health resources, Piedrahita said.

Nurses get ready to start seeing the list of patients who signed up for free clinic services on board of the UF Mobile Outreach Clinic. It was parked in front of Iglesia Hispana de Alachua, located at 13719 NW 146th Ave., in Alachua.

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A year after women marched in Washington, D.C., following President Donald Trumps inauguration, protesters put back on their pink-knitted hats, picked up handwritten signs and marched down West University Avenue on Sunday afternoon.

About 450 people met on Bo Diddley Community Plaza, which was covered in chalk-written messages, including Destroy the hetero-patriarchy and #IMPEACH. Genevieve Curtis, the event organizer, told the crowd they were fighting the good fight.

Twelve speakers, including education advocate Chanae Baker and domestic violence survivor Alexandria Davis, shared inspirational messages and talked about womens issues, such as voter involvement and gender equality.

Then, the crowd marched down West University Avenue to Southwest 13th Street and back.

As the marchers paraded on sidewalks, restaurant employees stood outside clapping and drivers honked. One motorcyclist loudly revved her engine to show support.

Organizations tabled on the plaza, including Be the Kind, a local volunteer group accepting donations of menstrual products and undergarments for homeless women.

There are often women who choose between buying food or buying hygiene products, said Lisa Merlo Greene, the groups founder. To us, having to choose between your dignity and eating just seemed like such a horrific choice to make.

Molly Ayers, a 16-year-old dual-enrolled Santa Fe College student, sat on the grass with her family and listened to the speakers. She attended last years March for Science and Womens March in Tallahassee with her mother and enjoys being politically active.

I like to do these marches because I like to make a difference, she said. Someday Ill tell my grandkids, I was at the womens marches, and I made a change.

Ayers hopes to one day become a marine biologist and work for a sea turtle conservation. In the meantime, her concerns range from North Korean missiles to depleting environmental protections under the Trump administration, she said.

She wore a handmade pink beanie and carried a sign depicting Trump as a dinosaur about to be hit by a Korean missile.

We have a tyrant for a president, Ayers said, explaining her drawing. He has political beliefs that dont belong in the modern world.

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Curtis said she had never organized an activist event before Sunday, but she began planning this march a month ago after noticing a lack of Womens March events in Gainesville. She said she will host the event next year, and it will be bigger and better.

I think what we saw today was an absolutely inspiring declaration of the community that theyre not gonna tolerate the lesser treatment of women, she said. Were going to speak power to truth, and we are going to remove people who abuse their power.

Contact Amanda Rosa at arosa@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter at @amandanicrosa.

A protester wearing the signature pink knit hat to the Women's Resistance movement sits among a crowd of protesters gathered on Bo Diddley Community Plaza to listen to speakers before marching down University Avenue to raise support for female involvement in the American political process. Donations were collected for areas affected by the 2017 hurricane season.
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump underwent a four-hour examination of physical and cognitive health. As of late, some were concerned about Trumps erratic speech patterns, exhibited narcissism, often poor judgment and rash decision making. He was deemed healthy, passing the cognitive test  the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, widely used to test for early signs of Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia  with a reportedly perfect score. This test is fairly high in validity but is not used to assess psychiatric disorders such as narcissistic personality disorder, anxiety or depression.

Im not going to sit here as an undergraduate psychology student and give a definitive list of which mental disorders or impairments should preclude a person from being president and which should not. For that matter, I will not even try to craft a list of which should inhibit a person from functioning in any role of influence or leadership. What I will do, however, is discuss the difference, in my opinion, between cognitive impairment and psychological disorders. They should be examined and treated differently, in terms of both care and attitude.

According to a study by the Duke University Medical Center, in which biographical sources for the first 37 presidents were analyzed, half had been afflicted by mental illness. To add to that finding, more than a quarter met the criteria for mental illness while in office. About 24 percent met the criteria for depression, including former Presidents James Madison and Abraham Lincoln. Nearly 8 percent showed evidence of anxiety disorders, including former Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Woodrow Wilson. And close to 8 percent showed signs of bipolar disorder, including former Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Theodore Roosevelt.

None of these men were perfect. No one is. Did these mental disorders make their lives harder? Probably. Could these mental disorders have impacted their ability to lead? Maybe.

Heres the thing, though: We cannot let mental disorders rule people out of positions of power. There is a theory that a high percentage of upper-level executives are psychopaths. Im in no way saying being a psychopath is a good thing, but this clearly is not hindering their success and ability to lead.

I know a vast majority of you probably hate Trump or at least dislike him. Youre allowed to hate him and to be dissatisfied with his leadership style and/or his personality. You can wish that he be impeached or decide to resign. However, what you should not do is make a blanket statement that people affected by psychiatric disorders (whether officially diagnosed or merely theoretical) are unfit to do their jobs.

I think Ive given Trump more than enough attention for the time being, so lets talk about you, dear reader. I dont know what youre struggling with or what is going on inside your mind. I hope you have someone in your life  a friend, parent, mentor, therapist or whomever it may be  that you can talk to about whats happening in there.

While a certain level of cognitive ability is desired depending on your role, you should not feel as though you are incapable of achieving what you wish based on a diagnosis. Dont let anyone say you are less capable because your brain is wired differently than others. We live in a time with a wide range of available treatment options, from behavioral-cognitive therapy to medication and so much more. Take advantage of whatever your resources allow you to. I hope you can embrace and conquer what your mind decides to throw your way. What Trump does a lot of the time is unnerving and, quite frankly, terrifying. But I hope he, like all of us, can play to his strengths and overcome his weaknesses to be a better, more stable leader.

Taylor Cavaliere is a UF journalism and psychology junior. Her column appears on Mondays.

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On Jan. 13, Hawaii experienced 38 minutes of fear from a supposed incoming ballistic missile attack when a state employee clicked the wrong item from a drop-down menu. One would think the U.S. government would handle nuclear prevention programs with the same degree of sophistication that makes these weapons possible. Instead, the warning for the inescapable likelihood of thousands of deaths and the beginning of nuclear war was determined by the same interface that students use to save their homework.

Since the end of the Cold War, the idea of mutually-assured destruction has allowed people to develop the ill-conceived notion that the possible use of nuclear weapons can be overlooked. Americas leaders fall into the trap of using an empty threat of nuclear weapons as a magical tool to achieve foreign policy goals. Today, in a time when the U.S. should be a paragon for diplomacy, it has become an origin for rising international tension.

Just this past Tuesday at a Vancouver conference composed of 20 nations, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned if North Korea does not give up on their nuclear program, they themselves will trigger an option. The American public must understand the danger of nuclear weapons to pressure government officials to handle nuclear policy as cautiously as possible as the weapons are dangerous.

Although today it may seem absurd that people in the 1950s hid under desks to protect themselves from nuclear attacks, contemporary views on nuclear power are just as clouded about current technology. The average American probably thinks of the mushroom cloud from the attack on Hiroshima or Nagasaki to represent the power of nuclear weapons, but technology has dramatically developed since then. A modern-day hydrogen bomb can be at least 1,000 times more powerful than the type of atomic bomb dropped in Japan. In 1945, scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory estimated it could take as few as 10 hydrogen bombs to end the human race.

Conventional thermonuclear weapons are not the only nuclear weapons to threaten civilization. It took about 120,000 people to build the first atomic bomb, but it no longer takes such scientific genius and manpower to harness the power of nuclear weapons. Small extremist groups have the potential to turn conventional explosives into a nuclear weapon in the form of a radiological dispersion device, or dirty bomb, to release radiation. According to the Institute for Science and International Security, a nonprofit organization that monitors global nuclear threats, groups like the Islamic State have long discussed the possibility of using easily obtainable radioactive material, such as cobalt-60, in a dirty bomb. Cobalt-60 is a highly radioactive isotope used in medical technology that can be dangerous in relatively small amounts. Leo Szilard, a scientist who worked on the Manhattan Project, calculated that just one-tenth of an ounce of cobalt-60 present on every square mile of earth would make the planet uninhabitable. Science has developed over time to create scarier and deadlier weapons; nuclear policy has yet to match todays technology.

Like all aspects of government, it is important for experts to be part of the discussion to make the best decisions. However, nuclear policy is different. Unlike topics like education or health care, if someone says uninformed decisions on nuclear policy could destroy millions of lives, it is not an exaggeration. Scientists and policy experts who focus on nuclear power can provide insight even the brightest politicians could not understand on their own. Secondly, Congress must reform the procedure for a U.S. nuclear strike. While there are checks and balances within the federal government for other political actions, the president currently has the ability to order a nuclear strike without the influence of another branch of government. In an era where a president holds such a polarizing view on a choice with grave consequences, Congress should be required to approve a nuclear strike to better represent the views of the American people.

Due to dramatic shifts in political culture, words and actions that would have been considered extreme in the past are now commonplace. When President Donald Trump threatens to use his much bigger and more powerful nuclear button, he threatens to kill hundreds of thousands of people. As a part of the worlds community, Americans cannot stand for such threats to innocent human life.

Joshua Udvary is a UF environmental engineering junior. His column appears on Fridays.
Disabilities R Us

Over the last decade, programs to accommodate students with disabilities have been installed at most institutions of higher education, spurred largely by government mandate. Like George W. Bush's failed No Child Left Behind Act, with Title I provisions to aid the disadvantaged, the thinking is that no student should be left behind owing to disability. This measure is a subset of the "social justice" movement that seeks to equalize job and social outcomes irrespective of talent, competence, personal input, and professional responsibility. Nobody wants to de-privilege the disadvantaged or the suffering. The disability fetish, however, has adversely affected the performance of the average student, created enormous difficulties for teachers, and complicated administrative procedures to the point of functionary chaos.

I have recently examined an accommodation document issued by a university, which I won't name. The data are stunning. Student A requires extended time for assignments and exams. Student B requires a word-processor with spell- and grammar-checker. Student C must not write more than one exam per day. Student D requires one day between exams. Student E requires "mind maps" (i.e., cheat sheets). Student F needs N.C. (noise-canceling) headphones to prevent distraction. And so on all the way down the alphabet. Indeed, even as I write, a professor at the University of Guelph has been suspended for allegedly chastising an anxiety-disability student. There are at least six obvious problems with the disability regime of the modern university, listed here in random fashion. First, there is the problem of invisible disabilities, which far outnumber physical ones. When is test anxiety, for example, anything but a normal occurrence, and why should it be classed as a pathology requiring accommodation? We have all been through this and survived. Though many disabilities may be genuine, the opportunity for suddenly developing a qualifying infirmity is immense and has undoubtedly been taken advantage of by the thousands. A number of disabilities can easily be faked; in addition to test anxiety, there are agoraphobia, depression, bipolarity, panic attacks, "struggles with mental health"  and those that aren't deliberately manufactured may still be more a matter of interpretation than a measurable impairment. Second, accommodations to produce so-called fairness are likely to produce the opposite. With extra time, cheat sheets, and ancillary software, a "disabled" student may do better than a regular student, who is writing exams on successive days or two exams in one day, whose spelling and grammar are not impeccable, who is distracted by surrounding noise and the presence of other students, who is not permitted to profit from extra time, and who is forbidden from using what Harvard educator David Perkins in Smart Schools approvingly called "person plus" implements (mind maps, memory aids, etc.). The accommodation process is manifestly unfair to those students who neither demand nor seek indulgence and are in danger of ending up with poorer grades than their pampered peers. It may also produce a state of demoralization in the ordinary student, who naturally resents the favored treatment accorded others and may be tempted to board the gravy train by purchasing a false disability ticket. From this follows a third problem: unmanageable numbers. When the program was first installed at a university with which I am intimately familiar, the numbers were readily treatable  perhaps a few dozen students. Now, judging from the information to which I have been made privy, the student disability ratio is almost one in ten. All a student lobbying for disability status lacks is a letter from a psychologist, easily acquired, in many cases scarcely worth the paper it's printed on (and a lucrative source of income for the provider). The numbers are more than the university bureaucracy can effectively handle, leading to confusion, unresponsiveness, rank inefficiency, and costly student lawsuits against administrative incompetence. When a system designed to handle at most a few hundred applicants must now accommodate several thousand, the predictable result is organizational bedlam. The genuinely disabled inevitably suffer. The fourth problem seems insoluble: the university is running out of classrooms to accommodate the growing number of disability claimants who require their own private venues for exams and tests. It is by no means unlikely to find one student sitting alone in a classroom while teachers scramble many blocks from campus to invigilate their exams in inadequate rooms in decrepit buildings. The university begins to resemble a slum. The fifth problem has to do with the legal liability incurred by professors who are vulnerable to readily fabricated student grievances, generally on grounds of discrimination. "Disability" students (i.e., not necessarily "disabled" students), much like their "transgender" counterparts sensitive to pronoun violation, are apt to take revenge on their teachers for perceived slights, affronts, offenses, bias, bigotry, ableism, indifference  legally supported by human rights legislation. Instructors are not permitted to know the nature of the ailment or disability from which the student presumably suffers and often, owing to unteachably large classes of 60 or 70 students, are not aware until the final day of class which name on tests and papers corresponds with the individual who wrote them. Any student who "feels" discriminated against can launch a human rights complaint against the apparent offender. It is not uncommon to find a mystified teacher standing before a hostile human rights tribunal with no means of defending himself against a nothingburger accusation. A sixth problem is procedural. Access services typically demands that exams for disability students must be submitted days before the actual exam date to allow for processing time. Sometimes this means that the exam must be prepared before the course is over. How a teacher can be expected to properly compose and submit a final exam before all the material has been covered in class has apparently never occurred to the disability proctors. In the final analysis, it is the university itself  where every second administrator is a diversity officer and almost every first administrator is a spineless excrescence  that has become disabled, turning into an institution "no less disabled than many of the students it cossets and graduates." The modern university  particularly the social sciences and the humanities  has become a sinkhole of ineptitude and a chronicle of despair, stretching the definition of "disabled" to include any and every invented excuse for refusing to meet one's curricular obligations while compelling pedagogical assent  a surefire recipe for stagnation and decline. We are all the less for it.
How Republicans Gain Seats This Year

Daily reports by the media express the likelihood that the Republicans will lose seats in both Houses of Congress. They point to losses in Alabama, Virginia, and Wisconsin by Republicans as proof that Donald Trump is dragging down the party. Trump's poll numbers are offered to demonstrate his unpopularity. These numbers are questionable, to be sure, as Democrats are often over-represented. Clearly, these polls demonstrate how Trump's personal style rattles many. They reflect the constant negative press reports, which do not recognize his impact upon our national economy. Routinely, the off-year elections will cost the party that occupies the White House seats in the Congress. Yet there is a way to ensure that this effect is minimized or reversed.

The Republicans must draw a stark contrast with the Democrats. The best way to do this is to put together legislation that makes the reduction in the personal tax rates (just enacted at the end of 2017) permanent. Bringing this legislation forward will draw a direct line that any Republican can support and run on. The public will gladly support this in most states. The few exceptions, such as New York and California, are already a lost cause for gaining any seats. Many Republicans from these states are planning on retiring (so far, a total of 30 have indicated this desire), which will likely put pressure on Republicans to hold their numbers. They need good and thoughtful candidates to run for office. In the Senate, it is possible to gain seats, as more Democrats are up for re-election. Many are in states that supported Trump. The best way for Republican candidates to gain victories is to align themselves with Trump's economic policies. The economy is booming, and with sustained growth due to the new tax law, this benefit will accrue to the administration. If the primaries give candidates like Judge Moore, then the outcome is problematic. Further, the Republicans must place long-term funding for the military within the continuing resolutions, taking this issue off the table. Let the Democrats decide if they want to stop funding national priorities over ensuring that the military is funded sufficiently. Today, most voters will not support this, as the military is now viewed positively. As the economy improves, the pressure to support social welfare programs diminishes among most citizens. If the House were to bring forth an immigration bill that the White House could support, then that would also put the Senate Democrats on the line to decide which priorities are critical for them. The compromise offered by the Gang of Six senators gave a clear negotiated victory to the Democrats on chain migration, the wall, and the visa lottery. The outrage by Democrats over Trump's language is proof that the change in message was necessary to thwart a clear understanding by the public of how the Democrats rolled the Republicans. Repatriation of companies' foreign assets, as Apple has announced, will occur quietly among most businesses. Growth of factory jobs will ensure that the forgotten blue-collar middle Americans support the administration. These voters will continue to support Trump despite the press reports. Despite a year of nonstop negative reports, Trump has managed to govern. His supporters do not miss this. Moderates will slowly see his bombast as distinct form his policies over time. As the DOJ begins to unravel the corruption in the previous administration, the Democrats will find it harder to scream about Trump collusion. Robert Mueller and his investigators will not go away quickly, but as time marches on, the public will forget the details. Unless they can find some direct illegality by Trump or his family, the damage will be limited. The Democrats have one strategy to stop Trump's policies. Stalling and opposition can be a great defense, but the Republicans must be on the offense. This is the reason Trump tweets daily. Perhaps the Republican legislators can learn this technique. Effective communications have not been the hallmark of Republicans. If they learn how to press the issues, they will prevail in the off-year elections of 2018.
Pot Politics: How Democrats Politicize the Recreational Marijuana Issue to Win Midterm Elections

One of the reasons the Democrats lost the November 2016 election was low voter turnout. As the 2018 midterms approach, Democrats have politicized the recreational marijuana issue as a means of increasing voter turnout, knowing that many in their voter base want the recreational use of marijuana to be legalized. They put the recreational marijuana issue to a vote in the 2016 California election. The recreational marijuana use law in California went into effect on January 1, 2018  just by coincidence, a midterm election year. And just as the Democrats had hoped, Jeff Sessions, the attorney general of the United States, announced that he has reversed the Obama-era Holder-Lynch policy, called the Cole Memorandum, which generally stated that the federal government will not enforce parts of the Controlled Substances Act. Sessions has asked U.S. attorneys to begin prosecution of recreational marijuana use.

Democrat hopes that Jeff Sessions would take the bait were realized. They can use the public attention over the Sessions war on the legalization of marijuana in California as an issue to exploit in the fall to 1) bring out voters of all ages and 2) simultaneously portray Jeff Sessions and the Republican Party as the bad guys who are all against recreational marijuana use and should be voted out of office. That this was a planned strategy can be seen by the media hype being given to anti-Sessions politicians in marijuana-friendly states. For example, Jay Inslee, the governor of Washington, has come out against the Sessions announcement, promising to fight Sessions. This portrays the governor as someone with admirable qualities  ready to "resist," in the language of the DNC, the efforts of stodgy, stiff, fun-hating conservatives to outlaw their access to marijuana. And if the resistance to the Sessions mandate spills over and attaches to President Trump, all the better. All of these Democrat politicians are merely actors in the politics of pot charade. That this is part of a multi-year plan can be easily seen when Obama's actions are reviewed. President Obama's memo to the U.S. attorneys was not a formal executive order, but a guideline not to enforce the federal ban on marijuana sales in all states. (The president does not have any legal authority to pick and choose which federal laws will, and will not, be enforced, but he can prioritize.) If the Democrats truly wanted to help pot-smokers they could have easily, in 2009 or 2010, when they controlled the entire Congress and had president Obama on their side, removed recreational marijuana from the list of controlled substances. But they didn't. And why they didn't should be a lesson in the politics of pot for those who support recreational marijuana use. Barack Obama stated in his book Dreams from My Father that he tried marijuana in his younger years. So pro-pot voters thought that in Obama, they had a true believer: someone who would be their representative in the White House, who would not fight the legalization of marijuana's recreational use. But Obama turned out to be a closet opponent of the legalization of the recreational use of marijuana  he followed his party's carefully designed strategy of not federally legalizing marijuana nationwide. This left the state-by-state battles open, to be used by the DNC to mobilize pot-friendly voters in upcoming elections. And Democrats think that if voters will turn out for state elections, they will not ignore the federal offices on the ballot. Democrats have framed recreational marijuana legalization as a state issue  that when states vote to legalize recreational use, that legalization is sufficient. But it's not. All states must obey federal controlled substances laws. Democrats want to portray Sessions and Trump as the bad guys who are taking rights away from people who live in states that have pseudo-legalized recreational marijuana use. In reality, states have no authority to defy federal laws, and Democrats know it. For many election cycles, political observers have pointed out that Democrats always put the legalization of pot on the ballot in order to boost voter turnout. But what is different is that now the spotlight is on Sessions and the federal law that bans recreational marijuana use. In the past twenty years, of the two political parties, only Democrats had the congressional power needed to decriminalize pot at the federal level. One can argue that they are solely responsible for the fact that it is still a federal crime to possess marijuana. But they have cleverly blamed the federal criminalization of marijuana use on Sessions and Trump. It's part of their perpetual strategy to increase President Trump's negatives. Marijuana-supporters should remember this: there would be no battle over the legalization of pot if Democrats didn't enable one. So the Democratic Party puts its own political power over the legalization of recreational marijuana. Knowledge of this scam should turn marijuana-smokers against Democrats. Pro-legalization voters are pawns in the national DNC strategy to increase voter turnout. Their real strategy is to manipulate their voters with promises; the DNC chooses politics over pot. The last thing they want to do is permanently legalize recreational marijuana use, at the federal level, in all fifty states.
That's certainly an arresting proposition! Let's end our constitutional republic. We don't need citizens electing a president; instead, Democrats and "nonpartisan" doctors can work it out for us.

American psychiatrist Bandy Lee recently stated President Trump needs a "capacity exam," because we may need to "remove the danger as quickly as possible[.] ... [T]he law allows us to curtail liberties in this way because patients later return to thank us."

It's not as if Lee were a lone crank. She is actually backed up by an entire team of Ph.D. psychiatrists. Democrat congresspeople are thrilled to work with her, or, as she described it, "I was astonished by the level of eagerness to speak with us."

Various people  such as Professor Alan Dershowitz and Twitter personalities Thomas Wictor and James Jesus Angleton  independently responded to this new assault on Trump by pointing out that using psychiatry to attack political opponents is a Soviet tactic.

This prompts the question: is Mr. Dershowitz using hyperbole to win a political argument? Or is Lee using a tactic Brezhnev would recognize?

There is also the Trump-Russia investigation to evaluate. It's run by a former director of our secret police (Mueller) and was prompted when another director of our secret police (Comey) spied and illegally leaked information. Would Comrade Andropov approve?

To answer the question, let's turn to the autobiography of heroic Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky. He spent over a decade in prisons, labor camps, and psychiatric wards. Later, he documented his struggle against communism in the superb book To Build a Castle. Let's see if there are parallels between how the Soviet system punished Bukovsky and how the American establishment is trying to take down Trump.

Bukovksy says political investigations started on the "most unlikely pretexts," making use of the "the most colorful of the denunciations they have received of the chosen victim." Given that Trump's persecution loosely began with the alleged "pee dossier," it would seem there is a similarity here.

The key point with the Trump investigation is that he is not accused of a specific crime. No one knows exactly what Trump did wrong  just that he must be investigated. Bukovsky explained:

In a political investigation, however, the case is instituted against the man, because in the opinion of the KGB and the [p]arty bosses his time has come. They have accumulated an assortment of denunciations revealing his utterances, intentions, contacts, and influence on others, or showing him as being in somebody's way[  ]or, on the contrary, refusing to cooperate, or knowing too much and talking about it[  ]or, on the contrary, not wanting to know at all. In short, he's ripe for it. More often than not, a whole circle of people is considered ripe for being put away  they need to be brought into line.

The Trump-Russia counsel is now working to bring people into line. "A whole team of investigators is assigned, and day by day, hour by hour, they minutely examine citizen N's whole life  it cannot be that this citizen has never done anything of 'that sort[';] we don't have such spotless people in our country."

Have the "sinning" Republicans who voted for Trump "regretted" their actions yet? Will Trump "repent"?

"Of course, before the investigation is completed citizen N, under the weight of all the incriminating evidence, is supposed to repent, to acknowledge his mistakes, or at the very least to regret what he has done. Otherwise the investigators themselves will catch it: a political investigation is in the first instance the re-education of a sinner, and the investigator is both an educator and a political instructor."

The problem Democrats are facing today is that despite the best efforts of America's secret police force, no crime can be found. Thus the need for Bandy Lee.

This happened to Bukovsky, too. Surprisingly, even the KGB couldn't find a pretext to lock Bukovsky away, so the KGB passed him off to doctors who diagnosed him as a psychopath and a schizophrenic. "My case wasn't acquiring any shape[;] my artists weren't able to compose a clear picture, not even with the help of their snoopers. Hence the asylum."

Yet Trump persists in "forbidden" behavior. He is in "conflict with society":

They [psychiatrists] asked me all the same questions: [w]hy was I in conflict with society and with its accepted norms? Why did my beliefs seem of overwhelming importance to me  more important than my liberty, my studies, or my mother's peace of mind? For instance, I persisted in going to Mayakovsky Square. Yet I knew it was forbidden; I had been warned. Why did I continue going there?

Weak Republicans submit to the establishment. Trump refuses to surrender. Every time he complains, the establishment becomes angry. "There was also no one to complain to, for every complaint got lodged in your case history as yet one more proof of your insanity." When Trump fired Comey, the establishment went absolutely ballistic. Establishment Republicans considered it proof of his insanity.

As long as Trump stays true to himself and his campaign promises, the establishment will never exonerate him:

Never in our history has a court acquitted anyone arraigned on political charges. The most that can happen is that they hand out a suspended sentence  if, that is, the repentance is particularly handsome. After all, the first concern of our Soviet judges must be to educate the masses.

To return to the questions posed earlier, yes, it seems as though Andropov and Brezhnev would be quite comfortable understanding and enacting the schemes taking place in America today. Hell, they may even look on in admiration.

Perhaps a better question is this: would George Washington recognize what we have become?

Daniel Ashman can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/dashman76.
The FBI has told a Senate committee that it " lost " the text messages of top counterintelligence officials attempting to undercut President Trump, conveniently during the five months when their political activity was most fervent. This calls for its own investigation.

The Department of Justice made the disclosure in a letter to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Friday, according to the Daily Caller. The letter states that FBI systems didn't preserve text messages between FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page. "The [d]epartment wants to bring to your attention that the FBI's technical system for retaining text messages sent and received on FBI mobile devices failed to preserve text messages for Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page," the letter states. Stephen Boyd, the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, penned the letter. Citing "misconfiguration issues related to rollouts, provisioning, and software upgrades that conflicted with the FBI's collection capabilities," Boyd explained that "data that should have been automatically collected and retained for long-term storage and retrieval [were] not collected."

What's striking here, to pretty much everyone reading this and writing about it, is how similar this "loss" is to previous cases of missing emails, notably in the missing emails of the Internal Revenue Service during the Obama years, which was taking political heat for targeting political dissidents, as well as missing emails claimed by the National Security Agency in another incident.

The grand-daddy of all of these incidents was in the missing State Department emails of then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who was under fire for her pay-to-play foreign policy involving foreign donations for the Clinton Foundation. That, of course, was an echo of her previously missing billing records involved in the Whitewater scandal.

What it shows is that the Deep State has found a convenient means of getting around pesky congressional investigations, taking its lead from the impunity precedents set by the corrupt dealings of Hillary Rodham Clinton. If Hillary got away with it, what a surprise that we are now seeing all sorts of federal agencies using the same tactics to get away with it, too.

It's a bad precedent that howls for some kind of reform. One of these is a new special counsel, as suggested by Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, whose Senate committee was the one that didn't get the text messages.

Another area of focus is on Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his need to act. One idea is to fire him, as the commenters on Legal Insurrection's post (an intelligent bunch) suggest. Another is to watch what Sessions is doing now, which is pressuring the FBI to clean house and remove all of the top-seeded political operatives near the top of the agency's hierarchy, as Axios has reported here.

These ideas have merit, but they don't address the problem root and branch, which is that federal agencies have succeeded repeatedly in avoiding congressional accountability by destroying legally bound preservable emails and text-messages done on government computers.

First, there is a likelihood that the material was destroyed, given its convenient time frame, beginning right about when the Deep State was leaking the Steele dossier to the press and ending right when Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel to investigate President Trump, to the very date.

Second of all, there's a likelihood that the material is recoverable, even as the FBI says it is not. Cloud computing means text messages are stored somewhere, and assorted servers would likely have the material as well. There's also the NSA, which has powerful surveillance capabilities. There's also the possibility that the FBI lovebirds, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who were carrying on an affair as they sent their anti-Trump texts, sent texts to other people, and those messages could be recovered.

As a caveat, one must remember that these are counterintelligence people, and it's likely that their cell phones had stronger security than other people's phones. That said, it's astonishing, really, that the FBI somehow doesn't seem to have crack teams to retrieve these memos, given that its crack teams can pretty well break into and retrieve any communications from the computers of porno perverts, terrorists, and other miscreants they routinely bust.

But if they can't investigate themselves, and message erasure is a routine means of evading congressional investigations, perhaps what's needed now is a new government agency dedicated solely to cyber-investigation against unwilling government agencies.

What's at stake here is astonishing. Did Strzok and Page talk more about their "insurance policy" in their texts? Were other players involved? Did the FBI allow Russian agents to write the Steele dossier, and were they fooled by the disinformation because they were blinded by their loathing of Trump? Did they politick to overthrow Trump? Was the pretext for the special counsel a made up affair? Did they try to cover their keisters? These are questions one might find answers to on those missing texts.

It's time to find other means of retrieving those missing data.
On top of that, the so-called "enthusiasm gap" heavily favored the Democrats. Their voters seemed more excited, and thus more likely, to vote in November's midterm elections.

It was a dismal year for Republicans, as polls consistently showed the party trailing Democrats in national generic congressional ballots. Last month, the gap between the parties was 18 points in the CNN poll , with double-digit leads by Dems in other polls.

The numbers were latched on to by national pundits as proof that a Democratic wave was building that would sweep the party into power.

But something has changed in the last month. Republicans passed a massive tax cut and despite Democratic efforts to disparage it, independents and Republicans have apparently embraced it. The gap between the parties on the congressional generic ballot has narrowed in the CNN poll from 18 points to 5 and Republicans are far more enthusiastic about voting than they were just a month ago. The new poll's 49% Democrat to 44% Republican margin among registered voters is almost identical to Democrats' standing in January of 2006, the last midterm election year in which they made significant gains in the House of Representatives. But it represents a large shift from CNN polls conducted in the past three months, in which Democrats held double-digit advantages over the Republicans. Preferences among all adults have shifted less dramatically, but are also tighter than last fall, with Democrats currently 10 points ahead of Republicans among all Americans.

Polling all Americans is a useless exercise, especially for a midterm election, where turnout will be between 25 and 30%. Polling registered voters is more accurate but falls short of polls that include only "likely voters."

Enthusiasm about voting in this year's contests has grown as the calendar page has turned, with a spike among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents from 32% feeling extremely or very enthusiastic about casting a ballot in December to 43% saying the same now. Democrats still hold an advantage in enthusiasm, however, with 51% saying they are that enthusiastic about voting in this year's midterm elections. Enthusiasm for this year's contests peaks among liberal Democrats, 62% of whom say they are deeply energized about voting. Among conservative Republicans, just 46% say the same. That disparity is fueling the Democrats' much wider edge on the generic ballot among enthusiastic voters. Among those voters who call themselves extremely or very enthusiastic about casting a ballot, 56% favor the Democratic candidate in their district, while 41% favor the Republican. Republicans hold a 5-point edge among those voters who rate themselves somewhat enthusiastic or less.

The "enthusiasm gap" matters. While not a guarantee of voter sentiment about casting a ballot on election day, the numbers reflect the reality that voters for the party out of power are eager to change that, while voters belonging to the party in power are less so. This is reflected by historical results that show that the party that holds the White House loses a significant number of seats in the first midterm election.

Party partisans are going to vote regardless of how "enthusiastic" they are. Far more significant are GOP gains among those who are slightly less enthusiastic. They are the persuadables, and with the right message and competent voter outreach, they will be the ones who determine whether the GOP stays in power or is thrown out.

Trump's relative unpopularity will be a drag, and the Democrats will do everything they can to nationalize the election. But there's one big ingredient missing for Democrats: a national issue. In 2010 and 2014, Republicans had Obamacare to run against. The Dems will try to run against the tax cuts, but with just about everybody getting more money in his pocket because of them, the Dems aren't likely to succeed.

And, against all polling expectations, things are beginning to improve for Trump. Despite massive negative media since he took office, his approval stands between 40% and 45%. Those numbers have been slowly climbing over the last month.

Recent individual state polls are hard to come by, but a surprising result in sky-blue Minnesota should fuel more optimism for Republicans.

Star Tribune:

The Star Tribune's first election year poll is complete and, all things considered, it was a good series of results for Minnesota Republicans. President Donald Trump's job approval came in at 45 percent. His 2016 Minnesota tally: 44.9 percent. [This] means [that] after one of the most tumultuous first years in recent presidential history, if Trump lost supporters here, he must have gained an equal number. He was especially strong in the suburbs and in greater Minnesota, which could mean help for Republicans like U.S. Rep. Jason Lewis and GOP state lawmakers in the suburbs where Trump's support remains strong. It may seem strange that a president's approval rating would be crucial to a contest in which he is not on the ballot, but history bears out a strong correlation. The president's party loses an average of more than 36 seats in Congress when his approval is below 50 percent. But Trump's number in Minnesota does not foretell the kind of election wave that many Democrats are hoping for.

That's the bottom line. Democratic hopes for a massive victory next November were fueled during the fall by horrible numbers for Republicans. But as this and other polls suggest, those hopes may have been transitory. The GOP is likely to lose some seats, given the number of Republican House members retiring and some districts held by the GOP turning bluer. But the outlook today gives the Republicans a decent chance to hold on to the House  something few would have considered just a few short months ago.
Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Luis Gutierrez have indirectly given away Democratic fears. First, Senator Schumer came out of his meeting with President Trump claiming he had offered some compromise with the president on the wall. Gutierrez then added :

[H]e's ready to give President Trump his signature border wall if the Republicans will agree to new legal protections for "[DREAM]ers.["] Furthermore, he said he'd help with the construction. "I'll take a bucket, take bricks, and start building it myself," Gutierrez told reporters in the Capitol. "We will dirty our hands in order for the [DREAM]ers to have a clean future in America."

We all know that Democrats are good at coordinated messaging. Why the sudden reversal? The wall has been the main sticking point for both sides. Why are Democrats suddenly ready to give President Trump a victory in this regard?

The short answer is chain migration and the visa lottery. The wall in and of itself, while obviously helpful in border security, is not the be-all, end-all. Its real importance is that it is a visual and physical demonstration that President Trump intends to keep his promises on immigration. If Trump gets any significant portion of the wall started, then he wins a modest political victory, and border security is enhanced a bit. However, if recalcitrant Democrats prevent funding or delay construction, they will be the ones hurt, not President Trump.

Chain migration and the visa lottery are a completely different story. As we all know, Democrat interest in immigration reform is in simply assuring a continuing and steady supply of new Democrat voters. If recent immigration history demonstrated that newly minted citizens tend to vote Republican, the wall would have already been built. Instead, chain migration and the visa lottery continue to assure a steady supply of Democrat voters of low skill.

In his immigration speeches, President Trump always says, "Build the wall!" Lately, he's also added chain migration and the visa lottery, along with E-Verify, to his list of immigration fixes. Of all those immigration reforms, the loss of chain migration and the visa lottery would do the most damage to the Democrat voter import machine. Both of those programs are responsible for a large number of unsuitable foreign arrivals who end up on public assistance or in prison and eventually as Democrat voters, legally or sometimes not.

Two things will have an impact on this discussion. First, President Trump's administration is gaining serious momentum. A burgeoning economy, the result of Trump's assault on egregious regulation along with the recent tax bill, are already having a positive effect on workers' wallets. Couple that with positive employment news among some core Democrat constituencies: women's unemployment is lowest in decades, and of even more concern to Democrats, black and hispanic unemployment is the lowest ever. This could give President Trump some legislative muscle if the GOP will get behind him.

Second and directly on the heels of the "Trump Recovery," Democrats have decided to back the concerns of illegal aliens instead of American citizens in the most public possible way: by shutting down the federal government. For now, President Trump appears to be winning the messaging war on this, calling out Senator Schumer and the Democrats for taking the side of illegal aliens.

This is why Democrats are showing willingness to move toward President Trump on the wall. This would be a minor political retreat, but as long as their legal supply of voters isn't cut off, they can live with it. Schumer's and Gutierrez's recent statements are an attempt to lock in a DACA agreement and pay for it with a minor concession regarding the wall.

However, President Trump has some serious economic wind at his back. Add to this the Democrats' open choice of illegals over Americans, and Trump may actually run the table and get everything he asks for on his immigration reform list. Democrats, on the other hand, could end up with the 800K DACA "children" being given some sort of work status and funding for the wall being revisited annually. All in all, a pretty good deal.

Keep the pressure on the Democrats. Every 24 hours that goes by, take something else off the table.

Mike Ford is a sometime contributor to American Thinker.
So Nikki Haley, Sarah Sanders, and Sarah Palin didn't attend the Women's March?

Last Saturday, several million women once again had a public temper tantrum, for that's what it really was, because a year earlier they didn't get what they wanted. What they wanted was the election to the presidency of a woman who attained power  i.e., was elected senator  in a state in which she didn't reside and later as a high-level government official, secretary of state, and finally, after an eight-year wait, nomination to the presidency, through her husband's, um, coat-tails, so to speak. This is a woman who enabled and excused her husband's predatory and violent sexual behavior while maligning his victims. And so these women protested, thus repudiating a democratic election, one in which the winner overwhelmingly captured the Electoral College and also the white female vote. Saturday's female get-together of resistance against a duly and democratically elected president was justified as a march to the polls, called Power to the Polls.

The Power to the Polls rally aims to launch a national voter registration and mobilization tour. The goal is to register more women to vote, and to elect more women and progressive candidates to public office. But many women were able to register to vote and actively involve themselves in politics independently, without prodding by a mass female self-victimization. They didn't attend the pity parties. They were too busy and too productive elsewhere. Here are just a few prominent ones; and there are so many more: Two years ago, Nikki Haley (R), the daughter of immigrants from India and a woman of a little color, was governor of South Carolina. Last year, President Donald J. Trump (R) appointed her as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. On the eve of the first anniversary of her new job, she was in Afghanistan, meeting the women of that country who have real problems of health, education, and safety, hoping and helping to improve their condition. However, the terrible plight of the women of Afghanistan, of Iran was just not on the minds of the pink pussy-hatted self-centered silly sign-carrying women Saturday. RT@USUN: Thank you First Lady Ghani for introducing us to this group of women. Today in Afghanistan, more girls are going to school & women are serving their government & starting businesses. They're using the power of their voices to create a brighter future for their country. pic.twitter.com/OnmZB4dVsB  Nikki Haley (@nikkihaley) January 17, 2018 Meanwhile, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, whom the (in)tolerant liberals love to hate, mocking her for her supposedly large size while jealous of her multiple talents, such as pie-baking, which is way beyond their skill set, was busy as usual Saturday, calmly pointing out that another Democratic woman, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), is "very proud" that Democrats shut the government down over illegal immigration and is taking Democrats out tonight to celebrate. Nice message to send to the brave men and women of our military and border patrol forced to work without pay during the #DemocraticShutdown. But...but...that's apparently just fine, because Pelosi is a woman, and a rich one at that  well, okay, her husband is very, very, very rich, so a thousand-dollar tax reduction or even a bonus is "crumbs." Yes, lady-marchers offended by some of Trump's statements, that crummy dismissal is beyond offensive, indicating that you don't understand real women. Former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin (R), another non-attendee, was elected mayor and then governor in Alaska, and then chosen by Sen. John McCain (R) as his vice presidential running mate ten years ago, all accomplished without a whiny march and a rich male. She did it on her own skills and talents. Here's another multi-talented woman, who succeeded while raising children, including a handicapped one, with her husband, and who knows how to shoot. Whoops! Another one dismissed by the marchers. These three, and others like them, are the real role models for the lady-marchers. But they're too formidable, so the marchers will march again, repeating and repeating while wondering why they aren't getting anywhere.
The other shutdown story

My guess is that they will quickly turn on the lights, and government will be running again. It happens every time. Nobody really benefits from these shutdowns anyway. Shutdowns are like going on strike. At some point, they become counterproductive. However, we saw something on Friday night signaling that DACA negotiations are going to be a lot more complicated than Democrats assumed.

Let's look at the vote: Doug Jones of Alabama joined Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of N.D., Joe Manchin of W.Va., and Claire McCaskill of Mo. to avoid a shutdown over DACA. The message is clear: these Dem senators did not want to see TV ads that they put illegals over U.S. soldiers. Going forward, it confirms that President Trump holds the cards here. He will get his border security package, including the fence, if he chooses to fight for that. He will, as I hope he does, go after employers and make it difficult and costly to hire people without papers. Last, but not least, he will push for a merit immigration program, as is the case in most countries. Senator Charles Schumer and the Democrats pulled this DACA show to embarrass President Trump on the first anniversary his presidency. It was childish, but Schumer has a lot of left-wing loudmouths screaming in his ear. The bottom line is that President Trump is negotiating from a position of strength here. PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
Gidley said the deal is "a giant step in the wrong direction" and that it doesn't adequately address the issue of illegal immigration.

A bipartisan immigration bill included in the legislation to fund the government through February 8 was attacked by White House spokesman Hogan Gidley, dashing hopes that the government shutdown could end today.

The Hill:

"The Flake-Graham-Durbin proposal embodies every reason Americans do not trust Washington. It puts people who are in this country unlawfully ahead of our own American citizens," Gidley said in a statement to The Hill, also referring to another sponsor, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) The White House is trying to discourage Republican lawmakers from signing on[ ]to the plan after the government reopens. Senators are expected to vote Monday at noon to end debate on a bill that would fund the government through Feb. 8. If that bill becomes law, it's expected to restart negotiations over expiring protections for hundreds of thousands of young [aliens] living illegally in the U.S. Senate [m]ajority [l]eader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Sunday he will bring up immigration legislation next month if the issue is not resolved before the next spending deadline. The Senate leader said the legislation would address young [illegal aliens], border security[,] and related issues.

With McConnell willing to bring the issue up next month for a vote, why bother attaching it to the funding bill and giving the Democrats an easy win?

The bipartisan bill would offer a pathway to citizenship for people who qualify for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the Obama-era initiative for young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children, in exchange for more than $2 billion in border security funding and tweaks to the nation's visa system. The White House argues that the measure is too generous, saying it could eventually allow as many as 8 million [aliens] to legalize their status. Almost 700,000 people benefit from the DACA program, but many more are eligible. The Graham-Durbin proposal would also allow parents of young [aliens] to apply for a renewable legal status  but not a path to citizenship. Democrats, some Republicans, and immigrant[ ]rights activists dispute the White House's numbers. "Their plan totally fails to secure the border, and includes no legal authorities to stop illegal immigration[,] which ensures a massive wave of new illegal immigration and new chain migration," Gidley added.

Trump is right. Unless the bill specifically targets those already in the DACA program, it can be used to legalize millions more. As far as securing the border, the White House is also correct in that it could get a lot more from a freestanding immigration bill debated next month than from something thrown together at the last minute to get the government funded.

Democrats won't abandon their efforts to tie DACA to the funding bill today. But as long as the man in the White House remains firm, they are eventually going to have to give in. The same thing happened during the last shutdown in 2013, when Republicans held out for more than two weeks before finally abandoning their efforts to get Obama to sign a repeal of Obamacare.

Democrats will eventually learn that it's the president and not Congress who holds the whip in these standoffs.
A Mexican national who pleaded guilty last year to federal charges of voting illegally in U.S. elections and making a false statement in an application for a U.S. passport was sentenced Friday to time served, meaning that he could be released from custody any day.

A Mexican national who bought a fake birth certificate for $50,000 and has been voting in American elections for a decade has been sentenced to time served  just over one year in the county jail. Tom Kacich of the News-Gazette in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois reports:

But his attorneys, Tony and Evan Bruno, said it's unclear what will happen to 34-year-old Miguel Valencia-Sandoval, since he faces deportation back to Mexico by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Valencia-Sandoval has been in custody for more than a year since he was arrested after attempting to re-enter the United States at Laredo, Texas[] in January 2017. In his court appearance Friday, he was dressed in a gray striped jumpsuit from the Macon County Jail. Before the arrest, he had lived in Urbana with his wife, Maria Ramirez, since 2005, raising three children, all of whom were born here. He had held several jobs, even at one time owning and operating a Mexican restaurant while using the identity of a Texas man named Ramiro G. Vasquez. Valencia-Sandoval admitted, according to a federal affidavit, that he was not the true owner of the Texas birth certificate for Ramiro Vasquez and that he had bought it for $50,000 in 2005.

A year in the county jail is not the sort of penalty that would deter others from illegally voting, given the low probability of being caught.

Make no mistake: nothing less than our democracy is at stake when illegal voting is penalized so lightly and when enforcement measures are not vigorously employed to uncover illegal voters. Valencia-Sandoval's voting was discovered only after he was apprehended for an illegal border crossing, not because anyone was checking voter rolls for fraud. And Democrats at the state level have worked so effectively to undermine the Election Integrity Commission that wanted to search for people voting in multiple states that it has been disbanded.

The judge in the case blames sentencing guidelines:

U.S. District Judge Colin Bruce imposed the sentence Friday afternoon, saying that it fit within the guidelines of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. "It is not my job to second-guess Congress or the sentencing commission, and I'm not inclined to create new law," he said.

I always believe federal judges when they make public statements, so Judge Bruce points toward an obvious agenda item for the GOP (I take it as given that Democrats will continue to oppose any crackdown on illegal voters because they think they benefit from them). The House and Senate Judiciary Committees should hold hearings on the sentencing guidelines for vote fraud with an eye toward matching the penalties with the gravity of the offense.

Valencia-Sandoval reportedly has engaged in no other criminal activity beyond illegally entering the country and subverting our democracy:

Valencia-Sandoval had no criminal record [sic; only because authorities had not noticed his illegal entry ed.], had been employed, paid taxes[,] and even voted (eight times in Champaign County, according to records at the county clerk's office, between 2008 and 2016, including the 2012 Republican primary and the 2014 and 2016 Democratic primaries). ... More than 40 letters in support of Valencia-Sandoval were submitted by friends, neighbors, relatives[,] and past employers, most of them citing his devotion to his family and his ambition. "Ramiro has been a loyal and reliable subcontractor for our company for two years. His hard work and dedication are testament to his strong work ethic," wrote Rick Scott, co-owner of Kevin Daniels Painting & Drywall, using Valencia-Sandoval's assumed name.

If he such a good guy, why did he purchase a fraudulent birth certificate and vote? Did he perhaps assume that it was no big deal? If so, that's an argument for tougher sentencing guidelines.

Hat tip: Peter von Buol
Fifty years ago a dog went up a tree chasing a racoon or something. He never came down.

Fast forward twenty years. A group of loggers cut down a chestnut oak somewhere in a forest in the state of Georgia, the United States of America. When they sawed off the trunk, they discovered the mummified corpse of a dog entombed inside. Apparently, the dog had chased his prey down a hollow in the tree where it became stuck and then died of starvation. Dry conditions inside the hollow of the tree allowed the corpse to dry without rotting. The upward draft of air apparently carried the scent of the dead animal away, so it wasn't devoured by insects or other creatures. The tannic acid of the oak, which is a natural desiccant, also helped absorb the moisture and hardened the animal's skin.

Photo credit: Scott Beahan/The Newsweek

Instead of pulping the log, the loggers donated it whole with the dog still stuck inside to the Southern Forest World, a museum in Waycross dedicated to the history of forestry, where it remains on display.

For twenty years, the dog was called simply "Mummified Dog." But in 2002, the museum ran a name-the-dog contest, and the name "Stuckie" was chosen. The 4-year-old dog has been known by that name since then.

Photo credit: Jacksonville.com

Photo credit: Scott Beahan/The Newsweek
Its one thing to keep the mummified body of a thousand year old pharaoh or a monk in a glass case in a museum, and another to stuff the dead body of an African warrior and display it like a trophy along with wild animals. As recently as eighteen years ago, you could have seen him at the Darder Natural History museum in the city of Banyoles, near Barcelona, Spain. He was about four and a half feet tall, slightly stooped, shoulder raised, with a spear in one hand and a shield on the other. His charcoal-colored body was covered by a small orange loincloth wrapped around his waist. For the better part of a century, generations of Europeans gaped at the half-naked body of this nameless African bushman, who was known only as El Negro or The Black Man", before an international protest forced the Spanish government to send him back to his homeland in Botswana for a proper burial.

El Negro is believed to have been a member of the Khoisan ethnic group, who lived and died somewhere in Southern Africa in 1831. His death and burial was witnessed by a French collector and trader of natural history specimens named Jules Verreaux, who returned to the burial site under cover of night along with some grave robbers and dug up the African's body.

Verreaux intended to ship the body back to France and so he prepared and preserved the African warrior's corpse by using metal wire as a spine, wooden boards as shoulder blades and newspaper as a stuffing material. Then he shipped the body to Paris along with a batch of stuffed animals in crates. Shortly thereafter, the Africans body appeared in a showroom at No. 3, Rue Saint Fiacre.

Verreaux received lots of praise for his effort and for his fearlessness for disregarding the dangers to his own life and stealing the body of a native. A reviewer for the newspaper Le Constitutionnel observed that individual of the Bechuana people" attracted more attention than the giraffes, hyenas or ostriches, and that the specimen was a curious one. He is small in posture, black-skinned, and his head is covered in woolly frizzy hair, the newspaper described.

More than half a century later, El Negro was bought by a Spanish vet named Francisco Darder, who presented him in the world exhibition in Barcelona in 1888not in person, but in a catalogue where his sketch was reproduced.

In 1888, this image of the taxidermied corpse of the Negro of Banyoles appeared in a catalogue of the Barcelona museum.

In 1916, he was acquired by the Darder Museum in Banyoles, a small city at the foot of the Pyrenees. The museum curator applied a layer of shoe polish over him to make him seem blacker and mounted him on a pedestal incorrectly labeled as the "Bushman of the Kalahari". By then, his origins had been largely forgotten and he gradually came to be known as El Negro.

For years, El Negro shared the museums Mammal Room along with several taxidermied apes and the skeleton of a gorilla. Few appeared to have been bothered that the stuffed black oddity was once a real man who had a name and identity and a life, until the early 1990s, when Alphonse Arcelin, a Spanish doctor of Haitian origin, wrote to the mayor of Banyoles in protest asking him to remove the African mans remains from display.

Arcelins request received wide publicity, attracting the attention and support of many prominent persons around the world including Kofi Annan, the Assistant Secretary-General of the UN, who condemned the exhibit as "repulsive" and "barbarically insensitive", setting in motion the wheels that would eventually result in the return of El Negros remains to Botswanabut not without resistance. The Catalan people had grown very fond of their black man and were reluctant to hand him over. To show their love and support, local residents wore T-shirts with slogans such as "Keep El Negro" and "Banyoles loves you, El Negro." At Easter children were treated to miniature chocolate reproductions of him.

The mayor defended the display. "We have mummies and skulls and even human skins in the museum," he said. "What is the difference between those things and a stuffed African?"

The museums curator also agreed. "El Negro is our property. It's our business and nobody else's. Human rights only apply to living people, not to the dead. This is a museum that shows different races and cultures with adequate respect. It is a racial exhibit, and racism or morbidity may be a personal attitude from visitors which the museum does not foment.... [So] the talk of racism is absurd."

It was not until March 1997 that the museum succumbed to mounting international pressure and removed the African from display. Three years later, it began its final journey home in a coffin wrapped in Botswana's national blue and white flag.

On 5 October 2000, he was given a Christian burial at a public park in the city of Gaborone. The metal plaque on his tomb reads:

El Negro

Died c. 1830

Son of Africa

Carried to Europe in Death

Returned Home to African Soil

October 2000

It is still not known who this "son of Africa" was, what was his true name, or exactly where he came from. Although an autopsy carried out in 1995 revealed that he probably died of pneumonia. He was about 27 years old.

The tomb of El Negro in Tsholofelo Park in Gaborone, Botswana.
Posted on: January 22, 2018 1:02 PM

The Bishop of Maridi, Justin Badi Arama, has been elected as the new Primate and Archbishop of the Church of South Sudan in a very-tight election. In an interview with the Anglican Communion News Service (ACNS), Bishop Justin said that the election, on Saturday, had gone very well and was an example to the government and others in South Sudan on how tribal differences should play no part in political processes. Bishop Justin received 80 votes in the election. The other candidate, the Bishop of Aweil, Abraham Yel Nhial, received 79.

The lesson I learned from the election is that tribalism is not in the Church, Bishop Justin told ACNS. The fear was that Dinkas could not vote for Equatorians, but in turned the other way around: most Equatorians voted for the Dinka candidate; and most Dinkas voted for the Equatoria candidate. This was a good sign of unity in the Church, and a lesson for the government of South Sudan.

Bishop Justin said that he was surprised to have won the election, saying that the Bishop of Aweil was the favourite to succeed Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul, who has retired at the age of 67 after almost 10 years leading what was at first the Episcopal Province of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, before becoming the Church of South Sudan and Sudan on South Sudans independence, before its current format as the Church of South Sudan, following the creation last year of the Church of Sudan as the 39th province of the Anglican Communion. The election was the choice of God, he said.

The on-going civil war was a challenge for the church and for somebody coming into a leadership position at this time, he said. But we feel that maybe this is what God has called us ready for such a time; with experience and Gods guidance we will make all the effort to have a united people and change the hearts of people that they might embrace peace and work for real reconciliation and unity  not just political reconciliation.

The Church of Englands Diocese of Salisbury has a Companion Link with the Province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan. Today, the Bishop of Salisbury, Nicholas Holtam, welcomed Bishop Justins election, saying it would open up a new chapter in the life of the province.

We in the Diocese of Salisbury send him our congratulations and pray for the forty-five-year relationship between Salisbury and South Sudan, to which there is such strong commitment, and which has so much more potential, he said. We have been praying this week for those who gathered for the election of the new Primate and for the candidates. We now pray that God will bless Bishop Justin as he takes on this role as Archbishop and Primate of the ECSS. May he bring peace and unity and strengthen the bonds of affection with the wider Anglican Communion.

Bishop Nicholas described the role of Archbishop of South Sudan as being one of the leading churchpeople of the Anglican Communion; adding that the Primate has a vital leadership role in a country enduring civil war and hunger and where the churches are some of the strongest social institutions capable of uniting people from different political and ethnic groups.

Bishop Justin  or Archbishop-Elect Justin to give him his new title  was ordained in 1995 and served as a cathedral dean, an archdeacon and a diocesan secretary before being consecrated in 2001 to serve as the second bishop of Maridi. He will be enthroned as the provinces fifth Archbishop and Primate on Sunday 22 April. He is 53 years old

When Justin Badi Arama was confirmed, at the age of 16, his father gave him three gifts: a Bible, a pen and a hoe, and told him that if had to use all three effectively if he wanted to be a good friend of Jesus. As a result, he has had a life-long commitment to education, the Gospel ministry and agriculture.

He met his wife, Modi Joyce, in 1983 at the parish where they were both in the youth groups. They married in 1984 and have four children: two boys and two girls.

The Archbishop-elect of South Sudan, Justin Badi Arama, with his wife Modi Joyce.

Photo: Facebook

I would ask my brothers and sisters around the Communion to pray for me: for Gods guidance for me; to pray for a soft ground for the message of peace and reconciliation as we hope for peace in this country to end the suffering; and also the resources that enables me to preach the Gospel to the people within the province. He explained that the mission and ministry of the Church was difficult, because so many Christians were currently displaced. The civil war has forced a large number of people  including Christians  to seek refuge in neighbouring countries.

The Church in South Sudan traces its roots to 1899 and the arrival of missionaries from the Church Mission Society. The Diocese of Sudan, as it then was, was part of the Jerusalem archbishopric until 1974 when it reverted to the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1976, the new independent Province was established with four dioceses. It currently has 36 dioceses in five internal provinces.

Bishop Justin is the second new primate to be elected this year. Last week, Bishop Laurent Mbanda was elected to serve as the next Archbishop of Rwanda.
Posted on: January 22, 2018 5:32 PM

The Church of Englands House of Bishops have rejected a request from the provinces General Synod for nationally commended liturgical materials to mark a persons gender transition. The request came in a motion passed by the Synod at its meeting in York last July. It called for the bishops to consider such a move in recognition of the need for transgender people to be welcomed and affirmed in their parish church. In a statement today, the C of E said that the bishops had prayerfully considered whether a new nationally commended service might be prepared to mark a gender transition and had decided against.

The Church of England welcomes transgender people and wholeheartedly wishes for them to be included in the life of the Church, the Bishop of Norwich, Graham James, said on behalf of the House. On the matter of whether a new service is needed, the House of Bishops has decided that the current service that is used to affirm baptism can be adapted.

Clergy always have the discretion to compose and say prayers with people as they see fit.

Todays statement follows a report in yesterdays Mail on Sunday newspaper, which quotes an un-named General Synod member saying: I am surprised that they have decided that new liturgies werent necessary given the force of the arguments and the feeling of Synod. You need to be able to respond to peoples life events. We do with birth and marriage and death. When you claim a new identity, that seems to me to be as powerful.

The original motion was put forward by the Revd Christopher Newlands on behalf of the Blackburn Diocesan Synod. Opening the debate, he said that while it was possible to use existing liturgy, the Church could do better, as it had done in the wake of recent tragedy, or terrorist attacks, with specific prayers, names, and details of the event, the Church Times reported. An authorised liturgy of welcome and affirmation would stand as a prophetic sign to all people that the Church accepts the reality of gender dysphoria and the situation of trans people, he said.

At their recent meeting at Lambeth Palace, the Bishops are inviting clergy to use the existing rite Affirmation of Baptismal Faith, and will prepare new guidance on the use of the service. The C of E said that a paper discussing the bishops decision will be published before the February session of Synod, which is due to take place in London from 8  10 February.
ISTANBUL Clashes continued for the third day in the Syrian Kurdish area of Afrin, where on Saturday Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch.



President Recept Tayyip Erdogan has called the operation a ''national fight''. On Monday, the Kurdish YPG militias - linked to the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist group by the US and Turkey - reportedly pushed back the Turkish army and Turkish-backed Syrian rebels from two villages, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). Local sources say that the fighting was concentrated northwest of Afrin. The Turkish offensive has marked opened a new front in the epicenter of the most tragic conflict in the Middle East of recent years. On Sunday, after two days of airstrikes and shelling, Turkish ground forces entered Afrin and the US called on Turkey to exercise restraint and to avoid civilian victims. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson added on Monday that the US recognizes Turkey's right to protect its citizens from terrorist attacks launched from Syria. France has meanwhile asked for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, to which Turkish foreign minister Mevut Cavusoglu responded by saying that he expected Paris not to be on the side of a terrorist organization (the YPG, Ed.).



The Security Council meeting is expected to be held on Monday but the Turkish president has said he is against it.



The body, Erdogan noted, ''did not meet when atrocities were being committed in Afrin'' and thus ''now it does not have the right to meet'' to discuss the operation ''against a terrorist organization''. Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad has condemned the ''brutal aggression'' against Afrin and has accused Ankara of supporting the Islamic State (ISIS), which the Kurdish militias - backed by the US further east in the country in the fight against ISIS - ''helped to defeat''. In the eyes of Russia, Washington continues to ''actively encourage'' Kurdish separatism in Syria, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, adding that ''the US have long sought in many ways to discourage the Kurds from talking to Damascus''. Lavrov added that the Kurds should take part in the process to ''solve the Syrian crisis on the basis of territorial integrity''. A representative from the Syrian Kurdish PYD party (political branch of the YPG) said that they however do not intend to take part in the Kremlin-backed dialogue slated for Sochi on January 29-30.


MADRID - Outgoing Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont, who will also run for re-election but who is currently in self-imposed exile in Belgium, said Monday that ''we will make a government despite Madrid's threats''. Puigdemont was in Copenhagen to take part in a debate on Catalonia.



During his travel from Belgium to Denmark, the Madrid prosecutor's office requested that he be arrested but the preliminary investigative judge of the Madrid Supreme Court, Pablo Llarena, rejected the request for another European arrest warrant.



Puigdemont said that the central government's putting in jail of four pro-independence leaders was simply ''revenge'' and that leaders are ''political detainees''.


Church in Israel appeals against migrant expulsions 'Wellbeing cannot be achieved at their expense'

(ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, JANUARY 22 - Catholic leaders in Israel have appealed to the Israeli government to reconsider its decision to expel throusands of migrants from Eritrea and Sudan.



"Though acknowledging the need to control the flow in our country, as elsewhere, of those seeking asylum, we cannot remain indifferent to the critical situation faced by so many refugees fleeing dictatorship, war and other horrendous conditions," the prelates said.



"The wellbeing of Israel cannot be achieved at the expense of so many people driven out together and of so many lives exposed to dangers and an uncertain future," they added. The appeal, signed by the Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Apostolic Administratorof Jerusalem, Father Francesco Batton, Custos of theHoly Land, and Bishop Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo, cites the Biblical admonition not "to ill-treat a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in Egypt". (ANSAmed).




'Honour to be in Jerusalem, Israel's capital' - Pence 'At dawn of new era of renewed discussions for peace'

(ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, JANUARY 22 - US vice president Mike Pence said Monday it was an "honour" for him to be in "Jerusalem, Israel's capital".



Pence made the statement during his meeting with Israeli Premier Benyamin Netanyahu, reaffirming the US position concerning the city. He also said he was hopeful "we are at the dawn of a new era of renewed discussions to achieve a peaceful resolution to a decades-long conflict." Netanyahu in turn thanked the Trump administration for its "historic" recognition of Jerusalem and said the leaders would discuss how to further peace and security in the region, "a common objective". (ANSAmed).




ROME - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) is to ask the European Union to officially recognise the state of Palestine during his visit to Brussels on Monday. "(Mahmoud Abbas) expects the European foreign ministers to come forward and collectively recognise the state of Palestine as a way to respond back to Trump's decision" to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, the Foreign Affairs Minister of the Palestinian National Authority Riyad Al-Maliki said in an interview with AFP on Sunday.

This is a "truly important" step, Al Maliki added. On Monday, Mahmoud Abbas is to meet the EU's chief diplomat, Federica Mogherini, and the bloc's 28 foreign ministers on the sidelines of their monthly meeting in the Belgian capital. Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu had a similar meeting on December 11.

"If the Europeans want a role then they need to be balanced in their treatment of the sides and this should begin with recognition of the state of Palestine," said the Palestinian chief diplomat.


PLO calls Pence's speech 'gift to extremists' Protests in Palestinian Territories, anti-Trump strike on Tues

(ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, JANUARY 22 - The ''messianic'' speech by US Vice President Mike Pence at Israeli's parliamentary body, the Knesset, ''will serve as a gift to extremists in the region, Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) secretary Saeb Erekat was quoted by media as saying on Monday. He added that it proved that ''the US is part of the problem more than part its solution. Its message to the rest of the world is clear: violate international law and resolutions and the US will compensate you''. Hundreds of Palestinians protested during the day in Nablus in the West Bank against Pence while he was making the speech.



''Jerusalem is the heart and soul of Palestinians'', they chanted. Pence will visit the Old City of Jerusalem on Tuesday, while Palestinians have said they will stage an anti-Trump strike.



(ANSAmed).




Puigdemont Catalan presidential candidate, Torrent says Candidacy to be voted on before end Jan

(ANSAmed) - MADRID, JANUARY 22 - The Speaker of the Catalan parliament Roger Torrent said Monday Carles Puigdemont is the first candidate whose name will be put to a vote in parliament to be the region's president.



The former president is the only name to have emerged during recent political consultations, Torrent added. Puigdemont the support of the pro-independence front, which holds the absolute majority in the Catalan parliament.



His candidacy will be voted on no later than January 31. Puigdemont is currently in self-imposed exile in Belgium and faces arrest if he returns to Spain. His group JxCat has said he could ask to be appointed by proxy or electronic means without setting foot in the country. However, unionist groups and the Spanish government have contested this possibility, threatening an appeal to the constitutional court. Mariano Rajoy has also threatened to extend the period of special administration of Catalonia if Puigdemont is elected in exile. The separatist leader has said he "can govern from Brussels, but not from prison".



Four pro-independence leaders, including three newly elected Catalan lawmakers, are still detained in Madrid. (ANSAmed).




Spanish prosecution urges Puigdemont Copenhagen arrest Asks for European arrest warrant to be reactivated

(ANSAmed) - MADRID, JANUARY 22 - Prosecutors in Spain have asked Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena to reactivate the European arrest warrant against the exiled former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, who arrived in Copenhagen on Monday. The warrant was dropped in December amid fears it might complicate the overall investigation into Catalan leaders. Puigdemont is in Copenhagen to take part in a conference on Catalonia, Spanish media report. It is the first time the leader has left Belgium for over 80 days. (ANSamed).




Airbus will throw the spotlight on the Tactilon Dabat, the world's first integrated smartphone and full TETRA radio--all rolled into one, during their first time participation at the 20th edition of Intersec, the worlds leading trade fair for Security, Safety and Fire Protection, which will run until January 23, 2018 in Dubai.

The company will also be highlighting the pioneering devices influential role in encouraging local security agencies to develop and use apps for mission critical situations. The Tactilon Dabat comes fully equipped with Android features and special ergonomics for radio use, which consolidates its position as a smart, strong and secure device offering full critical connectivity.

Airbus is one of the featured partners of Professional Communication Corporation - Nedaa, the Dubai Government safe networks provider, at their pavilion located at Stall no. D-18 of Sheikh Saeed Hall 3. The company's strong ties with Nedaa is expected to help showcase the significant role of modern devices like the Tactilon Dabat and the importance of public safety mission critical LTE networks--particularly in the continuing move towards smart city transformations.

Airbus' participation will give them the opportunity to showcase their capabilities to integrate with multi-vendor LTE in a safe and secure way, which allows the grouping of smartphones and TETRA radios under one cluster. The Tactilon Dabat is being hailed as a huge leap in TETRA evolution. Sleekly designed with a regular fully rugged smartphone look, the revolutionary device offers special multi-purpose push-to-talk buttons that are familiar fixtures on Airbus TETRA radios. It has a wide touchscreen ideal for sending messages and also has a physical push-to-talk (PTT) button for easy use when talking to other TETRA groups. The unit, which is powered by a 4600 mAh changeable, long lasting and rechargeable battery, is rated both IP65 and IP67.

Selim Bouri, Head of Middle East North Africa and Asia-Pacific for Secure Land Communications at Airbus, said: "We are very excited to participate for the first time at Intersec, which provides us a strategic platform to leverage our products and services while also increasing awareness on the importance of Hybrid/LTE networks, especially for mission critical situations. The GCC region represents a very large and highly strategic market for us, which has expressed a continuously increasing demand for this kind of technology. Being at this year's show will give us the opportunity to network with private and public companies and organizations--exploring potential partnership opportunities and joint cooperation.

Airbus will also feature the latest version of Tactilon Agnet, which now allow mission critical personnel like police officers or firefighters to communicate securely with based terminals and dispatchers by using LTE smartphones. As this newer and updated version makes all Tetra terminal services available for smartphone usersincluding push to talk, messaging, and geolocation.

Selim Bouri, Head of Middle East North Africa and Asia-Pacific for Secure Land Communications at Airbus
The Bahrain International Air Show is still a year away but more than 75% of exhibition space has already been sold. Bahrains Transportation and Telecommunications Minister, Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed, talks to Alan Dron about the 2018 show, Gulf Air and island kingdoms new airport.

In aviation terms, Bahrain has seemed something of a backwater in the Gulf in recent years.

Its international airport is relatively small and increasingly elderly; its national airline, once the leading operator in the region, has been dwarfed by the fast-growing big three of Emirates Airline, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways; and it seems to have missed out on the tourist boom in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Oman and even Qatar.

Those factors are now being addressed, with the aviation sector receiving increasing attention from the Bahraini Government. And, as in other Gulf states, aviation is playing a wider role in stimulating the economy.

One of the most obvious examples of this is the island states international airport at Muharraq, which is in the process of gaining not only a new terminal building but also improved ancillary features, such as an air traffic control centre and maintenance facilities.

The new airport should be ready by 2019, said Transportation and Telecommunications Minister, Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed, during a visit to London to promote the 2018 Bahrain International Air Show.

Until now, the show has taken place just three months after the much larger Dubai Air Show, a factor that dissuaded some companies with limited budgets from attending. From 2018, it will move to November, exactly midway between Dubai events.

Mohammed oversees the entire Gulf Air group  Gulf Air itself, Bahrain Airport Company, BAS ground handling plus a new company, Bahrain Duty-Free, of which Bahrain will own 45% for the new airport.

Construction of the new airport itself is progressing very well, he said. Weve reached Level 2 and started installing the roof.

The new facility is on track for opening in the third quarter of 2019.

The existing terminal was built in 1972 and has an annual passenger capacity of 3.5 million. In 2016, it handled 9 million travellers  an indication of how badly the new building is required.

The new terminal will have an annual capacity of 14 million passengers and is being built with a careful eye on costs: I think with the budget this is the most optimum project in our part of the world. There are airports built with double the capacity, but with budgets eight to 10 times our budget of $1.1 billion.

The fate of the existing building is still being decided, with options being weighed on whether to maintain or demolish it, said Mohammed. The age and condition of its mechanical and electrical systems might make it more expensive to retain than demolish, but no decision has yet been taken.

As with airlines, ancillary revenues at an airport can bring in significant amounts of money and the provision of new maintenance facilities will allow work to be done in Bahrain that, at present, has to be sent abroad.

The main user of the airport is, of course, Gulf Air, which is about to undergo a major re-fleeting exercise.

At the 2016 Bahrain Air Show, it announced major new orders and adjustments to previous commitments. The new line-up included 16 Boeing 787-9s (replacing the previous order for 12 to 16 of the smaller -8 version), as well as 17 Airbus A321neos and 12 A320neos; 10 of the A320s had previously been announced.

The company has a current all-Airbus fleet of six A330-200s, six A321s and 16 A320s.

Gulf Air has been through a major restructuring since early 2013, a process that saw its fleet reduced from 40 to 28 as it battled to cut huge deficits. The new Airbus order will replace the carriers narrow-body fleet and expand numbers again over the next few years.

At the time of writing, a replacement for Gulf Airs retiring CEO, Maher Al Musallam, was still awaited and would be appointed as soon as possible through an open recruitment process, said Mohammed

Were also looking at appointing a new CEO for the Group, he revealed. The idea is to expand the portfolio and increase the impact of aviation on the economy of Bahrain.

Al Musallam has been successful in greatly reducing Gulf Airs previously heavy annual losses, but Mohammed cautioned that figures for 2016 were unlikely to be as positive as those of the previous year.

In 2016 it was a tough year, not as good as 2015. The company needs to optimise its network and rationalise its operation.

Were competing with the biggest airlines in the world. They can afford to invest and expand their network. We need to make sure Gulf Air is serving the Bahraini economy. We will continue making sure that Gulf Air has the largest connection of destinations within our region and expanding connectivity to east and west. We need to expand in Europe a little bit. We think the airline is an important infrastructure to connect Bahrain with the world. Without it we cant connect to other business activities.

Gulf Air will receive a new fleet next year; 10 787s have been ordered, a figure that can be increased to 16. Its also receiving the Airbus A320neo from next year. So I think improving the quality of the services and our product, together with optimisation, will enable the new business to improve.

The new board needs time to finalise their plan. All options are open.

Asked how the dispute between several Arab nations and Qatar was affecting Gulf Air, he said: I think its affecting Qatar Airways more than us. They have lost all their destinations in the Gulf. Its sad to see this and we hope it wont last long.

Meanwhile, the Gulf Aviation Academy, which trains commercial pilots, is performing very well and making money. Gulf Air is only 24% of our customers. It serves other airlines. Were now commissioning a new Airbus A320 simulator and procuring a new simulator for the Boeing 787-9.

The islands major aviation attractions now include the Bahrain International Air Show, whose 2018 iteration aims to achieve a balance of growing in size, while keeping the sense of intimacy that has characterised the previous events.

There will be more exhibition space and the hangar that was only half-used in 2016 will be fully utilised this time.

We need to be sure we dont make it too big, warned Mohammed. We dont want to increase the number of chalets, although we can. Weve never had a problem in selling the chalets; thats the easiest aspect. And you think, Why not build more and make more money? But we want to keep the uniqueness. Its a cosy airshow.

One major nation that will have a more notable presence in 2018 than in previous years is Russia, whose United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) signed an agreement in July that will see several UAC subsidiaries including Sukhoi, Ilyushin, Tupolev and Irkut appearing at Sakhir Air Base, the site of the show.

State technology and weapons export agencies, Rostec and Rosoboronexport, will also be present. There will definitely be bigger Russian participation, said Mohammed. Weve signed for two chalets with UAC and Rostec and Rosoboronexport, who will bring all the companies with them. Were expecting the Russian Knights [aerobatic] team to appear.

Turkey, which had a major presence at the 2016 show, will also be present again, as will Indian company, Hindustan Aeronautics, and the countrys defence research and development organisation. Thales, CFM International, SITA and Leonardo are among other major names, which will be presenting their wares.

All the big names have signed up but were now looking at SMEs who want to expose themselves, said Mohammed. Traditionally, Arabs like to meet people face-to-face, to size them up and get a feel for their qualities; personal contact is important. If you dont come to the region, you wont be known, noted the minister.


Gulf Aviation Academy (GAA) has ordered a Boeing 787 door trainer from Ras-Al-Khaimah manufacturer Spatial, complete with Spatial's virtual slide trainer. The device is due to come into service during this current quarter.





Thi is the third device that GAA has bought from Spatial and will sit alongside its Embraer and Airbus cabin emergency evacuation trainers.



Spatial's managing director Henry Robertson said: "This order, five and a half years after installing our first device for GAA, is another example of the continuing trust our client base places in us. We look forward to delivering another exceptional device to GAA, expanding their training portfolio still further."



Capt. Dhaffer Al Abbasi, CEO at GAA said: "As part of our continuing growth we are looking forward to assembling the B787 door trainer in our facility and expanding our cabin crew training by offering the latest aircraft in operation to the crew. Spatial has been a highly supportive partner for us over the years and we are pleased to continue working with them."


Royal Jordanian will launch a new direct service to Denmark's capital, Copenhagen, as of June 3, 2018.

The three weekly flights will give RJ a strong presence in the Scandinavian market. This addition is in line with RJs turnaround plan that includes, among others, continuous assessment of the route network, in order to enhance traffic to Jordan and improve connectivity via the base, Amman.

The new route, launched following a feasibility study, will attract more tourists to Jordan, facilitate travel for businessmen, and enhance trade between Jordan and the Scandinavian market.

Copenhagen Airport is the largest in the Nordic countries and the busiest airport for international travel; it serves many cities in the Scandinavian peninsula and in neighboring countries.

Royal Jordanian will operate the three weekly flights with Airbus 320 family planes on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. The plane departs from Queen Alia International Airport, Amman, at 10:45, and arrives at Copenhagen International Airport at 14:30. Return flights depart from Copenhagen Airport at 15:25 and arrive at QAIA at 21:00.

RJ President/CEO Stefan Pichler said: RJ will continue to review its network and look for new markets to better enhance traffic and connect Jordan to the world, in line with our vision and strategy to become the airline of choice in the Middle East and the Levant.

Copenhagen is the 45th destination on RJs network and its first station in the Scandinavian region; it gives travelers the chance to visit other cities in Northern Europe, and also offers those traveling from the Nordic countries the chance to visit Jordan with its great tourist and historical sites, and benefit from RJs global network, which connects them to the Middle East, the Gulf and the Far East via Amman.

Pichler said that RJ used to operate charter flights to Copenhagen through its previous subsidiary company, Royal Wings, to carry tourists to Jordan, Aqaba in particular. The charter flights showed the importance of the launch of a regular, nonstop RJ service to Copenhagen.
Abdul Subhan Qureshi of Indian Mujahideen was nabbed after a brief exchange of fire with the police.

There was a pan-India look out for Abdul Subhan Qureshi, also known as Kasim, for the last few years. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: After a decade-long manhunt for the most wanted terrorist accused in 2008 Gujarat serial blasts, Delhi police Special Cell, on Monday, arrested Abdul Subhan Qureshi from the national capital.

Often referred to as 'India's Bin Laden', Qureshi a software engineer-turned-bomb-maker was arrested after a brief exchange of fire from Ghazipur in Delhi, police said.

The police also called Qureshis arrest as a breakthrough just before Republic Day celebrations on Friday.

"We have found pistols and documents on Qureshi; he was trying to revive the SIMI and the Indian Mujahideen," said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Special Cell, Pramod Kushwaha.

Qureshi went to Nepal with fake documents and was living there for many years. He also went to Saudi Arabia between 2013 and 2015 and returned to India to revive the terror network, said police.

Police had been looking out for Abdul Subhan Qureshi, also known as 'Tauqeer', across the country for the past few years.

Qureshi is closely linked to the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India or SIMI.

Qureshi has been accused of plotting the blasts in Ahmedabad and Surat on July 26, 2008 that killed 56 people and injured over 200 others.

As many as 21 bombs were planted in tiffin carriers and motorcycles in busy markets, bus stations and even hospitals where the injured were being treated.

Qureshi's name was first announced as a suspect by the Gujarat police in connection with an email sent to TV channels using the WiFi network of a US national.

Qureshi has been on the most-wanted list of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for allegedly planning the blast in Bangalore in 2014, the serial blasts in Delhi in 2010 and the local train bombings in Mumbai in 2006.

46-year-old Qureshi, also referred to as a 'techie-bomber', studied in Mumbai and reportedly worked in top Indian IT companies in Bengaluru and Hyderabad before being recruited by SIMI in 1998.
In a recent Twitter video, Cong ridiculed Modi's ways of hugging several world leaders by describing them with comic tags along with gifs.

Taking to Twitter, the Congress chief questioned the Prime Minister's desire to only embrace important people and not commoners. (Photo: AP)

New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to not only hug world leaders, but also India's farmers and soldiers.

Taking to Twitter, the Congress chief questioned the Prime Minister's desire to only embrace important people and not commoners.

On Sunday, the Congress mocked Modi by posting a video on Twitter, with a tagline 'hugplomacy', after he received his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu at an airport in New Delhi.

In the video, the Congress ridiculed Modi's ways of hugging several world leaders by describing them with comic tags along with gifs.

With Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu visiting India, we look forward to more hugs from PM Modi! #Hugplomacy pic.twitter.com/M3BKK2Mhmf  Congress (@INCIndia) January 14, 2018

The Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu was accompanied by his wife Sara and a 130-member delegation from various sectors, including cyber, agriculture and defence to India last week.
SC said, 'As of today, it was a natural death; do not cast aspersions,' adding that it will examine documents on Feb 2.

The top court also restrained all high courts from entertaining any petition relating to Loya's death. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday asked Maharashtra, Bombay High Court to transfer all the documents including two petitions relating to the alleged mysterious death of special CBI judge BH Loya.

The apex court termed as "serious" the issues raised in pleas; and said "we must look into all documents with utmost seriousness."

SC said, As of today, it was a natural death; do not cast aspersions, adding that it will examine documents on February 2.

The top court also restrained all high courts from entertaining any petition relating to Loya's death.

The top court also asked all parties to catalogue documents in Loya's matter, which have not been filed so far and submit them.

Read: Judge Loya case: SC to hear plea seeking independent probe on Monday

The court also asked lawyers not to cast aspersions on BJP president Amit Shah, who is not a politician before it.

The Maharashtra government told the Supreme Court that a careful and prudent investigation was conducted after the media reports and four judicial officers assured there was no foul play involved. The three-judge bench recorded statements saying Justice Loya died of cardiac arrest.

Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra got angry when a senior woman lawyer inferred that the Supreme Court is going to gag media. The CJI asked the lawyer to retract and apologise.

At the time of his death on December 1, 2014, Justice BH Loya (48) was hearing the case of the alleged fake encounter of inter-state "gangster" Sohrabuddin Sheikh in which BJP president Amit Shah was an accused along with several others.

Amit Shah was discharged from the case with a new judge ruling that there was no evidence to merit his trial.

Two months ago, judge Loya's relatives said his death was unnatural. His sister Anuradha Biyani also claimed that he was offered a huge bribe to rule in favour of the BJP chief Amit Shah.

Speaking to the Caravan magazine, Anuradha Biyani claimed there was blood on his clothes. Another relative alleged that Judge Loya was offered a huge bribe. But the police and a judge who was with Judge Loya during his last hours, rubbished the family's claims.

Petitions asking for an investigation have been filed by activist Tehseen Poonawala and a journalist from Maharashtra, BS Lone.

On January 14, Judge Loya's son Anuj Loya told the media that the family has no suspicions now and his father's death was being politicised. "There was some suspicion before due to emotional turmoil, but now it is clear," Anuj said.

Read Also: Put Loya death case before an 'appropriate bench': Justice Mishra

The Loya case was one of those which was indicated by the four seniormost apex court judges -- justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph -- at their press conference where they had questioned the manner in which sensitive cases were being allocated.
The accused girl, a student of Class 6, was granted bail till January 30, after being presented before the Juvenile Justice Board.

The accused also requested officials to investigate the case thoroughly and find the real culprit. (Photo: ANI)

Lucknow: The accused girl, who allegedly stabbed a class 1 student of Lucknow's Brightland School, on Monday, said that she is being framed by the school.

"There had been some arguments between me, my father and a few teachers. I suspect that is the reason I am being framed," said the girl who has been accused of attacking the class 1 student with a knife.

The girl said that she has never met the child before.

"A photo of mine was produced before him. I was told by the school management that he has identified me. I have had short hair since November but they say he identified me in my old pictures," she said.

Read: 'Didi' with short hair attacked me with knife to call off school: 6-yr-old UP boy

She then requested the officials to investigate the case thoroughly and find the real culprit.

"I want the case to be investigated thoroughly and the real culprit to be punished. If I am innocent I must be allowed to walk free. I know I am innocent," she said.

The accused girl, a student of Class 6, was granted bail till January 30, after being presented before the Juvenile Justice Board.

Read Also: UP: After Ryan case, Class 1 student attacked with knife in school toilet

The class 1 student, who is admitted in King George's Medical University (KGMU) trauma centre, was allegedly attacked with a kitchen knife by his senior on Tuesday.
The trio was attacked by the Kanjarbhat community followers on Sunday night in Pimpri area of Pune.

An FIR against 40 people has been registered and two people have been arrested in connection with the case. (Photo: ANI)

Pune: Three members of 'Stop the V ritual', a WhatsApp group formed to spread awareness against an ill-practice that determines the virginity of a bride on the wedding night, were allegedly thrashed by the members of their own community in Pune on Sunday.

The trio was attacked by the Kanjarbhat community followers on Sunday night in Pimpri area of Pune.

An FIR against 40 people has been registered and two people have been arrested in connection with the case.

According to the custom prevalent in the Kanjarbhat community, the village panchayat spreads a white bedsheet on the wedding night of a couple.

If the sheet is found stained with red colour, then the woman passes the test otherwise the same is accused of having a physical relationship prior to her marriage.

These tests are reportedly often performed without the woman's consent.
The minister also underlined the governments vision is to expand the footprint of the corps in the country.

New Delhi: With the leaders of all 10 Asean member countries designated as chief guests at the Republic Day celebrations on January 26, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Monday that it would showcase the taking shape of Indias Act East policy.

The Prime Ministers intention that the Look East policy should now be an Act East policy is really taking shape... And by the very presence of 10 leaders from the Asean bloc during the Republic Day celebrations, India is definitely showcasing its Act East policy. And we are happy that the event is going to happen with all of them present, Ms Sitharaman said during her visit to the NCC Republic Day Camp at Delhi Cantonment. In an unprecedented event, all 10 leaders from Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Brunei have been invited as chief guests for the Republic Day parade. Earlier, Ms Sitharaman presented the Raksha Mantri Padak and commendation cards to NCC cadets at an investiture ceremony held at the camp.

The Raksha Mantri Padak, instituted in 1989, is given to the most deserving cadet every year for bravery or exceptional service of the highest order. Cadet Priya of Uttar Pradesh received the honour on Monday.

As many as 2,070 cadets, including 703 girls, from 29 states and seven Union territories are participating in this Republic Day Camp. It will conclude with the PM Rally on January 28. The defence minister said the NCC, since its inception, has helped in the nation-building process by inculcating among the youth discipline, confidence, camaraderie and a spirit of adventure.

I am very impressed by the high standard of the parade displayed by cadets at the camp and other skills during the cultural programme... NCC cadets have played their role in times of natural disasters, and in promoting government programmes like Swachchh Bharat, and awareness programme for the girl child, she said.

The minister also underlined the governments vision is to expand the footprint of the corps in the country.

At present, 13 lakh cadets are enrolled in the NCC and the government has planned to increase it to 15 lakhs in five phases by 2020.
There have been media reports in recent times that Indian officials have been prevented from entering Gurdwaras in Canada.

New Delhi: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will make an official visit to India from February 17 to 23, both the ministry of external affairs (MEA) and the Canadian high commission announced in separate statements. During the week-long forthcoming visit, the Canadian PM will also visit Agra, Amritsar, Ahmedabad and Mumbai besides New Delhi where he will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While in India, Prime Minister Trudeau will engage with youth, and visit several landmarks, including the Taj Mahal, Sri Harmandir Sahib (the Golden Temple), the Jama Masjid, and Swaminarayan Akshar-dham, the Canadian high commission said.

Canada and India share a special bond, and are linked by tremendous people-to-people connections. The more than one million Canadians of Indian origin make the relationship between our two countries a truly special one. I look forward to meeting with Prime Minister Modi, and further strengthening the Canada-India friendship, Mr Trudeau was quoted by the Canadian high commission as stating.

With the two sides set to hold talks on a wide gamut of issues including security and counter-terrorism, India is likely to strongly take up with Canada the activities of radical pro-Khalistan elements operating in Canada and is expected to express concern over such activities. There have been media reports in recent times that Indian officials have been prevented from entering Gurdwaras in Canada by these radical elements there.

Just a few days ago, the MEA had said, We have seen several reports regarding such notifications. The vast majority of the Sikh community in Canada and other parts of the world share a very warm emotional bond with India and have worked for the betterment of bilateral relations between their country of residence and India.
The forthcoming visit to Palestine is also the latest indicator of India's desire to balance its ties with both Israel and Palestine.

New Delhi: Just days after the ASEAN Summit ends in the Capital, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to embark on a three-nation West Asian tour of the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Palestine in the second week of February. PM Modi, who is currently in Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF), is also expected to showcase the strengths and opportunities of the Indian economy for global investors, in the UAE where, according to reports in the UAE media, he is expected to attend the World Government Summit in Dubai from February 11 to 13.

But it is PM Modi's visit to Palestine, likely on February 10, that will perhaps be the most eagerly-awaited leg of his three-nation visit as it will come soon after the visit to India of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. The forthcoming visit to Palestine is also the latest indicator of India's desire to balance its ties with both Israel and Palestine.

Like at Davos, PM Modi is expected to make a strong pitch for investment from the UAE when he visits the country. It may be recalled that last January, India and the UAE on Wednesday signed 14 pacts in key areas like defence, security, trade and energy apart from a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement amid the assertion by PM Modi that cooperation stands poised for a "major take off". The UAE had also prior to that committed to a US$ 75 billion investment fund and India is expected to push strongly for investment from the oil-rich Arab country. I particularly welcome the UAE's interest in investing in India's infrastructure sector. We are working to connect the institutional investors in UAE with our National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, PM Modi had said last January.

On the Palestinian issue, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had earlier this month informed Parliament in a written reply that the solution to the Palestinian issue should be based on relevant UN Resolutions.
More and more young men are entering the world of modelling today, although the balance is still skewed in favour of women.

When one talks of models, most people automatically think of female ones. However, there are several male models, who often walk the ramp for famous designers, do ad shoots, catalogue and magazine shoots, and are faces of well-known brands too.

While there have been male models in the past, its only recently that they are getting more opportunities and recognition.

Interestingly, a lot of young men are also choosing to enter the modelling industry now. Earlier, male modelling was often looked down upon and men were paid less and had fewer opportunities when compared to women.

Hyderabad-based model Akshay Neelakantam bagged the prestigious Dellywood Mr India 2017 title, and has over 15,000 Instagram followers who get inspired by his transformational posts. Apart from taking up almost two designer shoots every week, working with the likes of Shilpa Reddy, and giving motivational speeches, Akshay also walks the ramp at almost all the fashion shows in Hyderabad, including the Blenders Pride Fashion Tour.

Akshay Neelakantam

I started modelling five years ago, but took it seriously only when I applied for Mr India 2017 and won. The opportunities for male models are increasing. Though a lot of designers still choose to design majorly for women, the scenario is definitely improving. Not only am I getting better quality modelling assignments, I am also getting opportunities in Tollywood, says Akshay, who pursued an MBA before becoming a model. A lot of my followers get inspired looking at how fit I am, and thats what I want to keep doing.

Ajit Shukla is another Hyderabad-based model, who works with several huge brands. I sign up for almost two to three ads every month. I am getting opportunities even from Mumbai as male models here are fitter, hardworking and disciplined. There are not many fashion shows happening in Hyderabad, but there are several ad and designer shoots, he says.

Fashion choreographer and model Shaik Rafi from Empire Model Management says that any good show at a fashion week typically has just four to five male models and 16 to 17 female models. The problem is that the demand is low, and the supply is high. Every month, several men enter the industry with the hope of becoming top models. But there isnt much work for them out there. Designer womens wear still rules the market, while mens wear falls in the niche segment. As a result, designers release collections mainly for women. This results in more shows for female models, and fewer for men. He adds, An accomplished male model is paid Rs 10,000 for each show, while others get anywhere between Rs 4,000 and Rs 5,000.

Model Harshit Maheshwari says that 2017 was a great year for male models and the future looks bright. I take up two to three shoots every month and walk the ramp often. Yes, the opportunities are definitely improving for male models, but it is also important for men to be extremely fit, mentally and physically, he says.

Rahul Bokadia

Model Rahul Bokadia says that the film industry is a better option. Male models do get fashion shows, print and ad shoots, but for how long? Acting is a safer option. I am working on a Telugu movie too. Sometimes I get five modelling assignments, sometimes just one. Female models still have better scope, he opines. Meanwhile, model Anand Pillai says that with an increase in male models, the accomplished ones are losing out on opportunities. Young models do shows for free, so designers sometimes hire them. Right now, there are a lot of male models, but not as many opportunities, he adds.

Meanwhile, model grooming expert Joseph Sunder says, Male models work harder than female models as they need to be extremely fit. But, not only get paid less but they also do not have many opportunities. Things are changing now and I am starting a fashion show exclusively for men called the Mens Fashion Week.
Dikshit writes about her 3 terms in office, electoral loss in her memoir.

NEW DELHI: Sheila Dikshit wanted to step down as the Delhi chief minister in 2012 because of health concerns and also to enable the Congress to find another leader before the next Assembly elections, but the December 16 gang rape of a young woman firmed up her resolve to stay on.

In her memoir, she said that resigning then would have been seen as fleeing the battlefield.

After the Nirbhaya incident, I was in a bind. My family, which had seen my distress throughout that period, urged me to step down as planned earlier, but I felt that such a move would be seen as running away from the battlefield, Dikshit writes in Citizen Delhi: My Times, My Life.

The recently published memoir takes readers through the life-long journey of Delhi's longest serving chief minister. Ms Dikshit also writes about her three terms in office, the changes she brought about in Delhi, the difficulties she faced and the electoral loss in 2013, among other things.

About her defeat to AAP in 2013, Ms Dixit said: Our party was defeated in unambiguous terms I myself was defeated by a margin of over 25,000 votes, losing the New Delhi seat to Arvind Kejriwal of AAP, a party that many of us had underestimated.

Ms Dikshit said there were many who attributed the loss to public anger against the Centre as the Delhi government was often identified with the UPA-2 because it was a Congress-led government.

There was one more factor, I feel. A considerable chunk of voters who were casting their ballot for the first time, had not seen the Delhi of 15 years ago. To them, Delhi with regular power, flyovers and Metro rail, as well as several new universities, was their natural right and, therefore, taken for granted. They could not be expected to feel ecstatic about it.

She said following allegations of graft in the 2010 Commonwealth Games and the 2G spectrum allocation as also Anna Hazares anti-graft movement, which was supported by an aggressive media, cracks started showing in the UPA

government.

During the debates and discussions in and outside Parliament, it was unable to communicate the simple fact that apart from a vigilance system, the country already had laws and regulations to tackle corruption," she says. The central government, Ms Dixit said, ended up looking tentative when decisive political management was needed.
The office of parliamentary secretaries is considered to be the office of profit, which a legislator cannot hold.

New Delhi: In a bid to reach out to the electorate in the wake of a strong possibility of mini-elections following the disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs of Delhi Assembly, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia wrote an open letter to the people of Delhi, on Monday. He accused the BJP-led Central government of putting a spoke in the wheel of the development work carried out by the AAP government. He termed the disqualification as BJPs dirty politics.

Twenty AAP MLAs were axed from the Delhi Assembly on Sunday after President Ram Nath Kovind approved the recommendation of the Election Commission (EC) because the legislators held offices-of-profit. These MLAs were appointed as parliamentary secretaries, who assist the ministers in their work, soon after the AAP government won a brute majority in the 2015 Assembly elections. The office of parliamentary secretaries is considered to be the office of profit, which a legislator cannot hold.

Mr Sisodia, however, maintained that none of the MLAs received any perks or pecuniary benefits for holding the parliamentary secretary positions and claimed that the disqualification was a gross injustice by the Central government.

Mr Sisodia shared the open letter on social media, in which he said the Central government has imposed bypolls in 20 Assembly constituencies and because of the election code of conduct, the development works will be effectively halted.

In the next two years, the city government has planned to do a lot of development work. Wi-Fi, CCTV cameras, doorstep delivery of services, and home delivery of rations are among the planned works. The BJP is afraid of the good work being done. It is afraid of the growing popularity of CM Arvind Kejriwal, Mr Sisodia wrote.

He added that few months after the bypolls, the Lok Sabha elections will be held.
State Congress committee member Rajkumar Mishra has vowed that his party will stand in support of the civic chief.

Mumbai: The move by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to lock and boycott the offices in the main administrative building of the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) has drawn flak from the opposition, bureaucracy, citizens and local social activists. The BJP is protesting against civic chief Dr Naresh Gite, accusing of autocratic behaviour. Sena legislator Pratap Sarnaik has threatened that his corporators will take over the offices and start working from there if the BJP fails to mend its ways. State Congress committee member Rajkumar Mishra has vowed that his party will stand in support of the civic chief.

Instead of indulging in such stunts which is a clear act of insult to the electoral mandate, the BJP office bearers should instead tender their resignations, said Congress corporator Jubeir Inamdar.

The simmering tension between the rulers and the civic chief flared on Friday, after all, officer bearers including the mayor, deputy mayor, standing committee chairman, house leader, chairperson and deputy chairperson of the women and child welfare panel and all six ward chiefs locked and walked out of their offices in protest.

Dr Gite said, I am doing my job and wont buckle under such pressure tactics which are aimed to endorse biased decisions. Citizens need not worry, our entire civic machinery is on regular working mode.
On Monday, the court extended Tulis police custody till January 31.

Mumbai: The NM Joshi Marg police is likely to interrogate four more Brihanmumbai Muni-cipal Corporation (BMC) officials for their alleged negligence linked to fire-safety norms and permissions given to 1 Above and Mojos Bistro at Kamala Mills. Fourteen people died in a blaze at these two restaurants on December 29, 2017. The police is recording statements of accused Yug Tuli, his subordinates and fire officials, who were arrested in the case. On Monday, the court extended Tulis police custody till January 31.

According to police sources, Tuli has disclosed names of some government officials who helped him in the illegal construction of his pub. The investigators know of some BMC officials knew about the unauthorised construction at Kamala Mills but never took any action against Tuli. In fact, the police also learnt that the owner of Kamala Mills ran pubs without having a completion certificate.

The police arrested Tuli on January 16 after he surrendered himself. The sessions court rejected Tulis anticipatory bail plea. He is the main accused, who sought all the licences and permissions for the restopub and carried out illegal constructions.

The NM Joshi police arrested the owners of 1 Above and Mojos Bistro under IPC sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 34

(common intention) on December 29.
The Delhi police arrested Abdul Qureshi ahead of Republic Day.

Terrorist Abdul Subhan Qureshi, who was arrested by Delhi Polices special cell, is produced in a court in New Delhi on Monday. (Photo: PTI)

Mumbai : The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) will seek custody of Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative Abdul Subhan Qureshi alias Touqeer in two cases registered with it. The Delhi polices special cell arrested Qureshi, a seasoned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) associate, ahead of the Republic Day.

Qureshi is notorious for having been involved in the July 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts  where 60 people were killed in 21 separate explosions  after coming in contact with the Bhatkal brothers.

State ATS officials said that they are keeping a watch on the developments following his arrest and are in contact with the Delhi police.

We want to question him in regard to the two cases with us and two other cases registered with the Pydhonie and Kurla police stations (in 1998 and 2001 respectively) in Mumbai. We suspect that he also frequented the city while he was on the run. This will also be looked into, said a senior ATS officer requesting anonymity.

ATS officials said that his role was to find new recruits and to brainwash them into joining the IM. Qureshi, being an old SIMI operative, is one of the bigger catches in the recent past, officials said.

The cases against Qureshi are those of terror meetings held in Ujjain and Pune. The SIMI operatives had met at Ujjain in 2006, a development that was mentioned in the statement of another terror operative, Ehthesham Siddique.

The meeting took place with Safdar Nagori. The meeting was attended by Siddique, Qureshi, Nagori and seven others. The second case dates back to 2008 when a meeting took place in Pune from where incriminating literature was seized, added the ATS officer.

Qureshi also has two other cases with the Karnataka police, apart from two that were registered by the Gujarat police.
In the advert, the model, Amena Khan, a British beauty blogger, is seen donning a pale-pink headscarf, better known as a hijab.

The advertisement had a diverse cast of women with different hairstyles, donned in neutral colours with soothing block backgrounds. (Instagram Screengrab/ Amenaoffoicial)

London: L'Oreal Paris' latest advertisement campaign for its hair care line, Elvive, features a hijab-wearing model.

In the advert, the model, Amena Khan, a British beauty blogger, is seen donning a pale-pink headscarf, better known as a hijab. She is heard saying, "Whether or not your hair is on display, doesn't affect how much you care about it".

The advertisement had a diverse cast of women with different hairstyles, donned in neutral colours with soothing block backgrounds.

Khan said in an interview to a leading magazine, "How many brands are doing things like this? Not many".

She further noted, "They're literally putting a girl in a headscarf - whose hair you can't see - in a hair campaign because what they're really valuing through the campaign is the voices that we have".

With this campaign, L'Oreal has joined the list of brands like Nike and CoverGirl that are featuring Muslim women in their advertisements and promoting diversity.
The Narendra Modi government has been in touch with the Trump administration on Afghanistan.

The striking Taliban attack on Kabuls Intercontinental Hotel, which ended after a 13-hour siege on Sunday morning and took the lives of 18 people with several score injured, takes us to the current political dilemmas faced by Afghanistan and its well-wishers, including India.

The government of President Ashraf Ghani and CEO Abdullah Abdullah, artificially put together by the US in 2014 when the presidential election did not yield a clear outcome, was of doubtful legitimacy in the eyes of the public. This feeling came to be strengthened when the government failed to obtain ratification for itself and the post specially created for Dr Abdullah from the Loya Jirga, the traditional Afghan forum. Indeed, the government got cold feet and did not even call a Loya Jirga within the stipulated two years to make the necessary constitutional changes.

In a very fundamental sense, this has negatively impacted the already plummeting American prestige in Afghanistan. In light of this, various nodes within Afghan society have sought to pre-position themselves in the past year for a possible political convulsion in the not too distant future.

At the political level, former President Hamid Karzai  by far the countrys most influential political figure  has been in the forefront of these efforts. At the level of politics that explicitly uses violence to advance itself, its the Taliban which made a stunning recovery in Afghanistan, thanks to the abject failure of 15 years of gross American mishandling.

There have been a series of spectacular hits across the country in the past 9-10 months, mostly by the Taliban and mostly in Kabul, the worlds most politically contested city where the US sits right at the centre of things, surveying the crumbling of its efforts.

Its estimated that today the Taliban either control or have a crucial say in large swathes of the country  from about a third to half the 34 provinces, varying estimates claim.

This indicates the potentiality of the advance of the Pakistani agenda when it comes to creating watershed arrangements for Afghanistans future governance, and this advance is likely to occur not just through the Taliban but also the US, if the past is any guide. The United States cannot divorce itself from Pakistan in playing a part in Afghanistan, for reasons of logistics as well as politics. The Ashraf Ghani government may well be on its last legs. The Narendra Modi government has been in touch with the Trump administration on Afghanistan. In its own interest it could guide the United States to prioritise the principal Afghan concern of ending US bombardments within Afghanistan as the enemy sits elsewhere. That will offer India a positive foothold to negotiate the political twists and turns in the coming days.
Researchers have patented new glasses that can imitate a vehicles movement to reduce nausea in passengers.

If you are someone who doesnt gel well with long distance journeys in cars or buses, then this news will be making you happy. Researchers at the University of Michigan have patented a new type of glasses that will help reduce nausea while travelling in cars. Theres no particular name for this technology right now but you could be seeing it soon in autonomous cars.

The system works on the principle of making your body aware of what is actually happening in the world you. Nausea generally takes place when your sense of motion is completely different from what you are seeing  reading a book in a car is a perfect description of this situation. The patented glasses connect your senses with whats actually happening outside the car by using light tubes to imitate the cars movements in your field of vision. So, if the car is swerving right, the light tubes will modify your field of vision to let your eyes see what your body is sensing.

The technology has been developed primarily keeping in mind autonomous cars that will take over the automotive industry very soon. While it is possible to make the technology a part of the car for catering to all the passengers at once, it is more feasible to make it portable. With minimal or no driver inputs, people will be bound to do other activities while travelling, which will make more of them prone to nausea, thus making this technology a much-needed part of your commutes in the future.

(source)
Astronaut Jeanette Epps would have been the first African-American to live on the International Space Station.

African-American astronauts have visited the space station, but Epps would have been the first to live there.

NASA has bumped an astronaut off an upcoming spaceflight, a rare move for the space agency so close to launch. Astronaut Jeanette Epps was supposed to rocket away in early June and would have been the first African-American to live on the International Space Station. Late Thursday, NASA announced it was pulling Epps off the mission but didn't disclose why. Astronauts have been removed from missions in the past, mostly for health reasons.

Epps, an engineer, will be considered for future space missions, according to NASA. She's been replaced by her backup, Serena Aunon-Chancellor, a doctor. Both were chosen as astronauts in 2009. Epps is returning to Houston from Russia, where she'd been training to fly to the space station with a German and Russian. NASA spokeswoman Brandi Dean said Friday it was a decision by NASA, not the Russian Space Agency.

African-American astronauts have visited the space station, but Epps would have been the first to live there. Space station crews typically stay for five to six months. NASA assigned her to the flight a year ago.
Earlier, Ecuador announced it had granted citizenship to Assange, in an unsuccessful attempt to provide him with diplomatic immunity.

Assange fled to the embassy in 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden for alleged sex crimes, which he denies, and has remained in the building ever since.(Photo: File)

Quito (Ecuador): The president of Ecuador Lenin Moreno on Sunday described WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as an "inherited problem" that has created "more than a nuisance" for his government.

"We hope to have a positive result" on the issue, he said in an interview with television networks.

Earlier this month, Ecuador announced it had granted citizenship to Assange, in an unsuccessful attempt to provide him with diplomatic immunity and usher him out of its London embassy without the threat of arrest by Britain.

Moreno said his country was continuing to seek mediation involving "important people," without specifying whom he meant.

Assange fled to the embassy in 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden for alleged sex crimes, which he denies, and has remained in the building ever since.

Sweden later shelved its investigation, but Assange faces arrest by British authorities for fleeing justice in the Swedish case.

He fears British authorities will then allow his extradition to the United States where he is wanted for publication by WikiLeaks of classified information in 2010.

The WikiLeaks founder has strained the patience of his hosts since taking up the offer of asylum made by then-president Rafael Correa in 2012.

He was publicly reprimanded for interfering in the 2016 US election after publishing hacked emails from the campaign team of Democrat Hillary Clinton.

More recently, he drew the ire of Correa's successor, President Moreno, when he used Twitter to pump out messages of support for Catalonia's independence drive.

Moreno was forced to respond to complaints from the Spanish government.

Commenting on the move to designate Assange a diplomat, Moreno said: "This would have been a good result, unfortunately, things did not turn out as the foreign ministry planned and so the problem still exists."

Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa has confirmed that Ecuador will maintain the asylum granted to Assange by the government of former president Rafael Correa.
As a result of the budget impasse, many government services including the Statue of Liberty have been closed since Saturday.

The statue on Liberty Island, as well as the related museum on nearby Ellis Island, where arriving immigrants were once processed, annually welcome about 4.5 million visitors. (Photo: AP)

New York: The Statue of Liberty, temporarily closed by a US government budget shutdown, will reopen on Monday to once again beckon other countries' "huddled masses" -- as well as not-so-poor tourists with dollars to spend.

"We will not stand by as this symbol of freedom and opportunity goes dark," New York Governor said in a tweet Sunday, announcing that the state had found funds to keep the iconic landmark open.

Shutting the surrounding park "jeopardizes an economic driver for the state of New York," said Cuomo, a Democrat.

"This park is a symbol of New York and our values. And her message has never been as important as it is today," he said, alluding to the budget battle in Washington, where Democrats were seeking protection for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants before agreeing to Republican proposals to extend funding for the government.

As a result of the budget impasse, many government services including the Statue of Liberty have been closed since Saturday.

Speaking to reporters from the southern tip of Manhattan Island with the Statue of Liberty in the background, Cuomo explained that the state will provide the USD 65,000 it takes each day to pay the federal workers who keep the park open.

The statue on Liberty Island, as well as the related museum on nearby Ellis Island, where arriving immigrants were once processed, annually welcome about 4.5 million visitors. Most come by boat from Manhattan.

- Tourists caught unaware -

On Saturday hundreds of tourists were caught unaware, even if tour companies quickly offered boat tours, or reimbursement, as a salve.

The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France to the United States in 1886 to honor the centenary of US independence 10 years earlier.

It is among the hundreds of parks, battlefields, recreation areas and monuments managed by the National Park Service.

After Democrats and the majority Republicans in Congress missed a Friday deadline to pass a new federal budget, most "non-essential" government services and programs were ordered to close.

Some of the best-known parks have been kept open, including the Grand Canyon in Arizona and Yellowstone National Park. But most are operating with skeleton staff, meaning many stores, restaurants and even restrooms are closed.

In an unusual move, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, whose department oversees the parks service, said on Twitter that he had personally helped welcome visitors to the World War II memorial on the National Mall in Washington.

During the last government shutdown, a 16-day standoff in 2013, the memorial was closed. That prompted a group of military veterans, some of them in wheelchairs or hobbling on canes, to force their way in.

It was an embarrassment the White House of President Donald Trump has vowed to avoid.
The Senate set a vote for 12 pm on Monday on advancing a measure to provide temporary govt funding through Feb 8 and end the shutdown.

It was unclear whether there would be enough Democratic votes on Monday to advance a temporary spending bill. (Photo: AP/File)

Washington: A US government shutdown will enter its third day on Monday as Senate negotiators failed to reach agreement late on Sunday to restore federal spending authority and deal with demands from Democrats that young Dreamers be protected from deportation.

The Senate set a vote for 12 pm (1700 GMT) on Monday on advancing a measure to provide temporary government funding through February 8, end the shutdown and allow hundreds of thousands of federal employees to return to work.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell offered an olive branch to Democrats late on Sunday, pledging on the Senate floor to bring immigration legislation up for debate in February if the issue is still unresolved by then.

At the core of Democrats demands is the fate of young people, known as Dreamers, who were brought to the country illegally as children. Former Democratic President Barack Obamas Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program extended legal protections to about 700,000 of them, shielding them from being deported.

It would be my intention to proceed to legislation that would address DACA, border security and related issues, McConnell said, adding: It is also my intention take up legislation on increased defense spending, disaster relief and other important matters then.

It was unclear whether there would be enough Democratic votes on Monday to advance a temporary spending bill.

Funding for federal agencies ran out at midnight on Friday amid an impasse between President Donald Trump, congressional Republicans and Democrats over DACA and other immigration issues.

Democrats want Trump, who last year ordered an end to DACA in March, to live up to an earlier agreement to protect the Dreamers. Democrats refused last week to support another short-term government funding extension.

Republican Senator Jeff Flake, part of a bipartisan working group pushing for legislation to replace DACA, told reporters that McConnell was still six or seven Democratic votes short of breaking the impasse that led to the shutdown.

Flake said negotiations would resume early on Monday leading up to the midday vote on the Senate floor.

Bite Pretty Hard

While public reaction to the shutdown may have been muted over the weekend, Flake said Republicans would suffer politically in the long run. If it comes back to bite, it comes back to bite pretty hard, the Arizona senator predicted.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer objected to a move by McConnell to speed up the vote on a temporary funding bill that had been set for 1 am (0600 GMT) on Monday, signaling that a deal was still not in hand.

In vowing to bring immigration legislation to the Senate floor next month, McConnell shifted from an earlier position, saying earlier he would do that this month only if there were a bipartisan deal backed by Trump.

The Republican president has vacillated on what sort of legislation he supports and McConnell now seems willing to let the Senate craft a deal on legal protections for Dreamers and beefing up immigration enforcement at US borders.

The hope is that if the Senate passes an immigration bill, Trump would not only support it but help sell it to the more conservative House of Representatives.

We will not negotiate on the status of unlawful immigrants while Senator Schumer and the Democrats hold the government for millions of Americans and our troops hostage, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said.

Despite that statement, it was clear that senators were seeking paths both to reopen the government and address border security and the Dreamers.

In September 2017, Trump said he was terminating DACA and challenged Congress to come up with a legislative replacement by March 5. If Congress fails, the Dreamers, many from Mexico and Central America, could face deportation. Many have spent most of their lives in the United States.
The donated items included 32,000 sets of household solar power generation systems and 325 sets of solar power generation systems.

China has been investing heavily in Nepal as it seeks to expand its influence in the land-locked country which is heavily dependent on supplies of essential goods from India. (Photo: PTI | Representational)

Beijing: China has donated over 32,000 solar power generating systems to Nepal to enhance its domestic capacity and to provide electricity to communities that have been without power since the 2015 earthquake.

The donated items included 32,000 sets of household solar power generation systems and 325 sets of solar power generation systems, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday.

The aid from China comes as left alliance headed by CPN-UML leader K P Sharma Oli, who is widely regarded as pro-China, won the recent elections in Nepal. China has been investing heavily in Nepal as it seeks to expand its influence in the land-locked country which is heavily dependent on supplies of essential goods from India.

Oli during his brief stint in power between 2015-16 signed the Transit Transport Agreement (TTA) with China to improve the connectivity between Nepal and Tibet in a bid to end decades-old dependency on India for daily supplies.

During his Beijing visit in 2017, China in a strategic move agreed to extend the train link in Tibet to Nepal to improve the connectivity by road and rail. The support provided by China is instrumental to addressing environmental problems and climate change. It will also benefit our people from the perspective of health and save time, Ram Prasad Lamsal, joint secretary at Nepals Ministry of Population and Environment was quoted as saying by the report.

According to the Nepali government, the systems will be distributed by the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) in districts highly impacted by a devastating earthquake that hit the country in 2015.

The 7.8 magnitude quake jolted the country in April 2015, killing more than 8,000 people and displacing lakhs of others. More than 600,000 houses were damaged due to the tremor and thousands of schools including over 25,000 classrooms were reduced to rubble in the devastating earthquake.

Ram Prasad Dhital, executive director at AEPC, told Xinhua that the larger power generation systems will be used for community schools, health centres and local government offices while the low power systems will be used by households.
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy's South China Sea Fleet deployed the H-6G bomber in its recent combat manoeuvres.

China claims almost all of South China Sea and has also laid claims on the Senkaku islands under the control of Japan in East China Sea. (Photo: File)

Beijing: China has built a new type of electronic warfare aircraft which can cover bigger combat areas such as the South and East China seas and greatly enhance the Navy's capabilities in modern warfare, a media report said on Monday.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy's South China Sea Fleet deployed the H-6G bomber in its recent combat manoeuvres.

The aircraft developed for 10 years in service is equipped with the Electronic Countermeasures (ECM) pods underneath its wings.

It was the first time the bomber played "a supporting role in the electronic warfare", China Central Television (CCTV) reported last week.

The modified H-6G fitted with ECM pods can engage in combat missions using electronic jamming, suppression and anti-radiation, it said.

"The main role of the electronic fighters is to obstruct the enemies' electronic jamming devices - for example, radar, to temporarily or permanently, if powerful enough, cover the surveillance devices and to hide our combat platforms' track," Song Zhongping, a military expert and TV commentator, told the state-run Global Times.

"The H-6G electronic warfare aircraft boasts of high electronic jamming power and can cover relatively bigger combat areas such as the South China Sea and East China Sea," Song said.

China has developed advanced and standardised ECM pods to modify multiple types of fighter jets for combat requirements, such as the J-15 type fighter jets. Using the ECM pods in fighters is the most efficient and effective way, Song said.

China's JH-7 fighter bomber was also seen carrying such ECM pods in previous PLA Air Force military practices, according to CCTV.

China's PLA Navy deploys such EMC pods carrying aircraft together with its warships and other combat vessels for electronic combat missions and to enhance combat capabilities, Song said.

China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in both the South China Sea and the East China Sea. Beijing has built up and militarised many of the islands and reefs it controls in the region.

China claims almost all of South China Sea and has also laid claims on the Senkaku islands under the control of Japan in East China Sea.

Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counter claims over the South China Sea.

Both areas are stated to be rich in minerals, oil and other natural resources. They are also vital to global trade.
The complainants alleged that the former ambassador had caused irreparable loss to the country and defamed it.

Haqqani was named in FIRs lodged by three people in two police stations in Kohat district of northwest Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, accusing Pakistan of 'maligning' in his books. (Photo: AFP)

Islamabad: Pakistan's former envoy to the US, Husain Haqqani, has been booked for allegedly giving hate speeches and writing books and articles defaming the military and the government.

Haqqani was named in FIRs lodged by three people in two police stations in Kohat district of northwest Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, accusing Pakistan of "maligning" in his books, the Dawn News reported.

The three FIRs were registered in Cantonment and Bilitang police stations by Momin, Muhammad Asghar and Shamsul Haq.

The complainants alleged that the former ambassador had caused irreparable loss to the country and defamed it.

Asghar alleged in the FIR that Haqqani was a "mentor of the Memogate scandal" and had issued visas to "CIA and Indian agents" while serving as Pakistani ambassador to the US.

He served as ambassador from 2008 to 2011 in US and was removed for alleged role in what is known as Memogate controversy.

The sections of the Pakistan Penal Code applied by police in the FIRs are 120B (hatching a criminal conspiracy) and 121A (waging a war against Pakistan).

A police official said that under due procedure, Haqqani should surrender himself to them or he would be declared an absconder.

Haqqani was criticised by parliament for his column in The Washington Post in which he had written that he had helped the US forces in eliminating al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden when the government and the Inter-Services Intelligence had been kept in the dark about the secret operation.

It was about a memo sent to former Admiral Mike Mullen apparently seeking help of the then Obama administration to avert a military takeover in the wake of raid at the hideout of Osama in May 2011.

Haqqani has also served as ambassador to Sri Lanka from 1992 to 1993.
The UNSC sanctions list includes the names of JuD, LeT, Al-Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, and other organisations and individuals.

Saeed was released from house arrest in Pakistan in November. He was under detention since January, 2017. (Photo: File | AP)

Islamabad: Pakistan will not allow the UN Security Council's sanctions monitoring committee any direct access to Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed or his entities, a media report said on Monday.

The monitoring team of the UNSC 1267 Sanctions Committee will be visiting Islamabad this week for an assessment of Islamabad's compliance with the world body's sanctions regime.

The UN monitoring team's visit is taking place amid increasing pressure on Pakistan from the US and India with respect to the inadequate implementation of the sanctions on Saeed and entities linked to him.

Saeed was listed under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008.

Citing senior officials at the foreign ministry, The Nation reported that the UNSC team's visit was not designed to "press Pakistan".

The UNSC team, one official said, will visit Pakistan to discuss "official information" on issues relating to the banned outfits and implementation of the UN sanctions.

"They will not seek access to the JuD or Hafiz Saeed and if they do that, we will not allow it. We have been in talks and this visit was scheduled," the official was quoted as saying by the paper.

Citing another official, the paper said the UN team will hold meetings with Pakistani officials on the list of the sanctioned outfits.

"We have been implementing the UN sanctions, so there is no panic. We are ready to answer their questions. We have been preparing," he said.

The UNSC sanctions list includes the names of JuD, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Al-Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) and other organisations and individuals.

The UNSC monitoring committee oversees the sanctions measures imposed by the Security Council under the rules. The member states are required to freeze without delay the funds and other financial assets or economic resources of designated individuals and entities.

Last week, Pakistan banned companies and individuals from making donations to the JuD, the FIF and other organizations on the UNSC sanctions list.

Saeed was released from house arrest in Pakistan in November. He was under detention since January, 2017.

The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the LeT which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai attack that killed 166 people. It has been declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in June 2014.

Pakistan has remained under the Financial Action Task Force scanner over allegations by the US and India about the UNSC sanctions not being fully implemented.

The US Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and the US, since 2012, has offered a USD 10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice.
The United Nations described the military operation as ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, which Myanmar denies.

Myanmar agreed earlier this month to receive the Rohingya refugees at two reception centres and a temporary camp near its border with Bangladesh over a two-year period starting Tuesday. (Photo: AFP)

Palongkhali (Bangladesh): Bangladesh has delayed the repatriation of Rohingya Muslim refugees to Myanmar, set to start on Tuesday, because the process of compiling and verifying the list of people to be sent back is incomplete, a senior Bangladesh official said.

The decision comes as tensions have risen in camps holding hundreds of thousands of refugees, some of whom are opposing their transfer back to Myanmar because of lack of security guarantees.

Myanmar agreed earlier this month to receive the Rohingya refugees at two reception centres and a temporary camp near its border with Bangladesh over a two-year period starting Tuesday. The authorities have said repatriations would be voluntary.

But Abul Kalam, Bangladeshs refugee relief and rehabilitation commissioner said on Monday the return would have to be delayed. He did not immediately give a new date for the repatriations to begin.

There are many things remaining, he told Reuters by phone. The list of people to be sent back is yet to be prepared, their verification and setting up of transit camps is remaining.

More than 655,500 Muslim Rohingya fled to Bangladesh after a crackdown by the Myanmar military in the northern part of Rakhine state in response to militant attacks on security forces on August 25. The United Nations described the military operation as ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, which Myanmar denies.

Myanmar said it was ready to take back the returning Rohingya.

We are ready to accept them once they come back. On our part, the preparation is ready, Ko Ko Naing, director general of Myanmars Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, told Reuters by phone.

He declined to comment on whether Bangladesh had informed Myanmar about the delay.

At the Palongkhali refugee camp, near the Naf river that marks the border between the two countries, a group of Rohingya leaders gathered early on Monday morning with a loudspeaker and a banner listing a set of demands for their return to Myanmar.

These include security guarantees, the granting of citizenship and the groups recognition in Myanmars list of ethnic minorities. The Rohingya are also asking that homes, mosques and schools that were burned down or damaged in the military operation be rebuilt.

Bangladesh army officials arrived at the protest and dispersed the crowd of 300. Witnesses said they saw the army take away one of the Rohingya leaders who was holding a banner.

Bangladesh army spokesman Rashedul Hasan said he had not received any information on a protest from the refugee camps this morning, but said he was trying to find out more.
by Kamran Chaudhry

The places of worship closed in December in the wake of an attack against the Methodist church in Quetta. Congregations meet in homes or rented premises. The official provincial approval has still not been given.

Lahore (AsiaNews) - The Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province* (north-western Pakistan) has allowed six home-based churches to re-open in Abbottabad, the city known worldwide for being Osama bin Ladens hideout.

"Although the chief minister's coordinator for minorities Ravi Kumar informed us by phone, we are still waiting for an official notice," said Father Arshad Nayer of Saint Peter Canisius Catholic Church, speaking to AsiaNews. This is why I suggested to interested pastors to celebrate Sunday prayers in closed churches, to provoke a reaction from the government."

About 400 Christian families live in Abbottabad, including 75 Catholics. The churches affected by the measure are the Assembly of God Church, United Presbyterian Church, Emmanuel Pentecostal Church, Kingdom of God Church and two Evangelical churches.

The Christian places of worship were closed for security reasons after an attack on 17 December against the Methodist church in Quetta, in which nine people died and 57 others were injured.

Fr Nayer noted that "all the churches, deemed illegal by the government, are not registered with the Auqaf Department** and are located in residential or rented buildings. Police had warned that they would not take the blame for any mishap in prayer gatherings in residential areas.

Fr Nayer noted that Local mosques do not need a No Objection Certificate from provincial governments, and the same policy should be adopted for churches as well." The certificate is required for national or international groups that want to operate in any given area.

Rev Sadiq Masih, pastor at the United Presbyterian Church, was one of those who heeded the call to celebrate religious services in closed churches. He offered thanksgiving prayers yesterday.

"We received the closure notice after New Years Mass, he explained. We shall soon legalise our status. Gods work cannot stop."

* Formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP)

** Auqaf Department is in charge of Mosques, shrines and other religious institutions
Seven Filipino workers died in mysterious circumstances. "Situation no longer acceptable". There are over 250,000 Filipinos in Kuwait, the majority of whom are employed in service industry. Over 2.3 million Filipinos are registered as foreign workers. They send more than 1.6 billion euros home every month.

Manila (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Philippine government is suspending the sending of workers to Kuwait, after President Rodrigo Duterte said that abuses by employers have prompted several domestic workers to commit suicide. Kuwait is surprised by the decision and says it will maintain contact with Manila to try to solve the problem.

Labor secretary Silvestre Belo says that no further overseas Filipino workers (OFW) will be sent to Kuwait, "pending investigation of the causes of deaths of about six or seven of our OFWs". Last January 19, the Department of Labor and Employment identified seven Filipino workers who died in Kuwait. The authorities report that they were all domestic workers and most of them resided in the Middle East since 2016.

According to estimates by the Manila Foreign Ministry, there are over 250,000 Filipinos in Kuwait, the majority of whom are employed in the domestic service industry.

On January 18, Duterte declared that the Philippines "lost four women" in Kuwait, referring to domestic workers who committed suicide as a result of mistreatment. The president claimed to be aware of many cases of sexual abuse against Filipino women and wanted to raise the issue with Kuwait and " state the truth and just tell them that it's not acceptable anymore".

The deputy foreign minister of Kuwait, Khaled al-Jarallah, expressed "surprise and sorrow" for Duterte's observations, stating that judicial proceedings were initiated in the cases of the four domestic workers mentioned by the president. Jarallah declares that there are more than 170,000 Filipino workers in Kuwait, all protected by laws that safeguard them from abuse.

Over 2.3 million Filipinos are registered as overseas workers. They send more than 1.6 billion euros home every month, money that feeds one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
by Paul Nguyen Hung

"The Holy See is committed to promoting relations with the Government of Vietnam to contribute to the social life of the country". The Vatican delegation meets the Vietnamese Catholics. The Pope shares their joy, success and concerns.

Hanoi (AsiaNews) - The visit to Vietnam by the undersecretary of the Section for Relations with States of the Vatican Secretariat of State, Msgr. Antoine Camilleri, (January 16-20), testifies to the progress of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Hanoi. The Vatican delegation included Msgr. Francis Cao Minh Dung, head of the South East Asian Affairs Office and Msgr. Yovko Genov Pishtiyski, secretary of the Apostolic Nunciature in Singapore.

During the visit, Msgr. Antoine Camilleri met with various representatives of the state. On January 18, Msgr. Camilleri met Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his deputy Pham Binh Minh, as Minister for Foreign Affairs, before holding talks with Bui Thanh Son, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Vu Chien Thang, head of the Governmental Committee for Religious Affairs.

The Vietnamese premier stressed the results achieved by the country in 2017. He said that Catholics also contributed positively to these results, stating that the government always supports the unity of the people, Catholics and non-Catholic. The Prime Minister reiterated that the government persist in implementing the policy of respect for freedom of belief and religion, expressing particular concern for the development of areas in which Catholics face serious economic difficulties.

Msgr. Camilleri greeted the Vietnamese premier on behalf of the Pope Francis, confirming the Pontiffs satisfaction with dialogue between Vietnamese faith and the culture. "The Holy See is committed to promoting relations with the Government of Vietnam to further contribute to the social life of the country, particularly in the fields of education, health and charity. I confirm that the Holy Father has a special interest for Vietnam. Pope Francis also wants the Church of Vietnam to always accompany and contribute to the prosperity of the nation. The Vatican expresses its gratitude to the government for having created valid conditions for the non-resident papal representative to work in Vietnam ".

The Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Bui Thanh Son, underlined the positive development of relations between Vietnam and the Holy See, declaring that the visit by the Vatican delegation is an opportunity to improve understanding, build trust and refine cooperation between the two sides. This is essential for solving problems in relations.

During the pastoral journey, Msgr. Camilleri brought the warmth and closeness of Pope Francis to the Vietnamese Church. On 16 January, the delegation celebrated a Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph of Hanoi, in the presence of Card. Peter Nguyen Van Nhon, archbishop of the city, the Vietnamese clergy and thousands of faithful. Before the service, the Cardinal declared: "Bishops, priests, men and women religious and all the faithful of the archdiocese of Hanoi are very pleased to welcome the Holy See delegation. Through the honor of the monsignors presence, we would like to send our respects and our love to the Holy Father. We pray that God bless him. Our prayers will accompany you during your pastoral trip to Vietnam ".

Msgr. Camilleri responded to this warm welcome, saying: "The Holy Father is aware of our visit and our mission in Vietnam. He sends blessings and prayers to all of you ". The following day, the Vatican delegation went to the Episcopal offices of the diocese of Phat Diem, where he visited the complex of the Cathedral of the Queen of the Rosary, built in 1875 and associated with the cultural identity of the country.

On January 19, Msgr. Camilleri celebrated mass at the shrine of Our Lady of La Vang, where thousands of faithful gathered. After the service, he went to the church of Phu Cam, in the city of Hue, the capital of the province of Thua Thien-Hue. Here the prelate visited the nuns of the monastery of Cat Minh Hue, the community of the Congregation of St. Paul in Kim Long, the Daughters of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception and the Major Seminary.

On the last day of the visit, the delegation stopped at the offices of the Vietnamese Bishops' Council in Ho Chi Minh City, where the Holy See Representation resides in the country. Later, Msgr. Camilleri celebrated a thanksgiving mass with 11 bishops of the archdiocese in the Cathedral of Our Lady. The function saw the participation of thousands of priests, religious and faithful.

During the pastoral visit, Msgr. Camilleri reiterated to Card. Nguyen Van Nhon, the bishops, priests, religious, seminarians and Vietnamese lay people that "the Holy Father Francis is very close to the Church of Vietnam and its faithful. He accompanies the Vietnamese Church with affection. The Pope shares in your joy, success and concerns. I would like to confirm it even more. And in his fatherhood, he wants the best for society and the Church in Vietnam ".
Francis celebrated his last Mass in Peru before returning to Rome before 1.3 million people. In his address, he urged them not to flee, but to resist the temptation to hide from "daily situations of pain and injustice". He also noted that Jesus invites his disciples to experience in the present a taste of eternity: the love of God and neighbour. He does this the only way he can, Gods way, by awakening tenderness and love of mercy.

Lima (AsiaNews)  Pope Francis celebrated his last Mass before leaving Peru for Rome at the Las Palmas airbase before a crowd of 1.3 million people. In his message, the pontiff said that Jesus walking in our cities is the antidote to the globalization of indifference that ignores the many non-citizens, the half-citizens or urban remnants [. . .] found along our roadsides, living on the fringes of our cities, and lacking the conditions needed for a dignified existence.

In his exhortation not to flee from the temptation to hide ourselves from daily situations of pain and injustice, the Holy Father turned to the story of Jonah to underscore that God wants to be with us always in order to enter into our individual, concrete histories.

We too can experience Jonahs temptation to escape and hide, given the situations of injustice we see in our cities. The latter are spaces of flight and mistrust, where We become indifferent, and as a result, anonymous and deaf to others, cold and hard of heart. When this happens, we wound the soul of our people.

After they arrested John, Jesus set out to Galilee to proclaim the Gospel of God. Unlike Jonah, Jesus reacted to the distressing and unjust news of Johns arrest by entering the city; he entered Galilee and from its small towns he began to sow the seeds of a great hope: that the Kingdom of God is at hand, that God is among us. The Gospel itself shows us the joy and the rippling effect that this brought about: it started with Simon and Andrew, then James and John (cf. Mk 1:14-20). It then passed through Saint Rose de Lima, Saint Turibius, Saint Martin de Porres, Saint Juan Macias, Saint Francisco Solano, down to us, proclaimed by that cloud of witnesses that have believed in him. It has come to us in order to act once more as a timely antidote to the globalization of indifference. In the face of that Love, one cannot remain indifferent.

Jesus invites his disciples to experience in the present a taste of eternity: the love of God and neighbour. He does this the only way he can, Gods way, by awakening tenderness and love of mercy, by awakening compassion and opening their eyes to see reality as God does. He invites them to generate new bonds, new covenants rich in eternal life.

Jesus walks through the city with his disciples and begins to see, to hear, to notice those who have given up in the face of indifference, laid low by the grave sin of corruption. He begins to bring to light many situations that had killed the hope of his people and to awaken a new hope. He calls his disciples and invites them to set out with him. He calls them to walk through to the city, but at a different pace; he teaches them to notice what they had previously overlooked, and he points out new and pressing needs. Repent, he tells them. The Kingdom of Heaven means finding in Jesus a God who gets involved with the lives of his people. He gets involved and involves others not to be afraid to make of our history a history of salvation (cf. Mk 1:15, 21).

Jesus continues to walk on our streets. He knocks today, as he did yesterday, on our doors and hearts, in order to rekindle the flame of hope and the aspiration that breakdown can be overcome by fraternity, injustice defeated by solidarity, violence silenced by the weapons of peace. Jesus continues to call us; he wants to anoint us with his Spirit so that we too can go out to anoint others with the oil capable of healing wounded hopes and renewing our way of seeing things.

"Jesus continues to walk and to awaken hope, a hope that frees us from empty associations and impersonal analyses. He encourages us to enter like leaven into where we are, where we live, into every corner of our daily life. The kingdom of heaven is among you, he tells us. It is there wherever we strive to show a little tenderness and compassion, wherever we are unafraid to create spaces for the blind to see, the paralyzed to walk, lepers to be cleansed and the deaf to hear (cf. Lk 7:22), so that all those we had given up for lost can enjoy the resurrection. God will never tire of setting out to meet his children. How will we enkindle hope if prophets are lacking? How will we face the future if unity is lacking? How will Jesus reach all those corners if daring and courageous witnesses are lacking?

Today the Lord calls each of you to walk with him in the city, in your city. He invites you to become his missionary disciple so that you can become part of that great whisper that wants to keep echoing in the different corners of our lives: Rejoice, the Lord is with you!
At the Angelus in the Plaza de Armas, Pope Francis calls on young people to follow Jesus with all of themselves, without discouragement, in the example of St. Martin of Porres, the half-caste saint. Silent prayer for peace in the Republic of the Congo. To the bishops, the example of St. Turibius of Mogrovejo, an indefatigable evangelizer: "Today we would call him a 'street bishop'". To the contemplative religious the invitation to pray for the unity of the Peruvian Church.

Lima (AsiaNews) - "The heart cant be photoshopped, because thats where authentic love and genuine happiness have to be found": with this neologism Pope Francis today addressed the young people gathered in the Plaza de Armas in the Peruvian capital. In a morning full of meetings - at 9.15 am with the contemplative religious (see photo); at 10.30 am with a prayer before the relics of the Peruvian saints; shortly before 11 am with the bishops of the country - the pontiff dedicated the moment of the Angelus to the young, remembering their importance because "in this year ... we are preparing for the Synod of young people". Before the Marian prayer, he invited the thousands of young people present to make a silent prayer for peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The call that the Pope madenot to "fotoshop" is an exhortation not to be discouraged or to hide reality by embellishing it in a virtual way. "Jesus - he said - Jesus does not want you to have a cosmetic heart. He loves you as you are, and he has a dream for every one of you. Do not forget, he does not get discouraged with us. But if you get discouraged, I invite you to take a look at the Bible and remember the kind of friends God chose.Moses, he was not articulate; Abraham, an old man; Jeremiah, very young; Zacchaeus, small of stature; the disciples, who fell asleep when Jesus told them they should pray; Paul, a persecutor of Christians; Peter, who denied him... and we could go on with this list. So what excuse can we offer?

When Jesus looks at us, he does not think about how perfect we are, but about all the love we have in our hearts to give in serving others. That is the important thing for him, and he will always be concerned about that. He does not worry about your height, or whether you speak well or badly, whether you fall asleep when you pray, or whether you are very young or very old. His only question is this: Do you want to follow me and be my disciple? Dont waste time disguising your heart, but instead fill your life with the Spirit!Jesus is constantly waiting to give us his Spirit, who is the Love that God wants to pour into our hearts, to make us his missionary disciples. In following Jesus, we never, ever, remain shut out. Even if we make mistakes, the Lord always gives us a new opportunity to keep walking with him".

As an example of this he cited the story of St. Martin of Porres (1579-1639), son of a slave of African origins and a Spanish aristocrat, who became a Dominican religious, assigned to the most humble tasks (because he was half caste), but the whose reputation of holiness and as an educator gave a great boost to evangelization: "Nothing prevented that young man from achieving his dreams, nothing prevented him from spending his life for others, nothing prevented him from loving, and he did so because he had realized that the Lord loved him first. Just as he was: a mulato. He had to face many hardships ".

Saint Turibius, model for bishops

The example of the Peruvian saints, in particular of San Turibius of Mogrovejo (1538-1606), archbishop of Lima, was offered by Francis to the Peruvian bishops. The Pope called him "the man who wanted to get to the other shore. He left "behind the comfort of the bishops residence and traverse the territory entrusted to him, of the twenty-two years of his episcopate, eighteen were spent outside of his city, three times crossing his territory. He added: Today we would call him a street bishop. A bishop with shoes worn out by walking, by constant travel, by setting out to preach the Gospel to all: to all places, on all occasions, without hesitation, reluctance and fear".

Turibius also carried out a great commitment to evangelization in local cultures: With the Third Council of Lima he provided for catechisms to be compiled and translated into Quechua and Aymara. He encouraged the clergy to learn the language of their flock in order to administer the sacraments to them in a way they could understand".

The saint also engaged in the field of charity and justice, coming to excommunicate some powerful colonizers who oppressed the people and were corrupt. He also opened the path of the priesthood to men of mixed race, "trying to encourage and stimulate that the clergy, if they had to stand out in something, were for the holiness of the pastors and not for the ethnic origin".

Finally, the pope recalls Turibius commitment to the unity of the Church. "Dear Brothers - he invited the bishops - work for unity, do not remain prisoners of divisions that reduce and limit the vocation to which we have been called: to be a sacrament of communion".

Shortly before the meeting with the bishops, the pope had gathered in prayer in the cathedral in front of the relics of the Peruvian saints (Turibius of Mongrovejo, Rose of Lima, Martin de Porres, Francisco Solanos, Juan Macias ...).

In the early morning he went to the sanctuary of the Senor de los Milagros, where he met with about 500 contemplative religious. The pontiff also asked them to "pray a lot for the unity of this beloved Peruvian Church" and proposed them to live the contemplative life with the prayer to "heal the wounds of our many brothers and sisters". "The cloistered life - he added - cloistered life neither closes nor shrinks our hearts, but rather widens them in our relationship with the Lord, making them capable of feeling in a new way the pain, the suffering, the frustration and the misfortune of so many of our brothers and sisters who are victims of todays throwaway culture.

This afternoon, the pope will celebrate mass at the Las Palmas Air Base, his last encounter with the Peruvian population. After the farewell ceremony, he will board a plane at 6.45 pm (local time) to return to Rome.
by Nirmala Carvalho

Rev. Gideon Periyaswamy was 43 and led the Maknayeem church. He converted 25 years ago from Hinduism. In the past he had been harassed and humiliated. The Hindus "were not happy with the increase of the Christian faithful".

Chennai (AsiaNews) - A Pentecostal Christian pastor was found dead hanging from the roof of his home in a village in Tamil Nadu. Rev. Gideon Periyaswamy was 43 and led the church of Maknayeem, in the village of Adayachery. His death is shrouded in mystery, aroused by the fact that just a week ago he had lodged a complaint against extremist Hindu groups.

Some faithful already speak of murder and the attempt to disguise murder with suicide. Speaking to AsiaNews Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians, states that the circumstances surrounding the pastors death are strange" and he underlines the inconsistencies demaning "a complete investigation, especially in light of the threats received in the past".

The pastor was found hanging from a rope on January 20. At about 5 am, the body was discovered by Indira and Regina, two Christians from the community who came to the church to clean the structure. The women reported that the body of Rev. Periyaswamy hung abnormally from the ceiling, knees bent to the floor. In addition, when the police broke the knot around the neck, a cut was found under his throat, with a noticeable blood clot.

Local witnesses claim that the death is due to the disagreements with local extremists, who humiliated and harassed him for years. "But he - remembers a believer - told us that we had to live in peace with our neighbours and not create grounds for disagreement".

The pastor had converted 25 years ago from Hinduism and led the Adayachery church for 12 years. Rev. Reuben, a friend of the deceased, reports that "the local Hindus were not happy with the increase of the Christian faithful". Despite the death threats, the pastor repeats: "I have no problems. If the Lord grants it to me, I will die a martyr for Christ, but his ministry will not end."
by John Baptist Lin

Last December, Mgr Peter Zhuang Jianjian of Shantou (Guangdong) was forced to go to Beijing where "a foreign prelate" from the Vatican asked him to leave his see to illicit bishop Joseph Huang Bingzhang. He had received the same request last October. Mgr Joseph Guo Xijin, ordinary bishop of Mindong, is expected to become the auxiliary or coadjutor of illicit Bishop Vincent Zhan Silu. Sinicizing the Chinese Church means supporting the principle of independence and follow the leadership of the Communist Party.

Guangzhou (AsiaNews)  The Holy See has asked Bishop Peter Zhuang Jianjian of Shantou in southern Guangdong province to retire in order to give way to an excommunicated bishop while another Vatican-appointed bishop was asked to downgrade himself as the assistant of an illicit bishop.

This is the second time in three months that the Holy See made the resignation demand on Bishop Zhuang, who was secretly ordained in 2006 with Vatican approval. However, he is only recognized as priest by the Chinese government, which on the other hand is in full support of the excommunicated Bishop Huang Bingzhang, a long-time member in the National Peoples Congress, Chinas parliament.

A letter dated 26 October demanded the 88-year-old bishop to resign to give way to the excommunicated bishop, whom the Holy See is going to recognize. Bishop Zhuang at that time refused to obey and rather carry His Cross for being disobedience, a church source in Guangdong who asked not to be named told Asia News.

In the latest incident, Bishop Zhuang was escorted to Beijing 18-22 December from his southern diocese to meet some senior officials from the central government and a delegation from the Vatican, according to the church source.

Before the trip, the officials began to monitor Bishop Zhuang on 11 December. Even knowing the bishop was not in good health and the weather was freezing in Beijing, they rejected his demand not to go to northern China but sent a doctor along. A total of seven local government officials went along with Bishop Zhuang but no priest was allowed to follow him, the source said.

Staying at the Huguosi Hotel in Beijing, Bishop Zhuang was taken to sightseeing on 19 December and then to the headquarters of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) and the bishops conference the next day, where he met with Bishops Ma Yinglin, Shen Bin and Guo Jincai, the president, vice president and secretary general of the bishops conference respectively, the source continued.

The CCPA and bishops conference, as well as Ma and Guo, two illicit bishops, are not yet recognized by the Holy See. Our editor tries to update the bonus conditions in the online casino reviews regularly.

On 21 December, Bishop Zhuang was taken to the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. He was first greeted by three officials from the State Administration for Religious Affairs. Then he was led by Fr Huang Baoguo, a Chinese priest who is serving at the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, to meet with a foreign bishop and three foreign priests from the Vatican.

Since China and the Vatican resumed official contact in 2014, Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, a veteran in China Church affairs, is known to be responsible for the negotiations and has been in China several times for this purpose. It is believed the prelate whom Bishop Zhuang met is Archbishop Celli.

The foreign bishop explained the aim of their travel to China was to do something in order to reach understanding with the Chinese government, and that is to let Bishop Huang to become the legitimate bishop of the diocese, the source said.

The Holy See delegation demanded Bishop Zhuang to retire just as what was in the letter dated Oct 26 but with one addition term seems to console the elderly bishop, and that is, he could nominate three priests for Bishop Huang to pick one as his vicar general, the source continued.

Bishop Zhuang could not help his tears on hearing the demand, the source said, adding that it was meaningless to appoint a vicar general, who is still a priest that Bishop Huang could remove him anytime.

Some bishops in southern China opposed the idea of hastily recognizing Bishop Huang, who was officially excommunicated by the Holy See in 2011 when he accepted illicit episcopal ordination without papal mandate. One of the bishops who asked not to be named told Asia News that the Vatican has asked for their opinions. I did not know the outcome, but this is a bad solution, he said.

AsiaNews also asked the Vatican for confirmation of the situation in Shantou. A representative familiar with the China dossier said that the letter Mgr Zhuang received was just a request for opinion on the illicit bishop Mgr Huang. Another figure has been silent. Card Joseph Zen, bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, confirmed the information obtained by AsiaNews.

The Mindong affair

While Bishop Zhuang was summoned to freezing Beijing, the Vatican delegation reportedly went southward to eastern Fujian province to meet with Bishop Vincent Zhan Silu, one of the seven illicit bishops awaiting the Vatican to recognize.

Local sources said Bishop Joseph Guo Xijin, the ordinary bishop of Mindong belonging to the underground community, was asked to downgrade himself as assistant of Bishop Zhan, with one of the sayings was that he has to downgrade to become a coadjutor bishop.

One of the sources said, signing a document to accept voluntary downgrading himself as the coadjutor bishop was also one of the conditions the government officials put forward to Bishop Guo in order to recognize him when he was under one-month detention before the Holy Week in 2017.

Bishop Zhan declined to confirm the meeting or disclose details about his recognition progress with the Holy See. He only told Asia News that the Vatican and Chinese officials have regular meetings regarding the negotiations.

An underground priest in Mindong said he did not know about the Vatican delegations visit. We of course feel hard to accept but do we have the rights to oppose the Vatican? he said, but adding that if thing goes that way, I may consider to quit and leave my priesthood.

Though the news of downgrading the status of a bishop seems extraordinary or unbelievable in the universal Church, it is not surprising in China. For last October, General Secretary Xi Jinpings work report in the opening session of the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party called for new approaches adopted for works related to ethnic and religious affairs.

An earlier article on Qiushi, a top-level journal on Communist theory run by the Partys Central Committee, published on 15 September also carried the title Theory and Innovative Practice on Religious Work since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012.

Though without clear elaboration on what will be the innovative practice to the Catholic Church, the CCPA and the bishops conference have passed a five-year plan to sinicize the Catholic Church on 14 December. The direction of Sinicization of religion is a term first mentioned by Xi Jinping in the Central United Front Work Meeting in 2015. The gist is to demand all religions to uphold an independent principle and followed the leadership of the Community Party.

For the Holy See to recognize seven illicit bishops (originally eight but one died in 2017), among whom Bishop Huang and two others were publicly excommunicated by the Holy See, is part of the thorny issues to resolve in China-Vatican negotiations. In exchange, China would have to recognize about 20 bishop candidates appointed by the Holy See, with some even secretly ordained already, for the open Church community in recent years, as well as close to 40 bishops in the underground community.

According to an article by Cardinal John Tong in 2017, the core problem to be resolved in closed-door negotiations between China and the Vatican is the appointment of bishops.
Turkish soldiers, supported by the anti-Assad rebels and air raids, have crossed the borders invading the region. The Turkish objective is to create a 30 km buffer zone within the Syrian territory. A UN Security Council meeting is scheduled today.

Ankara (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Turkish troops have crossed borders invading the region of Afrin, in northern Syria, at the center of an offensive launched by Ankara against Kurdish militia. The Kurdish fighters YGP (People's Protection Unit) active in the area and fundamental, in the recent past, in the fight against the jihadists of the Islamic State (I S, ex Isis) are being targeted by the Turkish military.

Yesterday, the Turkish soldiers, accompanied by the Syrian Democratic Forces (FSA, a pro-Turkish rebel faction, fighting the Syrian government), began their advance within the Syrian territory. The previous day, dozens of Ankara air force raids had prepared the ground for the operation.

From the first information there are victims and injured on both fronts, but there is still no official toll. There are also several civilians among the dead.

The objective declared by the Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, is to create a "safe" zone of about 30 km inside the Syrian territory. In response, YGP spokesman Nouri Mahmoudi reports that the Kurdish fighters have forced the Turks to "retreat".

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has promised to "quickly" defeat the resistance of the Kurdish militias. In response, the United States and several Western chancelleries are calling upon the Turkish leadership to use "moderation" and commit to saving civilians.

An emergency meeting of the UN Security Council is scheduled today. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad speaks of "brutal aggression" by the Turks on Afrin, part of the "support to terrorism" campaign adopted by Ankara in Syria.

Ankara accuses the YGP of maintaining relations with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), outlawed as a terrorist organization by Turkey. For months the government has been threatening to hit the guerrillas across the border, focusing its attention on the towns of Afrin and Manbij, about a hundred kilometers away.

The military operation launched on January 20, and renamed "Olive branch", intends to clean up the area from the presence of Kurdish fighters. The offensive accelerated in the aftermath of Washington's early decision to set up an anti-ISIS alliance of Arabs and Kurds to protect the borders and prevent the return of the jihadists.

President Erdogan also threatens to repress any pro-Kurdish protests inside the country by force. Over the weekend, the police interrupted spontaneous demonstrations launched in several cities, including Istanbul, making numerous arrests.
The week (20-28 January) is currently underway in the Holy Land with Church members gathering at a different venue each day. Each Church members of other Churches to participate. Bridges are built in truth."

Jerusalem (AsiaNews)  "At the Holy Sepulchre one realises that one is not the sun, but that the Risen Christ is, and we are satellites that, together with our fellow human beings, go around the same grave," said Brother Stephane Milovitch, of the diocesan Commission for Ecumenism, as he talked about the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (20-28 January), currently underway in Jerusalem.

For the past 25 years, he has taken part in the event, which is held in the holy city later than the rest of the world, to allow the Armenian and Greek communities to celebrate Christmas and Epiphany respectively according to their own calendar.

On this occasion, members of various Jerusalem Churches meet each day at a different venue. "Thursday will be at the Upper Room, the place where the Church was born, and therefore where all the Churches were born", Br Milovitch said.

"Everyone prepares something and invites others, it is a para-liturgy, to which we are all invited, as participants, not only as spectators. Thus, for example, at the Anglican church, a Coptic can read the Gospel and a Syriac can read a biblical passage.

For Brother Milovitch, it is important to stress that living together in Jerusalem is a daily experience for the Churches.

"There are various Churches in the Holy Land, more than in many cities of the world. At the Holy Sepulchre, six communities meet daily. Pilgrims can be a little shocked to see Franciscans, Greeks, Armenians [together]. This might appear as [a form of] division, but for me it is not like that. It (the Sepulchre) is a place where we are all gathered together. If we were alone it would be more harmonious, but something would be missing."

"I like to think that the Church is born in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost and moves into the world around, as a map from 1500 shows (pictured). There are three continents around Jerusalem: Asia, Africa, Europe. All these cultures received the baptism, through which they are united, even though each prays in accordance with their own rituals and traditions."

These continents meet at the Holy Sepulchre with its six communities: two African (Ethiopians and Copts), two Asian (Armenian and Syriac), and two European (Latin and Byzantine)". Sometimes they go around the aedicule of the Holy Sepulchre together. At that moment they are "all satellites of a single sun which is the risen Christ".

During the Week of Christian Unity and on each day, "everyone has their own liturgy, expresses their own culture. If I have to build a bridge with another, I do not have to pretend to be like him: I am what I am and you are what you are. This is how bridges are built: in truth."

The Week is not the only occasion for ecumenism. "For the feast day of Saint Anthony, patron of the Custos, all non-Catholic communities are present in the Church of St Saviour and the refectory."

"Ecumenism is not just praying together; it is having human relationships. It is not easy. It is hard when one has to speak Arabic with an Armenian  since he speaks Armenian and I speak French  but there is nothing scandalous about it. We do not meet in perfection. Yet this ecumenism has been going on for years thanks to people of good will, children of the same Father and brothers of Christ himself."








Japanese and Korean sunblocks are definitely my to-go-to sun care brand for years! I don't mind using ANY brand for the body but I am very particular with my face sunscreen!





Shiseido to Biore. I can't believe I was able to find another one that works really well!





What's OUR requirements with face sunscreens?





Non-greasy. Lightweight-feel. No White Cast on flash photos. Works with makeup. WORKS in sun protection.





I found it at Esfolio Green Herb Sun Cream! And best of all? I got more benefits using this product! This actually relaxes my skin on every application and minimize redness.

Esfolio Green Herb Sun Cream

Php549.00 for 50g





Protect your skin from the harmful rays of our skin's number one enemy which is the sun! Together with the calming and relaxing ingredients from Peppermint, Rosemary, Chamomile, Freesia, Bergamot and Lavender extracts. This wonderful Sunblock doesn't only protect you from the sun but also simultaneously provides calming and relaxing effects on your skin. Effects: Sun protection with calming and relaxing

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I like to apply an appropriate amount using my clean fingertips. In less than a minute, the product blends easily on my bare skin! Just to prove how hydrating this product is, I used this without any moisturizer underneath and my skin feels hydrated all day! Even underneath makeup!





The good thing is, though hydrating, it does not feel greasy. I would call the product a cream-gel type of product because it feels as refreshing as a gel yet it has the consistency of a cream to lock-in moisture. That said, this product (I'm happy to announce) will work for ALL Skin types!









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You won't see any changes on my skin tone even after applying a good amount of Esfolio Green Herb Sun Cream. Now here's the best part, I usually have reddish skin after rubbing ANY product on my face. (Don't believe me? Watch out my random AMW IG Stories and you'll understand what I'm talking about). With the Esfolio Sunscreen, my skin feels smooth, silky and best of all? The product soothes my skin so no redness appears.





Have you found the best facial sunblock for you?

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Housed in a squeeze-type tube, I have to say it over and over againThis is the best packaging for sunblock because I get to squeeze easily the appropriate amount of product needed every single day! Pump may be nice, but I like knowing how much product is left! When it comes to sunscreen, you can't skip a day or two just because you ran out of product. INTIENDES? :PA whitish cream, it is not watery yet it isn't too hard to blend! I personally dislike product that leaves a white cast during application because you know you'll have a hard time blending your makeup after.Overall, I am very happy with the Esfolio Green Herb Sun Cream Relaxing product and I can't wait to try their other variants!For availability, please visit https://www.esfolio.ph/pages/stores For more brand and product information, visit https://www.esfolio.ph Please LIKE Esfolio Philippines on Facebook , follow them on Instagram
Australian health experts call to Bring back the sandwich





Australian health experts are calling for the humble sandwich to make a return to school lunches in 2018.

With many parents feeling the pressure to provide kids with fancy foods, health experts are telling parents not to be afraid to pack a stress-free but healthy sandwich this school year.

The push for sandwiches comes from Nutrition Australia and the Grains & Legumes Nutrition Council who are running the inaugural healthy Lunchbox Week between 22  29 January 2018.

The two organisations say parents make an average of 200 school lunches a year for each of their primary school aged kids. With so many lunches to organise, the groups say parents need to turn to lower stress options like sandwiches.

Kids eat around a third of their daily food at school, so what goes in the lunchbox matters, but preparing the, can be a source of stress and frustration for parents, Nutrition Australia spokesperson Leanne Elliston said.

Bread is a valuable food for growing kids, said Grains & Legumes Nutrition Council Nutrition Manager, Felicity Curtain.

As part of Healthy Lunchbox Week, a free webinar called Bring Back the Sandwich will be available on the Nutrition Australia website from Wednesday 24 January 2018.

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CLIF Bars to partner with Ironman Oceania





CLIF Bars will be the official energy bar and gels of the Ironman Oceania 2018 and 2019 Multisport series.

As part of the partnership, CLIF Bars and CLIF Energy Gels will be provided to competitors of the Gold Coast Luke Harrop Memorial, the Mooloolaba Triathlon Festival and the Noosa Triathlon Multi Sport Festival.

CLIF Bars were first developed in the US and are designed to help fuel athletes. Today, CLIF Bars also sells gels that can be quickly consumed by athletes during their activity.

Ironman Oceania Managing Director, Dave Beeche, said CLIF Bar already sponsors North American Ironman races, making an Oceania partnership great news.

The partnership between CLIF Bar and the Ironman Oceanias Multisport Series is wonderful news as competitors in these outstanding Australian events will now have access to CLIF Bars range of world-class, quality nutrition products, Beeche said.

Spokesperson for CLIF Bar Australia, Jackie Goldston, said: CLIF Bar is proud to partner with Ironman Oceania Multisport Series to help competitors at all levels achieve their goals.

Related articles
Possible class action ahead for Retail Food Group





Retail Food Group may soon be facing a class action from a law firm representing disgruntled franchisees.

Australian law firm, Bannister Law, is investigating the possibility of filing a class action after a number of concerns have been raised by Retail Food Group (RFG) franchise partners.

RFG holds franchising rights to a number of quick service food providers in Australia including Gloria Jeans Coffee, Donut King, Pizza Capers and Crust Pizza.

In late 2017, a Fairfax investigation alleged RFG was not supporting its franchise partners properly. The investigation made a number of claims including that RFG franchise partners have felt forced to sell their stores at large discounts and have been underpaying employees to help make ends meet.

Following the investigation, Bannister Law announced in late December 2017 that it would be exploring possible shareholder class action into RFG over possible contraventions of provisions of the Corporations Act regarding its stated profit guidance during the first half of its 2018 financial year.

Bannister Law is now working with Australian action group, Franchise Redress, to investigate the possibility of class action on behalf of franchisees. Co-Founder of Franchise Redress, Maddison Johnstone, said Franchise Redress has had contact from over 100 franchisees, many of whom have raised concerns around RFGs conduct.

Given the accounts of hardship, it is important to us that franchisees have an avenue of redress for the severe financial distress theyre living with, Johnstone said.

Franchise Redress strongly encourages all disaffected RFG franchisees to express interest in a potential class action with Bannister Law.

RFG responds to possible class action

RFG has said that in the event a class action would proceed, RFG would defend itself vigorously.

As Australias largest multi-brand retail food franchisor, we are proud to support numerous small businesses across Australia, RFG said in a statement.

We remain committed to the livelihood and profitability of each and every one of our franchise partners, the statement concluded.

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After shelling out more than 7500 to get a move on a permanent residency visa after being married to an Aussie for 15 years... I am conflicted about this from a personal perspective but on the other hand this could do wonders for those who are from some commonwealth countries.
Pamela Sederholm (far left), executive director, American Automotive Leasing Association, moderates the fleet management company executive panel at the NAFA Institute and Expo in 2017.

The NAFA Fleet Management Association recently revealed the dates and locations for the NAFA Institute & Expo in 2019 and 2021.

For 2019, the association's annual conference will be hosted at the Kentucky International Convention Center, in Louisville, Ky.; and in 2021, it will be hosted at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, in Pittsburgh, Pa. The 2020 dates have yet to be announced.

The announcement has revealed a shorting of the average duration of the expo from four days down to three. The expo in Louisville in 2019 will be hosted April 15 to 17, and the Pittsburgh expo in 2021 would be held April 12 to 14.

The change to a three-day event from four days came directly from member feedback, said NAFA CEO Phillip E. Russo, CAE. The Association conducts post-conference surveys each year, and a frequent concern for attendees involved their time out of the office. The new I&E schedule provides powerful, concentrated education and networking  very close to current levels  and shortens time away from work.

This years Institute & Expo will be held April 24 to 27 in Anaheim, Calif. The conference offers ample networking opportunities, first hand-experience with the latest fleet products on the I&E expo floor, and educational sessions.
Sixt Rent-a-Car, the worlds fifth largest car rental company with more than 2,000 locations in over 100 countries, announces today the official business opening in the San Antonio International Airport. The companys latest new location is inside the new, on-airport consolidated rental facility (CONRAC). The Sixt San Antonio team anticipates its first official day. Photo courtesy of Six.

From the iconic Riverwalk, to the Alamo and its historic Missions, to a host of first-class attractions, San Antonio is an unforgettable travel destination. This incredible city merits an equally incredible travel experience, and thats why Sixt is proud to be open for business. Were grateful to Mayor Nirenberg, our friends at the airport, and so many other good people who have made us feel so very welcome, said Daniel Florence, chief operating officer of Sixt USA.



In the United States, Sixt is upgrading and improving existing locations, as well as expanding to new markets as rapidly as possible, the company said in a statement.



In 2017, Sixt unveiled expanded services in the Miami International Airport and its Seattle-Tacoma International Airport location, launched a new location at the San Diego International Airport, and moved into its new North American corporate headquarters in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.



The company has grown to over 750 employees, and serves more than 50 rental locations located in California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Washington, Texas, Connecticut, New Jersey, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, and Massachusetts.

Photo courtesy of Sixt.
Police are investigating after banners with hateful anti-gay messages were hung outside an Indiana church known for being LGBT friendly and its progressive stands on racial and social justice issues.

West Lafayette police say the banners were found Sunday attached to a fence outside the Unitarian Universalist Church in the city about 70 miles northwest of Indianapolis.

One banner included a slur for gays and lesbians and the second had slurs against both racial minorities and gays and lesbians.

Parishioner Suzan Windnagel told the Journal & Courier the banners messages were sickening, hate-filled and threatening.

Police said, these hateful racist banners have no place in our community and the West Lafayette Police Department is investigating this as a crime of harassment and felony intimidation.

The mayor of West Lafayette took to Facebook to express his outrage:

The City of West Lafayette has been and always will be an open and welcoming community. We will not allow our embracing of all that is right to be targeted by those who feel empowered to deliver a message of hate, violence and exclusivity. We will continue to make West Lafayette (a city where one-quarter of our resident population is non-native and that has long protected LBGTQ rights) an inclusive haven for all civically-minded people looking to improve our world. I have contacted our police department and they are working the neighborhood to look for information in regards to this disgusting incident. The FBI has also been notified. Mayor John Dennis

If anyone has any information about this incident, they are asked to contact Lt. Jonathan Eager at the West Lafayette Police Department or the WeTip Hotline at 1-800-78CRIME.
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.
After 33 years of service, the fire chief in Pinellas Park is retiring.

And there is a replacement already lined up.

Guy Keirn joined Pinellas Park Fire Department in 1984

He said meeting people has been most enjoyable part of job

Deputy Chief of Operations Brett Schlatterer will replace him



Guy Keirn said the time has come, and while retiring was bittersweet, he said being a firefighter is in his blood and will always be part of who he is. He said he wants to focus more on his family.

He started with the fire department in December 1984.

"I made a decision when I was 21 years old and probably one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life," Keirn said of joining the department.

He worked his way through the ranks, ultimately serving as chief, and he said the last 33 years went by in a flash. He said he has always enjoyed his job, especially the people he has met and worked with along the way.

"Some people talk about the fire trucks and the fire stations and this call or that building on fire," he said. "It's really the people, the people that have impacted me and touched me personally and professionally.

"Going out there, they have a need, they're having their emergency and we show up and we're able to help them and that stress, you see the relief on that family member," he said. "Because we show up, just walking in the door their day has gotten better because we're there.

And even in his retirement, Keirn said he wants to give back to his community.

"This is not goodbye. It's a new journey," he said.

Keirn said he plans to spend his retirement spending more time with his family and working on his farm in Georgia.

Deputy Chief of Operations Brett Schlatterer will be promoted to chief. He has served with the Pinellas Park Fire Department since 1996.
Hundreds of women, and men, gathered at Lake Eola Park to mark the first anniversary of the Womens March.

Hundreds gathered for Orlando Women's March

Event focused on urging women to vote, run for office

March among others across the country



Last years march in Orlando was among 600 nationwide, including the Womens March in Washington, D.C.

Many marched last year in response to incoming President Donald Trump.

This years march focused on urging women to vote during Novembers mid-term elections.

Organizers and speakers also urged women to run for office.

We need more faces in our political leadership that are women to represent the issues that affect us most, said Neila Wilson, co-captain of Central Florida Womens March. Thats what were championing more women at the table. If that table isnt giving us a seat, then we are making our own table.

The event included speeches from community leaders and meet-and-greets with women who are running for office later this year.
Delta Airlines says it will soon require additional documentation for passengers flying with service animals.

Delta Airlines to change service animal policies starting March 1

Passengers will have to get forms filled out by a doctor

Passengers would also have to sign a promissory note

JUMP TO: Service animals FAQ 

Federal law requires airlines to allow people with trained service and support animals to fly free of charge, although airlines do charge a fee to allow regular pets on board.

Delta says it is seeing a growing number of people posing their pets as service animals when they are really not.

Delta has seen an 84 percent increase in reported animal incidents since 2016, including urination/defecation, biting, and even a widely reported attack by a 70-pound dog, Delta said in a statement.

The airline says they have seen passengers try to fly with comfort turkeys, sugar gliders and snakes.

Ignoring the true intent of existing rules governing the transport of service and support animals can be a disservice to customers who have real and documented needs, Delta said in a statement.

Starting March 1, Delta Airlines will require additional documentation for service animals. This includes signed forms from a doctor verifying a service animal is authentic, and a requirement that passengers sign a promissory note stating their animal will behave.

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Richard Darrington, who uses a service animal because of his visual impairment, says true service animals go through years of training, and rarely show signs of aggression or distracted behavior.

It is illegal in Florida to pretend your pet is a service animal, although Darrington cautions that is hard to prove. It is a self-contained industry, with little oversight, broad laws and no national registry.

A quick Internet search will also show just how easy it is to obtain a service animal vest or certificate, without showing proof.

Darrington says those who try to pass off their pets as a service animal, when it is not, does more harm to others.

Thats just putting undue pressure on the system, Darrington said. If you travel into a hospital, or a restaurant, anything where youre enjoying your quality of life, were forever screened and questioned and delayed, maybe denied access.

Other airlines may soon follow suite. Representatives for American, United, SouthWest, JetBlue, and Spirit say they are reviewing their policies.

Service animals FAQ

What makes an animal a service animal?

The Americans With Disabilities Act defines a service animal as the following:

Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities.

Examples include guide dogs for the blind, dogs who pull wheelchairs, dogs who alert and protect a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person to take medications or calming a person who has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder during an anxiety attack.

A service animal is not a pet. If you see someone with a service animal in store, you shouldn't ask to pet the dog because it is most likely working.

In Florida, a service animal can be a dog or a miniature horse, according to the law.

What's the difference between a service animal, an emotional support animal or comfort animal, and a therapy animal?



Service animals go where their owners go. Because they perform specific tasks directly related to the person's needs, they are always needed anywhere.

An emotional support or comfort animal is not a service dog because they provide therapeutic benefit to an individual through the pet's companionship, but not specific tasks.

Any animal can be an emotional support animal if a doctor is willing to sign off on it. But the animal is not specifically trained to perform tasks. Because of that, an ESA does not get the kind of public access a service animal has. However, if the person has an emotional support animal that is approved by a medical professional, they can live in a housing unit that has a "no pets" rule, according to the federal Fair Housing Act. Airlines are also more willing to let an emotional support animal travel in the cabin of an airplane, under certain limitations. Check with the individual airlines.

A therapy dog, however, is neither. Therapy dogs are used in a wide variety of roles. They are best known for visiting people at facilities like hospitals, nursing homes and schools. They can provide comfort and stress relief for patients. They can also help in nursing homes or rehabilitation centers as a tool in therapy and treatment. But they do not have the public access a service dog has.

Where are service dogs allowed?

Essentially every where. Even at places like restaurants and supermarkets where dogs are not usually allowed, or other places where state or local health codes would prohibit animals. However, there are rules:

They must be properly harnesses, leashed or tethered unless the devices interfere with a service animal's work, or the individual's disability prevents them from using them. Then the individual has to maintain control of the animal through voice, signal or other controls.

Also, the animal must be well-trained. A person who uses a service dog has to make sure that dog goes through multiple levels of training, from basic obedience to the Public Access Test. While they do not have to show a license or any evidence to training to a business, if they are dragged into court they will have to show documentation that the dog can pass the Public Access Test.

Is it true businesses are not allowed to question people with service dogs?

Businesses are not allowed to ask for proof of certification or medical documentation regarding a service dog. They are not allowed to ask specifically about the person's disability or if the dog is a service dog. They are, however, allowed to ask TWO questions, per the ADA:

Is the animal required because of a disability? What work or task has the animal been trained to perform?

The business also cannot charge a person with a service animal extra fees or isolate them from other patrons.

If the animal is out of control and the owner doesn't take action to control it, or the animal poses a direct threat to other patrons, the business can be asked to remove the dog from the premises. The disabled person can then come on the property without the dog.

And allergies and fear of animals are not valid reasons for denying access to a service dog, per the ADA.

A FAQ for businesses from the ADA can be found here.



Is it true you can just register your dog online as a service dog?

No. There are many websites that claim you can register your dog, by a vest or a patch and your dog is a service dog. Unless that dog is properly trained, that dog is not a service dog. A service dog shouldn't bark unless it is to alert the patient to something they need. They should be house broken. They should follow all handler commands. They shouldn't scratch or bite. They should almost be invisible, only active and visible when they need to be to work for their handler. Even if the dog was trained by the handler, and not by an organization, their training must be absolutely stellar and obvious.

Is there actually a problem with fake service dogs?

Finding statistics on documented fake service dogs are not easy. Faking a service dog is a federal crime, and now also a misdemeanor punishable with up to 60 days of jail time in Florida. Fake service dogs become a problem for people with real service dogs because these people face added discimination from businesses and individuals who have had bad experience. It can affect their access.

Some organizations, like Canine Companions for Independence, are looking for ways to work with The U.S. Justice Dept., and this may lead to a standard for service dogs. They've collected thousands of signatures on a petition to get the Justice Dept. to look into this. CCI said they are increasingly hearing complaints from their clients that they have been denied access to public places because business owners have had bad experiences with fake service dogs.
Fun and Odd Oregon Coast Facts: Seal Rock State Rec Site and Its Village

Rebpublished 11/24/2019 at 3:09 AM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Newport, Oregon)  From the startling geology of the place to quirky elements of its history, Seal Rock the tiny village  and Seal Rock State Recreational Site  have a lot of distinctive aspects about it that truly set it apart from other Oregon beach waysides. Mostly, people zip through the lazy hamlet at close to the speed limit on their way to either Waldport or Newport, noticing little else than the brief glimpse of surf and sea or the curio shops that sit landward.

It's easy to keep on going. That's a mistake, however.

Seal Rock State Recreational Site is one of the more phenomenal beaches on the entire coastline, where so much is packed into a half mile or so.

What you'll find below is a mere sampling of the trippy and delightful finds. It's a teaser to a spot you'll simply have to see to believe.





Strange Oregon Coast History: Legend of Seal Rock Sea Monsters. Sometimes, history is wackier than fiction. According to the Lincoln County Historical Society archives, an outlandish report of sea monsters at what is now known as Seal Rock  just south of Newport and a bit north of Waldport  happened in 1935. Only three years before Orson Welles' famed mass hysteria-inducing radio presentation of War of the Worlds (it aired in 1938), a local newspaper in Newport said a couple living in the burgeoning village known then as Seal Rocks claimed they'd seen more than one sea monster that could've been straight out of a Jules Verne novel.

It's right up there with the crazy UFO boxes hoax of 2012, or the fictional short story 100 years ago that created the legend of the ghost girl at Newport's Yaquina Bay  except this goofy tale has been covered by the sands of time. ....MORE....





A Half-Circle of Serious Fun: Seal Rock State Recreational Site, on the Central Oregon Coast. As you first meander down the walkway from the parking lot, you'll initially be greeted by this rather awe-inspiring sight: the great half-circle of Seal Rock  a few miles south of Newport and a handful of miles north of Waldport. Gargantuan logs litter the beach, mostly at the upper area covered in large, polished stones. This is quite the testimony to the power of the ocean, so keep that in mind while traipsing around this potentially very dangerous area. ....MORE....





Oregon Coast Virtual Tour: Seal Rock Tidepools, Curious Shapes, Strange Basalts. Surreal and yet serene, this beachy oddball is more than just scenic eye candy.

A variety of grooves and intriguing shapes inhabit this fun and funky half-circle that is the beach of Seal Rock and Seal Rock State Recreational Site. While the towering semi-sea stack of Elephant Rock and a handful of basalt blobs of varying degrees of jaggedness stand in the tide, as if they're purposefully keeping it at bay, other smaller curiosities poke out of the sand  given the right conditions.

One looks like an egg that has fallen apart  a curious roundish shape that is broken now. What created these weird and craggy constructs? Each with a different, odd outline. It's the kind of question only a geologist could answer. ....MORE....





Oregon Coast Landmark: Exploring Seal Rock's Varied Details. The main attraction is, of course, the big rock itself: a towering behemoth of black basalt that presides over all the other myriad attractions. This is actually Elephant Rock - not the "Seal Rock" in the town's name. Curiously enough, this beach was originally called Seal Rocks - with an "s." That eventually dropped by the wayside. ....MORE....

Yachats Hotels - Lodging in this area - Where to eat - Maps and Virtual Tours





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Historic Oregon Coast Fun in Feb: Crab Krack Feast, Wedding Vow Renewal

Published 01/21/2018 at 3:35 PM PDT - Updated 01/21/2018 at 4:35 PM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Newport, Oregon)  Two distinctive and sublimely fun ways to celebrate on the Oregon coast are coming up in February. One celebrates love during this season of romance with the legendary wedding vow renewal at Yachats' Little Log Church, while another celebrates the history of Newport and its bounty of crab with the famed Crab Krack.

The Krack is back  on the central Oregon coast. The Lincoln County Historical Societys Annual Crab Krack will take place at 4 p.m., Sunday, February 11 at the Best Western Agate Beach Inn in Newport.

Just in time for Valentine's Day, treat your date to a luscious fresh local Dungeness crab dinner and live jazz.

Each year, crab for this annual event has been graciously donated by the local fishing community. Additionally, the generosity of a long list of local restaurants and merchants make this event possible.

This whole crab dinner event includes various side dishes, an array of desserts, no-host bar, live music by the Bringetto Jazz Duo, and both a silent and oral auction. In short, something for just about everyone.



Event proceeds will be used to complete lower floor renovations at the Pacific Maritime Heritage Center in Newport.



The Agate Beach Inn is offering a special rate for guests attending the festivities, and reservations can be made by calling 541-265-9411, or 800-547-3310 and mentioning Crab Krack to get the special rate.

Tickets for the Crab Krack are available for purchase at the Burrows House and Pacific Maritime Heritage Museums. Cost for members is $45 per person, for non-members, $55. Memberships start as low as $20 a year. For more information, to purchase tickets, or reserve your table for 8, call the Historical Society at 541-265-7509.





One of the most romantic events of the entire Oregon coastline is coming up in Yachats on Valentine's Day: the Vows Renewal Ceremony at the Little Log Church. It's an opportunity for couples to renew their vows in a group setting  with both married and unmarried committed couples invited to attend.

The ceremony starts at 5:30 p.m. The Vows Renewal Ceremony, held annually on February 14, has become a popular fundraiser for The Little Log Church & Museum. Since space is limited, reservations are required. A donation to the museum of $10 per couple is suggested. For reservations couples should call Mary Crook, Events Coordinator, at 541-547-4547.

Mary Crook, the independent minister who has facilitated the event since 1996, reports that hundreds of couples have come to Yachats to renew their vows over the years.

For some couples it is a first-time experience; for others it has become an annual tradition  something fun and meaningful to do on Valentines Day, she adds.

Last year a violinist performed pieces of a particularly romantic nature, and participants were each given mementos of the event. Something similar will happen at this year's event, say organizers, but not all details were available as yet.

The historic Little Log Church has been a landmark in Yachats for over 85 years, and houses historic artifacts as well as being host to many weddings, artistic events, and small concerts. It is located at the corner of SW Third Street and Pontiac in the heart of town. 541-547-4547. Oregon Coast Hotels for these events - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours















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A Groves man was arrested after allegedly stealing a car and leading officers on a 6-mile chase, Beaumont Police said.

Chester Smith, 32, is accused of stealing a Chevrolet Impala from the parking lot of a gas station on 23rd Street in Beaumont on Saturday.

He was located traveling on I-10 and refused to stop for Beaumont Police and Jefferson County authorities, BPD Officer Carol Riley said. "A vehicle pursuit ensued for approximately six miles," she said.

Smith stopped the car near Fannett Road and Cardinal Drive, and ran into the woods, where he was caught by a BPD officer and his canine, Riley said.

Smith was treated for a bite from the police dog, and taken to Jefferson County Jail. He is charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and evading arrest in a motor vehicle.
Click through to the slideshow above to learn more about Dairy Queen, home of the Blizzard...

If you ask many Texans where Dairy Queen is based, they will likely proudly proclaim that the chain is headquartered right here in the Lone Star State.

But Dairy Queen is actually headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

We'll let you pick your jaws up off the floor.

BEAVER NUGGETS PLEASE: 25 amazing things you probably didn't know about Buc-ee's

The chain has done such a good job becoming a part of the Texas experience that it's easy to forget the company was founded in Joliet, Illinois in 1940.

You cant drive any long distance in the state of Texas without passing a Dairy Queen location. In some small towns the DQ is the epicenter of activity, ice cream and chicken strip baskets. Its where local teens first earn a dollar and where you can always get a Blizzard served upside down.

At some locations you can even get your Blizzard free if the server forgets to serve it to you upside down. It depends on the independent franchise owner.

DELI DAYS: Learn all about the humble beginnings of Texas' own Jason's Deli

Every DQ location is franchisee-owned and operated except for two of them, according to the company's director of communications Dean Peters. The company has two corporate-operated locations in Minneapolis.

When it comes to the popularity of DQ in Texas, Peters doesnt really have an explanation. Texas boasts some 593 locations, the most across the United States.

The Texas trailblazing spirit increased the brand's visibility in the market but it wasn't easy.

HOUSTON WAITS: Dairy Queen wants to make Houston DQ country

Doris Richeson has been a multi-unit Texas Dairy Queen owner/operator since 1969. She serves on the nine-member board of directors for Texas Dairy Queen Operators. She became the first female Dairy Queen franchisee in the early 70s.

She attributes Texas' Dairy Queen growth to the work of the early franchisees who fought to add Texas-centric items to the menu to site beside the sweet stuff.

Unlike non-Texas Dairy Queen restaurants, the Texas stores sell more food than treat desserts, a continuing mix through the years, Richeson says. Her company owns 10 percent of Texas locations.

PROM DATE: Teen's epic Chick-fil-A promposal is a dream come true

Operators tried and tested the food menu items we sell today, and more. Just about any item we offered our customers on the menu was well received, she says. Of course some things fell away from the menu. Not everything worked.

According to Richeson, International Dairy Queen sold its Texas territorial franchise rights around 1947, to Rolly Klose of San Antonio. Ambitious entrepreneurs soon began trying their hand at slinging soft serve and burgers.

Klose owned those rights until 1980 when Texas Dairy Queen was re-purchased by International Dairy Queen.

The board soon realized that Texas' menus were very different and much more food-dominant than those outside the state, Richeson says. In quite-contentious meetings in 1980 and early 1981, Texas negotiated with IDQ, acquiring its own food specification and marketing rights.
Rohingya refugees interested in returning to Myanmar will be asked to sign a document stating that their return is voluntary and pledging to abide by the existing laws of that country, according to a copy of the repatriation form obtained by BenarNews in Bangladesh.

The form requires each head of family to supply a Myanmar address for his father, mother and spouse, as well as a family photo and thumb prints for all family members over the age of 5.

I apply to return and live in Myanmar voluntarily without any threat or encouragement. If permission is granted to me to enter Myanmar, I will abide by the existing laws of Myanmar, it says right above the signature line.

Details of the form, which is printed in English only, emerged as a top official acknowledged that repatriation had yet to begin, despite a Jan. 22 start date set in bilateral negotiations two months ago.

Repatriation is a complex issue. So, we cannot give you a fixed date when the repatriation will start, Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Mohammad Abul Kalam told reporters in Coxs Bazar, a district in southeastern Bangladesh that borders Myanmars Rakhine state.

The two nations had agreed to begin voluntary repatriation of close to 700,000 Rohingya refugees who fled into Bangladesh over the last five months amid an alleged onslaught of arson, killings and rape in Rakhine that amounted to ethnic cleansing, according to U.N. officials.

Kalam said Bangladesh had yet to finish the first step  preparing a list of 100,000 refugees for verification by Myanmar authorities. Bangladesh officials had earlier admitted that repatriation would likely be delayed and, once begun, take up to two years.

Bangladeshs decision to postpone Rohingya repatriation had given the refugees temporary relief, global rights watchdog Amnesty International said in a statement Monday.

While it is positive that Bangladesh has acknowledged the need for further preparations and delayed the repatriation process, there would need to be a wholesale reform of Myanmars treatment of the Rohingya before any returns could truly be considered safe or voluntary, said Charmain Mohamed, Amnestys head of refugee and migrants rights.

According to a 1982 citizenship act, the Rohingya Muslims are not citizens of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, where they have been living for centuries.

We have heard that Bangladesh has signed a deal with Burma to send us back. We want to go back, but they must return our citizenship, Lal Mohammad, 65, a refugee at the Kutupalong camp, told BenarNews.

On Friday, hundreds of Rohingya refugees in Kutupalong staged protests over the planned repatriation and banners appeared in several camps listing pre-conditions for returning to Myanmar including citizenship, education and freedom of movement.

UNHCR in negotiation with Bangladesh

The two countries agreed to revise the repatriation form during a meeting in Naypyidaw earlier this month, at which they hammered out repatriation logistics, according to Kalam, the refugee commissioner.

This form contains a new section stating that they will abide by the existing laws of Myanmar and they are returning voluntarily without encouragement or coercion, Kalam told BenarNews.

This declaration is important for us, too. This declaration testifies that we are not sending them by force, he said.

Kalam said the repatriation form would be administered only for refugees verified as residents by Myanmars government who want to go back.

We will then employ people to fill the verification form for the interested people. The filled verification forms will be given to the Myanmar authorities for second verification. Then the returnees will leave on a stipulated date through designated entry points, Kalam said.

Kalam said the government might sign a deal with the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) to fill the forms.

A UNHCR spokesman in Coxs Bazar told BenarNews the agency had received an offer from the government to get involved in the process.

We have been in negotiation with the government, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Speaking in Geneva on Monday, UNHCR Commissioner Filippo Grandi said more time was needed to prepare for the return of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.

In order for the repatriation to be right, sustainable, actually viable, you need to really address a number of issues that for the time being we have heard nothing about, including the citizenship issue, the rights of the Rohingya in Rakhine state, meaning freedom of movement, access to services, to livelihoods, Grandi told Reuters.

We are ready

On Monday, Myanmars government said it had not received official word from Bangladesh that repatriation would be delayed.

Although the Bangladesh government hasnt contacted us regarding refugees return, we have to continue working on the agreement Bangladesh and Myanmar have reached, Zaw Htay, director-general of State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyis office, told Radio Free Asia (RFA), a sister entity of BenarNews.

We are ready for everything, such as the process of receiving and checking refugees, food, health care and security for them. Reception centers, temporary houses for them are also ready, he claimed.

The rumors that refugees dont want to return home are not correct. The fact is that some of the Bangladesh officials have said they are not ready for the process to repatriate the refugees. They said they still need time to check the list of refugees and applications for refugees.

Across the border, Kalam said Myanmar authorities had assured Bangladesh they would stop the exodus of Rohingya from Rakhine state before repatriation began.

We get information that people are still coming in. It must stop, he said.

A total of 688,000 refugees had arrived in Bangladesh between Aug. 25 and Jan. 21, according to the Inter Sector Coordination Group, which oversees the humanitarian response to the refugee crisis in southeast Bangladesh.

The increase in the number is not as a result of a significant influx, but due to strengthened assessments, ISCG said in its latest situation update.
The 49th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army displays high-powered firearms and an Islamic State flag recovered after an encounter in a coastal village near Masiu, a town in the southern province of Lanao del Sur, Jan. 20, 2018.

Intelligence operatives in the Philippines arrested an Iraqi man described as a bomb maker who had eluded capture five months earlier, police announced Monday.

National police chief Ronald dela Rosa identified the suspect as Taha Mohamed Al-Jabouri, 64, saying he came to the Philippines in August as Manila was preparing to host a summit of world leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, three months later.

Al-Jabouri evaded our radar after Iraqs embassy in Manila alerted local authorities about his presence, dela Rosa said.

The Iraqi Embassy described Al-Jabouri as a chemist with knowledge on explosives and is known to have close ties with militant extremist movements in the Middle East, dela Rosa said.

The suspect was arrested Saturday night after village officials in Angeles City, north of Manila, alerted police to the presence of a Middle Eastern-looking man said to be acting suspiciously.

Al-Jabouri did not resist arrest, and officers confiscated his travel document, which was valid for only three months and had expired, dela Rosa said. The suspect was carrying different denominations of a foreign currency.

While under interrogation, Al-Jabouri told police he served as a consultant for the Hamas organization in Syria before relocating to Turkey sometime in 2012, dela Rosa said.

The man allegedly traveled to the Philippines to meet a Chinese business group, dela Rosa said without giving other details. The suspect likely will be turned over to Iraqi authorities here before he is deported.

Philippine authorities said they were checking whether Al-Jabouri could have made connections with local groups. His visit came in the middle of a massive operation against linked militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) who had gained control of Marawi city in the southern Philippines.

In May 2017, police in Manila placed the crowded Quiapo district in Manila under lockdown after two improvised bombs exploded within hours near the Muslim center. Two people were killed in the attack.

Six months earlier, in November 2016, police said they foiled a bomb plot after discovering an improvised bomb near the U.S. embassy in Manila.

Dela Rosa blamed the Maute group, which would later help lead the Marawi siege, as being behind the foiled bombing.

Filipino officials said the fighters were backed by several Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian fighters, including Malaysian Mahmud Ahmad.

Overall Filipino IS leader Isnilon Hapilon, Ahmad and top leaders of the Maute gang were killed in Marawi in October as the five-month siege was ending.

However, President Rodrigo Duterte has asked Congress to extend martial law in the south, noting that nearly 200 enemy fighters remained at-large in the region. He said an extension was needed for troops to ensure the total eradication of extremist groups in the south.

50 foreign militants

Last week, Maj. Gen. Fernando Trinidad, deputy intelligence chief of the military, said at least 50 foreign IS militants were believed to still be operating in the south, allegedly training recruits and teaching bomb-making techniques.

He issued the warning while defending Dutertes martial law extension in the south, saying a majority of foreign terrorists had arrived from neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia.

The new recruits are undergoing training on marksmanship, urban attacks and use of improvised explosive devices, Trinidad had said last week.

Within days of Trinidads warning, an army combat patrol engaged a group of militants who were trying to sneak into the town of Masiu in Lanao del Sur province.

The armys commander in the area, Brig. Gen. Roseller Murillo, said about 10 enemy fighters were seen aboard two boats trying to come ashore, triggering a gun-battle. The two boats were found sunk.

He said troops had recovered an assortment of high-powered weapons, including grenade launchers and IS paraphernalia, including its trademark black flag.

The clash happened despite a heightened alert status ordered by the military guarding Marawi city amid warnings the enemy was plotting fresh attacks.
U.S. Army soldiers welcome Philippine National Police Special Action Force members returning from Marawi at Camp Bagong Diwa, south of Manila, Oct. 25, 2017.

The Philippines launched a new anti-terrorism pact with the United States while it was helping defeat Islamic State-linked militants who had taken over the southern city of Marawi, the government announced Monday.

The joint endeavor, Operation Pacific Eagle, was launched in September 2017, or a month before militants were defeated in Marawi and President Rodrigo Duterte declared fighting over.

The operation became public knowledge after the Wall Street Journal reported last week about improving ties between both nations.

Dozens of Americans remain in the south serving as advisers to Filipino forces, a significant drop from the hundreds who were rotating here nearly 20 years ago when the southern Philippines was considered a petri dish for Islamic militancy.

The targets then were the Abu Sayyaf Group, a kidnap-for-ransom gang responsible for the worst attacks in the Philippines, including bombings, kidnappings and beheadings of foreign hostages.

The group later splintered into smaller factions, including one led by Isnilon Hapilon who would go on to be recognized by the Islamic State (IS) as its leader here. When Hapilons faction, aided by foreign militants, laid siege to the southern city of Marawi last year, Americans were among the first to offer help to government troops through intelligence gathering and surveillance.

The five-month battle left more than 1,200 militants, soldiers and civilians dead. Gunmen were defeated in late October after government troops killed Hapilon and other insurgent leaders.

No need to announce

Duterte spokesman Harry Roque said the government did not see a need to announce the new operation. The deal came months after diplomatic relations soured when the Philippine leader threatened to kick out American forces after former President Barrack Obamas administration expressed concerns about his war on drugs.

Duterte also announced he was seeking an independent foreign policy away from Washington  a military ally since 1951  and toward cooperation with Russia and China, which he had argued were closer geographically.

We asked help from anyone, from all countries of the world, because the threat of terrorism is not just in the Philippines, its a worldwide concern, Roque said. So if countries want to give whatever assistance they could and they want to, its welcome.

He said terrorism was a concern shared by other international organizations as well, and stressed that such an arrangement need not be announced.

I do not know why we have to announce a call for assistance for an anti-terrorism initiative, he said. Thats not top secret.

He said the fact that he was acknowledging any country can provide anti-terrorism assistance should be a welcome development.

And if assistance would be given, we would gladly accept this assistance, he said.

Asked whether Dutertes apparent turnaround signaled that his government would no longer seek military allies elsewhere, Roque said: Well, you know, an independent foreign policy recognizes there are threats which are common to the entire humanity and the threat of global terrorism is one of them.

Previously, Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said a significant drawdown of American troops helped IS infiltrate local Muslim extremist groups.

At the time, he said about 100 U.S. troops were in the Philippines, mostly for non-combat roles in the southern city of Zamboanga, from where they deployed to Marawi last year. Before that, about 600 American soldiers were deployed to the southern region at any given time.

Felipe Villamor in Manila contributed to this report.
Updated at 2:34 p.m. ET on 2018-01-22

Three civilians were killed and 28 other people were injured when a bomb exploded at a market in Thailands Deep South on Monday, in the deadliest attack by suspected insurgents in the troubled region in 2018 so far, local authorities said.

The bomb, which went off in the morning at the busy Pimonchai market in Yala province, was rigged to a motorcycle that had been stolen from a local woman, officials said.

Witnesses saw a suspect leave the bike next to a pork stall in the market in Yala town, Muang district, before the bomb exploded around 6:20 a.m., Col. Prawit Chorseng, the chief of Yala municipal police, told reporters.

The blast damaged houses, shops and vehicles within an 80-meter (262-feet) radius.

An attacker rode a motorcycle to park at the bomb scene. Witness told him to not park the bike there, but he ignored this and got away, and the bomb went off four to five minutes later, Prawit said.

I believe the insurgents did it to cause unrest, Pol. Lt. Eakapong Rattanachai, an inspector with the Yalas police station, said.

The bombing brought to 12 the number of people killed in attacks by separatist insurgents across the Deep South in the first three weeks of the new year, according to figures compiled by BenarNews. At least 42 other people were hurt in those attacks.

The bombing shows the insurgents never stop trying to indiscriminately destroy lives and property, Col. Pramote Prom-in, spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) in the region, said Monday.

It is the continued attempt of those bad guys to target civilians. They dont give up to sabotage urban areas, in particular, because that can cause lots of lives and damages. Such attacks create a lack of confidence in the government, he told reporters.

Robiyah Maming, a vegetable vendor at the market, said she escaped injury because she had gone elsewhere to deliver products when the blast occurred.

I was frightened and almost passed out. How could this happen? Why do the innocent people have to be killed? she told BenarNews, referring to the horrific scene she witnessed after returning to the market.

A group of bad people

According to another security official who declined to be identified, the bombing was carried out by Maroyee Ma-ae, the leader of an insurgent unit that calls itself the Patani Revolution Organization.

However, Lt. Gen. Piyawat Nakwanich, the commander of the Fourth Army in the region, claimed that insurgents were not behind the attack. He suggested that other people had hired armed thugs to carry out the bombing in order to disrupt the local economy.

There has been no such violence in the municipality for two to three years, but todays incident was aimed to destroy the economy. They knew that the market was packed in the morning, Piyawat told reporters.

This has nothing to do with the insurgency at all. Its about a group of bad people who get an order to do this. There are three to four well-known families that are capable of doing this, we know that, he added.

Apart from the separatist insurgency that has dragged on for decades in Thailands predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking border region, the Deep South is notorious for criminal activity.

Later on Monday, a 28-year-old man, identified as Makodafi Badee, was shot dead in Rue-soh, a district of Narathiwat, another province in the Deep South, but local authorities had yet to determine whether the shooting was related to the insurgency.

Bombing condemned

Nearly 7,000 people  many of them civilians  have been killed in violence associated with insurgency since the conflict re-ignited in 2004.

In the past few years, Thailands military-controlled government has held exploratory talks with MARA Patani, a panel that claims to represent all of the various rebel groups in the region. But those talks, facilitated by Malaysia, so far have failed to produce a limited ceasefire, which is seen as a crucial first step in negotiations aimed at settling the conflict.

After Mondays deadly explosion at the market in Yala, the secretariat of the Thai governments delegation to the talks issued a statement condemning the attack.

... The government and the peace-talk panel welcome all groups and open the doors for everyone to find a peaceful solution. But we have no room for ones who adopt violence on innocents because it is a crime. All involved agencies should enforce the law with military operations and maintain the rule of law against these criminals, the statement said.

A local group, the Buddhists Network for Peace, urged the participants in the ongoing talks to step up efforts to advance the peace process.

[We] are asking the militant groups or opposition group including armed elements in the area to stop violent action against innocent civilians. [We] demand all stakeholders and Thais nationwide to condemn and express their disagreement against violence , a statement from the network said.
For Immediate Release, January 22, 2018 Contact: Kristen Monsell, (914) 806-3467, kmonsell@biologicaldiversity.org Supreme Court Rejects Oil Industry Challenge to Endangered Species Protection for Bearded Seals WASHINGTON The U.S. Supreme Court today declined a challenge to federal protection of bearded seals in Alaska under the Endangered Species Act. The National Marine Fisheries Service listed the species as threatened in 2012 upon concluding that climate change will destroy the sea-ice habitat the seals need to survive. The decision comes just two weeks after the Trump administration issued its draft 2019-2024 offshore oil and gas leasing plan, which proposes to vastly expand offshore drilling in the Arctic Ocean and other federal waters. The court just gave bearded seals a shot at survival in our rapidly warming world, said Kristen Monsell, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. But sea ice is melting away, and these marvelous animals could disappear forever if Trump lets the oil industry suck dirty fossil fuels out of every corner of our country. To save Arctic wildlife, weve got to keep this polluting crude in the ground. Todays decision rejects a request from the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, American Petroleum Institute and state of Alaska that the court overturn an October 2016 decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals approving the agencys protection of the seals. The plaintiffs complained that Endangered Species Act protections for bearded seals will impede oil drilling in the Arctic. The Center, which petitioned to protect bearded seals in 2008, intervened in the case to defend the listing against industrys challenge and submitted a brief urging the justices to reject the industrys request.



Endangered species protection is the bearded seals only hope, so were glad the justices rejected the oil industrys baseless plea to hear this case, Monsell said. The agencys decision to list this species, and the 9th Circuits decision upholding it, were well reasoned and the right call under the law. Bearded seals, known for their mustachioed appearance and elaborate courtship songs, give birth and nurse their pups on pack ice. The rapid loss of that ice jeopardizes their ability to rear their young and is lowering the abundance of the seals food on their shallow foraging grounds in the Bering Sea. The Endangered Species Act offers bearded seals several protections. Federal officials, for example, will be required to designate critical habitat and prohibited from authorizing activities that jeopardize the seals survival or recovery. Listing the seals does not affect subsistence harvest of the species by Alaska natives.
For Immediate Release, January 22, 2018 Contact: Collette Adkins, Center for Biological Diversity, (651) 955-3821, cadkins@biologicaldiversity.org

Cynthia Sarthou, Gulf Restoration Network, (504) 525-1528 x 202, cyn@healthygulf.org Supreme Court Takes Up Case Challenging Habitat Protections for Endangered Frog in Mississippi, Louisiana NEW ORLEANS The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled that it will reconsider the appellate court decision that maintained protections for 6,477 acres of critical habitat in Mississippi and Louisiana for endangered dusky gopher frogs. Todays decision grants Weyerhaeusers petition for certiorari, in which the timber company asked the Supreme Court to reconsider the June 2016 decision from a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Were disappointed the Supreme Court took up the case but confident the justices will ultimately uphold this imperiled frogs habitat protections, said Collette Adkins, a Center for Biological Diversity attorney who works to conserve amphibians and reptiles. The Fish and Wildlife Service followed the unanimous advice of frog experts in deciding to protect essential habitat of these critically endangered animals. In deciding to take up the case, the Supreme Court will reconsider a lower-court decision that upheld the 2012 rule establishing the habitat protections, including 1,600 privately owned acres of unoccupied frog habitat in Louisiana. The panel held that the Fish and Wildlife Service reasonably concluded that the St. Tammany Parish land is essential for recovery of the frogs, which are now confined to just three sites in southern Mississippi  with only one site regularly showing frog reproduction. Although the frogs no longer live on the St. Tammany Parish lands, the panel agreed with the Service that those lands are essential because they contain five ephemeral ponds, each within hopping distance of the next. Dusky gopher frogs lay their eggs only in such temporary ponds  which are free of fish that would devour their eggs  and the St. Tammany Parish land was the frogs last known Louisiana breeding ground. The court also rejected the landowners argument that federal government regulation of the private lands was an unconstitutional abuse of power. The Supreme Courts ruling is bad news for these endangered frogs, said Cynthia Sarthou, executive director of the Gulf Restoration Network. This lawsuit attempts to gut essential habitat protections for the frog. For too long the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has had to focus its limited resources on defending this decision rather than recovering the frogs and restoring their habitat.

The Center and Gulf Restoration Network filed a brief in opposition to the petitions for certiorari and will participate as parties in the litigation before the Supreme Court. Background

The dusky gopher frog (Rana sevosa) is a warty, dark-colored frog with ridges on the sides of its back. When picked up, these frogs cover their eyes with their forefeet, possibly to protect their faces until predators taste their bitter skin secretions and release them. Gopher frogs spend most of their lives underground in burrows created by gopher tortoises  hence their name. Once prevalent throughout Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, dusky gopher frogs are nearly extinct. More than 98 percent of longleaf pine forests  upon which the frog and many other rare animals depend  have been destroyed. Fire suppression, drought, pesticides, urban sprawl, highway construction and the decline of gopher tortoises have made this frog so rare it now lives in only a few small Mississippi ponds, with only one pond showing consistent frog reproduction. In response to a Center lawsuit, the Fish and Wildlife Service listed the gopher frog as a federally endangered species in 2001. The lawsuit and advocacy by the Center also prompted the 2012 critical habitat designation at issue in todays ruling. Additionally, in response to legal advocacy by the Center and Gulf Restoration Network, the agency released a final recovery plan for the frogs in 2015. More than 170 acres of critical habitat for the endangered dusky gopher frog were protected from development under a land purchase announced in 2015 by the Center for Biological Diversity, Mississippi Chapter of the Sierra Club, Gulf Restoration Network, the Land Trust for the Mississippi Coastal Plain and Columbus Communities, the developer of a planned community called Tradition in Harrison County, Miss. The land, now owned by the Land Trust, has been shielded from development to help ensure the survival of this rare frog and its longleaf pine habitat.
For Immediate Release, January 22, 2018



Contact: Michael Robinson, (575) 313-7017, michaelr@biologicaldiversity.org Eastern Puma Officially Declared Extinct, Taken Off Endangered Species List Conservationists Urge States Like New York to Consider Reintroductions WASHINGTON The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today confirmed the eastern puma is extinct and removed it from the federal endangered species list. This distinct population of cougars once lived from Quebec to South Carolina and from Manitoba to Illinois. Todays final removal of the eastern puma from the endangered list clears the way for states like New York to reintroduce cougars from the widespread and abundant western population. Eastern pumas, also known as mountain lions, were killed off throughout the 1700s and 1800s. The last one was killed in Maine in 1938. Western pumas disperse widely and have shown up as far east as Connecticut. We need large carnivores like cougars to keep the wild food web healthy, so we hope eastern and midwestern states will reintroduce them, said Michael Robinson, a conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. Cougars would curb deer overpopulation and tick-borne diseases that threaten human health. In todays announcement the Fish and Wildlife Service acknowledged there are large, intact areas of habitat with suitable prey and little human disturbance that could support puma populations. The agency cited habitat in the Adirondacks, New England, the Great Lakes region and elsewhere in the Midwest. A different subspecies of the puma, the Florida panther, survives in a small, isolated and precarious population at the rapidly urbanizing southern tip of Florida. These animals, too, were once widespread, from their namesake state north to Georgia and west to Arkansas and eastern Texas. Cougars from the mountainous West have reclaimed lost habitat and currently reproduce as small populations in North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska. Individual Florida panthers and Midwestern cougars that have traveled long distances have been hit by cars, shot by hunters or killed by authorities in recent years throughout the Southeast, Midwest and East, but there is no breeding population in the historic range of the eastern puma. The extermination of pumas along with wolves and lynx led to the current overabundance of white-tailed deer and accompanying declines in tree regrowth because the deer eat acorns and saplings  as well as loss of vegetative cover needed by ground-nesting birds. State leaders like New Yorks Gov. Andrew Cuomo could play a vital role in reintroductions. This somber moment should push Gov. Cuomo and other state leaders to bring back pumas to help rebalance a world out of kilter, said Robinson. Eastern states should move quickly to reintroduce these magnificent animals, which play such a critical role in controlling deer herds.



Pumas were once the most widely distributed mammal in the Americas, extending from the Yukon in Canada to the southern tip of South America. The eastern pumas scientific name is Puma concolor couguar.
For Immediate Release, January 22, 2018 Contact: Abel Valdivia, Center for Biological Diversity, (510) 844-7103, avaldivia@biologicaldiversity.org

Jane Davenport, Defenders of Wildlife, (202) 772-3274, jdavenport@defenders.org Giant Manta Ray Listed as Threatened Under U.S. Endangered Species Act Decision Recognizes International Overfishing But Fails to Adopt Key Protections WASHINGTON The National Marine Fisheries Service protected the giant manta ray as threatened today under the Endangered Species Act. The decision recognized threats from overfishing, climate change and lack of international protections, but failed to offer remedies to giant manta rays steep population declines. Todays listing responds to a petition from Defenders of Wildlife, with support from the Center for Biological Diversity, seeking federal protections of giant and reef manta rays. Both species are often killed for their gills, which are used in Asian medicine; the federal government denied protection of reef mantas last year. Listing giant manta rays under the Endangered Species Act is a good step, but now the U.S. and our international partners have to take concrete actions to protect them, said Dr. Abel Valdivia, a marine ecologist at the Center. Weve got to move quickly to prevent these gentle giants from being wiped out by overfishing and the unregulated trade of their gills. Manta ray populations are threatened by intensive fishing by foreign commercial and artisanal fisheries across several Indo-Pacific and eastern Pacific countries. Regulations and conservation measures have failed in foreign nations to protect these gentle giants, which are targeted by the mostly unregulated international trade of their gills. Several manta ray populations have declined by up to 95 percent. Endangered Species Act protection will provide increased legal safeguards for giant manta rays to help ensure that the United States, which does not have a significant presence in the international gill plate trade, is not a marketplace or shipment point for the trade. Unfortunately the Fisheries Service determined that protective regulations on take and trade are not necessary because, it claims, the species is relatively well protected under U.S. jurisdiction. We welcome this decision recognizing that the giant manta rays populations are plummeting due to overharvesting and fisheries bycatch, said Jane Davenport, a senior attorney at Defenders of Wildlife. We are, however, very disappointed that the federal government chose not to extend any real legal protections to the species under the ESA. We will be scrutinizing the record of the decision to determine whether the agency fulfilled all of its legal obligations under the statute. In many portion of the species range, current U.S. fishery, state, and territorial regulations prohibit the retention of manta rays by persons under U.S. jurisdiction. But, current regulations do not cover every U.S. state, territory or persons, and trade could potentially happen. Endangered Species Act prohibitions on take and trade would ensure the U.S. does not participate in this trade. We are glad the giant manta ray will finally receive threatened species protection it desperately needs. However, omitting the reef manta ray leaves the species vulnerable, said Alejandra Goyenechea, senior international counsel at Defenders. Several international conventions have identified both species as in need of immediate conservation measures. We should do the same here in U.S. waters. In 2013 manta rays were included on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which requires export permits of manta rays and manta ray products to ensure the products were legally acquired and are not detrimental to the survival of the species. The species is also listed in the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species and Wild Animals (CMS).
For Immediate Release, January 22, 2018 Contact: Randi Spivak, (310) 779-4894, rspivak@biologicaldiversity.org Trump Administration Approves Land Swap to Bulldoze Alaska's Izembek National Wildlife Refuge ANCHORAGE, Alaska The Trump administration will approve a land swap today to allow construction of a road through the heart of one of the worlds most ecologically significant wildlife refuges. The Interior Department will exchange roughly 200 acres of Alaskas Izembek National Wildlife Refuge for King Cove Corporation lands, reversing decisions made by former administrations that the trade would cause irreparable harm to Izembeks ecosystem and wildlife. Izembek is home to world-class wetlands that support millions of migrating birds as well as grizzly bears, caribou and salmon. Identifying and appraising lands involved in the trade is expected to take months, and conservation groups plan to sue to stop the land swap. The Trump administration did an end run around Congress because lawmakers wouldnt approve this horribly destructive land swap, said Randi Spivak, public lands program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. This dirty deal sets a dangerous precedent for privatizing public lands and endangers one of our planets most important wildlife refuges. And it wont make residents there any safer. Under previous administrations the Interior Department and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that building a road through the Izembek refuge would cause significant, irreparable damage to extensive fish and wildlife habitats. Izembek contains one of the largest eelgrass beds in the world, providing vital feeding grounds for migratory birds from multiple continents. Past administrations have also determined that bulldozing a road through the refuge was not in the public interest. You cant make a fair trade for this kind of wilderness, because theres nothing else like it, Spivak said. This land swap violates the purpose of the refuge. It will devastate wildlife and destroy congressionally designated wilderness. There are other, safer options for King Cove residents. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) have championed the land swap, claiming the road is needed for medical transport. But driving across the refuge on the proposed road from King Cove to Cold Bay would take significantly longer than taking a boat or a plane. During frequent severe weather and violent storms, the road would be impassable. An Army Corps of Engineers assessment concluded that marine transport via ferry is the most dependable mode of transportation, reliable more than 99 percent of the time.
For Immediate Release, January 22, 2018



Contact: Brian Segee, (805) 750-8852, bsegee@biologicaldiversity.org Trump Administration Waives Environmental Laws for New Mexico Border Wall TUCSON, Ariz. The Trump administration today waived more than 30 environmental laws to speed construction of 20 miles of border wall in eastern New Mexico, the third time the REAL ID waiver has been used by the Trump administration. The waiver is meant to allow construction of the New Mexico border wall section without having to comply with laws that protect clean air, clean water, public lands or endangered wildlife. The Trump administration is stopping at nothing to ram through this destructive border wall, said Brian Segee, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. Trumps divisive border wall is a humanitarian and environmental disaster, and it wont do anything to stop illegal drug or human smuggling. Todays action will allow the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to waive more than 30 environmental and other laws to convert 20 miles of vehicle barriers into bollard walls along the border west of El Paso, Texas, at the Santa Teresa Land Port of Entry. The Center is considering whether to challenge the waiver in court. Last year the Center sued to challenge the Trump administrations use of the waiver to build replacement walls south of San Diego. The lawsuit states that waiver authority expired years ago, its an unconstitutional delegation of power to the Department of Homeland Security, and the wall violates the Endangered Species Act. A hearing on the case is scheduled Feb. 9 in U.S. District Court in San Diego. Similar lawsuits, filed by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and other conservation groups, have been consolidated into one case before U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel. Beyond jeopardizing wildlife, endangered species and public lands, the U.S.-Mexico border wall is part of a larger strategy of ongoing border militarization that damages human rights, civil liberties, native lands, local businesses and international relations. The border wall impedes the natural migrations of people and wildlife that are essential to healthy diversity.
Africa is at an interesting and exciting crossroads in its history. The predicted ease with which globalisation would be adopted is being questioned and nationalism is rising. Yet the continent is becoming an economic, political and cultural melting pot. It is inevitable if Africa is going to truly rise.

Mimi Kalinda, managing director, Africommunications Group.

The individual remains at the core

Collaboration versus competition

Looser borders increase the need for cultural identity

Afro-optimism gives birth to African pride coupled with a dose of reality

Social impact to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor

In 2018, public relations and communications professionals must find the balance between developing strategies and business practices that keep the individual front and centre, and speak to the whole.Xenophobia, anti-immigrant sentiments, and the nationalistic approach of many African and Western countries would lead many of us to believe that globalisation has failed. The reality is, the scramble for resources remains real and were all fighting for a piece of the pie.For public relations professionals, this means putting the individual at the core of our messaging first and foremost, while keeping in mind the bigger picture - community, company and nation. Trying to understand individual needs and how people are incentivised to action based on their personal relationship to a brand is vital for strategy development, and implementation with impact.People still want to feel like their individual needs, concerns and ambitions matter, even though the world is getting smaller. It is a bit like conducting an orchestra. You have a vision of what you want the ensemble to do, but unless you can connect with each player at a personal, emotional level, youre only going to cause confusion and create a cacophony of noise that appeals to no one. Studying and understanding what makes Africans tick at a personal level is going to play a major part in developing successful communications campaigns in 2018.In an increasingly specialised world, it benefits no one to be the master of all trades. The world of public relations is becoming increasingly competitive. In 2018, we see the rise of agencies and communications specialists from Africa competing with major global players, and bagging major contracts.Clients want experts who understand African audiences at a deeper level, who have lived and worked in the countries they target, and who speak the languages of the audiences they aim to reach. They also want a more diverse set of skills than sending out press releases or managing crises using a by-the-book approach.Public relations and communications professionals will need to increasingly merge, and call on partners, affiliates and collaborators to offer services with a broader scope and reach than ever before. Cross-agency collaboration will increase. If meeting the clients needs is indeed the objective, it really must be all for one and one for all.Many African countries have already announced looser border bureaucracy for Africans traveling across the continent. The latest one is Nigeria, which announced the launch of visas on arrival for Africans traveling to the country. The African Union is pushing for an all-Africa passport. For Africa to truly transform, less stringent borders are inevitable.However, Africans being able to travel freely across the continent will increase the need to hold on to cultural identity. Communication that celebrates cultural nuances and sensibilities is going to be important to ensure that audiences still feel like brands understand that they have a cultural heritage which they deem paramount.Africa rising is a great concept and, for a while, everyone on the continent bought into it unquestionably. One of the biggest benefits of this narrative has been the upsurge of African pride across the continent. Africans have never been prouder of their heritage. Coupled with this unprecedented sense of pride is a willingness to look at the Africa rising phenomenon from a realistic standpoint. Brands that can communicate realistically, coupling the continents challenges to its immense opportunities, will win in 2018.Africans are not looking for brands that pretend everything is wonderful. They want brands that can effectively communicate the notion that there has never been a better time to be African, even though there is much to be done for the continent to truly rise. Brands will be required to keep it real in 2018.The African middle class, the elite, are becoming increasingly aware of their privileged position. As they become more exposed to economic empowerment and political opportunities, they are also more aware of the gap between the rich and the poor on the continent. They want to buy and interact with brands that have social impact, and they want to feel like they are playing a role in uplifting more disadvantaged communities. Winning communications strategies that target this demographic must speak to their need to contribute to making Africa a better place for all.
This week, diversity was a strong focus on social media as H&M announced the appointment of a diversity manager following the 'racist hoodie' outrage, social citizens stood up for civil rights on #MLKDay, and the #pinkifying hashtag spawned lovers and haters alike.

Original image  Besjunior  123RF.com

H&M appoints diversity manager

Civil rights celebrated on #MLKDay

Martin Luther King's last speech before he was assassinated on the next day.



Happy Martin Luther King Day! #MLKDay pic.twitter.com/EZtF9CHsFb  AFRICAN HISTORY (@africanarchives) January 16, 2018

Dr. Kings fight is about understanding we are all equal and saying that we will always fight for that beautiful premise. He understood that a beloved community was a diverse community of equal people, of equal stature, that deserved and required equal dignity. #MLKDay pic.twitter.com/cQOf1VoObQ  Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) January 16, 2018

Today we remember one of the greatest men in the 20th century who's work for #Equality lives on in the 21st century and forever pic.twitter.com/oKh3bECXOt  GEORGE(DWTS&more) (@GPBGeorge) January 15, 2018

Yay or nay for pinkifying?

Building #Gender #Equality From The Inside Out And The Outside In



"its not about making the tech industry more appealing to women by pinkifying it, but rather it's about making the sector a fair and safe place for women."#diversity #inclusion @forbeshttps://t.co/BUde0UMkq1 pic.twitter.com/6TBJ4YPZTT  Theo (@psb_dc) January 17, 2018

To Pinkify or not to Pinkify https://t.co/G9Bqxje1Rm  Katrina (@katrinayall) December 15, 2017

No need to pinkify  Girls get interested in tech because it is interesting https://t.co/Gk5ZhJrqpE #Pinkify #Girls  Rosalie Melisande (@RosiMelisande) January 7, 2018

Pinkify whatever you want, fam. Pinkify everything. If you love pink, don't let anyone shame you. If you don't like pink, make an honest assessment to ensure it's not internalized misogyny (if it's not, that's okay). Dudes gotta deal with women reclaiming CS either way.  Porg Enthusiast (@CatApocalypse) December 16, 2017

Words from #WEF2018

Move over suits! The World Economic Forum 2018 to be chaired by seven women! Make it matter @SharanBurrow , Fabiola Gianotti, Isabelle Kocher, @Lagarde @GinniRometty , Chetna Sinha and @erna_solberg . Looking forward to #WEF2018 @Davos https://t.co/MUKEN6l3AY  Katja Iversen (@Katja_Iversen) January 11, 2018

#WEF2018 theme is how to create a shared future in a fractured world. founder of Indias first rural women bank Co-Chair WEF18, I come with solutions for creating a more inclusive and equitable world. All learnt from listening to women at grassroots pic.twitter.com/Q1ftIzn4Y6  chetna sinha (@chetnavsinha) January 17, 2018

ICYMI, heres a brief overview of these top inclusion, equality and diversity topics and why they matter. CNN reports that the retailer appointed company insider Annie Wu as 'global leader for diversity and inclusiveness for H&M Group following the 'racist hoodie' global outcry, with many of their stores vandalised here in SA.Wu will do so while continuing as the company's global manager for employee relations. Heres hoping its not too little too late.The week began with the anniversary of civil rights leader Martin Luther Kings birthday, typically celebrated as a day of service on the third Monday of the year in the US  similar to our own #MandelaDay here in SA.Despite Trumps untimely shithole comments over the weekend, many posted footage of their own uplifting acts on the day, with others sharing some of his most inspiring words aimed at freedom of speech, uplifting humanity and undoing oppression:magazine article called out the pinkifying of certain male-dominant sectors to make them more female-friendly.With the move towards flipping the script on marketing cars for boys and dolls for girls to rather offering gender-neutral toys always a hot topic, most agree with the sentiment above but others say pinkify if you want  you do you.Lastly, we kept a keen ear on ANC President Cyril Ramaphosas #Davos2018 promise that were deadly serious about addressing corruption in SA, while applauding The World Economic Forum (WEF) 2018s big step in the right direction for gender equality, when it included seven strong female chairs:Seek and they will speak!
Journalists protest Philippine move to close news website

MANILA - Philippine journalists took to the streets Friday in support of a news website facing state-enforced closure, accusing President Rodrigo Duterte of trampling on press freedom.

The government withdrew the corporate registration of the Rappler website this week and has summoned its chief executive to answer a "cyber-libel" complaint in what media watchdogs describe as payback for critical coverage of Duterte's deadly war on drugs.



About 200 journalists and activists, most of them wearing black, gathered in northern Manila at dusk to protest the ruling, seen by critics as Duterte's latest bid to stifle opposition to his narcotics crackdown.



The protesters carried banners saying "fight the Duterte dictatorship" and "defend press freedom".







Duterte's spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement that the demonstration showed "that freedom is alive and democracy is alive in the Philippines".



Rappler, founded in 2012, is among a handful of Philippines-based news organisations which had produced reports critical of Duterte's flagship "war on drugs" that the government says has claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 suspects.



Human rights groups charge that thousands more have been killed by shadowy vigilantes.



The government's corporate regulator alleged that the news organisation violated a constitutional ban on foreign ownership of local media when its parent company issued Philippine depositary receipts for Rappler shares that were sold to a foreign fund.



Rappler maintains the investment did not constitute equity nor give the investors veto on editorial matters and has vowed to fight Monday's ruling, which takes effect after 15 days.



Rappler has had a testy relationship with Duterte since he won election on an anti-crime platform in 2016, with the Philippine leader threatening last year to expose the website's "American ownership".



Duterte has also publicly attacked other media outlets that have criticised his policies, including leading daily the Philippine Daily Inquirer and major broadcaster ABS-CBN, threatening to block the TV station's application for a franchise renewal.



Apart from the loss of its corporate licence, Rappler's chief executive Maria Ressa faced a second challenge after she was summoned by the justice ministry to answer a cybercrime complaint against her next week.



The complaint was filed by a businessman, who accused Rappler of libel for reporting in 2012 that he lent a luxury van to then-Supreme Court chief Renato Corona who was later impeached for failing to declare his assets.



Ressa said the charges against Rappler were part of a "fishing expedition" to find any legal basis to attack the news site.



"This administration's laws are being used to stifle Rappler, a group of journalists and press freedom," she told AFP.



"The end goal of all of this is to intimidate us into silence."

Source: AFP
The GOP website just couldn't keep up with the traffic its latest blog post demanded.

And the FAKE NEWS winners are...https://t.co/59G6x2f7fD  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018

President Trump has released the #FakeNewsAwards. Im just so proud to have a President that not only stands up for the American people, but stands up to the liberal media.



Trump is changing the scope of politics and his refusal to be politically correct is a dream come true!  Mike (@mike_Zollo) January 18, 2018

Still waiting for Steve Harvey to call with our apology. #FakeNewsAwards  Dictionary.com (@Dictionarycom) January 18, 2018

Big shout out to #CNN for dominating with the most WINS! #FakeNewsAwards  Adios Media Clowns (@WakeUpMensos) January 18, 2018

US President Donald Trumps highly anticipated list of the 2017 news stories that had the media bashing him at every turn, is now live.Hes calling it the 2017 Fake News Awards. And its one for the bookmarks.2017 was a year of unrelenting bias, unfair news coverage, and even downright fake news. Studies have shown that over 90% of the medias coverage of President Trump is negative, the post begins.The piece then lists the winners of the 2017 Fake News Awards, among which is CNN which Meryl-Streeps its way to four awards.ABC News, theand theall feature prominently too. But well get into that a little later.For now, lets look at the social impact the blog has had thus far.Published around 3AM SAST Thursday morning, Trumps tweet carrying the link has already amassed more than 30,000 comments, 28,000 retweets and more than 70,000 likes.#FakeNewsAwards was also trending on Twitter, from the United States, to South Africa, to Australia and the UK. Many in the United States were supportive of Trumps move, calling it defiant and a refusal to be politically correct.Others just couldnt stay away from the jokes.Google is also seeing rising search traffic worldwide for Fake News Awards and related searches.CNN is seemingly an inadvertent beneficiary of the Awards, seeing a marked rise in search queries for the outlet.While the disdain and praise Trumps receiving on Twitter is only just beginning, this probably isnt the last were going to hear of the Fake News Awards.Were just disappointed that a gala dinner wasnt held.And without further ado, here are Donald Trumps Fake News Awards winners for 2017, as appears on the GOP blog post:
PARIS, France - Hedi Slimane, the designer who pioneered the skinny look at Dior and Saint Laurent, is to take over at Celine, the brand's owners said on Sunday.

Hedi Slimane

The 49-year-old French-born creator is one of fashion's biggest and most enigmatic names, and his future has been surrounded by speculation since he walked away from Saint Laurent last year.The luxury giant LVMH, which owns Celine, has given Slimane complete control of the brand's images and creative side in order to sign him up - a concession which put him alongside Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld as one of the most powerful designers in fashion.They are also letting him create a menswear line at the label, which up until now only made clothes for women.Announcing the surprise appointment, Bernard Arnault, the owner of LVMH, said: "He is one of the most talented designers of our time."Hedi will oversee and develop all creativity for both women's and men's fashion, but also for leather goods, accessories and fragrances," he added.Slimane fell out with Saint Laurent reportedly because of his frustration at not being able to control its perfume and cosmetics arms.Slimane's skinny and rock star chic looks made millions for both Dior and Saint Laurent, and were much copied by mass-market brands.Lagerfeld, who famously shed 41 kilos in order to squeeze into Slimane's skinny jeans, was the first to cheer the news of his move. "I am enchanted, what a great choice," he told. "It will be great."Like Lagerfeld, Slimane is a renowned photographer, and he has spent the last seven years living in Los Angeles, where he had moved his studio at the end of his reign at Saint Laurent.The designer drew much of his inspiration from the LA rock scene, which he tirelessly documented with his photographs and in his blog.A mysterious and intensely private figure, he nonetheless has struck up close friendships with many A-listers including pop star Lady Gaga.understands that he will continue to live in the city while he designs for Celine, and start work within 10 days.Slimane borrowed many of the elements of his grungy, androgynous look from the world of rock, with his skinny style initially influenced by British indie bands like Franz Ferdinand and The Libertines.The Libertines bohemian frontman Peter Doherty became a friend and muse, and figured prominently in his 2006 photo book, "London Birth of a Cult".Arnault, who is known to be close to the designer, said Slimane will use his "global vision and unique aesthetic virtuosity in further building an iconic French fashion house".He will make his first bow for Celine during Paris women's fashion week in September, when he will show a co-ed collection with clothes for both men and women."I am delighted to join Bernard Arnault in this all-embracing and fascinating mission for Celine," Slimane said. "I greatly look forward to returning to the exciting world of fashion and the dynamism of the ateliers."Slimane will also be reunited at Celine with Sidney Toledano, one of fashion's most influential backroom figures. The pair were a formidable team at Dior where Slimane was a huge trendsetter until his departure in 2012.Dubbed the "Sultan of skinny", Slimane designed for the late rock star David Bowie, with his skinny silhouette dominating men's style for more than a decade.He takes over at Celine from the highly-rated British designer Phoebe Philo who quit last month after a decade at the helm. She had created a cult following at the label for her hip minimalist and very modernist style.Philo had also lately embraced the oversized trend which Slimane is credited with kickstarting at Saint Laurent with his long gorilla-sleeved jackets.While his designs have made millions, Slimane's immigrant origins are modest. He was born in a working-class district of the French capital to a Tunisian father and Italian mother, who worked as a dressmaker.He first wanted to be a journalist before slipping into fashion after he became an assistant to Jean-Jacques Picart, one of the founders of the haute couture house Christian Lacroix.Celine, which has a turnover just shy of 1 billion ($1.2 billion), was founded by Celine Vipiana in Paris just after World War II.
Kantar TNS, one of the world's largest research agencies, and Qualtrics, the leader in experience management, have announced a global partnership to help organisations put customers at the heart of their business. The strategic alliance brings together Kantar TNS's worldwide network of customer experience research, access to a rich database of over 19 million interviews, end-to-end platform implementation, smart analytics and activation, with the powerful Qualtrics Experience Management Platform, the world's only integrated experience solution.

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In todays fragmented marketplace, its never been more important for businesses to create memorable experiences for customers across the touchpoints and moments that really matter. Furthermore, 91% of business leaders believe customer centricity is a top priority and is essential to driving growth. The partnership aims to close the experience gap for organisations at a time when connectivity is rapidly reshaping the brand and customer experience landscapes.The partnership and global solution will provide clients with holistic customer experience capability, delivered through integrated technology, to identify, optimise and activate customer insights for lasting engagement and maximum return. Additionally, by tapping into the wider Kantar and parent company WPP networks, the partnership will offer unrivalled benefits including access to brand insight, consumer data, market comparisons and industry intelligence.Qualtrics Customer Experience is one of the four pillars of the Qualtrics Experience Management Platform, trusted by over 8,500 brands around the world, and is the most sophisticated CX platform in the industry. It includes flexible role-based dashboards, case management, full CRM integration, and a range of intelligent features built on artificial intelligence, machine learning and advanced analytics.Philips is one of the global organisations to benefit from the alliance having adopted the new solution for their long-term customer experience programme.Together with our partner Kantar TNS, we have taken our customer experience programme aimed at fulfilling customer needs across our global service operations to the next level. The implementation of the Qualtrics Experience Management Platform was fast and brings the voice of our customers instantly into our organisation. Our employees are excited about the user-friendly customer insights through analytics and the real-time tooling. In short, this approach helps to improve our services for our valued customers, every single day!In the Africa & Middle East region, Kantar TNS has a network of over 25 Customer Experience professionals who work closely with Qualtrics to support our clients' business needs around growing relationship strength, managing touchpoint experiences and customer journeys - to ultimately positively impact business performance.We live in an age where experiences are the key point of differentiation. For businesses, success comes from understanding customer expectations, tapping into their emotions and designing products and services which create positive, memorable experiences. Our partnership with Qualtrics will allow our clients to truly embed a customer focus throughout their organisation and create strong customer relationships.We have long believed that experiences are a vital element and a main distinction of every successful business. We are proud to partner with Kantar TNS to offer full-service customer experience solutions combining our unique, advanced Experience Management Platform and Kantar TNSs world-class consulting, implementation and managed services.For more information on the partnership, please visit www.tnsglobal.com/what-we-do/customer-experience/qualtrics Hear more about the partnership at the X4 Summit, a three-day masterclass in experience management, on 6-9 March 2018, in Salt Lake City, Utah. For more information, go to https://www.qualtrics.com/x4summit/ Kantar TNS is one of the worlds largest research agencies with experts in over 90 countries.With expertise in innovation, brand and communication, shopper activation and customer experience, we help our clients identify, optimise and activate the moments that matter to drive growth for their business.We are part of Kantar, one of the worlds leading data, insight and consultancy companies.Find out more at www.tnsglobal.com Qualtrics is a single system of record for all experience data, also called X-data, allowing organisations to manage the four core experiences of business  customer, product, employee and brand experiences  on one platform. Over 8,500 enterprises worldwide, including more than 75 percent of the Fortune 100 and 99 of the top 100 US business schools, rely on Qualtrics. To learn more, and for a free account, please visit www.qualtrics.com Julia Giona, Qualtrics+1 (415) 828-4775Aoife McArdle, Kantar TNS+44 (0) 20 7160 5640Ilse Dinner, Kantar+27 (0) 11 202 7000
Mozambique's Coral Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) development has received an approximately $8 billion investment, marking the first step for Mozambique to become a regional and global offshore natural gas producer and supplier. The landmark energy deal is said to be the first of its kind in the country and promises to transform Mozambique's growth prospects.

Standard Bank and its 20% shareholder, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) are collectively the largest lenders to the project - reflecting the power of their partnership in driving African growth. ICBC plays a critical role in this transaction by acting as the Pathfinder Bank, K Sure agent, Chinese tranche agent and one of the facility account banks. Standard Bank acts as commercial facility agent, onshore account bank and security trustee in respect of the project.This game-changing transaction initiates a cycle of energy investment set to return Mozambique to growth while heralding the countrys arrival as a key global liquefied natural gas supplier, says Paul Eardley-Taylor, Head, Oil & Gas, Southern Africa, Standard Bank.In addition to broader advisory work currently underway in East Africa, Standard Bank and ICBCs support for the Coral FLNG project builds on a long history of oil and gas development in Mozambique, including Sasol, ROMPCO, ENH, CMG, and CMH. Standard Bank also authored Mozambiques landmark LNG macro-economic study informing the development of the 2014 Rovuma Basin Decree law.This milestone transaction gives life to Standard Bank and ICBCs broader vision and strategy to develop East Africa as global energy production and supply hub  especially to East Asia.Global interest in Mozambique and the regions potential as future energy suppliers is reflected by broad international participation in the deal. Export credit agencies, including Coface (BPI), K Exim, K Sure, Sace and Sinosure, are joined in this transaction by leading global energy giants ENI, Petrochina, GALP, ENH and Kogas.ICBC and Standard Bank believe that this deal is an important signal on Mozambiques longer term growth prospects, especially the implications of this investment for future southern and east African energy trade and security.This transaction demonstrates ICBC and Standard Banks vision of driving Africas growth by attracting foreign direct investment back into Mozambiques promising energy production and export sector, says Eardley-Taylor. Significantly, this game changing transaction puts East Africa on the map as a global energy supplier, he adds.
Government has announced the appointment of new board members at Eskom, as an immediate measure to strengthen governance and management at the parastatal.

Jabu Mabuza as Chairperson



Sifiso Dabengwa



Sindi Mabaso-Koyana



Mark Lamberti



Professor Tshepo Mongalo



Professor Malegapuru Makgoba



Busisiwe Mavuso



Nelisiwe Magubane



Dr Rod Crompton



George Sebulela



Dr Pulane Molokwane



Dr Banothile Makhubela



Jacky Molisane

The company has been facing several challenges, including a weak financial position, declining revenues and governance failures, which are threatening the sustainability of the company going forward.As a result, government has decided on the following immediate measures to strengthen governance and management. This is the first step towards restoring confidence in the company, improving its financial position and restoring its operational performance, said a statement by the Presidency on Saturday.The new board will consist of:Government has recommended the appointment of Phakamani Hadebe as the Acting Group Chief Executive with immediate effect.Further, the board is directed to appoint a permanent Group Chief Executive and Group Chief Financial Officer within the next three months. The board is directed to immediately remove all Eskom executives who are facing allegations of serious corruption and other acts of impropriety, including Mr Matshela Koko and Mr Anoj Singh.Government further calls on all Eskom employees and other stakeholders who may have evidence of wrongdoing to bring this to the attention of law enforcement agencies so that culprits can be brought to book, said the Presidency.It said Eskom is critical to the South African economy. As a key enabler of economic growth and social transformation, any further deterioration of Eskoms financial and operational conditions could have a severe impact on the country, said the Presidency.Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is Chair of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on State-Owned Enterprises Reform, said: We are confident this intervention will restore the important contribution Eskom makes to our economy. We are determined to address the damage that has been done to this institution and place it on a new path of efficiency and integrity.Government calls on all stakeholders, employees, suppliers and members of the public to work together to ensure that these measures are successful. For South Africa to flourish, Eskom must work and work well, he said.The announcement follows a meeting of President Jacob Zuma, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown and Minister of Finance Malusi Gigaba on Friday to address urgent challenges at the company.The Ministers of Public Enterprises, Energy and Finance will work together under the leadership of the Deputy President to deal with other structural issues, which include the funding model and other industry challenges identified by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on SOE Reform.The Presidency said with the appointment of the new board and acting Group Chief Executive, government firmly believes that Eskom can be returned to financial sustainability and contribute positively to the objective of shared prosperity.Government will continue to act decisively to address challenges at key state owned enterprises to restore public and investor confidence and to ensure that they fulfil their economic and developmental mandates, it said.The intervention will be ratified by Cabinet at its next meeting.
Nine officials, including vehicle examiners and administration staff appear in court this week on charges of fraud and corruption.

The officials were arrested at two privately owned vehicle testing stations last week.Six officials, three males and three females, who were arrested in Mamelodi are expected to appear in the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court this morning, said Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) spokesperson Simon Zwane.It is alleged that the suspects fraudulently and irregularly issued roadworthy certificates to vehicles that were not physically taken to the testing stations for examination.Members of the RTM Anti-Corruption Unit, South African Police Service Organised Crime Unit and the Gauteng Traffic Department's Compliance Unit raided the Mamelodi vehicle testing station in Tshwane and the First Class Vehicle Inspections in Midrand, Johannesburg.The three, who were arrested in Midrand, are expected to appear at the Johannesburg Commercial Crimes Court on Tuesday, 23 January 2018.More suspects from these stations are expected to be arrested.Fraud and corruption involving the issuing of roadworthy certificates is a major concern as it contributes to accidents and vehicle crime.Five roadworthy testing stations have been raided in the past month and investigations have revealed widespread malpractices. Law enforcement authorities will continue their relentless clampdown in an effort to fight corruption and improve road safety, said the RTMCs Zwane.The RTMC urged members of the public to report traffic related fraud and corruption which will be treated confidentially on 0861 400 800 or email az.oc.cmtr@ucatn
The imminent arrival of multinational data centres in South Africa to service the continent will herald a new period of cloud innovation. From end-users, all the way through to enterprise-size businesses; virtualisation (and its associated impact on availability) will reach a tipping point and become standard business practice.

Claude Schuck, regional manager for Africa at Veeam

The main positives that a cloud-based offering can deliver over physical infrastructure, namely resilience without redundancy, lower costs of ownership, greater hardware utilisation, are delivering digital business transformation, and enabling businesses to adopt more flexible solutions across business divisions than in the past.

The hype is over, cloud-first is here

In the next few years, the cloud and the always-on availability of data will be a critical aspect for most businesses.

Digital dreams become a digital reality

Improving availability through accessibility

It is a given that the cloud will transform Africa with businesses being able to offer a standardised service without requiring the traditional infrastructure of the past.

Already the cloud conversation has become an easier one to have with sceptics. Businesses are starting to understand its value and beginning to trust it for more mission-critical business processes. Not only from a cost-savings perspective, but also from enabling business agility to realise new opportunities, the cloud is beginning to deliver on its much-vaunted hype.Further contributing to the ease of this discussion is the fact that the cloud and the availability of data have become the foundation on which digital transformation efforts are built.The arrival of cloud-based companies that compete against the more traditional incumbents is benefitting end users by adding to the competitive landscape. More choices result in innovative offerings and an inevitable drop in prices. Across sectors, there is also more of a willingness to share data (within regulatory parameters) to provide customers with a more personalised experience.For example, by sharing patient records (with consent) with doctors in their networks, medical providers can ensure healthcare professionals have access to all relevant information and perform a better diagnosis.The number of services businesses are migrating to the cloud are aiding in driving further adoption. It is not only a private sector shift as government is also looking at a more connected environment with the cloud being vital to this.Decision-makers will change the way they operate and incorporate a layer that traditional services providers need to think about. For example, will Microsoft Azure be a threat or an opportunity to their solutions offering? The truth is that it could be a bit of both.Inevitably, this will see businesses evolving to not only offer digital services but become the digital services themselves. Such is the nature of accessibility and connectedness, that customers will no longer distinguish between what is being offered and who is delivering the services.In this environment, downtime is not an option. Virtualised infrastructure and the ability to run highly available systems are becoming the difference between ongoing success or facing closure.Of course, this also impacts on how data ownership and privacy rights are viewed. With the Protection of Personal Information Act (PoPI) expected to come into effect in early 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) being enforced from 25 May 2018, customer data privacy concerns will raise the visibility and focus on data ownership in a digital environment.End users and customers will come to expect having the ability to be forgotten and also be informed of data breaches. Most importantly, they can withdraw consent at any time thereby putting the organisation under pressure to maintain compliance with challenging market conditions.The coming months will see the scale and cost coming down for cloud solutions at an enterprise level. This will filter through to the entry-levels with solutions becoming even easier to access and more user-friendly.While industry-specific cloud solutions will remain, virtualisation and hosted environments, in general, will become part of the DNA of a business. Because of this fundamental change in the importance of data centres, and the growing realisation that a single data centre design is no longer sufficient for a digital environment, it is anticipated that there will be a growth of replication to the cloud for fail-over.However, businesses will make a mistake to just assume their data will always be available just because it is in the cloud. Instead, they need to question things like the retention policies of their service providers and how quickly data can be recovered. Care must be taken to not approach the cloud as a data backup fire-and-forget solution.Irrespective of the level of importance the cloud will play in the business, decision-makers still need to ensure that recovery is taking place.With data management under the spotlight with the new wave of regulations incoming, availability and accessibility of data will be as fundamental to the success of a business over the next year as is access to the cloud. To not keep that in consideration will cripple some businesses and empower the ones that do manage to make availability and accessibility key.
The American Minnesota Orchestra and Classical Movements will go on a five-city South African tour in August 2018 in celebration of what would have been Nelson Mandela's 100th birthday.

Conducted by Minnesota Orchestra Music director Osmo Vanska, the tour marks the first-ever visit to South Africa by a professional US orchestra.The tour aims to showcase music from South African, American and European musical traditions, and will draw together South African and American performers and a mix of music, offering musical exchanges with student groups and large-scale performances in colleges, city halls and churches.A highlight of the tour will be a piece specially commissioned as a tribute to Madiba by Classical Movements. Composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen is writing the tribute, titled, which will also feature soprano Goitsemang Oniccah Lehobye.The piece will be performed at concerts in Minnesota in July, after which Vanska and the Orchestra will travel to South Africa to perform in Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria and Johannesburg, as well as at the historic Regina Mundi Roman Catholic Church in Soweto.Speaking about their reason for travelling to South Africa, Minnesota Orchestra President and CEO Kevin Smith said, We recently became the first American orchestra to tour Cuba following a 2014 thaw in diplomatic relations. The experience was so uplifting and enlightening for us that we decided to forge similar cultural exchanges with other countries. Our music director Osmo Vanska had performed with the South African National Youth Orchestra in Cape Town and Soweto in 2014, and the moving experience of that event persuaded us to tour South Africa next.Said Vanska, Music plays a central role in South African culture today, both choral music and a growing orchestral tradition, and we are excited to experience and be part of this movement.The Minnesota Chorale will join the tour for performances of Beethovens Ninth Symphony in Johannesburg and Soweto, singing beside local Gauteng Choristers and soprano Goitsemang Oniccah Lehobye, mezzo Minette du Toit-Pearce, tenor Siyabonga Maqungo and bass-baritone Njabulo Madlala.The musical tribute to Mandela forms part of nearly 50 projects planned by the Nelson Mandela Foundation to commemorate the Mandela legacy. The chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation Sello Hatang said, Madibas centenary is about helping build a values-based society. Music has over the years played a key role in helping deliver democracy in South Africa. We hope that this initiative will play a role in highlighting the plight of the poor and the marginalized, and thereby build an equal society.Classical Movements president Neeta Helms said, After working in South Africa since 1994, Classical Movements is very grateful that one of the top orchestras in the United States will make this historic, first-ever tour to South Africa. It is an enormous undertaking and a statement of the importance of Africa and the growth of orchestral music in this most choral of countries. This dynamic and visionary Orchestra is exactly the right musical ambassador to pave the way for others to follow.Ticket prices range from R100 to R600 and bookings for Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria concerts can be done through Computicket at www.computicket.com/music . For tickets to the Cape Town concert, please email moc.stnemevomlacissalc@stekcit For more information, visit www.minnesotaorchestra.org/satour
MTN remains bullish about the traditional voice-calls business, even as the mobile operator gears up for a shift towards data and digital services, says CEO Rob Shuter.

 everythingpossible via 123RF

He said at Deloitte's Africa in 2018 Outlook conference that population growth, increasing SIM-card and handset penetration, as well as the potential for market share gains, meant "there is still a real business in voice and SMS".Sector heavyweights MTN and Vodacom are grappling with declining voice revenues as consumers turn to data-based platforms such as WhatsApp to make calls.In the six months to June 2017, MTN's voice revenue in SA - where SIM-card penetration far exceeds MTN's other markets - fell 5%. But voice revenues in Nigeria and other African markets rose.Shuter said that population growth would support this segment, adding that about 650million people lived in the 22 countries across Africa and the Middle East in which MTN operates."In the next three or four years, that 650-million is going to go to 700-million people, so that increases our market by 50-million."It's basically the same as adding another SA to the portfolio through population growth," he said.Attila Vitai, CEO of Telkom's consumer business, told Business Day this week that the parastatal was trying to "disrupt the market" by encouraging consumers to move from traditional voice calls to WhatsApp and similar applications."That's where the market is going," Vitai said.Meanwhile, Shuter said mobile internet and digital services penetration also remained low in most of MTN's markets."When you look at the adoption of mobile internet, we are talking 20%-30% across these markets," he said.MTN wanted to add 130- million active data customers over the next three or four years, Shuter said. The group has about 70-million data customers at present.Thanks to population growth and market share gains, MTN's total customer base could rise to 300-million from about 230-million over the same period, Shuter said.Shuter said the group was "quite positive about the economic situation in the markets" where it operated.Its three largest markets, Nigeria, SA, and Iran were all "on an improving trend".Source: Business Day
In recent years, South Africa has made great strides towards providing support to those infected and affected with HIV. Today, the country's response to HIV/Aids treatment and prevention is regarded as among the most progressive on the continent.

National LGBTI HIV plan

Developing and implementing targeted awareness campaigns

But with global statistics showing that transgender women are nearly 49 times more likely to be infected with HIV than other adults of reproductive age, the time has come to zoom in on HIV vulnerability of transgender women.The South African government and its partners are implementing the largest HIV treatment programme in the world, which includes an estimated 4.2-million people. However, with an estimated 7.1-million people who are infected with HIV, it is clear that much more remains to be done. While South Africas goals are far reaching, the countrys response to HIV is remarkable for one other reason.Many of us may not know that South Africa is one of very few countries around the world which has included the needs of the LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex) community in its national response to HIV. The national LGBTI HIV plan was launched during the 2017 eighth National AIDS Conference hosted in Durban.The plan makes it incumbent upon stakeholders to reach all key and vulnerable populations in the fight against HIV. We know that the stigma and discrimination faced by members of the LGBTI community makes it difficult for people to test for HIV and for those infected to seek treatment. Experience has shown us that excluding such communities from the opportunities to be tested and seek treatment only creates problems for us and compromises our vision of an HIV-free generation.Global statistics show that transgender women are nearly 49 times more likely to be infected with HIV than other adults of reproductive age. Despite this, there is currently very little information in South Africa about the specific HIV vulnerabilities of transgender women. In addition, HIV prevalence amongst transgender women also remains undocumented and, as a result, transgender women remain extremely vulnerable.It is against this background that we must welcome the first South African study looking at HIV prevalence in transgender women which was launched earlier this month. This study is led by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and supported by the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). This study is also supported by various local and international academic and civil society partners and will be conducted in Cape Town metropolitan area in Western Cape, the Johannesburg metropolitan area in Gauteng and in East London, Eastern Cape.Several civil society partners have been selected in helping to recruit to participate in the study.Importantly, this study goes beyond just looking at HIV prevalence amongst transgender women. It brings our Constitution to life in that the insights from this study can be used to develop and implement awareness campaigns targeted at the transgender community and at society at large. This study is the first step in a journey where eventually, members of the transgender community will not suffer discrimination, exclusion and marginalisation.It is equally part of South Africas commitment to looking at the real issues which impact on the LGBTI community in general, and the transgender community in particular. This includes the psycho-social elements of discrimination and exclusion in the socio-economic life. This survey will yield insights and awareness which will ensure that everyone can be reached in the fight against HIV, regardless of gender identity, expression or even sexual orientation, it is about putting people first.This study will intensify the fight towards other communicable diseases as well as HIV, participants in the study will also have access to HIV counselling and testing. We will test for HIV prevalence, antiretroviral testing, HIV viral load testing, TB and for other sexually transmitted infections.The evidence-based results from the study will influence South Africas understanding and therefore, responses, to the public health needs of transgender women in the country. This study will also become part of the global body of knowledge on the public health needs of transgender women. By making public health and communication programmes more focused, there is no doubt that we will begin to see a greater return on the significant resources invested in fighting HIV.
Novus Holdings, previously part of the Naspers Group, looks set to have its third grim year in a row, with reports that it is set to lose the crucial contract to print Media 24's newspapers and magazines to Caxton and a number of small independent printers. Industry sources say the move could save Media24 as much as R200m a year.

Caxton looks set to pick up Media24's Gauteng newspapers and its Cape magazines, while a Durban-based printer will pick up the KwaZulu-Natal publications. The decision by Naspers subsidiary Media24 to switch from Novus to Caxton, a longterm, aggressive competitor of Novus, will be confirmed in late February when negotiations between Novus and Media24 are expected to be concluded.The new arrangements will become effective on 1 April.On Thursday Novus confirmed it was assessing the future of its Paarl Coldset plant in Pietermaritzburg. The plant prints Media24's KwaZulu-Natal newspapers and magazines.On Thursday, Caxton group CEO Terry Moolman said his group was in negotiations with Media24. Executive director Piet Greyling said the final outcome would be known in March. Media24's opportunity to renegotiate the printing contract with Novus, in place since 2001, was triggered by the death of Lambert Retief in January 2017. Retief had been CEO of Novus and a major force in building up the business. He held a 20% stake until 2015, when Novus was listed. He had also been instrumental in securing the deal with Media24, which held the remaining 80% of Novus.In 2014 when Retief announced he wanted to sell his stake, Media24 was considered the obvious buyer. However, Caxton blocked that option when it complained to competition authorities that the move was tantamount to a change of control. For Retief to cash in his stake Novus had to be listed separately and Media24 forced to reduce its holding to 19%. It was then entitled to terminate the contract on six months' notice after Retief's death.Making matters potentially worse for Novus in 2018 is Caxton's legal challenge to the awarding of the Department of Basic Education's lucrative deal to print 60-million books. The book printing contract is said to be worth up to R3bn over three years. Caxton wants the Constitutional Court to declare the tender award invalid and set it aside. It wants the court to order Novus to repay all profits earned on the "unlawful" contract.
BRUSSELS - Facebook's Instagram and the Google+ social network have agreed to join an EU-sponsored group of US internet giants to combat online extremism, EU officials said Friday.

EU officials added that the existing members -- YouTube, Microsoft, Twitter and Facebook -- have made progress toward meeting the code of conduct they signed up to in May 2016, promising to look at suspicious content within 24 hours and remove illegal material."Instagram has decided to join forces in the fight against illegal online hate speech and will now also apply the code of conduct," EU Justice and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Vera Jourova told reporters."And this morning I also received the message that Google+ is joining," she added.The EU joined forces with US-based internet firms nearly two years ago amid growing alarm in Europe over the use of social media as a recruiting tool, especially by the Islamic State group.Jourova said Friday she would continue having the industry regulate itself under the code of conduct after hailing progress among the internet firms to remove threatening material.The commission said IT firms removed 70 percent of the illegal speech notified to them in the last few months, compared to 59 percent before May 2017, and 28 percent in the months after the code of conduct was launched.Jourova also said Facebook had hired 3,500 new staff to fight online hate speech on top of the 4,500 existing employees.She added that IT firms have also strengthened cooperation with civil society organisations, including training, to better detect and report suspected cases of hate speech."Having these quite positive results of this third assessment, I will be stronger in promoting my view that we should continue the way of doing this through the code of conduct method," Jourova said before meeting EU ministers of justice next week in Sofia.The leaders of EU states last year urged internet firms to do their utmost to combat online extremism or face the possibility of legislation if the industry self-regulation fails. The Commission is the executive and regulatory arm of the 28-nation EU.


India's Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) Vikrant. A file photo

NEW DELHI (PTI): The delay on part of Russia in supplying aviation items has impeded the commissioning of Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) Vikrant and the warship is expected to be commissioned by October 2020, a senior Navy official has said.



Vice Admiral Hari Kumar, the Controller of Personnel Services (CPS), said the Indian Navy has had a dialogue with the Russians and the force is hoping to stick to the 2020 deadline now.



"The major reasons for this delay, from 2018 to 2020, is the delay in the (supply of) aviation items from Russia.



Because of that we had to adjust our schedule to a certain extent," Kumar said.



The Navy has started receiving the aviation items, Commodore J Chowdhury, Principal Director (Naval Design) said.



"Hopefully, Russia will be sticking to the items committed to us," Chowdhury added.



Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba, in his annual Navy Day press conference last month, said a request for proposal (RFP) is likely to be issued by mid-2018 for the procurement of 57 multi-role fighter jets for the IAC.



The Indian Navy is presently operating with a single aircraft carrier INS Vikramadatiya.



Naval officials said a tableau on IAC Vikrant, along with the lethal Marcos Commandos, will be a part of the Republic Day exhibition.



In the Republic Day Parade, honorary Sub-Lieutenant Ramesh Chand, who has been a part of the ceremony for the last 29 years, will be participating in the show for the last time.




The F-35 stealth fighters. A Lockheed Martin photo

WASHINGTON (PTI): American aerospace and defence major Lockheed Martin has proposed to manufacture custom-built F-35 fighter jets in India, which its officials say will give Indian industry a unique opportunity to become part of the world's largest fighter aircraft ecosystem.



"We plan to introduce two new words into the lexicon of international fighter aircraft manufacturing: 'India' and 'exclusive'," Vivek Lall, vice president, strategy and business development, at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics told PTI in an interview.



"India-specific state-of-the-art fighter production in India will be exclusive, something that has never before been presented by any other fighter aircraft manufacturer, past or present. There will also be a significant export market available for Indian-made fighters," he said.



Lall, an Indian American who last year was instrumental in the decision of the Trump administration to sell top-of-the-line unarmed drones from General Atomics, in his previous capacity.



Noting that the India-specific fighter on offer and its programme's size, scope and success will enable Indian industry to take advantage of unprecedented manufacturing, upgrade and sustainment opportunities well into the future, Lall said the platform will give Indian industry a unique opportunity to become a part of the world's largest fighter aircraft ecosystem.



"We intend to create far more than an assembly line in India," he said.



Lall claimed no other advanced fourth generation platform even comes close to matching the record of real-world combat experience and proven operational effectiveness.



"The fighter being offered specifically to India is uniquely the best state-of-the-art fighter," he said, adding that all three variants of the F-35 are single-engine aircraft.



Many of the systems used on the India-specific platform are derived from key lessons learned and technologies from Lockheed Martin's F-22 and the F-35, the world's only operational fifth generation fighters, he said.



Northrop Grumman's advanced APG-83 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar on the F-16 Block 70 provides F-16s with fifth generation fighter radar capabilities by leveraging hardware and software commonality with F-22 and F-35 AESA radars, he added.



The APG-83 radar shares more than 95 per cent software commonality with the F-35 radar and more than 70 per cent hardware commonality.



Lall said the F-16 provides the path to business relationships with Lockheed Martin, the only company in the world that has designed, developed and produced operational fifth generation fighter aircraft.



Technology improvements will also continue to flow between the F-16, F-22 and F-35 for decades, at a fraction of the cost to F-16 operators, he said.



The platform being offered provides unmatched opportunities for Indian companies of all sizes, including micro, small & medium enterprises (MSMEs) and suppliers throughout India, to establish new business relationships with Lockheed Martin and other industry leaders in the US and around the globe, Lall said giving an insight into the offer being made by his company.



Asserting that approximately half of the Indian fighter supply chain will be common with the fifth generation F-22 and F-35, Lall said the aircraft brings the most modern avionics, a proven AESA radar, modernised cockpit, advanced weapons, longer range with conformal fuel tanks, auto ground collision avoidance capability, and an advanced engine with an extended service life.



Even with the addition of targeting systems and two 2,000 pound (lb) class Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), the aircraft has a mission radius exceeding 1,300 kms 30 per cent greater than that of its closest competitor, he said.



"Many of the advances in systems on the aircraft India would get draw directly from key lessons learned from Lockheed Martin's work on the F-22 and the F-35," he said.



"The AESA radar is the result of over two decades of investment, use and experience with AESA technology, and it's fully operational today," Lall said.


In the third part of a four-part series looking at finalists for the Cork Company of the Year Awards 2018, Padraig Hoare casts an eye over those competing in the Large category.

Fast-growing software firm Teamwork.com held in high esteem

Teamwork.com CEO Peter Coppinger said all at the operational software firm are delighted to be nominated.

Teamwork.com, in its own words, provides a suite of operational software to help run businesses  while that may technically be true, its modest appraisal of itself disguises the esteem in which it is held not just in Ireland, but all over the world.

The Blackpool-based firm has become one of the greatest success stories ever to come out of Cork since beginning life 10 years ago in the hands of college friends Peter Coppinger and Dan Mackey.

Teamwork.com is leading the way for SaaS, which is a software distribution model where a third-party provider hosts applications and makes them available to customers over the internet. Put in lay terms, the firm provides a suite of operational software to help run businesses.

In the 10 years since its foundation, Teamwork.com has built three products with 20,000 paying customers across 183 companies.

Some of its clients are global household names. Disney, PayPal and eBay are among those who sought out the services of Teamwork.com.

As its reputation mushrooms, so has its workforce. Since 2014 the company has been growing 40% year on year with the exception of 2017, where growth hit 50%.

Teamwork.com is set to grow operations to more than 400 by 2020.

Having won in the SME category in 2016, Teamwork.com is hoping to mirror its business growth by taking top prize in the Large category of Cork Chambers Company of the Year Awards.

For CEO Peter Coppinger, reliving the excitement of 2016 is at the front of his mind.

Were hugely excited to be in the running to win the award for Corks Large Company of the Year. Two years ago, we won the award for small company and its crazy to think weve grown so much that now we fall into this category. Awards like these are so important for the business community in Cork to be able to share in each others successes and even to learn a little bit more about others businesses. Its always a great night and were delighted to be nominated, he said.

Teamwork.com has also become synonymous with giving back to the community that helped it grow to new heights. One such policy is committing 1% of profits to charities and good causes. Money is divided between teams of staff who then contribute to the causes of their choice. Recipients have included Cork Simon, Bumbleance, Cork Penny Dinners, and Marymount.

Helping startups to get off the ground is also firmly in the ethos of Teamwork.com. In 2016, it began a programme called Teamwork Catalyst where its old office space is given over to startups in the SaaS model, with no payment required.

All that is asked of the startups is that they give their best and work hard  after all, Teamwork.com says, we started the exact same way.

MSL putting quality of Cork engineering on the European map

The quality of Cork engineering has always been of the very best standard  thanks to the likes of MSL Engineering, countries all around Europe are finding out why.

MSL Engineering is a Watergrasshill-based mechanical engineering contractor with multinational clients, working across a wide range of industry sectors.

Founded in 1979, MSL specialises in the fabrication and installation of process, utility and high purity pipework, platforms and steelwork and equipment installation across many industry sectors such as pharmaceutical, biopharma, chemical, oil and gas, power generation and utilities, food and beverage, data centres, transport infrastructure, medical devices, process drainage, and recently, fire protection.

It now employs 200 and has a 22,000 sq ft workshop fabrication facility.

By identifying and investing in new business processes, in the last three years, MSL has significantly increased turnover and expanded its area of operation to include the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and Sweden.

MSLs commitment to delivering the very highest standards in workmanship, safety, quality and reliability has driven it to excel in the industry, winning major industry awards along the way.

To be recognised by Cork Chamber in the Large category of the Company of the Year Awards would be very special, according to managing director Maurice McGrath.

He said: We are delighted to be selected as one of only three finalists in the Large Company of the Year category for 2018. This is a tremendous endorsement by an independent panel of judges of MSLs continuous improvement and success.

It is recognition of our significant achievements and awards in recent years, growing our client base, our workforce, production facilities and range of services and delivering engineering excellence to our multi-national clients throughout Ireland, the UK, Belgium, Holland, Sweden and Switzerland.

It is that mix of young talent and invaluable experience that has driven MSL Engineering on, he added. We are fortunate to have an excellent mix of young, talented engineering professionals and experienced proven achievers driving the company forward, and we look forwarded to continuing this momentum into the future from our base here in Cork.

Giving back to the community is something that MSL Engineering prides itself on, with investments in charities, green initiatives and supporting sporting organisations and events such as GAA clubs and the Whitegate triathlon.

Working in industries that are inherently hazardous, the business has for a long time taken an uncompromised standing on safety, with its commitment lauded in the industry and beyond  it has had 1.7 million hours in the past five years without a single lost-time accident.

Poppulo looking to win Large after SME success nine years ago

CEO and founder of Cork software company Poppulo, formerly known as Newsweaver, Andrew OShaughnessy. Picture: Miki Barlok

It was nine years ago when employee communications software specialist Poppulo won in the SME category for Cork Chambers Company of the Year Awards. In 2018, it aims to trump that glorious win, only in the Large category.

For Poppulo, known as Newsweaver in 2009, the fact that it is in the final three of the Large category should be encouragement for all startups that growth and success is not only possible, but recognised and lauded when it happens.

With clients like sporting behemoth Nike, confectionary giant Nestle, consumer giant Unilever, and legendary motor brand Rolls-Royce, the Cork company is truly a world-class band.

Poppulo, based in Cork Airport Business Park, is critical to many of the worlds biggest and most successful organisations for effective communication and engagement with employees.

Its unique software measures and analyses the impact of communications to tens of millions of employees every day, across multiple countries and continents, time zones and digital channels, ensuring they are aligned to and achieving business goals.

It ensures companies such as Nestle and Rolls-Royce can solve complex communication challenges easily, ultimately increasing employee engagement and financial performance.

It has doubled in size over the past 18 months, growing to 160 employees. Most of the staff are based in Cork, with the rest in Boston and Australia. Poppulo chief executive and founder Andrew OShaughnessy said it was a wonderful honour to once again be in the running for a prestigious Cork Chamber Company of the Year Award.

When we decided to target the employee communications industry we had one ambition, and that was to be the best in the world  producing ground-breaking technology from a sector-leading company based in Cork, he said.

Mr OShaughnessy added: Five years on, weve done that. But while thats very satisfying, and were very focused and working hard to achieve even greater things, its a huge honour to be shortlisted for this award in Cork, where there are so many brilliant companies doing tremendous work. Just look at the calibre of everybody on the shortlist, and the winners in previous years.

I also believe our nomination is important for startups to give them the encouragement to keep going, as nine years ago we were shortlisted in the small company category and here we are today in the large one, as a global leader with many of the worlds biggest brands as clients.

Community outreach and social responsibility is vital for Poppulo. Initiatives include pro bono accounts for 25 charities so they can have the best communication tools, while its commitment to science, technology, engineering and maths and art initiatives has been a key focus.
If youve been watching BBC drama, McMafia, you know how hard it is for law enforcement to track and convict members of well-funded, cross-border organised-crime syndicates, writes Rupert Bowen.

Youll have learned the connections between smuggling drugs and illegal goods, money laundering, corruption, and human-trafficking. In McMafia, a chocolate vending machine is a backdoor into a container ports freight-movement system. An IT expert has been coerced into helping exploit the system to steal a container of drugs.

In other scenarios, hackers are hired for a ransomware attack. Or an employee can be corrupted to hand over a password. Often, an insider-criminal collaboration is the simplest and weakest link.

Law enforcement follow two main strategies: disrupt operations of cybercriminals, and follow the money and identify the players and bring them to justice.

Campaigns to raise awareness of compromised business emails help. Awareness-building of the risks of phishing and malware also have some effect.

However, the international nature of cybercrime, financial crime, and money-laundering, human-trafficking and internet-based illicit trade and sexual exploitation of children creates a challenge for law enforcement.

The victim may be in country A, a criminal individual or gang in countries B, C and D, but the proceeds cashed out in another jurisdiction. Added to this, some low-tax countries and regions not only attract legitimate businesses and wealthy people, but also criminals and economic crime. Well-known Irish organised crime figures might be officers of companies incorporated in Cyprus, Panama, or Brazil, but live in Dubai or Spain.

Most criminal investigations now involve digital evidence. Some 10% of cases seen by Irish criminal-assets investigators include Darknet and cryptocurrencies.

There is a huge need for investigative skills and knowledge in this field. Yet, investment to protect and respond lags behind.

In its Global Risks Report, 2018, the World Economic Forum asserts the take-down of a single cloud provider could cause $50bn to $120bn of economic damage, a loss somewhere between Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Katrina.

Its no surprise there is a cyber/digital investigation skills crisis in law enforcement. Officers are moving from defence forces and police into well-paid jobs in industry and consulting. If they prefer to remain in law enforcement, there are opportunities to move to Europol or Interpol, or one of the other international justice agencies.

UCD has been working with law enforcement for 20 years. Through training and education, including distance-learning masters programmes, UCD has helped give 2,500 law-enforcement officers, from 60 countries, the skills, tools, and knowledge to combat cybercrime and investigate crimes where there is digital evidence.

The internationalisation of organised crime means investigators benefit from an understanding of procedures in other jurisdications and from global law-enforcement contacts. Sharing their experiences in UCD international education programmes gives them that network and those skills.

We know of many crimes that have been solved as a result.

The sophistication of organised criminal networks, and the technologies and techniques that they use to perpetrate and hide their crimes, mean that courses must be constantly updated. The learning never ends.

- Rupert Bowen is international postgraduate liaison in the UCD Centre for Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Investigation.
Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) and Cork Convention Bureau were the big winners at the Cork Business Associations (CBA) Cork Business of the Year Awards, held at Pairc Ui Chaoimh on Saturday night, writes Padraig Hoare.

The awards, run in partnership with JCD and The Irish Examiner, recognise the outstanding contribution of businesses and individuals working across varied sectors of business in Cork city and its environs.

CIT took home the prize for Large Business of the Year, with vice president of external affairs Orla Flynn saying: Its lovely to be recognised, we have so many hardworking staff out there who really care so much for the students they are working with.

CIT won, according to the CBA, because of its economic benefits, as well as the immense social and cultural aspects it brings to the region.

Business tourism organisation Cork Convention Bureau won the Medium Business of the Year award, with executive chairman Seamus Heaney saying: It is absolutely incredible.

This couldnt be done without the support of the City Council, County Council, the airport authority, the Irish Hotels Federation and all those ambassadors who went above and beyond their day job in bringing that business to Cork.

Cork Convention Bureau has helped win 70m worth of business tourism for Cork in the past decade, hosting a wide range of events and conferences to bring thousands of delegates to Leeside.

A further eight awards were presented on the evening. Best Cork VFI Pub was The Oyster Tavern, while the Best Cork Family Business was OConnor Brothers.

Best Cork Retail Business was Keanes Jewellers, with Cork International Choral Festival winning the Best in Tourism, Arts and Events.

Republic of Work won Best New Business, with Nash 19 being named Best Cafe or Restaurant.

The Montenotte Hotel was named as Best Hotel, while AM OSullivan PR was named Best Professional Services Business.

Chief executive of CBA, Lawrence Owens said: This year we received a record number of entrants and I would like to congratulate each of our very deserving winners and finalists.

To be finalists for these awards was, in itself, a wonderful achievement. I would like to sincerely thank all of our sponsors, in particular our award sponsor JCD, event partner AIB, and media partner the Irish Examiner.

Cork Business Association president Pat OConnell paid a moving tribute to the late James OSullivan and Owen OCallaghan, saying the two men were among the most influential and iconic figures ever seen in the Cork business community, whose energy, commitment and passion for this city was something to behold.

He added: Owen and James were people whom I and others in the CBA looked up to because of their inspiration, proven track record and can-do mentality.
The collapse of Britains second largest contractor, a group with annual turnover in excess of 5bn, is a huge embarrassment to the British government, writes Kyran Fitzgerald.

Questions are being raised about the operation across the water of privatised infrastructure projects and another distinct set of questions are being levelled at the public sector over the negotiation of procurement contracts.

These issues are also highly relevant from an Irish point of view, particularly in view of the impending increase in spending on national infrastructure.

Carillion expanded at breakneck speed. Financial controls were lacking. In retrospect, the group was operating on wafer thin margins which left it exposed to cost overruns on projects, in particular two large hospitals in Liverpool and the West Midlands.

The direct impact of the collapse on Ireland appears limited, with some school projects affected likely to be completed to schedule.

However, there are understandable concerns down the line that failings in public tendering could lead to problems down the line in the case of projects like the National Childrens Hospital.

The State must strike a hard bargain, but it must be sustainable as it is the taxpayer who will be on the hook in any collapse along with employees, shareholders and of course, sub contractors and joint venture partners.

In 2013, the Construction Industry Federation called for a major overhaul of public sector construction procurement. It condemned the lack of clarity, incomplete information and lack of legal resources and low quality of tender documents hampering progress, adding that the system favours the lowest tender price as opposed those with the greatest ability to undertake and complete a project.

According to director general, Tom Parlon, the collapse of countless public projects could be attributed to flaws in the system of procurement.

The then minister of state, Brian Hayes, accepted improvements in the system were required.

Today, Mr Parlon accepts there has been a marked increase in engagement between the industry and the office of Public Procurement culminating in the launch of a review of the performance of public works contracts.

However, with an expanded public capital programme due for launch by the end of March, the CIF is seeking further improvements, arguing closer collaboration should reduce the likelihood of disputes and cost overruns. This would allow companies to assess costs and to forecast more effectively.

The whole issue of the structuring and financing of public infrastructure projects is also to the fore, these days.

Concerns exist over the wisdom of reliance on the private sector for both financing and long term management of contracts such as roads and schools.

Britains National Audit Office has just published a report concluding that reliance on private finance is more expensive than funding projects directly with taxpayers money. Currently, in the UK, there are over 700 PFI contracts in existence worth over 60bn (68bn).

The NAO has concluded the cumulative cost could approach 200bn by the 2040s unless new deals are agreed.

The report estimates a group of schools covered by PFI contracts cost 40% plus more to build than if they had been financed by Government borrowings. The difference in the case of hospitals studied was even higher at 70%.

Eoin Reeves, of the University of Limerick, has studied PPPs and is a long time sceptic when it comes to the use of public private partnerships.

He reckons there are still big issues around the performance of PPPs which he estimates account for between 10% and 20% of financing of projects through public procurement.

In his view, the UK National Audit Office has produced a really interesting report in which they conclude that the experience of the past 25 years with the UK Private Finance initiative has not been a good one.

Dr Reeves regrets the fact the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, the body charged with measuring value for money in Irish public expenditure, has produced so little in the way of assessments on Irish PPPs.

He points to a report by the body on pilot school PPS which produced really good detailed analysis back in the early noughties.

It found that the PPPs cost more than anticipated. Since then, little in the way of analysis has emerged, an omission he attributes to a lack of resources.

A lack of transparency in details on PPP projects exists in large part because of a reluctance to release commercial information.

Dr Reeves believes greater transparency is required. Decision makers should be made accountable.

The buy now-pay later approach at the heart of PPPs may now be attracting growing scepticism even at the heart of government.

According to Aaron Boyle of Arthur Cox solicitors, there are mixed signals regarding PPPs evident in the mid-term review of the capital plan.

The emphasis now is on accessing EIB funding to support infrastructural development along with new financing mechanism such as the Irish Strategic Investment Fund. However, the challenge of ensuring that sufficient project management expertise is developed within the public sector remains.

Nevertheless, PPPs may continue to have a role to play where they bring to the table outside partners with unique levels of expertise not available within Government.
Engineering companies across Ireland are urging students to consider the possibilities a career in building engineering now offers ahead of the CAO deadline in February.

The call comes as Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) launches a new campaign to encourage students to consider building engineering, with the Institute estimating that there are now as many as ten jobs available to every graduate of the course.

The need for building engineering graduates has resulted in big industry players as well as the Association of Consulting Engineers of Ireland. (ACEI) partnering with DIT to support a recruitment and advertising drive to highlight the extremely promising and sustainable career opportunities that exist in the area for motivated students.

With the first CAO application closing-date on February 1 and the online facility to amend course choices available from February 5, Ciara Ahern, Head of Building Engineering at DIT, highlighted the potential for career development in the area, pointing out that the discipline isnt very well understood.

She said: Building engineers are the highest paid engineers in the construction sector earning a starting salary that is typically 5,000 more than other graduates.

"Graduates often express surprise that they are immediately put to work on high-end prestigious projects on graduation.

"We pride ourselves on producing work-ready graduates that require very little further training and are thus of value to companies immediately.

"This means our graduates get a jump-start, climbing the career ladder rapidly. Within a very short timeframe graduates of this discipline are able to command very healthy salaries, such is the demand for their skills. Ahern said.

Jim Curley, Group Chief Executive at Jones Engineering Group, said: "There is a shortage of graduates with the building engineering skills needed by industry.

"These graduates are required amongst other things to support large-scale, high-end projects in all facets of building engineering. Opportunities abound not just at home but overseas for these graduates.

In a recent survey of almost 1,700 employers and employees by recruitment firm Hays Ireland, building engineers were in the top-three roles most sought after by employers for 2018.

It is expected that job opportunities in the low-carbon economy are also set to increase from 9 million to 20 million by 2030, which in practice could present a doubling of the workforce.

For further information on the DIT Building Services Engineering course and the career possibilities it offers, visit http://www.dit.ie/buildingengineering
Nurses at St Finbarrs Hospital have warned of increased staff turnover, heightened stress and declining patient care as a consequence of the loss of 21 nursing and healthcare assistant positions, writes Roisin Burke.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) spokesperson Liam Conway told the Evening Echo that the Health Service Executive (HSE) has proposed cutting full-time roles up to and including 21 healthcare and nursing positions across St Finbarrs Hospital."

There are 16 vacant nursing positions currently being covered by 14 agency staff.

What they are trying to do is take out the agency completely which is covering the 16 vacancies and they are basically telling the staff to get on with it without any agency or any recruitment.

The INMO representative said they are to meet with Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin today to discuss the potential cuts which will result in industrial action should they be pursued.

Management wants the staff to work off 21 fewer positions - 16 nursing and five healthcare - while providing the same service. Our concerns are the effect this will have on the quality of care provided to patients and patient safety.

We are in continuous talks with the HSE, Mr Conway said, There is an interim measure that the cuts are not being implemented while we are in talks, but if the agency pulls back, we will be serving notice of industrial action. We have deferred industrial action, but it can be sanctioned if talks break down or if the HSE is going to implement cuts. Mr Conway said the INMO and their colleagues at Services Industrial Professional Technical Union (SIPTU), who represent the healthcare assistants, will be stressing a number of points to Mr Martin including the detrimental effect these cuts will have on patient care as well as on staff wellbeing.

I have no doubt it will lead to a massive turn over of staff if implemented and mass burnout. It is not physically possible to deliver the care that is being delivered with 21 less healthcare and nursing staff. It is not possible. Mr Conway also said that staff morale is at an all-time low and the staff are also under severe pressure.

It is not a factory, this is patient care that is being delivered and you cannot compromise on that because of cost. A HSE spokesperson said there are no plans to reduce the number of directly-employed staff at St Finbarrs hospital.

Ongoing efforts are being made to recruit nursing staff at St Finbarrs and to reduce reliance on the use of expensive agency staff and overtime. This follows a significant increase in the number of directly-employed staff in the last three years.  The HSE also said a staffing review was underway at St Finbarrs which hopes to ensure safe and adequate staffing levels and skills mix to meet the care needs of the residents in long-term care and in the rehabilitation wards.

Engagement with staff is underway in reviewing rosters to make sure that all staffing resources, including nurses and healthcare assistants, are used to best effect. St Finbarrs Hospital, on the Douglas Road, is one of 24 community hospitals in Cork Kerry Community Healthcare.

- Evening Echo
A new bill to protect hospitality workers rights to their tips is being brought before the Seanad on Wednesday evening.

This is the second phase of the Sinn Fein bill which would mean employers would be legally obliged to hand over all tips to their staff.
Career guidance in schools and colleges is to be reviewed to ensure that students are getting high quality and relevant information.

The review is part of the Action Plan for Education, which aims to make the Irish system the best in Europe within a decade.

The purpose of the review is to ensure there is a high quality, relevant career guidance support service available to all students from postprimary level up to further and higher education.

Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton TD says if this goal is to be achieved, the necessary career guidance supports need to be in place.

The review will look at the quality of information available to students in relation to career guidance, the sources of this information and how the system is organised to support students in this area.

"If we want to be the best in Europe, we need to provide a career guidance service that provides people across the system with access to high quality career guidance tools and career guidance information," said Mr Bruton.

"As Minister, I want to ensure that there are many pathways for people to achieve their ambitions through our education and training system and relevant, comprehensive career guidance is important to guiding people through these pathways.

"I look forward to seeing the outcomes from this review, which is a priority if we are to make further progress in addressing the skills needs of individuals, enterprise and the economy."

The review will be guided by an expert steering group chaired by Professor Tom Collins, current chair of Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), Institute of Technology Blanchardstown (ITB) and Technological Higher Education Association (THEA).

- Digital Desk
The clean-up will continue today, after a day of spot flooding around the country yesterday.

A number of roads were closed overnight while some villages were at risk of flooding.
A man has been charged this evening by Gardai investigating a serious assault in county Monaghan.

The victim remains in a critical condition in hospital following the incident on Saturday night in Carrickmacross.
Gardai say there has been no arrests yet after the latest gangland murder in Dublin.

27-year-old Derek Hutch was shot dead near Wheatfield prison in Clondalkin on Saturday.
Update January 25: Anthony O'Sullivan has been found in a Bangkok hospital.

Original report:

A search is underway in Thailand for an Irishman whos been missing for around four days.

Anthony OSullivan from Mitchelstown in Cork was in Bangkok before he disappeared.

The Department of Foreign Affairs have confirmed they are aware of the situation and are offering help to Mr. OSullivans family.

Its one of three searches underway on three continents for missing Irish people.

26-year-old David Higgins from Kerry is among three other kayakers still missing in Ecuador.

A search is also continuing in Vienna in Austria for 21-year-old Ross Hanlon from Athboy in County Meath who was last seen on Friday.
A man accused of stealing jewellery totalling 2m (2.27m) from the stepson of billionaire businessman Philip Green said he does not know how his DNA came to be at the scene.

Robert Lewis, 41, allegedly broke in to Brett Palos and his wife Magdas house and ordered her to hand over all her valuables while she was wearing only a towel.

A heart-shaped diamond ring, a Chanel Camelia ring, three Cartier bracelets, and a number of Rolex watches were among the stolen items.

Lewis is facing trial for burglary, aggravated burglary and robbery at Harrow Crown Court.

The victim later picked Lewis out of an identity parade, while a full-match profile of his DNA was found around the damaged window frame, the jury heard.

Lewis, who has a string of previous convictions for burglary and attempted burglary, did not give evidence at trial or answer any questions when interviewed by police.

Elroy Claxton, defending, said: "Its his right to remain silent and thats something he has done."

He asked jurors to "examine the integrity" of the DNA evidence and added: "What Mr Lewis says is that he doesnt know how DNA got there."

The intruder forced a window on the ground floor of the property which sits at the end of a private, gated street in St Johns Wood, north west London.

In total 2,003,653 (2,274,823) worth of jewellery and watches were taken in the raid at around 7.15am on December 10, 2016.

Lewis, of Paddington, denies the charges against him.

The trial will continue on Tuesday when the judge is due to sum up the case.

Mr Palos is the son of Philips wife Lady Christina Green and her first husband, Robert Palos.

He is a property developer and also sits on the board of Philips Arcadia Group which owns brands including Topshop, Miss Selfridge and Dorothy Perkins.

- PA
Update 2.35pm: A Spanish judge has refused to ask Danish authorities to arrest ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, who is in Copenhagen to attend a university debate and meet politicians.

Supreme Court Judge Pablo Llarena rejected the country's prosecutor's petition to issue a European arrest warrant, saying Mr Puigdemont was seeking to "provoke his arrest overseas".

Mr Puigdemont's trip came nearly three months after he fled to Belgium, dodging a Spanish investigation after the Catalan parliament's secession declaration on Oct. 27.

Shortly after his arrival in Denmark, Catalonia's parliamentary speaker proposed him as candidate to form a new government, despite his status as a fugitive.

Mr Llarena said on Monday, with the trip to Denmark and the risk of arrest that that brought, Mr Puigdemont was seeking to blame on Spain his absence from the Catalan parliament vote where a new regional leader needs to be elected.

"Facing the legal impossibility to be elected without being present at the Parliament, provoking his arrest overseas seeks to equip him with a justification that his absence is not a free decision as a fugitive, but the consequence of a situation that has been imposed on him," wrote the judge in his decision rejecting the prosecutor's request to re-activate a European arrest warrant for Mr Puigdemont.

Spanish courts initially sought Mr Puigdemont's extradition from Belgium but cancelled that petition amid concerns Belgium might send him back but restrict the crimes with which he could be charged.

The push for independence by the Catalan government, while Mr Puigdemont was regional president, triggered Spain's most serious political crisis in decades. Spain ousted Mr Puigdemont's Cabinet, dissolved the regional parliament and called the December regional elections as part of special powers invoked following the independence declaration.

He and his 13 former Cabinet members face possible charges of rebellion, sedition and embezzlement, which carry jail sentences of up to 30 years under Spanish law.

Despite Mr Puigdemont's legal situation, Catalan parliamentary speaker Roger Torrent said on Monday that the former president was the only candidate with enough backing to attempt a new government following the election last month.

Mr Torrent said he has written to Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy to request a meeting to talk about the "abnormal situation" in Catalonia.

But a government official close to Mr Rajoy said the central government had no intention of discussing judicial affairs with the Catalan speaker.

Spanish foreign minister Alfonso Dastis had said the issue of how to proceed with Mr Puigdemont was for judges, and not the government, to decide.

"Mr Puigdemont is subject to a process in Spain. Outside, for the moment, his movements are free within the European Union, but we'll see," Mr Dastis said in Brussels.

Update 1.05pm: Spanish judge snubs call for arrest in Denmark of Catalonia's Carles Puigdemont

A Spanish judge has rejected a prosecutor's request for Denmark to detain fugitive Catalan ex-leader Carles Puigdemont.

The decision came as politicians in Catalonia proposed former regional leader Mr Puigdemont as candidate to form a government, despite his status as a fugitive from Spanish justice.

Mr Puigdemont arrived in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, on Monday to talk at a university there and meet Danish politicians. It marks his first trip outside Belgium since he left Spain dodging a judicial investigation into an illegal, and unsuccessful, independence declaration in late October.

Earlier: Catalonia's Carles Puigdemont proposed as leader amid demands for his arrest

The speaker of Catalonias parliament has proposed former regional leader Carles Puigdemont as candidate to form a government, despite his status as a fugitive from Spanish justice.

Mr Puigdemont arrived in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, on Monday to talk at a university there and meet Danish politicians.

It is his first trip outside Belgium since he left Spain dodging a judicial investigation into an illegal, and unsuccessful, independence declaration in late October.

Spains state prosecutor is seeking his arrest in Denmark. A Spanish judge is yet to rule on the European warrant.

Catalan parliament speaker Roger Torrent said Mr Puigdemont is the only candidate with enough backing to attempt a government following regional elections last month.

Mr Torrent said he has asked Spains prime minister Mariano Rajoy to meet and talk about the "abnormal situation" in Catalonia.

Spains foreign minister has said "for the moment" Mr Puigdemont is free to move in Europe outside of Spain, adding his arrest was a matter for judges to decide.

Madrids foreign minister Alfonso Dastis said in Brussels that "Mr Puigdemont is subject to a process in Spain. Outside, for the moment, his movements are free within the European Union, but well see."

- PA
A world-renowned female harpist has denied sexually abusing a schoolboy and told a trial that the boy sexually assaulted her while she was in the shower.

Danielle Perrett, 59, is on trial alongside her ex-fiance Richard Barton-Wood, 68, accused of sexually abusing a boy in his early teens in the 1980s.

The schoolboy, now an adult, claims Perrett took his virginity and performed a sex act on him in the shower the following morning, and that Barton-Wood indecently assaulted him on sailing trips and camping trips.

They both deny all charges.

Perrett, giving her evidence at Ipswich Crown Court, said Barton-Wood "seemed to have a kind of uncle-nephew relationship" with the boy, who had been a pupil at a school where he was a substitute teacher in Suffolk, but she never liked him.

She said she was "horrified" when Barton-Wood turned up at her flat in London with the boy.

"He wasnt invited by me, I wasnt expecting him, I didnt like him," she said.

She said she was "angry" with Barton-Wood for bringing the boy, but reluctantly let them stay the night as it was late.

She described claims that she undressed in front of the boy in the bedroom as "complete lies", and said she got changed in the shower.

Jurors were shown a full-length nightie with long sleeves and a high neck that Perrett, who was raised in a Christian household, said she wore that night.

She said nothing sexual happened that night.

She said that the following morning while she was in the shower, the boy "forced himself into the shower".

"He was naked but he had a condom on his penis," she said.

Asked if she said anything, she replied: "I was frozen in terror and he grabbed my wrists and pushed his penis against my pubic bone.

She said Barton-Wood did not see what happened.

Sallie Bennett-Jenkins, for Perrett, asked her if the incident affected her relationship with Barton-Wood.

She replied "yes", and, when asked how, said: "I ended it."

In questioning, she later said: "I was angry that (Barton-Wood) brought him but he couldnt have had any idea what was going to happen."

She said that the boy contacted her years later as an adult, and she felt it was "menacing".

"He said seeing as youre doing very nicely for yourself and youve got a very nice place here and seeing as I have nothing and seeing as I came to London to your gargantuan flat and seeing as I slept in your enormous bed, what do you think?"

She added: "Theres no truth in any of (these allegations) and Ive had to listen to lie upon lie."

Perrett, of Bridge Street, Alpheton, Suffolk, denies six counts of indecent assault.

Barton-Wood, of Church Street, Wymondham, Norfolk, denies seven counts of indecent assault and, one count of attempted indecent assault.

The trial continues.

- PA
Update 2pm: US vice president Mike Pence has "strongly" urged the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table.

In a speech to the Israeli parliament, Mr Pence said on Monday that "peace can only come through dialogue".

The Palestinians have angrily protested against the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital and say the US cannot be trusted as a mediator. They have said they will reject any peace plan the Trump administration presents.

Mr Pence told Israel's parliament, the Knesset, that Israel "can be confident" the US will never compromise Israel's security.

Mr Pence also said the United States will open its embassy in Jerusalem next year, ahead of schedule.

He defended the controversial decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital, which has been condemned by the Palestinians and their Arab allies.

Mr Pence said the administration will advance its plan in the coming weeks and the embassy will open by the end of 2019. Previous estimates had been the move would take three or four years.

Arab politicians were thrown out for heckling Mr Pence at the start of his speech.

The main Arab party in the Israeli parliament had warned it would boycott Mr Pence

The Knesset, which is accustomed to such high-profile visits, had added a new layer of security, and besides the speaker and other dignitaries, politicians did not have direct access to Pence.

Mr Pence earlier said it was an honour to be in "Israel's capital, Jerusalem" as he met the country's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mr Netanyahu told Mr Pence it was the first time a visiting dignitary could utter those three words along with him, and he thanked Mr Pence for President Donald Trump's "historic" recognition of Jerusalem.

The Israeli leader also lauded the American-Israeli alliance, which he said has "never been stronger".

The brief exchange was part of an exceptionally warm welcome for Mr Pence in Israel, which has praised the Trump administration's decision last month to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The decision, though, has infuriated the Palestinians, with whom Mr Pence is not meeting, and upset America's Arab allies as well.

Mr Pence placed his right hand over his heart as an honour guard greeted him with the American national anthem.

White House Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt, US ambassador David Friedman and the Israeli ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer, joined the ceremony and Mr Pence chatted briefly with Israeli soldiers before beginning his meeting with Mr Netanyahu.

Mr Pence said he was grateful to be representing Mr Trump and that his decision to designate Jerusalem as the Israeli capital would "create an opportunity to move on in good faith negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority".

The vice president said he was hopeful "we are at the dawn of a new era of renewed discussions to achieve a peaceful resolution to a decades-long conflict".

Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu in May 2017.

Earlier: Mike Pence welcomed by Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel's capital, Jerusalem'

US vice president Mike Pence said it was an honour to be in "Israels capital, Jerusalem" as he met the countrys prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mr Netanyahu told Mr Pence it was the first time a visiting dignitary could utter those three words along with him, and he thanked Mr Pence for President Donald Trumps "historic" recognition of Jerusalem.

The Israeli leader also lauded the American-Israeli alliance, which he said has "never been stronger".

The brief exchange was part of an exceptionally warm welcome for Mr Pence in Israel, which has praised the Trump administrations decision last month to recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital.

The decision, though, has infuriated the Palestinians, with whom Mr Pence is not meeting, and upset Americas Arab allies as well.

Mr Pence placed his right hand over his heart as an honour guard greeted him with the American national anthem.

White House Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt, US ambassador David Friedman and the Israeli ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer, joined the ceremony and Mr Pence chatted briefly with Israeli soldiers before beginning his meeting with Mr Netanyahu.

Mr Pence said he was grateful to be representing Mr Trump and that his decision to designate Jerusalem as the Israeli capital would "create an opportunity to move on in good faith negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority".

The vice president said he was hopeful "we are at the dawn of a new era of renewed discussions to achieve a peaceful resolution to a decades-long conflict".

Prior to his arrival, Mr Pence visited Egypt and Jordan, where he was warned by King Abdullah II that he had to "rebuild trust and confidence" after the Jerusalem move.

Mr Pence is set to deliver a speech to the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, later in the day.

- PA
Update 10am: The fugitive former leader of Catalonia has arrived in Denmark and prosecutors in Spain immediately started proceedings to have him arrested and extradited.

Carles Puigdemont landed at Copenhagen airport on Monday morning on a flight from Belgium, where he has been since fleeing Spain.

Carles Puigdemont has arrived in Denmark.

He was immediately surrounded by media but made no comment before he got into a car that drove him away to an undisclosed location.

He is expected to take part in a debate at the University of Copenhagen on Monday.

The following day he has been invited to the Danish Parliament by a Faeroese lawmaker, although leading members of the government and opposition have declined to meet him.

In Spain, the state prosecutor's office said it has asked the Supreme Court to approve a European arrest warrant for Mr Puigdemont's arrest. It is unclear if Judge Pablo Llarena will grant it.

In December, Mr Llarena withdrew a similar order amid concerns that Belgium would send Mr Puigdemont back to Spain but restrict the crimes with which he could be charged.

Copenhagen police spokesman Riad Tolba told The Associated Press that no arrest warrant has arrived yet, so Mr Puigdemont has not been arrested.

Mr Puigdemont is being investigated by Spain over a unilateral declaration of independence by Catalonia's parliament on Oct. 27.

Earlier: Spain to seek arrest of Carles Puigdemont if he enters Denmark

A European arrest warrant will be reissued for the fugitive former leader of Catalonia if he leaves Belgium and enters Denmark as planned, Spains state prosecutors office said.

The regions ex-president Carles Puigdemont is scheduled to attend a debate at the University of Copenhagen on Monday.

The trip would be Mr Puigdemonts first outside Belgium since he fled there to avoid a court summons in Spain for his role in a failed secession bid led by his government in October.

The state prosecutor said that if Mr Puigdemont enters Denmark as planned it will "immediately request" the Spain Supreme Court to issue a European warrant for his arrest by Danish authorities.

Spain issued a European warrant for Mr Puigdemonts arrest in November, but withdrew it after a month.

- PA
Update 8pm: The US Congress is speeding towards reopening the government as Senate Democrats dropped their objections to a temporary funding bill.

Democrats' objections were dropped in return for assurances from Republican leaders that they will soon address immigration and other contentious issues.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell's commitment to quickly tackle the issue of immigrant "Dreamers" was contingent on Democrats providing enough votes for a stopgap spending measure lasting a little less than three weeks.

The measure needed 60 votes, and Democrats provided 33 of the 81 it got. Eighteen senators, including members of both parties, were opposed.

Before the government can reopen the Senate must vote on final passage, the House must approve in turn, and President Donald Trump must sign the measure.

Democrats climbed on board after two days of negotiations that ended with new reassurances from Mr McConnell that the Senate would consider immigration proposals in the coming weeks.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer lent his backing to the agreement during a speech on the chamber's floor.

"Now there is a real pathway to get a bill on the floor and through the Senate," he said of legislation to halt any deportation efforts aimed at "Dreamers", who were brought to the country as children and are now here illegally.

Soon, the govt will reopen, and we have a lot to do:



 #ProtectDreamers

 Write a budget

 Address health care, veterans, disaster relief, pensions & the opioid epidemic.



The #TrumpShutdown will soon end, but the work goes on.  Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) January 22, 2018

The White House downplayed Mr McConnell's commitment, and said Democrats caved under pressure. "They blinked," principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah told CNN.

Earlier on Monday, Mr McConnell raised hopes for a quick end to the shutdown, saying "I hope and intend" to reach agreement soon on immigration and other contentious issues - if the Democrats agreed to the stopgap spending measure.

A block of liberal Democrats - some of them 2020 presidential hopefuls - stuck to their opposition. Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Dianne Feinstein of California, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Cory Booker of New Jersey voted no, as did Independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Ms Feinstein said she was not persuaded by Mr McConnell's assurances and did not know how a proposal to protect the more than 700,000 younger immigrants would fare in the House.

House Speaker Paul Ryan told Fox News on Monday that if the Senate approved a temporary spending bill to reopen the government until February 8, the House would approve it, too.

The Senate vote came as most government offices cut back drastically or even closed on Monday, as the major effects of the shutdown were first being felt with the beginning of the working week.

Mr McConnell said he hoped to reach bipartisan solutions on immigration, border security, disaster aid, military funding and more by February 8. If not, he said "it would be my intention to take up legislation" addressing those issues.

- AP

Earlier: Republicans and Democrats reach temporary budget deal to end US government shutdown

US senate leaders have reached an agreement to reopen the government.

The upper house in Congress vowed to advance a bill financing government which will bring to an end a federal shutdown.

The senate vote was 81-18, well above the 60 votes needed but the senate still must vote on final passage to send the bill to the House.

Democrats ended their delaying tactics against a bill financing federal agencies through February 8.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said, in exchange, majority leader Mitch McConnell has agreed to begin debating immigration by that date.

Mr McConnell says the end to the standoff shows "the American people didn't understand" why Democrats shut down the government because they wanted to help "illegal immigrants."

The Senate has started a vote to advance the bill reopening government. It is expected to pass easily, and House approval is expected later.

- Digital Desk
Russian designer Gosha Rubchinskiy's skater brand, PACCBET, reimagines Carhartt WIP staples

It's safe to say that Gosha Rubchinskiy has had a busy year. Coming off a recent Burberry collaboration (with another already in the works) and having just wrapped up his eponymous brand's fall 2018 runway show, PACCBET  the designer's other clothing label; a joint effort with pro-skater and friend, Tolia Titaev  is set to release a collab with Carhartt WIP.

Intrinsically inspired by skateboard garments, PACCBET's signature '90s old school aesthetic fuses with Carhartt WIP's marked workwear pieces  birthing a 12-piece, logo-led collection favouring oversized cuts and spliced fabrics. For Carhartt WIP devotees, instantly recognisable are the denim overalls, pocket T-shirts and Detroit jackets that sport the collab's co-branding, including the PACCBET logo rendered in the former's font on selected items. Browse the full lookbook above.

Available at Dover Street Market boutiques (Singapore, Tokyo, London and New York) and DSM E-Shop from 24 January, and at a pop-up at October store in Moscow from 27 January.
Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

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It is the third-busiest air route in the world, with as many as 47,500 departures and landings last year. Yet despite reaching this position, the Mumbai-Delhi route could face serious challenges in sustaining or improving it this year.

The reason? Hardly any additional capacity is now available at Mumbai airport to deploy more flights on this route. But with the demand growing by 10-12 per cent annually, and with no possibility of adding more flights, flyers will soon face a hike in air fares this year. According to OAG, an air travel intelligence firm based in the UK, the ...
Google on Monday dedicated its doodle to Soviet film director and film theorist, Sergei Eisenstein, on his 120th birth anniversary.

Born this day in 1898, Sergei Eisenstein (Sergei Mikhailovich Eizenshtein) was a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage in film making- the technique of editing a fast-paced sequence of short shots to transcend time or suggest thematic juxtapositions.

The doodle sees Sergei developing the film reels.

He directed several groundbreaking films, including 'Battleship Potemkin', 'Strike', and 'The General Line'.

Google took to its website to describe, "His films were also revolutionary in another sense, as he often depicted the struggle of downtrodden workers against the ruling class."

He was honoured with Stalin prize in 1941 and 1946.

Sergei took his last breath on February 11, 1948 at the age of 50 in Moscow, Soviet Union.
Protests against Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Padmaavat' rocked states like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh today even as the Karni Sena indicated willingness to watch the film ahead of its scheduled release on January 25.

The Supreme Court also agreed to hear tomorrow the pleas of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh governments, seeking recall of its January 18 orders allowing the screening of the controversial flick.

"List the applications for hearing tomorrow," a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said when the counsel for both states mentioned the interim applications seeking modification of the order that allowed the screening of the film.

Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the movie producer Viacom 18, opposed urgent hearing on the pleas saying it was "unfortunate" the way things were happening despite the apex court order.

Meanwhile, two bodies which were protesting against the film -- Shree Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena and Akhil Bharatiya Kshatriya Mahasabha, also moved the apex court seeking their impleadment as parties, opposing its release on grounds including that it hurt sentiments.

Protests, meanwhile, continued in several states. In Rajasthan, protesters in Rajsamand and Barmer blocked highways while a youth in Bhilwara climbed a mobile phone network tower to express opposition.

Towns like Indore, Ujjain and Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh witnessed road blockades while in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur, the home turf of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, people waving saffron flags burnt an effigy of Bollywood director Bhansali right in front of a cinema hall.

The lavishly mounted period drama continued to face stiff opposition even as states like Haryana, Gujarat and Maharashtra promised security to theatres screening it.

Even as the row simmered on, the Shree Rajput Karni Sena said it was ready to watch the period drama as offered by Bhansali productions in a bid to end the deadlock.

Karni Sena has been the most vociferous of the fringe groups opposing the movie alleging historical facts were distorted.

"We are ready to watch the film. We never said that we will not watch the film. The filmmaker assured us one year ago that he will go for a special screening and now he has written for the screening and we are ready for it," Sena leader Lokendra Singh Kalvi told PTI over the phone.

Bhansali productions had on January 20 written to the Shree Rajput Karni Sena and Rajput Sabha, Jaipur, inviting them to watch the film assuring that it showcased the honour and valour of Rajputs.

Despite expressing willingness to watch the movie, the Karni Sena continued its stiff opposition, as Kalvi met Chief Minister Adityanath in Lucknow and pressed for a ban on 'Padmaavat'.

"People will impose 'janta curfew' in cinema halls in Uttar Pradesh if the movie is screened," Kalvi said after his 20-minute meeting with Adityanath. He listed objections on nearly 40 different counts with regard to the movie.

Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria, meanwhile, said that the state government's petition in the Supreme Court would be strengthened if Karni Sena and the Mewar royal family became party to it.

"We are equally affected as are the people. We have exercised all the rights we have within the framework of law and constitution so that peoples' sentiment and law and order issues can be addressed," Kataria said.

The Haryana government said it would implement the Supreme Court order that allows the screening of the movie.

"It's good if some theater owners do not want to screen the film, but those who want to, they will be provided full security," Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said.

The Mumbai police also promised security to the theatres that would show the controversial film.

In Gujarat, a platoon each of the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) would secure the 10 theaters and multiplexes that have shown willingness to screen the film, according to a notification.

Politics over the film also continued as Congress leader and former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot accused the BJP of politicizing the issue for reaping benefits in the Gujarat polls.

"The BJP was politicizing the Sanjay Leela Bhansali - directed film to reap benefits in the Gujarat polls.

The controversy was intentionally twisted and nurtured," the senior Congress leader alleged.

The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) too joined other right wing groups demanding that the film should not be allowed to be screened.

"Hindu organisations should hit the streets to lodge a strong protest against the film in a democratic manner. The issue is not concerned only with Rajputs but all Hindu castes that sacrificed lives in Jauhar," VHP international working president Praveen Togadia said.

He said the VHP, Bajrang Dal and other organisations should not let the film release in the country.

Talking to reporters at the Jaipur International Airport, Togadia demanded that the Centre bring an ordinance to ban the film's release as it did in the 'Jallikattu' case.

The film, starring Deepika Padukone as Rani Padmavati and Ranveer Singh as Allaudin Khilji, will hit the screens on January 25, after months of stiff opposition from right-wing groups.
Members of the Karni Sena and other Rajput organisations protesting the release of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Padmaavat", damaged DND flyover toll plaza counters and set ablaze a barrier on Sunday.

The DND being toll free, the counters were non- operational. Only their glass windows and computers were broken, SP, City, Arun Kumar Singh.

The officer said that around a dozen protesters were detained and a case lodged after examining CCTV footage.

The protesters were from the Karni Sena, Rajput Uthan Samiti, Kshatriya Sabha among others from Gautam Buddha Nagar, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahar, Hapur and nearby areas, he said.

The protesters had assembled at the Greater Noida Pari Chowk and started rally from Greater Noida end to Noida. They were on bikes and cars.

The police got information that they would go to a mall in Sector 18. Hence, roads leading to it were blocked, the SP said.

The protesters then moved towards the DND Flyway and damaged toll booths, the officer said, adding that they fled the spot after the police reached.
As the world's business and political leaders descend on the town located in the Swiss Alps, Modi will be looking to take the "stage", as the Wall Street Journal put it, to secure a more prominent role for India at the big table, where the major powers "shape the world's rules and regulations". A day before he was scheduled to leave for Davos, Modi, who is set to deliver the opening plenary address at the ...

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
Delhi police on Monday arrested a dreaded terrorist affiliated with banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) - Indian Mujahideen (IM).

Abdul Subhan Qureshi of SIMI-IM was arrested by the Special Cell of Delhi Police after a brief exchange of fire.

According to police, Qureshi was involved in 2008 serial blasts in Gujarat and was in the capital to execute a big conspiracy ahead of the Republic Day. He is a software engineer.

The 2008 Gujarat bombings were a series of 21 bomb blasts that hit Ahmedabad, India, on July 26, 2008, within a span of 70 minutes. 56 people were killed and over 200 people were injured. Who is Abdul Subhan Qureshi?

Abdul Subhan Qureshi is one of the most wanted terrorists in India and has been called India's Bin Laden. He is suspected to be associated with the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), and is thought to have been responsible for participating in the Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Delhi bombings. e is also a suspect in the 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings.

On 17 September 2008, his family held a press-conference in Mumbai. His mother Zubeda Qureshi claimed that she had not seen her son in seven years and did not think he was involved. She said if he was guilty, he should be hanged.

"We know Subhaan is innocent. We want him to come forward and clear his name."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Monday leave for Davos, Switzerland to attend the 48th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.

The Prime Minister will be accompanied by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu among others.

He is scheduled to deliver a keynote address on the opening day of the meeting on Tuesday.

The Prime Minister will also hold bilateral talks with the President of Swiss Confederation, Alain Berset, besides holding a series of meetings with business leaders and addressing the international business council.

Under the theme "Creating a shared future in a Fractured World", the meeting aims to set an agenda to address political, economic and Social challenges of recent times.

This year, over 3,000 global leaders from business, government, politics, academia and social sectors are participating at the Summit which will conclude on January 26.
President of India addresses 66th convocation of Maharaja Sayajirao University in Baroda





The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, graced and addressed the 66th convocation of the Maharaja Sayajirao University in Baroda today (January 22, 2018).

Speaking on the occasion, the President said that Maharaja Sayajirao Gaikwad had envisaged this University to promote quality higher education in the region. He had supported and encouraged talented people from underprivileged sections of society, including Dr B.R. Ambedkar. At the time there were very few people with such an expansive vision.

The President appreciated Maharaja Sayajirao University for institutionalising fellowships for students from economically weaker sections. Contributions of students of this University towards development of those from a deprived and underprivileged background would be consistent with the ideals of Sayajirao.

Later in the day, the President graced the 150th anniversary of Akshar Deri at Gondal.

Speaking on the occasion, the President noted that the Swaminarayan Sanstha is engaged in providing assistance to spread education among weaker sections. Similarly, it is providing health services for the welfare of people. He praised the humanitarian work of the Swaminarayan Sanstha.
Shri Gajendra Singh Sekhawat participate in the Agriculture Ministers Conference held in Berlin





Union Minister of State for Agriculture & FW, Shri Gajendra Singh Sekhawat led an Indian delegation comprising of Dr OP Chaudhury, Joint Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries and HK Suanthang, Director, DACFW, to participate in the Agriculture Ministers Conference held on 20.01.2018 in Berlin, Germany during the 10th Global Forum for Food and Agriculture.

The Conference, organised with the theme of Shaping the Future of Livestock Sustainably, Responsibly, Efficiently" was attended by 69 agricultural ministers and heads of 6 international organisations including FAO, WTO and World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). A Communiqu was issued by the Ministers to safeguard the supply of and access to sufficient, safe, nutrients and affordable food from livestock production for the growing world population.

Union Minister of State highlighted Indias impressive performance in the dairy, meat and poultry sector and the initiatives taken by India in the field of diseases control and animal welfare. Shri Sekhawat also stressed the actions taken by India to mitigate the effect of climate change, both in the animal and crop sector and called upon the developed countries to abide by the principles of equity but common and differentiated responsibilities towards tackling climate change.

Shri Sekhawat accompanied by the delegation also utilised their visit to Berlin for meeting Agriculture Ministers from 3 other countries Germany, Argentina and Uzbekistan.

With his German counterparts, the two Ministers reviewed the overall relationship of the two countries in agriculture sector. Shri Sekhawat also impressed upon the German Minister to use his good office for early resolution of Indian rice export being subjected to arbitrarily fixed maximum residue Limit on Tricyclazole at 0.01 mg/kg by European Union. Union Minister of State mentioned EU's non acceptance of digital phytosanitary certificates. The German Minister, in response, conveyed his admiration for India's advance on digitalisation of the certificate and assured to personally take up the matter with the EU Authority concerned.

During his meeting with Mr. Zoir Mirzaev, Uzbekistan Minister for Agriculture and Water Management, the MoS informed his counterpart about the priority areas of India in agriculture sector and suggested areas such as farm machinery, skill development and crop residue management as possible areas of cooperation. The two Ministers also discussed potential items of trade such as moong beans, and opportunities for available investment in each country. The discussion was further supplemented by the two Ministers taking a walk through the various exhibitions of the Uzbekistan stall.

Shri Shekhawat also met the Argentinean Minister of Agriculture Dr Luis Miguel Etchevehere and discussed various areas of mutual interest including trade in agriculture products such as fruits, vegetables and meat. The Minister also conveyed Indias interest in the success achieved by Argentina in farm mechanisation. He also sought collaboration to such technologies to suit Indian conditions, and obtained technology for manufacture of silo bag to reduce storage losses in India.

SS
Germany's centre-left Social Democratic party (SPD) has voted for formal coalition negotiations with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives.

56 percent of the party's delegates voted in favour of moving on to the second and final stage of coalition talks with Merkel's centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), reported the Guardian.

At a special party congress in the western city of Bonn, 372 out of 642 party delegates backed SPD chief Martin Schulz.

"We are relieved, the result shows that we had to fight for this majority," Schulz said.

Earlier this month, the two groupings agreed a blueprint for formal talks.

Schulz had previously ruled out entering into another "grand coalition" with Merkel after his party suffered its worst ever result in the federal elections in September.

Merkel has ruled with the SPD in two of her three terms in office, including in the last parliament from 2013-2017. A re-run of their partnership is not yet certain, according to the reports.

The move paves the way for negotiators to launch comprehensive negotiations this week. If the talks are triumphantly concluded, a new government could be in place by mid-March - nearly six months after September's complicated polls.
The Saudi-led military coalition, which is currently fighting Houthi militias in Yemen, on Monday announced a $1.5 billion aid package for Yemen, Al Arabia News reported.

"The coalition will provide $1.5 billion in humanitarian assistance," said the coalition in a statement.

The coalition promised to keep all ports open, including the Hodeidah port, to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Yemenis, considering the blockade of Houthis on ports under their control.

It added that it aimed to increase monthly imports to Yemen from 1.1 million metric tons last year to 1.4 million metric tons and that it seeks to open land, sea and air access to Yemen to ensure the increase in delivery.

The coalition pledged funding of $40 million for the expansion of ports to accommodate additional humanitarian shipments, adding that it would set up an air corridor between Riyadh and the central Yemeni province of Marib to run multiple aid flights of C130 cargo planes.

The coalition said it would set up 17 additional "safe-passage corridors" to facilitate land transport for humanitarian organisations operating in the remote interiors of Yemen.

The announcement came after Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud decided to transfer $2 billion to the Central Bank of Yemen last week, in an attempt to stabilise the collapsing Yemeni currency.

The Saudi-led coalition has intervened in the Yemeni conflict since March 2015 to roll back the Houthi militants and support the internationally recognised President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who was forced into exile by the Houthis.

The war has killed over 10,000 Yemenis, mostly children, and displaced 3 million others, creating one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
Hundreds of Tokyo residents scrambled for cover on Monday in the Japanese capital's first evacuation drill for a military attack since World War II, amid ongoing tensions over North Korea's nuclear programme.

A loudspeaker blared out a terrifying warning at the drill, held in a Tokyo amusement park: "We have information that a missile launch has occurred. Please evacuate calmly inside a building or underground."



A park employee ran around, shouting "a missile was launched, a missile was launched" as some 250 local residents and office workers duly evacuated to reinforced concrete buildings and a nearby subway station.

A few minutes later, a second message was announced via loudspeaker: "The missile passed. The missile likely flew over the Kanto (greater Tokyo) region towards the Pacific Ocean."



People in earthquake-prone Japan are familiar with evacuation drills simulating natural disasters and fires and annual drills are seasonal rituals seen almost everywhere in the country -- from schools and workplaces to care homes.

But a drill simulating a North Korean missile attack on Tokyo is still a novel idea, although similar drills were held in other parts of Japan last year.

"I think it's better than nothing to have such a drill, but I am praying there is no missile attack from the North," Shota Matsushima, 20, a university student who was in a train station near the drill site, told AFP.

Kana Okakuni, 19, also a student, added: "I think it's good to take a precaution, like having drills for earthquakes."



The drill comes as regional tensions remain high over North Korea's nuclear and missile drive, despite the hermit state's plan to send athletes to next months' Winter Games in the South, which has drawn global attention.

has singled out Japan, a key US ally in the region, for verbal attacks, threatening to "sink" the country into the sea and to turn it into "ashes".

Last year, Pyongyang fired three missiles over Japan and has splashed into the sea near the country, sparking a mix of panic and outrage.

Every time launches a missile over Japan, the nation's alert system warns residents via mobile phones and streetside loudspeaker broadcasts.

But many people say that such a system is useless, with too little time to evacuate and few facilities in place to survive a nuclear attack.

There have also been false alarms.

Last week, Japan's public broadcaster NHK mistakenly flashed that appeared to have launched a missile, warning people to take cover before apologising for the error only minutes later.

That came just days after a false cellphone warning of an incoming ballistic missile terrified residents in Hawaii.

The latest drill in Tokyo attracted some protests.

"I don't want to participate in such a drill and I am against it, as it is a way to promote a war," said Ikie Kamioka, 77, a former primary school teacher who was among dozens of people who rallied in protest against the drill.

"You won't survive if a war occurs. A nuclear war would devastate everything," she said.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) still expects US President Donald Trump to attend its annual meeting in the Swiss Alps this week, the forums chairman Klaus Schwab said on Sunday. Schwab made the comments in an interview with Reuters a day after White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said the trip was up in the air because of the federal government shutdown in the United States. Trump is due to speak at the gathering of politicians, business chiefs and bankers on Friday, the final day of the four-day event. ALSO READ: PM Modi heads to Davos with a message for ...
For four days in January, the seven chairwomen of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, leaders who hail from France, Australia, the United States, India, Italy and Norway, will be the faces of successful women around the world. Below is a look at six of the seven, who will serve along with Isabelle Kocher of Engie. Sharan Burrow, General secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation Was named one of the most influential women in Brussels by Politico in 2016. Was the first woman to be elected general secretary of the ITUC in 2010 and re-elected in 2014 ...
People who begin drinking early in life run the risk of developing liver problems in adulthood, according to a study.

Alcohol is the leading cause of liver cirrhosis and liver-related deaths.

Results of the large long-term study in Sweden suggest that guidelines for safe alcohol intake in men might have to be revised downwards.

Current recommended cut-off levels in some countries suggest that safe alcohol consumption for men to avoid alcoholic liver disease is 30 grams per day, roughly equivalent to three drinks.

"Our study showed that how much you drink in your late teens can predict the risk of developing cirrhosis later in life," explains lead investigator Hannes Hagstrom. "However, what can be considered a safe cut-off in men is less clear."

Investigators conducted a retrospective study to assess the association between alcohol consumed early in life with later development of severe liver disease. They used data from a nationwide population-based study conducted during 1969-1970 of all Swedish men conscripted into military service.

During that period, conscription was mandatory in Sweden, and only 2-3 % of men were exempted from conscription, mostly due to severe disabilities or disease. This study was based on more than 49,000 Swedish men, aged 18-20, who were conscripted at that time.

Researchers matched personal identity numbers from the conscription data with records in the National Patient Register and the Causes of Death Register to establish whether participants had developed severe liver disease up to the end of 2009. Results were adjusted for body mass index, smoking, use of narcotics, cognitive ability, and cardiovascular capacity.

Data indicated that alcohol consumption early in life was associated with an increased risk of developing severe liver disease. After 39 years of follow-up, 383 men had developed severe liver disease, which was defined as a diagnosis of liver cirrhosis, decompensated liver disease (hepatocellular carcinoma, ascites, esophageal varices, hepatorenal syndrome, or hepatic encephalopathy), liver failure, or death from liver disease.

The risk was dose-dependent, with no sign of a threshold effect and was more pronounced in men consuming two drinks per day, about 20 grams, or more. Before adjustment for body mass index, tobacco consumption, the use of narcotics, cardiovascular fitness, and cognitive ability, the risk was significant for daily alcohol consumption as low as six grams per day. These results are only valid for men and need to be validated in women.

"If these results lead to lowering the cut-off levels for a 'safe' consumption of alcohol in men, and if men adhere to recommendations, we may see a reduced incidence of alcoholic liver disease in the future," says Dr. Hagstrom.

Alexandre Louvet, MD, PhD, Service des maladies de l'appareil digestif, Hopital Huriez, Lille, France, observes in an accompanying editorial that despite the huge disease burden, there are no approved treatments for alcoholic liver disease.

"The present study adds to our knowledge about the risks of chronic alcohol consumption at a younger age," comments Dr. Louvet. "Safe levels of alcohol consumption must be revised for the general population and public policies must be adapted accordingly. General recommendations by physicians must be accompanied by alcohol-control policies, especially access to alcohol, prices, and advertising. Education and information are not sufficient on their own to reduce alcohol consumption in the general population. On the other hand, targeted interventions aimed at identifying and advising excessive drinkers are useful on an individual level."

According to the World Organization's 2014 global status report on alcohol and health, alcohol-related cirrhosis is responsible for 493,300 deaths each year. Although there is no approved treatment, alcohol-related disease is theoretically 100% preventable, which makes the role of preventive measures central in decreasing the impact of excessive alcohol consumption on society.

The study has been pulished in the Journal of Hepatology.

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Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu on the first day of the World Economic Forum said that the platform is a great opportunity to attract investments in India.

"This time World Economic Forum is India's World Economic Forum. Prime Minister Modi is promoting India from Davos. It is a great opportunity. In Andhra Pradesh, we are going in a big way for investment," Naidu exclusively told ANI in Davos.

Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Information and Technology (IT) Minister and Naidu's son Nara Lokesh said that he is particularly interested in the combination of technology and rural development to be able to eliminate poverty.

"I am interested in combination of technology and rural development so we can give pin point delivery and eliminate poverty, that is what we are working on," Lokesh exclusively told ANI.

The IT minister also appreciated the renewed interest in India on the global economic front.

"There is a lot of renewed interest in India. The sense of excitement is all building up. The whole idea for youngsters like me is to learn the global best practices and to bring them to our own motherland, and share our best practices with the world," he added.

On a related note, Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is also in Davos is scheduled to host a dinner for global industry bosses from 18 countries.

With on their mind, leaders of Indian community are also camping in the snow-capped Davos to interact with their international counterparts.

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Arrested 2008 Gujarat bomb blast mastermind Abdul Subhan Qureshi was trying to revive the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and Indian Mujahideen (IM) in four states, said Delhi police on Monday.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Pramod Kushwaha said Qureshi was trying to revive IM and SIMI in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.

The police clarified that the terrorist was not planning to carry out terror activities in Delhi.

"We had information that Qureshi would come to meet an old associate in the Ghazipur area. Acting on the information, a Special Cell team arrested Qureshi on the night of January 20 from Ghazipur area in Uttar Pradesh after a brief exchange of fire," said Kushwaha.

A 9 mm pistol, five cartages and some fake documents were seized from India's most wanted terrorist Abdul Subhan Qureshi, who is co founder the IM and once a head of SIMI.

"He is mastermind of 2008 Gujarat blasts on July 26, 2008 in Ahmedabad. After few day of the blast, 29 unexploded IEDs were found from Surat. Qureshi was also mastermind of planting those IEDs which did not blast due to some technical fault," Kushwaha said.

"After the blasts, he managed to escape to Nepal and lived there on the forged documents. He also went to Saudi Arabia between 2013-15 to raise funds and revive his network," the DCP said.

He termed Qureshi as a shrewd and sharp mind criminal who does not believe in leaving behind traces.

"He has worked with top-notch private IT companies and was drawing very good salary. He is a software engineer and got education from English medium school," Kushwaha said.

The Delhi Police is verifying 2008 Gujarat bomb blast mastermind Abdul Subhan Qureshi's role in other blasts also.

"His name figured in 2006 Mumbai train blasts but we will have to verify it from Mumbai. His name also figured in Bangalore blasts. We also suspect that he signed the emails in the name of Al-Arabi which took responsibility of Delhi blasts," Kushwaha said.

The police official said Qureshi has a very detailed criminal profile.

"He has a very detailed criminal profile. NIA had announced Rs 4 lakh on his head. Imn 2007-08 four camps of SIMI were organised in Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat, and Karnataka wherein waging war against India was planned, which they call Jihad," Kushwaha said.

The 2008 Gujarat bombings were a series of 21 bomb blasts that hit Ahmedabad, India, on July 26, 2008, within a span of 70 minutes. 56 people were killed and over 200 people were injured.

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The 'Rashtriya Raksha Mahayagya' led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Maheish Girri will be performed in 108 ceremonial fires at Delhi's Red Fort grounds from March 18-25.

President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have been invited to the event where over 1,100 priests will perform the mahayagya.

Many Delhi-based businessmen have contributed to funding the ritual.

"There are external and internal forces who are trying to harm the interest of the nation. We are organising the 'yagya' (ceremonial fire) following our ancient traditions to push away such attempts and to create a 'New India'," Girri told media in a press conference here.

He added that a temporary Vedic village will be set up in the area for this event.

"It will be attended by prominent political leaders, religious gurus, bureaucrats, Bollywood celebrities and corporate people," Girri stated.

This event is being conducted to rid the nation of vices like casteism and communalism.

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Three people were killed and over a dozen injured in an explosion at a market in southern Thailand on Monday.

According to the Al Jazeera, the incident occurred when a motorcycle bomb exploded in the southern province of Yala.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

Police said the attackers parked the motorcycle near a food stall and when the owner asked to remove it, the attackers ran away.

Later, when the woman tried to move the vehicle herself, it exploded.

The Internal Security Operations Command's southern branch spokesman Col Pramote Phrom-in said they have identified a group of insurgents responsible for the bombing.

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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today announced that he will travel to India for a state visit from February 17 to 23.

"Canada and India share a special bond and are linked by tremendous people-to-people connections. The more than one million Canadians of Indian origin make the relationship between our two countries a truly special one. I look forward to meeting with Prime Minister Modi, and further strengthening the Canada-India friendship."

"Our two countries share much in common, including an commitment to diversity, democracy, freedom, and the rule of law,"he added.

This visit will build on these shared commitments as well as on recent meetings held between Prime Ministers Trudeau and Modi, and ministers from both countries.

This visit - which includes stops in Agra, Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and New Delhi - will provide an opportunity for Prime Minister Trudeau to connect with Indian leaders in government and business, promote the empowerment of women and girls, and strengthen Canada and India's close economic ties.

Canadian High Commissioner Nadir Patel said: "Canada greatly values its strong relationship with India. This visit reflects the high level of priority that Prime Minister Trudeau places on this strategic partnership. Prime Minister Trudeau's visit builds on visits by 11 Cabinet Ministers of the Trudeau Government in the past 18 months."

During the visit, the prime ministers will reaffirm the close friendship between the two countries, and discuss ways to further deepen bilateral cooperation.

Prime Minister Trudeau will also participate in several business roundtables to promote further trade and investment between Canada and India, as Canada works closely with Indian leaders to advance economic opportunities in both countries.

While in India, Prime Minister Trudeau will engage with youth, and visit several landmarks, including the Taj Mahal, Sri Harmandir Sahib (also known as the Golden Temple), the Jama Masjid, and Swaminarayan Akshardham.

There have been eleven Cabinet Minister visits to India since the Government headed by Prime Minister Trudeau took office in November 2015.

Canada is home to a large Indian diaspora, as approximately 3.6 per cent of Canadians are of Indian heritage and India is Canada's second largest source of immigrants.

In 2016, two-way merchandise trade between Canada and India totalled $8 billion. Bilateral trade in services reached 2.1 billion dollars in the same year.

Canadian investment into India has increased by over 15 billion dollars over the past three years mainly through institutional investors, and the number of Canadian companies active in India stands at over 1000.

Canada is a leading education destination for Indian students; approximately 124,000 Indians held a valid Canadian study permit in 2017.

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In a bid to enhance Nepal's capacity in combatting climate change, China has donated over 32,000 solar power generation system sets to that country.

According to the Xinhua, the donated items also include 325 sets of solar power generation system (1200Wp), battery, controller, LED bulb and case that include the status indicator and system cable.

Nepal Ministry of Population and Joint secretary Ram Prasad Lamsal said, "The support provided by China is instrumental in addressing the problems of and climate change. It will also benefit our people from the perspective of health and time-saving."

The donated goods will be distributed by the Alternative Energy Promotion Center (AEPC) in the areas affected by a devastating earthquake in 2015, according to the Nepali government.

"The bigger power generation systems with high power will be used for the community schools, health centres and local government offices while the low power systems will be used for the households in cluster areas," the report quoted AEPC Executive Director Ram Prasad Dhital, as saying.

The hand-over ceremony was attended by Peng Wei, the economic and commercial counsellor at the Chinese embassy in Nepal.

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Parents of an eight-year-old boy who was thrashed to death at a seminary here, have pardoned the cleric in charge of the institution.

The Dawn quoted a police official, as saying that the cleric was in charge of the seminary located in Karachi's Bin Qasim Town area.

Police, however, have registered a case against the accused Qari Najmuddin under Section 322 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

Mohammed Hussain, the boy was subjected to corporal punishment in the past, after which he had run away from the seminary. His parents, however, brought him back to the seminary on Friday. When the student tried to flee again, Qari Najmuddin beat him to death with a blunt weapon over the weekend.

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The President of Chamber of Trade and Industries said that the Traders' Association has decided to stage a protest tomorrow against the ongoing sealing drive ordered by the Supreme Court-empowered monitoring committee.

"Traders are being harassed by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) since the past one month by sealing of shops. Traders' Association has decided to hold Delhi Vyapar Bandh on 23 January", Brajesh Gupta, President of Chamber of Trade and Industries, told ANI on Sunday.

He further requested the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to stop the sealing and the "illegal collection in name of procurement charges".

Gupta also alleged that no notice was given to the traders before the sealing of the illegal construction.

Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party has promised to stand by the traders during the 'Delhi Bandh'.

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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday filed a status report in connection with the disproportionate assets (DA) case against former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh.

Delhi Patiala House Court today directed the ED to file a supplementary chargesheet in the case by February 1.

In the previous hearing, Delhi Patiala House Court on January 2 granted bail to Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) agent Anand Chauhan, who was involved in the same case.

The court also directed Chauhan to furnish a bail bond of Rs 50,000 with two sureties of the same amount.

Chauhan was arrested in July last year in Chandigarh by the ED, under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), for not cooperating with the agency.

The ED in September, last year, had filed a chargesheet against Chauhan in the money laundering case, also involving Virbhadra Singh and others.

He was instrumental in investing Rs five crore in LIC policies in the name of the Singh, including his wife and children.

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Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Co-chairman Bilawal Bhutto has called for an end to extra-judicial killings in Pakistan.

Answering a question asked by media, Bilawal said he is against police encounters taking place anywhere in Pakistan. Such practices must end, he added.

He was addressing the inauguration ceremony of a country-wide membership drive of the party here on Sunday, a day after authorities suspended a senior police officer for the killing of a man in an alleged encounter that sparked anger and protests across the nation.

Senior Superintendent of Police Rao Anwar and other officers are in the dock for killing at least four men during what they claimed was a raid on a suspected Taliban hideout in Karachi.

Relatives of one of the dead men, who was identified as Naqeebullah Mehsud, 27, from South Waziristan tribal district, rejected claims of him having militant links, and maintained that he was an aspiring model who had been a resident of Karachi since 2008. They added that Naqeebullah was looking for a job and had been running a shop in the city.

His killing evoked a national outcry and triggered protest rallies in several cities.

Bilawal's appeal also assumes significance in connection to the killing of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) London's deputy convenor Dr. Hasan Zafar Arif, who was found dead in his car in Karachi's Ilyas Goth area on January 14, a day after his abduction.

The MQM has asked Pakistan's Chief Justice Saquib Nisar to take suo motu notice of what it described as the custodial assassination of Dr. Arif.

"The death of Professor Hassan Arif will not go in vain, he was a fearless and true ideological worker of the MQM, despite being detained arbitrary for several months in 2016, at a time when enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings were a daily occurrence, Professor Arif remained steadfast to his cause," MQM Founder Altaf Hussain had said earlier this month.

An editorial in one of Pakistan's leading dailies has said that the reduction in extra-judicial killings can only be realised through the overhauling of the criminal justice system, which is long overdue.

"A security policy without checks on the excesses of police and Rangers is designed to fail," the editorial in the Daily Times said.

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A spiritual leader in Pakistan's Punjab Province has given a week's time for government to impose Sharia laws.

Spiritual leader Pir Hameeduddin Sialvi of the Astan-e-Aalia Sial Sharif Pir Sialvi said, "I am giving [the Punjab government] one week's time, and if Nizam-e-Mustafa [Islamic Sharia] is not enforced during this period, than protests will be held across Punjab."

"Minor girls are being raped and murdered in every city and the government has failed to arrest the culprits," he added.

He vowed to continue the movement for Khatm-e-Nabuwat or the finality of Prophethood (PBUH) till his last breath.

Sialvi also demanded the resignation of Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah for his remarks against the Ahmadi community in a recent television show.

The Pir has been consistently putting pressure on the government to introduce the Sharia across Pakistan.

In December last year, the Astana-e-Aalia Sharif had announced that it would not support the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the upcoming general elections if it failed to meet their demands. Two members of the National Assembly and three members of the provincial assembly in Punjab have reportedly resigned since then.

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Epilepsy, a disorder in which nerve cell activity in the brain is disturbed, is linked to brain volume and thickness differences, according to a study.

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that affects 0.6-1.5% of the global population, comprising many different syndromes and conditions, and defined by a tendency for seizures.

The research was led by UCL and the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

The largest-ever neuroimaging study of people with epilepsy shows that epilepsy involves more widespread physical differences than previously assumed, even in types of epilepsy that are typically considered to be more benign if seizures are under control.

The brain abnormalities the researchers identified were subtle, and have not yet been implicated in any loss of function.

"We found differences in brain matter even in common epilepsies that are often considered to be comparatively benign. While we haven't yet assessed the impact of these differences, our findings suggest there's more to epilepsy than we realise, and now we need to do more research to understand the causes of these differences," said the study's lead author, Professor Sanjay Sisodiya.

The study was conducted by the global ENIGMA-Epilepsy consortium, part of ENIGMA which is headquartered at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, and pooled data from 24 research centres across Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia. Structural brain measures were extracted from MRI brain scans of 2,149 people with epilepsy, and compared with 1,727 healthy controls. The epilepsy group was analysed together for common patterns, and divided into four subgroups to identify differences.

The team found reduced grey matter thickness in parts of the brain's outer layer (cortex) and reduced volume in subcortical brain regions in all epilepsy groups when compared to the control group. Reduced volume and thickness were associated with longer duration of epilepsy.

Notably, people with epilepsy exhibited lower volume in the right thalamus - a region which relays sensory and motor signals, and has previously only been associated with certain epilepsies - and reduced thickness in the motor cortex, which controls the body's movement.

These patterns were even present among people with idiopathic generalised epilepsies, a type of epilepsy characterised by a lack of any noticeable changes in the brain, such that typically an experienced neuroradiologist would not be able to see anything unusual in their brain scans.

"Some of the differences we found were so subtle they could only be detected due to the large sample size that provided us with very robust, detailed data," said the study's first author, Dr Christopher Whelan.

The researchers also identified differences between the subgroups, which they say must reflect differences in underlying biology, as suggested by recent genetic studies.

"We have identified a common neuroanatomical signature of epilepsy, across multiple epilepsy types. We found that structural changes are present in multiple brain regions, which informs our understanding of epilepsy as a network disorder," Dr Whelan said.

The authors say their findings need to be followed up by longitudinal and genetic studies which could clarify the cause of the structural differences.

"From our study, we cannot tell whether the structural brain differences are caused by seizures, or perhaps an initial insult to the brain, or other consequences of seizures - nor do we know how this might progress over time. But by identifying these patterns, we are developing a neuroanatomical map showing which brain measures are key for further studies that could improve our understanding and treatment of the epilepsies," said Professor Sisodiya.

The findings have been published in the journal Brain.

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German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who is scheduled to visit Israel later this month, will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Gabriel, a Social Democrat, is slated to address the 11th annual conference of the Institute for National Security Studies, which takes place from January 29 to 31, in Tel Aviv. He is likely to meet Netanyahu on January 31, reports The Times of Israel.

Germany reportedly requested the meeting with Netanyahu.

This would be Gabriel's first meeting after he was unceremoniously disinvited by the Prime Minister's Office last April over his meeting with the dovish Breaking the Silence group.

Netanyahu, had earlier said that he will not host any leader, who also meets with the whistleblower group.

Explaining his decision not to receive Gabriel, Israeli premier's office said at that time, "Prime Minister Netanyahu's policy is not to meet foreign visitors who on diplomatic trips to Israel meet with groups that slander IDF soldiers as war criminals."

Meanwhile, Netanyahu is scheduled to attend the Economic Forum (WEF) summit in Davos.

"Israel is a global technological power," he added according to the reports, "We are cultivating this true strength and are promoting it in many forums."

"This forum is the main global economic forum. I will meet there with a long list of heads of state - and of major corporations, [who] are no less important today," Netanyahu further stated.

The theme for this year's WEF summit is - "Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured "

The WEF, which describes itself as an international organisation for public-private cooperation and was established in 1971 as a not-for-profit foundation, hosts its annual meeting in Davos every year in January.

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A team of chefs from Taj Group is preparing cuisines at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Mainly consisting of Indian cuisine, the spread prepared by these chefs will be served at three different venues.

Speaking to ANI, Raghu Deora, the logistical head for this entire mission, said,"I have been told that he likes anything and everything vegetarian. It will be like 'Ghar ka Swad Davos mein" on serving to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He added that it is quite difficult to prepare Indian dishes here as the Indian spices are quite different.

"We are a team of 32 chefs and managers catering to India Adda, AP lounge and India Reception for about 12,000 people, we also have a special dinner at Inter Continental. Prime Minister Modi will be having our food at 3 different venues. There is much bigger India presence in Davos," he added.

He told, "Almost 1000 kg of spices have been brought from India, some hand-carried some couriered".

Deora, along with Nitin Mathur, the executive chef Taj Krishna, Hyderabad and Neville Pimento, resident manager at Taj Lands End, Mumbai, will be leading the team of chefs at different venues.

Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to deliver a keynote address on the opening day of the meeting on Tuesday.

The Prime Minister will also hold bilateral talks with the President of Swiss Confederation, Alain Berset, besides holding a series of meetings with business leaders and addressing the international business council.

The theme of the four-day event at Davos is "Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World".

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Film-maker Karan Johar on Tuesday said that he is extremely happy that law prevailed and the Supreme Court judgement is in favour of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's controversial release 'Padmavat'.

"As a film-maker, I can only hope that we have a smooth release. Supreme Court judgement went in favour of 'Padmavat', it is a matter of happiness that the law has prevailed," Karan Johar exclusively told ANI in Davos.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali's magnum opus is all set for a worldwide January 25 release in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil.

The film is based on 16th-century Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi's epic poem 'Padmavat'.

The flick has run into trouble time and again, as members of several Rajput factions have accused the director of the film of distorting history.

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Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to not only hug world leaders, but also India's farmers and soldiers.

Taking to Twitter, the Congress chief questioned the Prime Minister's desire to only embrace important people and not commoners.

On Sunday, the Congress mocked Prime Minister Modi by posting a video on Twitter, with a tagline 'hugplomacy', after he received his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu at an airport here.

In the video, the Congress ridiculed Prime Minister Modi's ways of hugging with several world leaders by describing them with comic tags along with gifs.

The Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu was accompanied by his wife Sara and a 130-member delegation from various sectors, including cyber, agriculture and defence to India last week.

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday projected India's growth at 7.4 percent for 2018, as against China's 6.8 percent, making it the fastest growing country among emerging economies.

This announcement comes a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos.

In its latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) update, the IMF has also projected a 7.8 percent growth rate for India in 2019.

Growth rate projections for both 2018 and 2019 remain unchanged since its October 2017 WEO projections.

The IMF said that China, during the same period is expected to grow at 6.6 percent and 6.4 percent respectively.

Emerging and developing Asia will grow at around 6.5 percent over 2018-19, broadly the same pace as in 2017, IMF said, adding that the region continues to account for over half of the growth in the world.

"Growth is expected to moderate gradually in China, though with a slight upward revision to the forecast for 2018 and 2019 relative to the fall forecasts, reflecting stronger external demand, pick up in India, and remain broadly stable in the ASEAN-5 region," the IMF said.

In the year gone by, China (6.8 percent) was ahead of India (6.7 percent), giving China the tag of being the fastest growing emerging economies, as has been the case for major parts of the past several decades.

India was the fastest growing country among emerging economies in 2016.

However, due to demonetisation in late 2016 and implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), India's economy slowed down a little to 6.7 percent.

Further, in 2017, India's growth rate dropped to 6.7 percent.

However, according to IMF Economic Counsellor and Director of Research, Maurice Obstfeld, the two biggest national economies driving current and near-term future growth are predictably headed for slower growth.

"China will both cut back the fiscal stimulus of the last couple of years and, in line with the stated intentions of its authorities, rein in credit growth to strengthen its overextended financial system. Consistent with these plans, the country's ongoing and necessary rebalancing process implies lower future growth," Obstfeld said at a news conference in Davos.

"As for the United States, whatever output impact its tax cut will have on an economy so close to full employment will be paid back partially later in the form of lower growth, as temporary spending incentives (notably for investment) expire and as increasing federal debt takes a toll over time," he added.

Earlier this month, a top IMF official had said that India is reclaiming its place as a growth leader.

"China alone is providing one-third of global growth. Japan has been growing above potential for several quarters," said the IMF First Deputy Managing Director, David Lipton at the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong on January 15.

"India is reclaiming its place as a growth leader after a short slowdown. And the ASEAN-5 have gained momentum in response to higher investment and increased exports," Lipton had said.

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The 16th International Energy Forum (IEF) Ministerial meeting will be held in New Delhi on April 10 to 12.

While addressing a press conference here, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said, "The 16th International Energy Forum Ministerial meeting will be held on April 10 to 12, 2018, which will be hosted by Government of India in New Delhi and co-hosted by the Government of China and South Korea."

Representatives from 92 countries will be participating in the conference, including 72 member countries of IEF and 20 guest countries, the minister added.

According to media reports, Global energy organisations, including the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, International Energy Agency, will also be represented at the meet.

India had last hosted the IEF ministerial conference in 1996.

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The Delhi Police here on Monday arrested Abdul Subhan Qureshi, the co-founder of Indian Mujahideen (IM) and ideologue of Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).

Qureshi, one of the 'most wanted' fugitives of the Investigation Agency (NIA), carried a reward of Rs four lakh on his head.

He was the mastermind of 23 serial blasts in Ahmadabad and the recovered 29 unexploded IEDs from Surat in 2008.

Interpol Red Notices were issued against him for his role as the main conspirator in the Ahmadabad serial blasts.

He is also a suspect in the July 11, 2006, Mumbai train blasts.

A team of Special Cell under the supervision of Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Govind Sharma not only apprehended the most wanted terrorist Qureshi (46) but also succeeded in nipping the revival bid of banned terrorist outfit Indian Mujahideen.

The Special Cell was working on the leads from the interrogation of other arrested accused who had links with IM and SIMI after the escape of Qureshi in 2008.

It emerged that the accused was indoctrinating the unemployed youth among the community to fill the space left void by the fall of the top leaders of Indian Mujahideen.

He was planning the revival of the weak and scattered network of the terrorist organisation.

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Terrorists on Monday hurled a grenade on an Army vehicle that exploded near Khrew Chowk in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama.

No casualties and injuries have been reported yet, said official sources.

Further details are awaited.

Earlier on Saturday, suspected terrorists hurled a grenade towards a police station in Shopian district.

The grenade exploded outside the station, police said.

On January 12, Shopian district witnessed a similar attack, wherein terrorists sprayed bullets on a police post.

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The students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU) protest near the Jammu and Kashmir House condemning the rape and murder of an eight-year old girl in Kathua District, Jammu.

Police detained some of the protestors for some time.

The minor girl was raped and tortured with electric shocks and human bites. She was found dead in the Hiranagar area of Kathua on January 17.

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A group of protestors from Rajput Karni Sena created a ruckus and tore the poster of 'Padmaavat' outside a movie hall Telangana.

The manager of Tivoli Theatre said that they informed about the same to Begumpet police, following which they reached there and pacified the matter.

"Few persons came to Tivoli Theatre and tore the posters of Padmaavat, which is going to be screened on 25. We immediately informed the matter to Begumpet police. They reached the spot and spoke to them and sent them back," the manager said.

Earlier, members of same organisation burnt 'Padmaavat' posters and staged a protest against the release of the movie in Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow and said, "We will protest in front of every theatre and urge not to screen the movie".

The Supreme Court, recently, stayed notifications issued by the four states - Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat - to ban the release of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's magnum-opus.

In its interim order, the court said all states are constitutionally obliged to maintain law and order and prevent any untoward incident during the screening of the film, after permission has been granted by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).

The flick has run into trouble time and again, as members of several Rajput factions have accused the director of the film, Bhansali of distorting history.

Starring Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor in lead roles, the film is all set to release on January 25.

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Miscreants vandalised a mall in Kurukshetra, Haryana, over the weekend ahead of the anticipated release of the movie 'Padmaavat'.

Eyewitnesses said that a group of people opened fire first and then attacked the mall with hammers and swords.

Kurukshetra Police said some of the miscreants have been identified and further investigation is being undertaken.

"We suspect that this act was against the release of Padmaavat. Around 20-22 people suddenly entered the mall at 6.48 p.m., vandalised it and escaped from here without saying a word. We have identified a few of them," said a Haryana Police officer.

Last week, the Supreme Court set aside notifications passed by the governments of Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat to ban the release of Padmaavat.

Padmaavat will be released on January 25 in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil.

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The Madras High Court on Monday dismissed a petition to declare the death of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa as suspicious and to conduct a probe into its cause.

Advocate A K Velan had filed the petition at the High Court urging it to direct police to register Jayalalithaa's death as suspicious and to conduct a probe.

However, Justice M V Muralidharan dismissed the petition and asked the petitioner to approach the one-man panel for any relief within two weeks.

Jayalalithaa, popularly known as 'Amma', was taken to Chennai's Apollo hospital on September 22, 2016, and treated in the hospital for 75 days before she breathed her last on December 5.

Following her death, allegations of foul play began to do the rounds and state forest minister Dindigul Sreenivasan even claimed that all cabinet ministers had lied to the people about hospitalisation and death of the former chief minister Jayalalithaa.

Subsequently, a one-man commission was constituted and a probe under a retired Madras High Court judge, Justice Arumugasamy, was initiated on October 30.

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Prime Minister and Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba is reportedly under pressure to summon the party's Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting at the earliest to review election results.

Leaders of the party, including senior leader Ram Chandra Poudel and some others close to him put pressure on Deuba on Monday to summon the CWC meeting.

NC leader Bimalednera Nidhi, however, said that it would not be good to call the meeting to review the election results before the National Assembly (NA) election.

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A week after a woman was attacked with acid in Kalampur in Kalahandi district, police managed to nab the accused from Andhra Pradesh.

The police arrested Parshuram from Rangareddy district in Andhra Pradesh. He will be brought on a transit remand to Odisha in connection with the case, police said on Sunday.

The accused allegedly threw acid on the girl as she rejected his love proposal.

The victim, who sustained burn injuries, is undergoing treatment at a hospital in Bhawanipatna.

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Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan criticised Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who was conferred with the 'Ideal Chief Minister' award at Pune on Sunday, over the suicide of the alleged rape survivor from Odisha's Koraput.

The Union Minister told media, "Is this what an ideal Chief Minister do? If Naveen Babu (Naveen Patnaik) is even a bit sensitive about the case, then he must take action. It is an extremely sad incident."

Pradhan further accused the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the state police of ignoring the incident that took place on Monday afternoon.

"It is a very shocking incident that happened in Odisha. State government preferred to ignore it. The victim had even claimed that Director General (DG) of Odisha Police had tried to bribe her to keep quiet. This is a very unfortunate incident."

A class IX girl, who was allegedly gang-raped by four security personnel in combat attire near Kunduli of Odisha's Koraput district on October 10 last year, committed suicide in her residence at Musaguda village on Monday afternoon.

The incident triggered a massive outrage across the state.

On November 18 last year, the girl attempted to kill herself, after which Chief Minister Patnaik ordered a judicial probe into the incident.

On another note, Dharmendra Pradhan had met five members of Border Security Force's women contingent Seema Bhawani from Odisha. These women are in the capital to perform motorcycle stunts during the Republic Day.

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India's largest online classifieds marketplace for auto, real estate, goods and services, OLX on Monday announced appointment of Momtaz Moussa as the General Manager of OLX India.

Momtaz, who joined OLX Group in beginning of 2016, as General Manager of OLX in Egypt, one of the fastest growing markets in the MENA (Middle East and North African) region, brings diverse experience spanning over a decade in development, strategy and consulting. He has worked with multinational brands such as Booz & Co, Vodafone and OLX Group.

In his last stint at OLX, Momtaz was heading key markets in MENA, covering Egypt, Lebanon and Oman. With his global expertise in classifieds, he was successful in elevating customer experience to drive high growth and retention, making OLX the leading classifieds site in the region.

Beginning his career as an entrepreneur, Momtaz founded successful startups and consulted many private ventures in the US and Middle East. He holds an MBA from INSEAD School and BSC in Computer Science from the American University in Cairo.

In the new role, Momtaz will lead the India to boost OLX's dominant position in online classifieds, which stands at 85 percent share of consumer-to-consumer trade in India. He will be in charge to accelerate growth in key categories including Auto, Real Estate, Jobs and Goods.

Furthermore, to cater the evolving needs of buyers and sellers, by capitalizing on a user-friendly experience on the platform. He will report into Leonardo Rubinstein, CEO, ALMEA (Asia, Latin America, Middle East and Africa), OLX Group.

"The appointment of Momtaz Moussa will be instrumental in driving this growth. His track record in building and leading teams to deliver high-performance growth, combined with his strategic vision and deep knowledge of classifieds, puts him in the best position to take charge of our business in India. We are confident that under Momtaz's vision, OLX India will continue to grow and innovate as the market leader," said Leonardo Rubinstein, CEO ALMEA (Asia, Latin America, Middle East and Africa) for the OLX Group.

"I am fortunate to join the incredible team in India. India is one of the most exciting markets for OLX Group. OLX India is at the forefront of digital innovation and the road ahead is full of growth prospects. It is indeed a great opportunity for me to be a part of this journey and take the business to sustainability," said Momtaz Moussa on his appointment.

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Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, has warned India to avoid any act of aggression or misadventure along the borders that separate the two nations.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) quoted General Bajwa, as saying during a visit to the Line of Control (LoC) and Working Boundary in Khuiratta and Ratta Arayan sectors, that any such act from across the border would be given a befitting response.

The ISPR said General Bajwa met local commanders and was briefed by them.

"Our commitment to abide by the ceasefire agreement of 2003 should never be misconstrued as response limitation," the ISPR quoted General Bajwa, as saying.

The army chief also visited the Civil Military Hospital in Sialkot to meet injured citizens. The ISPR said Commander, Rawalpindi Corps, Lieutenant General Nadeem Raza, and Commander, Gujranwala Corps, Lieutenant General Amir Abbasi, accompanied the army chief on his visit.

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Pakistan's Supreme Court has given a 72-hour deadline to police to arrest the culprit behind the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl.

A special bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar, held the hearing of the case at the Lahore registry, reported Geo News.

Chief Justice Nisar had taken a suo motu notice of the case on January 10.

The minor, who was a resident of the Kasur district of Pakistan's Punjab province, was kidnapped on her way to a tuition centre on January 4 from Kasur's Kot Road area.

Five days after her disappearance, she was found raped, dead and buried in a garbage dump on Jan 9 near the Kashmir Chowk.

According to the initial post-mortem report, the minor was strangled to death after being raped multiple times.

As per the autopsy, the girl had marks of torture on nose, neck, and other parts of the body, the report said.

Hundreds of enraged protestors clashed with the police in Kasur last week over this incident.

The Punjab administration had then said that six personnel, including four policemen and two civil defence personnel, were arrested for allegedly opening fire at the mob.

Kasur made international headlines in 2015 when a gang of paedophiles running a child sex ring was busted.

The court observed that had the police been serious since 2015, so many cases would not have occurred.

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Pakistan's Supreme Court has suspended the death penalty on three hardcore terrorists.

A military court had sentenced the terrorists to death, reports the Express Tribune.

The Supreme Court suspension order was passed by Justices Saeed and Azamat. The three terrorists have been identified as Shafaqat, Sabir Shah and Muhammad Liaqat.

Justice Saeed ordered the suspension of the military court ruling until further orders, and adjourned proceedings indefinitely.

Muhammad Liaqat had been charged with attacking a journalist, while Sabir Shah and Shafaqat are deemed involved in the murder of Advocate Arshad Ali in Lahore.

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Pakistani journalist and columnist Fawad Hasan was reportedly abducted for a short while by Rangers personnel on Monday.

According to a Daily Times, Fawad was abducted from Karachi University's (KU) International Relations department by men, but returned safely later.

Another journalist Arshad Yousafzai, however, took to Twitter and informed that Fawad was assaulted for covering a seminar held for the recently 'slain' Professor Hassan Zafar Arif.

"They released @FawadHazan after violence, also threatened him to not cover such seminars. They also told him that LAEs are recording his phone calls if he talked about the investigation, they will pick up him again," Yousafzai tweeted.

They released @FawadHazan after violence, also threatened him to not cover such seminars. They also told him that LAEs are recording his phone calls if he talked about the investigation they will pick up him again.  Arshadyousafzai (@Arshadyousafzay) January 22, 2018

Earlier in the day, Fawad had spoken at the conference and also tweeted.

"Even though Dr Hasan Zafar Arif didnt stay in the varsity for long, he nevertheless became an integral part of #KU history!

Teachers remember Zafar Arif sb..." he tweeted.

"Even though Dr Hasan Zafar Arif didnt stay in the varsity for long he nevertheless became an integral part of #KU history!"

Teachers remember Zafar Arif sb... pic.twitter.com/WD9uR4Hn7s  Fawad Hasan (@FawadHazan) January 22, 2018

Professor Riaz Ahmad, who had organised the event, also confirmed that Fawad had been taken to the Rangers headquarters.

On January13, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) London's deputy convenor Dr. Hasan Zafar Arif was found dead in his car in Karachi's Ilyas Goth area on January 14, a day after his abduction.

MQM Founder Altaf Hussain strongly condemned the extrajudicial killings of Dr Arif and drew attention toward the recurring pattern of violence against activism for truth and justice in Pakistan.

The MQM has asked Pakistan's Chief Justice Saquib Nisar to take suo motu notice of what it described as the custodial assassination of Dr. Arif.

"The death of Professor Hassan Arif will not go in vain, he was a fearless and true ideological worker of the MQM, despite being detained arbitrary for several months in 2016, at a time when enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings were a daily occurrence, Professor Arif remained steadfast to his cause," MQM Founder Altaf Hussain had said earlier this month.

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The Supreme Court on Monday transferred two cases pertaining to CBI special judge Justice B.H. Loya's death from the Bombay High Court to itself.

The apex court will hear the matter next in the first week of February.

The country's top court said that it would examine all the documents.

"This is a serious matter. We have seen all the newspaper reports. We would like to see all the records", the court said.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government told the Supreme Court that a careful and prudent investigation was conducted after the media reports.

It further said that four judicial officers assured that there was no foul play involved.

The state government continued that the Bombay High Court recorded the statements that said Justice Loya died of cardiac arrest.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra was hearing the pleas seeking an investigation into the allegedly suspicious death of Justice Loya.

The Judge Loya case was one of many issues raised by four Supreme Court judges in the January 13 press conference. They alleged that the CJI was assigning cases to benches of his personal preference.

Justice Loya, at the time of his death in December 2014, was hearing the politically-sensitive Sohrabuddin Sheikh police encounter case in which BJP chief Amit Shah was an accused along with several others. Shah was subsequently discharged from the case by the judge who took over the case.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived here on Monday, and will proceed to Davos for the Economic Forum.

As per his itinerary for the day, the Prime Minister is scheduled to host dinner for global industry bosses from 18 countries in Davos.

Thereafter, he will be addressing the plenary session of the forum on Tuesday.

The first Indian minister to attend the WEF in more than two decades, Prime Minister Modi is being accompanied by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu, among others.

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In a time, where allegations of sexual misconduct against men in Hollywood continue to pour in almost every day, actor William H. Macy feels that it has become "hard to be a man" these days.

Speaking before the reporters backstage at the 2018 Screen Actors Guild Awards, the 'Shameless' star, who bagged the Actor for Outstanding Male Actor in a Comedy Series title, made his thoughts known on the 'Time's Up' movement.

While his comments were not televised, his thoughts on the matter made it to the social media via a journalist who was present in the room.

Journalist Andrea Mandell tweeted Macy's quote on her Twitter handle, which read, "It's hard to be a man these days. I think a lot of feels like we're under attack and feel like we need to apologise. Perhaps we do. Perhaps we are. But we'll keep talking. We had a meeting, a bunch of guys got together under the auspices of Time's Up. And that's good for men. Men don't talk enough and they don't talk to other men. And we talked".

Macy was not the only one to talk about this movement that has taken Hollywood by storm. 'The Big Sick' star Kumail Nanjiani offered his best advice for how men can help advance the movement.

"I think we have to listen, we have to support, we have to amplify. I think it's time for us to sort of listen to the discussions that women are having and look at ourselves in the mirror and interrogate our own behaviours because a lot of times men are coming off in ways that they don't understand are harmful", noted Nanjiani.

Meanwhile, the star of 'Call me by your Name', Timothee Chalamet, feels that the 'Time's Up' movement is resonating deeply with the people of his generation.

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The Supreme Court will tomorrow hear pleas filed by three petitioners seeking a SIT probe into the alleged mysterious death of CBI judge Justice B.H. Loya.

A bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra, will hear the petitions.

The top court had asked the Maharashtra government earlier in the month to submit the postmortem report of the CBI judge, who had died in alleged suspicious circumstances in 2014, citing that the "matter was very serious."

According to reports, Maharashtra-based journalist Lone and activist Tehseen Poonavala had filed independent pleas seeking a fair probe into the death of Justice Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, involving various police officers and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah.

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The Supreme Court will on Monday hear the plea of Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P Chidambaram, in connection with the INX Media money laundering case.

Earlier on January 4, Karti, an accused in the alleged INX media case, appealed the top court seeking its approval to allow him to travel abroad for 10 days for business purpose.

However, earlier the apex court had allowed Karti to travel abroad from December 1 to 10, 2017, for his daughter's admission in the UK, on certain terms and conditions.

It has been alleged that Karti illegally took service charges for getting the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to the INX Media for receiving funds from abroad worth Rs 305 crore in 2007 when P Chidambaram was the finance minister in the Congress-led UPA Government.

A lookout notice issued by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on July 18 prevented Karti from travelling abroad without the investigating agency's permission.
Shah Rukh Khan, after receiving the 24th Crystal Award in Davos at the World Economic Forum (WEF) for "his leadership in championing children's and women's rights in India", said that he is happy to get recognition on a global platform for his "minuscule work".

"Extremely charged with the amazing opportunity I have had. This award is a recognition for the minuscule work that I did. I would like to do it with even more fervour. What is even more pleasant is that India is here in full power," King Khan told media after receiving the Award.

Ace film-maker and Shah Rukh's close friend and confidante Karan Johar said that he is proud of the Badshah of Bollywood for receriving such an honour.

"I am so excited as a film-maker and as a close friend of the family, and his director for so many years. I feel very proud that he is bestowed with this honorable award," Karan Johar exclusively told ANI in Davos.

Shah Rukh Khan received the award for showing an exemplary commitment to uphold human dignity through his non-profitable Meer Foundation.

Meer Foundation provides support to female victims of acid attacks and major burn injuries through medical treatment, legal aid, vocational training, rehabilitation and livelihood support.

The 52-year-old actor has also been responsible for creating specialised children's hospital wards and has supported childcare centres with free boarding for children undergoing cancer treatment.

"I am grateful to these brave women and children (of Meer Foundation) who I work with for all that they have done for me, to the World Economic Forum, and all of you present here today for recognising the heroism by conferring this award, and this reward upon me," hesaid while accepting the award.

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Delhi's Nizamuddin dargah was abuzz with activity as devotees embraced the colour yellow through various forms to celebrate the spring festival of Basant Panchami on Monday.

This festival, which is also popularly known as Sufi Basant, dates back to the 12th century when celebrated poet Amir Khusro dedicated his songs of spring to his Khwaja (spiritual master) Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya.

Every year as winter recedes, Sufi Basant or Basant Panchami takes over Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya's dargah.

Special qawwali programmes are organised and songs related to the onset of spring are dedicated to Hazrat Nizamuddin.

"We have been celebrating this festival every year here. It is a 750-year-old tradition. People from all religions come here to celebrate this festival. Special qawwali programmes are organised on this day and spring songs are dedicated to Hazrat Nizamuddin. People will not find such celebrations anywhere in India," dargah in-charge Syed Kashif Ali Nizam told ANI.

Devotees pay homage to both Nizamuddin Auliya and Amir Khusro.

The festival was first introduced by the Qutub Shahi dynasty about five centuries ago. Their successors, the Asaf Jahi rulers carried on with the tradition till 1948.

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A train hit a rail buffer at Richmond in Sydney's north-western outskirts on Monday morning, leaving several wounded.

A New South Wales Ambulance spokesman said 17 ambulance crews and three rescue helicopters were responding to the accident at Richmond train station, reported the Guardian.

According to the reports, Sydney Trains boss Howard Collins said that he believed between 12 or 13 people had been injured, with the majority suffering "cuts and bruises."

Witnesses reportedly labeled the scene as "chaotic," with the train apparently hitting the buffer at the end of the line "at speed."

One caller to Sydney's 2GB radio, who saw the crash, said there was an "almighty bang".

The caller said the train came in at speed and hit the buffer and rebounded.

"There was a huge amount of dust," he said.

The cause of the accident is still unknown.

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A policeman was injured on Monday after terrorists lobbed a grenade near Baramullah Police station in Jammu and Kashmir.

Earlier in the day, in another case, terrorists hurled a grenade on an Army vehicle that exploded near Khrew Chowk in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama.

No casualties and injuries were reported, said official sources.

On Saturday, suspected terrorists hurled a grenade towards a police station in Shopian district.

The grenade exploded outside the station, police said.

On January 12, Shopian district witnessed a similar attack, wherein terrorists sprayed bullets on a police post.

Further details are awaited.

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The United States Senate will be voting at noon local time on Monday to end the government shutdown.

According to media reports, senators will vote to end the shutdown with a short-term spending bill that would last three weeks.

Senate Majority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell attempted to schedule a vote late Sunday night that would end the shutdown, but Minority Leader Senator Chuck Schumer objected.

McConnell said Sunday that Congress must stop victimising the American people and get back to work.

Senator Schumer, on the other hand, said that the Democrats and the GOP are "yet to reach an agreement on a path forward."

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn said that he was optimistic that the shutdown could be ended with the Monday vote, CBS News reports.

House and Senate lawmakers met throughout the day Sunday to end the government shutdown as the impasse continued into the second day, with both chambers hoping to strike a deal on spending and immigration that would reopen federal agencies ahead of the work week.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said the lower chamber has agreed to accept a short-term deal that would fund the government through Feb. 8 if the Senate is able to pass such a bill.

Senate Democrats have so far not agreed to support a bill that makes no concessions on immigration.

President Donald Trump has appealed to the Senate to abolish the filibuster.

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The United States would be sending a diplomatic team to Europe to discuss the Iran nuclear deal, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced on Monday.

"We have a team travelling - actually, they're coming to Europe. The team would explore not only on how we can address these flaws in the nuclear agreement, but also how can we cooperate more on countering Iran's activities that are not related to their nuclear program. This also includes our concerns about their arms exports to Yemen and elsewhere," said Tillerson.

Earlier, Tillerson arrived in London on Monday to visit the new US embassy, days after US President Donald Trump slammed the location and the cost of the embassy as a "bad deal" under the Obama administration.

He also met his British counterpart Boris Johnson, United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May and National Security Adviser Mark Sedwill and agreed to set up a joint working group to fix the flaws of the nuclear deal, signed by the US and Iran in 2015.

Last week, Trump called on US' European allies to fix the "terrible flaws" in their 2015 landmark Iran nuclear deal and warned that his country would pull out if the demands were not met.

"I am waiving the application of certain nuclear sanctions, but only in order to secure our European allies' agreement to fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal. This is the last chance", he said.

The US president also slapped new sanctions against 14 individuals and entities for allegedly committing human rights abuses in Iran or supporting the country's ballistic missile programmes.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani maintained that Tehran will continue to produce missiles for defence purposes and does not believe the new sanctions imposed to be a violation of international accords.

As per reports, Trump agreed to waive sanctions at the urging of his top national security and foreign policy advisers, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and national security adviser H.R. McMaster.

Earlier in October last year, Trump threatened to terminate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal if the Congress and US allies failed to amend the agreement by fixing serious flaws in significant ways.

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Vasant Panchami was celebrated on Monday with great fervour and gaiety across Punjab.

Vasant Panchami is a popular Hindu festival which celebrates the onset of spring. This festival which is celebrated across the country also marks the start of Saraswati Puja.

In the Punjab region, it is celebrated as the festival of kites on the fifth day of spring in Punjab region. Wearing yellow clothes and cooking bright coloured foods are the highlights of the festival.

In various schools the celebrations started with offering prayers to goddess Saraswati, the deity of knowledge, music, arts, science and technology.

According to folklore, goddess Saraswati was born on this day.

Students and teachers of Jagat Jyoti School also offered prayers to goddess Saraswati in the morning. After cultural programmes, teachers flew kites.

The main attraction of the programme was that all the teachers wore yellow dresses and flew yellow coloured kites.

The colour yellow holds great significance during Vasant Panchami as it is associated with the colour of mustard flowers that bloom during this season, so wearing yellow is also encouraged.

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United States Vice President Mike Pence, who is currently on a visit to Israel, pledged Monday that Washington will move embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by the end of 2019.

Vice President Pence conveyed this message in his address to the Israeli parliament. He also urged the Palestinians, who are opposed to the move, to resume long-stalled peace talks with Israel.

"Jerusalem is Israel's capital, and as such President Trump has directed the State Department to immediately begin preparations to move the United States embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem," Pence said to prolonged applause from Israeli parliamentarians.

"In the weeks ahead our administration will advance its plan to open the United States embassy in Jerusalem. And that United States embassy will open before the end of next year."

At the start of his address, Israeli Arab lawmakers staged a protest from the floor of the Knesset.

Members of the Joint List coalition of Arab parties, which had pledged to boycott the Pence speech, began shouting and holding up protest signs as he started speaking but were swiftly hustled out by ushers.

Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, while the Palestinians see the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.

The US move to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital broke with decades of international consensus that the city's status should be settled as part of a two-state peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

It prompted the Palestinians to cut ties with the Trump administration, but Pence urged them to return to negotiations.

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Axis Bank rose 3.91% to Rs 613.30 at 15:00 IST on BSE after net profit rose 25.34% to Rs 726.44 crore on 1.29% decline in total income to Rs 14314.63 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q3 December 2016.

The result was announced during trading hours today, 22 January 2018.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 248.10 points, or 0.70% to 35,759.68.

On the BSE, 13.22 lakh shares were traded in the counter so far, compared with average daily volumes of 5.13 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock had hit a high of Rs 621.35 so far during the day, which is also a 52-week high for the counter. The stock had hit a low of Rs 583.15 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 441.50 on 23 January 2017.

The stock had outperformed the market over the past 30 days till 19 January 2018, rising 7.44% compared with 5.20% rise in the Sensex. The scrip had also outperformed the market in past one quarter, rising 28.22% as against Sensex's 9.64% rise. The scrip had underperformed the market in past one year, rising 31.02% as against Sensex's 31.36% rise.

The large-cap company has equity capital of Rs 512.85 crore. Face value per share is Rs 2.

Axis Bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at Rs 25000.51 crore as on 31 December 2017 as against Rs 27402.32 crore as on 30 September 2017 and Rs 20466.82 crore as on 31 December 2016.

The ratio of gross NPAs to gross advances stood at 5.28% as on 31 December 2017 as against 5.90% as on 30 September 2017 and 5.22% as on 31 December 2016.

The ratio of net NPAs to net advances stood at 2.56% as on 31 December 2017 as against 3.12% as on 30 September 2017 and 2.18% as on 31 December 2016.

The bank's provisions and contingencies fell 25.94% to Rs 2811.04 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q3 December 2016.

Provision coverage ratio of the bank was at 66% as on 31 December 2017.

Axis Bank is one of the biggest private sector banks in India.

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The government is mulling public-private partnership (PPP) model cancer detection centers with Tata Trust in states like Bihar, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh in order to reach out to a larger population, said Mr Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare at an ASSOCHAM event.

About 8.2 million people die due to cancer across the world every year, said Mr Ashwini Kumar Choubey.

Dr Sumita Ghosh, Dy. Commissioner (Maternal Health), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, GoI addressing the conference said that the government has identified nearly 125 centres for mass screening for oral, breast and cervical cancer.

Prof Ravi Mehrotra, Director, National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research said India has no ambassadors for cervical cancer and our local languages don't even have a name for it.

Prof Mehrotra further said that India contributes to nearly one-fourth of the global burden of cervical cancer, with it being the 2nd most common female cancer here in terms of both incidence and mortality. Therefore, researchers emphasized the need for population-based interventions in India to reduce the overall burden of cervical cancer globally. Despite the lack of large scale screening programmes, there was a decline noted in the cervical cancer in urban India. However, the decline was much slower in rural areas.

The joint study on 'Cervical Cancer' prepared by ASSOCHAM-NICPR reveals, India alone has for one fourth of the global burden of cervical cancers1, 2. It accounts for 17% of all cancer deaths among women aged between 30 and 69 years. It is estimated that cervical cancer will occur in approximately 1 in 53 Indian women during their lifetime compared with 1 in 100 women in more developed regions of the world.

There are 29 hospital-based cancer registries and 29 population-based cancer registries (PBCRs) under NCRP. Their data shows that cervical cancer contributes to approximately 6-29% of all cancer in females at different locations within the country. Cervical cancer is the leading site in 6 registry areas viz., Barshi Rural, Barshi Expanded, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland and Pasighat PBCRs, adds the study.

The age-adjusted incidence rate of cancer cervix was found to vary widely among registries, highest being 23.07/100,000 in Mizoram State, followed by 22.54/100,000 in Pasighat (Arunachal Pradesh) and the lowest being 4.91/100,000 in Dibrugarh district of Assam. The older PBCRs such as Bengaluru, Bhopal, Chennai, Delhi, and Barshi Rural (Maharashtra) had an age-adjusted incidence rate between 13 and 16/100,000.

More than 85% of patients of cervical cancer were from age group 40 years and above.

The maximum numbers of cases were reported in 50-59 years of age group amounting to 27.37% of all cervical carcinoma cases, noted the study.

In developed countries, conventional cytology screening programs have shown a marked decline in the incidence of cervical cancer. It has worked for India as well, but to a lesser extent. In India, although many institutes are involved in cancer screening, but there have been very few coordinated initiatives from public health authorities for prevention and control of cervical cancer at national level.

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women and the seventh most common cancer overall. In 2012, worldwide, there were estimated to have been around 528,000 new cases. Around 85% of the global burden occurs in the less developed regions, where cervical cancer accounts for almost 12% of all cancers in females. High-risk regions, with estimated 2012 age-standardized incidence rates of more than 30 cases per 100,000 females, include eastern Africa (42.7 cases), Melanesia (33.3 cases), southern Africa (31.5 cases), and central Africa (30.6 cases). Incidence rates are lowest in Australia/New Zealand (5.5 cases) and western Asia (4.4 cases), highlighted the study.

Cervical cancer remains the most common cancer in women in eastern and central Africa. In contrast to developed countries, cervical cancer is a public health problem in developing countries like India.

The reason for these variations seems to be the lack of preventive and early detection and treatment programmes in low- to middle income countries. Without these interventions, cervical cancer is usually only detected when it is already at an advanced stage when it's too late for effective treatment, and hence mortality becomes high. Over the last 30 years, cervical cancer incidence and mortality rates have fallen in countries where social and economic status has improved. This seems primarily due to the implementation of secondary prevention measures, like screening, early diagnosis and treatment for pre-cancer and early cancer.

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Mr. T S Vijayan, Chairman, Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India (IRDAI), said that India is poised to become a local reinsurance hub going ahead.

He pointed out that when the industry is congratulating itself for being in a good position, the discussion about the next wave of growth comes up. "That's a great thing to think about."

The arrival of foreign reinsurance companies into the country, the establishment of hubs such as Gift City in Ahmedabad and the Government programmes like 'Fasal Bima Yojana', are very positive signs for the industry. "Maybe, down the lane, India could become a local reinsurance hub; so much can happen," he said, adding that the social, economic and environmental changes all add up to make this possible.

"What's the next wave of growth coming in?" he asked. Motor claims, he observed are about Rs five lakh on an average. With a population of 120 crore people, there is a protection gap. The same is the case with health care. More than Rs three lakh crore are spent by people on health care. This is the kind of premium that health insurance companies can aspire for. "This is where growth is going to come from," he said. He referred to the environmental changes spearheaded by the arrival of 'JAM (Jan Dhan, Aadhar, Mobile)' as a huge driver of growth. All this should help bring down the protection gap.

Mr. Vijayan suggested that 'sum assured' policies, even if they are long term, should be linked with price indexes. It may be challenging, but it is possible today. He also felt that apart from product design, technology should be harnessed so that insurance can also be made more accessible.

He called upon organisations such as FICCI to help create awareness about insurance among the people. "Efficiency is not just collecting premium. How much has the insurance industry integrated various analytics to understand the customer?" This is where the next wave of growth and efficiency will come from, he said.

"The next ten years will be the decade of insurance," he declared, adding, "it is going to lead the financial services sector and the total economy in many ways." The Government's reforms have provided good support for the upsurge in the insurance industry. The key to the next phase of development will be digital distribution, said Mr. V K Sharma, Chairman, Life Insurance Corporation of India, said Mr. V K Sharma, Chairman, Life Insurance Corporation of India.

Mr. Sharma recalled how, 61 years ago, on 19 January 1956, an ordinance brought about the nationalisation of 245 companies. "At that time there was space for 245 companies, and today we are grappling with 24-25 companies!" He expressed thanks to the policy makers and the Government for opening up the sector, saying that it has done wonders for the industry.

Mr.

Amitabh Chaudhry, Chairman, FICCI Committee on Insurance and Managing Director and CEO, HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co Ltd, said, is a logical continuation of last year's theme that revolved around the changing face of Indian insurance. Digital has impacted insurance greatly. The focus will move towards the product side, and changes can be expected across the product cycle. Standard products have become outdated with the arrival of 'do-it-yourself' models. "Technologies such as the internet of things, artificial intelligence and telematics can change a back office completely." This, he said, will personalise insurance and help in creating a conducive environment for insurance companies.

The insurance industry has just come of age, Mr. Alpesh Shah, Senior Partner and Director, The Boston Consulting Group declared. In the last 18 years, the premium has grown about 13-15 times. "The most visible part in the last six months is listing," he said, pointing out that the six listed insurance companies are among the top 100 companies listed on the market. "Insurance is now a very significant part of India's growth."

Among the top trends of the next wave of growth, Mr. Shah identified India's aging population, which will have 350 million people over the age of 50 by 2030. Other trends included listing; changing risk patterns; demanding customers; Government initiatives; and the arrival of insurtechs. He predicted that there will be greater specialisation in the industry. Entities with access to customers and data will enter the fray and pull away market share. And insurers will be forced to think about customers.

Earlier, Mr. Rashesh Shah, President FICCI and Chairman & CEO, Edelweiss Group, welcomed the delegates, lauding the industry for the progress it has made. He thanked Mr Vijayan under whose leadership the industry saw growth in all dimensions. Talking about some of the key trends witnessed by the industry, he said listing of insurance companies will also bring in greater transparency and higher level of corporate governance which will help the industry garner more trust from the policyholders and this in turn, will help in deepening and broadening the level of insurance penetration in India which has so far remained low. As more companies hit the capital market in the coming years, this will benefit the retail investors as well who will find a new investment avenue in insurance. This again will have a long-term impact in not only helping in mobilising the much-required capital but also in creating greater awareness among the people about insurance.

Another significant development witnessed over the past one year is the rapid adoption of the novel technology advancements like blockchain, telematics, artificial intelligence and internet of things, by the insurance sector. This trend has been more prominent in the non-life insurance space including motor, health and travel insurance, and the sector has already started reaping benefits from this move added Mr. Rashesh Shah.

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Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could rise 19 points at the opening bell.

Overseas, Asian stocks were trading on a mixed note. US stocks shrugged off the government shutdown drama in Washington and rose to all-time highs on Friday, 19 January 2018 following a report that regulators are close to further easing banking rules.

Back home,trading for the week ended on a buoyant note on Friday, 19 January 2018, with key benchmark indices settling with decent gains and extending their record high hitting streak. The Sensex rose 251.29 points or 0.71% to settle at 35,511.58, its record closing high.

The trading activity on that day showed that the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 988.25 crore on Friday, 19 January 2018, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 209.86 crore on Friday, 19 January 2018, as per provisional data.

Among corporate news, Asian Paints and Axis Bank will declare their Q3 earnings today, 22 January 2018.

Reliance Industries' (RIL) consolidated net profit rose 25.5% to Rs 9445 crore on 25.7% growth in net sales to Rs 99810 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q3 December 2016. The result was announced after market hours on Friday, 19 January 2018.

Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, RIL said that the quarter marks the culmination of its petrochemical expansion projects and the first positive net profit contribution from its newest business line - Digital Services (Jio). Jio's strong financial result reflects the fundamental strength of its business, significant efficiencies and right strategic initiatives, he said. Ambani further added that the company is excited about the prospects of its energy and consumer businesses due to strong growth in Indian markets and constructive macro environment.

Shares of Tata Steel will be focus after the company's board approved to raise Rs 12800 crore through a rights issue of equity shares. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 19 January 2018.

Wipro's consolidated net profit fell 11.85% to Rs 1930.10 crore on 1.82% growth in net sales to Rs 13669 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q2 September 2017. The result was announced after market hours on Friday, 19 January 2018.

The company's revenue from IT services in dollar terms in Q3 December 2017 remained flat sequentially and increased by 5.8% YoY. The company expects revenue from IT Services business to be in the range of $2,033 million to $2,073 million for Q4 March 2018.

Abidali Z. Neemuchwala, CEO and member of the board said, the company continued to improve its growth trajectory driven by strong momentum in BFSI and uptick in Healthcare. This is also reflected in its outlook for Q4 March 2018. Wipro's leadership in Digital continues to strengthen with over 25% of its revenues now coming from Digital, Neemuchwala added.

Jatin Dalal, Chief Financial Officer said, the company has made strong progress in its client mining with number of clients contributing revenues over $50 million increasing from 33 to 41 in the last 1 year. In the first 9 months of FY 2018, Wipro generated robust operating cash flows over the same period last year, Dalal added.

ONGC and HPCL will be in spotlight. ONGC on Friday, 19 January 2018, approved acquisition of the entire 51.11% shareholding of Government of India (GoI) in HPCL, at a cash purchase consideration of Rs 473.97 per share with a total acquisition cost of Rs 36915 crore. The parties expect to complete the transaction before end of January 2018. The announcement was made on Saturday, 20 January 2018.

Cipla said it has completed the divestment of entire equity stake held by its wholly owned subsidiary Cipla Holdings B.V., Netherlands in Cipla Croatia d.o.o, Croatia. Consequently, Cipla Croatia d.o.o has ceased to be a subsidiary of Cipla Holding B.V. with effect from 19 January 2018. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 19 January 2018.

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Reliance Industries' (RIL) consolidated net profit rose 25.5% to Rs 9445 crore on 25.7% growth in net sales to Rs 99810 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q3 December 2016. The result was announced after market hours on Friday, 19 January 2018.

Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, RIL said that the quarter marks the culmination of its petrochemical expansion projects and the first positive net profit contribution from its newest business line - Digital Services (Jio). Jio's strong financial result reflects the fundamental strength of its business, significant efficiencies and right strategic initiatives, he said. Ambani further added that the company is excited about the prospects of its energy and consumer businesses due to strong growth in Indian markets and constructive macro environment.

Wipro's consolidated net profit fell 11.85% to Rs 1930.10 crore on 1.82% growth in net sales to Rs 13669 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q2 September 2017. The result was announced after market hours on Friday, 19 January 2018.

The company's revenue from IT services in dollar terms in Q3 December 2017 remained flat sequentially and increased by 5.8% YoY. The company expects revenue from IT Services business to be in the range of $2,033 million to $2,073 million for Q4 March 2018.

Abidali Z. Neemuchwala, CEO and member of the board said, the company continued to improve its growth trajectory driven by strong momentum in BFSI and uptick in Healthcare. This is also reflected in its outlook for Q4 March 2018. Wipro's leadership in Digital continues to strengthen with over 25% of its revenues now coming from Digital, Neemuchwala added.

Jatin Dalal, Chief Financial Officer said, the company has made strong progress in its client mining with number of clients contributing revenues over $50 million increasing from 33 to 41 in the last 1 year. In the first 9 months of FY 2018, Wipro generated robust operating cash flows over the same period last year, Dalal added.

ONGC and HPCL will be in spotlight. ONGC on 19 January 2018, approved acquisition of the entire 51.11% shareholding of Government of India (GoI) in HPCL, at a cash purchase consideration of Rs 473.97 per share with a total acquisition cost of Rs 36915 crore. The parties expect to complete the transaction before end of January 2018. The announcement was made on Saturday, 20 January 2018.

Bank of India said that its board at a meeting held on 20 January 2018, approved capital raising plan for issue of equity shares and Tier-I and Tier-II capital bonds to be raised at appropriate times. The board also approved convening of extra-ordinary general meeting on 20 February 2018, for issue of fresh equity shares to Government of India through preferential issue in respect of share application money of Rs 2257 crore received on 29 December 2017. The announcement was made on Saturday, 20 January 2018.

Cipla said it has completed the divestment of entire equity stake held by its wholly owned subsidiary Cipla Holdings B.V., Netherlands in Cipla Croatia d.o.o, Croatia. Consequently, Cipla Croatia d.o.o has ceased to be a subsidiary of Cipla Holding B.V. with effect from 19 January 2018. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 19 January 2018.

Tata Steel said its committee at a meeting held on 19 January 2018, approved rights issue of the simultaneous but unlinked issue of up to 15.53 crore fully paid-up ordinary shares not exceeding Rs 8000 crore at Rs 510 per share in the ratio of 4:25 and up to 7.76 crore partly paid-up ordinary shares not exceeding Rs 4800 crore at Rs 615 per share in the ratio of 2:25. The issue opens on 14 February 2018 and closes on 28 February 2018. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 19 January 2018.

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An Indian Mujahideen operative, termed the "Bin Laden of India" and the allegedly mastermind of the 2008 Gujarat serial blasts that killed 56 persons was arrested here after a brief gunfight, Delhi Police said on Monday.

"One of the most wanted terrorists of SIMI-Indian Mujahideen, Abdul Subhan Qureshi (was) arrested after a brief of exchange of fire," Deputy Commissioner of Police Pramod Singh Kushwaha told reporters here.

Qureshi, 39, was arrested from Gazipur area in east Delhi on Saturday night following an exchange of fire when he came to meet one of his old associates.

He is accused of plotting the serial blasts in Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008 when as many as 21 bombs planted in tiffin boxes and motor cycles went off in busy markets and bus stations. Over 200 persons were also injured. The toll could have gone up but 29 of the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) failed to explode due to various technical reasons.

"Carrying a reward of Rs 4 lakh on his head declared by National Investigation Agency (NIA), Qureshi, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Rampur, wanted to revive the Indian Mujahideen in various states including Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka," Kushwaha said.

The arrested IM leader had organized four training camps during 2007-2008 in Madhya Pradesh, Karala, Gujarat and Karnataka where he, with his other accomplices, trained his cadres to go to war, or fight jihad, against the Indian establishment, he said.

According to the police official, Qureshi was one of the chief instructors and main organizers of those camps, where participants were trained in arms usage, rock climbing, swimming, physical fitness, making petrol bombs, and so on. They were also given psychological and other special training to mislead interrogators in case of their arrest.

Qureshi had laid the foundation of Indian Mujahideen with Riyaz Bhatkal and some radicalised youth outfits, said Kushwaha, adding that he had gone to Pune in connection with the planning of Gujarat bomb blasts. After his accomplice and SIMI chief Safdar Nagori and 11 others were arrested in Indore in 2008, he escaped to Gujrat and later made crossed over to Nepal, where he had staying since then on a fake identity.

"He also had gone to Saudi Arabia for two years (2015-2017) to raise funds from his contacts to revive Indian Mujahideen in India as SIMI has almost been finished in India with the arrest of all its leaders," he added.

Police said that they had recovered a sophisticated weapon and five cartridges and some documents from Qureshi and are examining them. "We found that he was not planning any criminal activity in Delhi near Republic Day. He wanted to give only hardcore training to his cadre in India to revive IM once again. He was also worked as financial secretary for SIMI and raised funds through his networks in overseas countries," said Kushwaha.

The IM leader has indulged in various criminal offences, use weapons of explosives, transnational crimes and terrorism, he said, adding that police was questioning him to know more about his previous history and further criminal planning in India.

--IANS

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Tata Steel, in association with the Indian Institute of Metals, on Monday announced that the 7th Asia Steel International Conference will be held at Bhubaneswar from February 6 to 9.

This was stated at the Tata Centre here by Anand Sen, President, TQM and Steel Business, Tata Steel. He is also Chairman of Asia Steel 2018.

The last Asia Steel conference was held in 2015 at Yokohama, Japan. This major conference is held every three years and provides a platform for exchange of knowledge on various aspects of the global steel industry.

Around 70 keynote speakers, half of them from countries such as China, South Korea, Japan, the Netherlands, Britain, the US, Germany, Belgium and Canada will address the conference, said a statement.

The conference will focus on different challenges faced by the steel industry, optimizing specific consumption of raw materials, especially coke and iron ore, how to use low-grade raw materials, along with decreasing the energy consumption in various iron making and steel making operations and, thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

--IANS

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The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will file a fresh plea in the Delhi High Court on Tuesday to challenge the decision to disqualify 20 party MLAs in an office-of-profit case, the party said here on Monday.

The move comes after the AAP MLAs withdrew on Monday an earlier plea in the High Court, which sought a stay on the Election Commission's (EC) recommendation to President Ram Nath Kovind to disqualify 20 MLAs for holding the office-of-profit as Parliamentary Secretaries in Delhi.

On Friday, the EC made the recommendation, since approved by the President, for the disqualification.

On Sunday, the Law and Justice Ministry issued a notification that the President has held that the 20 MLAs stand disqualified under Section 15 (1) (a) of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) Act.

On Monday, AAP Chief Spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj told IANS that the ruling party will file the fresh plea on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, Justice Rekha Palli of the High Court said the plea moved by six AAP legislators had become infructuous as the President has already issued a circular to disqualify all 20 MLAs.

The MLAs' counsel said they wanted to withdraw the plea and will examine the EC orders.

The court then ruled the "plea is dismissed as withdrawn".

The 20 MLAs disqualified are Alka Lamba, Adarsh Shastri, Sanjeev Jha, Rajesh Gupta, Kailash Gahlot, Vijendra Garg, Praveen Kumar, Sharad Kumar, Madan Lal Khufiya, Shiv Charan Goyal, Sarita Singh, Naresh Yadav, Rajesh Rishi, Anil Kumar, Som Dutt, Avtar Singh, Sukhvir Singh Dala, Manoj Kumar, Nitin Tyagi and Jarnail Singh.

Earlier in the day, senior AAP leader Ashutosh attacked the President over his decision. "(President) K.R. Narayanan acted as the guardian of the Constitution, and returned the recommendations of the Cabinet not once, but twice. He (Narayanan) was not a rubber stamp President, was a working President, a great President," Ashutosh tweeted.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, in an open letter, sought public support against the disqualification decision.

Sisodia blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government for hampering the work of the AAP government in the city and said the Centre was scared of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's "rising popularity across the country".

He said that the charges of holding office-of-profit against these MLAs were "false" as they "were not given any government vehicles, bungalows or salary".

The BJP attacked the AAP over Sisodia's letter and dared it to contest all 70 Assembly seats in Delhi.

"People's answer: Don't write letters and instead of contesting the 20 seats, contest all 70 seats," BJP Delhi chief Manoj Tiwari said in a tweet.

Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel tweeted that lawyer P. Patel, whose petition led to the disqualification of the 20 AAP MLAs, met him on Monday and expressed concern over his safety and security. Goel said he will speak to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh over Patel's security.

Supporting the AAP, the Shiv Sena raised questions over the "haste" with which the 20 legislators were disqualified.

"Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is facing a crisis, and that is because of the public campaign against corruption and injustice," the Shiv Sena said.

--IANS

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Visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday called on EU states to swiftly recognise the state of Palestine amid an international uproar sparked by the US administration's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Abbas made the remarks before an informal lunch with EU Foreign Ministers and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini at the sideline of the bloc's monthly foreign affairs council, Xinhua news agency reported.

Hailing the EU as a "true partner and friend", Abbas tried to convince the bloc that "there is no contradiction between the recognition (of the state of Palestine) and the resumption of negotiations".

Striking a touching note, Abbas said the EU had contributed and continues to contribute to the building of the state of Palestine and its institutions with financial and economic support.

The EU has left the issue of whether to recognize the state of Palestine to member states themselves, most of which have wavered over such a decision.

Speaking of the tension with Israel, Abbas said the Palestinians "are still committed to the treaties we signed with Israel", stressing that Israel should do the same.

Speaking along with Abbas, Mogherini underscored that the EU had "already invested a great deal in the Palestinian state-building project and we are also looking at what options we have to strengthen our support from the European Union".

She reasserted the EU's "firm commitment" to the two-state solutions, with Jerusalem as the shared capital of Israel and Palestine.

"This is and remains the EU position, based on the Oslo Accords and the international consensus embodied in the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions.

"It is also, we believe, the only realistic and viable way to fulfil the legitimate aspirations of both parties," she added.

Mogherini declared that the EU will co-host with Norway in Brussels an extraordinary session of the international donor group for Palestine on January 31.

Abbas's visit to Brussels coincided with US Vice President Mike Pence's trip to Israel, which is the third leg of his five-day tour to the Middle East starting from Friday.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid a similar visit to Brussels last month, during which he met with 28 EU foreign minters and Mogherinis, trying to ram home his point on the status of Jerusalem, but to no avail.

--IANS

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He aims to cross the Antarctica, not merely to become the first Indian to traverse both the poles -- North and South -- in under one year, but for a larger cause: Raising awareness about climate change.

Raja Karthikeya, a United Nations civilian peacekeeper, is all set to embark on an expedition to Antarctica next month as part of a team led by Sir Robert Swan, an internationally renowned explorer.

After a three-week voyage, he aims to come back with data and experience which he will use to conduct workshops and talk about climate change in schools and colleges.

The 36-year-old from Andhra Pradesh also plans to work with engineers to come up with solutions to address the social, economic and environmental impact of climate change in India.

He will join expedition members from 25 countries at the port of Ushuaia, on the southern tip of Argentina. They will sail from there across the Drake Passage around the South Shetland islands to the Antarctic Peninsula where the two largest glaciers in the world are located.

"Studying the impact of climate change on the landscape and the wildlife of Antarctica, we'll stop at a polar research station before crossing the Antarctic circle. We have some leading climatologists sailing with us to help connect science with evidence," Raja told IANS from New York.

In July last year, Raja crossed the Arctic circle off Svalbard island in Norway, to study polar glaciers firsthand.

The expedition to Antarctica will provide him an unprecedented opportunity to compare climate change at the two ends of the earth within one year.

"This is an opportunity to push my horizons; to discover the world's last wilderness; and to use the experience of a lifetime towards a lifetime of fighting the good fight. So that we are prepared, well adapted and hopefully able to slow down climate change," he said.

Raja, who served as UN peacekeeper for six years, including in Afghanistan and Iraq, received overwhelming response to his crowdfunding campaign on Fueladream.com. He received Rs 9.36 lakh against the target of Rs 7 lakh. He required Rs 15 lakh for the expedition and has already been promised Rs 5 lakh sponsorship.

Ranaganathan Thota, Founder, Fueladream, feels Raja is one of those people who can be a tremendous influencer in climate change and related solutions.

Raja, who was born in Visakhapatnam and grew up in Hyderabad, is an honorary member of Swiss Army's Rescue Regiment. A licensed scuba diver and wireless radio operator, he served as rescue volunteer in Andaman & Nicobar islands after the 2004 tsunami.

"I was at IIM, Ahmedabad, for a college festival when the Bhuj earthquake happened. I met the Swiss Army rescue regiment and volunteered to be their interpreter. The Swiss government gave me an honorary commission in the Swiss army for my services. This experience changed me and I started questioning how I could give back to society and how I wanted to impact society," recalled Raja, who has a management degree from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade in New Delhi.

He started his career with IFlex solutions in Bengaluru. When the tsunami struck Andaman & Nicobar island, he flew in an Air Force plane to Car Nicobar and worked there for two weeks.

In 2007, he moved to the US to do a Masters. In 2011, he got selected by the UN and moved to Afghanistan, where he was "part of the peace process" for four years. He also served in Iraq for two years.

"I found that political conflicts were being worsened by climate change. Growing salinity in the soil, change in rain patterns, low snowfall -- in fact, many countries were paying the price of climate change despite not having contributed to it," he said.

"It struck me that India, a microcosm of the world, risked facing many such crises -- social, economic and security -- if climate change was not addressed. This thought motivated me first to cross the Arctic circle," he added.

--IANS

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The presence of leaders of Asean countries at the Republic Day parade will display the Narendra Modi government's "Act East" policy, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday.

At the National Cadet Corps' (NCC) Republic Day camp here, she said it is the Prime Minister's intention that the "Look East" policy be converted to an "Act East" policy.

"The Prime Minister's intention that the 'Look East' policy should now be the 'Act East' policy is really taking shape.

"And, by the very presence of 10 leaders from Asean during the Republic Day celebrations, India will definitely showcase its 'Act East' policy," said Sitharaman.

Leaders of all 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) bloc have confirmed participation as guests of honour at India's Republic Day celebrations on January 26 (Friday) to commemorate 25 years of New Delhi's close ties with the bloc.

The leaders from Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam will start arriving by Wednesday.

There will be a banquet hosted by President Ram Nath Kovind for the leaders to be followed by a plenary and a gala dinner hosted by Prime Minister Modi.

In her address, the Defence Minister complimented the NCC for doing exceptional work towards Swachhata Abhiyan.

She also complimented the NCC fraternity for making an invaluable contribution towards National integration and Nation Building through multifarious activities of the NCC.

"The youth of independent India are extremely fortunate that such an organisation exists in our country which devotes vast amount of resources towards their personality development.

"The NCC infuses and nurtures qualities like leadership, secularism, patriotism, selfless service, discipline, hard work and other character-building qualities in the youth of the country," she said.

The Minister also conferred Raksha Mantri Padak and Commendation Cards to NCC cadets for their exemplary performance and devotion to duty at an impressive 'Investiture Ceremony' held at Cariappa Parade Ground here.

Raksha Mantri Padak was instituted in 1989 and is awarded to the most deserving cadet every year for bravery or exceptional service of highest order.

This year the Padak has been awarded to Cadet Priya of Uttar Pradesh Directorate, Raksha Mantri Commendation Cards have been awarded to CWO Bhuvnesh Rathore of Rajasthan Directorate, Capt. Arundati J. Patel of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Directorate and Cadet Soumarjit Ghosh of West Bengal and Sikkim Directorate.

--IANS

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A patrol of Assam Rifles troopers escaped an attack in Manipur's Imphal East district on Sunday night when a bomb hidden in the area failed to explode, police said at Monday.

According to police, troopers of the Assam Rifles' 12 and 17 Battalions were on a foot patrol near Chingnungkok under Lamlai police station in Imphal east when around 9 p.m., two unidentified persons hurriedly ran off at seeing them.

The troopers searched the area and found the bomb hidden in a backpack there. Police have registered a case and are investigating.

The bomb was on Monday disposed off in a controlled detonation.

Ahead of the Republic Day celebrations, police and security forces have stepped up patrols and search operations all over the state.

Tengnoupal district's Superintendent of Police S.Ibomcha led search operations on Monday in the border areas and an insurgent was reportedly nabbed.

In Imphal East, police also conducted search operations at Hatta and sough to verify the antecedents of residents, and 17 persons, who had no identity papers, were handed over to Porompat police station for further investigation. Search operations were also conducted in Bishnupur district.

Meanwhile, more underground organisations have announced that they would boycott the Republic Day function in Manipur.

--IANS

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In what is claimed to be a first for any university, University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia has inked a 15-year agreement to get 100 per cent of its energy supplied by photovoltaic solar energy.

The agreement with Maoneng Australia and Origin Energy inked last month will allow UNSW - among the world's top 50 universities with a strong pedagogy in scientific and technological research - to achieve its goal of carbon neutrality on energy use by 2020.

UNSW Sydney announced a tripartite arrangement with contract partners Maoneng Australia (Maoneng) and Origin Energy (Origin) for an offsite Solar PV Corporate Power Purchase Agreement (Solar PPA). The solar supply agreement with Maoneng is the first of its kind in Australia - bringing together a retailer, developer and corporate. UNSW believes it is the first university worldwide to go fully energy carbon neutral with 100 per cent of its needs supplied by solar photovoltaics (PV).

"This landmark initiative is an exciting step towards realising UNSW's goal of carbon neutrality on energy use by 2020 and reflects our commitment to making a positive global impact," said UNSW President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Jacobs in a press release.

"The Solar PPA arrangement will allow UNSW to secure carbon emission-free electricity supplies at a cost which is economically and environmentally attractive when compared to fossil fuel-sourced supplies.

"It is also highly significant and a testament to the world-class research carried out here at UNSW, that a technology which we played a leading role in developing is now being used to provide the university with a renewable source of emissions-free energy," he said.

The 142kW array is part of the 692kW of solar PV arrays currently installed across rooftops at the UNSW Kensington campus.

The agreement, which was signed on December 14, 2017, will see UNSW purchase up to 124,000 MWh of renewable energy per annum from Maoneng's Sunraysia Solar Farm near Balranald in south-western NSW, meeting UNSW's annual energy requirement starting in 2019.

A three-year retail firming contract was also signed with Origin, as the electricity retailer, to manage the intermittency of solar production.

NSW Minister for Energy Don Harwin said the agreement was evidence of UNSW's leadership in renewables.

In December 2017, UNSW's School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering was awarded 12 projects with a total cash grant value of more than $16 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). Five of those projects are focusing on the further development of UNSW's Advanced Hydrogenation technology to improve world record commercial solar cells.

--IANS

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The bodies of two youths who had been hacked brutally and their faces disfigured were found in the Bihar capital, triggering protest by locals, police said on Monday.

Police recovered the bodies of the two youths, in their mid 20s, from Nawada village near AIIMS Patna here on late Sunday night after being informed by some people.

Phulwari Police station officer in-charge Ajeet Kumar said that prima facie it appears that both had died after being attacked with sharp weapons on their neck and head.

According to police, the face of both had been disfigured with acid.

Police have lodged a case and begun investigations.

Angry villagers protested against the incident, saying there was a surge in crimes in Bihar.

--IANS

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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be on a week-long state visit to India from February 17-23, the External Affairs Ministry said on Monday.

The visit, at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is aimed at further strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries in key areas of mutual interest trade and investment, energy, science and innovation, higher education, infrastructure development, skill development and space, a ministry statement said.

"Cooperation in security and counter-terrorism as well as exchange of views on global and regional issues of mutual interest will also form important components of the visit."

The trip comes nearly three years after Modi visited Canada in April 2015. The last visit of a Canadian Prime Minister to India was in November 2012.

"India and Canada share a strategic partnership underpinned by the values of democracy, pluralism, equality for all and rule of law. Strong people-to-people contacts and the presence of a large Indian Diaspora in Canada provide a strong foundation for the relationship," the statement said.

--IANS

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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will leave for Davos, Switzerland on Monday to attend the World Economic Forum annual meeting, according to the Canadian Prime Minister's Office.

During the four-day meeting,Trudeau will meet other world leaders, global business leaders, and representatives of civil society, said the Prime Minister's Office on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Under the theme "Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World," this year's Forum will encourage leaders from all sectors to explore bold ideas and exciting opportunities for collaboration and co-operation with a view to improving global governance and building more sustainable economies that work for everyone.

The Canadian Prime Minister will be joined in Davos by Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Bains, Minister of Finance Bill Morneau, Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland, and Minister of Status of Women Maryam Monsef, each of whom will have their own program of meetings during the meeting, said the office.

The World Economic Forum, established in 1971 as a not-for-profit foundation, is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation and committed to improving the state of the world,

The forum engages the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

--IANS

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Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development Satyapal Singh on Monday defended his comment on Darwin's theory of evolution and termed the controversy around his statement as "unnecessary".

"It is not a matter of controversy...it should be debated even at international level. Let there be an international conference and a debate on the issue," said Singh while talking to newsmen at the IIT-Guwahati near here on the sidelines of an official function.

The Minister even offered to arrange the international conference to debate the theory of Darwin.

"Scientists like Einstein and many other scientists of repute have refused to accept Darwin's theory of evolution. Evidence has surfaced against the theory and hardly anybody is in its support," Singh said.

"The evolutionists and Darwinists and others should come forward and have a debate to prove what is factually correct," he said, adding that only facts should be taught in classrooms.

Singh on January 20 had said that nowhere did our ancestors mention they saw an ape turning into a man.

"Darwin's theory of evolution is wrong. It has already been rejected by scientists some 30-35 years back. It is wrong to say that humans evolved from monkeys and such references should be removed from the science and history school textbooks," Singh had said at the All India Vaidik Sammelan in Aurangabad in Maharashtra.

The statement, however, led to protests from several sections and renowned science bodies such as the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and the National Science Academy. On Sunday they issued a combined statement saying there was no scientific basis for the Minister's statement.

"Evolutionary theory, to which Darwin made seminal contributions, is well established. There is no scientific dispute about the basic facts of evolution. This is a scientific theory, and one that has made many predictions that have been repeatedly confirmed by experiments and observations," the combined statement said.

--IANS

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The young generation should create its own leadership and encourage the natural instincts to build a new world, Nobel laureate and economist Muhammad Yunus said here on Monday.

"The young generation need not follow somebody from the previous generation, be it the US, India or Bangladesh. Simply speaking, the young generation have to create their own leadership, have to create their own world.

"And they are the only one who can create their own world. Nobody else can do that. You have to take charge of yourself. Take charge of the world itself. Stay on course, know what you want. And it will be done if you make up your mind.

"Making up one's mind is the most important thing to do," Yunus said at a session on his new book "A World of Three Zeros" at the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet 2018.

The 77-year-old founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh also advised the youth not to try and fit into a formula but rather encourage their natural instincts.

"I would encourage you to imagine the kind of world you would want to be in. That imagination is most important. If you imagine that, then you figure how you get there."

The Chittagong-born Younus advised the youngsters to delve into uncharted territories in order to create a new world.

"If you follow the existing roads, you will go to the existing world. If you want to go to a new place, you have to build new roads. So start building the new roads, once you imagine what you want," he added.

--IANS

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Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday left for Davos to join Prime Minister Narendra Modi who will take part in the 48th annual summit of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Fadnavis will interact with senior directors of the World Bank and top executives of Coca Cola, Arcelor Mittal, and others at the WEF during his stay in Switzerland.

He will apprise them of the available opportunities and infrastructure in the state and seek their cooperation to complete various ongoing mega projects here.

He and his delegation will also seek more investments in the state, and take part in the conference 'Creating A Shared Future in a Fractured World' there.

Fadnavis had taken part in the 2015 Davos WEF.

The Chief Minister is accompanied by Additional Chief Secretary Pravin Pardeshi, CIDCO Managing Director Bhushan Gagrani and MIDC CEO Sanjay Sethi for the WEF in which around 2,500 representatives from over a 100 nations will participate.

Fadnavis' visit to Switzerland is considered significant against the backdrop of the state's upcoming first-ever 'Magnetic Maharashtra: Convergence 2018' summit for attracting global investments in collaboration with CII, scheduled here in mid-February.

--IANS

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The CBI on Monday requested a Delhi court to dismiss a plea by retired Orissa High Court Judge I.M. Quddusi, accused of graft in a medical college scam case, seeking court-monitored investigation into leakage of transcripts of his alleged telephonic conversations in the case.

The Central Bureau Of Investigation told Special Judge Manoj Jain that the apprehension of Quddusi is completely misplaced as it is based on news reports.

"It may only be pointed out that the CBI has deliberately not commented upon the veracity of the newspaper reports since consistently, the courts have held newspapers reports to be having no evidentiary value," the CBI said.

"It is prayed that the present application be dismissed with exemplary costs."

The CBI said that that there are numerous sources from which the alleged transcripts can be supplied to media, adding that it was for the media to reply to these allegations and not the CBI.

Quddusi's counsel Vijay Aggarwal told the court the transcripts of the alleged conversations as well as the confidential report of a preliminary inquiry have been leaked to the media.

He requested the court to monitor the investigation of the case and to pass necessary orders regarding conducting of an inquiry into whether criminal misconduct has been committed by the CBI by leaking the documents.

Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan last week filed a complaint against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra in the medical college scam case and requested five senior-most apex court judges, including the four "rebel" judges, to hold an in-house inquiry into the matter.

The case is one of the major reasons for the rift between CJI Misra and the four judges -- Justices J. Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph -- who criticised him last week at an unprecedented press conference.

Quddusi, B.P. Yadav, Palash Yadav, Bishwanath Agrawala and Ram Dev Saraswat were arrested on September 20, 2017 by the CBI on the charge of helping Lucknow-based Prasad Institute that was barred from admitting medical course students by the Medical Council of India (MCI).

The sixth accused in the case, Bhawana Pandey, was arrested on September 21. All the accused were later granted bail.

The arrests came after the CBI registered a case of criminal conspiracy and under sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act against the accused on September 19 and conducted raids at eight locations in Delhi, Lucknow and Bhubaneswar.

The CBI FIR said B.P. Yadav and Palash Yadav were managing the Prasad Educational Trust, which runs the Prasad Institute of Medical Sciences.

The institute is among 46 colleges barred by the government from admitting medical course students for two years (till 2019) because of substandard facilities and non-fulfilment of criteria.

It was alleged that the college had bribed some influential people, including Qudussi, to get a favourable order from the apex court which was hearing a case about its future as the college was running without the MCI recognition.

In his complaint last Tuesday, Bhushan mentioned the taped conversations purportedly between Quddusi, Biswanath Agarwala, a middleman, and B.P. Yadav of the Prasad Education Trust.

--IANS

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Drugs valued at Rs 35 lakh were seized in Manipur's Jiribam district bordering Assam and one man arrested, police said on Monday.

Jiribam's Superintendent of Police M. Mobi said that security measures had been tightened there following an instruction to be on the lookout for Rohingya refugees and police had zeroed in the drug smuggler, identified as Nasir Ahmed, of Assam's Cachar and arrested him.

Ahmed is being interrogated to elicit information about the gang, he added

Police in Jiribam said that they had dismantled nearly 10 bamboo bridges built across the Jiri river, which were allegedly being used by persons of doubtful nationality to sneak into the state.

--IANS

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Vice PresidentM. Venkaiah Naidu on Monday called upon all medical professionals and researchers to explore Indian systems like ayurveda for alternative solutions to prevent and treat cancers.

Asking them to come up with "path-breaking advances", he also stressed the need for some indigenous, cost-effective options that may be useful in making cancer treatment more affordable.

In his address at the Graduation Ceremony of Tata Memorial Centre, Naidu appealed for the promotion of cancer awareness and education among the masses to make them informed about various available treatment options.

"Cancer is a major public health concern in India and has become one of the 10 leading causes of death, and its treatment is also very costly," he said.

Suggesting screening of people to help early detection of cancers, he also said that people must go back to their roots, especially in the way of living and thinking.

Naidu further urged the need to create awareness among the youth on the need to lead healthy lifestyles and avoid consumption of junk food, besides stressing the need to increase the number of palliative care centres in the country.

The Vice President asked medicos and medical students to stress on the need for maintaining sanitation and observing personal hygiene since lack of personal hygiene can cause infections like HPV which in turn has the potential to cause cervical cancer.

It is estimated that India's cancer burden is likely to increase from an approximate one million cases in 2012 to around 1.7 million by 2035.

The TMCH has witnesses a steady increase in the number of cancer cases registered, increasing from 53,000 in 2010 to 65,000 today, and 450,000 follow-ups.

Of the total, a staggering 40 percent of patients to the TMCH come from Maharashtra alone - including 15 percent from Mumbai - while the remaining 60 percent are from rest of India.

Maharashtra Governor C. V. Rao and other dignitaries of the TMC, which runs the premier Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital in Parel, were also present on the occasion.

Naidu gave away graduation certificates to the successful students and also released a navigation programme for patient care, KEVAT on the occasion.

According to TMC director R. A. Badve, the Advanced Diploma in Patient Navigation (KEVAT) would create a trained taskforce to facilitate the patient's journey right from entry to the hospital, to follow-up, and getting back to normalcy, taking care in addition to emotional, financial and other needs in a holistic manner.

The one-year full course, first of its kind in India, is being launched in collaboration with Tata Institute of Social Sciences with support from Tata Trusts.

--IANS

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Facebook will train one million people and business owners across the European Union (EU) by 2020, and invest 10 million euros in innovation in France through its Artificial Intelligence (AI) research facility, the social media giant said on Monday.

Over the next two years, Facebook will join digital growth partner Freeformers to offer training to 300,000 people across the EU -- in Britain, France, Germany, Poland, Italy and Spain.

"For 75,000 people, this training will be in person, and the rest will be online.

"All training will be tailored to each person, so someone with very strong skills could be taught how to code, while others might learn how to open a bank account online," Ciaran Quilty, Vice President, Small Businesses, EMEA, said in a statement.

"We're committing to open three new community skills hubs in Spain, Poland and Italy," Quilty added. These will run in partnership with local organisations, offering training in digital skills, media literacy and online safety to the underrepresented groups.

Facebook will offer business owners more types of training to help them expand their digital footprint and find new customers around the corner and around the globe.

This includes in-person training for 100,000 small and medium businesses (SMBs) by 2020 and online training for 250,000 businesses.

"As part of Facebook's flagship #SheMeansBusiness program, we will provide digital skills training to more than 15,000 women in France," the company said.

At its AI facility in France, the company will increase Facebook AI Research Paris' PhD fellows from 10 to 40, granting scholarships to students, and funding 10 servers as well as open datasets for French public institutions.

"The announcements are part of our ongoing investments in digital training. Since 2011, we've invested more than $1 billion to support small businesses around the world," Quilty added.

Nearly 35 per cent of SMBs on Facebook surveyed in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK say they built their business on Facebook.

About 49 per cent say they've hired more employees due to growth since joining Facebook.

"Nearly 57 per cent of businesses surveyed say they have increased sales because of the platform and 60 per cent say that the platform helps them sell products in other cities and countries," Facebook said.

--IANS

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Google on Monday honoured Soviet film director and father of montage in filmmaking Sergei Eisenstein on his 120th birth anniversary with a doodle.

The doodle shows a series of film rolls in movement depicting iconic imagery in some of Eisenstein's films. It is a reminder of his enduring contributions to cinema.

A closer look into the doodle shows sequencing of a number of images in a continuous loop creating the effect of a montage.

The doodle also shows Sergei Eisenstein, holding a film roll and a scissors depicting a cut or an edit.

The Russian genius changed the way films were made as early as in the 1920s.

The avant-garde filmmaker was born on this day in 1898. He left behind a rich legacy that is complex and in many ways, immeasurable.

Film montage is an editing technique that pieces together a series of frames to form a continuous sequence that is used at several defining moments in films -- you can easily recall some of it in "The Godfather", "The Karate Kid", that was refined in the early 20th century by the Soviet director.

Born in Latvia, young Eisenstein started off in the footsteps of his father and took up architecture and engineering, he later joined the Red Army to serve the Bolshevik Revolution.

During this time, he developed an interest in theatre and started working as a designer in Moscow.

Eisenstein's films are politically loaded and they galvanised cinema of the former Soviet Union and beyond with their bold narrative approach, stylistic flourishes, dramatic use of cinematography, editing and music, and marriage between ideology and the craft of filmmaking.

"Strike" in 1925, "Battleship Potemkin" (1925), "October" (1928), "Que viva Mexico!" (1930, released in 1979), "Alexander Nevsky" (1938) and "Ivan The Terrible" (1944 and 1958)demonstrate Eisenstein's genius, his contributions to the art of editing through his theories on montage, and his ability to transcend propaganda to create enduring art.

Describing his cinematic vision, Google said, "His films were also revolutionary in another sense, as he often depicted the struggle of downtrodden workers against the ruling class."

He was only 50, when he died following a heart attack on February 11, 1948.

--IANS

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The central government on Monday said it has signed a $120 million loan agreement with the World Bank to help increase access to improved water supply in the peri-urban areas of Uttarakhand.

According to an official statement, the 'Uttarakhand Water Supply Programme for Peri-Urban Areas' will help the state increase water supply as well as ensure sustainable water supply service in peri-urban areas.

Sameer Kumar Khare, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, said that over 700,000 people residing in these areas are expected to benefit from the programme, especially women who will have easy access to regular water supply.

--IANS

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The Haryana Police on Monday registered a case and started an investigation into an attack on a portion of the Kessal Mall in Haryana's Kurukshetra town, around 100 km from here. The attack is being linked to the screening of the controversial film "Padmaavat".

Police officials said that CCTV footage of the mall was being examined in which some unidentified miscreants were seen vandalising a portion of the mall on Sunday evening.

The miscreants, who were said to be opposed to the screening of the film, came with their faces covered.

No one was injured in the incident though there was some damage to the property.

"A case has been registered against unknown persons for rioting. Some windowpanes of the mall were broken," Kurukshetra Superintendent of Police Abhishek Garg told the media on Monday.

The police is not ruling out the possibility of the attack being linked to "Padmaavat".

The government will implement the orders of the Supreme Court on the release of the film and also provide security to cinema halls which will screen the film, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said on Monday.

However, cinema halls and multiplexes in the state are uncertain if they will screen the film, apprehending violence by various elements opposed to the film.

The Haryana government was among the BJP governments that had imposed a ban on screening of "Padmaavat" in the state, citing law and order issues.

The Supreme Court had last week stayed the ban imposed on the screening of the film by the governments of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. It is set to release nationwide on Thursday.

Major sections of the Rajput community and fringe elements are opposing the screening of the film, produced and directed by leading filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali, saying that it portrayed Queen Padmavati in a wrong manner.

Haryana has a Bharatiya Janata Party government since October 2014.

--IANS

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Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Monday launched a state-level nutrition scheme for HIV-positive children during a campaign organised here by the State AIDS Control Society on the occasion of National Youth Day.

He said this initiative would go a long way in providing nutritional supplement and boosting the immunity of over 400 youth up to the age 18.

The state would also provide every possible support to these children to enable them to live a normal and healthy life, he said.

From this year, the Chief Minister said, the state has also made it mandatory for every expectant mother to go for a HIV test.

Expressing concern over the rising cases of AIDS, nearly 5,700 in the state, Thakur said there was need for massive awareness about the disease up to the village level.

NGOs and individuals would have to come forward in supplementing the efforts of the Health Department in making every citizen aware about HIV.

He said the awareness campaign should be intensified in schools and colleges besides putting special focus on organising skits and street shows, which were effective modes of communication among the masses.

Education Minister Suresh Bhardwaj said the Education Department would work with the Health Department to provide education to HIV-positive children across the state.

--IANS

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Iran announced on Monday that it has not negotiated on its missile programme with the European countries.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said that Iran's positions on its missile programme and regional policies are clear and it would not negotiate over its defensive policies, Press TV reported.

Regarding the reports that Europe aims to increase pressure on Iran, Qasemi said Tehran has not officially heard from the European authorities on such a matter.

"We have heard nothing from European officials about that, and in the negotiations that we have had with Europe, no such issue has been raised," he said.

The Financial Times, German weekly Der Spiegel and French daily Le Figaro have recently suggested that Europe is planning to pressure Iran over its missile programme.

Last Wednesday, Qasemi denied that Tehran agreed to negotiate over its missile programme.

He called the reports "unfounded" and said his country's "policy and stance concerning its defensive missile programme are completely clear and transparent, and that other countries are well aware of that position."

According to the foreign reports, the Europeans have stepped up pressure on Iran over such issues as they struggle to respond to US President Donald Trump's latest threat that he would pull Washington out of the nuclear deal if some "disastrous flaws" were not fixed.

--IANS

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Iranian Foreign Ministry on Sunday urged Turkey to protect the territorial integrity of Syria and respect the national sovereignty of the Arab state as Ankara launched a land operation against the Kurdish militants entering Syria's Afrin.

The Islamic republic is concerned about the recent developments in the Syrian city of Afrin, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said in a statement on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Tehran hopes Ankara to end the operation "immediately" to prevent escalation of crisis in the border regions of the two neighbours, Qasemi said.

Iran also expects Turkey to remain committed to political measures to settle the Syrian crisis, he added.

Turkey launched the Operation Olive Branch on Saturday which aims to clear its borders from the People's Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish group considered by Ankara as the Syrian affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The military operation aims to establish a 30 km security zone into the Afrin province from Turkish border, he told in a briefing to journalists.

--IANS

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Actor William H. Macy believes it is hard to be a man in times when women are coming out and speaking up against sexual misconduct.

After receiving the Screen Actors Guild Award for Male Actor in a Drama Series for his role in "Shameless" here on Sunday, Macy said he participated in a meeting of Hollywood men related to the Time's Up movement, reports variety.com.

"It is hard to be a man these days. I think a lot of us feel like we are under attack and that we need to apologize, and perhaps we do. We had a meeting. A bunch of guys got together under the auspices of Time's Up. That's good for men. Men don't talk enough. And we talked," he said.

Macy said he sees progress in gender equality in Hollywood.

"In what we do for a living, we have got to be free to speak the unspeakable and try things. So I don't want it to throw a wet blanket on things and I don't feel that it will because half the business is women and they are smart and they are hip," he said.

Noting that he has two daughters, Macy added: "It's a good time to be a girl. I'm proud of this business because such things as safety in the workplace, that is done.

"We are not going back. It's changed. It changed in an instant and it is not going back. When it comes to equality in pay, it is inevitable. It is going to happen and it is going to happen quickly. My hat's off to our business."

--IANS

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(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 on Monday said her government was considering amnesty to second-time stone pelters in the Kashmir Valley.

The Chief Minister, replying to a question in the upper house of the Assembly, said: "The government is reviewing the cases of second-time offenders involved in stone pelting protests."

The government had earlier ordered withdrawal of cases against those who stoned security forces for the first time.

Unless the cases are withdrawn, the persons can't get government jobs.

--IANS

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Rome, Jan 22 (IANS/AKI) Jordan's Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein has contributed to the launch of a special fund to allow the rapid purchase and transportation of high energy biscuits to feed victims of sudden onset emergencies, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced.

"Princess Haya's generosity is a life-saver. When an emergency happens, WFP must deliver food quickly, and this effort will put our emergency response into another gear so we can save lives anywhere, anytime," said WFP Executive Director David Beasley in a statement.

The highly fortified biscuits provide people caught in the immediate aftermath of natural disasters or conflict with an immediate source of nutritious food that is packed with energy, WFP said.

Princess Haya's support for the new fund will allow WFP to procure and pre-position high energy biscuits at the UN Humanitarian Response Depot, located in Dubai for its strategic location that can further reduce emergency response time, according to the agency.

Most recently, high energy biscuits were delivered to respond to the immediate needs of Rohingya refugees fleeing conflict in Myanmar and crossing into Bangladesh, WFP said.

"Princess Haya is a true champion for people facing hunger and poverty, and our appreciation for her dedication and support for WFP grows each year," said Beasley.

Princess Haya is Chairperson of the International Humanitarian City in Dubai and currently serves as a United Nations Messenger of Peace.

In 2015, Princess Haya received the WFP Hunger Hero Award at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

An Oxford graduate and former WFP Ambassador Against Hunger, she has visited WFP operations in many countries, including Cambodia, Malawi, and Syria.

--IANS/AKI

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Actor Kamal Haasan on Monday said days are not far off when India will be a pioneer in digital activities.

He said he would see that happen during his lifetime itself.

Inaugurating a digital branch of Canara Bank here, Kamal said Tamil Nadu should be the leader in digital banking in villages.

The actor said the strength of India lives in villages; and if we understand that many things will be all right in the country.

He said he can foresee that no villager will be left out of the digital age.

"There will be a time when people will say I don't live in the city, too crowded. I live in the village," Kamal said.

Kamal will begin his political journey on February 21 from late President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's residence in Rameswaram.

--IANS

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With the release date of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Padmaavat" coming closer, protests against the film by the Shri Rajput Karni Sena have been growing in Madhya Pradesh. On Monday the Karni Sena held demonstrations in various parts of the state.

In Bhopal, members of the Karni Sena, an organisation of the Rajput community, protested outside Jyoti Talkies and warned of consequences if the film was released.

In Indore, the protesters resorted to burning tyres. Deputy Inspector General Hari Narayan Chari Mishra told IANS that protesters were forcibly removed from many places.

The situation was tense in Ujjain as tyres were burnt and roads blocked. Police had to use mild force to disperse protesters.

Meanwhile, a group of women, representing the Rajput community, left Ratlam for Rajasthan's Chittorgarh where they will stage a protest.

"Padmaavat" is scheduled to release nationwide on Thursday. The Karni Sena and some other groups claim the film distorts history.

--IANS

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Kerala Governor P. Sathasivam on Monday skipped references critical of the Modi government from his prepared speech as he addressed the Assembly on the opening day of the Budget session.

After the Governor's 89-minute speech ended and its copies were distributed, it was found that he had skipped three sentences that pertained to the Modi government.

He otherwise heaped praise on the Pinarayi Vijayan government.

However, the Congress-led-opposition slammed the government for its abject failure on all fronts.

As soon as Sathasivam got up to deliver his address, Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala stood up and said he wished to speak and pointed out that the Vijayan government had been a "dismal failure".

"The government has been an abject failure in all respects, including tackling of the law and order situation, price rise and the way Cyclone Ockhi was handled," said Chennithala.

After Chennithala sat down, Sathasivam began his speech and said that during the past year there have been several campaigns against Kerala, particularly on the social and conventional media.

"Despite being a state with some of the best law and order indices in the country, a month-long campaign was carried out across India, on certain flimsy grounds by some communal outfits.

"Keralites en masse responded to this campaign featuring the hashtags," he said.

The Governor pointed out that Kerala was declared by the UN as the only state in the country which figures at the top of the Human Development Index.

He noted that during the past one year, there have been slanderous attacks on the secular traditions of the state.

"Doubts were thrown on our social sector achievements and vilification of the law and order situation from various quarters. But the people of Kerala stood together to defend our traditions and achievements.

"There has not been any instance of communal riot in our state despite the plotting by certain communal outfits."

On the initiatives taken for the welfare of the Kerala diaspora, he said his government had set up a 351-member 'Loka Kerala Sabha' with NRK (Non-resident Keralite) delegates and special invitees along with MPs and MLAs.

"The government is committed to support NRKs in a variety of ways, including awareness campaigns for safe migration, pre-departure orientation programmes, skill upgrade programmes and assistance to stranded people.

"Rehabilitation of returnees and reintegration training are some of the other proposed initiatives in this area.

"My government is also committed to harness the goodwill and financial capabilities of expatriates in the process of modernisation and further development of Kerala," he said.

The budget for the new fiscal would be presented by Finance Minister Thomas Issac on February 2.

--IANS

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The Supreme Court on Monday said the controversy surrounding the death of Special CBI court judge B.H. Loya is "serious" and it will look into the circumstances leading to his death in November 2014.

Judge Loya was holding the trial into the staged shootout deaths of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and two others.

"Matter is serious. Let us look at full records. Let it never be on our conscience that we did not look at what we should have," the bench said as it directed all the parties to file whatever material they have relating to Loya's death and the circumstances leading to it and set the next hearing for February 2.

Senior counsel Dushyant Dave, appearing for the Bombay Lawyers Association, and Indira Jaising, appearing for an intervener, said that the records being produced by the Maharashtra government were not complete as they pointed to some documents they had accessed through RTI.

"There is no question of restricting the records. Prepare a compilation of the record," Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said allowing both the sides to file whatever documents they had in their possession.

The bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M.Khanwilkar and Justice Chandrachud also transferred to itself two petitions pending before the Bombay High Court and its Nagpur bench relating to the matter and barred other High Courts from entertaining any plea relating to the matter.

"As we are in seized of the matter, we are sure that no other High Court, including the High Court of Bombay, will entertain any further petition with regard to the subject matter in issue," said the apex court, which is hearing two petitions - by social activist Tehseen Poonawala and by Maharashtra journalist Bandhuraj Sambhaji Lone seeking independent probe into Loya's death.

At the outset of the hearing, Dave objected to senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for Maharashtra, saying that it was "not fair" for him to appear for the state government after appearing for BJP President Amit Shah, and that he has "done enough damage to the institution" and "there is a conflict of interest".

He sought the appointment of amicus curiae to assist the court, but the court was not moved.

"We are on the circumstances leading to the death of Judge Loya. Let us not comment who is appearing for whom," said Justice Chandrachud.

In a face-off between Dave and Salve, Dave said: "Entire institution is trying to protect one man - Amit Shah and Amit Shah alone" whom he described as "politician of great excellence".

At this, Salve objected, saying: "What is this Amit Shah, Amit Shah. You are blaming somebody in the court behind his back. You can't caste aspersion on somebody. You can't jump three steps and pass comments just because he happens to be a prominent politician."

As Dave raised the pitch, the court intervened, saying that all the counsel appearing in the matter should assist it to "examine the documents objectively" and assuring that it would order the probe if needed.

When Dave, at one point, said that "as of today, it is a natural death", Justice Chandrachud said: "If as on today, it is a natural death, you can't cast aspersions. Let us look at the material objectively, so that we are not blamed that we did not look at the material dispassionately."

In another face-off between rival lawyers, Jaising objected to Salve saying that the confidentiality of whatever material they will share with the counsel for petitioners and interveners be maintained and not shared with media, noting that it is like seeking a gag order against media.

As Justice Chandrachud said that "He is not saying gag the press. He is just saying ...", Jaising countered: "It means the same."

As she said that court should not pass any order on Salver's plea, the CJI asked if the court had said anything.

"Did we utter a word? Did we say gag? You can't say order of the court. We are just discussing the matter," he told Jaising asking her to withdraw her statement and apologise. She complied.

However, Dave said that if two judges in the Loya matter can address a press conference, why can't the nation discuss it. He said that if the matters of Shashi Tharoor and P. Chidambram can be discussed in the media, then why not the Loya matter.

--IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court on Monday said the controversy surrounding the death of Special CBI court judge B.H. Loya is "serious" and it will look into the circumstances leading to his death in November 2014.

Judge Loya was holding the trial into the staged shootout deaths of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and two others.

"Matter is serious. We are examining the material on record. Our conscience should not suffer...," the bench said as it directed all the matter relating to Loya's death and the circumstances leading to it should be placed before it.

The top court bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra transferred to itself two petitions pending before the Bombay High Court and its Nagpur bench relating to the matter.

The court directed the next hearing on February 2.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
There is no alternative to the implementation of the Minsk agreements signed in 2015 when it comes to a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian conflict, the Kremlin has said.

"Only the Minsk agreements...It is the only document we have that has been agreed upon (by parties involved in the conflict)," Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday in an interview on Russia's Rossiya 1 television channel, Xinhua reported.

Violence has been plaguing the Ukrainian region of Donbas since Kiev launched a military operation in the country's southeast in April 2014 after local residents refused to recognize the new pro-West Ukrainian authorities.

The Minsk peace agreement reached in September 2014 and its renewal Minsk II agreement reached in February 2015, envisage a ceasefire, a withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the contact line, a prisoner exchange and local elections in Donbas, among other measures.

Peskov underlined that no party involved or guarantor nation had ever denied the feasibility of the Minsk II ceasefire pact and that the withdrawal from the deal would lead to "an utter collapse."

"No one can be sure if any new document can be agreed on. And, naturally, bearing this in mind, the fact that there is no alternative to the implementation of the Minsk agreements is not a subject for discussion," Peskov said.

The 13-point Minsk II agreement, brokered by Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France, outlined the steps needed to end the conflict and yet has been consistently violated.

--IANS

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Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday attacked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for only hugging "special people", not the common man.

"He call himself a common man, but hugs only the special ones. Modiji, why such compulsion? Farmers, labourers and youths too should be there," Gandhi said in a tweet attaching photograph of Modi hugging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Congress President's remarks came in the wake of the Prime Minister defending his hugs with world leaders saying that he was a common man and did not know any protocol.

During the Israeli Prime Minister's visit to India last week, the Prime Minister broke the protocol to receive him at the airport here and welcomed him with a hug.

--IANS

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday held a bilateral meeting with Swiss President Alain Berset ahead of this year's World Economic Forum.

Berset greeted Modi with a warm handshake in this town in the Swiss Alps before leading the Indian leader to the meeting.

This is Modi's second visit to Switzerland in nearly two years after his visit in June 2016.

Modi is the first Prime Minister from India to participate in a forum meeting in two decades after the then Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda in 1997.

Later on Monday, Modi will meet with 60 CEOs of major global companies in a dinner reception.

The main event in Davos will be the keynote speech of Modi at the plenary session on Tuesday.

Modi will interact with 120 members of the International Business Council, which is a part of the WEF.

The Indian Prime Minister will also interact with CEOs of Indian companies separately.

Modi, in the course of his 24-hour visit to Davos, is also scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with Sweden Prime Minister Stefan Lofven on Tuesday.

--IANS

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday left for Davos in Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum.

"Showcasing India's resilient economy and India's attractiveness as a destination of doing business!

"PM Narendra Modi emplanes for Davos to participate in the World Economic Forum," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet.

Modi will be the first Prime Minister from India to participate in the forum meeting in two decades after the then Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda in 1997.

The main event in Davos will be the keynote speech of Modi at the plenary session on January 23.

On Tuesday, Modi will also interact with 120 members of the International Business Council, which is a part of the WEF.

He will also interact with CEOs of Indian companies separately.

--IANS

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Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress said while Modi has stated he wants to "erase the Congress' culture" he does not want to get rid of the RSS' ideology of "divisiveness, vendetta and lynch mentality".

"The Prime Minister is upset with the idea of Congress, and wants to erase the Congress' culture," Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi told media here.

Firing salvos at the Prime Minister, the Congress leader said: "Which part of the Congress' culture... the pillars of Indian democracy, does he want to erase?

"Does he want to erase the large-heartedness of Nehruvian culture, the inclusiveness, the integrity of the party to carry the whole country together, the concept of fraternity which is a Constitutional word in our Preamble which does not exist in the dictionary of the BJP?" he said.

Singhvi's remarks came a day after Modi in an interview to English news channel TimesNow said the Congress at the time of India's freedom struggle had inspired people so much that they were ready to throw their lives for the country "but post-Independence, it acquired traits of casteism, dynasty and corruption to keep control over power".

"I want to change that culture of politics, the mainstream of which is dynasty. Congress is an idea. So when I say Congress-free India, it is not related to election outcomes. I would want that even the Congress on its own should free itself of the Congress culture," Modi said in the interview.

Slamming Modi, over the remarks, Singhvi said that Modi does not want to change the "Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) ideology of vendetta and divisiveness".

"What he does not want to change is non-Congress culture of divisiveness -- that never strikes him.

"Call it BJP culture or parivar culture or RSS culture or Bajrang Dal culture," he said.

He said: "Vendetta, divisiveness, communal disharmony, lynch mentality etc. that is what he does not want to erase, but promote."

He also said that the pillars at one time proclaimed by Nehru for democracy was attributed as Congress culture. "The Congress culture was of socialism, secularism, non alignment, independent foreign policy," he said.

Referring to the country's growth during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) between 2004-14, Singhvi asked "does the Prime Minister want to erase the 10 years of the unprecedented growth which Congress culture brought".

He also highlighted the Congress works in the last 10 years, saying the Congress brought schemes like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), insurance scheme, RTI and many others.

"Does he want to erase and replace all?" Singhvi said, adding that does Modi want to erase and replace Aadhaar.

--IANS

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Veteran Hollywood star Morgan Freeman, who accepted the life achievement award at the 24th annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, called out the gender-specific statue, thereby touching upon the industry's gender inequality debate.

"I wasn't going to do this; I'm going to tell you what's wrong with this statue. It works from the back, but from the front, it's gender specific. Maybe I started something," Freeman said at the gala on Sunday night, reports variety.com.

After getting a standing ovation, Freeman took the stage and said: "This is beyond honour, this is a place in history."

He thanked the organisers, his children, his business partner, his life partner, and his long-time friend Rita Moreno, who presented Freeman the honour. She said the two have known each other for almost 50 years, having first worked together on the 1971 educational children's series "The Electric Company."

"Morgan is way more than just an actor, narrator, producer, humanitarian. This man is a national treasure. Morgan likes to say that if you become a star, people are going to go see you. And if you remain an actor, they're going to go and see the story you're in," Moreno said.

The 80-year-old said that he once thought, "your mouth has shut your career down", after losing role after role for being outspoken about how African-Americans and other minorities were depicted in the scripts he was reading.

"I want to change people's attitudes. About black people, about us as Americans. About America itself," he told Variety.

Freeman is the 54th recipient of the SAG life achievement prize, awarded to an actor annually for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment. Other honourees have included Lily Tomlin, Carol Burnett, Debbie Reynolds, Dick Van Dyke, and Mary Tyler Moore.

--IANS

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Rabat, Jan 22 (IANS/MAP) The 35th Ordinary Session of the Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC) of the African Union (AU) opened on Monday in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, with the participation of Morocco.

The Kingdom was represented by Bouchaib Eloumni, Deputy Permanent Representative to the AU.

The PRC meeting is the first regular meeting of the 30th Ordinary Session of the Summit of the AU, which will be held from January 22 to 29.

The PRC meeting will prepare the agenda of the AU Summit Council, scheduled to be held from January 25 to 26.

The 30th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union is being held under the theme "Winning the Fight against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa's Transformation".

--IANS/MAP

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A series of attacks on prison guards by inmates at jails across the country has led to a nationwide strike.

The guards dispute with the government over security concerns and wage increase entered its second week with prison officers' unions vowing a "total blockade" of prisons on Monday, the BBC reported.

Guards at prisons across the country, including the high-security institutions Fleury-Merogis and Fresnes prison outside Paris, took part in protests supported by France's CGT union, the Force Ouvriere (FO) union and the Ufap-Unsa Justice union.

The strike comes after a number of guards were injured in scuffles at several prisons. France's Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet said she would meet union leaders to try to end the crisis.

The Ministry urged union representatives to "resume dialogue immediately", adding that it was the responsibility of all sides to ensure that prisons were functioning.

Last week, three officers were assaulted in an attack at Fresnes prison, which is situated south of Paris. On Sunday, two prison guards required hospital treatment after they were attacked at a detention centre at Longuenesse prison, near Calais, according to prison officials.

The unions were also taking further action after rejecting a draft agreement proposing the creation of 1,100 guard jobs over four years.

--IANS

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The Gujarat government on Monday assured that there won't be any shortage of drinking water in the state this summer due to the Narmada crisis as the state is mostly dependent on the river for their water needs.

"The monsoons in upper catchment regions of Madhya Pradesh had been poor resulting in the lowered inflow of water into the Narmada river. This has forced us to earlier announce that we would not be able to give water for irrigation to summer crops from March 15," state Chief Secretary J.N. Singh told the media.

Sardar Sarovar Dam, the multi-purpose mega irrigation project which has been touted as the 'Lifeline of Gujarat', was marketed as panacea of all water problems in the state, including drinking water across large parts of Gujarat and irrigate swathes of land.

The four beneficiary states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra are allotted 28 million acre feet (MAF) of water from the dam - MP has been allotted 18.25 MAF, Rajasthan 0.5 MAF, Maharashtra 0.25 MAF and Gujarat 9.34 MAF, according to the mechanism for distribution.

Of Gujarat's 9.34 MAF, 1.06 MAF water is for non-irrigation purpose (0.86 MAF for drinking and 0.2 MAF for industry) and 7.94 MAF for agriculture. Over the years, the need for drinking water has grown to 1.29 MAF.

"The Narmada Control Authority in its last meeting fixed the quota of water for Gujarat at 4.71 MAF, or almost half. Meeting drinking water needs is our priority and the supply to industry will also be lowered to 0.06 MAF," the Chief Secretary said.

About a fortnight ago, the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd issued a circular that it would not be able to provide any water for summer crops to the farmers in the state. Gujarat has about 1.5 million hectares of land under summer cultivation, with farmers sowing crops as millets, pulses, lentils, groundnut, paddy and sesame.

The Chief Secretary also appealed to farmers to not steal waters from the network of canals. Across the 50,700 km canal network of the project, a significant number of farmers are said to be drawing water from the canal using pipes, mostly illegal, to irrigate their crops. "Through the media, I appeal to farmers not to get involved with such activity," Singh said.

Attacking the BJP government over the situation, Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani accused it of "wasting away the precious Narmada waters in extravagant shows, in the riverfront, in filling Aji dam which was fruitless as dam overflowed in heavy rains".

"In the coming days, we will be questioning the government on these issues," he said.

--IANS

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Jeddah, Jan 22 (IANS/WAM) Saudi Arabias Foreign Affairs Minister Adel Bin Ahmad Al Jubeir has said that the ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have unanimously supported a strong resolution condemning Iran for its aggressive policies.

Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, following the emergency OIC meeting on the firing of a ballistic missile towards Riyadh by Houthi militias, Al Jubeir said that Iran has not complied with international treaties on good neighbourliness.

"It is continuing to support terrorism and violate UN resolutions related to ballistic missiles," he said.

He added that Iran has a long record of destruction and killing in the region and the Muslim world.

OIC Secretary General Yusuf Bin Ahmed Al-Othaimeen thanked the Kingdom's government for hosting the emergency conference.

He stressed on the Kingdom's right to self-defence as an OIC member state. "This gives the Kingdom the right to act according to the Islamic Sharia apart from international legitimacy in protecting the safety of its territories and citizens."

The ministers reiterated their support for the legitimate government of Yemen and its President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.

--IANS/WAM

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More than 1.29 lakh persons have been arrested for violating the liquor prohibition imposed by the Janata Dal-United government led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Bihar nearly two years ago, officials said on Monday.

"Since total prohibition was imposed in Bihar on April 5, 2016, over 1.29 lakh persons were arrested for violating the law banning liquor. They have been sent to jail," an official of the Excise and Prohibition Department said.

Officials said police have raided 3.87 lakh locations while the Excise Department conducted raids on another 1.96 lakh locations and seized over 14 lakh litres of foreign-made liquor and 7.48 lakh litres of countrymade liquor.

Besides, police have seized thousands of litres of spirit and hundreds of beer bottles during the raids.

According to a police report, as many as 90,803 cases were registered in connection with violation of the prohibition law.

Nitish Kumar has repeatedly made clear his commitment to implement a ban on liquor sale and consumption in the state.

"The law enforcement agencies have been directed to act tough against violators," he said.

--IANS

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Pakistan will give "a robust response" to any aggression from India on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir said on Monday.

"Pakistan shall vigorously deter enemy aggression and deliver a robust response," the Minister told Army officers and troops at the LoC in the Pakistani Kashmir region, Dunya TV reported.

Condemning the "repeated violations of the (2003) ceasefire" by the Indian Army, he accused Indian troops firing at innocent civilians on the Pakistani side throughout the previous year.

"The sacrifices of our soldiers and civilians have strengthened the nation and its resolve to defend its liberty at all costs," Dastgir said.

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry said two days ago that five Pakistani civilians were killed and 22 others were injured in three days of "unabated and unprovoked firing and shelling" by Indian troops.

--IANS

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Actor-politician Pawan Kalyan on Monday launched his 'praja yatra' after worshipping at a temple at Kondagattu in Telangana's Jagtiyal district.

The Jana Sena party chief, who along with a large number of supporters and fans reached the town from Hyderabad, later left for Karimnagar to address party workers.

On his first political campaign after announcing last year that Jana Sena will contest elections in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, he is expected to announce his 'yatra' schedule and the next course of action.

Pawan offered prayers at Anjaneyaswamy temple. He also donated Rs 11 lakh to the temple.

Earlier, the actor left Hyderabad after his Anna Lezhneva performed some religious rituals. The motorcade of 50 vehicles reached Kondagattu in the afternoon.

Before the start of 'yatra', Pawan formally launched social media handle of Veera Mahila, the women's wing of the party. He said it would focus on women security and empowerment.

Kalyan, who had campaigned for the TDP-BJP alliance in the 2014 election but distanced himself from both the parties last year, has already announced that the Jana Sena will contest the coming election in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where the TDP-BJP and the TRS are in power respectively.

Assembly elections in both the states are scheduled along with the Lok Sabha polls in 2019.

Pawan, who himself plans to contest from Andhra Pradesh, chose Kodangattu to launch his political campaign as it was here that he had a narrow escape during campaigning in the 2009 elections.

Pawan was then campaigning for Praja Rajyam, the party floated by his elder brother and superstar Chiranjeevi.

After the defeat in the elections, Chiranjeevi merged his party with the Congress.

--IANS

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Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar on Monday alleged that the PMO had given orders not to arrest Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide, booked on the charge of orchestrating violence during the celebrations of the Battle of Bhima-Koregaon this month.

He claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bhide had good relations.

"Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had assured on the arrest since an FIR had been registered. But when we inquired, we learnt the message had come from the Prime Minister's Office not to arrest Bhide or take action against him," Ambedkar told the media here.

"Modi had worn saffron turban during his first speech from the Red Fort on Bhide's advice. Modi praised him in an event. This is the relation."

He warned that in case there is no response from the government, his organisation will take the issue across the country.

The Dalit leader said Bhide had not even filed any application for interim bail since he was quite sure that the PMO was protecting him.

Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of the Indian Constitution's chief architect Dr B.R. Ambedkar, demanded that Bhide and another pro-Hindutva leader Milind Ekbote be arrested immediately for the Bhima-Koregaon violence.

"Unscrutinised and loose" organisations in the Hindu fold had become a threat to society and the nation, said Prakash Ambedkar, chief of the Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh.

He said such organisations had become a parallel to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its existence was virtually in danger. "They are basically challenging the existence of the RSS," he said.

"These unscrutinised organisations are dictating terms and so the government is hesitant to take action against them," Ambedkar said.

"They are declaring themselves above the law. That is what (Lashkar-e-Taiba co-founder) Hafiz Saeed is doing in Pakistan: He has positioned himself in such a way that the Pakistan government cannot touch him even when international forces are asking for action. We will not like to have another Hafiz Saeed in India," he said.

"The RSS had stated that relations with Bhide were severed seven years ago and with Ekbote some eight years ago," he said.

Clashes broke out on January 1 in Bhima-Koregaon and surrounding areas in Maharashtra during celebrations of the Battle of Bhima-Koregaon, after some people carrying saffron flags pelted cars going towards the village with stones.

The violence spread to Mumbai and other parts of the state on January 2 and January 3, with protesters calling for a bandh across Maharashtra.

--IANS

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When the President of India takes the salute as the Supreme Commander at the Republic Day parade, he sends out a message to the forces to be prepared for any eventuality, and the celebration is a show of strength, former President Pranab Mukherjee said on Monday.

The President was speaking after receiving a copy of coffee table book "The Grandeur of Republic Day Celebrations - India - A Kaleidoscope of Cultural and Military Heritage".

The 300-page book contains pictures of the Republic Day parade, from the first one in 1950 to the present.

Talking about the history and traditions of the Republic Day, the former President said: "The President of India takes salute as the Supreme Commander of the armed forces. In doing so, he alerts the Army, Navy and the Air Force to be prepared to meet any eventuality until further orders..."

"It is an occasion of show of strength, when the country displays its arms, weapons and new defence acquisitions. Since it is ceremonial and cannot last long, on the day of Beating Retreat on January 29, the President summons the three wings of the armed forces and permits them to retreat," he said.

Mukherjee also highlighted the historical importance of choosing January 26 as the day for adopting the Constitution, as on the same day in 1930, the Indian National Congress in its session at Lahore had adopted the resolution of "Poorna Swaraj" -- complete self-rule, as approved by then Congress President Jawaharlal Nehru.

"Mahatma Gandhi himself declared 26th January as the Independence Day or as 'Sankalp for Swatantrata Diwas' and 1931 onwards, this was observed as the 'Swatantrata Sankalp Diwas' every year including in 1947-48," he said.

"Although, as agreed, power was transferred on the midnight of August 14-15, 1947 and that day began to be celebrated as Independence Day, the Constituent Assembly felt that 26th January should reflect its rightful historical importance and hence it was chosen to be the Republic Day," he added.

The book has contributions from veteran photographer Rupinder Khullar, Purnima Sharma, Lt. Gen. (Retired) Balraj Singh Nagal, Lt. Gen. (Retired) Rakesh Sharma, Director General of All India Radio Sitanshu Kar and Reeta Khullar, among others.

--IANS

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Raising questions about President Ram Nath Kovind's decision to okay the EC's recommendation to disqualify 20 AAP MLAs, party leader Ashutosh said the President should "contemplate if he has enhanced his stature in history" by the move.

Noting that former President K.R. Narayanan had returned for reconsideration questionable union cabinet decisions, the AAP leader indicated that President Kovind should have done the same with the Election Commission's proposal.

"President Ram Nath Kovind should himself contemplate if he has enhanced his stature in history as the President of the Republic of India by signing to disqualify AAP MLAs?" Ashutosh tweeted.

"Hope Mr President knows that K.R. Narayanan acted as the guardian of the Constitution, had courage of conviction to return the recommendations of the cabinet not once but twice."

"He was not a rubber stamp President, was a working President, a great President," he said.

Hitting out at Chief Election Commissioner Achal Kumar Joti, Ashutosh said his "misconduct" deserves to be debated.

"Time has come to think if ex-bureaucrats should be fit to be appointed as Election Commissioners.

"The (mis)conduct of Mr Joti deserves serious debate why men with independent integrity from the civil society should not be appointed as ECs," he said.

Kovind on Sunday approved the recommendation made by EC on Friday to disqualify 20 AAP MLAs for holding office of profit as Parliamentary Secretaries.

--IANS

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The Indian real estate sector witnessed an average price increase of 3.1 per cent in 46 per cent of the 750 localities across 14 major cities during October-December 2017, revealed Magicbricks PropIndex.

"After almost two years, the National Price Index of Magicbricks PropIndex had seen first price gain in July-September 2017 quarter and this positive sentiment continues in October-December 2017 with just under 1 per cent increment," said Sudhir Pai, CEO, Magicbricks.com. "This has further translated into 45 per cent of over 750 localities covered under PropIndex witnessing price increment."

Southern and western India continued to witness price gain in October-December 2017 quarter while northern and eastern regions were either stagnant or saw a marginal decline, the statement said quoting the quarterly report.

During the quarter ended December, southern markets including Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru witnessed a price rise in the real estate sector in a range of 1.5 to 3.5 per cent. In western markets including Ahmedabad, Pune, Thane, Mumbai and Navi Mumbai prices rose in a range of 0.5 to 1.5 per cent, the report said.

However, Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad regions in the north witnessed fall in prices by 1.5 to 1 per cent. Gurgaon and Delhi saw a price decline of approximately 1 per cent and Kolkata saw a marginal drop of around 0.25 per cent, it said.

The PropIndex also revealed that the "crucial Rs 3,000-6,000 per square feet bracket, which accounts for more than 50 per cent share of property searches", remained stable and ready-to-move properties at national level continued to command about 3.7 per cent premium over under construction properties.
Private life insurer Insurance Co Ltd on Monday said it has signed a comprehensive bancassurance agreement with rhw public sector Bank of Maharashtra.

In a statement here, said: "This partnership is aimed at enhancing the bank's customer proposition and positioning the bank as the most preferred financial services supermarket. This partnership further aims to maximise the distribution fee potential for the bank."

Under the deal, a bank is appointed as a corporate insurance agent to sell insurance policies. The tie-up will enable Insurance to further customer outreach.

"We are delighted to partner with Reliance Nippon Life Insurance as this partnership will further complement the bouquet of financial solutions viz protection, savings and investment solutions that we offer to our customers," Ravindra Marathe, Managing Director, Bank of Maharashtra, was quoted as saying in the statement.

According to him, Reliance Nippon Life Insurance, with a vast distribution coverage of over 700 branches, is uniquely positioned to service the bank's customers and distribution operations across urban and rural markets.

"Bank of Maharashtra presents a very large opportunity and we look forward to deploying technology enabled processes to harness this alliance. Our long-term protection and assured return product suite complements the offering from the Bank," Ashish Vohra, Executive Director & CEO, Reliance Nippon Life Insurance, was quoted as saying in the statement.

"This, together with the Bank's brand salience in its core markets, allows us to leverage our capabilities for maximizing value to our customers," Vohra added.
The Bangladesh authorities on Monday said they would not initiate the repatriation of Rohingyas within the stipulated period agreed with Myanmar two months ago, on the grounds that preparations for the refugees' return have not yet been completed.

Both the countries signed an agreement on November 23 to start the repatriation of the more than 688,000 Rohingyas who have arrived in Bangladesh since last August within two months.

Bangladeshi Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque said that the process would not begin on Tuesday as it had been agreed, Efe news reported.

Bangladesh's Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner, Abul Kalam, said that there was still much work to be done before the process could begin.

"We are busy in preparation. Initially, we have to build some physical infrastructure, a transit camp and we have to prepare the list based on family and village. These works are in progress," Kalam said.

He said that Myanmar would be informed once those preparations were complete and that the process would only begin once the Myanmar authorities had verified the information.

"Myanmar also has a lot of things to do to ensure a safe repatriation," he added.

Kalam, a member of the Joint Working Group in charge of the process, did not specify a time frame for the start of the repatriation.

On Sunday, the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry said that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees would be involved to ensure that the process is voluntary.

The UNHCR spokesperson in Cox's Bazar, the eastern Bangladeshi district where the Rohingya refugee camps are located, said he had no knowledge of when the process would begin.

The current crisis erupted on August 25 following an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group that led to a violent response by the Myanmar Army in the state of Rakhine, where it is calculated that around 1 million Rohingyas lived.

Members of the mostly Muslim minority community are not recognised by Myanmar's authorities, who consider them Bengali migrants, and refuse to grant them citizenship.

The UN and various human rights organisations have said there is clear evidence of rights abuses in Myanmar with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights calling the Army's operations "ethnic cleansing" and saying there were indications of "genocide".

Rohingya leaders drew up a list last week of minimum demands they said needed to be met before the refugees would agree to return. These include holding the military accountable for alleged killings, looting and rape, and releasing "innocent Rohingya" detained in counter-insurgency operations.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) reported in a statement released in December that at least 6,700 Rohingyas, including 730 children, had been killed in Myanmar in the first month of the crisis.

--IANS

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday accused the US and its allies of hindering a peaceful settlement in Syria and attempting to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Speaking at a press conference, Lavrov said that the United States aimed to create alternative power structures on a significant part of Syrian territory, Xinhua news agency reported .

For this purpose, Washington was supplying modern weapons to Kurdish militias in Syria and has announced the creation of a frontier security force alongside the border of Syria with Turkey and Iraq, he said.

At the same time, Washington is dissuading Syrian Kurds from a dialogue with Damascus, he added.

"Washington has actively stimulated and kept encouraging separatist tendencies among Kurds, completely ignoring the sensitive character and regional dimensions of the Kurdish problem," Lavrov said.

According to the Russian minister, the role of Kurds in the future political process in Syria should be guaranteed on the common platform of all Syrian religious and political factions.

It is on this basis that Kurdish representatives have been invited to participate in the Syrian National Dialogue Congress to be held next week in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Lavrov said.

Speaking about France's proposal to call an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the situation in Syria due to the Turkish military operation against Kurds in Syria's Afrin, Lavrov said Moscow was "worried about another manifestation of bias towards a certain development of the Syrian settlement."

He said that Paris insisted that the UN Security Council should examine not only the development in Afrin, but also the situation in the regions of Eastern Ghouta and Idlib.

Lavrov said that the West has been attempting for quite some time to create a "scandalous atmosphere" around those two regions, where the Syrian army successfully fought the Nusra Front militants.

In Lavrov's opinion, this proves once again the existence of a plan by the US and the US-led coalition to save the Nusra Front with the aim of using it for changing the existing regime in Syria.

"It is absolutely unacceptable for us and we will offer tough resistance to such attempts," Lavrov said.

--IANS

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The Supreme Court will hear on January 31 a CBI plea challenging the Madras High Court order staying a lookout circular against Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.

The Central Bureau of Investigation issued the lookout circular to bar Karti Chidambaram from travelling abroad as he is facing a probe in connection with alleged irregularities in the grant of FIPB clearance to INX Media Ltd. P. Chidambaram was then the Union Finance Minister.

The lookout circular has been issued against others also.

The Madras High Court had stayed the operation of the lookout circular on August 10, 2017 and the same was put on hold by the top court on August 14 on an appeal by the CBI.

The bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud directed the hearing on the plea as senior counsel Kapil Sibal urged the court to finally hear the matter which is pending since August last year.

Stressing that there was no question of jurisdiction as far as the lookout circular was concerned, Sibal told the bench that incapacitating Chidambaram junior from travelling abroad was adversely affecting him (Chidambaram).

The CBI has contended that the Madras High Court had no territorial jurisdiction to entertain the plea and stay the lookout circular.

Meanwhile, the top court permitted Mohanan Rajesh, a witness in the INX Media case, to go to Scotland to visit his son who is studying there.

Rajesh is a Director of Advantage Strategic Consultant, which the CBI says is owned by Karti Chidambaram.

Karti Chidambaram has denied any link with Advantage Strategic Consultant.

Permitting Rajesh to go abroad from January 27 to February 5, the court said that he "shall file an undertaking within three days hence, indicating his flight details and that he would come back by February 5, 2018".

"If the undertaking is not complied with, the applicant respondent shall face such consequences as may be deemed fit and proper," it said.

--IANS

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Over three dozen masked people on Monday attacked and vandalised shops in Raheja Mall, located on Sohna Road here, where controversial Bollywood movie "Padmaavat" is scheduled to be released on January 25, police said.

The eateries in the mall were mostly targeted by them.

A group of nearly three dozen people with their faces covered first blocked the traffic on the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway. They also gathered on the Narsinghpur stretch of the expressway and blocked the traffic for some time.

The expressway was also blocked for some time by unidentified persons at Khandsa Road in the district.

"We are trying to find out whether the people involved in vandalism in the mall and those blocking the road were the same," a senior police officer told IANS

Earlier in the day, Shri Rajput Karni Sena chief Lokendra Singh Kalvi said: "The governments are all set to release of Bollywood movie 'Padmaavat' after the Supreme Court's order. We too are prepared to stop the Sanjay Leela Bhansali's flick which has a doctored version of the great history of the country."

Speaking to media persons, Kalvi spoke strongly against the release of the period drama, starring Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor, demanding "nothing less than nation-wide ban on the movie".

After facing protests since the film went on the floors, "Padmaavat" is set for worldwide release on January 25.

Protests against the Bhansali directorial took a violent turn in the past, with the Karni Sena and other fringe outfits vandalising the film's sets, issuing threats to Deepika and Bhansali and even demanding that the film not see the light of day.

Kalvi said that the film had hurt their community's sentiments by showing a dream sequence between Rani Padmini, the titular character played by Deepika, and Muslim ruler Alauddin Khilji, portrayed by Ranveer Singh.

He said he received a letter from Bhansali on Sunday assuring to show him the movie before its release, but he had not mentioned the date and time, as also when and where the film would be shown. He said: "I have sent reply to the letter."

Asked about the protests against the movie in various states by Karni Sena activiats, Kalvi said: "These were not communal. We have all right to protest peacefully."

"Bhansali earlier decided to release the movie on December 1, but he could not. He will not be successful to bring it to cinema halls even on January 25, though he has changed the film's name from 'Padmavati' to 'Padmaavat'..."

--IANS

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Sagar Island (Sundarbans): Kalyani Mandal has gone way past hope. Living in Dhoblat Shibpur, a coastal village on this island in the Sundarbans estuary, her house has been washed away by the sea thrice in 10 years. "How many times can you make a fresh start?" she asks despairingly.

Sagar, a large island of 160,000 residents at the confluence of the Ganga and the Bay of Bengal, perhaps depicts how people are fighting a losing battle against an increasingly hostile sea brought on by global warming. It shows the worst effects of climate change -- coastal erosion, rising sea levels, unpredictable tidal surges, land salinity and more violent cyclonic storms.

The story of Sagar is repeated across the Sundarbans archipelago of 102 islands, out of which 54 are inhabited. Some of these islands -- Bedford, Lohachara, Kabasgadi and Suparibhanga -- have already sunk into the sea. Others like Ghoramara and Mousuni, which are thickly populated, are rapidly losing land; and it's just a matter of time before they too are lost.

Halfway across the world, the same human tragedy is repeated in the islands of Tuvalu, Kiribati and Fiji. Kiribati, an island nation in the Pacific, is home to just about 110,000 people living on some 30 atolls and reef islands. It straddles the equator, where the sea level rise is double the global average. "The home of our people and our culture is in jeopardy. My country is sinking into the sea," Anote Tong, former president of Kiribati, said at the Bonn climate summit in November.

Tong in 2014 finalised the purchase of 20 sq. km on Vanua Levu, one of the Fiji islands, about 2,000 km away. "We would hope not to put everyone on (this) one piece of land, but if it became absolutely necessary, yes, we could do it," he had said at that time.

The plight of low-lying islands in the face of climate change has captured global attention. The annual global climate summit in November 2017 was held under the presidency of Fiji, underlining the importance of urgent action to contain global warming to within 2 degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrialised times under the Paris Agreement.

The Pacific island nations, who contribute nothing to climate change, are the ones who suffer most from its impacts. "In another generation or two, my people will have no homeland," Tafue Lusama, general secretary of Tuvalu Christian Church and spokesman for his nation, said in Bonn. Tuvalu, a tiny nation of six coral atolls, three reef islands, and 10,000 people, has been vigorously demanding climate justice as an active member of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS).

Even as the international community rightly turns its gaze towards the Pacific islands since they are indeed sinking rapidly, the imminent danger to islands in the Sundarbans where millions more live has received scant attention. "There has been around 250 sq km land loss from southern sea-facing islands over the last 45 years," Sugata Hazra, Director of the School of Oceanographic Studies in Jadavpur University in Kolkata, had said in an earlier interview.

Millions are affected and displaced due to sudden onset of climate change impacts such as violent cyclonic storms and this is particularly true for the Sundarbans region that straddles Bangladesh and India, according to Aminul Haque of the Coastal Association for Social Transformation Trust (COAST) in Bangladesh. "Global cooperation is absolutely necessary if we are to address the issue of climate refugees," Haque told thethirdpole.net.

It is inevitable that a large number of people will be displaced from the islands of Sundarbans, particularly in India because they are thickly populated, says ecological economist Nilanjan Ghosh, senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and consultant to WWF India. According to a study led by him, some 1.5 million people have to be permanently relocated outside the Sundarbans due to the fast rise in sea levels. "A conflict-free organic movement of the population is a challenge," Ghosh told thethirdpole.net. "But given the inevitability of sea level rise, we have no option but to strategize for a planned retreat and ecosystem regeneration."

India needs proactive steps to address the crisis at Sundarbans and also bring up it at international platforms, according to Harjeet Singh, global lead on climate change for ActionAid International. "The people who are displaced or are forced to migrate due to climate change must be provided legal protection through the United Nations Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage," he said. "Developing nations such as India and Bangladesh need support so that large-scale migration does not lead to conflict over scarce resources."

However, it would be futile for India to raise the issue globally unless the government takes some action on the ground to help people to cope, according to Anurag Danda, Programme Lead of Climate Change Adaptation at WWF India. "We are talking about loss and damage on a massive scale and the business-as-usual model of development funding is no longer sufficient," he told thethirdpole.net.

Although experts are unanimous that action must be taken, both the federal and state governments seem to be indifferent to the impending crisis.

(In arrangement with indiaclimatedialogue.net, with whom Soumya Sarkar is Managing Editor. Views expressed are those of the website. Feedback at information@indiaclimatedialogue.net)

--IANS

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Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, in an open letter to the people of the city, on Monday sought support against the disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs on charges of holding "office of profit".

The BJP attacked the AAP over the letter and dared it to contest all the 70 seats in Delhi.

In the letter tweeted by Sisodia, he blamed the BJP-led Centre for hampering the work of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party in the city.

He said the Centre was scared of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's rising "popularity across the country".

Noting that President Ram Nath Kovind has approved the Election Commission's recommendation to disqualify 20 AAP MLAs, he said this was "yet again" the Centre that was creating hindrance in the growth of Delhi.

Sisodia said that the charges based on the "office of profit" against these MLAs were "false" as they "were not given any government vehicles, bungalows or salary".

"They were working without getting any benefits with the passion to make a contribution to the development of the city," he wrote.

He added that the BJP has put a "full stop" to the growth of Delhi by "imposing" elections for these 20 Vidhan Sabha seats. Public money would be "unnecessarily" wasted to conduct them, he wrote.

Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party chief Manoj Tiwari then attacked Kejriwal over this open letter and dared the Aam Aadmi Party to contest on all the 70 seats.

"People's answer: Don't write letters and instead of contesting for the 20 seats, contest on all 70 seats," Tiwari said in a tweet, attaching the open letter by Sisodia.

Tiwari advised Kejriwal to save his image and present himself before the people's court.

--IANS

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Spanish Supreme Court Judge Pablo Llarena on Monday rejected a request by the Spanish state prosecutor's office for a European arrest warrant for exiled former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont.

Puigdemont travelled from Belgium to Denmark on Monday to attend a conference at a university, Xinhua news agency reported.

Llanera argued that Puigdemont's visit to Denmark was a strategy for the former Catalan leader to be arrested in order to "force a context in which he would be able to delegate his vote as if he was in the same situation as those who are currently at the disposition of this court and who have been provisionally denied their liberty."

This is a reference to Puigdemont's former deputy Oriol Junqueras and the representatives in the Catalan regional assembly, Joaquim Form and Jordi Sanchez, who have been able to delegate their vote in the assembly elected on December 21, even though they are in prison facing charges of rebellion, sedition; while Junqueras faces trail for the misuse of public funds.

Llanera argued that Puigdemont's trip had "no other aim other than to provoke his arrest" to allow him to participate in the forthcoming investiture debate.

Puigdemont has been in exile in Belgium since the start of November after leaving Spain in the wake of the Catalan independence referendum and unilateral declaration of independence.

The Supreme Court had previously issued a European arrest warrant when he originally travelled to Belgium only to withdraw it because Belgium does not have a crime which is the exact equivalent of rebellion.

--IANS

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Geneva, Jan 22 (IANS/AKI) Help for humanitarian crises is directly linked to the media attention these receive, Filippo Grandi, head of the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, said Monday, urging political leaders to take on the world's "forgotten crises".

"The media plays a vital role in drawing public attention to forgotten and neglected crises," he said as international aid organisation CARE launched a new study of the most under-reported humanitarian crises of 2017.

CARE's 'Suffering in Silence' study covers North Korea, Eritrea, Burundi, Sudan, Central African Republic, DRC, Mali, Lake Chad Basin (Niger, Cameroon, Chad), Vietnam and Peru.

"Political leaders must step up and shoulder responsibility for tackling today's forgotten crises.

"Despite the tragic consequences for the lives of millions affected by conflict and displacement, the gap between humanitarian needs and available funding continues to exist. The outlook for 2018 is grim," Grandi warned.

Poor governance, growing poverty, inequality and climate change are fuelling these conflicts and the political will to resolve them is "weak", he added.

--IANS/AKI

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Nobel laureate and micro-finance founder Muhammad Yunus on Monday termed the existing banking model as "banks for the rich" and suggested there should be banks for the poor to boost the economic status of people.

"... The banks that exist today, how do you describe them? If our model of Grameen Bank (in Bangladesh) is called the bank for the poor, they should be called the bank for the rich," Yunus said during a session on his new book "World of Three Zeroes" at the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet here.

"The traditional banks naturally do not lend money to the poor. But sometimes either because of the government or because of the politics, they are forced to do so. There should be banks for the poor," he said.

In 1983, Younus formed the Grameen Bank, meaning 'village bank' to finance the poorest of the poor, like beggars. Grameen now has 2,564 branches, with 19,800 staff serving 8.29 million borrowers in 81,367 villages of Bangladesh.

He said the banks which traditionally cater to the rich, often compound the problem when they are asked to lend money to the poor, as "they do not know how to do that".

"So they make a mess of it. So to help the poor you should first create banks for the poor, which is a completely different system," the acclaimed economist said.

Terming as "dangerous" the present scenario of concentration of wealth in the hands of a small number of people, Yunus warned that people will not accept such a system in the long run that takes everything away from the poor and makes the rich richer.

"When we consider the wealth distribution in the world, people often talk about an imagery of the pyramid and say how the poor are at the bottom of the pyramid. But I do not see any pyramid.

"The best explanation of it would be a mushroom. The upper part of the mushroom keeps growing all the time, all the wealth of the world is reflected in the mushroom. That mushroom is owned by a dozen people and now the number is coming down to less than a dozen.

"So the number of owners is decreasing but the shape of the mushroom is increasing, and that is the dangerous part of wealth concentration. The stem part of the mushroom is becoming thinner and thinner. That is the 99.9 percent of the population," he pointed out.

Replying to a query, he said poverty is not created by the poor people themselves, but by the system "we built around us".

"You take the seed of a tall tree in the forest, and a good seed of that tree, and plant it in a flower pot, and let it grow. The seed will grow. But the tree will grow only two feet or two and half feet.

"Poor people are bonsai people. There is nothing wrong with the seed. But simply, society didn't give them space to grow as tall as everybody else."

He said the current economic system will explode if it is not changed completely to reverse the flow of wealth.

"This is like a ticking time bomb. It would explode anytime. When I am asked if the humans would survive, the consumers would survive for the next 100 years, I say no. If we keep the system functioning as it is, it will explode. People will kill each other. Because it is just not possible to accept a system that sucks everything from the bottom and pushes it to the top," he warned.

"The people at the top are not bad people, but the system has to be changed completely so that the system becomes reverse. Instead of the wealth moving to the mushroom, the wealth starts coming to the 99 percent people who are at the bottom," he added.

--IANS

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Film director Martin McDonagh's "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" won three awards, including the marquee film ensemble prize, at the 24th annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards here on Sunday.

Actress Frances McDormand won for her lead role, and Sam Rockwell won for supporting role, reports deadline.com.

Actor Gary Oldman continued his awards-season run, winning Lead Actor for his performance as Winston Churchill in "Darkest Hour".

On the small screen side, there were two wins for "This Is Us" -- Ensemble in a Drama Series and Sterling K. Brown for Male Actor. "Big Little Lies" and "Veep" also won two honours each.

Actors Nicole Kidman and Alexander Skarsgard took trophies for playing unconventional spouses in "Big Little Lies", and "Veep" was voted the winner for Comedy Ensemble, with lead Julia Louis-Dreyfus also winning for the Selina Meyer role.

Dreyfus has been undergoing chemo treatments and was unable to attend the ceremony.

She tweeted: "I wish I could have been at SAG Awards tonight but have to admit it's pretty fun to watch in my pj's. So honoured to win. So proud to be a union member. So happy for my 'Veep' bozos for winning ensemble award. Miss being at the table with you all. How was the chicken?"

It was also Kidman's first win in her 10th nomination.

Hollywood veteran star Morgan Freeman accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award.

After accepting the honour from Rita Moreno, he said backstage: "I got on stage first time when I was eight and I played 'Little Boy Blue' in a pageant. By 12, there was no question (he wanted to be an actor."

He later blew off a reporter's question about whether Hollywood awards are "too white." Instead, he focused on the career honour.

"You have to give that some thought because the title is Life Achievement. The inference might be to get off the stage, you're done. My hope is that is not the case and they were saying congratulations, so far."

--IANS

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Businesses urgently need decisions on to protect British jobs and growth, the head of the Confederation of British Industry has warned in a message on Brexit.

The Confederation of British Industry on Sunday released a draft of a keynote speech Director General Carolyn Fairbairn is to make on Monday at the University of Warwick in Central England, Xinhua news agency reported.

Fairbairn says 2018 must be the year of hard choices, based on evidence not ideology, in a message targeted at politicians negotiating Britain's departure from the European Union.

Fairbairn will call for a status quo, jobs-first transition deal to be nailed down in the next 70 days to remove the cliff edge for firms.

"A united UK view is needed by April - allowing talks to begin that month and unambiguous heads of terms agreed with the EU by October," she says.

Urging rapid agreement on the shape of a new deal, the leader of Britain's biggest business organisations suggests neither the Canada nor Norway models have with the EU represent the best solution for business or for Britain.

The Canada model, she says, "is an ocean away from what we need. We can't afford higher barriers to trade, and nor can the EU," adding "the Canada-deal rules of origin are as long as The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and a lot less fun to read."

To achieve a good Brexit both sets of negotiators must revisit red lines, putting economics before to protect jobs and communities on both sides of the Channel, her message continues.

Fairbairn calls for a comprehensive customs union between the UK and the EU as a "practical, real-world answer" that goes a long way towards solving some of the complex issues, including the Irish border question, raised by the UK's exit from the EU.

For the final deal urges negotiators to adopt a simple principle "start with the rules we already share, and move on from there. They have been 40 years in the making and support millions of jobs and communities across the UK and Europe."

Businesses are not looking for a referendum re-run, but do need a good Brexit deal to keep investing and creating jobs, she concludes.

"Firms warmly welcomed progress in December but January has brought a cold dose of reality. The EU is adamant the only options are existing models that don't serve either side. The UK team can't agree with itself, let alone with the EU. There's too much ideology, too little urgency," she says.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rome, Jan 22 (IANS/AKI) The Italian government on Monday urged the European Union to back democracy in Tunisia, calling it a "model" for the Mediterranean region.

"The EU should ensure support for the young democracy of Tunisia, which is a model in the Mediterranean," tweeted Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, who is currently attending a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Brussels.

Tunisia has been hit by a wave of protests this month and rallies have taken place in at least 10 different areas after the government raised value-added tax and social contributions, and increased some prices on goods in its 2018 budget.

Over 800 people have been held during the unrest since January 7, the Interior Ministry said last week. Demonstrators accused police of a violent crackdown.

Tunisia has struggled economically since Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was deposed as president in 2011 at the start of the so-called Arab Spring uprisings and protesters argue conditions have not improved since.

--IANS/AKI

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 18 civilians have been killed in the Turkish military campaign against Syria's Kurdish-held Afrin enclave in northern Syria, a monitor group has reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deaths occurred in Afrin and surrounding villages, as Turkey started its offensive on Saturday by airstrikes and shelling and commenced its ground incursion on Sunday to drive out the Kurdish forces from border areas between Syria and Turkey, Xinhua reported.

Kurdish activists said 11 civilians, including six children and women, were killed and 16 wounded on Sunday in Afrin by the Turkish fire.

The Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, said four of its fighters were killed as well as 10 fighters of the Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) since Saturday when the Turkish-backed forces attempted to storm several border villages of Afrin.

An official in the YPG, Mahmoud Bardakhan, declared on Sunday the beginning of a "revolutionary campaign against the Turkish enemy" and FSA, which is involved in the Turkish campaign against Afrin.

Kurdish activists said the Kurdish fighters took several FSA fighters as captives during the military showdown in Afrin.

Meanwhile, Kurdish activists said Intense battles raged between the YPG and the Turkish army on the outskirts of the Adama town in the countryside of Afrin after the attempt of the Turkish army to advance int the town.

For his part, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Sunday that the "Turkish aggression on Afrin cannot be separated from the Turkish policies undertaken since the first day of the Syrian crisis to support terrorism and the terrorist groups in Syria."

Earlier in the day, Ankara said it had begun the ground incursion into Afrin, a day after intense shelling and airstrikes that marked the beginning of the Turkish campaign against the Kurdish fighters in Syria.

Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged on Sunday that the military campaign in Afrin would be over in a "short time," describing the military campaign as a "national struggle."

Turkey's military operation in Afrin aims to deal a strong blow to the Kurdish fighters and weaken their growing influence in northern Syria near Turkey.

The operation came particularly after the Kurdish forces defeated the Islamic State in Syria's northern province of Raqqa, and when the US is forming 30,000-strong border forces from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and other Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.
An Afghan staff member of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) was killed and a female Afghan UN employee was kidnapped after they were ambushed while travelling in a car here on Monday, the police said.

The incident occurred at around 6.10 a.m. in the north of the capital, Kabul Police spokesperson Basir Mujahid told Efe news, adding that the driver of the vehicle was still missing.

"We are investigating the incident in collaboration with a UN delegation to clarify if the driver is involved in the incident or if he was also abducted with the woman," said Mujahid, adding that the people involved in the incident were all Afghans.

According to the spokesperson, the UNAMA staff member's body was found inside the vehicle.

Some possessions of the kidnapped UN employee were found near a car which police believe belonged to the kidnappers.

Abductions of international organization employees are relatively common, often with the aim of getting a ransom or securing militants' freedom in exchange.

A year ago, a Spanish volunteer at Red Cross was released after spending almost a month in captivity in Kunduz province.

The Taliban also kidnapped a US professor and an Australian from the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul in August 2016. The insurgents had urged the US to release prisoners in exchange for the professors' freedom. They remain in Taliban captivity.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
King Abdullah II of Jordan has said the US needs to rebuild trust to achieve the two-state solution that entails creating an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The King made the remarks on Sunday at a meeting with visiting US Vice President Mike Pence, during which the US official said his country was committed to the two-state solution if it is agreed by both Israel and the Palestinians, Xinhua news agency reported.

The King said the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a key factor that caused instability in the region, adding that he repeatedly underlined his deep concern about Jerusalem and that it should be resolved via direct talks.

He said Jerusalem is as dear to the Muslims and Christians as it is to the Jews and it is the key to stability in the region, expressing hope that the US would find the right path to move forward in such difficult conditions.

The King said Jordan is intensifying its efforts to resolve the Palestinian issue to reach a last and just solution, stressing the importance of the partnership between Jordan and the US to achieve stability and peace and combat terrorism.

Pence said he was asked by US President Donald Trump to visit Jordan to discuss several issues that are of concern to the region and the two countries.

He voiced appreciation for Jordan's role and courage in fighting terrorism including the Islamic State (IS), adding that his country will continue to work with Jordan to uproot IS, underlining the need for continued coordination on Syria.

Referring to Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, he said the US President respects Jordan's role as custodian of the holy sites.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The US Senate will vote on a bill on Monday to end the federal government shutdown, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said.

McConnell said the Senate will vote on a bill at noon to fund the government until February 8, cancelling an earlier planned vote at 1 a.m. on Monday, the US media reported.

If the government is open, "it would be my intention to proceed to legislation that would address DACA, border security and related issues," McConnell said on the Senate floor, referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme that prevents the deportation of young immigrants, a key demand of Democrats.

"Importantly, when I proceed to the immigration debate, it will have an amendment process that is fair to all sides," he said.

But Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor on Sunday that "we have yet to reach an agreement" on reopening the government and immigration, CNN reported.

Under Senate rules, the three-week stopgap spending bill needs 60 votes in the 100-member chamber to overcome blocking tactics by opponents.

The Republicans currently have 51 senators and would need some Democratic support to pass a budget. But President Donald Trump said the "nuclear option" of a simple-majority vote was necessary.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas said he thought Schumer agreed to push back the vote to give his caucus "a chance to chew" on a GOP proposal to break the impasse.

A top Democratic leadership aide said unless Republicans make significant changes to their offer, Democrats will likely reject it when the vote comes at noon.

The Democratic aide did say, however, that progress was made in the lengthy negotiations that took place late Sunday night. But more talks were needed.

The effects of government shutdown will be more visible on Monday, when federal agencies and financial markets open, and thousands of non-essential federal employees were expected to be furloughed.

The last government shutdown, in October 2013, lasted for 16 days and about 850,000 federal employees were furloughed.

The current government funding expired on Friday midnight as the Senate failed to advance a stopgap spending bill, which had passed the House of Representatives and would fund the government through February 16.

Democrats had hoped that they could use the government spending as leverage to pass an immigration bill, while Republicans and the Trump administration insisted that they would not negotiate on immigration until Democrats give them enough votes to reopen the government.

Speaking to US troops in the Middle East, Vice President Mike Pence reiterated his party's stance.

"We're not going to reopen negotiations on illegal immigration until they reopen the government and give you, our soldiers and your families, the benefits and wages you've earned," he said.

The US budget must be approved by October 1 -- the start of the federal financial year.
Violence and arson erupted in parts of BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Haryana ahead of Thursday's release of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's controversial period drama "Padmaavat" as the Karni Sena, an extremist Rajput group, on Monday warned of "enormous outburst of people" if the movie was released.

Protests and acts of vandalism were reported from various parts of Madhya Pradesh, including in Indore, Ujjain and Jhabua on Monday.

Activists of Karni Sena, which is at the forefront of the anti-"Padmaavat" protests because they claim the movie shows medieval Rajput queen Padmavati in not so honorable light -- held demonstration in Ujjain to demand state-wide ban on the movie.

They also staged blockades by burning tyres on roads connecting Ujjain to Nagda, Dewas to Maksi and Agar to Kota.

The highway to Ujjain was blocked for hours, while police said that Karni Sena activists tried to hijack a truck and set it on fire in Indore.

Deputy Inspector General Hari Narayan Chari Mishra told IANS that protesters were forcibly removed from many places.

In Bhopal, members of the Rajput group, held demonstration outside Jyoti Talkies and warned of consequences if the film was released.

Meanwhile, a group of women, representing the Rajput community, left Ratlam for Rajasthan's Chittorgarh where they will stage a protest.

Violence was also reported from Haryana where some miscreants vandalised Kessel Mall in Kurukshetra late on Sunday.

Abhishek Garg, Superintendent of Police, Kutukshetra, said that a case was registered against "unknown persons for rioting" after a group of people vandalised the mall.

He said it was not known if they were protesting against the movie but "there is a possibility" that the vandalism was against the release of film.

In Rajasthan, Rajput Karni Sena chief Lokendra Singh Kalvi on Monday said he would not allow the movie be released "at any cost" and warned that if cinema halls went ahead with the release it would lead to an "enormous outburst of people".

He also urged other state governments that want a ban to come together to approach the Supreme Court.

"We will not allow the film to be released at any cost. The Supreme Court has directed the state governments to ensure release of the film, but not to us," Kalvai told IANS.

"Padmaavat" is scheduled to release nationwide on Thursday. The Karni Sena and some other groups claim the film distorts history.

Meanwhile, the Karni Sena in its reply to Bhansali's invite to watch "Padmaavat" asked the noted producer if the "objectionable scenes" of the film will be cut on its suggestions.

Sources confirmed that the Karni Sena, in the letter, also wanted to know if they ask for postponing of the film's scheduled January 25 release, would Bhansali agree.

The Rajput group also asked why the film was not shown to all nine veterans who were earlier chosen by the CBFC and why it was shown only to three of them. Despite sending them an invite and being shown the film, why were their suggestions ignored and not paid heed to, the letter asks.

The Haryana and Madhya Pradesh governments have decided not to allow the screening of the film in the states even as the Supreme Court will hear on Tuesday a plea by Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan seeking to block the release of the controversial movie.

The counsels for the two states on Monday mentioned the matter for urgent hearing seeking modification/clarification of the court's January 18 order that stayed notification/orders of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana government banning the release of the film in the three states.

The court by the said order had directed that no state government would issue order that might come in the way of the release of Bhansali directorial "Padmaavat" on January 25.

An advocate of the Karni Sena will also be represented in the top court on Tuesday.
Actor-politician Pawan Kalyan, who launched his 'praja yatra' in Telangana on Monday, said his Jana Sena party will do constructive in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

He told reporters in Karimnagar town that he will not unnecessarily pick up fights with the governments or make statements to create political instability.

The actor said Jana Sena will study people's issues and try to resolve them by bringing them to the notice of the respective governments.

Pawan said the number of seats his party will contest in both the Telugu states will be decided before the elections. "We will contest wherever we are strong and this will be decided in consultation with the party workers."

On his maiden political tour after announcing last year that Jana Sena will contest the 2019 elections in both the states, he said he will interact with party workers over the next two days. The party will thoroughly study the people's problems in Telangana.

He defended his recent meeting with Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. The Jana Sena chief said Rao played a key role in the formation of Telangana and that was why people reposed faith in him.

He also praised the Chief Minister, saying he was working hard to solve people's problems.

The actor announced that he will launch 'praja yatra' in Andhra Pradesh on January 27 from Anantapur. He will visit Ongole to study the problems faced by people due to fluorosis and kidney ailments. This will be followed by a visit to tribal areas in Visakhapatnam district.

Earlier, Kalyan began his tour after worshipping at a temple at Kondagattu in Jagtiyal district.

The Jana Sena party chief, who along with a large number of supporters and fans reached the town from Hyderabad, offered prayers at Anjaneyaswamy temple. He also donated Rs 11 lakh to the temple.

Earlier, the actor left Hyderabad after his Anna Lezhneva performed some religious rituals. The motorcade of 50 vehicles reached Kondagattu in the afternoon.

Before the start of 'yatra', Kalyan formally launched social media handle of Veera Mahila, the women's wing of the party. He said it would focus on women security and empowerment.

Kalyan had campaigned for the TDP-BJP alliance in the 2014 election but distanced himself from both the parties last year.

Pawan, who himself plans to contest from Andhra Pradesh, chose Kodangattu to launch his political campaign as it was here that he had a narrow escape when a high tension wire fell on him during campaigning in the 2009 elections.

Pawan was then campaigning for Praja Rajyam, the party floated by his elder brother and superstar Chiranjeevi.

After the defeat in the 2014 elections, Chiranjeevi merged his party with the Congress.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu on Monday said that the Indian delegation led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will closely interact with global leaders and major corporations at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

According to the minister, the delegation will elucidate the opportunities present in India and understand the needs of the global companies and financial institutions to further enhance their presence in the country.

"In Davos, we will engage with them, talk to them, understand them, forge new relationships with them...," Prabhu said here.

"... We will work with all the global leaders, companies, technologists, financial institutions and financial private equity players, all of them, So that they should know what India is and so that they can align their interests with new India, so that they can also benefit and we can also benefit."

The minister spoke on the sideline of the "Asean-India Business and Investment Meet and Expo" being held here.

The minister informed that Prime Minister Modi will be meeting "top leaders of the world" and will also engage with CEOs through a series of meetings.

The WEF 2018, to be held from January 23-26, will be attended by 350 political leaders, including over 60 heads of state or government, and CEOs of the world's major companies.

Modi will be the first Prime Minister from India to participate in a forum meeting in two decades after the then Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda in 1997.

The main event in Davos will be the keynote speech of Modi at the plenary session on January 23.

An array of central ministers will take part in various group sessions at the WEF 2018.

Besides Prabhu, who leaves for the mega event on Monday night, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan as well as the respective Ministers of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh and for the External Affairs Ministry M.J. Akbar will also be attending the WEF 2018.

Even two states -- Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra -- will be represented at Davos through their Chief Ministers Chandrababu Naidu and Devendra Fadnavis, respectively.

The theme of AWEF 2018 is "Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World", the statement said.

According to observers here, Modi's first visit to WEF is an opportunity to interact with foreign investors following the implementation of the major structural reform of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), as well as the demonetisation measure of November 2016.

--IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Shri Rajput Karni Sena chief Lokendra Singh Kalvi on Monday said he would not allow Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Padmaavat" to be released "at any cost" and warned that if cinema halls went ahead with the January 25 release it would lead to an "enormous outburst of people".

He also urged other state governments that want a ban to come together to approach the Supreme Court.

Speaking to IANS, Kalvi said: "We will not allow the film to be released at any cost. The Supreme Court has directed the state governments to ensure release of the film, but not to us (Karni Sena).

"Once the film is released, the outburst of people will be enormous and cinema halls will be responsible for the cost.

"I request other state governments who had earlier declared they would ban the film to come forward and file a petition in the Supreme Court to stop the release of the film."

Kalvi's comments come as the apex court is to hear on Tuesday a plea by the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan governments seeking to block the release of "Padmaavat".

The counsels for the two states on Monday mentioned the matter for urgent hearing seeking modification/clarification of the court's January 18 order that stayed notification/orders of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana government banning the release of the film in the three states.

The court had directed that no state government would issue an order that might come in the way of the release of "Padmaavat" on January 25.

The Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh governments have moved the apex court taking the support of the Cinematograph Act where movie screening can be stopped on grounds of law and order in the state.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The disqualification of 20 Aam Aadmi Party legislators on the ground of their holding an office of profit as parliamentary secretaries should be fiercely debated both politically and legally.

One of the basic questions that arises is, when their very appointment as such secretary had been quashed by the Delhi High Court in 2016 on the ground that these were made without the approval of the Lieutenant Governor, can these legislators then still be deemed parliamentary secretaries at all? It is pertinent to point out what the High Court in effect had ...
A class XIIth student today gunned down his school principal over alleged blasphemy in Pakistan's restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, police said.

The incident occurred within the premises of privately- run Islamia College in Charsadda district.

Sareer Khan was killed by Fahim Ashraf who was later arrested with a gun, district police chief Zahoor Afridi said.

"The student was raising slogans at the time of his arrest that he killed a blasphemer but so far no evidence of blasphemy has been found against the victim," Afridi said.

Sources in the college contradicted blasphemy claims, saying that the principal had Masters of Arts (MA) degree in Islamic Studies and was also a Hafiz-e-Quran, meaning he had memorised the entire Holy Quran.

Ashraf was angry at the principal who marked him absent when he missed classes for three consecutive days in November last year to attend a protest by religious groups, they said.

He also had an argument with the principal over the issue some days back.

Afridi said that an investigation was being carried out and facts would be made public.

Meanwhile, college students and relatives of the accused blocked a road and disrupted traffic but the district administration pacified them.

Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in Pakistan and people have been killed in the past on mere suspicion.

Mashal Khan, a university student, was lynched last year by a mob of fellow students in Charsadda over alleged blasphemy, which was never proved by the police.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 25 students of Pakistan's Punjab University were injured here today during a violent clash between two student groups over holding a festival on the campus.

The clash took place between the Islami Jamiat Tulba (IJT) and Pakhtun-Baloch student council, at the hostels and on campus of the varsity which has around 40,000 students.

As the injured were shifted to Shaikh Zayed Hospital for treatment the protesting students of IJT blocked roads outside the varsity and set ablaze two police vehicles.

University spokesman Khurram Shahzad said the clash between the two groups broke out over the issue of holding the annual Pioneer Festival by the IJT.

He said the varsity administration called police after the clash. He said those involved in the violence will be identified through CCTV cameras, adding that 25 students have been injured in the clash and their condition is out of danger.

Lahore police chief Amin Wains said the situation in the varsity is now under control.

"We have taken some students into custody on the spot. More arrests will be made on the list of students provided by the varsity administration," he said.

IJT spokesman Taimur Khan said it had made arrangements regarding the pioneer festival at Chemistry department when the Pakhtun and Baloch students attacked those present there in the early hours today.

They also set the department's laboratory on fire, he said, alleging that the varsity administration is patronising the Pakhtun-Baloch council.

The council spokesman claimed the IJT activists beat Pakhtun students.

Vice Chancellor Zakariyah Zakir said the university is identifying the suspects through CCTV footage. He claimed outsiders played a major role in the clash.

"The chemistry lab was set on fire at 4:45 am when there was no activity at the university. This shows that the act is nothing more than a ploy to discredit the university," the VC said, adding criminal cases will be registered against those involved in the violence.

The administration is considering closing the varsity for a few days to maintain complete control over the situation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least three people were killed and 10 others injured today in a highway pile-up involving more than a dozen vehicles in Haryana because of dense fog, the police said.

Fifteen vehicles collided around 7.30 am on a flyover on the National Highway 44 between Gharaunda and Panipat about 100 km from New Delhi, said Harjinder Singh, station house officer, Gharaunda.

Two people on a motorcycle lost their lives, while an occupant of a car was also killed in the collision, he said.

The men on the motorcycle were from Karnal, while the other hailed from Patiala, Punjab, Singh added.

The incident led to traffic disruption at the busy national highway, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Three persons of a family, including two women, were today killed and two others injured after the car they were travelling in plunged into a gorge in Rajasthan's Bundi district after the driver lost control.

The incident occurred around 1 am at the Kota-Udaipur national highway when the family was returning to Kota after distributing wedding cards to relatives in Bhilwara.

The mishap is most likely to have occurred after the driver dozed off while the car was at high speed, causing the car to fall off the height of 10 to 12 feet, Assistant Sub- Inspector at Dabi police station, Irshad Khan said.

The three deceased were identified as Sampat Kumar Sharma (57),his wife Seema Devi (52), and their daughterin-law Neetu Sharma (36), Khan said.

Two other of the family, identified as Manish and granddaughter of the deceased couple Jiya Sharma (9), who is stated to be in critical condition, sustained injuries in the mishap, he said.

Samapat Sharma was killed on the spot while other succumbed to injuries during treatment at a private hospital in Kota, a police official said.

Sampat Sharma's body was handed over to the family after postmortem as the family members refused for the postmortem of two other bodies, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President Ram Nath Kovind today said the fourth industrial revolution and technological advances will together make certain jobs obsolete, but also create new opportunities.

He said it is up to the institutions of higher learning to respond to changes being brought by rapid progress in the industrial and technological fields.

Speaking at the 66th convocation of the Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) here, Kovind laid emphasis on for the betterment of society.

"The nature of our economy and concept of a workplace is changing. The fourth industrial revolution and advances in digitisation and robotics will together make certain jobs obsolete and also create new opportunities.

"How our society copes with these dramatic changes will depend on how our institutions of higher learning respond to them," he said.

Kovind said only can help young people cope with these changes.

"It is crucial to harness energy of our young people and use it to make our country a developed society. is fundamental to this effort," he said.

Kovind paid rich tribute to Sayajirao Gaekwad III, the late ruler of the erstwhile princely state of Baroda, for making primary education compulsory and establishing the MSU for enabling people to get higher education.

"Though Gaekwad III was a monarch, he took this bold step of making primary education compulsory in his state. That is why Vadodara is known worldwide for its educational activities," the president said.

Kovind devoted much of his 24-minute speech to Gaekwad III (1875 to 1939), considered a visionary and dynamic ruler.

The president mentioned the role of Gaekwad III in shaping the personality of Dr B R Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Constitution.

Gaekwad III had sent Ambedkar abroad for higher studies by providing him a scholarship and later employed the Dalit icon in his 'darbar' (court), he said.

"If Gaekwad III had not helped Ambedkar, he couldn't have achieved whatever he achieved in his life," the president said.

"Gaekwad III worked for the welfare of Dalits and economically backward classes. So Ambedkar, while drafting the Constitution, included provisions for the welfare of Dalits and weaker sections in it," he said.

Kovind said those acquiring degrees from the university today should follow the example of Gaekwad III and become nation-builders who work for the welfare of less-privileged.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The 7th Asia Steel International Conference will be held in Bhubaneswar from February 6 to 9.

Tata Steel, in association with the Indian Institute of Metals, announced it here today. The last Asia Steel conference was held in 2015 at Yokohama, Japan.

This major conference is held every three years and provides a platform for exchange of knowledge on various aspects of the global steel industry. Around 70 keynote speakers, half of them from overseas countries such as China, Korea, Japan, the Netherlands, the UK, the US, Germany, Belgium, Canada, etc. will address the conference.

Nippon steel & Sumitiomo metal Corporation executive officer and head process resaerch laboratories, Hideki Murakami, director of Poscolab, Posco, Korea Joo Choi will be part of the event.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas will ask the EU to officially recognise the state of Palestine when he meets foreign ministers from the bloc on Monday, a senior official said.

Palestinian foreign minister Riad al-Malki said Abbas will tell the EU it should take the step "as a way to respond" to US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.

Abbas will also "reiterate his commitment to the peace process" in the Middle East, Malki said in an interview with AFP in Brussels.

A week ago Abbas denounced Trump's efforts to resolve the long-running conflict as the "slap of the century" and caused alarm by saying Israel had sunk the so-called Oslo accords that underpin the stalled peace process.

"Since Trump's decision has altered the rules of the game, he (Abbas) expects the European foreign ministers to come forward and collectively recognise the state of Palestine as a way to respond back to Trump's decision," Malki said.

"If the Europeans want to be a player then they have to be fair in their treatment of both parties and this should start with the recognition of the state of Palestine."



Abbas will meet EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini and the bloc's 28 foreign ministers on Monday on the sidelines of their monthly meeting, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a similar visit last month.

Diplomats and officials in Brussels say recognition for Palestine is not on the cards today -- the EU leaves recognition in the hands of individual members -- and the best Abbas can hope for is progress towards an "association agreement" with the bloc.

Malki told AFP that while the Palestinian Authority was "very serious" about such an agreement, they also expected to be formally recognised as a state.

"One does not replace the other. Absolutely not," he said.

Despite Abbas's comments on the Oslo accord and his insistence that the United States can no longer serve as mediator, Malki said he was still committed to the peace process -- effectively frozen since 2014.

"He wants to reiterate his commitment to the peace process. He's going to say I'm not going to withdraw from the peace process, I will stay committed," Malki told AFP.

Abbas's talks in Brussels come as US Vice President Mike Pence visits Israel during a tour of the Middle East with Arab anger still smouldering over Washington's hugely contentious decision on Jerusalem.

Abbas and the Palestinian leadership are refusing to meet Pence because of the declaration, making his visit a rare one by a high-ranking US official not to include talks with the Palestinians.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Three days of fighting since Turkey launched an offensive on the northern Syrian region of Afrin have left at least 54 Syrian combattants dead, a monitor said today.

Among them were 26 Kurdish fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces that have controlled the region on the border with Turkey, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Another 19 fighters from the ranks of the pro-Ankara rebels who are fighting alongside Turkey were also killed, the monitoring group said, adding that nine more unidentified bodies were found on the battlefield.

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Family members of slain army jawan Chandan Kumar Rai today refused to perform his last rites as they demanded the presence of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during his funeral procession.

The signalman was posted at a forward post in Mankote sector of Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, where he was injured in a ceasefire violation by Pakistan and later succumbed to his injuries on Saturday night.

Rai (25), who was set to marry next month, had applied for leave and was expected to arrive in his native village early next month.

His mortal remains arrived at Varanasi airport yesterday and was taken to 39 Gorkha Training Centre in Varanasi. It was taken to Nadesar-Marufpur village in Uttar Pradesh's Chandauli district this morning.

The family members sat on a dharna and refused to perform the last rites, untill the home minister, who is also a native of the same district, and the UP chief minister visit Rai's ancestral village.

UP ministers Anil Rajbhar and Jai Prakash Nishad, District Magistrate Hemant Kumar and Superintendent of Police Santosh Singh, along with other district officials and local MLAs had reached the village to offer their condolences to the aggrieved family.

The chief minister had announced Rs 25-lakh ex-gratia for Rai's family yesterday.

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A Delhi court today asked the police to produce before it on January 24 the arrested owner of the firecracker storage unit in Bawana area here, where 17 people were killed in a massive blaze.

The order was passed after the court was informed by the police that enough staff was not available due to preparations and full dress rehearsal for the Republic Day.

Metropolitan Magistrate Jitendra Pratap Singh allowed the application of investigating officer Sandeep Singh seeking that production warrant be issued against accused Manoj Jain, currently lodged in Tihar jail, for January 24.

"The Investigating Officer (IO) submits that accused was to be produced today from the judicial custody but because of Republic Day arrangement, sufficient police was not available.

"The IO submits that since the full dress rehearsal for Republic Day is scheduled for January 23, it was highly likely that the accused would not be produced tomorrow," the magistrate noted in his order.

During the hearing, advocate Pradeep Rana, appearing for Jain, opposed the application saying in the absence of a specific order regarding custody of the accused, any further custody would be illegal.

The court took note of this submission and said it will be considered on the next date of hearing when the accused is produced.

"In accordance with the prayer of the IO, production warrant of the accused be issued for January 24. Copy of this order be sent to the DCP, 3rd Battallion as well as to Jail Superintendent to ensure that the accused is positively produced on January 24," the court said.

The police had yesterday arrested Jain, 49, in connection with the fire tragedy which took place on January 20.

A probe revealed it was a factory of "cold firecrackers" used in stage shows and Holi celebrations, the police had said.

The fire had started in the storage unit on the ground floor of the two-storey building and ripped through the structure. Of the 17 killed, ten were women. A man and woman were also injured.

Police said an FIR had been registered under Indian Penal Code sections relating to culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible material. The maximum punishment under the sections is 10 years.

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Healthcare and farm sciences major Bayer has launched a new hybrid rice seed Arize AZ 8433 DT, which has strong inbuilt tolerance to pests like Brown Plant Hopper (BPH) and Bacterial Leaf Blight (BLB).

BPH was the most destructive pest in paddy-growing areas and had causing huge losses to farmers in the 2017 kharif season.

"The introduction of this hybrid rice seed is a step towards improving rice productivity. Since its launch, the cultivation of this rice seed has expanded to more than 10,000 acres in major rice growing belts of the country," Bayer South Asia head of the crop science division Peter Mueller said.

************ Bajaj Allianz' Chatbot on Amazon Alexa *



In a first, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance had decided to take its Chatbot to Amazon's cloud based voice service Alexa to better serve its customers, which will help it live-link the Aadhaar and PAN numbers to the policy.

Its Chatbot called 'Boing' will now be available on Amazon's Alexa, which is available on Amazon's Echo.

Through this move, company aims to redefine the customer experience and provide them with instant customer query resolution and FAQ's in voice format. The company also announced an additional feature of linking of Aadhaar and PAN card to the insurance policy on Boing Chatbot.

************ MAN unveils the new BS-IV bus chassis range *



MAN Trucks India, the 100 per cent subsidiary of MAN Truck & Bus AG of Germany, has unveiled a new range of BS-IV bus chassis. The product is available in two models--18.250 (4x2) and 22.300 (6x2) multi-axle.

The bus chassis models come with front-mounted engines, and are manufactured at MAN Trucks' Pithampur plant.

************ Max Life launches exclusive online Ulip *



Max Life Insurance has launched an online Ulip plan- Max Life Online Savings Plan, which offers zero premium allocation charges and zero policy administration charge to maximize benefits. This marks the company's entry into the online Ulip space.

This is an all-in-one plan that caters to all needs insurance coverage, long term wealth creation, saving for child's future, build corpus for retirement needs, the company said today.

Max Life is offering two variants of the product and aims to achieve maximum return for its customers with zero premium allocation and zero policy administration charge.

************ Automated GST, TDS accounting software launched *



HostBooks, which is into accounting solutions for individuals and businesses, has unveiled a new accounting suites on cloud for their B2B business partners which can automatically updates accounts, GST, TDS, tax and payroll.

The software is all set to transform and redefine the method of maintaining accounts books and tax compliance, the company said.

Our new software can make TDS, GST, and accounting absolutely simple and convenient, the company claimed.

Hostbooks is a comprehensive platform for business accounting ensures convenience and reliability for the users.

************ Reliance Nippon Life, BoM in bancassurance deal



Reliance Nippon Life has signed a bancassurance deal with Bank of Maharashtra, which will help the partners maximize their distribution potential.

Ashish Vohra of Reliance Nippon Life said, we look forward to deploying technology enabled processes to harness this alliance. Our long-term protection and assured return product suite complements the offering from the Bank. This, together with the bank's brand salience in its core markets, allows us to leverage our capabilities for maximizing value to our customers.

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A Pune court today rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Milind Ekbote, a Hindu right leader, booked for allegedly inciting violence on January 1 during an event to commemorate the bicentenary of the Koregaon-Bhima battle.

District Judge PC Bhagure rejected the anticipatory bail petition of Ekbote, defence counsel Prasad Kulkarni said.

Ekbote had approached the court seeking anticipatory bail.

A case was registered against Ekbote and Sambhaji Bhide, who head the Hindu Ekta Aghadi and Shivraj Pratishthan respectively, for allegedly "inciting" the violence that left a man dead. Subsequent protests against the incident had disrupted normal life Maharashtra capital Mumbai.

The two organisations had opposed the celebration of the "British victory" in the battle between the armies of the East India Company and the Peshwa. People belonging to the Mahar community among Dalits had fought for the British, while the Peshwas were Brahmins. Dalit organisations celebrate the victory as a symbol of their resurgence.

A member of the Bahujan Republican Socialist Party from Pune had filed a police complaint against the two leaders under SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, and various sections of the IPC, accusing them of "orchestrating" the violence.

Dalit organisations have been seeking arrest of the two leaders.

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Bhubaneswar will host the seventh edition of the Asia Steel International Conference from February 6, 2018.

About 50 per cent of the 70 key speakers are joining from countries such as China, Japan, Netherlands, the UK, the US, Germany, among others, Tata Steel and Indian Institute of Metals, organisers of the event, said in a joint statement today.

The Asia Steel Conference is a platform for experts from across the globe to discuss innovative and green technologies for iron making, and promoting automation and digitisation in steel industry as well.

The focus of this year's conference will be on "various challenges (being) faced by the steel industry like optimising specific consumption of raw materials especially coke and iron ore," the statement said.

Besides, how to use low-grade raw materials along with decreasing the energy consumption in various iron making and steel making operations and, thereby, reducing carbon dioxide emissions will be also be discussed.

The steel conference will also delve on enhancing waste utilisation with a focus on developing high-strength steel for the automotive sector and construction sector.

The industry event is held once in every three years and provides a platform for exchange of knowledge on various aspects of the global steel industry, it said.

The last Asia Steel conference was held in 2015 at Yokohama, Japan.

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The thickness and volume differences in the grey matter of several brain regions can predict the risk of epilepsy, scientist including one of Indian origin have found.

The study, published in the journal Brain, shows that epilepsy involves more widespread physical differences than previously assumed, even in types of epilepsy that are typically considered to be more benign if seizures are under control.

The brain abnormalities researchers identified were subtle and have not yet been implicated in any loss of function.

"We found differences in brain matter even in common epilepsies that are often considered to be comparatively benign," said Sanjay Sisodiya professor at University College London in the UK.

"While we haven't yet assessed the impact of these differences, our findings suggest there's more to epilepsy than we realise, and now we need to do more research to understand the causes of these differences," said Sisodiya.

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that affects 0.6-1.5 per cent of the global population, comprising many different syndromes and conditions, and defined by a tendency for seizures.

The study pooled data from 24 research centres across Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia.

Structural brain measures were extracted from MRI brain scans of 2,149 people with epilepsy, and compared with 1,727 healthy controls.

The epilepsy group was analysed together for common patterns, and divided into four subgroups to identify differences.

The team found reduced grey matter thickness in parts of the brain's outer layer (cortex) and reduced volume in subcortical brain regions in all epilepsy groups when compared to the control group.

Reduced volume and thickness were associated with longer duration of epilepsy.

Notably, people with epilepsy exhibited lower volume in the right thalamus - a region which relays sensory and motor signals, and has previously only been associated with certain epilepsies - and reduced thickness in the motor cortex, which controls the body's movement.

These patterns were even present among people with idiopathic generalised epilepsies, a type of epilepsy characterised by a lack of any noticeable changes in the brain, such that typically an experienced neuroradiologist would not be able to see anything unusual in their brain scans.

"Some of the differences we found were so subtle they could only be detected due to the large sample size that provided us with very robust, detailed data," said Christopher Whelan from University of Southern California in the US.

The researchers also identified differences between the subgroups, which they say must reflect differences in underlying biology, as suggested by recent genetic studies.

"We have identified a common neuroanatomical signature of epilepsy, across multiple epilepsy types. We found that structural changes are present in multiple brain regions, which informs our understanding of epilepsy as a network disorder," Whelan said.

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BSF Jawan Lance Naik Sam Abraham, who was killed in cross border firing in Jammu and Kashmir, was laid to rest at his native town here with full military honours.

His mortal remains, which were brought to Kerala last night, was brought here this morning.

The body was first kept for some time in the school where he studied and later taken to his house, where his parents, two year-old daughter and pregnant wife paid their respects.

A huge crowd of people, including school children, bade a tearful farewell to the soldier.

The last rites were performed at the St Gregorious Orthodox church cemetry this afternoon.

34-year-old Abraham, a member of the Sixth Madras Regiment, was killed after Pakistan army initiated firing at Sundetbani sector along the Line of control on Friday.

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The BSF has fired over 9,000 rounds of mortar shells across the International Border (IB) in Jammu in the past four days as part of "pinpointed" retaliatory action against Pakistan's unprovoked firing, destroying firing positions and fuel dumps of the Pakistan Rangers at multiple places, officials said on Monday.

Senior officials of the Border Security Force (BSF) and in the home ministry said the situation along the 190-km IB in the Jammu area was "very tense" as Pakistan had "opened" heavy fire in the entire stretch since last evening.

They said the BSF had fired over 9,000 rounds of mortar shells since January 19, after "Pakistan first breached the peace and hit BSF posts and civilian areas".

The mortar shelling is in addition to an effective retaliation by an assortment of other arms and ammunition, they said.

The BSF said the force was retaliating with "pinpointed" fire which destroyed firing positions, mortar launching pads and ammunition and fuel dumps of the Pakistan Rangers at multiple places.

The force also released two small video clips purportedly showing the destruction of fuel dumps.

They said the "chicken neck" area of the border in Jammu, near Makwal and Kanachak border posts of the BSF, is also being pounded by the Pakistani forces, which was untouched till now.

"A security force jawan and a few civilians have been injured in these areas and we are receiving heavy fire here since yesterday," a senior official said.

Sources said the Indian forces have also witnessed the movement of senior commanders of the Rangers and Pakistan Army in the forward areas across the border.

"These visits, as we understand, are being undertaken by Pak commanders to motivate their troops who are getting some good pounding from the Indian side and it is also understood that many of their personnel have been hit fatally or have been injured," the official said.

The Rangers, they said, have also "refused" to talk to the BSF and come over for a flag meeting till now.

All the BSF border posts in the Jammu area have been put on "high alert" and senior commanders have been asked to be at the front "at least for the next about a week's time", they said.

The force has also stepped up the deployment of its "ambush patrols" along the IB to check infiltration, they said.

"Heavy firing aids infiltration and also security at the borders are already up in the wake of the forthcoming Republic Day celebrations," the official said.

BSF Director General K K Sharma toured the forward areas last week and it is expected that he may again visit these locations around January 26.

The BSF has lost two men in these firing incidents since January 19.

In all, 12 people, including five security personnel, have been killed and over 60 others injured in Pakistani firing from across the border in Jammu since Thursday.
Opposition BJP today termed as "politically motivated" calls for two bandhs on January 25 and February 4 by pro-Kannada outfits, demanding the Prime Minister's intervention in the inter-state Mahadayi river water dispute with Goa.

The party alleged Congress government had a role in selection of dates when BJP national President Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are expected to visit the poll bound state to take part in 'Nav Karnataka Parivartan Yatra', organised by the state unit.

The outfits have called for a Karnataka bandh on January 25 when Shah will address a rally in Mysuru and a Bengaluru bundh on February 4, the day Modi arrives here.

"There is no necessity for a Karnataka bandh.If therewas a bandh in the affected area,it is fine;what has Mysuru got to do with the issue?" BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa asked.

Accusing Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of extending support to the bandh with "malicious" intent, he said "Chief Minister istrying to create confusion, stop buses and close schools andcolleges as done in the past....I have not heard of any ChiefMinister behaving in such a manner."



The January 25 programme would go ahead as planned, he said in Mysuru and added that his party was in favour of protecting the state's interests on the Mahadayi issue.

Accusing Congress of playing politics, Leader ofthe Opposition Jagadish Shettar questioned the need to call for a bandh in Bengaluru on February 4 when a state-wide call had been given on January 25.

This clearly showed that there was political malice and that the Chief Minister is directlyinvolved in planning it, he said in Huballi.

"When the Prime Minister is coming for a political event, if they are doing this it is clear that they are terrified... On hearing that Modi is coming Siddaramaiah andCongress start trembling, so they want to create disturbance," he alleged.

Though differences have emerged among outfits over the bandh call, Vatal Nagaraj, whoheads 'Kannada Okoota', an umbrella organisation of Kannadabodies, said there would be a state-wide dawn to dusk bandh on January 25,demanding the Prime Minister's intervention.

Hitting back at the BJP, Siddaramaiah termed BJP's allegations as baseless.

"Will Vatal Nagraj or Kannada organisations listen to government...why should we ask them to organise bandh? It is a problem for the government if there is a bandh," he said



"We have nothing to do with it, let BJP go and request Kannada organisers against bandh", he added.

Karnataka, which has locked horns with neighbouring Goaon sharing Mahadayi River water, is seeking release of 7.56 tmcft water for the Kalasa-Banduri Nala project.

The project is being undertaken to improve drinkingwater supply to the twin cities of Hubballi-Dharwad anddistricts of Belagavi and Gadag.

Attempts have been made by Karnataka to amicably solve the issue pending before the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal through discussion have failed to bear fruit.

Repeated efforts by the state seeking Prime Minister's intervention to solve the issue, has also not been successful.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will arrive in India next month for a seven-day visit aimed at strengthening the bilateral strategic partnership in the key areas of counter-terrorism, energy and trade.

Trudeau is visiting India from February 17-23 at the invitation of his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, the external affairs ministry said in a statement.

Cooperation in security and counter-terrorism as well as exchange of views on global and regional issues of mutual interest will form important components of the visit, the ministry said.

"The visit is aimed at further strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries in key areas of mutual interest including trade and investment, energy, science and innovation, higher education, infrastructure development, skill development and space," the MEA said.

Canada is one of the uranium suppliers to India and the two nations also have a nuclear cooperation pact in place.

India and Canada share a strategic partnership underpinned by the values of democracy, pluralism, equality for all and rule of law, the ministry said.

Strong people-to-people contacts and the presence of a large Indian Diaspora in Canada provide a strong foundation for the relationship, it said.

Canada is home to over 1.2 million Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) who comprise more than 3 per cent of its population.

Modi had made a bilateral visit to Canada in April 2015. The last visit of a Canadian prime minister to India was in November 2012 when Stephen Harper had made a trip to the country.

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The Delhi Police today filed a charge sheet against suspected al-Qaeda terrorist Zeeshan Ali, deported from Saudi Arabia in August last year, in a case of making provocative speeches to recruit Indian youths and establishing a base for the terror outfit.

Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma posted the matter for February 2 when it will decide on the point of taking cognisance of the document filed by the police.

Ali's name, along with that of 11 others, was disclosed by Syed Anzar Shah and four others -- Mohd Asif, Zafar Masood, Mohd Abdul Rehman and Abdul Sami -- arrested in the case earlier.

The Delhi Police's Special Cell had arrested Ali after searching for him over a year after three alleged AQIS (Al- Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent) operatives were arrested in 2015.

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Congress leader P Chidambaram today criticised a "muscular militaristic" approach adopted by the government in Kashmir, saying it was a flawed and misguided policy.

He also came out in support of Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra for saying that the rules of engagement for handling conflicts calls for restraint.

"The fundamental flaw is the belief that a muscular militaristic approach will lead to a solution in Kashmir," he tweeted.

"Governor Vohra is absolutely right when he said that rules of engagement for handling internal conflicts called for 'restraint'."



The former home minister also hit out at Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti for saying that people in her state "are fleeing their homes, schools are closed and children are caged in their homes".

"Did she not know this will be the result of a misguided policy?," he asked.

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China has donated over 32,000 solar power generating systems to Nepal to enhance its domestic capacity and to provide electricity to communities that have been without power since the 2015 earthquake.

The donated items included 32,000 sets of household solar power generation systems and 325 sets of solar power generation systems, state-run Xinhua Agency reported yesterday.

The aid from China comes as left alliance headed by CPN- UML leader K P Sharma Oli, who is widely regarded as pro- China, won the recent elections in Nepal.

China has been investing heavily in Nepal as it seeks to expand its influence in the land-locked country which is heavily dependent on supplies of essential goods from India.

Oli during his brief stint in power between 2015-16 signed the Transit Transport Agreement (TTA) with China to improve the connectivity between Nepal and Tibet in a bid to end decades-old dependency on India for daily supplies.

During his Beijing visit last year, China in a strategic move agreed to extend the train link in Tibet to Nepal to improve the connectivity by road and rail.

"The support provided by China is instrumental to addressing environmental problems and climate change. It will also benefit our people from the perspective of health and saving time," Ram Prasad Lamsal, joint secretary at Nepal's Ministry of Population and was quoted as saying by the report.

According to the Nepali government, the systems will be distributed by the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) in districts highly impacted by a devastating earthquake that hit the country in 2015.

The 7.8 magnitude quake jolted the country in April 2015, killing more than 8,000 people and displacing lakhs of others.

More than 600,000 houses were damaged due to the tremor and thousands of schools including over 25,000 classrooms were reduced to rubble in the devastating earthquake.

Ram Prasad Dhital, executive director at AEPC, told Xinhua that "the larger power generation systems will be used for community schools, health centres and local government offices while the low power systems will be used by households.

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China has built a new type of electronic warfare aircraft which can cover bigger combat areas such as the South and East China seas and greatly enhance the Navy's capabilities in modern warfare, a media report said today.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy's South China Sea Fleet deployed the H-6G bomber in its recent combat manoeuvres.

The aircraft developed for 10 years in service is equipped with the Electronic Countermeasures (ECM) pods underneath its wings.

It was the first time the bomber played "a supporting role in the electronic warfare", China Central Television (CCTV) reported last week.

The modified H-6G fitted with ECM pods can engage in combat missions using electronic jamming, suppression and anti-radiation, it said.

"The main role of the electronic fighters is to obstruct the enemies' electronic jamming devices - for example, radar, to temporarily or permanently, if powerful enough, cover the surveillance devices and to hide our combat platforms' track," Song Zhongping, a military expert and TV commentator, told the state-run Global Times.

"The H-6G electronic warfare aircraft boasts of high electronic jamming power and can cover relatively bigger combat areas such as the South China Sea and East China Sea," Song said.

China has developed advanced and standardised ECM pods to modify multiple types of fighter jets for combat requirements, such as the J-15 type fighter jets. Using the ECM pods in fighters is the most efficient and effective way, Song said.

China's JH-7 fighter bomber was also seen carrying such ECM pods in previous PLA Air Force military practices, according to CCTV.

China's PLA Navy deploys such EMC pods carrying aircraft together with its warships and other combat vessels for electronic combat missions and to enhance combat capabilities, Song said.

China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in both the South China Sea and the East China Sea. Beijing has built up and militarised many of the islands and reefs it controls in the region.

China claims almost all of South China Sea and has also laid claims on the Senkaku islands under the control of Japan in East China Sea.

Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counter claims over the South China Sea.

Both areas are stated to be rich in minerals, oil and other natural resources. They are also vital to global trade.

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Opposition Congress in Chhattisgarh today demanded disqualification of 11 MLAs of the ruling BJP for "holding" posts of parliamentary secretaries, within days of 20 Aam Aadmi Party legislators in Delhi being disqualified in an "office of profit" case.

President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday gave his assent to a recommendation made by the Election Commission for disqualifying 20 MLAs of the Arvind Kejriwal-led party over holding offices of profit.

"The action taken in Delhi has proved that the appointment of the BJP MLAs in Chhattisgarh to the postsof parliamentary secretariesis also unconstitutional.

"Therefore, a similar action should be taken by the Election Commission of India against these MLAs here for holding offices of profit,"Congress leader Mohammad Akbar told a press conference today.

Akbar said last year he had filed a petition in the Chhattisgarh High Court seeking quashing of the appointment of the MLAs as parliamentary secretaries.

He said he had then written to the poll panel on the issue in the year 2016.

"In response to my letter, in November 2016, the ECI stated that it goes into the disqualification of sitting MLAs only if a reference is made to it by the Governor of the state concerned," Akbar said.

Akbar, a former minister, said he wrote to Chhattisgarh Governor Balramji Das Tandon after the EC's response.

"However, even after over a year, the Governor did not refer the matter to the ECI for further consideration," Akbar said, alleging that the Governor was not discharging his Constitutional duty.

He also accused the Raman Singh government of violating the Chhattisgarh High Court order by not withdrawing all the facilities entitled to the parliamentary secretaries on a par with state ministers.

The high court, which is yet to pass any order on Akbar's petition, had earlier directedthe state government to withdraw power of allparliamentarysecretaries.

However, Akbar alleged that the government withdrew only the financial power of discretionary fund conferred upon the parliamentary secretaries.

"The parliamentary secretaries are still enjoyingperks in the form of bungalows, cars and other facilities like ministers," he alleged.

He said the BJP-led dispensation is scared that disqualification of the 11 MLAs will reduce them to a minority government.

In the 90-member House, the BJP has 49 MLAs, followed by the Congress (39), Independent (1) and BSP (1).

Asked if the Congress will approach the Governor again, Akbar said the party was not averse to do so.

"However, if no response is received from the governor, the Congress will appeal to the President to look into the matter," he said.

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The Delhi High Court today fixed April 16 for hearing an appeal by former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, who along with others was convicted and sentenced to three years in a coal scam case, and extended his bail till the pendency of his plea.

Justice Anu Malhotra, besides Koda, extended the bail of his close aide Vijay Joshi till the pendency of his appeal.

The court also suspended the three-year jail term of former Jharkhand chief secretary A K Basu till it decided the matter, by granting him bail on furnishing of a personal bond of Rs one lakh and a surety of the like amount.

Senior advocate R S Cheema, appearing for the CBI, told the court that the agency does not wish to file any response on the appeals of the three convicts and Kolkata-based company Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Ltd (VISUL) at this stage.

Taking note of the submission, the court fixed April 16 for hearing the appeals and asked the parties to file their written submissions.

It directed the convicts to be present before it on the next date of hearing.

The order came on the convicts' plea seeking suspension of the sentence and regular bail till pendency of his appeal before the high court.

Koda, who was held guilty of corruption and conspiracy in allocation of a Jharkhand-based coal block to VISUL, also challenged the December 13 and 16, 2017 orders of conviction and sentence, which was admitted by the high court.

The convicts were granted statutory bail for a period of two months to enable them file appeals in the high court challenging the verdict.

In his appeal, Koda has claimed the trial court order holding him guilty was bad in law.

The high court has stayed the trial court order also imposing a fine of Rs 50 lakh, Rs 25 lakh, Rs 25 lakh and Rs one lakh on VISUL, Koda, Joshi and Basu respectively.

Koda, ex-coal secretary H C Gupta, Basu and Joshi were awarded jail terms of three years for indulging in corrupt practices and hatching a criminal conspiracy in the allocation of Rajhara North coal block in Jharkhand to the Kolkata-based company.

While sentencing the convicts, the special court had said "white collar crimes" were more "dangerous" to the society than ordinary crimes.

The trial court had also imposed a fine Rs 1 lakh on Gupta in the UPA-era coal scam.

The convicts were tried for offences under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating) and 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servants) of the IPC and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

While the offence of cheating carries a maximum of seven years jail term, criminal breach of trust by public servants entails a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.

The CBI had said that the firm had applied for allocation of Rajhara North coal block on January 8, 2007.

It had said that although the Jharkhand government and the steel ministry did not recommend VISUL's case for coal block allocation, the 36th Screening Committee recommended the block to the accused firm.

The CBI had said that Gupta, who was chairman of the screening committee, had concealed facts from then prime minister Manmohan Singh, who at that time headed the coal ministry too, that Jharkhand had not recommended VISUL for allocation of a coal block.

So far, four out of 30 coal block allocation scam cases have been decided by the special court, including this order, and 12 people and four companies have been held guilty.

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The CPI(M) and the Congress together could have been a strong alternative to the BJP and the TMC, West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Chowdhury said today, a day after the left party decided not to ally with the Rahul Gandhi-led party.

He said the split between the Congress and the CPI(M) is the reason behind the growth of the BJP in West Bengal.

"The CPI(M) and the Congress together at the national level could have put up a strong alternative to the BJP and its policies at the Centre," Chowdhury said.

Yesterday, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury's draft resolution proposing an alliance with the Congress was voted against by the party's central committee.

It was defeated in a voting by the Kerala faction of the party led by Politburo member and former CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat which opposed any sort of direct or indirect truck with the Congress.

Chowdhury said the division of votes between the Congress and CPI(M) is helping the BJP and the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal.

"Since the day the CPI(M) broke the alliance with the Congress, the BJP's vote share has been increasing. The rise of the BJP in the state is due to the CPI(M)'s inability to hold on to its votes," he said.

Chowdhury said the TMC wants a four-cornered fight in the state for its own benefit.

The West Bengal unit of the CPI(M) had forged a tactical alliance with the Congress against the TMC during the 2016 West Bengal Assembly polls.

Though the political line worked out by the CPI(M) party congress in 2015 had precluded any understanding or electoral alliance with the Congress in the fight against the BJP, the party had allowed state units to review specific political situation before deciding their own tactical line in consonance with the overall understanding.

As a result, the CPI(M)'s West Bengal unit had entered into a tactical alliance with the Congress for the 2016 polls, which proved disastrous as the Left was relegated to the third position in the state.

The CPI(M) and the Congress have since been fighting elections separately.

The two parties fought separately in the recent bypoll for Sabang Assembly seat and have fielded their respective candidates for Uluberia Lok Sabha bypoll in West Bengal slated for January 29.

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The Congress in Bihar today took exception to party MLC Ramchandra Bharti taking part in yesterday's human chain organised by the state government.

Bharti was seen joining the human chain, formed to send a message against practices of dowry and child marriage, alongside JD(U) state president Bashishth Narain Singh here.

However, state Congress acting president Kaukab Qadri said no disciplinary action would be taken against Bharti, though the party had decided to stay away from the programme.

"The JD(U)-BJP government organised the event to divert the people's attention from the real issues as well as its own failures," Qadri told PTI.

Bharti claimed that he took part in the programme as it was organized for a good cause, Qadri said.

"We are not going to take any disciplinary action against him. But we are issuing him a warning that legislators must refrain from acts which embarrass the party," he said.

Former BPCC president and leader of the rebel faction in the party's state unit, Ashok Chowdhury, however, came out in support of Bharti.

"There were no instructions from the party restraining members from joining the human chain. Hence no party discipline has been violated (by Bharti)," he said.

All political parties should support any move aimed at eradicating social evils, putting differences aside, he said.

Chowdhury, former minister, himself stayed away from the human chain.

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The main conspirator of the 2008 Gujarat serial blasts has been arrested following an exchange of fire days ahead of Republic Day, Delhi Police said today.

Abdul Subhan Qureshi, co-founder of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) and linked to the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), was arrested from Ghazipur in east Delhi on Saturday evening.

The Special Cell had information that he would come to meet an old acquaintance in Ghazipur, said P S Kushwah, deputy commissioner of police (Special Cell).

Qureshi, 46, was being followed by teams of the Special Cell and other intelligence agencies.

He had been living in Nepal under a fake identity and had gone to Saudi Arabia between 2015-2017, Kushwah said at a press conference.

Qureshi, who was editor of the SIMI magazine, was described as a good organiser.

His name had also cropped up in investigations into the serial blasts in Mumbai and Bangalore, the official said.

More than 50 persons were killed when 20 blasts ripped through Gujarat's main city Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008.

The Indian Mujahideen had taken responsibility for the blasts at the time.

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The main conspirator of the 2008 Gujarat serial blasts was today handed over to the Delhi Police by a city court for custodial interrogation for two weeks.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat sent Abdul Subhan Qureshi, co-founder of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) and linked to the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), to 14-day police custody after an application was moved by Special Cell of the police in this regard.

According to the police, 46-year old Qureshi was arrested from Ghazipur in east Delhi on Saturday evening on secret information that he would come to meet an old acquaintance. He was being followed by teams of the Special Cell and other intelligence agencies.

He had been living in Nepal under a fake identity and had gone to Saudi Arabia between 2015-2017, police had said at a press conference earlier. Qureshi's name had also cropped up in the probe into the serial blasts in Mumbai and Bangalore, police said.

More than 50 persons were killed when 20 blasts ripped through Gujarat's main city Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008, it said. The Indian Mujahideen had taken responsibility for these blasts then.

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The courts are now the only hope for the 20 AAP MLAs disqualified for holding offices of profit, with legal experts saying that unless they get a reprieve from the judiciary, bypolls in Delhi are imminent.

The AAP MLAs, who have been disqualified as Delhi Assembly legislators for occupying the post of parliamentary secretaries, today withdrew their pleas from the Delhi High Court challenging the Election Commission's recommendation which the President had endorsed.

The 20 MLAs told the High Court that they would move fresh petitions as their pleas had become infructuous after President Ram Nath Kovind put a stamp of approval on the EC's recommendation.

Legal experts and a former chief election commissioner, on condition of anonymity, said bypolls in Delhi were imminent unless the courts provide relief to the MLAs in the form of a stay, or strike down the notification disqualifying them.

"Now that the president has signed the notification, the MLAs stand disqualified. If they are able to convince the courts that their disqualification is against the law, only then they can hope for a reprieve," said a legal expert, who has handled several such cases in the past.

If the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) fails to get a reprieve from the Delhi High Court, where it plans to move a fresh plea tomorrow, it can approach the Supreme Court.

The Delhi Assembly Speaker will have to notify the 20 vacancies for the EC to announce the bypolls.

The EC had on Friday recommended to Kovind that the 20 MLAs were liable for disqualification for holding offices of profit between March 13, 2015, and September 8, 2016.

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Crime Branch officials today visited the "cold firecracker" unit in Bawana where 17 people were killed in a massive blaze on Saturday.

The case was yesterday transferred to the Crime Branch from the district police as it "required extensive investigation and a proper detailed follow-ups".

Of the 17 killed in the fire, 10 were women.

Till yesterday, 14 of the deceased had been identified. Today, another body was identified as Avinash (18). Two bodies, including that of a woman, are yet to be identified.

The crime branch team visited the site today to ascertain the reasons behind the fire.

"Today, we visited the spot to get an idea of what had transpired that day. We also interacted with the probe team of the district police," an officer privy to the probe said.

He said the team would talk to the survivors, Roop Prakash and Sunita, who saved their lives by jumping off the second floor of the firecracker unit.

"We will speak to the workers to know the conditions they were working in and whether the unit was only used for packaging of firecrackers or for any other purpose as well," the officer said.

Manoj Jain, who was running the firecracker unit, was arrested yesterday and is currently lodged in Tihar Jail. A Delhi court today asked the police to produce Jain before it on January 24.

The officer said they will seek police custody of Jain.

It is suspected that Jain was running the factory in partnership with his friend Lalit Goel, but that will only be determined after the rent agreement is recovered.

Police are also on the lookout for Goel.

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The Delhi Commission for Women today sought details from the capital's industrial body DSIIDC and the police if they were aware of the blaze-hit firecracker factory in Bawana area operating illegally.

Ten women were among the 17 people who were charred to death when a massive blaze ripped through the firecraker storage unit on Saturday.

The DCW has sought details of the beat officers in the police department responsible for ensuring no illegal activities were being undertaken in the area, according to a notice issued by it to the Bawana police station.

The women's panel also asked the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. (DSIIDC) if the land where the factory was built was allotted by it.

"How were firecrackers being stored or produced in the factory without the knowledge of the Delhi Police. Please provide the names and designations of the beat officers responsible for ensuring that no illegal activities are being undertaken in the area where this illegal firecracker factory was operating?," the notice stated.

The DCW sought information from DSIIDC about the purpose for which the land had to be used, terms and conditions of the allotment and other relevant documents for the same.

"Whether the DSIIDC was aware that the said land is being used to run an illegal firecracker factory? If yes, please provide the action taken on the same," the commission said in its notice to the industrial body.

Issuing notice to the managing director of the DSIIDC and the station house officer of the Bawana police station, the DCW sought details of complaints regarding operation of illegal factories in the area received since 2016 till date and action taken on the same.

It also sought to know what action would Delhi police and DSIIDC initiate against it's officers on the incident and action plan proposed for preventing such incidents in future.

"Issued notices on Bawana fire which claimed lives of pregnant women. Asked MCD on what basis did it issue licenses. Also, asked police and MCD how an illegal firecracker factory was running right under their nose," DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal tweeted.

The DSIIDC, in its preliminary report yesterday, stated that it does not have any regulatory functions nor is mandated to issue any type of license or permission for factory construction.

The report, submitted to Delhi Industries Minister Satyendar Jain, stated that DSIIDC is primarily involved in organised and orderly development of industrial estates including the common facilities for promotion of industries in Delhi.

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The Supreme Court today asked one of the four death row convicts in the sensational December 16, 2012 gangrape and murder case to soon file his plea seeking review of its verdict upholding death sentence awarded to him, saying the court "cannot wait" for long.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra was informed that one of the four convicts, Akshay Kumar Singh, has not yet filed the plea for review of the apex court's May 5 last year verdict.

The top court had last year upheld the death penalty to the four convicts - Mukesh (29), Pawan (22), Vinay Sharma (23) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31), saying the "brutal, barbaric and diabolic nature" of the crime could create a "tsunami of shock" to destroy a civilised society.

A 23-year-old paramedic student was gangraped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a moving bus in South Delhi by a gang of six persons and severely assaulted before being thrown out naked. She succumbed to her injuries on December 29, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

During the brief hearing today, the court asked advocate A P Singh, who is representing Akshay and two other convicts, as to why review petition has not yet been filed on behalf of Akshay.

Singh told the bench, which also comprised Justices R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan, that he has filed review pleas on behalf of convicts Pawan and Vinay Sharma but because of some exigencies in Akshay's family, he could not file the same for him.

"This matter cannot go on like this. We cannot wait for you to file review petition for long," the bench observed after which the counsel said he would soon file a review plea.

Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, representing the Delhi Police, also told the bench that much time has gone by since the apex court's May last year verdict.

The bench, while listing the matter for further hearing on February 16, asked Akshay's counsel to file the review plea by then.

The top court had last month heard the arguments on the review petition filed by convict Mukesh which was opposed by the police.

The police had argued that submissions advanced by lawyer appearing for Mukesh does not make out a case for review of the apex court's judgement.

The lawyer representing the convict had claimed that Mukesh was framed by the police and tortured and had also raised other issues, including that of dying declaration of the victim.

Another accused in the case, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail, while a convicted juvenile has come out of the reformation home after serving a three- year term.

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The Delhi Congress today hit the streets demanding resignation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the office of profit row that has led to the disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs.

Maken led a march of Congress workers from the party's office on Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg in Central Delhi towards the Delhi Secretariat, before the police stopped them at ITO crossing.

He alleged "nexus" between the Election Commission and the Aam Aadmi Party behind the "delay" in disqualification of the MLAs, which has brought the city on the brink of a mini Assembly poll of sorts.

Maken wondered if it was done to ensure election of the AAP's three Rajya Sabha choices.

However, the AAP said its nominees would have won the Rajya Sabha polls even if "40 MLAs were disqualified".

"In Rajya Sabha elections, a candidate needs 50 per cent plus one vote of the total votes polled. So, even if 40 MLAs were disqualified, the AAP would still have won all the three seats," a party spokesperson said.

Maken alleged that contrary to AAP's claims that it provided no benefits to its Parliamentary Secretaries, they were given "facilities equivalent to ministers such as vehicles, furnitures, office spaces".

In a major setback to the ruling AAP in Delhi, President Ram Nath Kovind has disqualified 20 of its MLAs for holding offices of profit. Kovind gave his assent on Saturday to the recommendation in this regard by the Election Commission.

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The Delhi government has notified rules for formation of Town Vending Committees (TVCs) across the national capital which will identify sites and spaces for vending and hawking in the city.

According to the government, the Delhi Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Rules, 2017 will pave the way for constituting 25 to 28 TVCs.

The notification, issued earlier this month, states that the TVCs will conduct surveys to identify street vendors in the area and issue certificates of vending to eligible street vendors and ensure enforcement of corrective mechanism against any defiance.

"The Town Vending Committees will identify sites and spaces for vending and hawking. It will also recommend local authorities to declare an area in its jurisdiction as non- vending zone," the notification stated.

It adds that the committee will regulate timings for vending to ensure non-congestion of public spaces.

A government official said that according to the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, every state has to form TVCs to regulate street vendors.

The TVCs will have the responsibility of protecting the rights of street vendors and ensure that they are not "harassed" by the authorities, the official said requesting anonymity.

"One TVC will be constituted for a group of 8-12 municipal wards each. New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and Delhi Cantonment Board will have one TVC each," the official said.

Municipal Commissioner or chief executive officers of the local authority concerned can be the chairperson of the committee, the official added.

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Living with the constant fear of Pakistani shelling, displaced border dwellers are scared of returning to their homes and are demanding early sanction of the "promised" piece of land in safer zones and construction of bunkers.

The demands were made by people putting up at three relief camps set up by the state government here for border dwellers who have been bearing the brunt of heavy Pakistani shelling.

12 persons, including five security personnel, have been killed and over 50 others injured in the unprovoked and indiscriminate firing by Pakistan in the five districts of Jammu, Kathua and Samba along the IB and LoC since Thursday last.

Last month, the Centre gave a sanction for construction of 14,460 underground bunkers at a cost of Rs 415.73 crore for safety of people living along the LoC and the IB in Jammu division.

The BJP had promised five marlas(1361.25 sq ft)of land for border villagers during the election campaigning in the state ahead of forming a government with the PDP in 2015.

However, last year, the government informed the state legislative assembly that it had decided to construct bunkers in border districts instead of allotting five marlas of land to each family as shifting of population to another place would not be in the interest of the state or nation.

What we are getting is only hollow promises and unabated firing from Pakistan over the last four years. The government needs to act and provide us the promised five marlas of land away from the firing zone for our safety, Sudesh Kumari, a resident of Beghwara Choga, told PTI.

Kumari is among 150 border residents camping at the Indian Training Institute (ITI) complex in this sector after one of her relatives lost his life in the Pakistani shelling along the International Border in Bhera village on Saturday.

Hamara Jeena Haraam Ho Gaya hai (Our life has become a hell), she said as nearly three dozen women gathered to condole the demise of her brother-in-law Ghar Singh in the Pakistani shelling second the view.

Singh was among six persons killed in R S Pura and Arnia sectors, while 32 others were injured.The dead included a BSF jawan.

Suneeta said, We are living a life of uncertainty with no future. During firing, we are even unable to help our children to move to safety, she said, adding the lurking threat of Pakistani shelling is taking a toll on our mental health.

Making a passionate appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 75-year-old Krishna Devi from Abdullian said, With folded hands, we want to say that we are not even safe in our homes as shells pierce the roof and walls and we should be helped on humanitarian grounds.

Her grandson Pankaj Kumar said they are afraid to go back to their homes.

The firing was intense (over the past week) and we fear it might continue till Republic Day, he said.

Kumari said they had a narrow escape while fleeing the village as a mortar shell missed them and landed on a tree.

Had the shell not landed on the tree, it would have hit the vehicle we were travelling in from the village to the rehabilitation camp, she said.

Kanta Devi, a resident of Kapurpur and putting up at government boys higher secondary school, said, The truth is bitter the government is not doing enough for our safety and security while the firing from across the border had increased manifold over the years.

What we are going through, we pray nobody else should face such a situation, she said.

Kastoori Lal said many VVIPs including deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh and Relief and Rehabilitation minister Javaid Mustafa Mir visited the camp since Saturday and extended condolences to families who lost their dear ones in the Pakistani firing and assured all possible help.

How long we will stay at the camps? We want government to fulfil our demand of allotment of land at safer places and early construction of bunkers, he said.

He said there is no alternative to peace.

"We want peaceful atmosphere to return by strictly implementing the 2003 ceasefire agreement between the two countries as innocent people are getting killed and displaced on the either side.

Health Minister Bali Bhagat said India has taken many initiatives to normalise relations with Pakistan but the neighbouring country needs to understand the futility of violence and reciprocate positively.

Not only the people of Jammu and Kashmir but the entire country wants good neighbourly relations between India and Pakistan, he said.

However, he said it is unfortunate that the firing from across the border is going on, killing innocent persons and resulting in displacement of the people.

The government was doing its best to provide relief to border residents displaced by the Pakistani firing.

We have already issued a high alert all along the 449 km stretch from Kathua to Poonch-Rajouri, comprising both IB and LoC.We have deployed 197 ambulances and identified 25 health institutions which are very close to villages affected by the firing, he said.

He said despite tasting defeat at the hands of India many times, Pakistan continues its mischief.

"I am of the opinion that the central government is going to take a strong measure in coming days...from former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we extended the hand of friendship keeping in mind the doctrine that friends can be changed but not neighbours.

"When we are getting shells from Pakistan, we are compelled to direct that if they fire one shell, respond it by 10 shells, he said.

The minister said the world understands that India is a powerful country and its Army has the capability to cross the border and hit terrorist targets and return without the knowledge of their counterparts.

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The Madhya Pradesh unit of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today demanded the Election Commission disqualify 116 BJP MLAs in the state for holding offices of profit, an allegation dismissed by the ruing party.

The AAP submitted a memorandum to the EC here with its demand, a day after its 20 MLAs in New Delhi were disqualified by President Ram Nath Kovind on the recommendation of the EC for holding offices of profit.

Following a protest at the EC office here, the party said the action against the BJP's 116 MLAs should be taken under articles 191 (1) and 192 of the Constitution and The Representation of People Act, 1951.

State AAP convener Alok Agrawal said, "The EC exhibited alacrity in taking action against (AAP) MLAs in New Delhi. I hope the EC would show the same kind of promptness in taking action in case of Madhya Pradesh. The state government will be reduced to minority if action is taken against these MLAs."



The current strength of the BJP in the 230-member MP Assembly is 165 while that of the Congress is 55.

Agrawal added his party had submitted a complaint about this with proof to the EC on July 4, 2016.

"Despite our complaint one-and-a-half years ago, no action has been taken against 116 MLAs of the state for violating offices of profit norms and provisions of the Representation of the People Act. This is a serious violation of the law," he said.

The BJP dismissed the allegations and said the AAP was doing this out of "frustration".

"AAP is frustrated due to the EC's action in Delhi. None of the MLAs here in Madhya Pradesh violate the existing office of profit norms. The AAP is trying to make an issue out of nothing. Such allegations should not be taken seriously," state BJP spokesman Deepak Vijayvargiya said.

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DMK is all set to hold a nearly two-month long brainstorming session with functionaries from across the state from February 1 to fine-tune the party apparatus ahead of the local body elections expected to be held later this year.

The meeting also comes at a time when two big matinee idols Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan have announced their political entry.

To be chaired by the party working president M K Stalin, the interactive session with functionaries from the lowest rung of village panchayat level secretary to district secretaries will commence on February one and go on till March 22.

"Party functionaries should participate without fail in the meetings to be held to strengthen party work," senior DMK leader and general secretary K Anbazhagan said.

The deliberations on day one will begin with Coimbatore where the ruling AIADMK has been traditionally strong in terms of party organisation and electoral wins as well.

During the first ten days, notably the party leadership will devote its attention towards the western region, known in Tamil Nadu as 'Kongu belt,' including Erode, Tirupur and Salem where the ruling party again is comparatively much stronger.

Later comes districts including Tiruchirappalli and Ariyalur districts in central Tamil Nadu followed by others.

Party sources said the meet was a "regular exercise," ahead of any key election.

The DMK meet is also likely to deliberate the 'fineprint' of the political situation that could evolve following the entry of the actors and the steps needed to be taken in this respect, the sources added.

Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam said yesterday that local body polls will be held soon.

Chief Minister K Palaniswami said a few days ago that the ruling AIADMK was ready to face the local body polls.

Originally slated to be held in October 2016, the civic poll matter went to the Madras High Court on a petition of the main opposition DMK. On September 5, 2017 the Madras HC ordered that local body polls be conducted by November 17.

However, SEC could not do so for many reasons. Following this, the DMK filed a contempt petition. On November 14, the SEC tendered an unconditional apology and the court reserved orders.

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The Congress today asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi if he wanted to erase the Congress culture of inclusiveness and large-heartedness, and accused him of not changing the "BJP-RSS culture of vendetta, divisiveness and communal disharmony".

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi alleged the prime minister was obsessed with the idea of having Congress party erased, but has now explained he does not mean the party but "Congress culture" when he talks of a Congress-free India.

Singhvi's comments came a day after Modi told a channel in an interview that his slogan of a 'Congress-free India' was not about eliminating the main opposition party politically but about ridding the country of the "Congress culture" which he termed as casteist, dynastic, corrupt and involving total control over power among other ills.

"I would like to ask the prime minister which of these characteristics he wants to erase the large-heartedness and magnanimity of Nehruvian culture, the inclusiveness of the Congress party, the ability of the Congress party to carry the whole country - different sections of the country together?" Singhvi said today.

He said the concept of fraternity is in the Congress's preamble but it does not exist in the lexical dictionary of the BJP.

Singhvi also asked whether the prime minister wanted to erase the Congress culture that talked of the pillars of Indian democracy - socialism, secularism, non-alignment and an independent foreign policy.

He asked whether Modi wanted to erase the 10 years of unprecedented growth which the "Congress culture" brought very recently.

"Does he want to erase 'Aadhaar' by which he swears every day but which he practices in a distorted manner? Does he want to erase the Congress culture which is the world's largest social welfare scheme MGNREGA and does he want to erase the world's largest Insurance scheme the Bima Yojna?" he asked.

Singhvi alleged that what the PM does not want to change and erase is non-Congress culture of divisiveness.

"Call it BJP culture, call it 'Parivar' culture, call it RSS culture, call it Bajrang Dal, vendetta, divisiveness, communal disharmony and anti-scientific gibberish about Darwin, and lynch mentality, I am sure that he does not want to erase," he said.

In the 'Times Now' interview yesterday, Modi noted the Congress has been the "main pillar" of in the country and spread its culture to all political parties. He said his call for a "Congress-mukt" India was "symbolic" and he wants even the Congress to be free of the "Congress culture".

To a question that every party is avoiding the Congress party, Singhvi said, "it is highly premature to speculate on alliances".

The CPI-M had yesterday said it would not align with the Congress in Tripura.

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The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has seized machinery worth Rs 189 crore belonging to Bramhani Industries from Kadapa district in Andhra Pradesh for allegedly evading customs duty.

In an official statement today, the DRI said the machinery was imported in 2009 for setting up a steel plant and as per the Foreign Trade Policy-2009-14, it was required to be installed within six months from the date of import and fulfil the required export obligation thereafter.

But Bramhani Industries executed a bond binding to fulfil the obligations and the bond was backed by a corporate guarantee issued by Obulapuram Mining Company owned by former Karnataka Minister Gali Janardhan Reddy, the statement said.

"Bramhani Industries having failed to install the machinery and having failed to fulfil the export obligation, have violated the conditions of EPCG Scheme as mentioned in Customs notification...

"Hence the officers visited the premises of the company and seized the imported machinery lying there worth Rs 189 crore," it said.

No immediate comment was available from the company.

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The president of Ecuador Lenin Moreno today described WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as an "inherited problem" that has created "more than a nuisance" for his government.

"We hope to have a positive result in the short term," Moreno said in an interview with television networks.

Ecuador granted citizenship to Assange earlier this month in an unsuccessful attempt to provide him with diplomatic immunity and usher him out of its London embassy without the threat of arrest by Britain.

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The CBI today told a Delhi court that former Orissa High Court judge I M Quddusi, who is on bail in connection with a medical college graft case, was trying to meddle in the investigation.

The probe agency made the submission before Special Judge Manoj Jain in pursuance to a notice issued to it on the plea filed by Quddusi seeking court-monitored investigation into the alleged leakage of transcripts of conversations between him and two others in the media.

Quddusi was arrested last year on the charges of graft along with other accused persons but was later granted bail by a Delhi court.

In its reply filed before the court, the CBI said "the present application has been filed as a devise to gain knowledge about the contents of the case diary of the present case. It is humbly submitted that application of this nature, which is based purely on conjectures and newspaper reports, causes serious interference in the investigation."



It said that no preliminary enquiry was conducted in respect of the case in which the application was moved, which went to show that "the present application is a clear attempt at a fishing and roving inquiry to gain knowledge of what forms part of the case diary."



"Such an attempt on the part of the accused/applicant only interferes in the investigation and violates the basis on which concession of bail has been granted to him," the agency said.

The court posted the matter for hearing next week.

Some major dailies had published details of the purported transcript of the alleged conversation between three persons including Quddusi, claiming that their phones were tapped by the CBI.

The reports had spoken of conversations between Quddusi, a middleman and B P Yadav, owner of UP-based medical college, Prasad Education Trust.

Quddusi had on January 17 moved the court seeking a court monitored probe, alleging that the leaked conversation "was not even supplied to the accused but given to people outside the probe agency."



The application, filed on Quddusi's behalf by advocate Vijay Aggarwal, had said this gave rise to "grave suspicion and apprehension of interference of third parties into the investigation of the present matter".

In its reply, the CBI today said "it is most humbly submitted that even the prayers are in nature of a fishing and roving inquiry and every attempt is being made by the applicant to divert the energy and resources of the court as also the investigating agency to deal with misdirected applications like the present one."



It said the applicant (Quddusi) should seek a response from the media and not the CBI.

"There are numerous sources from which the alleged transcripts can be supplied to the media. Once the applicant chooses to question the media in an appropriate forum, it is for the media to reply to these allegations and not the CBI," the agency said.

"What has been published in media is for the newspaper owners to explain, if the reports are questioned before the appropriate authorities. If the applicant has material to justify breach of his constitutional rights under Article 21, it is humbly submitted that his remedy, if any, lies before a constitutional court," the CBI further said.

Quddusi, in his plea had said that "monitoring of the investigation is essential to find out as to whether the alleged conversations and preliminary enquiry report has been leaked by someone within the CBI or they have been stolen, which is essential so as to ensure that it does not become a 'Trial by Media' and ensure that administration of justice is not compromised by interference by third parties in the investigation of the matter."



It had also said the possibility of tampering of the documents leaked "cannot be ruled out, for which also inquiry is required to be conducted.

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After being pushed into near oblivion, Goa's celebrated 'Abolim' flower is getting back into the limelight with a group of like-minded people working on a project to revive it.

Scientifically known as crossandra infundibuliformis, Abolim was notified as the state flower in the early 1970s because of its importance in Goa's socio-cultural life.

But over the years, it virtually vanished from the state's floriculture map, forcing its imports from adjoining Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

"Abolim once again needs to feature prominently in the state's socio-cultural life for which the efforts are now being made.

"There are only a few pockets left now where the trees bearing Abolim flowers are planted. The rest of Goa has forgotten them," said Minguel Braganza, Secretary of the Botanical Society of Goa.

Braganza has been on the forefront of a project to revive the floriculture sector, which has been getting secondary preference in the state's economic scenario.

Braganza said the 'Abolim', found only in Sri Lanka, Goa and parts of South India, had been part of the states rich cultural legacy cutting across the religious barriers.

He narrated how followers of Our Lady of Milagres, a Christian deity, and Hindu Goddess Lairai used to exchange 'oil' and 'Abolim' as a part of intercultural tradition as both the deities are considered sisters.

He said there are some festivals which are incomplete without 'Abolim'.

Joining hands with Braganza, the Nirmala Institute of Education, the state's oldest teacher training school, has dedicated its annual event to the flower and named it 'Abolianchem Fest' (a festival dedicated to Abolim).

"The institute does not want to project Goa as the land of sand, Sun and fun as done in tourism brochures. Our efforts have always been to project the cultural heritage of the state," said Rita Paes, director of the institute and a former principal.

She said the festival, to be held on March 10 at the institutes premises in Panaji, will celebrate the states food, flowers, music and other legacies.

Braganza said there is no figure as to what quantity of 'Abolim' is imported to Goa as there are no organised flower markets in the state.

He said conservationists have decided to approach the agriculture department and request them to initiate measures to save the flower from becoming extinct in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The first International Dam Safety Conference will begin in Thiruvananthapuram tomorrow, the government said in a statement today.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the two-day conference, which will be presided over by Union Minister of State for Water Resources Arjun Ram Meghwal.

The conference will discuss various safety-related issues of large dams.

As many as 550 delegates from over 20 countries, including the US, Switzerland, Spain and Australia, will take part in the conference, Director (Dam Safety) of the Central Water Commission Pramod Narayan said, according to the statement.

Seven dam safety manuals developed under the Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) will also be released for implementation during the conference, the statement said.

Through the DRIP, the Centre aims to assist improvement of 223 large dams "which may be experiencing stress" in seven states at an outlay of Rs 2,100 crore.

A software programme to document authentic asset and health information pertaining to the large dams in the country, known as the Dam Health and Rehabilitation Monitoring Application (DHARMA), will also be launched.

DHARMA is a web tool that will help dam owners to digitise all dam-related data effectively, store, monitor and take appropriate actions to ensure need-based rehabilitation.

Besides, over 140 technical papers will be presented on several aspects of dam safety including case studies.

"About 30 national and international organisations are showcasing contemporary developments in technology, materials, instrumentation and their application in addressing the dam safety issues during the exhibition being organised during the conference," the statement quoted Narayan as saying.

Globally India ranks third after China and the US in terms of the number of large dams (5,254 large dams in operation and 447 large dams under construction) with a total storage capacity of about 283 billion cubic meters.

Around 80 per cent of the large dams are more than 25 years old, while 213 others exceed the age of 100 years and their safety considerations do not match with the current design standards and safety norms, prompting the Centre to undertake the DRIP in 2012, the statement said.

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Jammu and Kashmir's Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh today said there are four power projects operational on river Chenab, while seven more have been proposed to be constructed on the river.

Replying to the discussion held on power infrastructure raised by NC MLC Sajad Ahmad Kichloo in the Legislative Council today, the deputy chief minister said there are four power projects with 1,680 MW cumulative capacity operational on river Chenab and seven more projects having a total capacity of 5,388 MW have been proposed to be constructed on the river flowing through Chenab Valley comprising Kishtwar, Doda and Ramban districts.

He said that a comprehensive Relief and Rehabilitation (RR) policy has been formulated for the affected people of three power projects of Pakal Dul, Kiru and Kawar in Kishtwar district.

The government would provide Rs 33 lakh for undertaking the construction for individual house; the extent of stamp duty would be limited to Rs 25 000 besides providing an amount of Rs 40,000 for construction of work shed and 25,000 for cattle shed and providing a scholarship of Rs 1,000 per month for undertaking studies of the children of the affected families, he said.

Giving details of the commissioned power projects on river Chenab, Singh said that Dulhasti Power Project with a capacity of 390 MW, Bhagliar Hydro Electric Project (BHEP) Stage-I and II with capacity of 450 MW each and Salal Hydro Electric Project (HEP) with capacity of 390 MW are operational and are generating power which is being supplied as per set norms.

Singh further informed the House that seven more power projects having a total capacity of 5,388 MW include 1,000 MW Pakal Dul HEP, 624 MW Kiru HEP, 540 MW Kawar HEP, 1856 MW Sawalakote HEP, 390 MW Kirthai-I, 930 MW Kirthai-II and 48 MW Lower Kalnai are proposed to be constructed on river Chenab.

The minister said that out of these projects three projects Pakaldul, Kiru and Kwar HEPs are in advanced stage of tendering while as final clearance is awaited at CEA for Sawlakote HEP.

He said the detailed project report (DPR) for Kirthai-I project is under appraisal at Central Electricity Authority (CEA) while as Kirthsai-II has been appraised by the CEA for which a consultant has been engaged for preparation of bid document for execution of project.

He said that execution of Lower Kalnai Project at an estimated cost of Rs 576.87 crore has been taken by Coastal Projects Limited, but only 10 per cent progress has been achieved and due to poor performance of contractor the work is bound to get delayed.

He said an amount of Rs 108.10 crore has been expended so far.

With regard to the 800 MW Burser HEP, Singh said the project is one among the seven projects handed over to NHPC for development under central sector under an MoU in July, 2000 between the State government and the government of India.

He said the project in under investigation and DPR preparation, appraisal.

However, the project is yet to be cleared by government of India for construction, the Minister said.

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A German nurse serving a life sentence for two murders has been indicted in nearly 100 more killings.

agency dpa reported that prosecutors in Oldenburg said today they have charged Niels Hoegel with 97 counts of murder.

The charges relate to the deaths of 35 patients at a hospital in the northwestern German city and 62 more in nearby Delmenhorst.

The charges were expected after officials said in November that Hoegel may have killed more than 100 patients over several years. That announcement came after investigators completed examinations on patients who died when he was a nurse.

Hoegel was convicted in 2015 of two murders and two attempted murders in Delmenhorst. He worked at the Oldenburg hospital from 1999 to 2002 and in Delmenhorst from 2003 to 2005.

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Energy ministers of 60 countries will brainstorm on global energy security and transition to renewables at the biennial International Energy Forum (IEF) Ministerial Meet scheduled on April 10-12, 2018.

"We expect about 60 energy ministers, 15 chief of international organisation including IEA and OPEC and 30 CEOs from top companies. It will be across the board focus discussion at IEF Ministerial Meet at Delhi," Sunjay Sudhir Joint Secretary (International Cooperation), Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas told reporter here today.

Talking about the theme of the meet, he said, "We are trying to capture the themes which concern everybody including oil producing and consuming countries; developing, least developed or developed countries. The theme of the meet is the future of global energy security. Transition, technology, trade and investment will be discussed".

He further said, "Transition part will be very important because every now and then you hear about electric vehicles, renewable, competing with prices of solar or wind energy. So, this transition is something we need to capture. So that, we can take position on oil and gas sector. There will also be focus on gas".

Dr Sun Xiansheng Secretary General IEF said, "This is official announcement that IEF's 16th Ministerial Meeting will be arranged in New Delhi on April 10 to 12, 2018. Every two years, we have this meeting. It is important meeting for oil consuming and producing countries".

He explained, "We have many member countries which don't belong to IEA and OPEC like Russia. India and China are Asian members of IEA. But, they do not have voting rights and are observers only. Thus IEF is more important".

He also said, "We guess that 700 delegates will attend this meeting. India (the host) is an important oil consuming country. This time co-hosts are China and South Korea, which are also consumer countries. All producers countries will come because buyers are here. Prime Minister of India will open the meeting".

About discussion on TurkmenistanAfghanistanPakistan India Pipeline (TAPI), Sudhir said, "There may be discussion on the margins because we expect minister from Turkmenistan to join. There will be ground breaking ceremony of Afghanistan leg of TAPI on February 23".

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Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and majority of MLAs today skipped an event organised by the state secretariat to create awareness about the Mahadayi river water sharing dispute.

The programme was organised at the secretariat in Porvorim, which was attended by only six out of the total 40 MLAs.

However, Goa Assembly Speaker Pramod Sawant said Parrikar had informed him in advance that he would not be able to attend the programme due to his preoccupation.

Besides Parrikar, Water Resources Department Minister Vinod Palyekar too gave a miss to the event attended by Mahadayi Bachao Abhiyaan leader Rajendra Kerkar among others.

On the occasion, Kerkar made a presentation on the simmering dispute between Goa and Karnataka.

Goa and Karnataka have locked horns over sharing of Mahadayi (known as Mandovi in Goa) river water.

The issue is currently pending before the Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal in Delhi.

The speaker, who hosted the programme, expressed displeasure over bulk of MLAs not turning up.

"We had sent the invite to all the MLAs including ministers. It is unfortunate that majority of them did not turn up for the event," Sawant told reporters on the sidelines of the event.

He said today's function was held to educate lawmakers on the issue.

"We wanted all the MLAs to be aware about the seriousness of the issue," Sawant said.

Kerkar, who explained in detail the Mahadayi dispute, criticised the absence of MLAs, saying they were not serious about the issue.

"I would say that the MLAs and MPs in Karnataka are more serious on this issue compared to their counterparts in Goa," said Kerkar who has been spearheading a movement against diversion of Mahadayi river.

Kerkar said the Goa government should not compromise on the river dispute for the sake of winning elections for its party in Karnataka.

The old dispute came to the fore again after Parrikar wrote a letter to Karnataka BJP president B S Yeddiyurappa last December.

Parrikar stated that his government was ready to share water of the river, which originates in Karnataka and flows through Goa, for drinking purposes of people.

Parrikar's letter was termed as an electoral gambit by the ruling Congress in poll-bound Karnataka.

Palyekar had recently claimed that Karnataka was trying to divert the river water for irrigation purpose in violation of the Supreme Court orders.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Gold prices rose 0.07 per cent to Rs 29,776 per 10 grams in futures trade today as speculators built up fresh positions, tracking a firm trend overseas.

At the Multi Commodity Exchange, gold for delivery in February traded higher by Rs 21, or 0.07 per cent, to Rs 29,776 per 10 grams, in a business turnover of 1,274 lots.

On similar lines, the metal for delivery in April edged higher by Rs 12, or 0.04 per cent, to Rs 29,753 per 10 grams in 212 lots.

Analysts said traders created fresh positions in step with a firm global trend, mainly supported the upside in gold prices at futures trade.

Globally, gold rose 0.04 per cent to USD 1,331.10 an ounce in Singapore.

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Customs officials at the airport here seized gold worth Rs 54 lakh in three separate incidents in the past two days.

Officials of Air Intelligence Unit, Air Customs, recovered four gold bars totallyweighing 350 grams and valued at around Rs 10.58 lakh from a passenger who arrived last night from Dubai, a Customs release said here today.

The gold was found concealed inside speciallystitched pouch on the inside of the waistband of the pants worn by thepassenger, they added.

The AIU also made two seizures today.

The first was from a resident of Palakkad district whocame by an Air India flight from Jeddah to Kochi.

On suspicion, he wasintercepted at the exit gate and on search of his baggage, eight cut pieces of gold totally weighing 436.4 grams and valued ataround Rs 13.22 lakh was found concealed inside a hand mixer brought by the passenger in his baggage, the release said.

The second seizure of one gold bar weighing one kg and valued atRs 30.15 lakh was made from the toilet of a flight belonging to a private airline, which arrived from Dubai.

Customs CommissionerSumit Kumar said the total seizure of gold for this month so far is 7.616 kg valuedat Rs 2.24 crore from 20 cases.

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Patidar community leader Hardik Patel today took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his recent remark about whether a person earning Rs 200 a day selling "pakodas" can be considered unemployed, saying only a "chaiwala" can advise youth without a job to sell the snack.

Modi has often been targeted over his humble "tea seller" background, which he invariably used as a stick to beat his rivals with.

"Berozgar yuvao ko pakode ka thela lagane ka sujav ek chaiwala hi de sakta hai. Arthshastri aise sujav nahi deta!!!," (Only a tea seller can suggest to unemployed youth to sell snacks, an economist would not do that)," Patel said in a tweet today.

The Patel quota demand spearhead was apparently comparing Modi to former prime minister Manmohan Singh, an eminent economist.

Patel had backed the Congress in the recent Gujarat Assembly elections.

His tweet came after Modi, in a recent interview to a television channel, reportedly said: "If a person selling pakodas (snacks) earns Rs 200 at the end of the day, will it be considered employment or not?"



In the run up to Gujarat elections, the Congress's youth wing mouthpiece, 'Yuva Desh', had tweeted a meme on the tea- seller background of Modi.

It showed Modi, US President Doland Trump and UK Prime Minister Theresa May in one frame. Modi was shown mispronouncing the word 'meme' as 'main main', prompting Trump to correct him. May was shown telling Modi: "You go, sell tea".

Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar had, in the run up to the 2014 parliament elections, spoken about Modi's 'chaiwala' background. Modi had used it to turn the tables on the Congress, accusing it of disdain for the poor.

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The Delhi High Court has acquitted the main accused in a 1996 triple murder case here, saying the investigation has failed to prove his guilt.

The case pertains to the killing of the owner of a weight loss centre, Personal Point Health Clinic, and two of his female employees in June 1996. MCD contractor Subash Gupta was the prime accused.

Setting aside Gupta's conviction by a trial court, a bench of Justices S Muralidhar and I S Mehta said while the media had shaped the public perception regarding the guilt of the persons involved in the case, the courts should not be influenced by it.

"A dispassionate adjudication should be impervious to public perception of who might or might not be guilty. The present case points to a failure of investigation which has the inevitable result of acquittal of those put on trial," the bench said allowing Gupta's appeal against his conviction.

The high court, based on the evidence before it, was not convinced that Gupta alone could have committed the three murders, as held by the trial court which had convicted and sentenced him to life imprisonment in March 2000.

"Where there are multiple murders involved and a complex set of facts where abduction happened at one place and the murders in different locations and the bodies being thrown in different locations, it is impossible for one person to single-handedly do all of those acts," the high court said.

It also dismissed the state's appeal against the acquittal of the eight other co-accused in the case,



saying it found no reason to disagree with the trial court's reasoning and conclusion holding them not guilty of the offences, including that of conspiring with Gupta to kill the three persons.

The court called for dispassionate adjudication, saying the case had attracted considerable media attention when it happened in 1996 and details of the investigation, to which the media was privy, had shaped public perception about the guilt of those put on trial.

"Two decades later when that perception is not borne out, it invites a reflection on the criminal justice process. Courts must test the evidence gathered during investigation in the calm interiors of court halls, uninfluenced by the discussions in the media.

"The process of trial tests whether the distance from 'may have committed the crime' to 'has beyond reasonable doubt committed the crime' has been covered. In this case, the prosecution has failed to complete that journey. Suspicion, however strong, cannot and should not substitute proof," the bench said.

The prosecution had contended that Gupta had conspired with the other accused to abduct and murder the three - Dr Sunil Kaul and his two employees, Sujata Saha and Deepa Gupta.

It had claimed the accused was in love with Sujata and as she had not reciprocated his feelings, he had hatched the conspiracy to kill her and the others.

The prosecution had also alleged that Kaul was killed as the accused suspected that he was having an affair with Sujata.

The high court disagreed with the prosecution's contentions, saying the evidence only showed that he was "obsessed" with Sujata, "but not to the extent of wanting to eliminate her".

It also said the blood-stained mats and fibres found from Gupta's car lose their significance as evidence since the recoveries were neither made in the presence of independent witnesses, nor pursuant to any disclosure statement by him.

"Therefore, not much importance can be attached to such recoveries. While on this circumstance, it should also be noticed that the blood-stains on the mat are not shown to match the blood group of any of the deceased persons," the bench has said in its 55-page judgement.

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The Bombay High Court today refused to stay or postpone the first semester examinations for LLM students of the Mumbai University.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai and B P Colabawalla, however, permitted those students who were not prepared for the exams that are scheduled to begin tomorrow, to write their first semester exams at a later stage.

The bench said the university must not treat the non- appearance of such students in these exams as failure. And, instead, they must be permitted to give their first semester exams simultaneously with their second semester exams.

The order came while the bench was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL), and a writ petition filed by some LLM students from the university.

They had claimed in their plea that due to the delay in declaration of the results for the university's undergraduate courses last academic year, the admissions to the LLM courses got delayed.

There are a total of 660 students currently enrolled in the first semester LLM course at the Mumbai University.

While about 600 of such students secured admissions between October and November last year, 41 of these students were admitted on December 26 last year. The admission process for the remaining 19 students was completed only on January 19 this year.

The pleas claimed that under such circumstances, it was unfair to expect these students to appear for the exams within a few days of their admission.

University's counsel Rui Rodriguez, however, argued that the court must not stay or postpone the exams as many students, especially those who had secured admissions early, might be prepared and ready for the first semester exams.

The bench thus, said that in such a case, it would be prudent to give a choice to the students.

"Since there is no representation from the students who got admissions on time and thus, might be prepared for the exams that begin tomorrow, it will be unfair to pass a blanket order staying the exams," the bench said.

"However, we must not prejudice the rights of those students who got admissions late," the bench said.

"Thus, those students who do not wish to appear for the first semester exams beginning tomorrow, must be given the liberty to give these exams with their second semester exams. Their absence in the exams beginning tomorrow must not be treated as failure by the university," the bench noted.

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The Madras High Court has dismissed a plea seeking the registration of an FIR in the alleged mysterious death of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in 2016.

Rejecting the revision petition against a lower court order which had dismissed the prayer, Justice M V Muralidaran directed the petitioner to approach the one-man inquiry commission headed by retired judge A Arumugasamy, probing the hospitalisation and subsequent death of Jayalalithaa in December 2016.

Advocate A K Velan had filed the petition challenging the order of the 14th metropolitan magistrate on June 27 last year, dismissing his petition seeking a direction to the city police to register an FIR in the alleged mysterious death of Jayalalithaa.

Justice Muralidaran asked the petitioner to approach the Inquiry Commission within two weeks to ventilate his grievance by way of filing a representation or other documents.

The petitioner had contended that Jayalalithaa died on December 5, 2016 in a suspicious manner after 75 days of hospitalisation here.

He alleged that doctors had suppressed the facts and details of treatment given to her, leading to suspicion over her death.

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Heated exchanges between senior lawyers today marked the hearing of the pleas relating to the death of special CBI judge B H Loya in the Supreme Court, which also took umbrage at some advocates for dragging the name of BJP chief Amit Shah and pre-judging its order.

The high-voltage hearing saw Maharashtra government's senior counsel Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi entering into a verbal duel with their senior counterparts Dushyant Dave and Indira Jaising.

After hard-hitting remarks from a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra against Jaising for inferring that a gag order on the media was likely to be passed in the case, the senior advocate immediately tendered an unconditional apology as the bench, which also comprised Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, asked her to withdraw her submission.

However, the major spat was witnessed between Salve and Dave, who was also unhappy with another senior advocate Pallav Shishodia raising the demand on behalf a person seeking an independent probe into Loya's death.

Dave, appearing for Bombay Lawyers' Association, objected to Salve appearing for the Maharashtra government.

"Mr Salve had earlier appeared for Amit Shah, now Rajya Sabha MP, in the case and now switched side. This is a serious case of conflict of interest. This matter calls for judicial indulgence as there are serious contradictions," Dave alleged.

When Salve tried to interrupt, Dave said, "Mr Salve, you have done enough damage to the institution. Your Lordships should not permit Mr Salve to address the court in this matter".

Salve retorted "Some people like to make statements. Court should not allow them to make such remarks in this court. This is abuse of the process of law".

Dave shot back "Don't give me lectures on morality. You are the one who does that".

In response, Salve said "I dont need your certificate".

The apex court expressed its anguish against Dave for dragging the name of Shah and other persons including a former chief justice of Bombay High Court in the case and said "as of today, it (Loya's death) is a natural death".

Senior advocate Pallav Shishodia, appearing for one of the petitioners in the case, also traded charges with Dave, who apparently smelled a rat at his (Shishodia's) appearance against Maharashtra Government.

Shishodia, who was appearing for a petitioner seeking an independent probe into the death of Loya, had also appeared for the accused earlier, Dave claimed.

When Shishodia tried to argue in the matter, he was interrupted by Dave who said, "Mr Shishodia, the Bar will judge you".

To this, Shishodia said, "Bar has already judged you, Mr Dave. The judgment has not been very flattering. Mr Dave is the self-appointed conscience keeper for everyone, but unfortunately everyone rejects the advice..."



He was referring apparently to Dave recently losing the election of the Supreme Court Bar Association President to senior advocate Vikas Singh, who has openly criticised him (Dave) for questioning the hearing of the case before a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra. Justice Mishra had later recused himself from hearing the two PILs on Loya's death.

Shishodia asked Dave to "show equal passion and anger on merits" and come forward with some "credible material if the death of Judge Loya is otherwise than natural".

To this, the bench while considering the objections made by Salve and Rohatgi said, "Exactly, as of today, death of district judge Loya is a natural death. Then, do not cast aspersions".

Rohatgi said that Dave cannot address the court in the matter, as no intervention can be allowed in this case.

The bench, then intervened and said, it cannot allow the matter to be "deflected by referring to conflict of interest" and the matter should be "left to Bar's conscience" to decide as to who should appear for whom.

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Following are the top stories from the Western Region at 1630 hrs.

BOM 6 MP-PADMAAVAT-PROTEST



Ujjain: Members of the Karni Sena block some roads here to oppose the release of the controversial film "Padmaavat".

BOM 1 MH-FIRE



Mumbai: A massive fire breaks out in an industrial area in suburban Andheri, injuring two fire men and gutting a part of the premises.

BES 1 MH-SYNAGOGUE-R-DAY



Pune: Notwithstanding its dwindling numbers, the Bene Israel community here takes pride in being "Indian" and hoists the tricolour on the Republic Day and the Independence Day to express its "sense of patriotism".

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Haryana Director General of Police (DGP) B S Sandhu today cautioned trouble makers saying nobody would be allowed to disrupt peace as adequate forces will be deployed around cinema halls where Bollywood film 'Padmaavat' is screened.

"We are going to provide adequate security to cinema halls that will screen the movie on January 25. No one will be allowed to disrupt peace in the state," Sandhu said.

He said adequate forces will be deployed and clear instructions were given to the concerned SPs to ensure that law and order was maintained.

He said the state security forces will be deployed on January 25 around theatres.

The DGP's statement came after several fringe groups threatened multiplex, theatre and cinema hall owners against the screening of Padmaavat alleging that it portrayed legendary queen Rani Padmavati in "poor light".

A group of around 15 unidentified miscreants yesterday vandalized a shopping mall in Kurukshetra causing panic among shoppers. Carrying sharp edged weapons and sticks, they broke the glass panes of shops in the mall.

In Gurgaon also, members of a group held a bike rally yesterday and caused traffic jam, demanding a ban on the screening of the movie.

Some activists had on January 20 taken out a march at Ambala Cantonment and warned cinema hall owners against screening 'Padmaavat'. They had threatened that their cinema halls would be ransacked if the movie was screened.

The Supreme Court's recent order had paved way for all- India release of controversial Bollywood movie 'Padmaavat' on January 25.

The apex court had stayed notifications and orders issued by Gujarat, Rajasthan and other states prohibiting the exhibition of the film in their territories.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Human levitation with Star Trek- style tractor beams may soon be possible, as scientists have shown for the first time that large objects can be suspended in air, using just sound.

Acoustic tractor beams use the power of sound to hold particles in mid-air, and unlike magnetic levitation, they can grab most solids or liquids.

For the first time, researchers from University of Bristol in the UK have shown it is possible to stably trap objects larger than the wavelength of sound in an acoustic tractor beam.

The discovery opens the door to the manipulation of drug capsules or micro-surgical implements within the body.

Container-less transportation of delicate larger samples is now also a possibility and could lead to levitating humans, researchers said.

Scientists had previously thought that acoustic tractor beams were fundamentally limited to levitating small objects as all the previous attempts to trap particles larger than the wavelength had been unstable, with objects spinning uncontrollably.

This is because rotating sound field transfers some of its spinning motion to the objects causing them to orbit faster and faster until they are ejected.

The new approach uses rapidly fluctuating acoustic vortices, which are similar to tornadoes of sound, made of a twister-like structure with loud sound surrounding a silent core.

The researchers discovered that the rate of rotation can be finely controlled by rapidly changing the twisting direction of the vortices, this stabilises the tractor beam.

They were then able to increase the size of the silent core allowing it to hold larger objects.

Working with ultrasonic waves at a pitch of 40 kiloHertz, a similar pitch to that which only bats can hear, the researchers held a two-centimetre polystyrene sphere in the tractor beam.

This sphere measures over two acoustic wavelengths in size and is the largest yet trapped in a tractor beam. The research suggests that, in the future much larger objects could be levitated in this way.

"Acoustic researchers had been frustrated by the size limit for years, so its satisfying to find a way to overcome it. I think it opens the door to many new applications," said Asier Marzo, lead author on the study published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

"In the future, with more acoustic power it will be possible to hold even larger objects. This was only thought to be possible using lower pitches making the experiment audible and dangerous for humans," said Mihai Caleap, Senior Research Associate, who developed the simulations.

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Mohun Bagan's star I-League winning forward Sony Norde today broke into tears as he bid an emotional farewell to the club with a promise that he would be "back".

Struggling with a right knee, Norde, who had guided Mohun Bagan to I-League and Federation Cup titles, sought a termination of his contract to head to Argentina where he will undergo surgery for his torn meniscus.

Emotional scenes were witnessed in their 2-0 derby win over East Bengal yesterday as about 20,000 supporters adorned Norde's masks and many were also seen sporting the trademark Sony Norde mohawk hairdo.

"It was hard for me to take the decision. I couldn't sleep that night when I took the decision because it was very hard for me," an emotional Norde said.

"I hope you guys try and keep winning. I will pray for Mohun Bagan to win every match. Thank you very much and I will see you very soon," Norde said as a hundreds of supporters had gathered at the club tent.

"Keep fighting, team. Give your 100 per cent in the pitch and win every game. Mohun Bagan will stay, but I have to go. Mohun Bagan lives forever," he said with moist eyes.

Recollecting his association with the club, Norde further added: "What a thrill it was. This club gave me everything, but I have to leave for my career, future and family. I need to be at my best. If I continue playing despite the injury, it is not good for me."



"I'll come back to Mohun Bagan. Want to thank the officials who treated me like I was always at home. I never missed my family when I was here," the 28-year-old, who joined the team in 2014, said.

He also tried to console the supporters and said: "It's very hard for me seeing the supporters cry. When I was coming for the event this morning, they were crying. I promise you guys that I will come back after recovery from the injury. This is the only way I can give you all the love back.

"Today it's not about me, it's about Mohun Bagan. They are becoming bigger day by day. We could have scored 6-7 goals yesterday (in the Kolkata derby)," he said.

"You can compare the club with every team in the world but you cannot compare the supporters," he concluded.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India today hosted the welcome reception at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual gathering with ministers, business leaders and celebrities in attendance.

More than 130 participants from India would be attending the meeting of the rich and the powerful where the official sessions would kick off with the opening plenary address by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, industrialist Mukesh Ambani, cine star Shah Rukh Khan and film maker Karan Johar, among others, were present at the reception.

Samosa, kachori and a lot of other Indian food items were on the platter at the reception.

After reaching this Alpine town, Modi held a meeting with Swiss President Alain Berset and discussed ways to deepen bilateral ties on the sidelines of the summit.

Modi is also the first Indian Prime Minister to attend the WEF meet in two decades.

Over 3,000 world leaders from business, politics, art, academia and civil society would be attending the meeting whose theme is 'Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World'.

Earlier today, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, Australian actress Cate Blanchett and legendary musician Elton John were presented with the annual 'Crystal Awards' for their respective work towards improving the state of the world.

In a first at the WEF summit, India would also host yoga training sessions for the entire duration of the meeting, while also showcasing Indian heritage and culture.

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India has moved up on a global index of talent competitiveness to the 81st position, but remains a laggard among the BRICS nations, an annual study showed here today while warning that the country faces "serious risk of worsening brain drain".

While Switzerland continues to top the list released every year on the first day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting here, India has improved its position from 92nd last year. India was at the 89th place in 2016 on the index that measures how countries grow, attract and retain talent.

India's ranking was the worst among the five BRICS countries in 2017 as well when China was ranked 54th, Russian Federation was placed at 56th, followed by South Africa (67) and Brazil (81).

China has moved up to 43rd now, Russia to 53rd, South Africa to 63rd and Brazil to 73rd position.

As per the study released by Adecco, Insead and Tata Communications, the developed, high-income countries are still the global talent champions while Zurich, Stockholm and Oslo take the top spots in the cities' ranking.

Among the countries, Switzerland is followed by Singapore and the US. European countries dominate the top ranks, with 15 out of the top 25 places.

The report said that although in recent years we have witnessed a cooling off in the growth of emerging markets, the BRICS cannot be ignored in the global talent race and it is China (43rd) that leads the pack.

"India (81st) is the laggard of this group. Formal Education (67th) and LifelongLearning (37th) are keeping pace -- and thus the pool of GlobalKnowledge Skills (63rd) is solid compared with other emerging markets.

"Where the country has plenty of room for improvement is in minimising brain drain while achieving a brain gain by luring back some of its talented diaspora members (it ranks 98th in the Attract pillar) and in retaining its own talent (99th in Retain) -- particularly in the context of high emigration rates of high-skilled people (India is at serious risk of worsening its brain drain despite the connection with the diasporas working in the information technology sector)," the report said.
Historian Upinder Singh today said the country did not take seriously the ideas of its three icons of non-violence and this mistake needed to be rectified.

The three icons are Gautama Buddha, Emperor Ashoka and Lord Mahavira, said Singh, author of 'Political Violence in Ancient India', at the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet.

"I don't think we take their ideas seriously now. That is the mistake we need to rectify," Singh said during a discussion on Indian history, research and interpretation with eminent historian Mukul Kesavan.

On Ashoka's message of renunciation of violence after the Kalinga War, she said "If you read his inscriptions, you can hear him speak on issues like happiness and goodness... Something truely remarkable of Ashoka is the way he pursued propagation" of non-violence.

Singh, the head of the history department at the University of Delhi, said, "We need to engage with Ashoka by reading words in his inscription."



The daughter of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was speaking on the inaugural day of the six-day Tata Steel Kolkata Literary meet.

In another session at the meet, author of "The Other Sides of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India," Urvashi Butalia talked on 'Remembering and Reimagining Partition'.

"I can't say you can reject facts and take on memory. Work with two together and you can have better understanding of history," she said about ways to chronicle events.

About her book, Butalia said, "I did research over a long period of time.

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Abdul Subhan Qureshi, known as 'India's Osama bin Laden' and wanted for being the main conspirator of the 2008 Gujarat serial blasts, has been arrested following a brief exchange of fire, Delhi Police said today.

Qureshi alias Tauqeer, co-founder of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) and linked to the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), was arrested from Ghazipur in east Delhi on Saturday evening, ahead of Republic Day.

Qureshi, one of India's most wanted terrorists, had executed the 2008 Gujarat serial blasts that claimed over 50 lives, as he wanted to do "something spectacular" to avenge the arrest of his associates, police said.

He was working with a top IT firm before he joined SIMI in 2001-2002. The 46-year-old is a techie and had he not joined SIMI, he would have been a high-ranking official in a firm, police said.

He was arrested after the police got a tip-off that he would come to meet an old acquaintance in Ghazipur.

As many as 13-14 rounds were exchanged between the police and Qureshi, said Pramod Singh Kushwah, deputy commissioner of police (Special Cell).

A pistol, live cartridges and a Santro car, stolen in November 2014, were seized from him.

Even though his arrest came days before Republic Day, police said that he was not planning any attacks in Delhi.

He was later handed over to the Delhi Police by a city court for custodial interrogation for two weeks.

It had emerged following interrogation of IM and SIMI operatives, who had been arrested earlier, that Qureshi was indoctrinating the unemployed youth among the community to fill the void left by the fall of top IM operatives.

He was planning the revival of the scattered network of the organisation in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh -- areas where the outfit enjoyed a stronghold earlier, the DCP said.

Qureshi had earned the moniker 'India's Osama bin Laden' as police forces of many states and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) were on the lookout for him.

He was wanted by the NIA in connection with its probe into the December 2007 Wagamon SIMI arms training camp case. A reward of Rs four lakh had also been announced for his arrest.

The Maharashtra Police was also on the lookout for him for his alleged role in the blasts that rocked Mumbai in July 2011.

During his stay in Bijapur in Karnataka, he frequently travelled to Bhatkal and revived his association with IM associate Riyaz Bhatkal. He also came in contact with Iqbal Bhatkal, another IM operative, Kushwah said.

On July 11, 2006, SIMI and IM executed serial blasts in the local trains in Mumbai.

Subsequently Qureshi's name figured in this case and he fled from Mumbai to Karnataka, said the officer.

SIMI and IM together wanted to carry out widespread terror activities. A meeting of SIMI cadres under the aegis of SIMI chief Safdar Nagori and Qureshi took place at Castle Rock, Hubli, Karnataka in 2007, police said.

Subsequently, training camps of SIMI cadres were organised at Choral, (Indore, MP) in November 2007, at Wagamon (Kerala) in December 2007 and at Halol (Gujarat) in January 2008, Kushwah said



In these training camps, physical and psychological training was imparted to the cadres to wage jihad against India.

Mountaineering, swimming, map reading, pistol firing, preparing and using Molotov cocktail (Petrol Bomb), enacting fake accidents to declare death of cadres and other evading tactics to be adopted to mislead the interrogators if arrested, were also taught, the DCP said.

Qureshi and Nagori were the main organisers and chief instructors at such camps.

Following the arrest of Nagori and other SIMI activists, Qureshi became the head of SIMI and took the initiative to engineer the 2008 serial blasts in Gujarat as revenge for the arrests of his associates, said the officer.

For this purpose, he contacted his IM associate Riyaz Bhatkal and went to meet the latter in Pune in May-June 2008 to share the details of his plan and offered his team to physically execute the bomb blasts.

According to the plan, a group of radically motivated youths of IM were tasked with planting bombs at different places in Ahmedabad and Surat in Gujarat, Kushwah said.

On July 26, 2008, 23 serial bomb blasts rocked Ahmedabad resulting in death of 57 people and grievous injuries to over 150 others. In total, 20 cases were registered in different police stations in Ahmedabad.

The IM terrorists also planted IEDs at several places in Surat. However, the IEDs did not explode due to malfunctioning of the timer device.

Police recovered 29 unexploded IEDs between July 27 and August 3, 2008.

As soon as the role of SIMI and IM came to the fore, Qureshi left Gujarat and fled to Ranchi to take shelter at the residence of a SIMI cadre, said Kushwah.

From Ranchi, he went to Chappra and then to Raxaul on the Indo-Nepal border in Bihar. He crossed over to Nepal and reached Birat Nagar where he met a man named Nizam Khan, a SIMI sympathiser, who ran an NGO, Nepal Development Society, he said.

He informed Khan about his SIMI links but did not disclose his real identity.

With Khan's help he started to live in Batta, Birat Nagar, and also started teaching English at a Christian boarding school. He stayed in Batta from October 2008 to January 2009 and then moved to Gorkha.

During his stay in Nepal, Qureshi also managed to procure fake local civilian IDs (Voter ID) through Khan and remained in Nepal till 2015.

During this period, he again came in contact with Riyaz Bhatkal who motivated him to come to Riyadh, Saudia Arabia, for arranging finances and to revive IM in India, the DCP said.

He procured a Nepali passport in the name of Abdul Rehman and in February-March 2015, he went to Saudi Arabia on the basis of that passport, he said.

For cover, he worked as a salesman in various stores and also had meetings with many SIMI-IM sympathisers there. He returned from Saudi Arabia in June 2017.

After returning from Saudi Arabia, he started to visit India clandestinely to revive SIMI-IM, when he realised that SIMI leaders had been arrested or had fled India, said Kushwah.

Through his contacts, he procured logistics for his visits to India.

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A Baloch activist today appealed to India for help in getting Independence to Balochistan, the way, he said, it did for Bangladesh.

Abdul Qadeer Baloch, the vice-chairman of 'International Voice for Baloch Missing Persons', said China will not be allowed to "lay a single brick" in the Pakistan's restive province. China is building the Gwadar port, which falls in the province.

"We request the Indian government to extend its sympathies with Balochistan and help us the way it did for Bangladesh," he said.

He was speaking at an event organised by the Delhi Study Group.

Balochistan is the largest province, and a resource-rich one, of Pakistan, which has been witnessing insurgency since its accession to the country.

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Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa today warned that any Indian "aggression" or "misadventure" will always get a most befitting response.

He made the remarks during his visit to the Line of Control and Working Boundary in Khuiratta and Ratta Arayan sectors, the Inter-Services Public Relations said.

The army chief met local commanders, who briefed him about the ceasefire violations, specially alleged targeting of the civilian population across the LoC and WB, it said.

"Our commitment to abide by the ceasefire agreement of 2003 should never be misconstrued as response limitation. Indian aggression or any misadventure shall always get a most befitting response," Gen Bajwa said.

He directed for enhanced protective measures including construction of more community shell protection shelters for civil population.

Later, he visited Combined Military Hospital in Sialkot to meet injured citizens due to recent Indian shelling, the ISPR said in a statement.

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A London-based Indian-origin woman faces extradition to India for her involvement in the murder of a 12-year-old orphan from Gujarat.

Arti Dhir had been arrested last year after an Interpol alert over the murder of Gopal Ajani in February 2017.

The 52-year-old appeared before Westminster Magistrates Court in London today for a hearing on her bail application, which remains pending as her family members put together nearly 50,000 pounds as security.

"This should be sorted out in a week," Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot told Dhir, who remains in custody until the security is deposited with the court.

An investigation by Gujarat police has claimed that Dhir and two other accused Nitish Mund and Kanwaljit Raizada



had hatched a plot to adopt Ajani and then insure him for around Rs 1.3 crores before staging his kidnapping and murder in India to split the life insurance payout three ways.

Dhir, who worked at Heathrow Airport, allegedly met Mund and Raizada while they were students in London and had plotted the murder by hiring contract killers since 2015.

Ajani and his brother-in-law, Harsukh Patel, were stabbed to death on a road outside Rajkot in February 2017.

Interpol issued a "red notice" for Dhir in April last year and she was arrested by Scotland Yard in June 2017.

Dhirs extradition hearing is scheduled at Westminster Magistrates Court for April 30.

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The Supreme Court today permitted Mohanan Rajesh, who is under the scanner over the INX media deal along with former Union Minister P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram, to travel abroad from January 27 to February 5.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra allowed his plea to travel to Scotland to visit his son and directed him to file an undertaking within three days indicating his flight details and that he would come back by February 5.

"Needless to say, if the undertaking is not complied with, the applicant-respondent (Rajesh) shall face such consequences as may be deemed fit and proper," the bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said.

The bench made it clear that the order has been passed as an "ad interim measure" and without prejudice to the contentions to be advanced by both parties when the main special leave petitions would be finally heard.

"It is made clear that present order shall not be regarded as any reflection upon the legality or otherwise of the look-out circular," the bench said.

The apex court has fixed the main special leave petitions for hearing on January 31 which pertains to the issuance of look out circulars (LOC) against Karti and others and whether the matter be remanded back to Madras High Court for disposal on merits.

The Centre had earlier told the apex court that the high court had no territorial jurisdiction to stay and decide the matter arising out of the issuance LoC against Karti and others, as the FIR in the case was registered in Delhi.

The apex court, on November 20 last year, had allowed Karti to visit the United Kingdom from December 1-10 for his daughter's admission at the Cambridge University there.

The CBI FIR, lodged on May 15 last year, had alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when Karti Chidambaram's father was the Union Finance Minister.

The top court is hearing pleas including the CBI's appeal challenging the Madras High Court order staying LOC against Karti Chidambaram. The CBI had on September 1 last year said there were "good, cogent" reasons for issuing the LOC.

Earlier, the apex court had said that Karti would not be allowed to leave India without subjecting himself to probe in the case. The court had then stayed the high court order putting on hold the LOC against Karti.

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Actor Alison Brie addressed the empowering nature of her show "GLOW" in the Time's Up age at the SAG Awards and also spoke about the sexual misconduct allegations levelled against her brother-in-law James Franco.

Franco, who is the elder brother of Brie's husband Dave, was accused of sexual misconduct by five women in a report in the Los Angeles Times.

"I think that above all, what we've always said is it remains vital that anyone that feels victimised should and does have the right to speak out and come forward. I obviously support my family.

"Not everything that has been reported is fully accurate, so I think we're waiting to get all the information. But of course, now is the time for listening and that's what we're all trying to do," Brie told E!



The 35-year-old actor attended the awards along with the team of her Netflix's series. The cast of the wrestling dramedy was nominated as an ensemble.

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Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today said the state government would examine and assess the cases of youth against whom more than one cases are registered.

She informed the Legislative Council that the amnesty granted to more than 9,000 youth in various law and order related cases is aimed at bringing them back to their families, so that they can live in peace and restart their education, careers and pursuit for jobs.

During the question hour in the Upper House, Mufti said after carefully monitoring the results of this scheme, the government would also examine and assess the cases of youth against whom more than one cases are registered.

The chief minister hoped that the parents of these youth would also play their role in getting their wards back to social milieu.

Earlier, replying to the main question raised by Firdous Ahmad Tak, Minister for Agriculture G N Lone Hanjura said by giving amnesty to first-time offenders, the government is involving their parents and families so that they encourage their wards not to indugle in such activities in the future.

He said the government would consider the cases of second-time offenders for amnesty.

Hanjura informed the House that 16 cases have been registered against 23 accused in Doda, 12 cases against 359 accused in Kishtwar and 15 cases against 155 accused have been registered in Ramban since 2008.

MLC Yasir Reshi raised a supplementary to the main question.

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Ahead of Republic Day celebrations, the Jammu and Kashmir police, in an advisory, sought people's cooperation in view of heightened security arrangements and asked officials to maintain a vigil on possible infiltration routes to scuttle nefarious designs of anti-national elements.

"All Station House Officers and in-charges of police posts have been directed to remain present in their respective jurisdiction round the clock," reads the advisory issued from police headquarters here.

"In-charge, border police posts have been directed to keep a vigil on infiltration routes used by anti-national elements in the past," it stated.

In the advisory, village defence committee members, numberdards, chowkidars have been directed to cooperate with the police for the safety and security especially in view of forthcoming Republic Day celebrations and ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the IB and LoC.

"Keeping in view the forthcoming Republic Day, present security scenario in the state and impending threats from anti-national elements, some checking and frisking points have been established in Jammu City as well as rural areas for the security and safety of the public.

"The people are requested to cooperate with the police and do not feel the step as harassment by the police," the advisory said.

The police requested the managements of all schools not to allow any stranger in the premises and take necessary precautionary measures.

It said the police are available round-the-clock and people can share any information at any time by dialling emergency number 100.

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Four historic wooden buildings, owned by action star Jackie Chan, have found a new home in China's east Anhui province, state media reported today.

The four Hui-style structures, which date back to the late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) to the late Qing Dynasty (1644- 1911), will be stationed in an exhibition park in Bengbu city.

The buildings were dismantled into coded parts in Tianjin, their original location, and sent to the park in containers before they are reconstructed, according to the exhibition park, Xinhua agency reported.

"The buildings will be better protected here and displayed to the public after they are restored," said Yang Shu, a member of park staff.

Covering 333 hectares, the park was built to preserve Hui-style historic buildings, which are a major Chinese architectural style from ancient times.

With exquisite homes, ancestral halls and memorial archways as the most impressive embodiments, Hui-style buildings are mostly seen in Anhui and Zhejiang provinces.

Hui is one of the ethnic communities in China.

In 2013, 63-year-old Jackie Chan donated two buildings, a pavilion and an opera stage that he bought years ago, to a Singapore university. It led to a heated debate in China over the preservation of such antiquities.

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Ahead of the release of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Padmaavat' on January 25, leaders of the Shree Rajput Karni Sena met Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today and demanded a ban on the film in the state.

"I met the UP chief minister today and demanded a ban on the film 'Padmaavat'," Karni Sena patron Lokendra Singh Kalvi told reporters after his 20-minute meeting with Adityanath here.

People will impose "janta curfew" in cinema halls in Uttar Pradesh if the movie is screened, he said.

Kalvi, who listed nearly 40 different objections with regard to the movie, demanded that films on the lives of Maharana Pratap, Shivaji and other eminent personalities be made.

"We urge the prime minister to ban the film and we are hopeful that he will meet our request. We hope that the Centre will act. We ask the public as to whether it is on the side of Padmavati or Alauddin Khilji. Whether it is on the side of Ram or Ravan?" he posed.

Kalvi's aide Himanshu, who too is a senior office-bearer of the outfit, told reporters, "We have only expressed our concerns before the chief minister today. All we want to say is that you are underestimating the simmering public anger against the film. In the last one-and-a-half years, we have forewarned Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the Centre and state governments in this regard."



Asked to comment on the outcome of the meeting with Adityanath, he said, "Yogi Adityanath is bound by the Supreme Court directive (restraining states from banning the screening of the movie), but in-principle and emotionally, he is with us."



Kalvi too spoke in the same vein.

Meanwhile, a large number of people waving saffron flags protested the scheduled release of 'Padmaavat' in front of SRS Cinema Hall in Gorakhpur and also burnt the effigy of its director Sanjay Leela Bhansali as they chanted 'Jai Sri Ram'.

The protesters also submitted a memorandum to the district magistrate.

"The movie 'Padmaavat' is hurting the feelings of Hindus and we are against its release. We will keep on protesting against the movie and demand a ban on its release," a protester said.

The film has been been facing protests by the Karni Sena and other fringe groups over allegations that historical facts were distorted in the flick.

Chief Minister Adityanath was earlier non-committal on the release of the controversial film 'Padmaavat' in the state, when he had said in Gorakhpur that he was not a "future teller".

"I am not a future teller," was his cryptic reply when mediapersons asked him last week as to whether the movie would be screened in Uttar Pradesh.

During an earlier visit to Gorakhpur, his home turf, in November last year, Adityanath had said that Bhansali was no less guilty than those issuing threats to actors and others involved with the film, and asserted that if there was any action, "it will be against both the sides".

Lashing out at the film-maker, he had said that Bhansali was "habitual of playing with public sentiments".

The state government had said it would not allow the movie's release till certain "controversial portions" are removed.

The movie, which was earlier titled "Padmavati", will now be released worldwide on January 25 with the new title suggested by the censor board.

Starring Deepika Padukone as Rani Padmavati, Shahid Kapoor as Maharawal Ratan Singh and Ranveer Singh as Alauddin Khilji, the film was slated for release on December 1 last year but was postponed as the makers had not got a certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), or the censor board, till then.

The film is based on the saga of the historic 13th century battle between Maharaja Ratan Singh and his army of Mewar and Sultan Alauddin Khilji of Delhi.

The Supreme Court had earlier paved the way for the all- India release of "Padmaavat" on January 25 and stayed notifications and orders issued by Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat -- all ruled by the BJP -- prohibiting exhibition of the film in their states.

The apex court had also restrained other states from issuing any such notification or orders banning the screening of the movie.

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Family members of slain army jawan Chandan Kumar Rai today refused to perform his last rites demanding the presence of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during his funeral procession, but finally yielded when the CM intervened.

The signalman was posted at a forward post in the Mankote sector of Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, where he was injured in a ceasefire violation by Pakistan and later succumbed to his injuries on Saturday night.

Rai (25), who was set to marry next month, had applied for leave and was expected to arrive in his native village early next month.

His mortal remains arrived at the Varanasi airport yesterday and were taken to 39 Gorkha Training Centre in the city.

The body was taken to Nadesar-Marufpur village in Uttar Pradesh's Chandauli district this morning.

The family members sat on a dharna and refused to perform the last rites, untill the home minister, who is also a native of the same district, and the UP chief minister visit Rai's ancestral village.

UP ministers Anil Rajbhar and Jai Prakash Nishad, District Magistrate Hemant Kumar and Superintendent of Police Santosh Singh, along with other district officials and local MLAs had reached the village to offer their condolences to the family.

The chief minister, who had announced Rs 25-lakh ex- gratia for Rai's family yesterday, spoke to the army jawan's father Satya Prakash on the phone and assured him of all possible support.

Following this assurance, his family members went ahead with performing his last rites.

Rajbhar earlier announced that the Ghazipur-Chandauli connecting road will be named after the martyr.

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A team of Congress leaders, including the party's Jammu and Kashmir unit chief, today visited the border areas to take stock of the situation arising out of the unprovoked and indiscriminate firing by Pakistan.

The Congress team met border dwellers and demanded a long term policy for them, as it hit out on the central government for not understanding the "ground facts" of the region.

"We will prepare a report and submit it to Congress President Rahul Gandhifor taking up the matter, both inside and outside the parliament, at the national level," party's J-K unit chief G A Mir said.

Twelve people, including five security personnel, have been killed and over 50 others injured in firing by Pakistan in the five districts of Jammu, Kathua and Samba along the International Border and the Line of Control since Thursday last.

The team, which comprised Congress Legislature Party Leader Nawang Rigzin Jora and Senior Vice-President Sham Lal Sharma besides Mir, visited Baira, Koratona, Kapoor Pur, Jarha Farm, Sai-Khurdh, Arnia, Marh and Hiranagar along the IB, a party spokesperson said here.

Mir lashed out at Pakistan for resorting to frequent ceasefire violation and targeting civilian population.

He also regretted that the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre has "miserably failed" to check the Pakistani designs and to ensure security and safety of border residents of J-K, according to the spokesperson.

He demanded a long-term policy including construction of concrete bunkers in border areas, besides providing plots and shelters in safer zones, provision of education, medical and other civic facilities at the time of their migration for the people of the border areas.

"But it is most unfortunate that present government is busy in praising itself without knowing the facts on ground," Mir said.

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Asserting that the flagship schemes have been launched to achieve round-the-clock power supply for all by 2019, the Jammu and Kashmir government today said it was actively pursuing with the Centre the transfer of power projects to the state.

"The government is actively pursuing the transfer of power projects as it is an important part of the developmental agenda of the present coalition government," state Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal singh said.

Replying to separate written questions of legislators, M Y Tarigami, Vikar Rasool and Krishan Lal in the Legislative Assembly, the minister said the revised PMRRP envisages achieving 24x7 power for all by 2019 and ensuring physical autonomy of J&K for a new era of development.

"Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu in his power budget in the year 2015-16, has clearly mentioned that the government would actively pursue transfer of hydropower projects from NHPC and that year's budget provided funds for meeting the operational and maintenance cost of such power projects to be transferred,"he said.

In March 2016, Singh said, he along with the state finance minister met Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal formally and impressed upon the Centre the need for transfer of power projects of Dulhasti and Uri from NHPC to the state among other important issues of the power sector.

"Subsequently, this has been raised in various power ministers' conferences by me," he said.

Singh said presently, there is no agreement or MoU available with the state government on the terms and conditions under which Dul Hasti power Project was executed by NHPC.

He said in the year 2011, a Cabinet sub-committee was constituted to look into it and the committee could not find any agreement or MoU.

In this regard, the committee recommended constituting a task force of senior officers of the state to look into the circumstances leading to the misplacement of these records.

Accordingly, he said a task force under the chairmanship of administrative secretary general administration department (GAD) with three additional secretaries from Power Development Department, GAD and Governor's secretariat was formed.

As recorded by the task force, the relevant records were found missing from all the concerned offices, he said adding the task force concluded that the Cabinet decision was un- traceable and that there was not any possibility of its retrieval as the records were around four decades old and no handing over or taking over of records had taken place.

Listing the reasons forcing power cuts in peak winters and summer seasons in Kashmir and Jammu, respectively, the deputy chief minister said against registered 3,101 MW load, the demand should not exceed 1,551 MW, but it is around 2,950 MW (un-restricted) that reflecting that there existshuge unregistered load.

He said the use of unauthorised load creates system constraints by way of overloading the system at transmission, sub-transmissionand at distribution levels, thereby causing further distress cuts in addition to the scheduled cuts.

He said because JKPDD has sufficient capacity available at all transmission levels, viz-a-vis total load registered, it makes sufficient power available for its consumers as per their contract demand.

He said various centrally sponsored schemes have been launched to meet the future load growth and to improve the power supply qualitatively and quantitatively.

Listing flagship schemes launched to overcome chronic problems at various levels, Singh said Re-structured Accelerated Developmental Programme (R-APDRP) has been sanctioned at a cost of Rs 151.99 crore under part-A and Rs 1,665.27 crore under part-B.

It is aimed at strengthening, upgrading and renovating sub-transmission and distribution network, adoption of IT application for meter reader, billing and energy accounting, in 30 identified towns of the state, including 17 of Kashmir division, 11 of Jammu division and 2 of Ladakh region.

Responding to another part of the question, he said energy mapping and energy auditing is subservient to 100 percent metering at all voltage levels.

"To achieve 100 percent metering at Sub-Transmission level and Distribution level the department has put in its efforts," he said.

He said with meagre resources, Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Department has been able to bring down the T&D losses from 61.58 per cent in 2011-12 to 52.87 per cent in 2016-17.

He said that with the launch of various centrally sponsored flagship schemes which are primarily reform centric, it is projected that the present high T&D losses shall be appreciably reduced post execution of these schemes.

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The JNU Students Union (JNUSU) today alleged that a Delhi Police woman constable assaulted its vice president at a police station here after it staged a protest near Jammu and Kashmir Bhawan against the rape and murder of an eight-year-old Kashmiri girl.

The students body alleged that the police lathi-charged the students who were protesting peacefully.

The students were taken to Tuglak Road Police Station and a woman constable dragged JNUSU vice president Simone Zoya Khan inside a room and beat her up, it alleged.

"A police constable locked the room from outside," the JNUSU said in a statement.

Efforts to reach Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi District) for his reaction did not fructify.

The JNUSU had announced a protest today near Jammu and Kashmir Bhawan against the rape and murder of an eight-year- old Kashmiri girl.

"We were taken from the protest site to Tuglak Road Police Station. Within the station premises, I was dragged inside a room and was punched on the face and beaten up," Khan alleged.

"We will file a complaint against the constable," she told PTI.

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At least 22 people are now known to have died when Taliban militants slaughtered guests at a luxury Kabul hotel, Afghan officials said today, as fears grew that the attackers may have had inside help.

Authorities warned they were still investigating how militants breached security, which was taken over by a private company three weeks ago, at the landmark Intercontinental Hotel late Saturday.

Guests cowered behind pillars and in rooms as gunmen sprayed bullets and set fire to parts of the six-storey building. Some people climbed over balconies, using bedsheets in a desperate attempt to escape.

The attack ended after more than 12 hours Sunday with all six militants killed by Afghan forces, aided by Norwegian troops.

Afghan health ministry spokesman Waheed Majroh said 22 bodies had now been taken to Kabul hospitals.

"Some of the bodies (are) burned badly and need DNA tests to be identified," he said.

Six Ukrainians were among those killed in the assault, the country's foreign ministry has confirmed.

Earlier, Afghan officials had put the toll at 18 dead, 14 of them foreigners. Authorities are known to understate death tolls in high-profile attacks.

A hotel employee told AFP that he saw two "fashionably dressed" gunmen in the hotel restaurant before the assault began.

"It was around 8.30 pm... They were sitting in the corner of the hotel, and they immediately started spraying bullets," the 20-year-old employee, who gave his name as Hasibullah, told AFP from his hospital bed.

He ran to a fifth floor room and locked himself inside, though not before seeing "many" bodies on the ground.

The gunmen went from door to door opening them "with daggers and shooting everyone". They were searching for foreigners, Hasibullah said, though Afghans were not spared. "They were saying kill the foreigners," he told AFP.

In terror he leapt from a window. "I fell on people lying in blood... it was horrific."



Knocked unconscious, he awoke in hospital with a broken leg and other wounds.

"We believe they were inside from before," he told AFP of the attackers.

Yesterday, an interior ministry spokesman also suggested there was evidence some of the attackers had already been inside the building.

But it was too early to say if the militants had inside help, a second spokesman, Nasrat Rahimi told AFP, adding the investigation was ongoing.

The militants were armed with suicide vests, pistols, hand grenades and Kalashnikovs, he said.

The attack followed security warnings in recent days to avoid hotels and other locations frequented by foreigners in war-torn Kabul.

Security has been ramped up in the city, but the resurgent Taliban and Islamic State are both scaling up their assaults.
Members of the Karni Sena today blocked some roads here to oppose the release of the controversial film "Padmaavat".

The Karni Sena, an organisation of the Rajput community, here staged blockades by burning tyres on roads connecting Ujjain to Nagda, Dewas to Maksi and Agar to Kota.

The Sanjay Leela Bansali directed period drama is scheduled to release on January 25.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Sachin Atulkar said that the administration has urged the protesters not to take the law into their hands.

"We have cleared the road after receiving a memorandum from the protesters," he said.

There were also reports that protesters had pelted vehicles with stones on the Agar-Kota road. The SP, however, denied any incidents of violence.

"There were small road blockades. We will take stern legal action if protesters disrupt law and order," he said.

The Supreme Court had last week paved the way for the nationwide release of "Padmaavat", by staying the ban on its screening in Gujarat and Rajasthan.

However, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh today moved the apex court seeking recall of its January 18 order by which the controversial film was allowed to be released in theatres across India.

The film, starring Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh, is based on the saga of the 13th Century battle between Maharaja Ratan Singh of Mewar and Sultan Alauddin Khilji of Delhi.

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Protests against Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Padmaavat' rocked several states including Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh today even as the Karni Sena indicated willingness to watch the film ahead of its scheduled release on January 25.

In Rajasthan, protesters in Rajsamand and Barmer blocked highways while a youth in Bhilwara climbed a mobile phone network tower to express opposition.

Towns like Indore, Ujjain and Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh witnessed road blockades while in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur, the home turf of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, people waving saffron flags burnt an effigy of Bollywood director Bhansali right in front of a cinema hall.

As the lavishly mounted period drama continued to face stiff opposition, states like Haryana and Maharashtra promised security to theatres that would screen it.

On the other hand, the Rajasthan government, invited the Mewar royal family and the Karni Sena, to become party to its petition in the Supreme Court against an earlier ruling that lifted the ban on the movie in the state.

Even as the row simmered on, the Shree Rajput Karni Sena said it was ready to watch the period drama as offered by Bhansali productions in a bid to end the deadlock.

Karni Sena has been the most vociferous of the fringe groups opposing the movie alleging historical facts were distorted.

"We are ready to watch the film. We never said that we will not watch the film. The filmmaker assured us one year ago that he will go for a special screening and now he has written for the screening and we are ready for it," Sena leader Lokendra Singh Kalvi told PTI over the phone.

Bhansali productions had on January 20 written to the Shree Rajput Karni Sena and Rajput Sabha, Jaipur, inviting them to watch the film assuring that it showcased the honour and valour of Rajputs.

Despite expressing willingness to watch the movie, the Karni Sena continued its stiff opposition, as Kalvi met Chief Minister Adityanath in Lucknow and pressed for a ban on 'Padmaavat'.

"People will impose 'janta curfew' in cinema halls in Uttar Pradesh if the movie is screened," Kalvi said after his 20-minute meeting with Adityanath. He listed objections on nearly 40 different counts with regard to the movie.

Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria, meanwhile, said that the state government's petition in the Supreme Court would be strengthened if Karni Sena and the Mewar royal family became party to it.

"We are equally affected as are the people. We have exercised all the rights we have within the framework of law and constitution so that peoples' sentiment and law and order issues can be addressed," Kataria said.

Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have moved the Supreme Court seeking recall of its January 18 order by which 'Padmaavat' was allowed to be released across India on January 25.

The Haryana government took a different stance saying it will implement the Supreme Court order that allows the screening of the movie.

"It's good if some theater owners do not want to screen the film, but those who want to, they will be provided full security," Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said.

The Mumbai police also promised security to the theatres that would show the controversial film.

The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) too joined other right wing groups demanding that the film should not be allowed to be screened.

"Hindu organisations should hit the streets to lodge a strong protest against the film in a democratic manner. The issue is not concerned only with Rajputs but all Hindu castes that sacrificed lives in Jauhar," VHP international working president Praveen Togadia said.

He said the VHP, Bajrang Dal and other organisations should not let the film release in the country.

Talking to reporters at the Jaipur International Airport, Togadia demanded that the Centre bring an ordinance to ban the film's release as it did in the 'Jallikattu' case.

Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Haryana had banned "Padmaavat" amid fierce protests by fringe groups, who alleged the film distorted history.

The Supreme Court had set aside the notifications issued by Rajasthan and Gujarat against the release of the film.

Producers of the film, Viacom18, had moved the Supreme Court challenging the ban on its screening by the four states.

The film, starring Deepika Padukone as Rani Padmavati and Ranveer Singh as Allaudin Khilji, will hit the screens on January 25, after months of stiff opposition from right-wing groups.

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Keeping the devastation caused by Ockhi cyclone in mind, the Keralagovernment has proposed 3D mapping along the state's west coast to identify vulnerable areas and facilitate emergency preparedness to meet natural disasters.

To ensure quality education, the state government proposes to enact the 'Minimum Wages Act' for teachers in private unaided schools, Governor P Sathasivam said in his customary address to the Assembly, outlining the policy of the CPI(M)-led LDF government.

"This would help attract the best minds to the teaching profession," said Sathasivam.

As the ninth session of the Assembly began this morning and the governor rose to address the house, opposition members raised slogans, holding banners and placards referring to the allegedly shoddy manner in which the disaster was handled by the government.

However, the governor began his speech by saying he would hear them at length after his address.

He said that in the wake of the cyclone, a satellite- based navigation and weather forecasting system was being planned in association with the ISRO to assist the fishing community.

"We had the recent experience of cyclone Ockhi sowing huge misery along the Kerala coast, causing loss of lives and properties of fisher folk," the governor said.

"Though the state government activated its disaster management system as soon as it was alerted, the intensity of the rapidly shifting event affected a large number of fishing vessels at sea," he said.

The state government had 'unleashed every capability in its arsenal' to rescue the men and vessels at risk and succeeded in providing relief to a large number of people.

However, despite co-ordinated efforts, several fishermen have not returned home, the governor said.

Over 70 persons had lost their lives and 100 fishermen are still missing since Ockhi struck the southern coasts on November 29-30 last year.

The governor also said that 'inappropriate' implementation of demonetisation and the GST had resulted in 'serious' deceleration of the economy.

Detailing the welfare measures by the government, he said it was completing 66,939 unfinished houses across Kerala.

"Already 2,000 houses have been completed and the effort is to prepare a comprehensive list of the 4.32 lakh homeless people in the state," he said.

Sathasivam said automation, artificial intelligence, nano technology and robotics would make many current jobs obsolete and create new jobs in future.

"Kerala needs to invest in new technologies and borrow the best from global competition," he said.

During 2018-19, the focus would be on waste, water management and non-conventional energy initiatives, he said.

On the health front, a cancer care strategy involving a care grid for knowledge-sharing and capacity-building will be formulated.

The opposition Congress-led UDF said the governor's policy address "lacked vision" as it did not propose any concrete measures to tackle unemployment and financial crisis faced by the government.

Opposition leader in the Assembly Ramesh Chennithala said this was a policy address of a government which didn't function.

"Nothing is happening in the state. All sectors are in the doldrums," Chennithala told reporters.

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Telangana IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao, who is leading a delegation to the World Economic Forum 2018 Davos, today addressed a meeting of the state diaspora at Zurich.

Addressing the NRI's of Telangana there, he said, the state has embarked on a journey to fulfill the aspirations on which it was formed and within a short span of nearly four years several path breaking initiatives have been launched.

KTR highlighted the developmental projects and initiatives taken up by the state government after it came to power in June 2014, an official release said.

"Ensuring adequate irrigation facilities and addressing the issues related to basic amenities are the main priorities for the Telangana government," he said.

Rama Rao thanked the diaspora members for showing interest in development of Telangana and invited them to play an active role in the state's progress.

"Non-resident Telanganites are the best brand ambassadors for the state and should help bring in investors, new technologies and best practises to Telangana," the minister added.

Hyderabad Mayor Bonthu Ram Mohan, spoke about the development works which were taken up by the state government, it added.

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"Thor" star Chris Hemsworth is officially done with playing the superhero and the actor says leaving the character behind is a "a scary thought".

The 34-year-old actor, who played the Norse god in Marvel Cinematic Universe, said portraying the role felt like a "never-ending" event.

"Contractually, right now - yeah, this is it. I'm done. I won't be playing the character again. (The end seems like) a scary thought. This really seemed like this never-ending thing. And now it's potentially finishing," Hemsworth told USA Today.

The actor, who last reprised his role in "Thor: Ragnarok", is although ready to take the part forward in the film franchise if things transpire in the future.

Hemsworth will next be seen in "Avengers: Infinity War", alongside other MCU veterans, such as Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo and Jeremy Renner. Also in pipeline is next year's "Avengers 4".

"So who knows? There are 76 cast members in these two Avengers films. They will be the biggest films of all time, far bigger than my character. It's a conversation for further down the road, if it was going to happen," he said.

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The Maharashtra government's e-seva centres, set up to provide services like Aadhaar, PAN and passport-related documents to citizens, will now list yoga guru Baba Ramdev's Patanjali products.

The move, announced via a government resolution (GR) last week, has stirred a controversy, with the opposition parties flaying the BJP-led government for "marketing" Patanjali products on its Aaple Sarkar Seva Kendra online citizen facilitation centres, or e-seva centres.

The GR mentions Patanjali Ayurved products as one of the services offered by the e-seva centres.

Patanjali recently tied up with e-commerce players like Amazon.in and Flipkart.com for marketing its products.

This is the first time that a private company's products will be sold through the state government as Patanjali is the only private company whose services will be offered through the 'Citizen Facilitation Centres'.

The e-seva centres, named as Aapale Sarkar by the BJP-led government in the state, provides services such as application for PAN, Aadhaar, income and domicile certificates, among others, issued by government authorities.

While listing several services, the GR, under the business to customer category, mentioned Patanjali products.

Leader of opposition in the Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde said, "Why is the state government in love with only one company? It should promote competition among various Ayurved product companies and women self-help groups to sell their products through the e-seva centres."



Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam had recently alleged that the state government has alloted the land of Baba Ramdev's company in the Multi-Modal International Hub Airport at Nagpur (MIHAN) at throwaway price.

"A 106-acre plot has been allotted to the Pantanjali Ayurved Limited to set up a food park. The government is using its machinery to benefit certain companies that are close to the BJP," Nirupam claimed.

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A court here today sentenced a 26-year-old man to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for abducting and raping a minor girl.

District Judge S S Gulhane also slapped a fine of Rs 11,000 on Mohammad Habibulla alias Barrister Karamali Shaikh.

The victim and the convict hailed from Fulpur. Habibulla, a rickshaw driver, used to take the girl in his auto to school when she was 15, Assistant Public Prosecutor Sunil Sawant told the court.

"They developed an illicit relationship and the girl gave birth to a child in 2011," he said.

Her parents allowed Habibulla to take the new born and they relocated to Palghar district along with their daughter, Sawant said.

Habibulla followed them and kidnapped the girl on December 23, 2013, and took her to Fulpur, and raped her, he said.

Police arrested Habibulla from Fulpur and rescued the girl, the court was informed.

The case was heard in a Palghar court as the convict had abducted the girl from here.

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A 45 year-old man was hackedto death by unidentified assailants at his house in Bengrenear here today, police said.

The deceased has been identified as Shivraj, brother of one Bharatesh who is alleged to be a member of a notorious criminal gang in the city, they said.

Shivraj was sleeping on the terrace of his house when a three-member gang attacked him at around 4.30 AM.

The attackers were suspected to be members of a rival gang opposedto the victim's brother, they said.

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A man from Virar who consumed poison on January 20 today died at a hospital in Mumbai, police said.

The deceased has been identified as Amit Jha, District Superintendent of Police Majunath Shinge was quoted as saying in an official release.

Jha is the brother of Vikas Jha, who had tried to set himself ablaze in November last year inside the office of a Deputy Superintendent of Police, a police officer said.

Vikas Jha had also tried to set the Deputy Superintendent of Police on fire, the officer said.

Amit Jha had alleged that police did not take any action in the case involving his brother and hence consumed poison, the officer said.

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Bhagalpur was the coldest place in Bihar today at 3.5 degree celsius and the met department has forecast scattered fog in the morning in the state for the next two days.

The met office said that Bhagalpur and Purnea may witness dense fog or very dense fog tomorrow morning.

Patna may witness dense fog in the morning followed by mainly clear sky later and Gaya may witness fog or mist in the morning and mainly clear sky later, it said.

The foggy situation is likely to improve in the state after two to three days as the maximum temperature is on the rise, the met office said adding cold day condition is not expected in Bihar.

Cold day condition is declared when the minimum temperature touches 10 degree celsius or lower and the maximum temperature is 4.5-6.4 degree celsius below its normal, it said.

Gaya recorded a minimum temperature of 6 degrees celsius, while Patna and Purnea registered 7.4 and 8 degrees celsius respectively as their minimum, the bulletin said.

The maximum temperature in Gaya was 24.4 degrees celsius, followed by Purnea at 22.5 degrees, Bhagalpur at 22 and Patna at 21.8 degree celsius, it said.

Except Gaya which recorded one degree above its normal maximum, all the three other major cities of Patna, Bhagalpur and Purnea recorded one degree below their normal maximum, the bulletin said.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi today met Swiss President Alain Berset here and discussed ways to deepen bilateral ties on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual summit.

"On reaching Davos, held talks with the President of the Swiss Confederation, Mr @alain_berset. We reviewed the scope of our bilateral cooperation and discussed ways to deepen it even further," Modi said in a tweet.

Berset said the discussions marked the meeting of the biggest and the oldest democracies in the world.

Thanking Modi, the Swiss President said he would continue to strengthen "our relations" with India.

"First engagement in snowing #Davos, PM @narendramodi met with Swiss President @alain_berset. Two leaders had productive discussions on steps to further deepen our bilateral cooperation built upon our shared values of democracy and diversity. #IndiaMeansBusiness," an external affairs ministry spokesperson said in a tweet.

Sources said the two leaders are also believed to have discussed the progress on automatic exchange of tax information. A legislation in this regard was passed by the Swiss Parliament, following which banks and financial institutions have begun collecting data for the first exchange that is to begin from next year.

Negotiations on EFTA (European Free Trade Association) trade pact and the bilateral investment protection agreement were also discussed, among various business and trade matters, they added.

Modi, who arrived at the ski-resort today, would be delivering the keynote address at the summit's plenary session tomorrow.

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With just two days left for the release of "Padmaavat", the Mumbai police today promised security to the theatres that would show the controversial film in the backdrop of threats issued by certain groups opposing its release.

The Mumbai Police will ensure that no law and order issue is created and they will provide adequate security to the theatres screening it, a top police official said.

The police will also provide protection to moviegoers and its makers, if necessary, he added.

The official said makers of the film today approached the police, seeking security at multiplexes where the Sanjay Leela Bhansali-directed period drama will open on January 25.

Police personnel will be stationed at cinemas from January 24 to 26 to ensure the film releases smoothly and any attempt to disrupt its screening is foiled, he said.

Some groups led by the Karni Sena, an organisation of the Rajput community, are opposing the release of the film, claiming it "distorts" historical facts, a charge rejected by its makers. They have threatened to disrupt its screening.

The Supreme Court had last week paved the way for the nationwide release of "Padmaavat" by staying the ban on its screening in Gujarat and Rajasthan.

However, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh today moved the apex court seeking recall of its January 18 order by which it had allowed the controversy-ridden film to be released in theatres across India.

The film, starring Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh, is based on the saga of the 13th Century battle between Maharaja Ratan Singh of Mewar and Sultan Alauddin Khilji of Delhi.

The Karni Sena has accused filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali of projecting queen Padmini of Chittorgarh in bad light and distorting history.

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Top Naga tribal organisations, civil society bodies and pressure groups will hold a consultative meeting to decide on their stand on the February 27 assembly election in the state, sources in the bodies said.

Naga organisations have been urging the Centre for a permanent solution on the Naga political issue before the state goes to the polls.

The Election Commission had on January 18 announced the date for the elections.

The sources said the meeting will be held on January 25 and a four-member standing committee will participate in it.

The committee will comprise of representatives of the Naga apex body Naga Hoho, Nagaland Tribes Council, Eastern Nagaland Peoples Organisation and Nagaland Gaon Burahs (village elders) Federation has been constituted to coordinate with the Naga civil societies and political parties.

Today's meeting discussed the need to come together to take stock of the present socio-political situation arising out of the announcement of the assembly election despite the growing demand for solution not election, the sources said.

The meeting was convened by Nagaland Joint Christian Forum (NJCF).

NCJF President Zelhou Keyho in his opening speech at the meeting said that the solution to the Naga political issue and state election lie outside the perimeters of the church. The church's role is to work for free and fair election and build up a society that will honour God, he said.

Besides the four tribal organisations, the meeting was attended by leaders and representatives of other Naga groups and civil society organisations, the Naga Students Federation which is the leading students union in the state, NSUI Nagaland and the pradesh Congress committee.

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In a veiled attack on China, exiled former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed today accused "a large, emerging power" of "land grab" in the strategically located island and buying up its sovereignty.

He also said this year's elections in the politically- troubled nation were the last chance to save democracy.

Nasheed, 50, the country's first democratically-elected leader -- was sentenced to 13 years in jail on terror charges in March 2015 over the arbitrary arrest of chief criminal judge Abdullah Muhammed during his presidency.

He was granted asylum in the UK after he was authorised to seek medical treatment there amid mounting foreign pressure.

He said the opposition would put forward a unity candidate if he was prevented from contesting the elections.

He said it was important to vote out President Abdulla Yameen as "a large, emerging power is busy buying up the Maldives".

"Buying up our islands, buying up our key infrastructure, and effectively buying up our sovereignty. This land grab is very worrying," he said in Colombo without directly naming China.

The land grab was happening because of a Free Trade Agreement, Special Economic Zones and an amendment to the Constitution authorising foreign ownership of land or freeholds, Maldives Independent quoted him as saying.

The Constitution previously prohibited foreign ownership of any part of Maldivian territory but was changed in 2015. Critics fear the move could enable China to set up bases in the Maldives.

Maldives recently signed an FTA with China, causing concerns in India.

This year's elections were the last chance to save democracy in the country, he said in Colombo, where his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) activists are based.

"If I can contest I will. If I am not allowed, it will be seen as unconstitutional," he said.

The opposition would not boycott the elections if Yameen ignored any UN ruling, he said, adding the four leaders were "in principle, in agreement, about fielding a common candidate".

While President Yameen's term in office will end in November this year, according to the Constitution, the presidential elections are to be held in August.

Nasheed was narrowly defeated in 2013 by President Yameen. Nasheed says his conviction on terror charges was politically motivated.

The Maldivian government holds that Nasheed is convicted for a crime and is wanted in the Maldives to serve a jail sentence. Nasheed said he will seek UN support to ensure he is allowed to contest.

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Several National Conference and Congress members today staged a walkout from the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly over the government's "unsatisfactory reply" on the issue of power crisis in the state and border shelling which has claimed 12 lives since Thursday.

NC MLA Ali Mohammad Sagar was the first to leave the House and was followed by party legislators Altaf Kaloo and Javaid Rana and Congress members Vikar Rasool, Usman Majeed and G M Saroori.

Opposition members staged the walkout as the deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh, who holds the power portfolio, was replying to questions and supplementary raised by various members related to the power crisis in the state.

Sagar took a dig at the government for its alleged failure to deal with the power crisis in the state especially in Kashmir valley.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister A R Veeri intervened and asked Sagar to take his seat.

However, Sagar continued to raise issues.

The border firing (by Pakistan) is continuing, claiming 12 lives. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti yesterday said the state will not be allowed to become a battlefield butunion Home Minister Rajnath Singh made a statement (that India has shown it can attack its enemies not only on its soil, but also in a foreign territory, if need be).

We stand with the statement of chief minister as we are suffering (because of border skirmishes between the two countries), he said and criticised the state government for its failure to send a message of peace from the House.

Sagar also accused Speaker Kavinder Gupta of not giving time to the opposition on the directions of unidentified forces.

When the opposition raises any issue, our voice is muzzled. The power minister accepted that the work was stopped on Alasteng, Budgam and Telbal grid stations.When the contractor has left, how the power supply will be made available to the people, Sagar told reporters outside the House.

He said the people of Kashmir are suffering immensely due to non-availability of power in sub-zero temperature and there is no end in sight as at least three more years are required for completion of these projects if the government was able to rope in contractors in time.

"I asked the government not to make the availability of power an issue between Kashmir and Jammu.Both regions need power supply but the demand is more in the valley due to winter, he said adding the deputy chief minister made no specific reply on how to tackle the power crisis in the valley.

Earlier as the speaker took the chair, several opposition members rose to their feet and raised the issue of alleged baton-charge on people protesting the brutal murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua district on January 17, arrest of a youth in Meerut and alleged highhandedness of security forces during the course of a search operation in a village in Homeshalibugh constituency.

NC MLA Ishfaq Jabbar raised the concerns of the people of Ganderbal district and said they are apprehensive about stopping of work on central university there and fear shifting of the varsity.

However, Education Minister Syed Altaf Bukhari assured the House that there is no proposal to shift the central university from the district.

Relief and Rehabilitation minister Javaid Mustafa Mir also intervened when NC MLA raised the issue of arrest of a Gujjar leader Talib Hussain for leading protest against the killing of the minor girl in Kathua yesterday.

"He was seeking justice for the girl and was arrested.It is shame for this government, Kaloo said.

Mir assured the House that the government would look into the incident.

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The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) today directed the US-based McDonald's Corp to submit a reply to the show cause notice issued by it over a contempt plea filed by the fast food chain's estranged joint-venture partner Vikram Bakshi.

A two-member bench of the NCLT headed by its President Justice M M Kumar listed the matter for hearing on February 7, 2018.

The tribunal has restarted the proceedings in the contempt plea against McDonald's Corp and its Indian subsidiary McDonald's India Pvt Ltd (MIPL) after a go-ahead by the The high court in November had put a stay on the NCLT notice after McDonald's challenged the order.

Earlier this month, the high court dismissed the McDonald's plea challenging the NCLT notice on a contempt plea filed by Bakshi.

Bakshi had moved the contempt plea in September 2017 alleging that the fast-food major's decision to terminate his franchise licence with regard to 169 outlets run by their 50- 50 joint venture Connaught Plaza Restaurant Ltd (CPRL) violated the NCLT order of July 13, 2017.

The NCLT by its order had reinstated him as the Managing Director of CPRL and refrained the US-based food giant from interfering in its functioning.

Bakshi has been at loggerheads with the fast-food chain over the management of CPRL after he was ousted from the post of MD of the McDonald's franchisee in August 2013.

McDonald's India had asked CPRL not to use its brand system, trademark, designs and associated intellectual property among other things, within 15 days of the termination notice, which had expired on September 6, 2017.

Bakshi had moved the NCLT following termination of the licence by McDonald's India Pvt Ltd (MIPL).
Union minister Satya Pal Singh today stuck to his claim that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution of man is "not scientific" and called for an international debate on the issue to decide if it merits a place in school textbooks.

The minister of state for human resource development had stoked a controversy last week saying that our ancestors have nowhere mentioned that they saw an ape turning into a man, thereby casting doubts on Darwin's evolution theory.

Several scientists have come out against Darwin's evolution theory and the comment he made last week was based on facts, Singh told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting at IIT-Guwahati.

"I absolutely stand by my comment that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is not scientific. There is hardly any evidence to substantiate the theory. Great scientists of the world came out to say there is no evidence available in the world which can prove the theory of evolution is correct," the minister said.

"There has been no 'evolution' or 'destiny'. There is only 'being'. Evidence has come out against the theory," Singh said, giving out a list of international scientists since Darwin's time who opposed his theory of evolution.

Asked if the Centre will delete references to Darwin's theory from textbooks, the minister said, "I propose, if the Ministry of Human Resource Development is ready to sponsor a world-level international conference to decide what is true and factual and that must be taught in schools and colleges."



He said all kinds of scientists should be invited to the debate -- evolutionists and Darwinists, and also "other kind of scientists".

"They (scientists) are saying no we cannot see evolution is taking place because it happened millions of years ago. You can find the evidence in the fossils. There are billions of fossils, not even in one fossil in intermediate evolutionary stage has been found," Singh claimed.

Blaming the media for fuelling a controversy over his statement, Singh said the issue calls for debate and not controversy.

"In the last 100 years, many evidences have come out against the theory, in favour hardly anybody. It is not my statement. So many world scientists have said it," Singh, the former Mumbai Police Commissioner, said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Apparently miffed over not being invited for the Amritsar mayoral election tomorrow, Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu today said he never goes anywhere uninvited "except the Golden Temple or Durgiana Temple".

Elected councillors of the Municipal Corporation of Amritsar will tomorrow take oath and then all the elected councillors will unanimously elect the next mayor of the holy city.

Punjab cabinet minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa has been assigned the duty to oversee the mayoral elections.

Mayors of Jalandhar and Patiala will be elected on January 25.

During a press conference here today, when Sidhu was asked whether he was going to attend the programme where Amritsar's next mayor will be elected, Sidhu said, "No".

"I never go anywhere uninvited except the Golden Temple or Durgiana Temple. Since I was not invited in any such function, there's no question of attending such a programme," said Sidhu.

"I have no knowledge who will be the next mayor of Amritsar, only Chief Minister Amarinder Singh knows it," he said.

The local bodies minister also represents Amritsar East Assembly constituency in the state legislature.

Earlier, Sidhu informed that storm drains of four big cities -- Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Patiala -- which get clogged due to excess water from industrial units and sewerages would soon be cleaned and transformed into environment-friendly ones with the help of 'NEERI' (National Environmental Engineering Research Institute).

"The state had 64 sewerage treatment plants at various places and they were built with a cost of Rs 1,300 crore but they are proving to be white elephants," Sidhu said.

He said the Union Government had suggested the cleaning of drains with the assistance of NEERI-- a model developed by the scientists of IIT.

"An agreement with regard to the project will be inked soon and the model NEERI would be operational soon which would be completed in one year," he said.

Sidhu said this technique is "very cost-effective and needs no additional space".

"The target of environmental cleanliness can also be achieved by planting decorated plants in the drains which would soon be developed into tourist spots and cycle tracks," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The National Human Rights Commission has sent a notice to a state-run hospital in Uttarakhand after a man was reportedly declared dead eight hours before his actual death and his body was sent to a mortuary in Haridwar.

Quoting media reports carried on January 20, the rights panel has said the 44-year-old patient was declared dead by the doctors at the BHEL Hospital at 11.30 pm on January 12, the day he was rushed to the facility after he complained of chest pain and collapsed.

The NHRC today said the post-mortem carried out the next day showed the man was "alive for eight hours" after the doctors had declared him dead.

Taking suo motu cognisance of the media reports, the NHRC has sent a notice to the chairman of the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) and the medical superintendent of the BHEL Hospital, Haridwar, seeking a detailed response within six weeks along with action taken against the guilty doctors and relief provided to the family of the deceased.

"It is possible that by providing appropriate treatment in time, the life of the deceased could be saved," the rights body said in a statement.

"A precious human life has been lost. The inhuman act done by the doctors has violated the right to life and health care of the deceased."



According to the media reports, the man was an employee of the BHEL.

"He was declared dead by doctors at 11.30 pm and his body was shifted to the mortuary. The next day, a post-mortem was conducted, during which it was revealed that his death had occurred about six hours before the postmortem i.e. at around 8.00 am -- a gap of more than 8 hours after the patient was declared dead," the NHRC said.

The brother of the deceased has lodged a complaint for the alleged negligence of the doctors, it said.

Reportedly, on Friday the chief medical officer ordered a probe into the incident after the police forwarded a complaint filed by the victim's kin, the NHRC said.

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Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today extended his greetings on the occasion of Basant Panchmi, celebrated as "Saraswati Puja".

In his message, the Chief Minister expressed hope that the festival would foster peace and prosperity and help the state "regain its old glory by virtue of knowledge and learning".

Kumar, accompanied by state Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Chaudhary and others, also took part in Saraswati Puja celebrations held at the residence of Chief Information Commissioner Ashok Kumar Sinha, an official release said.

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The JD(S) would have no electoral understanding with the ruling Congress in the coming Karnataka assembly election as it had "burnt its fingers" in the past aligning with the national party, former Prime Minister and party president H D Deve Gowda said today.

The Janata Dal (Secular) had "burnt its fingers" in the past aligning with the Congress, he told reporters here, adding that his party was also not interested in forming a government with the Congress's support if the results threw up such a probability.

The Congress and the BJP were "only discussing communal issues" and were turning a blind eye to people's issues, including the problems being faced by farmers, he said.

Gowda said the JD-S would contest in all the 224 assembly seats in the state, of which some seats would be spared for the Left parties.

The party had not yet decided whether to seek the support of the Social Democratic Party of India, which had backed it in the last elections.

On the controversial statements made by Union minister Ananth Kumar Hegde on the Constitution and Dalits, Gowda said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should control his ministers.

He said the JD-S had submitted a complaint to the assembly Speaker to disqualify two of its MLAs, who had defected and joined the BJP recently.

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A 14-year-old tribal girl, who had charged "four men in uniform" with rape three months ago in Odisha's Koraput district, allegedly committed suicide today, the police said.

The class 11 student allegedly hanged herself this afternoon when her family members were not at home. She was later rushed to a local community health centre in an unconscious state, they said.

"She was declared 'received dead' at the health centre by the doctors," Sunabeda sub-divisional police officer Narahari Nayak said.

"She took the extreme step out of frustration at not getting justice," a relative of the girl told a local TV channel.

The girl earlier too attempted suicide by consuming excess of iron pills and had to be hospitalised in Cuttack, the relative said.

The girl had on October 10 last year alleged that she was raped by "four men in uniform" at Kunduli while she was returning to her home at Musaguda village in the Naxal-hit Koraput district.

However, the state police had later claimed in a report that the girl was not raped at all.

The Human Rights Protection Cell of Odisha police had in its report to the Odisha Human Rights Commission claimed that the girl was not raped. But she had stuck to her claim that she was raped by four men in uniform.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has expressed grief over the girl's death.

"On hearing the tragic incidence of the suicide of the alleged Kunduli rape victim, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik expresses deep grief and conveys his deep sympathy to the bereaved family," a communication from the chief minister's office said.

Opposition Congress party has demanded a CBI probe into the alleged suicide.

"The minor girl was under tremendous pressure and was doubtful about getting justice. It is unfortunate that a young girl had to end her life after being denied justice," Congress leader Pradeep Majhi said.

The matter had taken a dramatic turn with the girl alleging after about a fortnight of her rape complaint that senior police officers, including Odisha Director General of Police R P Sharma, tried to "influence" her to withdraw the case, a charge which was denied by the top officer.

Chief Minister Patnaik had ordered a judicial probe into the incident which is still on.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Nearly 80 units in markets falling in north Delhi, and upper floors and basements of 38 properties in a south Delhi market were sealed on Monday of an alleged violation of civic norms, officials said.

The action by the North and South Delhi Municipal Corporations were initiated by a Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee.

Meanwhile, a group traders under the umbrella of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), have called for a bandh on Tuesday to lodge their protests against the ongoing sealing of business establishments in the city.

"About 80 units were sealed today in different zones of north Delhi, about 58 in Karol Bagh zone, 13 in Keshavpuram, five in Civil Lines," a senior NDMC official said.

The SDMC in a statement said, in Hauz Khas Market, the sealed properties included "basements of three PSU banks -- the SBI, UCO Bank and Bank of Baroda".

"We sealed upper floors and basements of 38 units in Hauz Khas Market," a senior SDMC official said.

Meanwhile, the BJP-led North Delhi Municipal Corporation on Monday called a special meeting of its House to discuss the sealing issue.

"I have asked the commissioner to look into the case and suggest from a legal stand point, how much relief we can give to traders. I have also asked him to see if the penalty and the interest on due conversion charges can be waived off," North Delhi Mayor Preety Agarwal said.

It is a 'trade bandh' and so shutters of the shops will remain closed in all markets and no commercial activity will take place, the CAIT said.

On January 15, the three-day session of the Delhi Assembly had begun on a stormy note, with the AAP legislators raising the issue of the sealing drive against properties which are allegedly in violation of municipal norms.
A platoon each of the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) would secure the 10 theaters and multiplexes which have decided or shown willingness to screen the film "Padmaavat", according to a notification.

The notification by the police control room read that a SRPF platoon led by a sub-inspector had been deployed at each of the seven theaters and multiplexes that had decided to screen the film.

Three theaters, which have not yet taken a final decision but have showed willingness to screen the film, have also been provided security cover of a police platoon each.

It added that those indulging in violence as part of the protests against the film would be booked under Section 308, which deals with attempt to commit culpable homicide, of the Indian Penal Code. The offence attracts a jail term of three years.

Meanwhile, with the state not witnessing any violent protest since last night, the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) resumed bus services in the northern parts of the state, including areas such as Mehsana, Banaskantha, Gandhinagar, Patan and Sabarkantha, said officials.

Surat Police Commissioner Satish Sharma informed that five FIRs had been registered in connection with violent protests against the film in some parts of the city yesterday.

In a stern warning, Sharma asked the "leaders" of such groups not to "test the patience" of the police.

"We have arrested 23 people who blocked roads, vandalised a bus and burnt tyres in some parts of Surat. Apart from the foot soldiers who did such acts, we will also arrest the leaders who had incited them," he said.

"I am warning such leaders to refrain from disturbing peace. Do not test our patience. Otherwise, police has all the powers to use force and we will not hesitate to do so," the officer warned.

GSRTC bus services were suspended yesterday after they became targets of the protests at several places in the state.

Three buses were set ablaze in Mehsana on Saturday, while six buses were stoned. Roads in some parts of Banaskantha, Mehsana, Surendranagar and Bhuj were blocked after protesters burnt tyres.

The Supreme Court had on Thursday paved the way for the nationwide release of "Padmaavat" on January 25 after staying a ban on the screening of the controversial film in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.

The apex court had passed the interim order on the petition of Viacom 18 Media Pvt Ltd and other producers of the film.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
For border dwellers of Jammu and Kashmir, the trauma of seeing their loved ones die in front of their eyes is more than the fear of getting caught in the crossfire.

The border residents continue to live on the edge, 'hoping against hope' to safeguard themselves and their families from the mortar bombs fired by Pakistani troopers along the International Border (IB).

Jeet Raj of Sia Khurd border hamlet says the injuries on his body would heal, but the 'wounds to his heart' would accompany him to his grave.

He lost his wife, Bachno Devi, to cross-border mortar shelling on January 19. He and his son were injured in the incident.

"The wounds of my body caused due to splinter injuries will heal with time. But the pain of losing my wife will never leave me," Raj said as his eyes welled up.

"We were heading to our agricultural field when the shelling started. As we rushed back, a shell exploded in the compound of my house. My wife was hit and she died in front of my eyes," he said.

Raj said he rushed his injured son to the hospital, still grieving the loss of his wife.

"How long should the border dwellers remain sitting ducks and lose our family members to the Pakistani guns," he asked.

Yesterday, a civilian was killed and two persons were injured in the Pakistani shelling along the IB in Kanachak belt of Jammu district, raising the death toll in the ceasefire violations since Thursday last to 12 and injuries to over 60.

Over 300 educational institutes have been closed for next three days along IB and LoC in Jammu region in the wake of increased tension along the Indo-Pak border.

Krishen Lal of Korotona hamlet is yet to come to terms with the death of his 25-year-old son in the cross-border firing.

"It is a curse for a father to see his son die so young. I lost my son Sahil to the cross-border shelling. He was an obedient child and used to help me in the fields," says an emotional Lal, who is undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College.

"We bear the brunt of ceasefire violations. How long will our kith and kin keep getting killed? I want the government to find a solution to end it once for all," he says.

Another heart-wrenching tale is that of the family of 17-year-old Ghara Singh of Kapoorpur border hamlet in RS Pura sector. Singh died on Saturday after being caught in the crossfire.

As the family prepares for the marriage of his eldest sister, Singh's death has left a large void.

"Pakistani shelling killed my son. This wound to my heart will never heal. I have lost my support," says Singh's father.

"Ghara was looking forward to his sister's wedding. He was busy arranging the event, but fate snatched him away from us," the father says as he struggles to complete his sentence.

The bustling settlement of Arnia and a chain of border hamlets along the Indo-Pak border wear an empty look, with over 40,000 villagers abandoning their homes to escape heavy shelling by Pakistani forces.

Arnia town, with a population of 18,000, resembles a ghost town with only a few people left each in its adjoining hamlets to take care of animals and guard homes.

Farming, schooling, cattle rearing and everything else on which border dwellers survive have come to a halt due to the shelling episodes.

Deputy Commissioner Jammu, Kumar Rajeev Ranjan said 58 villages in Arnia and Suchetgarh sectors of Jammu district were effected due to shelling by Pakistan.

"Over 36,000 border population have migrated from their homes," he said, adding 131 animals have been killed, 93 injured besides damage caused to 74 buildings and houses.

While most of the migrated border people are living with their relatives, over 1,000 are camped in boarding and lodging places setup by the state government in schools and panchayat garh.

Over 5,000 cattle and bovines have been shifted from various border hamlets to safer places like Chakroi farm, Ranjan said.

In Samba and Ramgarh sectors of Samba district, over 5,000 people have migrated besides over 3,000 from Hiranagar sector of Kathua district, the officer added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today dedicated to the people of the state the Ideal Chief Minister award conferred on him by an institute in Maharastra.

The award was conferred on him yesterday and Patnaik dedicated it to the people at the rousing welcome given to him on his return at the airport here.

Patnaik's party - the BJD had organised a special programme at the airport to welcome him. Thousands of people including ministers, MLAs and MPs of the ruling party participated in it.

I am indebted to your love and affection. I dedicate the Ideal Chief Minister award to my dear people of the state, Patnaik said.

He urged the people to work hard to make Odisha the "number one state" in the country.

Patnaik had yesterday received the award from former President of India Pratibha Devi Patil at the 8th Bhartiya Chhatra Sansad organised by MIT World Peace University (MIT WPU) and Pune's MIT School of Government.

Opposition BJP and Congress have criticised the award. "It appears to be a sponsored one like the previous Best Administrator Award to Patnaik by a Delhi based magazine," BJP spokesman Pitamber Acharya told reporters at a press conference here.

Congress spokesman Sarat Rout said, "How has Patnaik been chosen as the Ideal Chief Minister when his government failed to protect the interests of Odisha in the Mahanadi river water dispute."



BJD spokesman P K Deb rejected the criticisms and said "There were several eminent persons, including some BJP leaders in the jury that selected Patnaik as the Ideal Chief Minister.

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Telugu actor-turned-politician and Jana Sena founder Pawan Kalyan today said he would tour Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh for three days from January 27.

Kalyan, who was speaking at Karimnagar after launching his 'praja yatra' (yatra for people), said he would inaugurate the party's office at Anantapur and tour Anantapur district during the three days.

The popular star offered prayers at a famous Hanuman temple at Kondagattu near Karimnagar in Telangana today to mark the beginning of his 'yatra'.

He told reporters that he would visit Ongole in Andhra Pradesh, after touring Anantapur, to take up the problems of people suffering from kidney diseases.

Dates for the Ongole visit have not yet been finalised.

Kalyan said he would subsequently tour Visakhapatnam region to study the issue of Kovvada nuclear plant.

Jana Sena would take a call on the number of seats it would contest (in the next elections) ahead of the polls based on the feedback from activists and others, he said.

Noting that Jana Sena would not like to adopt a confrontationist attitude towards elected governments, he said the party would rather than focus on finding solutions to people's problems.

Before leaving for Kondagattu, Kalyan launched the social media campaign of the party, to be run by women, in Hyderabad.

Kalyan, younger brother of Telugu film superstar Chiranjeevi, had campaigned in support of the TDP-BJP combine in undivided Andhra Pradesh in the 2014 polls.

Kalyan's campaign is believed to be one of the major reasons for the combine's success in the elections.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ahead of the release of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Padmaavat' on January 25, leaders of the Shree Rajput Karni Sena met Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today and demanded a ban on the film in the state.

I met the UP chief minister Adityanath today and demanded a ban on the film Padmaavat, Karni Sena patron Lokendra Singh Kalvi told reporters after a 20-minute meeting with Adityanath here.

People will impose 'janta curfew' in cinema halls in Uttar Pradesh if the movie is screened, he added.

Kalvi, who listed nearly 40 different objections with regard to the movie, demanded that films on the lives of Maharana Pratap, Shivaji, and other eminent personalities should be made and box-office record of 'Bahubali' broken.

Meanwhile, a large number of people waving saffron flags protested the scheduled release of Padmaavat in front of SRS cinema hall in Gorakhpur and also burnt the effigy of its director Sanjay Leela Bhansali as they raised 'Jai Sri Ram' and other slogans.

The protesters also submitted a memorandum to district magistrate in this regard.

"The movie Padmaavat is hurting the feelings of Hindus and we are against its release. We will keep on protesting the movie and demand a ban on its release," a protester said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Madras High Court, seeking to quash an order of the Tamil Nadu government, hiking the bus fares from January 20.

The petition, filed by one V Munikrishnan, is likely to come up for hearing tomorrow.

Munikrishnan submitted that he came to know through the print and visual media that the state government has hiked the bus fares from January 20, citing various reasons like increase in diesel prices, spare parts, maintenance and salaries.

He said, as per statistics, 80 per cent of the people use buse for travelling, particularly the poor and middle class as it was more affordable compared to other modes of transport.

The petitioner alleged that the state government has been spending huge amounts of public money for achieving their political goals and shifting the burden on public by saying that there is a financial crisis in the transport department.

The sudden and steep fare hike had put people to irreparable hardship, Munikrishnan said, adding that those dependent on the bus services were now forced to spend 25 per cent of their salary as transport expenses.

When people were already suffering due to the Goods and Services Tax (GST), demonetisation and price hike in other basic necessities, the state government has hiked the bus fare against the welfare of the public, he added.

Petitioner's counsel R Y George Williams made a mention before a division bench, comprising Justices R Subbiah and T Ravindran, that he be permitted to file a petition against the bus fare hike and the matter be heard early.

Granting permission, the bench said the matter would be heard tomorrow.

On January 19, the Tamil Nadu government hiked fares of buses under the state-run transport corporations and private entities by about 20 to 54.54 per cent.

The new fares came into effect from January 20.

The government also announced a fund for accident compensation and prevention, besides a panel to go into the restructuring of bus fares in the future.

It cited factors for the hike, including increase in fuel price and maintenance, annual increment in salaries, pension and purchase of the new buses to increase efficiency.

A recent interim direction of the Madras High Court in a transport-related petition was also cited to support the decision to effect a hike in fares.

Workers of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation owing allegiance to 17 trade unions, including those affiliated to the DMK and Left parties, had gone on strike on January 4 after failure of talks with the government on wage revision.

While the unions wanted a 2.57 times hike, the government offered only 2.44, resulting in a stalemate.

The strike severely crippled public sector bus services, causing immense hardship to the public, including office-goers in the cities though the government tried to maintain the services by roping in temporary drivers and private buses.

The AIADMK-backed union, besides some others, had not participated in the protests.

The unions had called off the strike on January 11 after the Madras High Court appointed an arbitrator to settle their wage dispute with the government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court today dubbed as "serious" the issues raised in the pleas relating to the death of special CBI judge B H Loya, but castigated a senior lawyer for raking up the name of BJP president Amit Shah in the case.

The apex court, which decided to look into "all documents with utmost seriousness" connected with the death of Loya, who was trying the Soharabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, also took umbrage at senior advocate Indira Jaising, who during the hearing, inferred a possible future order that the apex court may gag the media in the case.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, which was hearing two PILS on the Loya's death in 2014 transferred to itself the two other petitions pending at Nagpur and Mumbai benches of the Bombay High Court.

The bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, restrained all the high courts in the country from entertaining any petition relating to Loya's death.

Loya, who was hearing the sensitive Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, had allegedly died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter.

The bench asked the parties to catalogue all documents relating to Loya's death which have not been filed so far, and submit them for its perusal on February 2, the next date of hearing. "We must look into all documents with utmost seriousness", it said.

The bench got irked when senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for a Bombay lawyers' body which has filed a PIL in the high court there, took the name of BJP president Amit Shah during the hearing, alleging that everything has been done to protect him (Shah).

"As of today, it is a natural death. Then, do not cast aspersions," the bench said while considering the strong opposition on the issue by senior advocate Harish Salve, the counsel for Maharashtra government.

During the hearing, CJI Misra got angry when activist lawyer Jaising inferred a possible future order that the apex court may gag the media in the case.

"This is not fair to me. This you cannot do," the CJI lamented and asked Jaising to retract and apologise forthwith.

Jaising retracted her statement and tendered an apology.

Earlier, a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra had recused itself from hearing two petitions, filed by Congress leader Tehseen Poonawalla and a Maharashtra journalist B S Lone on the issue, and had said that the matter be posted before "an appropriate bench".

In persuance of that order, these two matters were listed today before the bench headed by the CJI.

Four senior-most apex court judges -- Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph -- at their Hanuary 12 press conference had questioned the manner in which sensitive cases were being allocated and Loya's case was one of them.

A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra had on January 19 posted the pleas seeking an independent probe into the alleged mysterious death of Loya for today by directing listing of petitions before "an appropriate bench".

The same bench on January 16 had also left it to the Maharashtra government to decide which documents, relating to Loya's death, could be handed over to the petitioners.

The state government, which had filed documents in a sealed cover relating to Loya's death, had opposed the petitioners' demand that the entire material should be handed over to them for perusal.

The apex court, in its January 16, order said, "Let the documents be placed on record within seven days and if it is considered appropriate, copies be furnished to the petitioners. Put up before the appropriate bench".

In the encounter case which was being heard by Loya, the BJP President along with Rajasthan Home Minister Gulabchand Kataria, Rajasthan-based businessman Vimal Patni, former Gujarat police chief P C Pande, Additional Director General of Police Geeta Johri and Gujarat police officers Abhay Chudasama and N K Amin, have already been discharged.

The issue of Loya's death had come under the spotlight in November last year after media reports quoting his sister had fuelled suspicion about the circumstances surrounding his death and its link to the Sohrabuddin case.

However, Loya's son had on January 14 said in Mumbai that his father died of natural causes and not under suspicious circumstances.

The counsel for petitioners had told the court that this was a case of alleged mysterious death of a judge, who was hearing a sensitive case, and an independent probe was required.

In the pleas, it has been claimed that circumstances revolving around the death of the judge were "questionable, mysterious and contradicting".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today arrived here on way to Davos to attend the World Economic Forum meeting where he would share his vision for India's future engagements with the international community.

After reaching Davos, he would be meeting Swiss President Alain Berset today. The prime minister would also attend the welcome reception by India and later host a dinner for global CEOs.

Modi would deliver the opening plenary address at the WEF summit tomorrow. He is scheduled to have a bilateral meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven in Davos.

Also read: PM Modi heads to Davos with a message for the world: India's time has come



"On his way to Davos, PM @narendramodi arrives in Zurich. First visit by Indian PM to #Davos in 20 years! PM would make a keynote speech at the Plenary of the #WorldEconomicForum, address International Business Council and interact with CEOs. #IndiaMeansBusiness," an external affairs ministry spokesperson said in a tweet.

Tomorrow, Modi would interact with global business community members, besides delivering his keynote address. The theme for this year's summit is 'Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World'.

In his departure statement on Sunday, the prime minister had said that India's engagement with the outside world in the recent years has become "truly and effectively multi- dimensional covering the political, economic, people to people, security and other spheres".

Also Read: WEF Davos 2018: India toast of the snowy town, from billboards to desi food



"At Davos, I look forward to sharing my vision for India's future engagement with the international community," he had said.
Police have decided to approach court after a video went viral of arrested supporters of two Nationalist Congress Party leaders dancing to a film song, popularly called the "lungi dance", in a local hospital after all of them got bail yesterday.

What has irked the police, officials said, was the fact that all these persons were in judicial custody and had been shifted to a hospital after they complained of chest pain.

The supporters of the NCP MP from Satara, Udayanraje Bhosle, and his MLA cousin, Shivendrasinh Bhosle, had clashed over the control of a toll plaza on the Pune-Kolhapaur Highway in October and had been in jail since, police said.

"We have taken this seriously and will submit a report to the court asking that their bail be cancelled and they be sent to different prisons" Sandeep Patil, Superintendent of Police, Satara told PTI.

He added that the police had told court two to three times to have the accused undergo special medical tests to determine if their complaints of chest pain was genuine.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pope Francis today offered "apologies" to victims of sexual abuse after he caused outrage by appearing to support a controversial Chilean bishop.

The pope acknowledged he had "hurt" people by suggesting there was no "proof" against Juan Barros, who is accused of covering up another priest's abuse of boys.

"The day they bring me proof against Bishop Barros, then I will speak. There is not a single piece of proof against him. Everything is slander. Is this clear?" the Argentine pontiff said abruptly on Thursday when questioned by journalists in Chile.

The pope also shocked many by giving Barros a hug during his visit.

"I have to present my apologies because the word 'proof' has hurt so many victims of abuse," Francis said at a press conference on the flight back to Rome.

"To hear the pope tell them to their faces, 'bring me a letter with the proof', it's a slap and I realise now that my expression was unfortunate," he said.

However, Francis said the Vatican had investigated Barros, without finding "any element to condemn him".

Running the risk of displeasing people in Chile, where Catholicism is falling, he said he was "convinced" of the bishop's innocence.

"You tell me that there are victims, but I did not see them," he said.

On the plane, he said he should have used the term "incriminating evidence".

"The word 'proof' was not the best to bring me closer to an aching heart," he conceded. "I know there are many people who are abused and cannot prove anything."



"I know how much they suffer," insisted Francis, who met privately in Chile with two victims of paedophile priests. According to the Vatican, he "prayed and cried" with them.

"The tragedy of the victims of abuse is horrible, horrible. Two months ago, I was in contact with a woman who was a victim 40 years ago.

"Now married with three children, the woman hadn't spoken about it since, because in the hand of the priest, she saw the hand of her sexual abuser," the pope said.

On Saturday, Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley -- who heads a paedophile commission undergoing an overhaul in the Vatican -- emphasised Francis's sincerity when he advocated a zero- tolerance policy against paedophilia in the Catholic Church.

But in an unusual criticism of the pope, he had judged as "understandable" that his words could have caused "great pain".

"His statement was very fair," the pope said on the plane.

"He recalled everything I did and what I do, and what the Church does, and then he spoke of the pain of the victims."



The pope's six-day visit to Chile and Peru end by him celebrating an open-air Mass on Sunday for more than a million people in the Peruvian capital, Lima.

In Peru, he also spoke out against political corruption in the region and dangers to indigenous people.

In Chile, he visited a women's prison and prayed with survivors of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President Ram Nath Kovind today praised the BAPS (Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha) sect for its activities towards the welfare of the society.

"Our country is fortunate to have saints who had made social service their life's main aim for the welfare of the people. Many saints have formed organisations which are leading in public welfare and BAPS is one of them," the president said while addressing followers of the sect in Gondal town in Gujarat's Rajkot district.

The president was invited to take part in the 'Akshar Deri Sardh Shatabdi Mahotsav' (celebration of 150 years of Akshar Deri).

The place, Akshar Deri, holds significance for the BAPS followers, as one of the sect's prominent spiritual heads, Gunatitanand Swami, was cremated here.

BAPS is a worldwide religious and civic organisation within the Swaminarayan branch of Hinduism.

"The organisation has launched many projects for the public welfare. It also works in health, education, environment...Its contribution is vital to empower followers", the president said.

"I have been told that the sect has over ten lakh followers and over 55,000 volunteers. The sect has built many temples, which are working for the overall development of the society," Kovind said.

The president praised the sect for maintaining cleanliness in their temples.

"We usually observe that most Hindu temples are not as clean as they should be, but temples of this sect are very clean, and cleanliness brings morality, holiness and divinity in human beings," he said.

The president also urged the sect's followers to bring in the same level of cleanliness in other Hindu temples.

"It would be a great project for the sect if their followers can bring the same cleanliness in Hindu temples too," Kovind said.

The president said that during the ten-day long celebration, the sect is going to conduct a "havan" (fire ritual) for the world peace, "and I pray that their prayer for the world peace is heard as the world is facing terrorism, tension and instability".

Gujarat Governor O P Kohli, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, his deputy Nitin Patel, Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama were among those who were present on the occasion.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi today arrived here to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meet where he would share his vision for India's future engagements with the international community.

Modi, the first Indian prime minister to attend the summit in two decades, would deliver the opening plenary address at the summit tomorrow.

Apart from meeting Swiss President Alain Berset today, he would also attend the welcome reception by India and later host a dinner for global CEOs.

He is also scheduled to have a bilateral meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven.

Earlier in a tweet, an external affairs ministry spokesperson said: "On his way to Davos, PM @narendramodi arrives in Zurich. First visit by Indian PM to #Davos in 20 years! PM would make a keynote speech at the Plenary of the #WorldEconomicForum, address International Business Council and interact with CEOs. #IndiaMeansBusiness."



Tomorrow, Modi would interact with global business community members, besides delivering his keynote address. The theme for this year's summit is 'Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World'.

In his departure statement on Sunday, the prime minister had said that India's engagement with the outside world in the recent years has become "truly and effectively multi- dimensional covering the political, economic, people to people, security and other spheres".

"At Davos, I look forward to sharing my vision for India's future engagement with the international community," he had said.

More than 3,000 world leaders from business, politics, art, academia and civil society would be attending the 48th WEF annual meeting, where the Indian presence would be the largest ever with over 130 participants.

Modi is the first Indian Prime Minister to attend Davos meeting in about 20 years since H D Deve Gowda in 1997.

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Scores of Dayal Singh College students and teachers today organised a public meeting against conversion of its evening college to a morning one and said accommodating 9,000 students in a five-acre campus was not possible.

One of the organisers of the event - 'Save Dayal Singh College' - Mayank, a student of History department, said there were not enough classrooms and accommodating so many students was causing inconvenience.

"The conversion has put 9,000 students into a 5 or 5.5 acre campus at the same time. Classes here are held in seminar hall and auditorium as we don't thave enough classrooms and study rooms. The library has 60 seats and playground is not big enough," he said.

In December last year, Dayal Singh Evening College was converted into morning one. There were over 3,000 students studying in the evening college.

The conversion, an organiser said, has put more strain on the already burdened infrastructure of the college as more than 5,000 to 6,000 students were already studying in the Dayal Singh Morning College.

The students also marched against the conversion on the campus and many former students of the Deshbandhu College also joined them.

Member of Academic Council of the Delhi University Sachin N, who also took part in the meeting, said bifurcation of an existing morning college campus into two morning colleges will be an irreparable loss to all students.

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Vehicular traffic on busy Sion-Panvel highway was briefly disrupted tonight after unidentified persons placed burning tyres on road to protest the forthcoming release of Bollywood film "Padmaavat", police said.

The incident occurred between Vashi toll plaza and Vashi village at around 7.45 PM when more than 25 protesters placed burning tyres on the highway, a top Navi Mumbai police officer said.

"Miscreants burnt more than seven tyres before fleeing the spot," Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale said in a message.

The traffic was halted for about 20 minutes till the police removed the obstruction, he said.

An offence is being registered at Vashi police station and search is on to trace the miscreants, he said.

"Padmaavat", starring Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh, is based on the saga of the 13th Century battle between Maharaja Ratan Singh of Mewar and Sultan Alauddin Khilji of Delhi.

The film is scheduled to hit theatres on January 25.

Rajput group--Karni Sena--has accused filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali of projecting queen Padmini of Chittorgarh in bad light and distorting history.

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The following are PTI's top/expected stories at 5 pm:



STORIES ON THE WIRE



LegalLGD17SC-LD LOYA (Lead expected)Pleas on Loya's death serious but don't cast aspersions: SCNew Delhi: The Supreme Court today dubbed as "serious" the issues raised in the pleas relating to the death of special CBI judge B H Loya, but castigated a senior lawyer for raking up the name of BJP president Amit Shah in the case.

LGD18



NEWSALERT-HC-AAP-DISQUALIFICATION (Story follows)



AAP MLAs withdraw plea from Delhi HC seeking stay on EC's recommendation for their disqualification.

LGD4



SC-PADMAAVAT (Lead expected)



SC to hear plea of Rajasthan, MP against release of Padmaavat



New Delhi: Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh today moved the Supreme Court seeking recall of its January 18 order by which controversial Bollywood movie "Padmaavat' was allowed to be released in theatres across India on January 25.

Nation



DEL5



DL-TERRORIST-LD ARREST (Lead expected)



Conspirator of 2008 Gujarat blasts held in Delhi



New Delhi: The main conspirator of the 2008 Gujarat serial blasts has been arrested following an exchange of fire days ahead of Republic Day, Delhi Police said today.

DEL6



PM-DAVOS-DEPARTURE (Lead expected)



Modi leaves for Davos to attend World Economic Forum



New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today left for Davos to participate in the World Economic Forum where he said he will share his vision for India's future engagements with the international community.

DEL3



JK-CEASEFIRE



Pak shells areas along LoC, IB in Jammu



Jammu: Pakistani troops opened fire and lobbed mortars at Indian positions along the International border and LoC in three sectors of Jammu and Rajouri districts overnight, a BSF officer said today.

BOM4



TL-CPI-ALLIANCE



CPI yet to decide on tie-up with Cong, will discuss with CPI-M Hyderabad: The Communist Party of India (CPI) said today that it has not taken a decision on an electoral alliance with the Congress, a day after the CPI(M) ruled out a tie-up with the Rahul Gandhi-led party.

BOM6



MP-PADMAAVAT-PROTEST Karni Sena blocks roads in MP to oppose release of 'Padmaavat'



Ujjain (MP): Members of the Karni Sena today blocked some roads here to oppose the release of the controversial film "Padmaavat".

CAL1



TR-BJP-IPFT



IPFT will not raise demand for separate state: BJP leader



Agartala: The BJP, which is in the process of finalising a pre-poll alliance with the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), today said the anti-Left tribal party will no longer raise its demand for a separate state.

MDS3



KA-GOWDA



No truck with Congress in assembly poll, says Deve Gowda



Mangaluru: The JD(S) would have no electoral understanding with the ruling Congress in the coming Karnataka assembly election as it had "burnt its fingers" in the past aligning with the national party, former Prime Minister and party president H D Deve Gowda said today.

Foreign



FGN10



BIZ-WEF-MODI-INDIA CEO



India Inc pitches for 'statesman' position for India at Davos



Davos: As the world leaders await to hear Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for India's engagement with the world, Indian CEOs today made a strong pitch for a statesman like position for the country to counter the protectionism and domestic rhetoric likely to be presented by countries like the US. By Barun Jha



FGN9



WEF-INCLUSIVE GROWTH INDIA



WEF ranks India at 62nd place on Inclusive Development Index



Davos: India was today ranked at the 62nd place among emerging economies on an Inclusive Development Index, much below China's 26th position and Pakistan's 47th.

FGN5



WEF-LD WEALTH SURVEY INDIA



India's richest 1% corner 73% of wealth generation: Survey



Davos: The richest 1 per cent in India cornered 73 per cent of the wealth generated in the country last year, a new survey showed today, presenting a worrying picture of rising income inequality.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Petrol pump owners in Punjab today threatened to go on an indefinite hunger strike from tomorrow to press for reduction in taxes on petrol and diesel and also said that smuggling of petroleum products was causing massive loss to them.

Addressing a press conference here, Petrol Pump Dealers' Association of Punjab President Paramjit Singh Doaba said, "If the Punjab government does not heed to their demands, they will intensify their protest by shutting down petrol pumps across the state. We have submitted numerous representations to the government, but it has turned a deaf ear to our pleas, leaving us with no choice but to resort to an agitation.

The association claimed that the high VAT rates on petrol and diesel as compared to neighbouring states had led to revenue loss of Rs 40,000 crore in last 17 years.

The disparity in VAT in comparison to neighbouring Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh has led to lower sales, also causing revenue losses to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore per annum to the Punjab government, PPDAP Spokesperson G S Chawla said. The state's revenue, due to lower sales of petrol and diesel, declined by Rs 190 crore in the first half of 2017-18 in comparison to the corresponding period last year, he said.

At present, tax rates on petrol and diesel in Punjab are 37.54 per cent and 17.78 per cent, respectively.

However, tax rate on petrol in Haryana, HP, Delhi, Chandigarh stand at 26.25, 27, 27, 24.77 respectively. While VAT on diesel Haryana, HP, Delhi, Chandigarh stand at 17.22, 16, 17.39 and 16.43 per cent, respectively, they said.

Chawla said if VAT and other state levies on petrol in Punjab are reduced from 37.54 per cent to 25 per cent, there will be a loss of 12.54 per cent on the face of it, but the sales will go up by a whopping 100 per cent.

Chawla alleged that smuggling of fuel was taking place at the behest of some excise and taxation officers.

"The only beneficiaries of this losing proposition are the excise and taxation authorities and unscrupulous elements, including dealers, who continue to work in collusion to rob Punjab of its rightful revenue through diversion of business to neighbouring states and smuggling," he alleged.

Explaining how petrol and diesel was being smuggled into Punjab, Chawla claimed, "Unscrupulous dealers are smuggling lower priced petrol and diesel from the neighbouring states and selling them at market price without paying any VAT to the state. Milk tankers are being used to smuggle them in bulk. Since these supplies have no records, the illegal business does not reflect in sales figures at all."



Pointing towards a mismatch between the growth in the number of vehicles and declining growth in petrol and diesel sales in Punjab, Chawla said, "While the number of two-wheelers sold in Punjab is 20 per cent higher as compared to Haryana, the growth in petrol sales in Punjab has been just four per cent in stark contrast to Haryana (15.9 per cent)..."



The PPDAP spokesperson said while the disparity in petrol and diesel prices has particularly hit the businesses of petrol pump owners in the border districts of Sangrur, Patiala, Bathinda, Gurdaspur, Mohali, Fathegarh Sahib, Ropar, Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur and Mansa.

Mohali is the worst affected as it borders Chandigarh, where petrol has become cheaper by Rs 8.24 per litre and diesel by Rs 2.23 per litre since the UT administration reduced VAT on both products by 5 per cent nearly three months ago without any exigency or justifiable reason.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As part of 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Sister Nivedita, a disciple of Swami Vivekananda, a rath yatra was flagged off today from here.

The rath (chariot) would visit 27 districts of Tamil Nadu covering 3,000 KMs in 30 days and reach Chennai on February 22, the main organiser and BJP Tamil Nadu General Secretary Vanathi Srinivasan said today.

The yatra was flagged off by Union Minister of State for Finance Pon Radhakrishnan and Tamil film actor Vivek along with heads of various mutts and educational institutions in and around the region.

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Rear Admiral M A Hampiholi today took over the command of the Western Fleet from Rear Admiral RB Pandit, the Navy stated in its official communication.

Rear Admiral Hampiholi was commissioned into the Navy in July 1985 and is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Khadakvasla in Pune, the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington and the College of Naval Warfare.

The communication stated that the Admiral is a specialist in Anti Submarine Warfare and is a recipient of the Nao Sena medal in 2011.

It added that he had held several key appointments in his naval career including the command of the missile corvette INS Nashak, the landing platform dock INS Magar and the Russian built frigate INS Talwar.

He was also the Commandant, National Coast Guard and the Commandant of the Indian Naval Academy, it stated.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Lt Governor Anil Baijal today held a meeting with representatives of the three corporations and the Delhi government over sealing and other issues, even as the civic bodies submitted their responses to the administration on the notification of 351 roads.

South Delhi Mayor Kamaljeet Sehrawat, who attended the meet at the Raj Niwas, said, both sealing and notification issues were discussed during the meet, and "how best we can work in the interest of people".

"We (SDMC) have submitted the response that was sought by the city government in connection with the roads notification issue. They wanted zone-wise details and, so we have furnished all of that to the urban development department," she told PTI.

The matter originally pertains to the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), which was trifurcated in 2012 into North, South and East Delhi Municipal Corporations (NDMC, SDMC and EDMC).

North Delhi Mayor Preety Agarwal, who could not attend the meet, however, said, the NDMC today submitted the details sought by the government.

East Delhi Mayor Neema Bhagat said the EDMC also submitted the details sought by the government.

"As many as 56 of the 351 roads fall in the EDMC's jurisdiction," she said.

The three mayors had met Urban Development Minister Satyendar Jain on January 12 in connection with the notification, and had agreed to submit details in 10 days.

"We have asked from the corporations proper paperwork to check compliance with the Master Plan of Delhi norms. I asked them to submit it in two days but they (mayors) said, they will submit it by January 22," the minister had said on January 12.

The three civic bodies and the Delhi government have been engaged in a war of words over notification on 351 roads in the city for commercial or mixed-land use.

A senior government official had said, "2,550 roads were notified in 2006, but the 351 roads were left out," without elaborating on it.

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The gradual repatriation of more than 650,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees back to Myanmar from Bangladesh, scheduled to begin tomorrow, has been postponed amid widespread fears that refugees would be forced to return, a Bangladesh official said today.

"The main thing is that the process has to be voluntary," said Abul Kalam, the refugee and repatriation commissioner, adding that paperwork for returning refugees had not yet been finalized and transit camps had yet to be built in Bangladesh.

It was not immediately clear when the process would start.

His announcement came amid growing concerns among international aid workers and the Rohingya that they could be coerced to go back to Myanmar, which most fled just months ago, escaping attacks by security forces and Buddhist mobs.

"If they send us back forcefully we will not go," Sayed Noor, who fled his village in Myanmar last August, said over the weekend, adding that Myanmar authorities "have to give us our rights and give us justice."



"They will have to return all our wealth that they have looted and hold people accountable. They will have to compensate us. We came here because we are fighting for those things," he said. "If we don't get all of this, then what was the point of coming here?"



Eventually, the more than 650,000 Rohingya who have fled Myanmar since August were to leave Bangladesh in a process that guarantees them "safety, security and dignity," according to an agreement both countries signed late last year.

David Mathieson, a longtime human rights researcher who has spent years working on Rohingya issues, heaped scorn on the agreement ahead of the latest announcement.

"It's a fantasyland, make-believe world that both governments are in," he said in an interview in Yangon, Myanmar's main city, noting that security forces there had just forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya across the border. "Now you're expecting them to come back, as if they're in a conga line of joy after what you did to them?"



The Rohingya Muslims have long been treated as outsiders in largely Buddhist Myanmar, derided as "Bengalis," illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though generations of Rohingya have lived in Myanmar. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively rendered stateless. They are denied freedom of movement and other basic rights.

Many of the people who fled earlier violence and moved into displacement camps inside Myanmar have been unable to leave those settlements for years.

Most Rohingya lived in poverty in Myanmar's Rakhine state, near the Bangladesh border. Marked by their religion and their language most Rohingya speak a dialect of Bengali, while most of their neighbors speak Rakhine they are easy to target.

The recent surge of violence erupted after an underground insurgent group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, attacked at least 30 security outposts in Myanmar in late August. The military and Buddhist mobs then launched retaliatory attacks on Rohingya across Rakhine in a frenzy of killings, rapes and burned villages. The U.N. has described the violence as "textbook ethnic cleansing.

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South Africa's ruling party confirmed today that discussions were underway on President Jacob Zuma's departure from office, possibly signalling the coming end to his scandal-tainted nine-year reign.

Zuma has been under growing pressure to resign since he was replaced as head of the African National Congress (ANC) in December by his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa.

The party executive "discussed this matter... there will be interaction between officials, President Zuma and (party) president Ramaphosa," ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule told reporters.

"There are no timelines... we don't do things that way, we engage, we discuss," he added, saying no final decision had been made on a departure by Zuma.

Zuma's presidency has been mired in corruption scandals and tarnished by a weakening economy, with the party losing public support ahead of next year's general election.

Ramaphosa's backers are keen for him to take over as president immediately and try to revive the economy before the election, when the ANC could lose its dominance for the first time since the end of apartheid.

Magashule told a media briefing at party headquarters in Johannesburg that the ANC was "committed to reclaiming moral legitimacy" and had "entered a new period of renewal", calling for "urgent action in fighting corruption".

"We focussed on education, land, agriculture, reviving the economy and making sure as we move forward we focus on issues of health," he said, reporting on an ANC meeting at the weekend.

The party said on Saturday that it would "act decisively" to rebuild its reputation battered by several scandals engulfing Zuma.

Zuma's hold over the ANC was shaken when his chosen successor - his former wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma - lost out to Ramaphosa in the closely-fought race to be party leader.

Zuma, 75, could leave office either by resigning, through losing a motion of no-confidence in parliament or impeachment proceedings.

He could also be recalled by the ANC, forcing him to step down.

Whoever is president on February 8 will deliver the annual state of the nation address to parliament - effectively serving as the most immediate deadline for any possible departure.

Ramaphosa, 65, yesterday left South Africa to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos.

He is a former trade unionist who led talks to end white-minority rule in the early 1990s and then became a multi-millionaire businessman before returning to



The ANC, which has ruled since 1994 when Nelson Mandela won the first multi-racial election, recorded its worst-ever results in 2016 local polls.

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Dalit leader Prakash Amebdkar, grandson of B R Ambedkar, today questioned the failure of Maharashtra Police to arrest right wing Hindu activist Sambhaji Bhide, who has been booked for allgedly inciting the Bhima-Koregaon violence.

"We have been demanding the arrest of Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote (another leader booked for the Bhima-Koregoan violence that took place early this month) but to no avail." Ambedkar said at a press conference here.

He claimed that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had given an assurance that Bhide would be arrested.

"But now we hear from the corridors of power that the PMO has ordered the state government not to arrest Bhide," the former MP alleged.

Ambedkar also released a purported video of Bhide, in which the former RSS worker claims that he told Prime Minister Narendra Modi to wear a saffron turban while delivering his Independence Day speech from the Red Fort in August 2014.

The authenticity of the video could not be verified.

Ambedkar also released another video clip in which Modi is purportedly heard saying: "I am thankful to Bhide guruji (Sambhaji Bhide) because he did not send me an invitation. He ordered me'. The prime minister was referring to an event he was participating in Maharashtra.

The Bhima-Koregaon caste violence, which rocked several parts of Maharashtra early this month, saw large scale arson.

Ambedkar warned that "if Bhide is not arrested, he will be emboldened and ... will become the Hafiz Saeed of India", a reference to the leader of Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba which has undertaken several terror attacks in India.

Bhide, 85, who heads Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan, has been accused of instigating violence against the dalit community in Pune district. He has denied the allegations.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court today agreed to hear tomorrow the pleas of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh governments, seeking recall of its January 18 orders allowing the screening of controversial Bollywood film 'Padmaavat' in theatres across India on the grounds that its release would create "law and order" problems in the two states.

The apex court had, on January 18, paved way for the nationwide release of the movie on January 25 by lifting the ban put by states like Gujarat and Rajasthan on its screening.

It had also restrained other states from issuing orders banning the Deepika Padukone-starrer, based on the saga of a historic 13th century battle between Maharaja Ratan Singh and his army of Mewar and Sultan Alauddin Khilji of Delhi.

"List the applications for hearing tomorrow," a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said when the counsel for both states mentioned the interim applications seeking modification of the order that has allowed the screening of the film.

Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the movie producer Viacom 18, opposed urgent hearing on the pleas saying it was "unfortunate" the way things were happening despite the apex court order.

Meanwhile, two bodies which have been protesting against the film -- Shree Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena and Akhil Bharatiya Kshatriya Mahasabha, also moved the apex court seeking their impleadment as parties, opposing its release on grounds including that it hurt the sentiments of the community.

Madhya Pradesh, in its plea, has submitted that section 6 of the Cinematograph Act empowers the state to stop exhibition of any controversial movie on the grounds of possible violation of law and order.

Rajasthan, in its application, has referred to several recent incidents of violence that has taken place in there and sought modification of the order to the extent that the movie is not allowed to be released in the state.

Referring to a local law that empowered Rajasthan to stall the exhibition of a movie, it said, "the administrative machinery of the state is the best judge of the conditions prevailing in the state and the state administration is best equipped to have inputs of any likelihood of breach of peace and disturbance in law and order."



"The state of Rajasthan is duty bound to comply with the ...directions with all the sincerity. However, it is also necessary that this court may also take note of the situation in the state where 'Rani Padmavati', is treated as a warrior who committed 'Jauhar' with several other women to protect her/their honour, and after her sacrifice, the Rajput men died fighting on the battlefield.

"People, worship Rani Padmavati, not simply as a historical character but she has been given a status of 'goddess' who defended her honour against a Muslim invader," Rajasthan said in its plea.

"The present application is moved by Rajasthan to bring to the notice of this court the circumstances and the actual ground realities which have been supported by intelligence reports stating that in case the film 'Padmaavat' earlier named as 'Padmavati' is publicly exhibited in Cinema Halls in Rajasthan, it will causes disturbance of law and order in many areas which the CBFC could not have considered...," it said.

The state also cited upcoming by-elections and intelligence inputs to support its plea and said there may be law and order problems if the film is released.

"If the film is released in the state, there is every likelihood of strong opposition from Rajput Community and supporters of Shree Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena and apart from creating law and order problems, they can also indulge in damaging cinema halls, rioting and traffic jam," it said.

Earlier, the apex court had not only set aside the ban put by certain states on the release of the movie, but had also asked other states not to take similar recourse.

"The whole problem is when the exhibition of a film is stopped like this, my constitutional conscience shocks me... There were so many films earlier, but nobody really bothered. 'Bandit Queen' had passed the test of the Supreme Court," the CJI, who was heading the bench, had said.

Maintaining that states were under constitutional obligation to maintain law and order, the to court had said this duty also included providing police protection to persons involved in the film, its exhibition and the audience.

The top court had passed the interim order on the petition by Viacom 18 Media Pvt Ltd and other producers of the movie challenging bar on screening of the Sanjay Leela Bhansali- directed movie by Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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The Supreme Court on Monday transferred to itself two petitions, pending at the Bombay High Court and its Nagpur bench, relating to the alleged mysterious death of special CBI judge B H Loya in 2014.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra also asked the parties to catalogue all documents relating to Loya's death which have not been filed so far, and submit them for its perusal on February 2, the next date of hearing.

Terming the issues raised in two petitions pending before it as "serious", the bench said, "We must look into all documents with the utmost seriousness".

The bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, restrained all the High Courts in the country from entertaining any petition relating to Loya's death.

The bench got irked when senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for a Bombay lawyers body which had filed a PIL in the high court there, took the name of BJP president Amit Shah during the hearing alleging that everything has been done to protect him (Shah).

"As of today, it is a natural death. Then, do not cast aspersions," the bench said while considering the strong opposition of senior advocate Harish Salve, the counsel for Maharashtra government in the case.

During the hearing, CJI Misra got angry when senior advocate Indira Jaising inferred a possible future order that the apex court may gag the media in the case.

"This is not fair to me. This you cannot do," the CJI responded and asked Jaising to retract and apologise forthwith. The woman lawyer retracted her statement and tendered an apology.

Earlier, a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra had recused itself from hearing two petitions, filed by Congress leader Tehseen Poonawalla and a Maharashtra journalist B S Lone on the issue from hearing and had said that let the matter be posted before "an appropritate bench".

In pursuance of that order, these two matters were listed today before the bench headed by the CJI.

The Loya case was one of those which was indicated by the four senior-most apex court judges -- justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph -- at their press conference where they had questioned the manner in which sensitive cases were being allocated.
Darwin's theory of evolution that different species are related through common ancestry is accepted worldwide though there may be debate on the details, say senior Indian scientists.

Discussion on Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, most commonly, if erroneously, held to mean that humans descended from apes, has moved out of classrooms to drawing rooms and opinion columns with Union minister for human resource development Satyapal Singh saying recently that it was "scientifically wrong".

Senior scientists slammed the minister's comment -- that nobody, "including our ancestors", mentions seeing an ape turning into a man -- as wrong at multiple levels and defying both logic and biology.

An online letter by scientists and "scientist oriented members of public" also asked Singh to retract his statement.

Raghavendra Gadagkar, professor, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, said he wasn't sure how useful it was to refute the statement on the basis of facts, which are "very clear".

"To start with, all scientific evidence suggests that humans diverged from their closest living relatives, namely the chimpanzees, about five million years ago. Thus, there was no question of our ancestors being able to witness the event and record it in their scriptures."



Expressing concern that such statements are aimed at polarising science and scientists on the lines of religion and politics, he explained that the evolution of man from a primate-like ancestor was not a quick event.

Evolutionary events take long periods of time, thousands, hundreds of thousands of years, and therefore they cannot even be considered events for anyone to witness, he told PTI.

The broad Darwinian paradigm of evolution says different species are related to one another through common ancestry, being descendants of a single or very few ancient life forms, according to the scientists.

It also states that species can give rise to new species, sometimes very gradually, sometimes quite fast.

Species can also undergo alteration in their characteristics over many generations, largely (but not necessarily only) through the mechanism of natural selection.

These broad ideas have overwhelming support within the scientific community.

"What has been said by Dr Singh is wrong at multiple levels. Indeed, it defies both logic and biology," said Amitabh Joshi, professor at Bangalore's Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR).

"First, the broad facts of evolution, and how it occurs, as well as the rough time-line of major changes in human, and hominid, evolution are widely accepted by scientists worldwide," he told PTI.

Joshi, who is also a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, added that there are debates within evolutionary biology about details, as there are in any area of science. But this does not mean that there is dispute over the broad tenets of the Darwinian view of evolution.

Manaswini Sarangi, PhD research scholar in Evolutionary Biology Laboratory at JNCASR, said it was a matter of "great distress" to hear Singh's views on evolution as a concept.

"Evolutionary biologists have provided numerous experimental evidences to show that one can observe evolution happening in the laboratory in real time, using fruit flies, bacteria, for example, among other model systems," she told PTI.

An online letter to Singh, signed by over 3,000 people, echoed the sentiment and decried the "overly simplistic and misleading representation of evolution".

"We, the scientists, science communicators and scientifically oriented members of public, are deeply pained by your claim. It is factually incorrect to state that the evolutionary principle has been rejected by the scientific community."



On the contrary, the letter states, every new discovery supports Darwin's insights. The theory is no longer merely a mechanism for organic evolution, but several other evolutionary phenomena in nature.

Ayan Banerjee, associate professor at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata, expressed his worries about the impact of the minister's statement.

"I have two kids and I am scared he is actually going to somehow change what we have worked on," said Banerjee.

On the specific issue of monkeys, apes and humans, the Darwinian view is that humans share fairly recent common ancestors with apes, and a little more in the past, with monkeys, he explained.

"Thus we are not descended from apes or monkeys, we share common ancestry with them. They (i.e. the existing apes and monkey species) are our cousins, if you like, not ancestors," he said.

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Selvi, South India's first woman taxi driver received the 'First Lady' award from President Ram Nath Kovind and Union Minister of Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi.

The Bengaluru-based professional driver was one of the 112 women who were conferred with the WCD First Ladies Achievement Award for being the first to set a milestone in their respective fields.

Selvi hopes the honour will inspire millions of other girls and women to make a mark for themselves in the society.

"A single lamp might seem small and insignificant In the beginning. That's what my taxi company seemed like in the beginning. Yet that same lamp can also bring light millions, in the same way, the small things I learnt, and the small steps I took years ago, with hard work and honesty, is being honoured by the President of India today," she said in a statement.

President Kovind said the recognition is important as progress of women is a barometer for the development in any society.

"We are witnessing positive change in participation of women in our country. Yet, due to prejudiced mindsets, women are still victims of violence. They need to feel secure in public places, and this should be a matter of concern for all of us. Along with the government, it is the responsibility of every section of society," he said.

Gandhi said it is inspiring to see how these 'First Ladies' overcame various challenges to break the norms and create a niche for themselves in the society.

"Keeping up with the solemn spirit of Empowered Nari, the ministry conceptualised 'First Ladies'. These First Ladies rose through barriers, standards and oppressive notions to become the first women to excel in the fields which were thought to be beyond them," she said.

Selvi was felicitated at Rashtrapati Bhavan on January 20.

Canadian documentary filmmaker Elisa Paloschi, who made "Driving With Selvi" based on Selvi's life, said she is proud of her achievements.

"I'm inspired by her, having continued on her path of self-empowerment, regardless of the obstacles. I'm honoured that she shared her story with me, because she hoped that she might inspire even just a single girl to take that first step," she said.

Selvi was forced into marriage at the age of 14 and she ran away at the age of 18 to escape an abusive relationship.

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The Shiv Sena will hold internal polls to elect its party president and other functionaries here tomorrow, which happens to be the birth anniversary of its founder Bal Thackeray.

Sena president Uddhav Thackeray is set to be re-elected as there is no other nomination for the post, party sources said.

Elections will be held at NSCI in Worli tomorrow for the posts of members of the national executive committee and deputy leaders who will be elected from among 180 members of the national executive.

A meeting of senior Sena leaders was held at Thackeray's 'Matoshree' bungalow in suburban Bandra today to discuss the internal polls.

Former chief minister Manohar Joshi, industries minister Subhash Desai and MP Sanjay Raut were among those present at the meeting.

The election is being held to comply with the Election Commission's directives to political parties to hold internal organisational elections, a Sena leader said.

Asked if Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray, son of Uddhav Thackeray, would be elevated in the party hierarchy, Raut declined to comment.

Aaditya is viewed as Uddhav's political heir and has led various student agitations at Mumbai University. There is speculation that he will be given more responsibility and will play a bigger role in the organisation.

Uddhav, 57, became the Sena president five years ago on January 23, 2013.

The Sena shares an uneasy alliance with the BJP in the state and has been vocal in opposing some of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies.

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Wounded 12-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic was sent tumbling out of the Australian Open by Korean giant-killer Chung Hyeon today, but ice-cool Roger Federer roared into the quarter-finals.

The Serb, who was returning from six months out with a right elbow injury, was clearly in pain as his hopes of a seventh Melbourne Park title were extinguished on Rod Laver Arena 7-6 (7/4), 7-5, 7-6 (7/3).

He was keen not to take away from the glasses-wearing Chung's huge achievement after the 21-year-old followed up his win over fourth seed Alexander Zverev in the last round.

"Congratulations. Amazing," said Djokovic, who also had an apparent hip or groin problem, screeching at times when stretching for the ball.

"He was the better player on court today and he deserved to win."



Djokovic said the injuries started troubling him at the end of the first set and a decision on where he goes from here would be made after talking with his medical team.

Chung's reward is a last-eight clash with unheralded American Tennys Sandgren, who upset Austrian fifth seed Dominic Thiem 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (7/9).

The Korean, ranked 58, described Djokovic as "my idol".

"I can't believe this, dream's come true tonight."



Sandgren was also in a daze, becoming just the second man in the last 20 years since Frenchman Nicolas Escude to make the quarter-finals on his Australian Open debut.

"I don't know if this is a dream or not," he said. "I knew I had to come out and play aggressive and take my chances and serve well and thankfully it worked out in the end."



For a composed Federer, it was business as normal.

The Swiss defending champion swatted aside one-time training partner Marton Fucsovics 6-4, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 to make the last eight for an incredible 14th time.

He will now play fellow veteran Tomas Berdych, a semi- finalist in 2014 and 2015, who demolished Italy's Fabio Fognini 6-1, 6-4, 6-4.

"We have had some good ones over the years going back all the way to the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004," the 19-time Grand Slam champion said of the Czech.

"Yeah, I'm looking forward to play against him. He seems in good shape."



Berdych, who is on his way back from back problems, lost to the five-time Australian Open champion in the third round last year and the odds are heavily stacked again him.

Of the 13 quarter-finals Federer has contested in Melbourne, he has won the lot.

- Running everywhere -



======================



World number one Simona Halep eased into the last eight 6-3, 6-2 over unseeded Naomi Osaka of Japan, delighted to be off court early after an epic and gruelling three-setter in the previous round.

While the win was easy, she continues to nurse a troublesome ankle that she rolled early in the tournament.

"I feel it but I'm trying not to think about it and give it everything," said Halep, who has never gone beyond the quarters before.

She will play either sixth seed Karolina Pliskova or fellow Czech Barbora Strycova, seeded 20.

Germany's Angelique Kerber is the only Grand Slam champion left among the women, and she was given a big fright as she chases her second Melbourne Park crown after beating Serena Williams in 2016.

After crushing Maria Sharapova in the last round, she came up against gritty Taiwanese veteran Hsieh Su-wei.

At one point Kerber was serving to stay in the match, but she bounced back to win 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.

"Credit to her, she played unbelievable. I was running everywhere," said Kerber, who had a poor 2017 after starting the year as world number one.

The win set Kerber up with a clash against American Madison Keys, a semi-finalist in 2015 who has found a new lease of life under the guidance of former great Lindsay Davenport.

Seeded 17, she flattened French eighth seed Caroline Garcia 6-3, 6-2 in just 68 impressive minutes.

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Students of various educational institutions today staged protest demonstrations in several parts of Tamil Nadu against the steep hike in bus fares effected by the State government.

Seeking immediate rollback of the increase, students of Kundavai Natchiar Government Women's College in Thanjavur district held a road-roko blocking traffic in front of their institution.

Similarly, students of a private college in Tiruchirappalli blocked traffic due to which vehicular movement was hit on the Tiruchirappalli-Thanjavur highway for some time.

Students of colleges in places including Ariyalur, Tirupur, Palani, Villupuram, Tirunelveli also held protest demonstrations. Blocking traffic, they shouted slogans against the hike and sought its withdrawal.

Also, cadres of political parties including the CPI(M), CPI held protest demonstrations in Tiruvallur, Madurai, Kanyakumari and Coimbatore districts.

Effective January 20, Tamil Nadu government announced a steep hike of fares ranging between 20 and 54.54 per cent in most routes with even higher increase in other routes.

The hike was strongly opposed by opposition parties including main opposition DMK.

Both Chief Minister K Palaniswami and Transport Minister M R Vijayabaskar had called the hike "inevitable."



Vijayabaskar had ruled out the possibility of a rollback.

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Suspected Al-Qaeda terrorist Zeeshan Ali was today charged by Delhi Police with conspiring to recruit people for terror activities.

The allegations were made by the police before Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma who was informed that Ali, a native of Jharkhand who was deported from Saudi Arabia last August, had made provocative speeches to recruit Indian youths with a purpose to establish a base for the terror outfit here.

The agency told the court that Ali's brother and sister- in-law were active members of the terror outfit who had introduced him to other members.

In the charge sheet, the police alleged that Ali's brother introduced him to another accused Mohd Abdul Rehman, arrested in the case, whose speeches and ideology influenced him and started collecting funds for AQIS (Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent) activities at his instruction.

"Sabeel Ahmad (Ali's brother in-law) and his brother Arshiyan and his wife Alina are active members of terrorist outfit Al-Qaeda since long...During September/October 2015, his brother gave him contact number of Maulana Abdul Rehman for meeting in India. Arshiyan and Sabeel also gave him Rs 1.7 lakh for Rehman," the police alleged.

29-year-old Ali was arrested after he was sent back from Saudi Arabia in connection with the case in which he is also accused of conspiring with other Qaeda members to organise and make provocative speeches to recruit Indian youths and establishing a base for the terror outfit here.

Police further said that Ali's brother-in-law Ahmad is brother of Kafil Ahmad, who had committed suicidal attack at Glasgow airport, London, in 2007.

Ali was declared a proclaimed offender by a Delhi court on July 12 last year, along with eleven others.

The police said that Ali, along with other AQIS members, provided shelter to its cadres in Dammam in Saudi Arabia and claimed there was sufficient evidence to prosecute Ali and others for offences punishable under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

"From the investigation of the case, sufficient evidences to prosecute accused Syed Mohd Zishan Ali and others for offences punishable under sections 18(conspiracy), 18B (recruiting of any person for terrorist act) and 20 (being member of terrorist organisation) of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and 174A (failure to appear in specified time and place as required by a proclamation by court) of the IPC has emerged," the charge sheet said.

The court posted the matter for February 2 for further proceedings.

Ali's name, along with that of 11 others, was allegedly disclosed by Syed Anzar Shah and four others -- Mohd Asif, Zafar Masood, Mohd Abdul Rehman and Abdul Sami -- arrested in the case earlier, the police had claimed.

The Delhi Police's Special Cell had arrested Ali on August 9, 2017 from IGI Airport here after searching for him over a year after three alleged AQIS (Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent) operatives were arrested in 2015.

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Police in Thailand have arrested two Israeli men suspected of killing a fellow citizen on a Thai resort island after running him down with a car.

Police Capt Silchach Kamunee said today the suspects are being held on suspicion of premeditated murder.

The two men, Dolez Zuarez and Eyal Bokal, were arrested yesterday at a Bangkok airport, police said. They are accused of slamming their vehicle into a motorcycle driven by the victim, Maor Malul, and then stabbing and killing him.

Deputy police chief Chalermkiat Sriworakan said three others were injured in the attack yesterday.

The arrests came after Thai media published security video of the attack on Koh Samui island. The video shows an SUV crashing into a motorcycle, knocking off its two riders.

The SUV then accelerates in reverse gear, colliding with the motorcycle again. A man then jumps out of the car and chases down the motorcycle driver, stabs him and flees.

Pol Maj Gen Apichart Boonsriroj, chief of Surat Thani police station, said the suspects and victim had a personal dispute before entering Thailand.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz said Malul was a member of an organized crime group who was convicted in 2016 in the attempted murder of a local Israeli crime boss.

It said Malul was likely murdered in revenge for the attempt on Baruch Bokal's life.

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A motorcycle bomb killed three civilians and wounded 22 others today at a market in Thailand's insurgency-hit south, officials said, the first such attack on a 'soft target' in the Muslim-majority region for months.

A rebellion against Thai rule in the culturally distinct Thai "Deep South" bordering Malaysia has left nearly 7,000 dead -- the majority civilians -- since 2004.

The death toll in 2017 from the insurgency was the lowest in 13 years of conflict as peace talks edged forwards and the Thai junta boosted its security lockdown on the region.

But today's bomb at a packed market in Yala town popular with Buddhists and Muslims suggests a return to attacks on civilian targets.

Chunks of torn corrugated roofing and parts of destroyed motorbikes and stalls littered a narrow alleyway in the market, as police picked through a scene of devastation shortly after the bomb.

"The suspects parked the motorcycle in front of a stall selling pork in downtown Yala... it detonated 10 minutes later killing three civilians and wounding 19 others," the policeman told AFP, requesting anonymity.

"It's the first big attack in downtown Yala in two years and is quite serious because people died."



It was not immediately clear if the bomb deliberately targeted the pork stall -- and potentially its Buddhist customers.

The wounded were taken to the main hospital in Yala, which is the main town of the province with the same name.

Pramote Prom-in, an army spokesman for the region, confirmed the death toll, adding 22 were wounded "mainly with minor injuries".

Thailand, which colonised the ethnically Malay south roughly a century ago, has for decades been confronted by ethnic fighters seeking more autonomy, but the conflict flared up into its bloodiest phase in 2004.

Rights groups have accused both the insurgents and security forces of widespread human rights abuses.

The shadowy militant cells, who operate from remote communities and the forested Malaysia border zone have in recent months stepped back from targeting civilians amid heavy criticism.

Today's attack could mark a dangerous new turn in the tactics.

"If it was the work of the insurgents, then it's a sign of things to come -- a stern message to the authorities that they will resort to hitting soft targets," Don Pathan, a Thailand-based independent analyst, told AFP.

Pathan speculated the market blast could be "retaliation" for a specific incident in a conflict defined by tit-for-tat operations by insurgents and security forces.

"But over recent years the insurgents haven't targeted civilians out right... this is a big concern.

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Three men were allegedly beaten up by some members of their own community for opposing certain regressive practices of their caste panchayat, a police official said today.

The police today arrested two persons in this connection, he said.

The three victims from the Kanjarbhat community are part of a WhatsApp group, called 'Stop the V Ritual', formed to spread awareness against the practice of determining the virginity of a bride on the wedding night.

They were beaten up by around 40 members of their community last night when they had gone to attend a relative's wedding in the district's Pimpri industrial town.

Two persons have been arrested this morning, an official at the Pimpri police station said.

A case has been registered against the accused under IPC sections pertaining to voluntarily causing hurt, unlawful assembly and rioting, the official said.

Pimpri's senior police inspector Shreedhar Jadhav said they were seeking a legal opinion on whether the accused could be booked under the Maharashtra Protection of People from Social Boycott (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act.

One of the victims said that after the wedding ceremony last night, their community held a caste panchayat.

He said they had not gone to the wedding to oppose anyone.

But still, around 40 community members, who were angry with the them for their campaign on social media against the caste panchayat's regressive practices, assaulted them and also threatened them against carrying out such activities, the victim said.

The brother of one of the victims also alleged that their caste panchayat follows certain unjust practices, including virginity test of brides and seeking money to approve marriages.

One of the victims said, "We, with the help of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, had complained to police in the past against such practices of the caste panchayat."



The Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti is an organisation dedicated to fighting superstitions in India. It was founded by late rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in 1989.

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Top industry leaders from Tamil Nadu today called on Chief Minister K Palaniswami at the secretariat here and discussed ways to improve the investment climate in the state.

According to a release by the CII, Chairman of TVS Motor Company Venu Srinivasan, the Managing Director of heavy commercial vehicle major Ashok Leyland, Vinod K Dasari, CMD of MRF Ltd K M Mammen met the chief minister.

"The discussion focused on improving the investment climate in Tamil Nadu and they deliberated on various ways of fostering socio-economic growth," the release said.

FMCG major CavinKare's Chairman and Managing Director C K Ranganathan, Danfoss Industries President, and chiarman of CII, Tamil Nadu P Ravichandran, were also present on the occasion, it said.

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The Trump administration plans to open the US embassy in Jerusalem by the end of 2019, a State Department official said today.

In December, Trump said that the US recognises Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announced to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to the historic city.

"The administration will advance its plan to open the US embassy in Jerusalem and will open the embassy before the end of next year," State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

More details will be announced in the future as decisions are made on issues affecting the safety and security of personnel, she said.

"Secretary (Rex) Tillerson has been clear that safety and security is his top priority," Nauert said following a statement in this regard by Vice President Mike Pence.

Currently in Israel, Pence announced that the administration will expedite the move of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and said that the embassy will be opened by the end of the year.

"Jerusalem is Israel's capital. And, as such, President (Donald) Trump has directed the State Department to immediately begin preparations to move the United States embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem," Pence said amid applause.

"In the weeks ahead, our administration will advance its plan to open the United States embassy in Jerusalem, and that United States embassy will open before the end of next year," he said.

Officials have said that it will take a few years before the embassy could be moved there.

"Our President made his decision, in his words, in the best interests of the United States. But he also made it clear that we believe that his decision is in the best interests of peace. By finally recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the United States has chosen fact over fiction. And fact is the only true foundation for a just and lasting peace.

"Under President Trump, the United States of America remains fully committed to achieve a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians," Pence added.

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US President Donald Trump has been known to affect an Indian accent and imitate Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a leading US daily has reported.

Prime Minister Modi, during his visit to the US last year, held talks with President Trump on a number of issues, including the situation in war-torn Afghanistan.

Modi told Trump in an Oval Office meeting in June: "Never has a country given so much away for so little in return" as the United States in Afghanistan, The Washington Post quoted sources as saying.

To Trump, Modi's statement was proof that the rest of the world viewed the United States as being duped and taken advantage of in Afghanistan, the Post said.

"Senior administration officials said that the President has been known to affect an Indian accent and imitate Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi," the Post reported.

The White House did not immediately respond to a question on the Post's assertion that Trump has been imitating Modi in Indian ascent.

Democratic Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi condemned Trump's reported habit of affecting an Indian accent to imitate Modi.

"I was appalled to read that President Trump reportedly affected an Indian accent to imitate Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi," he said.

"In the wake of the President's recent comments disparaging entire regions of the world while we still face such division at home, behavior that belittles our allies and 'otherizes' entire communities of Americans is one of the last things we need.

"Americans are not defined by their accents, but by their commitment to this nations values and ideals," Krishnamoorthi said.

Multiple times in the past, the White House has denied such reporting from the Post, including his alleged "shithole" remarks during a meeting with lawmakers early this month.

Trump has quite often accused the Post of being a "fake news".

According to the daily, Trump has made it clear to senior Pentagon officials that he wants to see a quick return on the increased US investment in troops and money in Afghanistan.

Pentagon officials are also under pressure to keep troop numbers from growing significantly, it said, adding that up to 1,000 more US troops could be headed to Afghanistan this spring.
A Turkish soldier was killed as the country pressed its offensive against Kurdish militia targets in northern Syria, the army said, confirming the operation's first Turkish fatality on its third day.

"One of our heroic soldiers was martyred during clashes" with Kurdish militants from the People's Protection Units (YPG) militia southeast of the Turkish border town of Gulbaba in Kilis on Monday, the Turkish army said in a statement.

The Turkish military launched operation "Olive Branch" on Saturday, its second major intervention in Syria's seven-year civil war.

The operation, with Turkish war planes and artillery backing a major ground offensive involving Ankara-backed Syrian opposition fighters and Turkish tanks, aims to remove the YPG from its Afrin enclave.

Turkey views the YPG as an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has fought a decades long insurgency against the Turkish state.

It is blacklisted as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.

Ankara launched its first offensive in Syria dubbed Euphrates Shield in Syria in August 2016 to March 2017, which targeted the ouster of the Islamic State extremist group and the YPG in an area east of Afrin.

A total of 72 Turkish soldiers were killed during the first operation.

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Intense clashes erupted today as Turkish troops and their allies advanced on a Kurdish enclave in Syria, the third day of the Ankara offensive aimed at ousting the Kurds from the area, a Kurdish militia and a war monitoring group said.

The Turkish offensive on Afrin, codenamed Operation Olive Branch, started on Saturday, heightening tensions in the already complicated Syrian conflict and threatening to further strain ties between NATO allies Turkey and the United States.

The UN Security Council is convening today to discuss the situation in Syria.

In a statement today, NATO said it has been in touch with Turkey over the developing offensive. NATO said Turkey has suffered from terrorism and has the right to self-defense but urged Ankara to do so in a "proportionate and measured way."



NATO also said it has no presence in Syria but that as members of the coalition against Islamic State militants, "our focus is on the defeat" of the extremist group.

The US-backed Kurdish militia said it has repelled Turkish troops and their Syrian allies from Shinkal and Adah Manli, two villages they seized a day earlier in Afrin, the northwestern Syrian district that straddles the Turkish border.

The militia said the Turkey-backed forces have opened a new front, pushing their way into two other villages in the district's north. The militia said they are fighting to push back the advancing troops in Balia and Qarna.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Syrian Kurdish militia waged a ferocious counteroffensive late yesterday, repelling the Turkish troops and allied Syrian fighters from the two villages they briefly captured. The Observatory said Turkey-backed troops were attempting once again to enter Afrin.

Access to Afrin is restricted and it is difficult to independently verify the reported developments.

The Kurdish militia, known as People's Defense Units or YPG, said it was clashing today with the Turkish troops northwest of Afrin.

Turkey considers the YPG a terror organisation because of its affiliation to its own Kurdish insurgency. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has promised to expand the operation.

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The UN's Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for "credible investigations" after at least six people were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo during a crackdown on a protest against President Joseph Kabila.

Guterres said the government should "hold those responsible accountable" in a statement issued by his spokesman in New York after live rounds and tear gas were fired to disperse demonstrators in Kinshasa.

The country's powerful Catholic Church, one of the few institutions to enjoy broad credibility nationally, had called for the rallies despite a government ban on all demonstrations.

Guterres "urges the Congolese security forces to exercise restraint", his spokesman said in the statement, and "called upon all concerned to ensure full respect for places of worship".

The UN peacekeeping mission MONUSCO said six people were killed in Kinshasa and scores injured nationwide in the rallies.

Congolese authorities said two of the deaths were caused by "stray bullets".

Kabila, 46, has been in power since 2001, at the helm of a regime widely criticised for corruption, repression and incompetence.

His constitutional term in office expired in December 2016 but he has stayed on, stoking a bloody spiral of violence.

Under an agreement brokered by the Catholic Church, he was allowed to stay in office provided new elections were held in 2017.

The authorities later blamed organisational problems for a new delay until December 23, 2018 -- a postponement that has angered Western nations, but one that they have reluctantly accepted.

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The US and the UN have strongly condemned the terror attack at a five-star hotel in Kabul that killed at least 18 people, including 14 foreigners.

"Strongly condemning the attack at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul," US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said as he offered deepest condolences to the families and friends of those who were killed. He also wished for the speedy recovery of the injured.

"The US applauds the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces for their bravery in responding to the attack. We are in contact with Afghan authorities regarding their investigation of the incident," he said.

"We have seen the Taliban's claim of responsibility and condemn terrorist groups for their violent campaign against Afghan and foreign personnel working to improve Afghanistan," Tillerson said.

Stating that the US stands with the government and people of Afghanistan, he said the US remain firmly committed to supporting Afghan efforts to achieve peace, security, and prosperity for their country.

"Violence like what we witnessed yesterday has no place in Afghanistan, or anywhere else in the world," Tillerson said.

US President Donald Trump was briefed about the terrorist attack, the White House said.

In a statement, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack.

"The Secretary-General extends his deepest condolences to the families of the victims and wishes a speedy recovery to those injured. He expresses his solidarity with the Government and people of Afghanistan," the statement attributable to his spokesperson said.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility of the terrorist attack at the hotel which is popular among foreigners.

A group of gunmen stormed the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul on Saturday and killed at least 18 people during a 12- hour standoff with security forces that ended yesterday.

Many countries, including India, had condemned the attack.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US Vice President Mike Pence vowed today in an address to the Israeli parliament that Washington will never allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.

"I have a solemn promise to Israel, to all the Middle East and to the world - the United States of America will never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon," Pence said to applause from Israeli MPs.

The 2015 deal that was meant to curb Iran's nuclear capabilities was fiercely opposed by Israel, but backed by then US president Barack Obama.

His successor Donald Trump has fiercely criticised the agreement, accusing Tehran of not sticking to it and saying it still allows the Islamic republic to support terrorist organisations across the globe - including Israel's longstanding enemies.

Earlier this month Trump again waived nuclear-related sanctions - as required every few months to stay in the agreement - but demanded European partners work with Washington to improve the terms of the deal.

"The Iran nuclear deal is a disaster and the United States of America will no longer certify this ill-conceived agreement," Pence said today.

"Unless the Iran nuclear deal is fixed President Trump has said the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal immediately."



The other parties to the deal - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the European Union - have all said it is working and that Iran is complying fully with its commitments.

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The Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Mandal Samiti, comprising 14 MLAs, today took stock of functioning of various government departments here, an official said.

The committee was constituted by the state government and is headed by Ram Chandra Yadav.

The team reached here at the collectorate to examine the overall working of government departments. The Samiti will submit its report to the ministers concerned, Additional District Magistrate (Finance) Sunil Singh said.

They will assess whether the developmental programmes have been executed properly, he said.

The committee visited the Siddhartha Vihar colony that was constructed by the Avas Vikas Parishad and a power sub- station in Indira Puram, he said.

It also counter checked the complaints of the government departments, the officer said.

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Union Minister Vijay Goel today said entire Delhi has turned into an "industrial area" in the absence of proper checks, as he targeted the Aam Aadmi Party government over the blaze in a Bawana firecracker factory.

The Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs today led a sit-in protest with hundreds of BJP volunteers in the city's Red Fort area against the Delhi government over the Saturday night incident that claimed 17 lives.

He said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was busy "saving" the 20 AAP MLAs embroiled in the office of profit case and has "zero concern" for those injured in the Bawana fire incident.

"Without proper checks and balances, illegal factories cropped up across the capital including residential areas, there's nothing called 'industrial area' as the entire capital has been transformed into industrial zone," Goel said in a press statement.

Goel added that if steps are not taken in a time-bound manner, the capital would witness more Bawana-like incidents and loss of innocent lives.

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India today said it will work "closely and constructively" with all the members of RCEP for early conclusion of the negotiations for a mega trade deal.

Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu asserted however on the importance of addressing sensitivities and aspirations of all the 16 member countries of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) group.

RCEP is a mega trade pact among these countries and aims to cover goods, services, investments, economic and technical cooperation, competition and intellectual property rights.

Prabhu said the negotiations have been on for the last five years and they are slow because the diversity of economic strengths of all the countries.

"We would all aim to achieve an RCEP that results in the realisation of the potential of the three pillars of RCEP - goods, services and investments and in a manner that is balanced and collectively satisfying," he said here.

He was addressing Asean-India Business and Investment Meet and Expo. The Asean Summit is to be held here this week.

"Keeping this in view, we will work closely and constructively with all RCEP member countries, particularly with Asean towards early conclusion of the negotiations," he added.

Prabhu said that implementation of this pact would further deepen economic relations between the countries.

"It is important to address the sensitivities of member countries and aspirations, as negotiations gather momentum," he said.

There are several issues which are yet to be resolved and that include reaching the final number of goods on which taxes will be eliminated and matters pertaining to services sector.

The 16-member RCEP comprises 10 Asean members (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam) and their 6 FTA partners



India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Talking about India-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) free trade agreement (FTA), Prabhu said full implementation of the pact would boost trade between the two regions.

He said review of the pact holds key to further liberalise the trading regime and facilitating market access between India and Asean.

About free trade pact in services, he expressed hope that the remaining two countries including Philippines, which are yet to ratify the pact would soon complete the process.

The agreement was implemented in July 2015.

Further Prabhu called upon Asean member countries to liberalise procedures for movement of professional to promote trade in services.

India runs a trade deficit of USD 10 billion with Asean. The two-way commerce between the two regions stood at about USD 71 billion currently.

To promote investments, the government had created a project development fund (PDF) to facilitate Indian investment in four countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV).

The minister said four projects in CLMV region have already been approved and work in preparation of detailed project report is in progress.

The projects include setting up of a multi-speciality hospital in Cambodia and Myanmar; pharma unit in Vietnam and an education institute in Myanmar.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A woman and her father, carrying 20 live bullets in their baggage, have been apprehended from a Delhi Metro station here, officials said today.

They said the woman, from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, was found carrying the rounds yesterday evening by CISF personnel at Adarsh Nagar station when her bag was being scanned.

She was travelling with her father and other family members, they said, adding her father produced a copy of his arms license and said the 20 rounds of ammunition (.32 calibre) belong to him.

The woman and her father have been handed over to the Delhi Police by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) team for further investigation, officials said.

Security in the Delhi Metro and other public transport facilities has been stepped up in view of Republic Day celebrations on January 26.

In a similar incident, another woman was apprehended at the Delhi airport yesterday, for allegedly carrying a live bullet in her bag.

The woman, travelling to Dehradun, is a resident of Mathura. She has been handed over to the police as she could not furnish any documents for possession of the seized ammunition, the officials said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Multilateral lending agency World Bank and India on Monday inked $ 120 million loan agreement which will help increase access to improved water supply services in peri-urban areas in Uttarakhand.

According to an official statement, while Uttarakhand has made significant strides in piloting and implementing innovative approaches in water supply and sanitation services, the peri-urban areas have not been a focus.

From 2001 to 2011, the state's urban population grew by nearly 42 per cent, which is substantially higher than the national average of 32 per cent, it added.

Joint secretary in the ministry of finance, Sameer Kumar Khare said that over 700,000 people residing in peri-urban areas of the state are expected to benefit from the programme.

It will help the state increase water supply coverage as well as ensure sustainable service delivery, the statement said.

It observed that growth and urbanisation have led to the rise of significant 'peri-urban' areas (mostly in the plains) that, while classified as rural, are effectively urban in nature.
By David LjunggrenOTTAWA (Reuters) - The NAFTA trade agreement's future hangs in the balance this week as negotiators from the United States, Canada and Mexico try to settle major differences over revamping a pact that President Donald Trump has threatened to abandon.Senior officials from the three nations will meet in Montreal for a week starting on Tuesday in the sixth and last round of talks to modernize the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.Trump, who entered office last year pledging to undo what he described as disastrous trade deals, has portrayed NAFTA as grossly unfair to the ...
By Promit Mukherjee and Jessica KuruthukulangaraMUMBAI (Reuters) - Shares of Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd jumped as much as 6.3 percent on Monday after the explorer said it would buy a majority stake in refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd for a smaller premium than expected.The gains, which took ONGC's shares to their highest in nearly one year, came after India's biggest explorer said on Saturday it would pay 369 billion rupees ($5.77 billion) for a 51.1 percent stake in HPCL from the government at 473.97 rupees per share.HPCL shares, however, fell as much as 4.3 percent as the premium paid ...
TOKYO (Reuters) - Trade officials gathered in Japan on Monday for two days of talks to try to forge a trade pact that U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned last year, but the new 11-member club risks getting bogged down by resistance from Canada.The member countries of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTTP), also known as TPP 11, reached a basic agreement on the pact in November. But Canada is holding out to secure protection of its cultural industries, like movies, TV, and music, and has said it will not be rushed into signing a deal that other ...
By Susan Cornwell and Richard CowanWASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. senators struck a deal on Monday to lift a three-day government shutdown as Democrats agreed to end the standoff in exchange for President Donald Trump's Republicans promising a debate on the future of young illegal immigrants.Legislation to renew government funding easily won enough support in a vote in the Senate and was expected to pass the House of Representatives, allowing government to reopen through Feb 8. Most Democratic lawmakers had initially opposed the funding bill, demanding that the Senate also approve protections ...
By Susan Cornwell and Richard CowanWASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. senators struck a deal on Monday to lift a three-day government shutdown as Democrats agreed to end the standoff in exchange for President Donald Trump's Republicans promising a debate on the future of young illegal immigrants.Legislation to renew government funding easily cleared a procedural hurdle in the Senate and was expected to pass both the Senate and House of Representatives, allowing government to reopen through Feb 8. Most Democratic lawmakers had initially opposed the funding bill, demanding that the Senate also ...
Cayuga County Habitat for Humanity will hold a Hooley for Habitat fundraiser from 6 to 11 p.m. Friday, March 9, at The Lodge at Welch Allyn, 4355 State St. Road, Skaneateles.

The event will include a costume contest, Irish dancers and a silent auction, as well as a bar, hors d'oeuvres, a beef carving station and more food.

Tickets are $50 and RSVPs are requested by March 2. Proceeds support the local mission of Habitat for Humanity to work with volunteers and partner families to build a better community in honor of the work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and observance of the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act.
Homegrown e-commerce giant Flipkart, which is currently running a Republic Day sale, reportedly lost an appeal against the income-tax department in December over the categorization of marketing expenditure and discounts as capex.

According to a report in The Economic Times, the ruling which is not publicly known was about capital spent by e-tailers on marketing through deep discounts. Ecommerce players in the country have been lassifying this as marketing expenses and deducting it from revenue, leading to them posting losses and therefore not being liable to tax, it said.

The two online marketplace companies are engaged in a bitter battle to grab to top slot in the Indian e-commerce space. The December ruling may change the way cash burning e-tailers are taxed in the country. Online marketplaces, which often spend a substantial sum on marketing costs, could soon be deemed as being profitable and thus liable to pay 30 per cent tax.

In August last year, Flipkart and Amazon have appealed against an income tax order of Bengaluru I-T office. According to the I-T department, capital expenditure has to be spread over four to 10 years, the report said.

The development comes at a time when the issue of Angel tax is making headlines with a slew of startups getting slapped with notices from income tax department.

According to Finance Act if a private company, big or small, receives investment from an outsider who is India resident and the capital raised is more than the 'fair value', then the premium is taxable. Under Section 56(2)(viib) of the I-T Act this amount is considered as 'income from other sources' and is taxed at the colossal 30.9 per cent or even higher up to 34.61 per cent, depending on the amount of income.

Last year, Flipkart had raised an estimated $2.5 billion from Japan's SoftBank group.
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Davos awaits Modi, WEF annual meet to open today



Over 3,000 world leaders from business, politics, art, academia and civil society will attend the 48th World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting over the next five days in the small ski resort town where the Indian presence will be the largest ever with over 130 participants. WEF Chairman Klaus Schwab will declare the summit open today evening with a welcome message on the meeting's theme, 'Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World'. It will be followed by honouring Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan, Australian actress Cate Blanchett and legendary musician Elton John with the annual 'Crystal Awards' for their respective work towards improving the state of the world. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to pitch India as a growth engine for the global economy.



India's richest 1% accumulated 73% Of wealth generated last year: Oxfam survey



The annual Oxfam survey is out and the results are disturbing. The richest 1 per cent in India cornered 73 per cent of the wealth generated in the country last year. This presents a worrying picture of income inequality in the country. The annual Oxfam survey is keenly watched and is discussed in detail at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. Last year's survey had showed that India's richest 1 percent held a huge 58 percent of the country's total wealth higher than the global figure of about 50 per cent. The report titled 'Reward Work, Not Wealth', shows how the global economy enables the affluent elite to accumulate vast wealth even as millions of people struggle to make ends meet.



After turning profitable, Jio plans another wave of disruption

While Jio's rivals are facing tough times, Reliance Jio Infocomm has turned profitable , posting a net profit of Rs 504 crore for the third quarter of the fiscal year. Bharti Airtel's third quarter net profit fell 39 percent. A major reason for Jio's profit and loss of Airtel is the 57% cut in the interconnection usage charge (IUC) by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India from 1 October last year. Riding high on its first profit, Ambani is betting big on kirana stores. Reliance Jio will offer its subscribers digital coupons to buy at kirana stores at discounted rates. It will not spend its own money on discounts. It will only mediate between manufacturers and kirana stores to benefit its subscribers.

Tax authorities to monitor purchases above Rs 6 lakh in luxury goods, jewellery

Even if you have the moolah to spare, you'd best get into the habit of thinking before you spend. Because the government, as part of its stepped-up efforts to prevent money laundering, is planning to make all retailers report purchases of above Rs 6 lakh to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). FIU, under the finance ministry's Department of Revenue, is the central national agency responsible for receiving, processing, analyzing and disseminating information relating to suspect financial transactions to enforcement agencies. The move is expected to not only help Income Tax Department to identify individuals whose purchases are disproportionate to their known sources of income but also help government agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate to sniff out money laundering activities.

India to become fastest growing large economy in 2018: Report

India will overtake China to be the fastest growing large economy in 2018 and the country's equity market will become the fifth largest in the world, says a report. According to a Sanctum Wealth Management report, when the rest of the world offers low growth and insufficient structural change, India, by contrast, is seen as a reforming economy with the prospect of strong long-term growth.At a time when developed economies are cheering 2-3 per cent growth, India is focused on breaching 7.5 per cent, it said. Moreover, India also benefits from a favourable contrast to other emerging markets. In particular, the fact that China is downshifting to a slower pace of growth.



Amazon's high-tech grocery store Amazon Go set to disrupt how people shop



Amazon.com Inc will open its checkout-free grocery store to the public today after more than a year of testing. It's an experiment that could dramatically alter brick-and-mortar retail. It would make cash registers redundant as shoppers simply walk out with what they want. The Seattle store, known as Amazon Go, relies on cameras and sensors to track what shoppers remove from the shelves, and what they put back. If someone passes back through the gates with an item, his or her associated account is charged. If a shopper puts an item back on the shelf, Amazon removes it from his or her virtual cart.

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The annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meet of the rich and the powerful began on Monday with a special message from Pope Francis being read out at the opening ceremony. WEF Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab declared the summit open amid the ski-resort receiving record snowfall. Schwab welcomed members from business, politics, academia and media as well as the first timers with a round of applause. He also said all are here despite such weather as "we are all part of a community".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in Zurich on Monday to attend the 48th annual meet of the World Economic Forum (WEF). He will deliver a speech at the opening plenary session in the World Economic Forum on Tuesday. It is expected that PM Modi will take the stage to reiterate India's role in the world economy. In a world order where the biggest economies dictate the rules and regulations, PM Modi will look to cementing India's position as one of the most dynamic and powerful economies.

Today, 3:45 PM onwards the Opening Plenary of the @wef commences. PM @narendramodi will address the plenary. You can watch the address live here. https://t.co/vbG9VG4Eqq #IndiaMeansBusiness - PMO India (@PMOIndia) January 23, 2018

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11:55 AM: India is evolving, every single day you are seeing the excitement about India grow all across the world. The WEF represents business from all parts of the world who are looking at the big Indian opportunity, the big Indian market: Railway Minister Piyush Goyal



08:00 AM: Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with top CEOs. He spoke about India's economic development and the investment opportunities in India.

In Davos, PM @narendramodi interacted with top CEOs. He spoke about India's economic development and the investment opportunities in the nation. #IndiaMeansBusiness pic.twitter.com/LmRR28k9xL - PMO India (@PMOIndia) January 23, 2018

Bollywood director Karan Johar says he would speak on 'Weaponisation of Culture' at Davos on Tuesday.

12.20am: The WEF meet of the rich and the powerful begins with a special message from Pope Francis being read out at the opening ceremony.

9.10pm: A WEF report says India will be the world's fastest-growing economy in 2018, with a projected growth rate of 7.4%. China will be in second place with an expected 6.6% expansion, slightly higher than previously thought.

6.10pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Office tweets picture of him being welcomed at Zurich, Switzerland.

PM @narendramodi reached Switzerland, where he will take part in the @wef. pic.twitter.com/ASA0qamQfS - PMO India (@PMOIndia) January 22, 2018

6pm: PM Modi is hosting a dinner for CEOs of global companies, including India, tonight.

5.50pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on way to Davos.

5.40pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in Zurich on Monday to attend the 48th annual meet of the World Economic Forum.

The existing and emerging challenges to the contemporary international system and global governance architecture deserve serious attention of leaders, governments, policy makers, corporates and civil societies around the world. @wef #IndiaMeansBusiness - Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 21, 2018



USA President Donald Trump, who was also slated to be part of the meeting, might not be able to make it, in the wake of the government shutdown in the country. Speculations were running rife on whether PM Modi would meet President Trump. However, newly appointed foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale mentioned that the two world leaders will not be there on the same day.

PM Modi tweeted, "The existing and emerging challenges to the contemporary international system and global governance architecture deserve serious attention of leaders, governments, policy makers, corporates and civil societies around the world." "In recent years, India's engagement with the outside world has become truly and effectively multi-dimensional covering the political, economic, people to people, security and other spheres," he added.

"At Davos, I look forward to sharing my vision for India's future engagement with the international community," PM Modi said.

PM Modi is the first prime minister in 20 years since Deve Gowda to attend the annual meeting.

With agency inputs
The government will present its last full budget on February 1. While one can just speculate on what Finance Minister Arun Jaitley may offer in this year's budget, some reports suggest that he could bring down charges on digital transactions to promote cash-less economy. The government's push for cash-less economy started with the announcement of the demonetisation on November 8, 2016. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's sudden move had squeezed the cash supply in the economy, therefore forcing people to go digital.

However, people feared that multiple transactions could cost them more as banks and other financial institutions levy a fee after certain free transactions. Acting on these concerns, the government asked the banks to waive-off the charges. It had also asked IRCTC to remove service charge on online ticket bookings. They all did that but for few months. Banks later capped the number of free transactions one can make in a month. To ensure that such moves don't deter people from using electronic payments, the government can announce incentives for consumers to promote digital transactions.

It has been reported that in rural areas small and medium scale traders avoid digital payments for the want of point of sale (POS) machines and are still heavily dependent on cash. The government could provide tax relief on purchase of POS machines. For retail consumers, the Finance Minister may also announce incentives on transactions made through state-run BHIM and UPI applications. He can also increase referral bonus on BHIM and UPI apps.

Last year in July, banks and the National Payments Corporation of India asked the Finance Ministry to increase the referral bonus on these payments apps. Currently, any person who refers BHIM to another gets Rs 10 as an incentive, however, NPCI wanted the referral bonus to be increased to Rs 25. The government may take call in the upcoming budget.



The government can also waive-off charges on online ticket bookings.
The Swiss ski resort Davos is gearing up for the annual winter jamboree of top businessmen and some of the most powerful people on the planet. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be accompanied by a delegation of business leaders from India.

Indian delegation, which is the fourth largest group at WEF Davos 2018, includes top industrialists including Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, Bajaj Auto Chairman Rahul Bajaj, Bharti Enterprises Chairman Sunil Mittal and JSW Group Chairman Sajjan Jindal, Anand Mahindra of Mahindra & Mahindra. Tata Sons CEO N Chandrasekaran will also attend the gathering.

India Inc. has made a strong pitch for a statesman like position for the country to counter the protectionism and domestic rhetoric likely to be presented by countries like the US.

Pitching for a nuanced message here at WEF to present India as an open economy which cares for interest of domestic as well as global audience, Kotak Mahindra Bank Chairman Uday Kotak said the country needs to position itself as a statesman and not just a salesman.

"Also, we must understand that following our Prime Minister, US President Donald Trump is also coming to Davos with his 'America First' policy and he is coming after cutting corporate tax rates and after making big corporate bring back jobs and profits to America," Kotak

Spicejet CEO Ajay Singh, who turned around the budget carrier Spicejet, said India has a real terrific story to tell in Davos and there can be no one better than Prime Minister Modi to tell this story.

"There have been very significant reforms including GST which have been in-waiting for so many years. There are also developments like bankruptcy law, digitisation and formalisation of the economy on a fast track basis, 42-place jump on ease of doing business index, etc," he said.

"There is a good story on all economic parameters and of course there is the larger story also of 1.4 billion people, of a young population and of a massive market," Singh said.

Chanda Kochhar of ICICI Bank said Indian economy is seeing broad-based improvement across several sectors and is on track for a robust growth that can be tapped by one and all.

Kochhar said Indian economy is seeing broad-based improvement across all sectors and should clock 7 per cent growth in the second half of the current fiscal.

She also said reforms have fast tracked the process of digitisation and formalisation of Indian economy and the country is on track to again attain the fastest growth rate in the world.

Singh said he and all other Indian CEOs are already seeing overflowing meeting requests and there is certainly a lot of interest about India this time.

PM Modi will also host a dinner for global CEOs today. On Tuesday, he will interact with global business community members, besides delivering his keynote address.

In a series of tweets with 'IndiaMeansBusiness' hashtag, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier said, "At Davos, I look forward to sharing my vision for India's future engagement with the international community."
Prime Minister Modi's vision for the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2018 includes promotion of his one of the key flagship programmes - Make in India. Experts say the Prime Minister is likely to echo his 2014 Independence Day speech and hard sell India's key economic reforms and quick jump in World Bank's Ease of Doing Business rankings to invite global business players to come and 'Make in India'. Davos will see over 2000 CEOs from top global companies, 70 heads of state and 45 heads of international organisations attend the event.

PM Narendra Modi will deliver his maiden keynote address at the WEF, a global platform where world's top political and business leaders gather and deliberate on key economic agenda. Prime Minister Modi is leading the largest Indian contingent of over 100 delegates to this year's WEF summit. Ahead of the WEF address, Prime Minister in a tweet said: "At Davos, I look forward to sharing my vision for India's future engagement with the international community."

Ever since the Prime Minister took over, he has been pushing hard to make India the world's next manufacturing hub. He announced Make in India programme within days of assuming charge at South Block. In his first Independence Day speech in 2014, PM Modi called the global companies to 'Come and manufacture in India'. He said: "Sell in any country of the world but manufacture here. We have got skill, talent, discipline, and determination to do something. We want to give the world an favourable opportunity that come here, 'Come, Make in India' and we will say to the world, from electrical to electronics, 'Come, Make in India', from automobiles to agro value addition 'Come, Make in India', paper or plastic, 'Come, Make in India', satellite or submarine Come and Make in India."

PM Modi not only invited the business leaders to invest in India but also removed redundant laws to make sure interested companies get smooth clearance for their projects. Following which, India has jumped 41 position in World Bank's Ease of Doing Business rankings. Last year in November, India jumped 30 positions to become the top 100th country in terms of ease of doing business ranking. The World Bank in its report recognized India's reform efforts by stating that the country is one of the top 10 improvers in this year's assessment, having implemented reforms in 8 out of 10 Doing Business indicators.

This has also resulted in a jump in foreign investment. Till may last year, India received USD 60.08 billion as Foreign Direct Investment in the last three years. Ministry of Commerce and Industry report showed that in FY 2016-17, India received USD 60.08 billion FDI, which was around USD 5 billion more than the record USD 55.6 billion recorded in 2015-16.

The Prime Minister will also host a round table dinner for 60 top CEOs, including 20 from India. Airbus, Hitachi, BAE Systems and IBM CEOs will be part of the meet. He will also have an interaction with 120 members of the investor community to hard-sell India's business friendly environment. Apart from holding meetings with business leaders, Prime Minister Modi will also hold bilateral talks with the President of Swiss Confederation, Alain Berset and Prime Minister of Sweden H.E. Stefan Lofven. He will also address the International Business Council.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's maiden visit to the World Economic Forums Annual Meeting 2018 in Davos carries great significance in terms business opportunities. PM Modi will spread the word about India's progress and seek investment on the lines of India's 'Make in India' agenda. Take a look at 15 most important highlights of the world's biggest gathering.

1. Giant billboards of Prime Minister Narendra Modi - only Indian PM to attend the event after former PM HD Deve Gowda post 1997 - have already appeared in the resort town of Swiss alps town of Davos.



2. India will also host a welcome reception for the WEF members. Around 1,500 people who're expected to attend the event would get a taste of Indian cuisine, culture and heritage.

3. PM Modi will address the opening plenary session of the WEF in Davos on January 23. It will set the tone of the mega annual event, which is likely to host over 2,000 rich and powerful people from 190 countries.

4. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his visit to the WEF, will stress on structural reforms carried out by his government to show India is ready for the world to accept it as a major investment destination.

5. PM Modi will also have a bilateral meeting with Swiss President Alain Berset. Two leaders are expected to talk about mutual participation and commitment towards global initiatives.

6. Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, says the PM will also host a round table dinner on January 22 for 60 top CEOs, including 20 from India; Airbus, Hitachi, BAE Systems and IBM CEOs will be part of the meet.

7. Prime Minister Modi will also have an interaction with 120 members of the investor community at the WEF on January 23.

8. PM Modi will discuss India's investment readiness with giants like General Motors, Salesforce and Royal Dutch Shell, Nestle and JP Morgan.

9. Besides PM Narendra Modi, six Union Ministers - Arun Jaitley, Suresh Prabhu, Dharmendra Pradhan, Piyush Goyal, Jitendra Singh, MJ Akbar - will address several sessions during the four-day event.

10. Suresh Parbhu will have nine sessions, Dharmendra Pradhan five, Piyush Goyal (10), Jitendra Singh (three) and M J Akbar (two).

11. The five-day WEF Annual Meeting beginning on January 22 will host government heads, global organisations, and nearly 2,000 CEOs from top companies of the world. Around 400 sessions will be held.

12. This year's WEF - focused on theme 'Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World' - will see largest ever women participation (21 per cent).

13. Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan will be honoured with Crystal Award alongside Cate Blanchett and Elton John

14. Shahrukh Khan will also hold a session on 'women empowerment' and its significance for India.

15. The WEF will be chaired exclusively by women members, including IMF director Christine Lagarde and Mann Deshi Mahila Sahkari Foundation founder from India Chetna Sinha, Norwegian PM Erna Solberg, IBM chief Ginni Rometty, ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow, CERN Director-General Fabiola Gianotti and ENGIE Chief Executive Isabelle Kocher.
As news of what the world and business leaders are going to do in the World Economic Forum, held in the small Swiss ski-town of Davos, emerges, there is one name that many may not have anticipated to see in the list of attendees - Shah Rukh Khan. What is the superstar doing in the midst of all the political, business and world leaders?

To begin with, the superstar is being awarded with the 24th Annual Crystal Awards, as part of the 48th World Economic Forum. The other awardees are Cate Blanchett and Elton John. Shah Rukh Khan will be receiving this award for his work towards women and children's rights in India.

Shah Rukh Khan will also address a session called An Insight, an Idea with Shah Rukh Khan. The actor will be addressing issues of women empowerment in that session as well.

But as of now, the superstar seems to be battling the Swiss winter! Shah Rukh Khan who is already in Davos, took to Instagram to post and update his fans about the cold there. "Bhai Sahib kaafi thand hai!!! Hope to find some love & friendship to keep me warm here. Thank u @worldeconomicforum for the honour & having me over," he wrote.

While the superstar might not be a regular at the WEF, but who can deny that with Shah Rukh Khan in the meeting, it is only bound to be more eventful.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) was established as a not-for-profit foundation in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1971. The organization aims to improve the world through public-private cooperation by engaging the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global agendas. Not tied to any special interests, the forum strives to demonstrate entrepreneurship in the global public interest while upholding the highest standards of governance.

Since the global event is held in the Alpine resort town of Davos, the event is colloquially called Davos. The forum holds four major annual meetings in a year. Around 3,000 delegates from over 120 countries will attend this year's event that aims to rededicate leaders to developing a 'shared narrative to create a shared future in a fractured world'.

How does forum work?

Through meetings, the WEF gives participants opportunity to discuss global issues. The forum has built world-class research capabilities, producing cutting-edge data on some of the world's most significant issues like competitiveness, gender parity and global information technology. The programme, initiatives and projects of the meeting are focused on creating a shared future. This year's WEF has all-female list of co-chairs -IMF chief Christine Lagarde, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty; Norway's PM Erna Solberg, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) general secretary (Belgium) Sharan Burrow; Fabiola Gianotti, director general of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva; Isabelle Kocher, CEO of ENGIE Group; and Chetna Sinha, founder and president of Mann Deshi Mahila Bank and Mann Deshi Foundation in India.



Why WEF is important for India?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi would lead the largest Indian contingent of over 100 delegates to Switzerland during this year's four-day World Economic Forum. The Prime Minister will deliver a keynote address on January 23 before holding a bilateral meeting with Swiss Confederation president Alain Berset. According to Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum, India's unique demographic dividend, rising tide of entrepreneurial spirit, breakthrough innovations, and structural reforms have enhanced India's long-term economic outlook. He adds the time is right for India to amplify its global influence and accelerate the development of robust and resilient economic, social and political foundations.

From the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, demonetization to GST (Goods and Services Tax) and FDI, India has taken a series of steps to formalise the economy. For this, India has received positive feedback from international credit rating agencies like Moody's and S&P. On the global front, India has shown its commitment towards Paris Climate Deal. This year's World Economic Forum would provide a unique opportunity for Prime Minister Narendra Modi tell the world that India is ready to reap the benefits of its reforms process, and that foreign investors could also become a part of this process.
A manure overflow in the town of Venice impacted Salmon Creek earlier this month, but it was not seen in Cayuga Lake, nor did it affect residents' water supplies, according to state and local officials.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation said it was notified of a manure spill at 7:20 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 10, at Indian Field Road due to a mechanical failure in farm equipment.

David Galton, owner of Ridgecrest Dairy, said due to the cold weather that day, manure that was supposed to travel to a backup storage container overflowed when a pipe froze. The farm has since installed a preventative measure to contain the manure if it should freeze again, he added in a phone interview Monday.

Ridgecrest Dairy is a concentrated animal feeding operation. In New York that typically means a dairy farm with 300 or more cows.

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The DEC said approximately 2,000 gallons of manure was released onto the property, eventually entering a ditch at Gunn Road into Salmon Creek. DEC added that high stream flows diluted the manure, and none was observed from downstream bridges on Salmon Creek or in Cayuga Lake.

The DEC said Friday that it is still investigating.
India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are the talk of the town at the snow-covered Swiss resort town of Davos, where four-day annual mega event of the world's rich and powerful is taking place. From huge billboards of PM Modi on buildings to ad banners on buses promoting Indian companies - the country is ready to send a strong message of 'India means Business' or 'Make in India' at the world stage on Tuesday when the PM will speak at the plenary session of the World Economic Forum 2018 in Davos.

On the sidelines of the mega event, Mahindra and Mahindra Chairman Anand Mahindra sat with India Today Managing Editor Rahul Kanwal and Business Today.in Editor Rajeev Dubey to talk about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's agenda for his keynote address, and the overall role India is playing at the world stage.

On asking about Prime Minister Modi's vision for his Davos address, Anand Mahindra said: "I think he has recognised the WEF is today's one-stop-destination to put forward your vision, which I presume is going to be Prime Minister Modi's vision too. In essence, he is here to tell the world his 'Mann Ki Baat'."

Mahindra was also asked about Prime Minister Modi's "offensive" against criticism over structural reforms - carried out by the Narendra Modi government - after India's ranking on 'ease of doing business' took a sharp jump. "These are the initiative carried out with good intention. So he does not need to be apologetic. And I think his timing - decision to visit Davos to address the world's who's who at the WEF - is perfect that shows India is ready to play a big role."

For the first time ever, India has jumped 30 positions to become the top 100th country in terms of ease of doing business ranking. This was announced by the World Bank Group's latest 'Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs' report in Delhi on October 2017. The World Bank attributed the change in India ranking to the sustained business reforms it had undertaken ever since the Modi government took charge.

Anand Mahindra was also asked what role India could play in - as the WEF 2018 theme goes - 'Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World', to which he said India, being the most pluralistic country in the world, could showcase the world how finding solutions to its problems could address the entire world's problems. "India itself has a fractured society, which is a classical example of every kind of division. I think all the solution to the world's fractures lie in India."

India's neighbouring country China's strong pitch for free trade at the World Economic Forum in Davos last year was considered as China'a desire to play a greater global role. Is India considered in the same league? "India is in the same league but we still have miles to go. However, the world needs to see India's growth story," he said.

On talking points at the forum, Mahindra said the discussion - instead of focusing on core tech - would be "intermingling of ideas" at one stage, which "you don't see anywhere in the world".
IRA  The Cayuga County Sheriff's Office held a snowmobile safety course at the Ira Fire Department on Sunday to help local children get their New York state snowmobile safety certificates.

The main thing we always try to stress (in the course) is to slow down, operate at safe speeds, and to stay on the trails, Cpl. Glen Dudley said.

Most frequently, accidents involve someone on a trail losing control due to ice or high speeds and then going off the trail and striking another object, like a tree, Dudley said. He added that accidents are also far more likely to take place when off the trails.

On a trail you should be in pretty good shape.

Accidents in Cayuga County are not very common, but not unheard of, Dudley said.

The more education people have is always a good thing and can reduce accidents and injuries.

All youth ages 10 through 13 are required by the state to complete safety training to operate a snowmobile beyond the boundaries of their own land, and those ages 14 through 17 need safety training in order to operate a snowmobile without adult supervision.
This is a key housing market to follow since Phoenix saw a large bubble / bust followed by strong investor buying.



The Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service (ARMLS) reports (table below):



1) Overall sales in December were up 0.7% year-over-year (including homes, condos and manufactured homes).



2) Active inventory is now down 12.6% year-over-year.



More inventory (a theme in most of 2014) - and less investor buying - suggested price increases would slow in 2014. And prices increases did slow in 2014, only increasing 2.4% according to Case-Shiller.



In 2015, with falling inventory, prices increased a little faster. Prices were up 6.3% in 2015 according to Case-Shiller.



With flat inventory in 2016, prices were up 4.8%.



This is the fourteenth consecutive month with a YoY decrease in inventory, and prices are rising a little faster in 2017 (4.9% through October or 5.9% annual rate).





December Residential Sales and Inventory, Greater Phoenix Area, ARMLS Sales YoY

Change

Sales Cash

Sales Percent

Cash Active

Inventory YoY

Change

Inventory Dec-08 5,524 --- 1,665 30.1% 53,7921 --- Dec-09 7,661 38.7% 3,008 39.3% 39,709 -26.2%1 Dec-10 8,401 9.7% 3,939 46.9% 42,463 6.9% Dec-11 7,843 -6.6% 3,635 46.3% 24,712 -41.8% Dec-12 7,071 -9.8% 3,211 45.4% 21,095 -14.6% Dec-13 5,930 -16.1% 2,053 34.6% 25,511 20.9% Dec-14 6,475 9.2% 1,893 29.2% 25,052 -1.8% Dec-15 6,756 4.3% 1,617 23.9% 23,053 -8.0% Dec-16 7,154 5.9% 1,655 23.1% 22,388 -2.9% Dec-17 7,204 0.7% 1,626 22.6% 19,570 -12.6% 1 December 2008 probably includes pending listings
CAMEROUN :: Man no Run: Making the Dream come True :: CAMEROON

Senior minister, Marafa Hamidou Yaya's new letter to Cameroonians: "Making 2018 a useful year for Cameroon ... began with his usual understatement that some want to push me out from the political debate." Senior minister Hamidou Yaya is undoubtedly referring to the Sun Tzuesque approach of Mr. Paul Biya to clear the political field from any credible political alternative for his unproductive and crumbling regime of the past 35 years.

Indeed, Senior minister, Marafa Hamidou Yaya, curriculum vitae, integrity and experience are impeccable. He was Secretary-General to the Presidency of Cameroon and Senior Minister for Territorial Administration and Decentralization of Cameroon (2002-2011). He is now arbitrarily detained in Biyas dungeon during the past five (05) years in total violation of the United Nations Human Right Conventions and opinion. It is without a doubt that senior minister Marafas sacrifice is due to the knowledge that he is considered the most credible and feared potential successor to the dictator of Yaounde.

Let us be honest for once. No normal ordinary Cameroonians or human being, for that matter, liked how the Biyas regime treats its citizens but have just ignored it over the years to stay out of trouble. But, the drastic failure of the Biyas regime has now got to a point where, even an apparatchik of the Biyas regime, recognizes the needs to start looking at Cameroon as one of these shithole countries that Trump referred to, in that this is how the country actually treats its citizens and how those in power use that power.

To be honest once more, we are not even sure how Biya thinks he can get us out of this mess, or even if he actually really want to?

Let's not forget, being born Cameroonian is a blessing and a curse. For the majority, life will start and end with nothing and in between you will have nothing. As senior minister Marafa points out, the unemployment rate for young Cameroonians is over 50%. So, it is not about having a dystopian attitude, chances for ordinary Cameroonians at being successful remain nil.

The best chance of Cameroon had in a century or more to become emancipated was wasted. Why? It's not that ordinary Cameroonians lacked guts. Sadly, many of us had the instincts and intellect to realize that resistance was useless, you can't give it to the man, even when you are the man.

Hence, the distinctive features of our spiritual blackout are threefold:

- First, we normalize mendacity and naturalize criminality. We make our lies look like the normal order of things. And we make our crimes look like the natural order of things.

- Second, we encourage callousness and reward indifference. We make mean-spiritedness look manly and mature. And we make cold-heartedness look triumphant and victorious.

- Third, the soul. When you think about human freedom from the perspective of the soul, the soul yearns for limitless freedom and justice, not just in one isolated spot but throughout human experience.

Therefore, no need to seek false 'leaders' who promise to save us from this 'swamp' of poverty and corruption and other dangers as these very 'leaders' rely on exaggerated images for their propaganda. The tactic of totalitarian systems is to stoke fear and simultaneously proclaim itself as savior to its enthralled and brain washed followers. Any criticism by their democratic host societies which by the very nature of their openness allowed their rise in the first instance they will twist into presenting themselves as 'victims' and thus incite further outrage amongst their followers.

Hence, ordinary Cameroonians need to demand more from our election process. We understand that with our pay to play that is so corrupt that many voters are demoralized. The changes needed for the betterment and uplift of society must come from ordinary Cameroonians alone and not career politicians of the CPDM.

The concept of Man no Run serves as the tangible validation for one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s favorite sayings  "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice"  that needs to come in the form of millions of ordinary Cameroonians to honor that civil rights activist's life and vision, all defiantly hopeful, yet with a unanimous understanding that a just outcome is never guaranteed, but rather dependent upon the persistent work of all humans united despite any perceived differences. How people  as individuals, members of a diverse but in many ways still disparate Cameroonian community, and the larger global village  can continue contributing to the achievement of Dr. King's dream. Hence, we all need a spirit of unity, everybody coming together for our democracy and civil rights. Everyone has their own battle to fight, and unless we lock arms and join forces [on issues], were going to continue to crumble.
| BY Ricki Green |

AdFest has announced that Derry Simpson, group managing director of 303 MullenLowe in Perth, will be jury president of Media Lotus and Effective Lotus at AdFest 2018.

One of Australias most credentialed planners, Simpsons passion for effectiveness has seen 303 MullenLowe win multiple Grand Prix Effies across the region, making it Western Australias most awarded agency for effectiveness.

Says Simpson: As someone who gets a kick out of building effective solutions and creating ideas that work, its an honour to be leading the Media and Effective jury at AdFest 2018. I know the calibre of entries will be very strong and I cant wait to see which brands and agencies are setting the bar highest in our region.

Perth born and bred, Simpson joined 303 as head of strategy and planning in 2009, strengthening the agencys vision to Do work that matters. Today, 303 MullenLowe positively impacts a huge number of West Australian lives every day and is considered one of the top communications agencies in Australia.

In addition to her role as group managing director of 303 MullenLowe, Simpson is also an Executive Board member of Awesome Arts, a not-for-profit contemporary arts company for young people, and sits on the board of MullenLowes FRANK About Women global think tank.

Simpson was also a finalist in the 2017 Telstra Business Womens Awards, which celebrate the achievements of extraordinary businesswomen in Australia.

Says Jimmy Lam, president of AdFest: Derry belongs to a rare breed of strategists who discovers the little human truths that help build truly effective solutions. It seems to come naturally to her, so were very happy she has agreed to lead our Media and Effective jury next year.
| BY Ricki Green |

Apia takes a look at the real-life, relatable moments over 50s experience with its new campaign via DDB Group Melbourne.

For 30 years Apia has been designing products and services for Australians over 50. This new Home Insurance, Health Insurance and Multi-Policy Discounts campaign aims to speak to people in a way thats refreshing, relatable and humorous.

Says Travis Hughes, manager marketing, Apia: Apia is in a unique space having a very set target market, which allows us to explore the moments and attitudes that matter to this audience without trying to relate to everyone. We look forward to expanding on this campaign in the future.

Says Stuart Turner, executive creative director, DDB Group Melbourne: We believe this work is a step in the right direction for a category that has historically been misunderstood and misprepresented.

By showing meaningful life stage moments our audience can connect with, like selling the family home or reviewing their health insurance, these spots speak to culture and look to build feeling  both of which are at the heart of everything we do here at DDB Group Melbourne.

Agency: DDB Group Melbourne

Group Managing Director: Kate Sterling

Executive Creative Director: Stu Turner

Executive Planning Director: Ian Forth

Creative Director: Murray Bransgrove

Copywriter: Bec Griffiths

Senior Business Director: Luke Osborn

Production Company: The Producers

Director/DoP: Mitch Kennedy

Producer: Victoria Conners

Post Production: Manimal Post

Editor: Michael Houlihan

Colourist: Martin Greer

Online: Ryan Brett

Audio Production: Front of House

Client: Apia

Tim Hernadi: Head of Brand Marketing

Travis Hughes: Manager, Apia Marketing

Potta Findikidis: Manager, Product Marketing
| BY Lynchy |

Publicis Groupe today announced that New York based Aussie expat Nick Law has been hired as Chief Creative Officer of Publicis Groupe and President of Publicis Communications.

As one of the industrys most progressive creative leaders, the choice of Nick Law signals Publicis on-going commitment to creativity and technology at the service of marketing and business transformation.

As President of Publicis Communications, he will be charged with developing a unified creative ethos that helps foster strong, dynamic and diverse cultures across the spectrum of the Groupes creative brands, namely Leo Burnett, Saatchi and Saatchi, Publicis Worldwide, BBH, Fallon and Marcel.

The new role is due to start in May 2018, ahead of the Groupes Viva Technology conference. He will join the Executive Committee and report directly to Arthur Sadoun, Chairman & CEO of Publicis Groupe. According to reports, Mark Tutssel will retain his role as Publicis Communications creative council.

Laws mission will be to take the Groupes creative performance to the next level; leveraging, curating and nurturing the full spectrum of creative talent, harnessing the power of data and technology to deliver the best creative solutions to their clients, brands and businesses. He will also play a key role in shaping and accelerating the Groupes transformation to a platform that connects, empowers and unleashes the creative potential of each and every Publicis employee. He will have the reach and authority over the entire Groupe creative community in a seamless way.

Says Sadoun: Nick is a true unicorn in our industry. Throughout his career, he has delivered world-class work that builds on what we believe all our clients need: the alchemy of creativity and tech. This modernity in ideas, combined with his obvious leadership skills, make Nick the perfect person to play such a pivotal role in our Groupe. His partnership will be a game-changer in our journey to lead the change in our industry.

Since joining R/GA in 2001, Law has worked with clients such as Nike, Beats by Dre, Samsung, HBO, Johnson & Johnson, IBM, and Google. During his tenure, R/GA has become one of the most awarded agencies in the world, winning every major creative accolade, including four Cannes Lion Grand Prix awards, a D&AD Black Pencil, and a GRANDY; and Adweek named R/GA Digital Agency of the Decade and Nike+ as Campaign of the Decade.

For over a decade, Law has led the development of many of R/GAs most innovative projects, including Nike+ Running, Nike+ FuelBand, and Beats Music for Beats by Dre. He has also sponsored the creation of cutting-edge R/GA capabilities such as the Prototype Studio and the hugely successful R/GA Accelerator.

Law has been on every major award show jury (including being named Jury President for the Cannes Innovation Lions) and has twice been named in the Creativity 50, a list of the worlds most influential creative people. He is recognized as an industry thought leader and has been published globally.

Beginning his career as a designer in Sydney, Law continued as an advertising art director in London, and transitioned to digital in the late 90s after moving to New York.
| BY Ricki Green |

Lynx has today launched the campaign via Emotive for its newest fragrance, Lynx Australia, with a light-hearted creative which reignites the friendly rivalry between Australia and New Zealand, fuelled on by the inclusion of one of New Zealands national treasures.

The lead film stars New Zealands acclaimed Julian Dennison (of Hunt for the Wilderpeople fame) as a young Kiwi guy who is in awe of his older brother and his many talents, including his ability to talk confidently to girls.

In search of his secret, the young Kiwi approaches his brother and is surprised to discover that it all comes down to being yourself and wearing the fragrance of the rival nation, Lynx Australia.

Says Zane Pearson, director, Emotive: Our aim was to stay true to the fantastic Lynx campaigns of the past and maintain the trademark irreverent humour, yet shift the focus to a more story driven and relatable space, in line with the evolution of the brand.

Defining Australia for a contemporary and diverse Australian audience was the great challenge of the brief, so our approach was to avoid this by placing the focus on the friendly trans-Tasman rivalry with our Kiwi neighbours and, in so doing, elevate broader notions of confidence and success that LYNX is renowned for.

From Sunday, 21 January to Sunday, 25 February, the campaign will run across television, cinema, digital and social, supported by a public relations campaign.

The creative, the first collaboration between Emotive and Unilever, sees Lynx embracing the brands legacy in humour and attraction.

Says John Mckeon, marketing director, personal care, Unilever: We wanted to use our brands heritage in humour and attraction to create something cheeky that highlights our countrys charm as well as the brands personality. Attraction is part of our DNA, and we want anyone who uses Lynx Australia (even the kiwis) to feel attractive and confidentto find their own magic.

This launch comes off the back of a successful partnership with Movember, where sales of the limited edition Movember Lynx cans reached no.2 body spray in the male grooming category and Lynx donated $165,000 to the Movember foundation. Lynxremains the number one grooming brand globally.

The product was released on November 2017 and is available in supermarkets and pharmacies nationwide.

Client  Unilever

John Mckeon  Unilever Marketing Director, Personal Care

Kristy Rutherford  Male Grooming Marketing Manager

Kate Westgate  LYNX Brand Lead

Creative, Production & Amplification  Emotive

Simon Joyce  CEO

Marshall Campbell  Business Director

Lucielle Vardy & John Principe  Strategists

Andrew Cameron  Creative Director

Zane Pearson  Director

Alistair Pratten  Senior Producer

James Brown  DOP

Uthayan Selvaraj  Editor

Jamie Crick  Amplification

Media Agency  PHD
| BY Ricki Green |

Photoplay director Jasmin Tarasin is inviting audiences to take a trip through the inner workings of the mind in Ghost Train her latest artistic collaboration, a multi-sensory VR project set to feature at this years Sydney Festival.

Working alongside co-creative director, Jonnine Standish and Melbourne VR artists, Joe Hamilton and Patrick Hamilton, with a music score by Mika Vainio and HTRK, this world premiere season of Ghost Train is a uniquely immersive combination of VR, narrative adventure film, ethereal images and haunting music packaged into a traditional ghost train carnival ride.

The VR journey travels through rooms of the mind and finishes with a choose your own adventure story that takes visitors to either purgatory or bliss. From the moment you step into the physical train carriage and put on the Samsung Gear VR Headset, you are transported into a world that explores the theme of self-displacement and how in the blink of an eye, you can make a decision that can affect the rest of your life.

Says Tarasin: Jonnine and I wanted to explore a ghost train of the mind, a psychological journey that maps out how the mind works and how we make choices, so the imagery your eye focuses on, and the directions you choose to look, will make decisions on the actual course of the train ride itself.

Instead of using the 360-camera, often employed in VR, Tarasin alongside DOP Katie Milwright, worked with the RED camera to map out the storyboards and to ensure the project had the same cinematic aesthetic that influences her commercial film work.

The first original VR concept of its kind to be developed in Australia, produced by Liza McLean, Ghost Train provides an opportunity to showcase the works of numerous artists in a unique multi-platform project. It marks the second multi-scale installation that Tarasin has delivered for Sydney Festival. Her first installation Live (2011) explored the art of performance and featured musicians including Juliette Lewis, Jarvis Cocker, and Martha and Rufus Wainwright.

Says Oliver Lawrance, executive producer, Photoplay: Jasmin is a truly interdisciplinary artist, just as comfortable with interactive platforms as film direction. She has a strong vision within which her art and commercial work both thrive and we are super pleased to see her talents come together in this highly immersive project.

Photoplay has 20 complimentary tickets for any agency creatives or producers whod like to attend Ghost Train at the Sydney Festival, just email Oliver Lawrance EP on oliver@photoplay.co.

Creative Directors: Jonnine Standish & Jasmin Tarasin

Music: Mika Vainio & HTRK

VR Artists: Patrick Hamilton & Joe Hamilton

Technical Production: Richard Dinnen & Matt Scott

Producer: Liza McLean

Technology: Samsung & OptiTrack

Costume Design: Michelle Boyde (Unconscious Collective)

Concept Technical Advisor: Nimrod Weiss  Eness

DOP: Katie Milwright & Sky Davies

Hair & Makeup: Nadja Mott

Logo Design: Manuel Burger

Underwater Dress: Bianca Spender

Underwear: Baserange Casting: Folk Collective
| BY Lynchy |

By Mark Ritson

Its mid-January, temperatures are peaking and barbies are out in force. January 26 approaches and around the nation an annual debate once again takes hold.

Actually, its two debates. For regular consumers there is much discussion about the appropriateness and legitimacy of holding Australia Day on January 26. I will leave that one to the cultural commentators elsewhere in this and other newspapers. For marketing and media people the debate focuses on Meat and Livestock Australia and their annual summer lamb campaign.

For fifteen years the MLA has been using Australia Day and the cultural associations that surround it to promote lamb. From Sam Kekovichs Lambassador to the contentious 2017 ad showing various gods and deities feasting together, no other campaign generates more discussion and debate within the marketing community.

This years edition is certainly no exception. The new campaign, launched with a flurry of publicity on January 11, features a West Side story style musical extravaganza in which warring political neighbours and their contrasting left and right-wing views are united by the prospect of lamb on the barbie.
| BY Ricki Green |

A new TVC for Sanitariums Up&Go products will be airing in both Australia and New Zealand for the first time this month. The 30 spot has been created by DDB NZ, as part of a wider campaign to drive reappraisal of Up&Go as a source of the right type of energy.

This is the first piece of work DDB NZ has created for Up&Go, since securing the Trans-Tasman business in October last year.

The campaign recognises that the world is becoming faster and more demanding, and that people need the right type of energy to keep pace. It calls on consumers to reassess what they know about Up&Go, demonstrating how its products provide the energy required to tackle everyday challenges with ease. The spot uses humour to drive this message home, encouraging its audience to consider Up&Go in a light-hearted, non-judgmental style.

As well as a 30 and 15 TVC spot, the campaign consists of out of home, radio and online video.

Says Jessica Manihera, Trans-Tasman marketing manager for Sanitarium: Few people realise that not all energy is equal. Most people gravitate towards energy sources that dont deliver much in the way of nutrition.

Up&Go products are low GI, and with their combination of protein, fibre and essential vitamins and minerals make it the right type of energy. We wanted a campaign that demonstrates the benefit of our products to consumers, and have been delighted with DDBs approach.

Says Damon Stapleton, chief creative officer at DDB Group New Zealand: The right type of energy is the first piece of work we have produced for Up&Go since starting work for the Trans-Tasman business in October 2017. By putting the spotlight on a universal, everyday moment, I think weve struck a great humourous note and hope this resonates with both Aussies and Kiwis.

Jessica Manihera, Trans-Tasman Marketing Manager

Jaemes Tipple, Senior Brand Manager  UP&GO

Rebekah Lagan, Brand Manager  UP&GO, Australia

Kurtis Geering, Brand Manager  UP&GO, NZ

Sharon Green, Advertising Manager, Australia

Ashleigh Conroy, Marketing Assistant

Agency: DDB New Zealand

Production Company: Eight

Executive Producer: Daniel Higgins

Director: Miki Magisiva

DOP: Marty Williams

Post Production Company: Eight

Post production online: Toy Box

Editor: Alex OShaughnessy
| BY Ricki Green |

Multi award-winning industry creative Pete Galmes has joined We Are Social in the new role of creative director in Sydney.

Says Phil Shearer, executive creative director, We Are Social: Its great to have Pete around. Hes consistently done some of the better work coming out of Australia and the fact that hes joining us means we must be doing something right as well.

Says Galmes: For me, the opportunity to run creative work in the social sphere for industry leader We Are Social was a major drawcard.

Galmes has helped build the social, digital and integrated offering for all the agencies he has worked at. These have included R/GA, Special Group, DDB Sydney Group and TBWA. He has won awards for work on the Sydney Opera House, Volkswagen, M. J. Bale, NRMA, Skoda and McDonalds.
ABCNews.com(TULSA, Okla.) -- Four years after Nikita Nash was forced to part with her dying baby, she remarkably heard his heartbeat again in the body of another child.



Nash lost her son Lucas in 2014 when he was only 6 months old.



Incredibly, after the anguish and heartbreak, Nash flew to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and heard a sound she remembered: Lucas's heartbeat.



His heart had been transplanted into a 3-month-old boy named Kolton Carter, who had been diagnosed with a slew of heart defects.



When Nash heard the beats, it was sublime.



"That is an indescribable feeling," she said. "It sounded like it did when I was pregnant with Lucas."



The heart transplant united two mothers with a special kind of bond.



Kolton's mother, Jenney Carter, expressed to Nash how grateful she was now that her son can live on.



Nash said of Carter: "She wrote, 'From the bottom of your sweet angel's heart that beats inside my son's chest, we thank you.'"

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Chinese entrants in intelligent driving domain

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- In the past 2017, the fervor towards intelligent vehicle area seemed to be cooled to some degree. However, there were still several intelligent vehicle-related startups being built last year. Besides, some e-commerce or smart phone giants in China, such as Jingdong, Xiaomi and Suning, etc, still had movements in this field. Let's count those entrants in intelligent-connected vehicle area and see what actions they did in 2017.



JD. com



In fact, as early as 2016, Chinese online retailer JD.com had established a division focusing on R&D in logistics field. One of the future trends for the division is to develop autonomous vehicles. Specifically, it is committed to exploring solutions for delivering goods using autonomous vehicles in urban areas. Until August, 2017, JD.com's first autonomous van came to earth.

In September last year, it was reported that JD.com launched an autonomous light van EV80 under the cooperation with SAIC-Maxus. This was the first autonomous van products in China's e-commerce and logistics field. Also, the van had been tested on certain roads approved by relevant governmental departments. EV80 autonomous light van is equipped with radar, sensors, high precision map and positioning system. It can recognize obstacles from 150 meters away, and then replan its route. Meanwhile, the front camera can perceive signal lights.

In addition, JD.com also teamed up with Dongfeng Motor technical center and corporately launched Dongfeng electric autonomous light van.

On December 6 last year, JD.com's autonomous vehicle industrial base, with a planned investment of over RMB 10 billion, was officially located in Changsha, Hunan Province. This project would be devoted to plentiful businesses relevant to autonomous vehicles, such as R&D, testing and staff training, etc, and development of other AI products. At present, JD.com's autonomous vehicles have evolved to the third-generation and will be launched the fourth generation in 2018.

Xiaomi



Just like Huawei, there are also many rumors saying that Xiaomi will march into auto area. In July, 2015, some news revealed that Xiaomi had applied for the registration of some vehicle-related technologies which deepened the speculation about Xiaomi's vehicle-making plan.

In July last year, a source said Xiaomi had entered a strategic partnership with Beijing Automotive Industry Corp (BAIC) and their cooperation was about the intelligent driving. According to some people close to this matter, on that day, BAIC's president Xu Heyi and other senior executives, accompanied by Xiaomi's CEO Lei Jun, visited one of Xiaomi's customer service center in Beijing. During this visit, Lei Jun had introduced and showed Xiaomi's whole series of products, especially some vehicle-related products. All of these moves may hint Xiaomi's ambition in auto field.



In addition, the China's electric startup Xpeng Motors announced that Xiaomi is one of Xpeng Motors' investors in its latest round of financing.

Meanwhile, Xiaomi is also a model that many vehicle startups learn from. For example, Singulato Motors had expressed several times that it intends to learn Xiaomi's operation mode in smart phone field and applies it to vehicle-making area. If Singulato Motors' idea could be realized, therefore, it is possible for Xiaomi to get success in auto industry as it succeeds in mobile phone area.

Huawei



Strictly speaking, Huawei is not an entrant in auto area. As early as 2013, Huawei had showcased several solutions and products of Internet of Vehicle (IoV) at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona of Spain, including the factory-installed vehicle-borne hotspot DA6810, automotive online diagnostic system DA3100 and 3G/4G communication modules conforming to vehicle standards, etc.

After that, Huawei formed partnerships with Dongfeng Motor and Changan Automobile in areas of IoV and intelligent vehicles. In the meantime, Huawei is devoted to promoting 5G technology and LTE-V2X's commercial use. For instance, it cooperated with Vodafone Group to test 5G technologies. Besides, it joined a 5G auto alliance with many other enterprises, such as Audi, BMW, Nokia, etc.

The rumor about Huawei making vehicles was once fueled and it was even exposed that "Huawei has tested its driverless vehicles in UK". Besides, it built cooperative relationships with some automakers like GAC Group, BAIC Group and Groupe PSA, etc, which futhur intimated Huawei's vehicle-making plan.

However, Huawei has told the public many times that it concentrates on IoV other than making vehicles. In the future, it will continue to promote the development of IoV technologies on basis of cloud-network synergy and device-cloud synergy.

Suning



As a China's leading on-line retailer, Suning's connection with intelligent vehicle can be traced back to its cooperation with Byton, a brand of Chinese vehicle startup FMC.

On October 24 last year, some BYTON's senior executives visited Suning. The two sides reached a consensus on further cooperation in the future. They had a vision to integrate Suning's channel advantages in Internet business with the design and promotion of Byton's intelligent vehicles. For instance, they planned to implant Suning's apps to BYTON Life, an in-vehicle operating system of BYTON's intelligent vehicles. For Suning, the cooperation with BYTON means that Suning officially entered the field of Internet smart vehicle.



In July last year, Suning opened its first auto supermarket in Xinjiekou, Nanjing. Then, in December, 2017, Suning announced that Suning.com Auto Company was established. Besides, Suning plans to open 20 automobile supermarkets in 2018, 40 stores in 2019 and 2020 respectively. By the end of 2020, the cumulative number of auto supermarkets will exceed 100 around China.

JingChi

JingChi is a China's mobility company powered by artificial intelligence which is true of an entrant in intelligent driving area. Established in April, 2017, Jingchi was found by Baidu's former vice president Wang Jin. After less than 5 weeks, the startup announced that it had completed its first autonomous vehicle test in closed field. In June last year, Jingchi obtained the license of autonomous vehicle test in California. Just a few days after, Jingchi finished its first autonomous vehicle test on public roads in California. According to Wang Jin, the company plans to start trial operation of small-batch autonomous vehicles in several cities around China this year.

On September 26, Jingchi announced the completion of a combined $52 million Pre-A investment round from lead investor Qiming Venture ("Qiming"), strategic investor NVIDIA GPU Ventures, and a consortium of other investors.

Although Jingchi developed much more smoothly than other startups, it came across a big trouble last month. On December 22, 2017, Baidu appealed to Beijing Intellectual Property Court to prosecute Wang Jin and his company Jingchi for the infringement of commercial secrets. Wang Jin responded that Baidu's prosecution was totally untenable.



On December 28, 2017, Jingchi signed a contract with the local government of Huangpu District Development Zone in Guangzhou City to launch an autonomous driving project. In the meantime, the company announced that its global headquarter would be settled in Guangzhou Huangpu Development District and the core team, including R & D, operations and sales headquarters, would move from Silicon Valley in the United States to Guangzhou city, aiming to be the first company to achieve large-scale, commercial deployment of fully Level 4 autonomous vehicles in China.

HoloMatic



HoloMatic is a China's autonomous driving technology startup founded in August 2017 by Dr. Ni Kai, former senior scientist at Baidu and vice president at LeEco's autonomous driving unit.

HoloMatic thrives to deliver Level 3.5 production-ready autonomous driving functions. To be specific, The company is positioned to develop Level 4 automatic driving solutions, and then apply the technology as Level 3 system, which is under a higher security standard and is suitable for mass production at the same time.



Just one month after its foundation, HoloMatic revealed that it had already completed a $ 10 million level of angel financing which was invested by IDG Capital and Navinfo. Then, HoloMatic officially announced its strategic cooperation with Navinfo to jointly explore innovative autonomous driving services worldwide and develop high-precision map products.

In November last year, the startup unveiled Xuanyuan autonomous driving platform. According to the company, Xuanyuan is China's first autonomous driving platform spanning from hardware area to software area which supports the R&D of L2 to L5 autonomous driving systems. Besides, this platform is able to provide some basic autonomous driving abilities for production vehicles, such as a reliable vehicle manipulation of running, braking and changing gears.

Ni Kai also revealed that Xuanyuan platform was just a phased achievement. In the future, Holomatic will still be devoted to developing L3.5 autonomous driving technology and promote the mass production of this tech.

DeepMotion AI.



DeepMotion AI. is a China's autonomous driving startup co-founded by AI experts from Microsoft Research. Three of its four founders, Cai Rui (the CEO), Li Zhiwei (the CTO) and Yang Kuiyuan (the chief scientist) all had worked at Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA) for nearly 10 years.

According to relevant reports, the startup had raised a funding before its foundation. DeepMotion AI., focusing on the area of perceptual and positioning maps, designed a series of low cost solutions based on the integration of cameras with other sensors like GPS and IMU which endow autonomous vehicles with refined abilities of environment perception, high-precision mapping and localization.

The company also stated that it would like to provide its existing technical achievements for the companies who need them. Currently, DeepMotion AI. has contacted with some mapping companies and is expected to achieve the commercialization of these technologies in 2018.

DominantTech



Founded in 2016, DominantTech, a China's autonomous driving company, chose to start with developing short-range automatic parking technologies. The company considered that mature automatic parking technologies can help drivers be released from the tortures of parking. For parking lot operators, the application of automatic parking tech can save space and time for them. Besides, automatic parking technology has been evolved to a quite mature level and can be used in closed scenarios. Thus, it is relatively easy for the company to make profits from it.

Currently, DominantTech has already made a planning for short-range automatic parking development. It plans to achieve the mass production of the advanced parking assistance system 1.0 version in 2018. The fully automatic parking system 1.0 version is expected to be mass-produced in 2019 which will be applied in ground- and underground- scenarios. 2.0 version and 3.0 version of fully automatic parking system are forecasted to be mass-produced in 2020 and 2022 respectively. Especially, the 3.0 version will be applied in vehicles with L4 driverless functions.
| BY Lynchy |

Geometry Global Japan has appointed Andreas Mollmann as its Chief Strategy Officer/Head of Digital.

Mollmann (pictured left) joins GGJ from a Berlin-based creative agency antoni, where he was Head of Strategy and helped Mercedes-Benz transform from an auto brand to a mobility services provider. Prior to antoni, Mollmann managed strategy at BBDO, DDB, Saatchi & Saatchi as well as SapientNitro and Isobar on regional and global brands in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Amsterdam and London.

Ichiro Ota, CEO/Executive Manager of Geometry Global Japan, said, Andreas is a truly global professional and seasoned brand strategist at the intersection of business and marketing, creativity and technology. His work has been internationally recognized on effectiveness and creativity. Im looking forward to Andreas strategic expertise to create holistic experiences across digital and traditional channels for our clients.

Mollmann said, I am truly honored to join Geometry Global Japan. In times where products become ever more commoditized, the customer experience creates the premium and is thus paramount to business success  a culturally relevant, holistic, personalized, 24/7 journey leading to sales. Every experience journey has to have its pay-back  for the customer as well as for the brand. This seems to be particularly true for Japan.

I cant imagine to be at any better place than Geometry Global at the moment. Very few companies have the understanding and the capabilities to harness the opportunities of modern marketing. Geometry Globals DNA puts it at the forefront. I look forward to cultivating and growing these strengths together with the team.
| BY Kim Shaw |

IPG Mediabrands, the global media arm of Interpublic Group, has announced the appointment of Dr Grace Liu as the incoming CEO of Reprise, Mediabrands digital experience agency.

A highly respected international business leader, Dr Liu is most recently CEO of Isobar China and will be joining Reprise Australia at a date to be fixed in the near term.

Dr Liu has led Isobar Chinas development of highly-advanced, full-service digital marketing programs that encompass digital and social media, content, e-commerce, customer experience and digital creativity. Her more recent focus has been on helping clients achieve higher standards of optimisation in data and technology that drive high-performance campaigns.

Says Danny Bass, CEO, IPG Mediabrand: Graces acceptance of our offer to be CEO of Reprise Australia represents a step-change in our digital leadership and vision for the Reprise business, its clients and the broader Mediabrands group. She has some of the strongest credentials I have seen as a driver of engagement across digital channels and her skills will further energise our very successful Reprise business.

Prior to Isobar, Dr Liu was chief executive officer of Kantar TNS China where her focus was across cultural integration, implementation of new communications practises, corporate repositioning and business transformation focused on technology, social, mobile and big data programs.

Says Dr Liu: Mediabrands Australia has been through a massive transition in 2017. In meeting with the groups senior management, I have been so impressed by the focus on how client success is implemented and measured. Its an impressive operation and I am so keen to get started with the Reprise team. Watch this space.
| BY Lynchy |

Vicks, a brand synonymous with family are globally, has launched a heartwarming online video entitled Learning to Love #TouchOfCare, which reinforces the brands belief in the power of care. A single act of care not only has the capacity to transform lives, but can transcend social norms, definitions and stereotypes. Vicks believes that it is care that makes a family, and not the other way around. Thus, the film also endeavors to provoke conversations about what it means to be a family within contemporary society. This message is personified in a 4-minute online film inspired by the real-life story of an innocent child and his adoptive father, and how a loving touch of care is central to the transformation of both their lives.

Created by Publicis Singapore, the film reveals the story of a young man called Hernando and his journey of transformation when a hapless orphan enters his life, triggering a series of life-changing events that culminate in the creation of a very unusual and very caring new family. The film beautifully captures how Hernando cared for an abandoned baby as if he were his own, against all odds, and with deep compassion and love, and how their relationship and care for each other changed not just their own lives, but also the lives of those around them.

Maithreyi Jagannathan, Regional Associate Brand Director, P&G HealthCare Asia said, Vicks has always stood for care and the relief it provides from cold and cough by the gentle touch of our products. In this #touchofcare campaign we are elevating this brand idea and explaining how care can transform lives and the future of people who are not just connected by blood but end up being family through care itself.

Lipi Banerjee, Country Manager, P&G Vicks Philippines & Indonesia said, Vicks in the Philippines has a long history  mothers rely on Vicks to help them provide loving care to their families. Vicks believes that a touch of care can work wonders and with this campaign, we explore how a touch of care can build relationships and transform lives.

Ajay Thrivikraman, Publicis Singapore Chief Creative Officer, Global Clients commented, As we interrogated the nature of care, we realised that it is a more transformative and powerful force than even love. To care about someone or something is a conscious choice, and a simple one that we can all make, to touch lives and transform them. Hernandos story is all the inspiration we needed.

Sheron Dayoc, the films director added, To be cared for is a wonderful feeling, but the act of caring is also powerful because it can be transformative hands gently wiping away tears, a comforting pat at the back, are maybe simple acts but can give a sense of emotional security, trust and positivity  not only for the one receiving it but also for the one sharing the touch of care. Hernando story is a genuine example of how caring for someone can help change how we view life  that it will never be made of milk and honey, but we always have a choice to make it better.

Credits 

Creative Agency: Publicis Singapore

Chief Creative Officer, Global Clients: Ajay Thrivikraman

Creative team: Martin Loh and Tricia Matoto

Account management: Natalie VanderVorst, Prachi Partagalkar and Jessica Geli

Account Planning: Hesperus Mak

Director (film): Sheron Dayoc

Production house: Straight shooters

Post production house: EditCube

Sound design: Loudbox

Agency Producer: Lizanne Alcazaren and Toffee De Guzman

Executive Producer, SSMI: Raissa Hapin Carreli

PR Agency: MSL Philippines

Team Lead: Orly Ramas

Account Lead: Vanessa Dingcong

Planning Lead: Earl Ortega

Client: P&G, Vicks Philippines

General Manager, P&G Healthcare Asia Pacific: Sujay Wasan

Regional Associate Brand Director Director, VICKS: Maithreyi Jagannathan

Country Manager, P&G Healthcare, Indonesia & Philippines: Lipi Banerjee
Five things youve probably never done in Jasper

You may have hiked the Old Fort Point Loop Trail in Jasper National Park, but have you cooked and eaten a gourmet meal at the top? Last October, I stood on top of Old Fort Point gazing out at an incredible view while I made homemade cheese using a camping stove at a real table. Making cheese is something I never imagined myself doing. Having a gourmet cooking lesson on a mountaintop was even more inconceivable.
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The ACT government was warned about fire safety risks potentially affecting a "significant" number of territory buildings almost two years before the issue flared-up at a Forrest apartment complex. In late November 2017, residents of the Bentley Suites complex in Forrest were told of alleged building code breaches related to the fire resistance of structural steel beams in the apartment's car park. Engineers found many beams would be resistant to fire for just 10 to 15 minutes, rather than the 120 minutes required by the building code at the time, according to a letter sent to residents on November 27, 2017. Peak industry body Engineers Australia wrote to government planning officials in February 2016 to express concerns about building regulations in the territory, and the specific use of steel beams and columns with inadequate fire ratings. Although the letter from Engineers Australia did not single out particular buildings, it said a number of residential units could be affected as well as aged care facilities. "This raises serious concerns about the level of risk posed to residents of units and aged care facilities, in the event a fire occurs," the letter read. Engineers Australia said the fire safety issue stemmed from the use of cement-filled steel columns over the past 10 to 15 years. "A significant proportion of units and other building developments in the ACT have been constructed using very small - 100mm or less - cement-filled steel columns and small - 150mm or 200mm - steel beams, purporting to be suitably fire rated," they wrote. "However, in many instances we have seen no evidence to support the rating for a particular project." Engineers Australia ACT general manager Keely Quinn said engineers had a number of concerns about the regulation of the building industry in the ACT. "The main regulatory issues relate to fire issues [passive fire ratings], having competent people signing off on documents and record keeping when things are being built," she said. "A lot of structural problems take 10 to 15 years to reveal themselves," she added. "In 10 years will we have a long row of medium and high-density housing with safety issues? The ACT government needs to make sure everything is compliant and safe." Passive fire protection refers to structures that are engineered to stop the spread of fire, such as fire-resistant beams, walls or doors. Active fire protection refers to systems such as sprinklers or extinguishers that actively work to combat a fire. The ACT planning directorate did not say whether it was aware of concerns about widespread fire safety breaches, or what it would do to address such concerns. "All building plans are required to comply with the Building Act, Building Code of Australia and are approved by qualified building certifiers," a spokeswoman said. "Where a building exceeds 500 square metres or involves alternative solutions to comply with fire safety requirements ... the proposed plans are referred to ACT Fire and Rescue for comment." Each year Access Canberra audited a minimum of 10 per cent of each licensed building certifier's work, the spokeswoman said. "Additionally, investigations are also carried out when complaints are lodged specifically on the work of a building certifier." Access Canberra has previously said it would be looking into the Bentley Suites situation, although it had not received any complaints about the apartment complex. In their 2016 letter, Engineers Australia called for better performance monitoring and a registration scheme for professional engineers in order to help stamp out fire rating issues. "Engineers Australia believes that an effective response to this problem requires...provision of credible and documented evidence to support any 'alternative solutions'." An ACT engineer, who asked not to be named, said the fire-rating issues could potentially be a bigger problem than concerns about flammable aluminium cladding raised in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster. "In my view it's a bigger problem than flammable cladding and potentially much more dangerous," the engineer said.

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Every time it rains, Emma Hely gets an ache in her chest. Her massage clinic at the Ainslie shops has been plagued for about four years by a leaking roof, with water known to spurt out of light fittings, down stairs, even into massage rooms. While Ms Hely has plugged up the worst of it, the water keeps coming back. She says a long-running impasse over the building's heritage listing means its owner cannot replace the roof as the original tiles are no longer in production. For the past decade, owner Manuel Xyrakis says he has been seeking approval from the ACT Heritage Council to put on a new tin roof for the stretch of shops, which also house a laundromat and his family's IGA supermarket. A $40,000 repair job in 2008 didn't solve the problem and other subsequent touch-ups have made little impact, he said. At Baby and Bump Massage, freshly repaired ceilings are already crumbling in corners as the water rushes back through. "For most people, the rain's relaxing, for me it's a panic of 'is the shop leaking again? Is the computer ok?'" Ms Hely said. "And we're a massage clinic, you don't want people walking in and seeing big marks...The electricians couldn't even guarantee the light fittings were safe to use. "It's outrageous." Fortunately, Ms Hely said, leaks in the massage rooms had been kept at bay by repairs for now. When asbestos was removed from the flat above Edgar's Inn further down the strip last year, Mr Xyrakis said he had arranged with Worksafe ACT for the roof spaces of the shops to be cleaned at the same time as the roof was replaced. The clean-out and roof replacement was to take at least two weeks in February, during which time Ms Hely and other tenants had planned to move out of the building. But Mr Xyrakis says the Heritage Council had since stepped in to curtail the plan, on the grounds he needed approval directly from them on any change to the roof. An Access Canberra spokeswoman said WorkSafe ACT was in "regular contact with the owners of the premise, including meeting this month, and is facilitating discussions with heritage about roof replacement". It is understood WorkSafe officials were also considering in December whether or not to use their power to order the roof replacement in the interests of public health. A spokeswoman for ACT Heritage said no formal application to change the roof had yet been made by the Ainslie shop owners. "The ACT Heritage Council has twice provided advice to the Ainslie shop owners on the heritage requirements of replacing the roof," she said. "However, changing the roof material (for example, from tiles to Colorbond) requires ACT Heritage Council approval to ensure heritage values of the precinct are preserved." Mr Xyrakis said he had hired a heritage consultant and architect for the proposal, and had been "back and forth" with heritage many times on how to fix the roof. "I just want this sorted, my tenants want peace of mind, they want it sorted and the people of Ainslie do too," Mr Xyrakis said. "I'm hoping heritage will see this as a matter of urgency." The Access Canberra spokeswoman said no safety concerns relating to water entering the building had yet been referred to WorkSafe, and it was the responsibility of its owner to ensure the premise was safe. WorkSafe inspectors regularly attended the Ainslie shops and the public could "have confidence the complex remains safe", she said. "The roof remediation and asbestos management plans support safety in the short to medium term with demolition of the affected premises the only enduring solution in the longer term," the spokeswoman said. Ms Hely and her partner said the building's heritage listing had been "like a curse" for the massage clinic, which already took a hit after Mr Fluffy asbestos was found above Edgar's Inn. Confusion between Ms Healy's clinic and another therapist affected drove "half" her clientele out the door, she said. "It killed us. But it's safe [here], and we want people to come back and feel welcome. This is not what people want to see." with Lachlan Roberts

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What's the difference between "governance" and "government"? Some say nothing and that "governance" is just affectation, but political scientists usually make the distinction. Governance, they say, is the overarching architecture of government: the constitution, broad electoral rules, rules on disclosure, and the institutional set-up. Government, on the other hand is the nitty-gritty of everyday revenue-raising and spending, and the myriad pieces of legislation and regulation dealing with everyday matters. To continue the architecture analogy, with a house, governance deals with things like whether you: build an extension; revamp your kitchen with a new fridge or revamp your bathrooms; or install solar power or a swimming pool. Government is: what do you put into the fridge; what should come out of it when; or when you should run air-conditioners (as distinct from whether they should be installed in the first place). On governance, Australia, at least federally, has been in a state of near paralysis this century. This is the third in my four-part January series on how our politicians have done a poor job adapting policy to changing circumstances, or changing policies that don't work. Governance failings ran hot in 2017. The dual-citizenship crisis left Australians bewildered. The Turnbull government's blunt rejection of the Uluru declaration on Indigenous recognition added to a sense of frustration within and beyond Aboriginal communities. The kicking of the republican can down the road to do nothing until the Queen is dead made Australians seem like unimaginative scaredy-cats. And these are just the symbols. Real governance issues  such as corporate and foreign donations to political parties and MPs, real-time effective disclosure and freedom of information  remained in the zombie zone. The critical importance of the rules and conventions of governance is this: they constrain the powerful and evil-doers, and they empower the powerless and the good. The dual-citizenship crisis was a classic of Australian politicians failing to adapt to changes in circumstance. The change since 1901, of course, was that so many of us now were born overseas or born in Australia to parents who were born overseas. The other change, relating to the "office of profit" disqualification, was that the government has grown so big that a significant portion of Australians either work for or are contracted to it, making them ineligible under the strict wording of section 44. So the government and the Labor Party laughed with schadenfreude at former Greens senator Scott Ludlum's admiral decision to resign upon learning of his dual New Zealand citizenship. They should have agreed to look into the issue and propose solutions. My guess is that referendum approval would have been obtained for a new section 44 along the following lines: "Until the Parliament otherwise provides: But no. We had an unseemly exercise in point-scoring as to who had obeyed foreign renunciation laws. Grow up. Get rid of the apron strings. Several governance issues remain. The marriage vote is about to spawn an inquiry into religious freedom. Let's hope it backfires on the religious right in the same way that the divisive and unnecessary plebiscite on marriage did. A call for debate about religious freedom may widen into a debate about freedom and human rights generally, and result in a call for a general bill of rights in our constitution. That's a realistic prospect. If so, the reactionaries and conservatives will be running out of feet through which they can shoot themselves. Continuing with governance and shootable feet, the Coalition's correct attack on then Labor senator Sam Dastyari led to opportunistic proposals to end foreign influence. But the Coalition is not Caesar's wife on this. Moreover, the public wonders, if foreign corporate bribery is bad, why isn't all corporate bribery bad? Shouldn't all corporate donations to political parties be banned also? Oddly enough, the more the major parties go into psychotic paralysis on such questions, the more the public wants action. A Centre for Policy Development poll found 77 per cent of Australians backed an anti-corruption commission; 58 per cent were in favour of four-year parliamentary terms; 79 per cent wanted a tougher code of conduct for parliamentarians; and 57 per cent favoured a constitutional convention to "update the Australian constitution for the 21st century". Yet Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Australians "have no appetite" for constitutional change. This was after former prime minister Tony Abbott needled him into floating the idea of a postal plebiscite, like the one on marriage. Turnbull then failed to follow through, presumably because it would disturb the conservative rump of his party, who have already worked out that giving the public a say is a dangerous thing because the broad public doesn't see the world in the same way as the three As: Abbott, (Eric) Abetz and (Kevin) Andrews. So nothing happens. I have argued previously that a large part of the republic question can be resolved by legislation, rather than referendum. Just call the governor-general, who is also president of the Executive Council (section 62 of the constitution), "president". Legislate that the prime minister cannot put a name to the Queen for the position of president (of the Executive Council) and governor-general unless that person has been approved by a two-thirds majority of a joint sitting of Parliament, or whatever. Fixed terms, simultaneous elections and having the Parliament elect the prime minister after an election are all ways of reducing the governor-general's discretion to make the transition to a full republic easier. Proper Indigenous recognition and participation remains a festering national sore. Symbols are important. The marriage vote shows Australians do in fact have an appetite for human rights, equality and changing the way we are seen in the world. We know what is stopping that appetite being satisfied. crispinhull.com.au

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FAW-VW names Marco Schubert as Audi new sales general manager

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- According to official news, Marco Schubert will become the new general manager of FAW-VW's Audi sales division. He succeeds Michael-Julius Renz who will leave for Germany to become the new CEO of Audi Sport GmbH.



Schubert will take over the operational activities of locally produced vehicles and imported vehicles under Audi brand in China, such as marketing, sales network construction and brand promotion.

Marco Schubert Renz has a degree in Business Management and held key positions at the European and Asian branches of VW's subsidiaries. Previously, he also managed Skoda sales in Asian market. Besides, Schubert used to hold managerial roles at UK and Sweden subsidiaries of Audi brand. Because of his rich experiences in Asian market, FAW-VW Audi chose him to take the position.

Michael-Julius Renz, Schubert's predecessor, will be assuming his new position as the new CEO of Audi Sport GmbH. During his tenure as general-manager of FAW-VWs Audi sales division, the cumulative sales of the brand has been increased to around 4.5 million units in China.

Last year, FAW-VW's Audi reached an annual sales volume in China of 595,288 units (including imported vehicles). Besides, FAW-VW's Audi delivered almost 70,000 units last month, seeing out 2017 December as another sales record month in history.

Reportedly, FAW-VW plans to roll out 16 new Audi models in China this year, including the all-new flagship model A8L and the new generation Q5L. Besides, the all-new Q8 will also make its world debut in China in 2018.
Youxia Motors to expand industry scale

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Wei Jun, chairman of Youxia Motors summarized the company's four-year development, and also announced the information about its progress on the 2017 annual meeting.



Currently, Youxia has finished the in-depth development which is based on all-new electric platform and core intelligent technologies of the products. It also finished construction of supply system for the Youxia X model. Additionally, Youxia's trial manufacturing factory was also finished construction and can realize small batch of trial manufacturing and testing. It will embark on applying manufacturing qualification of electric vehicles and will complete construction of super factory in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province.

During the annual meeting, Wei Jun confirmed that Youxia will still focus on manufacturing exquisite products and specialize in designing high-performance pure electric vehicles. The Youxia X will be a representative model under Youxia brand, boasting all-new power system and stable performance with KITTOS and L3-featured autonomous driving function. With the Huzhou super factory completed construction, Youxia will achieve large batch of mass production.

In terms of marketing deployment, Yonxia will build first batch of experiencing centers in 20 cities to meet the demands of experiencing, service and mobility of electric vehicles in China's major cities. Youxia electric vehicles will be available for both supercharging piles and private charging piles. Similar to the marketing mode of Tesla and Apple, customers can test drive Youxia models at the bricks-and-mortar stores and order models online.

Once the Huzhou super factory finished construction and put into operation, Youxia Motors will expand a staff team with one thousand employers. With strong industrial background in a wide variety of well-known auto brands and internet companies, such as BMW, Porsche, Volkswagen, Volvo, Baidu and Tencent, etc., they boast rich auto industrial experience and innovative thoughts. Not long ago, Youxia Motors introduced top design teams which had designed the Lamborghini and Ferrari models, etc. It also set up Youxia's global design center in Europe.
My friend owns a large cement manufacturing business, he says if he does not pay a good wage, the workers will not show up which means no business. He has calculated that $17+ an hour is fair to start. If the worker proves to be more productive and trainable, then wages increase. He is a smart fellow, respected and successful.

Everyone in the work force has monthly expenses to be able to live and exist, this is not negotiable. If working does not provide this then the government is asked to supplement or just outright pay the welfare. Our government says that $28,000 per year is the poverty level for a family of four, it is about half that or a single person due to accommodations and efficacy.

Should we begin with the tax department? If one person needs about $17,000 per annum to live on, then should his or her tax free earnings be set at that? Anything less will not be enough. You can be sure there will not be a bank account growing out of such low wages. It is a sad time that government legislation is required in this area. As an employer, is it not more advantageous to have loyal happy employees than to have unhappy ones?

Another friend owned a dry cleaning shop, very busy and successful. His employees stayed for years due to the proper attitude, decent wages and respect by the employer which in turn is repaid back by the happy workers. If you do not operate a good atmosphere in your business it will reflect back to you having problems with staff turnover, people not showing up for work and other problems. Is the problem on the part of the employer, the inability to pay or the not wanting to pay? The employer needs to re evaluate his position and decide which road he wants to travel, the one with many ruts and bumps or the paved one.

Vancouver is already in trouble, I have a friend contracting to a large company which needs many electricians for the work. Now, electricians are not at the minimum wage scales but working and living in Vancouver has become a new sensation due to the high cost of accommodations. The electricians do not wish to relocate to Vancouver, some because of the cost of housing, so what to do? The company pays extra for living out allowances etc.

Being and employer/business owner is not an easy task even today, there are many expenses to cover before the owner pays himself.

Jorgen Hansen


The residents of West Kelowna can expect the recent skyrocket in crime rates and overall lack of community safety to continue and increase. The 200-313% increase in break-ins, vehicle theft and violent crimes over the last year have fallen, once again on deaf ears.

City Council rejected the RCMPs request for 8 badly needed additional officers and referenced issues with contract negotiations/obligations with provincial funding, that staff have failed to ensure the province was keeping up their end of the bargain. The residents of Shannon Woods, Glenrosa, Smith Creek, etc. are all facing weekly break-ins, illegal drug operations continue to prosper through the community and we cant provide the resources the RCMP admit they badly need to keep residents safe. The criminals know the RCMP dont have the staff to properly police our neighborhoods, thats why the same areas are repeatedly targeted, there is no risk in getting caught!

On the other side, 11 additional city staff were approved as well as a whopping $4.2 million dollars for additional park land acquisitions. Now if only the parks were safe enough for our kids to enjoy without having to worry about discarded needles and drug dealers operating in broad daylight.

Please attend the open house on the 31st and voice your opinion if you feel unsafe and that our represented leadership and city staff needs to get our priorities straight as a community.

Collin Crabbe
Within the next ten months our province will have a third and final referendum on electoral reform. During that time I'm sure we will be bombarded with information extolling both the virtues and evils of the current first-past-the-post (FPTP) versus proportional representation (PR) systems. Because PR has never existed in our province, all information can only be conjecture and assumption.

However, years of FPTP have provided us with a few unrefuted facts. It repeatedly creates a disproportionate imbalance of power, as happened in 2001 when the Liberals garnered 97% of the seats with only 57% of the vote. Our democracy is further eroded with a party's refusal to allow our MLA's a free and open vote reflective of the constituents, instead forcing them to "toe the party line". We then have an autocracy which always leads to abuse of power and scandal.

Let's vote for a return to democracy in November.

Robert Brown


Photo: Contributed

Whether you want to solve computer problems yourself or enlist the help of someone more technical, youll save time and minimize frustration if you know how to do a few simple things.

Im here to help!

Turn off your computer

That sounds simple and generally it is.

Click on Start | Power | Shut down

Thats all there is to it most days. Sometimes, though, computers dont start up properly or shut down fully, and you might need to shut down manually.

To do this, press and hold the power button on the computer.

Press and hold that power button like you mean it. You need to hold it down until you hear the computer shut off, and sometimes that can take as long as 15 seconds.

If a technician tells you to disconnect the computer completely from its power source, you need to unplug it from the electrical outlet.

If the computer is a laptop, you also need to remove the battery (unplug from the outlet first!) to stop all electrical current from flowing.

Reboot your router or your modem

You are going to have to do this at some time in your life. Persistent issues with connecting to the Internet require rebooting your router and/or modem as part of the troubleshooting process.

Even if you call your Internet Service Provider for help, youre going to have to reboot something some day.

Heres the deal. Reboot simply means restart the device. There are geeky ways to do this, but Ill just cover the easy way here.

First, identify the thing you want to reboot. The router and modem might be two different pieces of equipment, or they might be all one device. Locate your router and or modem. Now, locate the power cord that connects that device to an electrical outlet.

When youre ready to reboot the device, unplug the power cord.

(You dont have to crawl around on the floor; unplugging either end has the same effect. Its almost always easier to unplug the end of the power cord that connects to the device rather than to the electrical outlet.)

Hold that cord in your hand, count to 30, and then plug it back in. Wait a couple of minutes for the device to come back to life and see if that fixed your problem.

If it didnt, you can contact your service provider confident in the knowledge that youll know how to do this when they ask you to.

Because they will ask you.

Know what operating system your computer is running

Maybe you want to use Google to find a solution to whatever computer glitch is troubling you, or maybe you want someone to help you. One of the things you should know is what operating system youre running.

The easiest way to find this on a Windows computer:

Press the Windows key and the R key simultaneously (WinKey+R)

Type winver in the field next to Open

Press the Enter key

This will open a new window with the information you need. (See this article for other ways.

If youre using a Mac:

Click on the Apple icon in the top left corner of your screen

Click on About This Mac

This will open a window with the information. (See this article for more.)

Are you a little more comfortable with your computer skills?
Photo: Merritt Herald

And so it begins.

I attended the Penticton Chamber of Commerce Town Hall meeting on Wednesday where MP Dan Albas was the keynote speaker.

Topics were the recent mortgage rule changes, and changes to small business taxation.

Albas has been vocal about anticipated effects of the changes, so I was interested to hear his take on the new rules. He shared his thoughts as to some of the possible challenges homeowners may face under the new qualification rules.

The discussion that followed was interesting. My feeling was that most of the people in the room were concerned about some of the unintended consequences of the rule changes.

One contentious topic was mortgage renewals. My interpretation is that many Canadians now have fewer options at renewal.

If people bought at the top end of their price range, if their employment or income has since changed, or if they have taken on new debt, they may not have the flexibility to rate shop at renewal time.

If their mortgage is coming up for renewal this year, it means they originally qualified at a rate lower than three per cent. If they are now considering options at other financial institutions, they will have to qualify at a rate of 4.99 per cent, or possibly even higher depending on their chosen rate.

One person in the room didnt see this as a problem. As long as a client renews with their existing lender they dont have to requalify.

At least, this is the current way of doing business.

Renewing with the existing lender is generally simple  usually one signature and the client is good to go for another five years.

Switching involves completing a new application, gathering and providing documentation, and the angst of waiting to find out if a new mortgage is approved.

Switching creates a competitive rate environment. Switching affords clients options.

When clients call me to discuss switching their mortgage at renewal, the first question I ask is what rate their lender is offering. I review their situation and talk about rates and packages I can find for them.

If the rates I find are lower, I suggest that they call their lender back to see if they will match or beat the rate I quote. Before I waste a clients time, I like to make sure I have a better option.

This may seem counter-intuitive. As a broker, I would, of course, like the business. However, many times once the current lender knows the client may switch out they offer a lower rate.

How do I see this changing?

I wonder how long it will take for financial institutions to implement a new process at renewal. For instance, will they ask clients for updated information? Pull credit reports to consider the clients overall financial picture?

And if this review shows the clients wont qualify at another lender, will they still be offered competitive rates?

I have been through rule changes many times. The initial reaction tends to be the same. There is a lot of frustration and fatalistic thinking, then mortgage providers and clients adapt and move on. Over the last year, we have adjusted to the initial stress test.

If your mortgage is coming up for renewal in the next few months, it is a great idea to do your homework sooner rather than later.

Whether you are thinking of listing your home for sale and moving, or keeping your mortgage essentially the same, my recommendation is that you first touch base with your banker or mortgage broker to see how the new mortgage qualifications affect your particular situation.
Rep. Marc Gravitt has been awarded the Tennessee Leadership Award by the Tennessee Association of Assessing Officers. Will Denami, Executive Director of the Tennessee Association of Assessing Officers, presented the award to Representative Gravitt on behalf of the statewide association.

Rep. Marc Gravitt continues to study the issues and listen closely to his constituents he represents. Many of the issues he has been involved in require more than a surface level review and Representative Gravitt puts in the time to understand how state and local government work most effectively together. His practical approach and desire to improve government at the local level have been much appreciated by his fellow elected officials and citizens, said Will Denami, executive director of the Tennessee Association of Assessing Officers.

Rep. Gravitt said, Well, I didnt expect to receive any award. This is a very nice honor and I certainly appreciate this award very much. Since I began in the General Assembly, I have had a local government understanding along with a 20+ year real estate perspective to help guide me through the various issues. I have enjoyed working with so many dedicated public servants and engaged citizens in my district. I hold the trust of public service in high regard and always try to work to ensure good efficient government for the taxpayers who fund it. This is an honor.

The Tennessee Association of Assessing Officers (TNAAO) is a professional organization composed of the elected officials serving as Assessors of Property in Tennessee's 95 counties. The TNAAO's purpose is to work on behalf of the people of our great state to ensure fairness and uniformity in statutes regarding the assessment of property, as well as to promote excellence through best practices and professionalism among those charged with this vital task.
On the way to an intelligent laboratory, physicists from Innsbruck and Vienna present an artificial agent that autonomously designs quantum experiments. In initial experiments, the system has independently (re)discovered experimental techniques that are nowadays standard in modern quantum optical laboratories. This shows how machines could play a more creative role in research in the future.

We carry smartphones in our pockets, the streets are dotted with semi-autonomous cars, but in the research laboratory experiments are still being designed by people. However, this could change soon. In the group of Innsbruck physicist Hans Briegel, researchers broach the question to what extent machines can carry out research autonomously. For this purpose, they use the projective simulation model for artificial intelligence, developed by the group, to enable a machine to learn and act creatively. The memory of this autonomous machine stores many individual fragments of experience, which are networked together. The machine builds up and adapts its memories while learning from both successful and unsuccessful experience. Now, the scientists from Innsbruck have teamed up Viennese colleagues in the group of Anton Zeilinger, who previously demonstrated the usefulness of automated procedures in the design of quantum experiments with a search algorithm called Melvin. Some of these computer-inspired experiments have already been performed in the lab of Zeilinger. Together, the physicists have now understood that quantum experiments are an ideal environment to test the applicability of AI to research. Therefore, they used the projective simulation model to investigate the potential of artificial learning agents in this test-bed. In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers now present their first results.

Optimized experiments designed by an AI-agent

All starts with an empty laboratory table for photonic quantum experiments. The artificial agent then tries to develop new experiments by virtually placing mirrors, prisms or beam splitters on the table. If its actions lead to a meaningful result, the agent has a higher chance to do similar sequence of actions in the future. This is known as a reinforcement learning strategy. "Reinforcement learning is what distinguishes our model from the previously studied automated search, which is governed by unbiased random search," says Alexey Melnikov from the Department of Theoretical Physics at the University of Innsbruck. "The artificial agent performs tens of thousands of experiments on the virtual laboratory table. When we analyzed the memory of the machine, we discovered that certain structures have developed," explains his colleague Hendrik Poulsen Nautrup. Some of these structures are already known to physicists as useful tools from modern quantum optical laboratories. Others are completely new and could, in the future, be tested in the lab. Reinforcement learning is what allows us to find, optimize and identify a huge amount of potentially interesting solutions," says Alexey Melnikov. "And sometimes it also provides answers to questions we didn't even ask."

Creative support in the laboratory

In the future, the scientists want to further improve their learning program. At this point, it is a tool that can autonomously learn to solve a given task. But can a machine be more than a tool? Can it provide more creative assistance to the scientists in basic research? This is what the scientists want to find out and only the future can tell what answers are in store for them.
This is how a potential boron polymer could look like: boron atoms shown in green, oxygen atoms shown in red, carbon and hydrogen atoms shown in grey.

Plastic bags from polyethylene, packaging from polystyrene, frying pans with Teflon coatings: everyday life is awash with polymers. Chemically, polymers are long, chain-like molecules with backbones based almost exclusively on carbon (and sometimes silicon) atoms. Other types of polymers are rare.

The team of Chemistry Professor Holger Braunschweig at the Julius-Maximilians-Universitat Wurzburg (JMU) in Bavaria, Germany, have recently set their sights on the production of polymers based on chains of boron atoms. The as-yet-unknown boron polymers are expected to have highly unusual and useful properties - higher electrical conductance than polymers commonly used in the organic electronics industry being just one example.

Proposal to the DFG finds success

Holger Braunschweig's research proposal to the German Research Foundation (DFG) on this topic was successful: For this goal he will receive 1.5 million Euros from the DFG's Reinhart Koselleck program. This program was created to support particularly innovative and risky projects.

With this funding Prof. Braunschweig hopes to develop efficient synthetic strategies to boron polymers. In this respect it is critical to prevent the boron chains from collapsing in on themselves and forming clusters - a tendency that the element boron is famous for. The research team has come up with five promising strategies to form the desired chains. If successful, they will have discovered a fundamentally new class of materials, the potential applications of which could be immense.

Worldwide recognition as boron expert

The Reinhard Koselleck program of the DFG exclusively funds researchers with exceptional scientific track records. Holger Braunschweig is recognized as a worldwide expert in the chemistry of the element boron. His previous work includes a succession of fundamental breakthroughs in this field - including, among others, the synthesis of the first compound with a triple bond between two boron atoms.

For his work, Braunschweig has been distinguished with two ERC Advanced Grants, each coming with 2.5 million Euro of research funding. In 2009 he also received the 2.5 million Euro Leibniz Prize of the DFG.
Voice of the People Recently four members of Porter County Board of Zoning Appeals approved to give an Iowa company special exceptions and variances to build a THIRD gas station at U.S. 6 and Indiana 149, on the northwest corner adjacent to Liberty Township. In this growing age of...

Voice of the People We havent betrayed the Afghan people; they betrayed us. Monday morning quarterbacks criticizing our government and military are nothing more than cheap shot malcontents. Id like to see or at least hear how, under these same circumstances, they could do better. Joel Sutlin Chesterton September...

Voice of the People Chesterton needs an Italian beef place like Portillios or Pops. Next to the new Aldi would be a great location. Please and thank you. Linda Williams Westville

Monitor childrens online activity to prevent exploitation Now that the new school year has begun and notwithstanding the increase of in-person classes, our children will likely continue to use their various devices with access to the internet. By doing so, they can unknowingly become the target of online human traffickers and predators,...
Its good news for the village of Montgomery, which is about 50 miles west of Chicago, just south of Aurora. Butterball announced the closing of its 600-employee facility last May, a painful blow for the community following Caterpillars announcement that it planned to close its own Montgomery plant, expected to result in a loss of another 800 jobs.
Stylishly dressed couples stare back from a sepia-toned photograph on the cover of High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey From Africa to America (Bloomsbury, $26), by Jessica Harris. In this picture, from the 1920s, facial expressions foreshadow the same contentment that 21st century readers who are hungry for black culinary history might experience after reading Harris new book. There is more than enough for every taste in this narrative. Beginning with cereals, yams, rice-based cuisines and the cooking traditions from the African continent, Harris introduces us to the 14th century food writings of traveler Abdalla Ibn Battuta and the part he plays in recording traditional African food ways long before the slave trade began. When Harris explains the Middle Passage, as a dark part of history when the Atlantic Ocean formed the hyphen between African and American, she also describes it as a time when ingredients and techniques were exchanged between continents. Attentive readers will notice this hyphen missing in most of Harris references to the descendants of Africans who journeyed to the Americas against their will, just as they may notice the absence of the term slave. Like many who are currently writing about the period before emancipation, Harris refers to Africans forced to enter the Americas against their will as enslaved Africans, an exchange of terms many scholars and historians acknowledge as a more apt way of reminding us of the ruptured ties to the motherland. Those who arrived in the Americas came with established cooking techniques such as steaming in leaves, grilling, roasting, frying animal protein with vegetables and a propensity for the soupy stews we would come to appreciate in the Americas as gumbo and other one-pot dishes. Harris has reported on these techniques through her previous 10 cookbooks. She informs us that while the exchange of ingredients such as sesame, sorghum, okra, watermelon and black-eyed peas most often includes a westward transfer of ingredients and techniques (such as rice cultivation) from Africa to the Americas, some ingredients traveled in reverse. Peanuts, a legume that originated in the New World, arrived in Africa during the slave trade before being returned to the Americas with an African name derived from the Bantu word nguba, meaning groundnut or goober, Harris writes. Those unfamiliar with the bountiful African contribution to New World culinary traditions will be impressed by the sheer quantity of names, people, places and events she includes, followed by a mere 20 recipes. Harris, a professor at Queens College in New York, explains in the introduction that her broad overview of historical record, anecdotes and references should be digested as a personal look at the history of African American food instead of the copiously annotated opus she predicts she will one day write. Maya Angelou wonders in her foreword to the book if this volume may nudge Harris future work away from how-to recipes toward books filled with more thoroughly indexed and footnoted research. Those who regard Harris as among the leading scholars of African-American food ways and culinary traditions undoubtedly hope so. Donna Pierce is a freelancer and creator of blackamericacooks.com Sauce gombo Prep: 10 minutes Cook: 15 minutes Makes: 4 servings High on the Hog author Jessica Harris explains that the word gumbo harks to the Bantu language in which okra is referred to as ochingombo or guinfombo. 1 pound fresh okra, trimmed, cut into rounds 2 medium ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, coarsely chopped 1 habanero chili, pricked with a fork 1 cup water 1/2 teaspoon salt Freshly ground black pepper 2 cups cooked rice Place the okra, tomatoes, habanero and water in a medium saucepan. Heat to a boil over medium-high heat. Lower the heat to medium. Cover; cook until the okra is fork tender, about 10 minutes. Remove and discard the chili. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot over rice. Nutrition information Per serving: 145 calories, 3% of calories from fat, 0.5 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 32 g carbohydrates, 5 g protein, 302 mg sodium, 4 g fiber Rice fritters (Calas) Prep: 50 minutes Rise: 3 hours, 35 minutes Cook: 30 minutes Makes: 24 fritters Jessica Harris traces these rice fritters back to the Vai people of the rice growing regions of Sierra Leone and Liberia, where the word for uncooked rice is kala. 2 1/4 cups cold water 3/4 cup raw long-grain rice 1 1/2 packages (1 tablespoon plus rounded 1/2 teaspoon) active dry yeast 1/2 cup lukewarm water 4 eggs, well beaten 3 cups flour 3/4 cup sugar 3/4 teaspoon salt Vegetable oil for frying 1/2 cup confectioners sugar 1. Combine the water and rice in a medium saucepan. Heat to a boil over medium-high heat. Lower the heat to a simmer. Cover; cook until tender, 25-30 minutes. Drain; transfer to a large bowl; mash with the back of a spoon. Let cool. 2. Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water in a bowl; set aside 5 minutes. Slowly add the yeast mixture to the rice. Beat to aerate, about 2 minutes. Cover with a slightly moistened towel. Set aside in a warm place, 3-4 hours. Whisk the eggs, flour, sugar and salt into the rice mixture. Cover; set aside 30 minutes. 3. Heat 4 inches of oil to 375 degrees in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Drop the batter by tablespoons into the hot oil in small batches; do not crowd. Cook, turning gently with a slotted spoon, until golden brown, about 2 minutes per batch. Remove from oil; transfer to a paper towel. Dust with confectioners sugar. Nutrition information Per fritter: 136 calories, 15% of calories from fat, 2 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 35 mg cholesterol, 26 g carbohydrates, 3 g protein, 85 mg sodium, 1 g fiber
According to the Virginian-Pilot Newspaper, in 2014 Hardison entered the Elizabeth City Police Department National Night Out Against Crime doughnut-eating contest, and he took the first prize after eating eight glazed doughnuts in just two minutes. It was an impressive feat, but Hardison was wanted at the time under suspicion of breaking and entering. Hardison's win caught police attention, and he was arrested and convicted not long after.
She said she is expecting 150 to 200 guests at the wedding, which was going to have a woodsy theme, but now Millholland may incorporate some elements of Stranger Things. Millholland said she works two jobs, so she was late in embracing the hit series, which premiered in July 2016 and also stars Winona Ryder and Millie Bobby Brown. The second season was released in October 2017.
As it always creatively does with its exhibitions, the Elmhurst Art Museum is embellishing the Abercrombie show with all manner of interesting programs. There will be a couple of jazz concerts and some talks by experts. On Feb. 17 the aforementioned Seaman will be there. Not sure what she might say, what insights she might provide. Art can by mysterious, one of its great joys, but she might offer this from her own book: Abercrombie did not write about why she painted, or how she felt with a brush in her hand, or what she hoped people would glean from her work.
I could have added that if you want to peer through a window at the last gasp of the unchallenged American patriarchy at the end of World War II, then All My Sons is your play, a drama in which all the sins are of white-male doing. Even if you take the view that Joe Keller  he who sent out cracked cylinder heads rather than lose money and power  was a victim of how the war upended American life and values, and thus was no worse than so many profiteering others, then you still are talking male forces of destruction. Most women of the time were focused on trying to minimize the loss of human life  and then trying to put the broken men they loved back together.
International travelers can benefit from using passes, too. Before our family of six (two adults, two young adults and two seniors) flew to Switzerland last summer, we bought each person an eight-day Swiss Travel Pass fromRailEurope. (The pass costs $393; $336 for those 27 and under.) It included unlimited use of trains throughout Switzerland and free entrance into many museums, castles and boat rides. We were entitled to half-price tickets on the Chocolate Train and gondolas to Mount Pilatus, Mount Titlis and Matterhorn Glacier Paradise. By trip's end, we calculated a total savings of$1,332 for the attractions alone - added to the convenience and lowered stress levels of train travel. No car rental, no getting lost, no searching for bathrooms - and Swiss trains run like clockwork.
The advisory, which covers much of northern Illinois and northwest Indiana, will remain in place overnight, but the fog should lessen by Monday morning, according to the weather service.
"I introduced this ordinance to hang over their head like the sword of Damocles to make sure that they behave," Reilly said. "My hope is we will have productive meetings in the next week or two to get these operators on the right path, and my plan is to hold that legislation in committee until it's needed, and hopefully it won't be."
However, certain agency services are affected by the shutdown, notably the E-Verify system, a free internet-based system that allows businesses to determine the eligibility of their employees to work in the United States. Also, the agencys regional centers for immigrant investors shut down, as did operations to provide for nonministers in religious vocations and occupations to work in the United States.
I think that Bruce Rauner was critical of Mike Madigan and the pay-to-play culture thats present in our state. And when you see J.B. Pritzker, when you listen to that tape of him talking to Blagojevich and this notion that big money is coming in to  buy an outcome maybe for him to become treasurer of the state or some other appointed position, I think thats the culture that we need to get rid of in Illinois, Kennedy said.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach addresses the crowd during a fundraiser for his campaign for governor on Nov. 28, 2017, in Overland Park, Kan. Kobach is the former vice chairman of the Trump voter fraud commission, which had asked to see Texas records that identify all voters with Hispanic surnames, newly released documents show. (Charlie Riedel / AP)
The Texas native got his first TV job while still a student at the University of Illinois. He worked at several local stations in Chicago including ABC-7 and CBS-2  and the Midwest before joining "GMA" when it launched in 1975, staying with the program for seven years.
But ironically, Damore probably has the least to lose from this case. If he had been fired quietly, even in a case of clear political discrimination, then he would have very good reason to keep his head down, find another job and gripe to his friends over the occasional beer. But Googlers leaked his memo to the media, and then management fired him in a very public and humiliating way that was bound to make it very hard for him to get another job. By doing so, they ensured that he would have little reason not to sue the firm, if he could find a lawyer to take the case  and also ensured that there would probably be a number of angry conservative lawyers interested in taking the case.
And that boorish attitude has come in handy after decades of media bullying of conservatives. Ironically, the very lack of conservative bona fides that worried me two years ago means he's less beholden to a conservative establishment that had grown alienated from the people it is supposed to serve and from the principles it ostensibly exists to promote. His surprising conservatism might also be the result of the absolutism and extremism of his critics, whether among the media, traditional Democratic activists or the anti-Trump right. If Trump were ever inclined to indulge his liberal tendencies after winning the election, the stridency and spite of his opponents have provided him with no incentives to do so.
Thats why Illinois leaders need a Plan B for Medicaid: What happens if and when the money from Washington diminishes? A Medicaid work requirement is anathema to those who live in denial of that likelihood. Here in the real world, though, states should be allowed to decide how to best spend money for the maximum benefit of their neediest recipients  and a work requirement should be an option for their respective Plan Bs.
In his second start this season, Adrian Sampson was able to keep the Chicago Cubs in the game for an opportunity to extend their longest winning streak since 2019. The Cubs offense, though, was held in check for most of the night and ultimately fell short in a 4-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds that ended the streak at seven games.
The first meeting with the translation was Jan. 9, which was considered somewhat of a test. Muhammad said about 12 people requested and used the headsets. Lecaros also will translate for people who want to address the council during the speaker section of the agenda. She has already done that once at a meeting in December.
Zoephel said he and his staff are available to help company officials with any assistance they may need. He said the village has already discussed the hiring process with the company and have offered space at Village Hall to conduct interviews.
Adult students also will have the opportunity to earn an online bachelor's degree in general studies under the new partnership  an effort directed toward the more than 31 million people in the United States who have some college credit but no degree, said Carrie Johnson, director of the bachelor of arts in general studies, educational attachment and outreach at EIU.
"The state is on the wrong path and the party has lost its way," he said. "This is just proof that the Republican Party has been taken over by people who don't believe by fundamentally conservative principles."
The agreement took "a lot of time and effort," and is a "step in the right direction for opening up the downtown area," said board member Ray Tuminello, R-New Lenox. "When both sides are excited to get this done, you know it is a good contract."
Someone wrote in and nailed it. Retirees and those who are about to, worked all their lives to get Social Security to have at least enough to live on. Now, we have to continue working out of necessity until we die. All our hard work is lost. Why? Because our federal government politicians illegally raided our savings (Social Security) to benefit themselves or their pork/pet projects. The blame is on both sides of the aisle. They feel they can do anything. Their actions not only relate to retirement but also to all the problems we have now.
Firefighters called to the home about 6:40 p.m. Sunday found heavy smoke upon arrival, acting Battalion Chief Dan Rink said. Initial reports indicated two people were in the house but it was determined the second resident was not home at the time, officials said.
"The emotions all of us have felt over the past year over these heartless actions are probably nothing we have ever felt in our lifetime," she said. "I never thought our country would become this way. I have never been so angry, so sad and so bewildered at the same time. We ask ourselves, 'How can this be happening here in our country?'"
"The village pays about $1 million a year in garbage collection, and then there are expenses for printing the bill," Pedersen said. "The deficit in the garbage fee was about $344,000, and a part of that was because of the cost of printing and mailing the bills. So, this [fee] will just make up for it. It's not providing any additional revenue."
In addition, the FBI said Eckerling admitted to placing a family member on his company's payroll even though that person worked elsewhere, so Eckerling could obtain health insurance for his family under the relative's name instead of his own, thereby concealing that he was an income-earning employee of the company, according to the plea agreement.
We are thankful that state Sen. Melinda Bush and her family were safe on their trip to Hawaii during the recent missile scare. We are equally sad, however, about her childish remarks somehow putting blame for this event on President Trump. She shows her true colors as a Democrat political hack. We are thankful every day that President Trump was elected versus the alternative. Had Trump's predecessors had a spine and dealt with rogue nations' efforts in developing nuclear weapons, the "climate (Bush speaks of) that would make the threat believable" would not have been an issue. Who thinks Obama sending Iran billions in currency on an unmarked plane, and signing on to a deal to allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons, was in the best interest of America? Or Hillary Clinton's office agreeing to sell one-third of our uranium to Russia was a good idea? Bush and like minded Democrats display a hatred for President Trump that has been experienced by no other before him. Shame on her.
"When you have such a high volume of traffic from the highway trying to make two turns onto Touhy, it creates a bottleneck and makes that stretch of Cicero really problematic," Letson said. "Touhy is a major arterial road, and when it gets backed up it affects not just everyone in town, but everyone going through it as well."
"The tank will be in the back and a pumping facility will be in the front," Czerwinski said. "The uniqueness of this pumping station...is that this is where our 30-inch water main will come through Skokie, come through Morton Grove and terminate at this location."
Part of the college's annual Global Flicks festival, this 2016 drama from Ghana tells the story of Micah, an American English teacher teaching in a remote Ghanaian village. He meets Tuigi, a 14-year-old girl who is forced to drop out of school and become a Trokoski  a practice of religious sexual slavery  to atone for her father's crime.
He was due to paroled in March 2018 but had successfully petitioned the court to re-examine his case in light of better understanding of how fires start. After an evidentiary hearing that included the testimony of fire experts, Judge Liam Brennan ruled in April that it was scientifically impossible for the fire to have started in the way Amor confessed.
Chacko is also probably the biggest thing that sets Sparrow apart from other coffee roasters, Amstrong said. "He's been roasting coffee for 32 years," Armstrong said. "The coffee industry is typically young. There are not a lot of people that have been roasting coffee for as long as he has, his level of expertise is so much higher."
According to Allen, officers saw the car heading east on St. Charles road and pursued the vehicle. He said the pursuit ended when the stolen car hit another car near the intersection of Harlem Avenue and Randolph Street in Oak Park shortly after 10 a.m.
Sweeney said in her eulogy that one of the best ways to listen for echoes of her love is by listening ever more closely to one another. She gave each person "an opportunity to be and to grow into our best selves," Sweeney said. Now, her life can serve as an impetus to renew "a sense of purpose in the world."
"The village, in response to criminal activity that had been occurring in some business establishments that were licensed as massage parlors, developed recommendations for new ordinance regulations," village manager Cara Pavlicek said. "It really is to balance the ordinance on both the enforcement side and protection side for people who may be working in massage establishments under duress or human trafficking."
Worley was also taken into custody by Des Plaines police where he was charged with aggravated fleeing and eluding, reckless driving, and leaving the scene of a property damage accident after his tow truck was involved in a crash in that community on Dec. 31 and did not stop for police, Des Plaines police said.
"Our mission is to involve many different people on both sides of the lake," said AWLI executive director Michael Boos, as he greeted the audience during the morning's session at the Environmental Education Center. "For instance, our poster contest reflects what Wolf Lake is all about."
"The state does give us the right to exclude people who have not turned in their paperwork," he said. "We have made the decision, if we have an outbreak, if you don't have immunization records (on file with the district), you will be excluded. But we think we'd get flooded with that remaining paperwork."
His retirement is something that's been in the works since he initially announced his candidacy as sheriff in 2016, Dowling said, but it's been made more public as the primary approaches.
The mantra for privatization is that students of poverty deserve an equal chance for a better school. The deception here is that it's not the parents who choose, it's the charters and private Schools who choose. The neediest and most underperforming students are not being selected or kept by charters and private schools. In fact, more than half of all vouchers go to students already in private schools, not the poorest from public schools. Private schools are allowed to discriminate in their selection/retention of students resulting in intensified segregation  all with public tax dollars.
Republicans in both the House and the Senate absolutely refuse to admit Democrats to policy discussions, and then work up all this lather of righteous indignation when Democrats refuse to just rubber stamp whatever it is they decide behind their closed doors. Senate filibuster rules are the only lever that Democrats have right now, and of course Trump wants to eliminate even that.
On Jan. 16, River Forest police were called to the same home in the 900 block of Franklin Avenue for a second report of a burglary. Police said the service door of the garage was forced open, and one of the cars that was stolen on Jan. 4 was taken again. Police later determined those involved in the first theft had kept the keys to the stolen car. After the second theft, the stolen car was recovered in Chicago and processed for evidence.
Company officials said Grand Lifestyles employs over 250 contractual staff and caregivers at various facilities who would attend regular meetings at the new Skokie headquarters. Seven full-time employees would be relocated to Skokie and 10 to 12 new employees would be hired over the next five years, under the company's plans.
For Subscribers Pueblo County has state's highest unemployment rate

Pueblo's complex job market features the highest unemployment rate in the state, yet job recovery is not far off state and national averages.
By Mark Preen

Traditional financial centers such as London and New York are witnessing increased competition from Chinese cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen with the rise of FinTech. While Chinas traditional financial sector is relatively undeveloped and restricted from foreign participation, the countrys Internet Finance, or Financial Technology (FinTech), industry has developed rapidly in recent years with an outburst of innovations and startups.

Now, China is in many respects a leader in this emerging industry. By the end of 2015, the country had 500 million FinTech users, and its overall market size exceeded RMB 12 trillion (US$1.87 trillion). Four Chinese companies, namely Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, and JD, were also amongst the top 10 public internet companies in the world. In 2016, China had eight of the worlds 27 FinTech unicorns- companies that investors value at more than US$1 billion.

By any measure, Chinas FinTech industry is rapidly expanding, presenting opportunities for both FinTech companies and complementary firms. However, like Chinas traditional financial sector, foreign participation in the industry can be challenging.

Chinas FinTech landscape

There are several reasons why Chinas FinTech industry has developed so rapidly. The Chinese governments supportive policies and its loose regulatory environment have been conducive to innovations and developments in the industry. The industry has also helped to serve the demands of groups that were previously excluded from traditional banking, such as small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and low-income earners. Further to this, Chinese consumers are more open to sharing data, especially the generations of the 1980s and 1990s who are the main users of FinTech.

With the rapid development of the industry, there are many different opportunities for both young and established FinTech firms alike. Different players, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, are doing what they can to seize upon these different opportunities. These players can be grouped into three main categories, per a report released by McKinsey.

Internet disruptors

The first category of players is internet disruptors. These companies are responsible for most high-profile innovations that have disrupted Chinas traditional finance industry, and receive the most public attention. Most notably, this category includes well-known internet giants Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent (BAT).

Millions of people use Tencents WeChat Pay and Alibabas Alipay daily to make third party mobile payments. By the end of 2015, Chinas third party payments transaction volume was over RMB 10 trillion (US$1.56 trillion), which easily surpassed US and EU leaders such as Paypal. With their all-encompassing digital platforms and extensive ecosystems that penetrate the daily lives of consumers, players in this category can collect massive amounts of data, which they can use to their advantage by predicting consumer behavior and offering more personalized and innovative products.

As well as offering third party payments, internet disruptors are also active in other segments of Chinas FinTech industry, including the rapidly expanding segment of wealth management. Alibaba has expanded into wealth management with its Yue Bao, which had RMB 700 billion (US$109.34 billion) of assets under management (AUM) within just two years to become the second largest money market fund globally. Chinas national credit rating system is also relatively underdeveloped, and players in this category are using the large amounts of data they have to develop credit rating scores for individuals. Alibabas online credit rating agency Sesame Credit is the most prominent example.

RELATED: Chinas Digital Economy: The Shape of Things to Come

Traditional financial institutions

The second category of players is the traditional financial institutions. Although FinTech and other players in the industry could be viewed as a threat to them, these players are eager to harness the advantages of FinTech innovations so that they do not miss out on the opportunities within the industry.

To make the most of the opportunities, many traditional financial institutions have published internet finance strategies. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has published its e-ICBC internet finance strategy, which offers a range of products and services in the areas of payments, financing, and wealth management. ICBC and other traditional financial institutions are able to offer a range of professional products and services developed from years of experience and institutional knowledge. The high profitability of the traditional banking sector has also put it in a strong position to invest in the FinTech industry.

However, compared to other FinTech players, traditional financial institutions face stricter regulations and are more conservative in their approach, which means they are followers rather than leaders in the industry. To put themselves in a more advantageous position, traditional financial institutions have formed partnerships with players in the other categories. For example, China CITIC Bank founded Baixin Bank with internet search engine giant Baidu, and the Bank of Beijing is collaborating with Tencent. This shows that FinTech players can put themselves in a stronger position by engaging in mutually beneficial collaboration rather than outright competition.

Non-financial core companies

The third category of players is non-financial core companies. This category includes well-known retail companies like Gome and Suning. These players have an advantageous position in the value chain with their existing strong networks allowing them to access a large amount of offline data. Further, there is less activity by internet attackers and traditional financial institutions in this sector.

With these advantages, non-financial core companies can offer FinTech products and services to both their customers (business-to-consumer) and SME suppliers and distributors (business-to-business). Despite being a crucial part of the Chinese economy, SMEs were one of the groups that were previously underserved by traditional financial institutions.

Opportunities and innovations

In a growing market, there are many opportunities for the various players, including in the most competitive, developed, and innovative segments, such as third party payments and the business-to-consumer end of the industry. However, FinTech is also expanding into other segments and niche sub-segments, and it is in these segments where there will be the most opportunities in the future. For example, non-financial core companies are active in the business-to-business segment, while some companies are getting involved in niche sub-segments like offering loans for cosmetic surgery.

As well as there being opportunities for FinTech players, there are also opportunities for companies that are not usually viewed as being inside the industry. Given the importance of the collection and analysis of big data to the industry, there are opportunities for data analytic companies to collaborate with FinTech players that do not have the capability to do this by themselves.

There are also many ways that artificial intelligence (AI) companies can collaborate with FinTech players. For instance, AI can be used in FinTech by eliminating or reducing face-to-face interaction, which will help reduce transaction costs. Baidus stock trading app, StockMaster, already uses AI to predict share price changes.

Pre-Investment, Market Entry Strategy Advisory Services from Dezan Shira & Associates

Challenges ahead

Although there are many opportunities in Chinas Fintech industry, most of the activities in the industry have been by domestic investors. One of the main reasons for this is because of government restrictions on foreign investors.

PayPal was not able to secure a license for domestic payments, and foreign investors were excluded from fundraising for Tencents WeBank. Even where foreign investors have invested in the domestic market, they have faced cultural differences. Apple Pays success has been limited because unlike its Chinese competitors, it has not been integrated into important platforms such as WeChat.

It is likely that in the long run the government will ease some of the restrictions on foreign investors so that China and its domestic players can benefit from foreign innovations, capabilities, and expertise. In the meantime, one of the ways foreign companies can benefit from Chinas thirst for FinTech is by being active in overseas markets, including in overseas markets where Chinese consumers are increasing their spending and investments.

Although the big Chinese players like the BAT giants are trying to internationalize, it is hard for them to replicate their domestic success and easier for foreign companies to compete again them. While foreign companies have a competitive advantage in overseas markets, they may decide that it is still better to collaborate with Chinese FinTech players.

Another important challenge that investors face is changes to the regulatory environment. Previously, loose regulations provided the industry with opportunities and was one of the reasons why the FinTech industry developed so rapidly in China. However, Chinese regulatory authorities are increasing their regulatory role to ensure that the industry develops more healthily.

The need for an increased regulatory role was highlighted by fraud cases, such as the EZubao peer-to-peer (P2P) lending scheme, a Ponzi scheme which had nearly one million victims and was subsequently closed in 2016. As recently as September, the governments concerns about initial coin offerings (ICOs), a disruptive technology, led the government to banning them.

These increased regulations are likely to have a significant impact on players in the industry, more so because the industry is developing so rapidly and there is uncertainty about what this increased regulatory role will look like exactly. Investors involved in FinTech will therefore have to take this into consideration when investing in the industry.

Until now, it has been possible for players in the rapidly expanding FinTech industry to succeed by following the innovations of other players. Although there are still many opportunities for growth in the industry, the introduction of a regulatory framework and fiercer competition will likely lead to a period of consolidation. The players that emerge on the top will be the leaders who are able to make the most of the opportunities through innovation and skilfully navigating challenges and regulatory uncertainty.



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This Dezan Shira & Associates 2017 China guide provides a comprehensive background and details of all aspects of setting up and operating an American business in China, including due diligence and compliance issues, IP protection, corporate establishment options, calculating tax liabilities, as well as discussing on-going operational issues such as managing bookkeeping, accounts, banking, HR, Payroll, annual license renewals, audit, FCPA compliance and consolidation with US standards and Head Office reporting.

China Industries Outlook 2018

In this issue of China Briefing magazine, we analyze macro-level foreign investment trends into China, and how the high-tech sector stands out above others. We then shift our focus to Chinas healthcare sector in the context of policy reforms and demographic changes. We also examine how to invest in Chinas education industry and how Chinas war on pollution introduces new opportunities for foreign investors.

Dezan Shira & Associates
A new route on a Spanish-administered archipelago off the west coast of Morocco in the Atlantic Ocean will soon be opened for Chinese travelers in commemoration of late influential writer Sanmao, according to local tourism authorities.

The route, located on the Canary Islands and available from March, is dedicated to Sanmao, a female writer from China's Taiwan region who lived during the latter half of the 20th century. Her literary legacies have been celebrated worldwide until this day.

The announcement was made by Alicia Vanoostende, tourism adviser of La Palma, one of the seven main islands of the archipelago. She was speaking at the ongoing tourism fair FITUR held on the islands Wednesday through Sunday.

Born as Chen Maoping and also known as Echo Chan in the English-speaking world, the writer adopted her pseudonym "Sanmao" from the name of the protagonist of a famous Chinese comic series created by caricaturist Zhang Leping in the 1930s.

Zhang's works tell the story of a young homeless boy in old Shanghai who suffered poverty and starvation against the backdrop of the 1931-45Chinese War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. Sanmao, literally "three hairs," has been perceived as a metaphor for malnutrition.

Writer Sanmao married a Spaniard named Jose Maria Quero Y Ruiz in 1974 and the couple lived on La Palma and Gran Canaria islands between 1976 and 1979. The newly opened tourist route is also aimed at promoting the places in which the couple had lived.

One of Sanmao's most celebrated works is about her love story and adventures with her husband, who died in a diving accident in 1979 in La Palma, where he was later buried.

In 1991, Sanmao hanged herself in a hospital in Taipei after a cancer scare and losing the Hong Kong movie award for her script to the film Red Dust.

Quero Ruiz's grave as well as the couple's residences on both islands are preserved till today and are open to the public. The sites have attracted a growing number of Chinese tourists in recent years, which is why local authorities have decided to design the route.

"At first I was curious because I always saw a lot of Chinese travelers visiting a normal house on our island, (and) many of them left letters in front of the house," Vanoostende told Xinhua.

"I asked them why and they told me that is where Sanmao had lived, a writer who affected their lives deeply," She said. "(Then) I started reading her works. I really liked her ideas of love, traveling and freedom."

Ines Jimenez Martin, counselor of tourism of Gran Canaria, said since "millions of Chinese people know the Canary Islands through Sanmao's book, we want them to be able to relive and experience the life of Sanmao in Gran Canaria."
At a time when Chinese literature and culture is going global, efforts should also be made to look inward at the diversity and complexity of the literature and culture contributed by those from the country's many minority ethnic groups.

This was one of the points that emerged from the Seminar on the Translation and Popularization of Multi-Ethnic Literature held at Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU) on Jan. 20.

The event attracted nearly 30 experts, including writers of different ethnic groups, as well as professionals in literature, translation and publishing, to discuss the current status and development of such literature and the challenges involved in popularizing them in China and beyond.

The literature of the minority ethnic groups in China is an indispensable part of Chinese literature, adding more charm to the Chinese literature family, said Ye Mei, executive vice president of Chinese Minority Writers' Society and also a writer from the Tujia ethnic group.

Her comment on the role of the literature of minority ethnic groups evoked wide agreement among the seminar participants. Han Jinghui, a writer of the Mongolian ethnic group, also offered her elaboration on the importance of minority ethnic group literature drawing on her own writing experiences, saying minority ethnic group literature works based on real experiences reflect the life of minority ethnic groups, touch on the psychological changes they have undergone,and stand as an epitome of the historical changes of minority society.

Despite its widely-acknowledged importance, Xu Zhongzhi, deputy director of the management committee of China Writer Publishing Group, pointed to the unbalanced and insufficient publicity and popularization of minority ethnic group literature, thus demonstrating the significance of dialogue and discussion on this topic.

The discussion sponsored by Chinese Culture Translation & Studies Support Network (Sino-Foreign Cultural Translation and Cooperation Platform), Chinese Minority Writers' Society, Belt and Road Chinese Culture Education, the International Exchange Fund and BLCU, also featured the establishment of a bookshelf for minority ethnic group literature in the university and the launch of a "Communication Camp for Chinese and Foreign Writers".

The university will set up a special bookshelf for minority ethnic group literature to accommodate books donated by minority writers like Zhao Yanbiao, Xing An, Guan Shengli, Han Jinghui and Yang Yumei as well as minority ethnic group literature journals published in the languages of different ethnic groups in China.

Meanwhile, sinologists, translators, professors, writers, publishers and other related experts will be invited to the camp, where they will be encouraged to discover and create works on China, and also communicate and cooperate with Chinese writers and publishers on literature and culture.

According to Xu, as pioneering and innovative steps for minority ethnic group literature to go global, the bookshelf and the camp are moves to promote minority ethnic group literature domestically and abroad.

He said that the bookshelf should attract more readers in the country to get to know about the contributions and creativity of the literary cause, especially Chinese and international students studying at BLCU, a university which boasts the most international students in China.

The camp, meanwhile, will become a platform to promote Chinese and foreign communication in literature and culture, helping the outside world to know what life is like in China, and what the Chinese people are doing, and help to popularize Chinese literature and culture and contribute to more literary works.

"Literary works are the most efficient way to understand the spirit, life and thoughts of a nation," said Jidi Majia, vice president of Chinese Writers Association, emphasizing that different from media reports, literature is a more vivid choice in getting to know the country.
Wang Chuanfu, chairman and president of BYD Auto Co., Ltd., the leading Chinese automaker and new energy technology company, told China.org.cn that the SkyRail is a solution to growing urban congestion.

Wang Chuanfu, president and chairman of Chinese automaker BYD, speaks to China.org.cn reporter in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Jan. 10, 2018. [Photo provided to China.org.cn]





BYD has just unveiled the world's first monorail, named BYD SkyRail, with a 100 percent independently developed unmanned driving system in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, northwest China, on Jan. 10.

The system, a BYD innovation, is combined with Huawei's proprietary 4.5G eLTE technology to offer seamless connectivity which allows data to be transmitted securely - all the while ensuring a safe ride for passengers.

"We want to use technology to improve the way people live, " Wang said, adding that the combination of Huawei's state-of-the-art 4.5G technology with autonomous SkyRail makes the vehicle "smarter," more efficient and even more reliable.

Hundreds of government officials, experts, guests and reporters took a ride on the smoothly running monorail to experience a unique press conference inside the train compartment. At the end of the event, the beautiful landscapes could be enjoyed from the windows.

"When you take the subway, you go underground. A packed train, dark outside with annoying noise  which is what you will get in a metropolis. But with the SkyRail, as it is above the ground, you can enjoy the life, cityscape and nature with fewer passengers and less noise," the chairman described his vision, "We want to exploit innovative technologies to meet people's yearning for a better life."

SkyRail, the elevated straddle monorail, has been under development for five years with a 1,000-strong R&D crew and a five-billion-yuan budget. The vehicle now comes complete with the most technically advanced automated driving system, meaning it is fully autonomous and capable of performing safety critical driving functions.

It embodies several "smart" functions including the ability to switch to a back-up battery in the event of a power outage, auto-problem diagnosis, an automated tracking of passenger flows and a facial recognition system. It is also capable of operating under extreme weather conditions ranging from -40 to 80 degree Celsius.

The BYD SkyRail train runs on the monorail track in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Jan. 10, 2018. [Photo provided to China.org.cn]





"We should build a city on tracks rather than one on wheels," Wang espoused. Since its establishment in 1995, BYD has developed solid expertise in rechargeable batteries. It has successfully expanded its renewable energy solutions in over 50 countries and regions, with operations including new energy cars, electric minibuses, monorail and more.

"More new energy cars can help control vehicle exhaust emissions in a city, but what about the traffic jam? About 28 million vehicles are sold every year but we don't have the same growth rate for roads," he stated.

Wang is targeting second-, third- and fourth-tier cities as: "They have a medium-range volume of passengers, so monorail is the best option for them," Wang pointed out, "They don't have to build subways, which is expensive and unnecessary. I can give you five monorails for one subway with the same budget.

Twenty cities have approached BYD for possible SkyRail installments and so far the company has also signed deals with domestic cities of Yinchuan, Shantou, Shenzhen, Guang'an and Jining, as well as Iloilo in the Philippines, Alexandria of Egypt and Morocco as well.
The launching ceremony of Belt and Road Demonstration Project Award was held at People's Daily Headquarters, Beijing on Jan. 19, 2018.



The Editor-in-Chief of People's Daily Online Yu Qingchu welcomed the guests and informed that this is the largest website in China, having 35 local and 11 overseas branches with 2800 employees. He said that the purpose of this forum is to share the Chinese vision of Belt and Road Initiative with international audience.

Ambassador of Pakistan Masood Khalid thanked People's Daily for their support to Pakistan and Pakistani media over the years.

Ambassador emphasized the importance of Belt and Road Initiative, its hallmarks being connectivity and win-win co-operation, for bringing the region and world together for a shared future. He said that Pakistan and China's partnership is not only confined to China Pakistan Economic Corridor but this forum shall further promote the media interaction of the two countries media being pivotal for bringing communities closer.

Song Liyun, vice editor-in-chief of People's Daily Online and Miao Yixiang, director of State Council SASAC Press Centre were also present on the occasion.
China urged the United States to view China's military construction rationally and objectively amid a new report claiming China and Russia as the top threats to the US military, the Defense Ministry said on Saturday.





"China is a strategic competitor using predatory economics to intimidate its neighbors while militarizing features in the South China Sea," according to unclassified pages of the 2018 US National Defense Strategy published on Friday.





Senior Colonel Ren Guoqiang, the Defense Ministry spokesman, responded in a statement on Saturday, saying the US report hypes Chinese threats, is full of false assertions regarding competition and is another report overflowing with Cold War mentality after the National Security Strategy Report was published in December.





"China resolutely follows the path of peaceful development and upholds a defensive national defense policy," Ren said, adding China does not seek military expansion or a sphere of influence.





"China has and always will be a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a protector of international order," he said. "Unlike countries who seek global dominance, China is not interested in dominance, so the label of seeking global dominance cannot be forced upon China."





In addition, he said, "China peacefully building necessary defense facilities in the South China Sea is within the rights of its sovereignty, yet some countries do not like the current peaceful development in the region and keep hyping up Chinese military threats."





On Wednesday, US guided missile destroyer USS Hopper entered waters around China's Huangyan Island without authorization. The Chinese Navy quickly dispatched CNS Huangshan guided missile frigate to identify the US vessel and warned it to leave, the Defense Ministry said on Saturday.





"Those countries who take 'freedom of navigation' as a way of flexing muscles and stirring troubles are the real causes of militarization in the region," Ren said.





"Peace and progress are the trend of the era, and we sincerely hope the US can abandon its Cold War mentality, and follow the big trend of the time," Ren said.





"We urge the US military to view China's defense and military construction rationally and objectively, fulfill the important consensus reached by the top leaders from both countries, and become a stable factor for Sino-US relations."





The Chinese embassy in Washington also responded to the US report in a statement on Friday evening, saying people are destined to see confrontation if they view the world through a Cold War, zero-sum game mindset.





"We hope that the US can align itself with the trend of the world and the will of the people, and put the world and China-US relations into the perspective of cooperation," the embassy said.





Teng Jianqun, director of the Department of American Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, said the new report represents a strategic shift by the US from tackling global issues such as terrorism and climate change to focusing on buttressing American interests and influence.





"Reports with similar Cold War rhetoric have emerged so many times since the Trump administration took office that it has become cliche," he said. "Competitions between China and the US are inevitable, but what is more important is to look forward and find new grounds to build cooperation."





Douglas Paal, vice-president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the new report "appears to be a pastiche of slogans masquerading as a strategy."





"What I see is a wish list for ways to regain global dominance without a road map to get there," he added.




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South Korean authorities on Sunday informed the Chinese Embassy of the discovery of a likely Chinese fishing vessel which capsized near Baengnyeong Island, Incheon, South Korea, and found three dead people, according to the Department of Consular Affairs of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Chinese embassy said it has asked Seoul to search for other crew members and identify them.

Three dead crew members have been found, but the nationality of the vessel and of the crew members have not yet been identified.

The Chinese Embassy said it will continue to monitor the situation.
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At least 18 people have been killed, including 14 foreign nationals, in a deadly attack on the Intercontinental hotel in Afghanistan's capital Kabul, a spokesman of the Afghan Interior Ministry said on Sunday.

All five attackers were also killed during the gunfight with Afghan security forces.

A 12-hour siege following Saturday night's attack ended on Sunday.

Spokesman Najib Danish told local Tolo News TV that those among the killed were four Afghans and 14 foreign nationals.

Kam Air, a local airline, said earlier that 11 of its foreign staff were killed in the hotel attack claimed by Taliban, adding that several local staff of the company were among the casualties.

The siege started Saturday night after five Taliban suicide bombers stormed the six-storey luxury hotel overlooking the city.

A total of 12 people were also injured in the attack.

The Taliban militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack.




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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urged political parties to advance debate on amending Japan's Constitution while calling for friendly ties with China, on the first day of a 150-day regular session convened Monday.

In his policy address on the first day of the session, the Japanese leader referred to the Constitution as narrating the future shape of the country.

"We will be creating our nation, looking ahead 50 years or 100 years. It is the Constitution that narrates the shape and ideal form of the country," Abe said of the politically and socially divisive issue.

He called on all parties to formulate structured plans on the topic and for debate on the issue, which, if it were to come to fruition, would be the first-ever post-war amendment to the Constitution since it took effect in 1947.

For Abe to achieve his career-goal of amending Japan's supreme law, specifically a key war-renouncing clause that restricts the activities of Japan's Self-Defense Forces (SDF), a two-thirds majority would be required in both chambers of the parliament and a simple majority in a national referendum thereafter.

On points of diplomacy, the Japanese premier described Japan and China as being "inseparable" and said he "will seek to meet the expectations of the international community by developing friendly relations with China in a stable manner."

Abe said that with China's Belt and Road Initiative in mind, Japan will cooperate with China on Asia's growing infrastructural needs.

With this year marking the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Japan-China Peace and Friendship Treaty, the Japanese leader pledged to realize reciprocal visits by him and Chinese President Xi Jinping "as soon as possible."

Abe also said he hoped to hold a trilateral summit including South Korea with the aim of deepening relations for a new era.

In his address, Abe also reiterated the Japan-U.S. alliance as being the cornerstone of Japan's diplomacy and security, while stating that over the past year his relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump had been one of personal trust.

In terms of domestic issues, Abe said labor reforms were front and center in terms of governmental action points, as were measures to combat the nation's aging and shrinking society, phenomena he described as a "national crisis."

With revenue from a planned consumption tax hike slated for October next year, the prime minister said Japan's social security system would be overhauled to benefit all sections of society, including the younger generations with the introduction of largely free preschool education.




A German expert explains a point to his Chinese students. [Photo/WeChat account: taicangdaily]

The reason why Taicang is home to more than 260 German enterprises is not only its impressive supporting facilities, but also the professional talents the city trains for them through its dual vocational training system.

The Secondary Vocational School of Taicang introduced the dual system from Germany, where it is the commonest form of vocational training, in 2001.

"Dual" in this context means a combination of practical, on-the-job training and theoretical education at a vocational school, ensuring a proper balance of theory and practice.

The school cooperated with Kern-Liebers, the first German enterprise in the city, in establishing the Taicang German Enterprises Technician training center in 2001, and has since developed two kinds of training systems based on its own requirements.

The first involves cooperation between the Secondary Vocational School and a leading enterprise. The school is responsible for general knowledge, professional theory and part of the practical skills training while the enterprise trains students in practical skills by offering internship positions.

The second requires cooperation between the school and middle and small-sized enterprises. The approach is similar to the first one except that a training center is co-founded by the school and the enterprises.

In both systems the school and enterprises invest a certain amount of money to keep training equipment in good condition or replace outdated equipment.

The parties jointly work out training targets, including students' short-term employment hopes and their career goals in ten years, and relevant courses are then formulated.

Teachers at the school are all trained in the systematic teaching method of German vocational education and the company trainers are all highly qualified.

Besides the Taicang German Enterprises Technician Training Center, five other training centers have been established in Taicang to date, including the Schaeffler (China) Training Center, the German Bavarian Technician Training Center, the European and American Enterprise Training Center and the Haering (Taicang) Training Center.
China-ASEAN Workshop on Digital Economy opens in Chongqing Updated: 2018-01-22 chinadaily.com.cn

The opening ceremony of the China-ASEAN Workshop on Digital Economy was held in Liangjiang New Area in Chongqing on Jan 17, discussing topics relating to information, communications, and digital economy.

Representatives from information and communications departments in seven ASEAN countries, including Cambodia and Thailand, as well as experts and entrepreneurs in the communications industry in Chongqing attended the event.

"In the information era, data has become a means of production and digital economy is a driver of economic growth and industry transformation," said Chen Jinqiao, deputy chief engineer of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.

Chen also noted that "Developing digital economy is now a national strategy."

The three-day event saw attendees discussing five major topics including information and communication technology, digital economy, big data, and cyber security.

An opening ceremony is held for the China-ASEAN Workshop on Digital Economy. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

There was particular focus on developing Chongqing's digital economy and broadband communications as well as improving telecommunications in local rural areas.

Participants also explored the development trajectory of information and communication technologies.

In 2016, China's digital economy had a total value of 22.58 trillion yuan ($3.51 trillion), ranking second in the world and accounting for 30.3 percent of the country's total GDP.

Liu Ziping, deputy head of the International Department of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, delivers a speech at the China-ASEAN Workshop on Digital Economy. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Liangjiang New Area is carrying out an innovation-driven strategic development plan to stimulate the digital economy and will begin construction on the Liangjiang Digital Economy Industrial Park.

It is expected that by 2020 the park will be home to 3,000 companies and 30 leading enterprises, with a total industrial output worth 40 billion yuan ($6.22 billion).

Liangjiang has made great strides to build itself into a smart city, becoming the main driving force behind the development of digital economy and a gathering place for high-tech talents and companies.
Yesterday, Bolivias evangelical leaders led a national day of prayer and fasting in response to their socialist government making evangelism a crime.

That same Sunday, their president went on TV to answer their prayers.

President Evo Morales Ayma announced that he will tell the South American nations Legislative Assembly to repeal the entire penal code in the wake of recent changes that, among other tweaks, introduced severe restrictions on religious freedom.

We have decided to repeal the Criminal Code to avoid confusion and so the Right stops conspiring and doesnt have arguments to generate destabilization in the country, with disinformation and lies, he tweeted. We are going to listen to the proposals of all the sectors that observe the code. The National Government will never approve norms against the Bolivian people.

He also went on state television to confirm the announcement, one that fell on the 12th anniversary of his becoming the Andean nations first indigenous leader.

I don't want to keep using Banzers Code, said Morales, referring to the system put in place by former dictator and president Hugo Banzer. I ask the assembly  to rapidly advance a new code. Im almost positive there will be a few changes and modifications to the articles.

Authorized last month, the amendments to the penal code criminalized evangelism alongside terrorism. Article 88 stated that whoever recruits, transports, deprives of freedom, or hosts people with the aim of recruiting them to take part in armed conflicts or religious or worship organizations will be penalized 5 to 12 years of imprisonment, according to a translation by Evangelical Focus, a media initiative of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance.

The amendments to the code had also permitted abortion during the first eight weeks of pregnancy and expanded punishment of recklessness, negligence, malpractice in all careersworrying professionals from doctors to journalists.

Image: ANDEB

As CT noted last week, many Christians spoke out about the harmful effects that could come from these changes. Members of FIAJC (the Inter-American Federation of Christian Lawyers) have been visiting Bolivian embassies in a number of Latin American countries, delivering a public notice warning of the religious freedom dangers posed by the new penal code.

We are mobilizing throughout Latin America with our lawyers from FIAJC and we will keep following the developments in Bolivia and seeking dialogue in defense of religious liberty in the country, said FIAJCs president Uziel Santana.

The Baptist World Alliance also spoke out against the law, noting its 50-year-plus partnership with the Bolivian Baptist Union.

The ambiguity of these laws could lead to unintended restrictions on religious freedom and to the direct persecution of churches and individuals of faith, wrote Elijah M. Brown, BWA general secretary, in a letter to Bolivias Legislative Assembly.  I join with our Baptist partners in asking for a modification or repeal of this law.

The Religious Liberty Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance sent out a prayer alert encouraging readers to ask God that Moraless government would withdraw the new penal code provision and protect and promote religious freedoms in Bolivia.

Pray for the leaders and leaders of our country that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness, stated the National Association of Evangelicals in Bolivia (ANDEB) on Facebook, quoting 1 Timothy 2:2 in encouraging Sundays prayer and fasting.

Moraless tweets said little about religious freedom, but did lash out at critics who had protested the laws crackdowns on freedom of expression.

They say that the code would restrict free expression but under our management, 1,050 new media companies were registered; they say that we would restrict the right to form a union when we registered 4,833 new unions in the country, the president tweeted. Enough with the lies from the Right!

In 2013, CT noted how Bolivia was imposing an animist worldview on its Christian churches.
January 22 marks the 45th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that decriminalized abortion. What has changed in those 45 years? Well, not a lot. After peaking in 1980, the abortion rate has been on a slow, steady decline (although its heartbreaking that in 2014, 1 in 5 pregnancies ended in abortion). While the reasons for the overall decline are debated, one thing hasnt changed much: public opinion on the issue.

According to the most recent Gallup poll, half of Americans say abortion should be legal only under certain circumstances, while 29 percent say it should be legal in all circumstances, and 18 percent say it should be illegal in all circumstances. These percentages have moved very little in four decades of polling.

Charles Camosy, an ethics professor at Fordham University, points out that despite the fact that 7 in 10 Americans would like abortion to be illegal after 12 weeks, the pro-life/pro-choice binary reinforced by media coverage makes it even more difficult for Americans on both sides to move toward areas they agree on.

What will it take to move past the abortion stalemate?

We might look to the method of persuasion used by Paul in Acts 17, a passage cited often in Christian apologetics. Here, Paul presents the gospel to the Greek philosophers gathered before pagan shrines at Mars Hill in Athens. He begins, not with words of Scripture, but with words of writers familiar to his audience: As even some of your own poets have said After quoting these lines from pagan poetry, Paul then goes on to point to the one true God who fulfills the truth sought by those poets.

Christian apologists today describe this approach as literary apologetics, which recognizes the role imagination plays in the human desire to seek and find truth. Holly Ordway, a professor at Houston Baptist University and a scholar of literary apologetics, explains in her book Apologetics and the Christian Imagination:

Both reason and imagination are modes of communicating and encountering truth; imaginative apologetics seeks to harness the God-given faculty of imagination to work in cooperation with reason, to open a way for the work of the Holy Spirit and guide the will toward a commitment to Christ.

Reason and imagination are both crucial to understanding truth and also applying truth to the moral life. Reason explains what morality is while imagination conveys its feel or form. Art and literature are superb transmitters of the moral imagination, a concept defined as the intuitive ability to perceive ethical truths and abiding law in the midst of chaotic experience.

The power of the moral imagination helps explain why so many artists express ethical truths that they may not stand for in their personal or political lives. This moral imagination can be seen at work in poetry about abortion written by some of our greatest poets, some of whom have staunchly advocated for abortion rights.

The poet Alice Walker, for example, gave a poetic address in 1989 at the National March for Womens Equality and Womens Lives in Washington. Her words in favor of abortion rights can be seen, ironically, as confirmation of reasons to oppose abortion.

Walkers speech begins with a question that she repeats throughout the speech: What can the white man say to the black woman? She responds,

For four hundred years he ruled over the black womans womb. Let us be clear. In the barracoons and along the slave shipping coasts of Africa, for more than twenty generations, it was he who dashed our babies brains out against the rocks. What can the white man say to the black woman? For four hundred years he determined which black womans children would live or die.  Abortion, for many women, is more than an experience of suffering beyond anything most men will ever know; it is an act of mercy, and an act of self-defense  What can the white man say to the black woman? Only one thing that the black woman might hear. Yes, indeed, the white man can say, Your children have the right to life. Therefore I will call back from the dead those 30 million who were tossed overboard during the centuries of the slave trade. And the other millions who died in my cotton fields and hanging from trees.

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Walker couldnt be more wrong than when she says abortion is an act of mercy. (The agent of death has simply changed from man to woman.) Yet, to read this speechto hear the pain and injustice behind the words, to recognize the sin that wrought such painis to understand why an idea like this could be so seductive. As pro-life people, we cannot hope to persuade others to choose life unless we acknowledge the depth of pain and injustice that the poet conveys so devastatingly here.

Another poet, Pulitzer Prize winner Sharon Olds, whose verse is well-known for both raw sexuality and pro-choice politics, is surprisingly honest in her poem, The End. We decided to have the abortion, became / killers together, the poem begins. It then goes on to link that action with a car accident that occurs outside while the couple lies in bed talking about the abortion. What they see when they look out the window at the tragedy below is described in language startlingly similar to an abortion:

Cops pulled the bodies out

Bloody as births from the small, smoking

aperture of the door, laid them

on the hill, covered them with blankets that soaked

through.

The poem presents the pregnancy and the resulting abortion aslike the car crashserious, violent, fatal, yet mere accidents to be endured.

However, in another poem, The Unborn, Olds waxes longingly about the children she didnt have. The poem describes these unborn children as lying like love letters / In the Dead Letter Office and ends with a haunting picture:

 I can feel just one of them

Standing on the edge of a cliff by the sea

In the dark, stretching its arms out

Desperately to me.

Anne Sexton, another Pulitzer Prizewinning poet, writes frankly about abortion in a poem titled, simply, The Abortion. The poem begins with the honest and straightforward statement, Somebody who should have been born is gone, and continues, matter-of-factly,

Just as the earth puckered its mouth,

each bud puffing out from its knot,

I changed my shoes, and then drove south.

After describing what was likely an illegal abortion, the poem repeats elegiacallySomebody who should have been born is gonethen concludes on a note of self-recrimination:

Yes, woman, such logic will lead

to loss without death. Or say what you meant,

you coward ... this baby that I bleed.

The bell jar in poet Sylvia Plaths autobiographical novel of that title refers to the jars that hold preserved human fetuses in a medical lab. These jars come to symbolize the narrators feeling of being trapped by the restrictions imposed on her as a woman living in the mid-20th century. At the novels end, the narrator connects the foreshortened lives of these babies to her own life when, following her descent into madness, she says, To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is a bad dream.

By far, the most moving poem Ive encountered about abortion is Gwendolyn Brookss the mother. When I taught this poem last semester in my womens literature class, my students were moved to solemn silence as the emotional import of the poem sank in. It begins:

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Abortions will not let you forget You remember the children you got that you did not get 

The speaker regretfully describes the many things, both good and bad, that these aborted childrenand the motherwill never experience. Midway through, the mood deepens into a mournful lament:

I have heard in the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed children.

Then the speaker concludes by professing, pleadingly,

Believe me, I loved you all.

Believe me, I knew you, though faintly, and I loved, I loved you

All.

Advocates for legal abortion might march, they might chant, they might shout their abortions, but as their own poets say, beneath it all is a desire for mercy, justice, and love big enough to welcome and affirm all life. We need to listen to these poets. As we converse with them and other pro-choice advocates, we can draw on the moral desires latent in their imaginations. Only then we can point them to the One in whom we allas the Greek poets themselves wrotelive and move and have our being, born and unborn.

Karen Swallow Prior is a professor of English at Liberty University and a research fellow with the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. She is the author of Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me and Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More.
home World Christian publicly flogged in Indonesia's Aceh province for selling sharia-banned alcohol

An Indonesian Christian was publicly whipped on Friday after he was caught selling alcohol, which is banned under sharia law in the conservative Aceh province.

Jono Simbolon grimaced in pain as he was whipped on the back with a rattan stick on a makeshift stage outside a mosque in Banda Aceh.

According to Channel News Asia, Simbolon was the third non-Muslim to be flogged publicly since Aceh began implementing Islamic law after it was granted special autonomy in 2001.

Muslims in Aceh are subject to the legal code known as the Qanun religious law but Non-Muslims who have been charged with crimes can choose to be prosecuted either under the national system or under the religious law.

Simbolon, who was arrested last October for selling illegal alcohol, received 36 lashes as a result of his decision to be prosecuted under the religious law. Chief prosecutor Erwin Desman surmised that the Christian man may have chosen a flogging to avoid a lengthy criminal prosecution.

A doctor had to check Simbolon's condition after 10 canings to determine if he was fit for the flogging to continue.

Seven other men and two women were also caned that day after Friday prayers for offenses, including pimping, prostitution and gambling.

A masked religious officer caned an unmarried couple 20 times each for being too physically close to each other, which is seen as a prelude to banned pre-marital sex.

"This is our government's commitment to enforcing Islamic law," Banda Aceh Mayor Aminullah Usman said, as reported by Channel News Asia. "If there is a violation (of the law) immediately report it to the sharia police and we will carry out a punishment like today's caning," he went on to say.

Last year, two gay men who admitted having gay sex were publicly lashed 100 times each in Aceh, drawing heavy criticism from rights groups. Gay sex, however, is not banned in the rest of the country, which mainly follows a criminal code inherited from former colonial ruler the Netherlands.

Aceh, which is the only province in Indonesia that implements sharia, was granted autonomy in an apparent attempt by the government in Jakarta to quell a long-running separatists insurgency. Islamic laws have been strengthened in the province since it struck a peace deal with Jakarta in 2005.

The 2005 peace deal granted Aceh the right to be the only Indonesian province to use Islamic sharia law as its legal code on the condition that the province remained part of the sprawling archipelago.

The legal code set out punishment for sex crimes, unmarried people engaging in displays of affection, people found guilty of adultery and underage sex. A number of those who were publicly flogged have collapsed on stage due to the severity of the injuries.

More than 90 percent of Indonesia's population of 255 million identify as Muslims, but the vast majority practice a moderate form of the faith.
The search for five missing workers resumed near the site of a the fiery explosion of a drilling rig in eastern Oklahoma.

Three of missing workers were employed by the rig's owner, the Houston contract driller Patterson-UTI Energy.

The explosion cut through the Patterson-UTI rig just before 9 a.m. Monday, according to Oklahoma authorities. More than 20 people were working at the well site when the explosion occurred west of Quinton, about 100 miles southeast of Tulsa, authorities said.

Authorities said 16 people escaped the explosion without major injuries. One person was airlifted to a hospital.

The fire was extinguished Monday night, authorities said. The cause of the blast is still unknown.

"At this moment, no one knows with certainty what happened and it would be unwise to speculate," Andy Hendricks, Patterson-UTI's chief executive, said in a statement. "Well control experts and emergency responders are on site and we will conduct a thorough investigation when the incident is fully contained. "

Hendricks said the company was providing support to the families of the missing, whose names have not been released.

"There is nothing more important to us than the safety of our employees and others we partner with in the field, "Hendricks said. "Tonight, our thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected and their loved ones."

The intense fire prevented investigators from getting to the scene to confirm any fatalities, said a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma medical examiner's office. Authorities earlier searched the surrounding woods to see if anyone had fled into the area

Aerial footage showed several fires were still burning by midday on the rig and much of the equipment had collapsed to the ground, the Associated Press reported.

"Pretty much everything that is on location is on fire," said Pittsburg County Emergency Management Director Kevin Enloe during an afternoon news conference.

Patterson-UTI has grown in recent years into one of the nation's largest onshore drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, companies. Patterson-UTI has about 25 drilling rigs active in Oklahoma, second only to Texas, where it has nearly 60 rigs in operation.

The incident occurred at the site of one of Patterson-UTI's more modern APEX 1500 rigs, described as a "light, safe, and efficient rapid deployment rig."

Confirmation of any fatalities won't be possible until the fire is extinguished and investigators can get to the scene of the explosion, said Amy Elliott, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma medical examiner's office. Authorities said they are still searching the surrounding woods to see if anyone had fled into the area

The drilling site was operated by Red Mountain Operating Oklahoma City-based, said Matt Skinner, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates oil and gas operators in the state. Red Mountain did not immediately comment.

Skinner said the company has not had any incidents or complaints in the last five years.

Jordan Blum of the Houston Chronicle and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Houston police are investigating a drive-by shooting Sunday afternoon outside a grocery store in southeast Houston.

Two people in a dark-colored car fired shots at two men who were standing in the store's parking lot, hitting one of them in the knee, according to the police.

Police were called to the Payless Super Market at 6901 Martin Luther King about 2:30 p.m., where they found the men who had been shot.

One of the wounded men, 24-year-old Kedrick Howard, suffered a graze wound to the head and was treated on the spot by paramedics.

The other, later identified as 26-year-old Leonard Jasmine, was shot in the knee and rushed to Ben Taub Hospital in stable condition.

Police had no description of the suspects.
Texas Southern University on Monday announced it had received a five year, $2.7 million grant to put toward research stipends, scholarships and data collection in a new criminal justice center.

The grant, from the Koch Foundation-backed, D.C.-based Center for Advancing Opportunity, creates the center, which will be devoted to criminal justice research at the historically black university in an effort to create policy solutions to reform efforts.

Administrators expect researchers to partner with local Houston law enforcement agencies, including the district attorney's office.

"We've got to go to work," said Howard Henderson, an administration of justice professor at TSU, adding that research can help build an "equitable" criminal justice system. To his students, he said, "all of this is really for you."

Henderson will be the center's director.

It's the largest grant TSU President Austin Lane has nabbed since taking office in 2016. The proposal had support from Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, and District Attorney Kim Ogg, both Democrats.

Both said university research will be important tools in solving complex issues, like mass incarceration.

"You're trained to analyze the data we're so busy creating," Ogg said. "Many times we don't have the hindsight (or) foresight to look at it."

Jackson Lee, in an interview after TSU's press conference, said the university is the right fit for the center because, as a historically black college it has long opened doors for vulnerable populations.

"It is a symbol of a place where we correct ill," she said. "We can be a very effective tool with this grant to impact not only state and local legislation...we can also impact the national story, the national matrix."

The Center for Advancing Opportunity was created in 2017 by the Koch Foundation-backed Thurgood Marshall College Fund to support faculty at historically black colleges and universities who research education, criminal justice and entrepreneurship.

Money from the Center for Advancing Opportunity can finance on-campus programming, scholarships, research and polling and original research, like the campus research center announced Monday at TSU.

Winston-Salem State University similarly received a $3 million grant to study barriers to economic mobility in North Carolina.

The Koch brothers have long funded conservative political candidates. Lane, who since becoming president has seen campus protests block two Republican politicians from speaking, said he has heard no pushback regarding the source of the money.

Many recognize that external research dollars are key to research, he said.

Jackson Lee said criminal justice is an issue on which people across the ideological spectrum can collaborate.

TSU's location in Houston and pledged partnerships with law enforcement agencies made it an appealing choice to house such a center, said Gerard Robinson, the executive director of the Center of Advancing Opportunity.

Lane said the grant will support the research fully and will create a center for anyone to use to learn about mass incarceration or recidivism.

"So many problems have to be researched and addressed," he said. "Many times, people come from an emotional standpoint...we're coming from more of a research standpoint."
And while marchers clearly targeted Trump and the male-centric policies and efforts in D.C., Seattle marchers also pointed out the bigger picture of women rising. The SeattlePI wrote:

A preoccupation with Trump was evident throughout the throng, many of whom carried homemade signs denouncing the president, including at least one sign labeling him as "Groper in Chief." But speaking before the march began, state Rep. Kristine Reeves said the event wasn't centered around any one person, not even the president.

"I'm not here to tell you that I'm standing here against Donald Trump," she said. "I'm here to tell you that I'm standing up for every kid who has to know that they can be anything they want to be in this country. I'm standing up today for every woman who knows that her rights are human rights. I'm standing up today for every black person in America who deserve to know that their lives matter.

"I'm standing up today because our country deserves better, and you're going to bring it."

Activist Aneelah Afzali highlighted Seattle's continued resistance to the Trump administration, including a huge demonstration at Sea-Tac International Airport after an executive order barred people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. before being defeated in court and eventually revoked.

"We have to keep pushing and pushing in a labor of love to birth a better future for all of us," Afzali said.
Dickinson Bayou mariners are free to use the waterway for boating, two days after a chemical spill forced the town to suspend all boating activity.

The Coast Guard reopened Dickinson Bayou to water traffic after "significant progress" was made in overnight cleanup efforts, according to the Dickinson Police Department.

Mariners are advised to move at slow speeds in the vicinity of work crews, with the spill isolated to one small area of the bayou. The Dickinson Bayou boat ramp will remain closed.

The police department determined that the chemical was a sulfonate solution that originated from the Calumet-Penreco plant upstream. Brittany Eck, a spokeswoman for the Texas General Land Office, said that the chemical is a non-flammable, non-corrosive hydrocarbon product used in drilling fluid.

Calumet-Penreco will be held liable for the cost of the cleanup, which is being handled by the General Land Office and Coast Guard.

Sgt. Tim Cromie, a spokesman for the police department, said that cleanup efforts are expected to be completed by the end of Monday. Floating booms will remain in place for the next several days to collect any residual product that may flush out from rocks or along the shoreline, with work crews inspecting those booms over the next several days.

Calumet Refining is currently conducting an internal investigation to determine the cause of the spill. The Texas General Land Office and U.S. Coast Guard are carrying out state and federal investigations.
BP is considering a bid for one of Italy's largest collection of solar assets, according to people familiar with the matter.

Private equity company Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd. will kick off the sale of Rete Rinnovabile Srl next month, the people said, asking not to be identified because they're not authorized to speak publicly. Rete Rinnovabile, known at RTR, is valued at about 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion) by Terra Firma.
SAN FRANCISCO - Creating a new bitcoin requires electricity. A lot of it.

In the virtual currency world this creation process is called "mining." There is no physical digging, since bitcoins are purely digital. But the computer power needed to create each digital token consumes at least as much electricity as the average American household burns through in two years, according to figures from Morgan Stanley and Alex de Vries, an economist who tracks energy use in the industry.

The total network of computers plugged into the bitcoin network consumes as much energy each day as some medium-size countries - which country depends on whose estimates you believe. And the network supporting Ethereum, the second-most valuable virtual currency, gobbles up another country's worth of electricity each day.

The energy consumption of these systems has risen as the prices of virtual currencies have skyrocketed, leading to a vigorous debate among Bitcoin and Ethereum enthusiasts about burning so much electricity.

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The creator of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, is leading an experiment with a more energy-efficient way to create tokens, in part because of his concern about the effect that the network's electricity use could have on global warming.

"I would personally feel very unhappy if my main contribution to the world was adding Cyprus' worth of electricity consumption to global warming," Buterin said in an interview.

But many virtual currency aficionados argue that the energy consumption is worth it for the grander cause of securing the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks and making a new kind of financial infrastructure, free from the meddling of banks or governments.

"The electricity usage is really essential," said Peter Van Valkenburgh, the director of research at Coin Center, a group that advocates for virtual currency technology. "Because of the costs, we know the only people participating are serious, that they are economically invested. That creates the incentives for cooperation."

This dispute has its foundations in the complex systems that produce tokens like bitcoin; ether, the currency on the Ethereum network; and many other new virtual currencies.

Ransoms: Criminals are dropping bitcoin for other currencies

All of the computers trying to mine tokens are in a computational race, trying to find a particular, somewhat random answer to a math algorithm. But the algorithm is so complicated that the only way to find the desired answer is to make lots of different guesses. The more guesses a computer makes, the better its chances of winning. But each time the computers try new guesses, they use computational power and electricity.

The process essentially encourages people to use lots of fast computers, and lots of electricity, to find the right answer and unlock the new bitcoins that are distributed every 10 minutes or so.

This process was defined by the original bitcoin software, released in 2009. The goal was to distribute new coins to people on the Bitcoin network without a central institution handing out the money.

Early on, it was possible to win the contest with just a laptop computer. But the rules of the network dictate that as more computers join in the race, the algorithm automatically adjusts to get harder, requiring anyone who wants to compete to use more computers and more electricity.

These days, the 12.5 bitcoins that are handed out every 10 minutes or so are worth about $145,000, so people have been willing to invest astronomical sums to participate in this race, which has in turn made the race harder. This explains why there are now enormous server farms around the world dedicated to mining bitcoins.

This process is central to bitcoin's existence because in the process of mining, all the computers are also serving as accountants for the Bitcoin network. The algorithm the computers solve requires them to also keep track of all the new transactions coming onto the network.

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The mining race is meant to be hard so that no one can dominate the accounting and fudge the records. In the 2008 paper that first described bitcoin, the mysterious creator of the virtual currency, Satoshi Nakamoto, wrote that the system was designed to thwart a "greedy attacker" who might want to alter the records and "defraud people by stealing back his payments." Because of the mining and accounting rules, the attacker "ought to find it more profitable to play by the rules."

The rules have kept attackers at bay in the nine years since the network got going. Without this process, most computer scientists agree, bitcoin would not work.

But there is disagreement over the real value of bitcoin and the network that supports it.

For people who consider bitcoin nothing more than a speculative bubble - or a speculative bubble that has enabled online drug sales and ransom payments - any new contribution toward global warming is probably not worth it.

But bitcoin aficionados counter that it has allowed for the creation of the first financial network with no government or company in charge. In countries like Zimbabwe and Argentina, bitcoin has sometimes provided a more stable place to park money than the local currency. And in countries with more stable economies, bitcoin has led to a flurry of new investments, jobs and startup companies.

"Labeling bitcoin mining as a 'waste' is a failure to look at the big picture," Marc Bevand, a miner and analyst, wrote on his blog. The jobs alone, he added, "are a direct, measurable and positive impact that bitcoin already made on the economy."

But even some people who are interested in all that innovation have worried about the enormous electrical use.

De Vries, who keeps track of the use on the site Digiconomist, estimated that each bitcoin transaction currently required 80,000 times more electricity to process than each Visa credit card transaction, for example.

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"Visa is more centralized," de Vries said. "If you really distrust the financial system, maybe that is unattractive. But is that difference really worth the additional energy cost? I think for most people that is probably not worth the case."

The figures published by de Vries have been criticized by Bevand and other bitcoin fans, who say they overstate the energy costs by a factor of about three. Many critics add that producing and securing physical money and gold also require lots of energy, in some cases as much as or more than bitcoin uses.

Van Valkenburgh, of the Coin Center, has argued that bitcoin miners, who can do the work anywhere, have an incentive to situate themselves near cheap, often green energy sources, especially now that coal-guzzling China appears to be exiting the mining business. Several mining companies have opened server farms near geothermal energy in Iceland and hydroelectric power in Washington state.

But the concerns about electricity use have still hit home with many in the industry. The virtual currencies known as Ripple and Stellar, which were created after bitcoin, were designed not to require electrically demanding mining.

Perhaps the biggest change could come from the new mining process proposed by Buterin for Ethereum, a process that some smaller currencies are already using. Known as "proof of stake," it distributes new coins to people who are able to prove their ownership of existing coins - their stake in the system.

The current method, which relies so heavily on computational power, is called "proof of work." Under that method, the accounts and people who get new coins do not need existing tokens. They just need lots of computers to take part in the computational race.

Energy concerns are not the only factor encouraging the move. Buterin also believes that the new method, which is likely to be rolled out over the next year, will allow for a less centralized network of computers overseeing the system.

But it is far from clear that the method will be as secure as the one used by Bitcoin. Buterin has been fiercely attacked by bitcoin advocates, who say his proposal will lose the qualities that make virtual currencies valuable.

Van Valkenburgh said that for now, throwing lots of computing power into the mix - and the electricity that it burns - was the only proven solution to the problems bitcoin solves.

"At the moment, if you want robust security, you need proof of work," he said.
Houston Community College faculty urged observers not to hold the college in lower regard after former trustee Christopher Oliver was sentenced to nearly six years in prison after admitting to taking bribes in connection to college contract work.

A judge said in Oliver's sentencing hearing on Jan. 8 that he accepted about a quarter-million dollars in bribes in exchange for his influence over college contract work.

U.S. District Judge Vanessa D. Gilmore asked Oliver during the proceeding if his conduct was "standard procedure" for HCC trustees and if the college was a "cesspool."

In a resolution earlier this month, the faculty senate said Gilmore's comments in open court were "appalling" to many professors, though senate president Mohamad Tlass did not immediately respond to an emailed question on which remarks were "appalling."

"We must respond to any attempt that may generalize from this aberrant behavior to the entire institution," the resolution read. They called Oliver's actions "deplorable."

The professors said they are "justifiably proud" of HCC's programs and called the college "a central part" of Houston's economy.

"We serve over 50,000 students seeking knowledge, skills, inspiration, and the possibility of a better life," the resolution read, in part. "We would therefore ask that these factors be taken into consideration when passing judgment on our institution as a whole. We are your community college and we stand firm in defense of the work we do."

Oliver, 54, represented swaths of southwest Houston for the college system for more than 20 years.

He pleaded guilty in May 2017 to taking envelopes stuffed with cash and Visa gift cards  totaling about $12,000  from former HCC contractor Karun Sreerama, who was Mayor Sylvester Turner's public works director when Oliver's case was unsealed.
Houston ISD administrators have proposed dramatic changes to 15 low-performing schools that, if approved, could temporarily prevent the state from taking over the district's Board of Trustees or shuttering campuses.

In a bid to preempt state intervention and improve academic performance, the district is proposing two options for each of the 15 schools: either allow an outside organization to take control of hiring and curriculum, or close and immediately reopen the campus with entirely new staff and programming before the 2018-19 academic year.

Under the latter option, the campus would only serve limited grade levels in 2018-19  pre-kindergarten and kindergarten in elementary schools, sixth grade in middle schools and ninth grade in high schools. As a result, the majority of students at any close-and-reopen school would be displaced in 2018-19. Each campus would add one grade level in subsequent years.

The sweeping proposal, which remains in the early stages, comes as Houston ISD faces significant sanctions for its failure to improve chronically low-perfoming schools following the 2015 passage of a law known as HB 1842.

Under the law, the Texas Education Agency must close any school that receives five consecutive "improvement required" ratings for poor academic performance  a designation received by about 5 percent of schools annually  or take over the school district's Board of Trustees. Ten Houston ISD schools have received "improvement required" ratings in each of the past four years, putting them at risk of triggering HB 1842 this summer.

A separate law, known as SB 1882, gives districts a short-term reprieve from punishment if they form partnerships with nonprofits, higher education institutions or charter schools. Houston ISD Superintendent Richard Carranza said the district is exploring partnerships with nonprofits, colleges and universities, which would allow the district to retain local control over the school board. Charter schools aren't being considered, he said.

"It seems like we're threading the needle in a way that will satisfy lots of different requirements, but still feels authentic to who we are," Carranza said of the proposal.

HoustonChronicle.com: Houston ISD proposes dramatic changes to school funding, magnets

All 10 of the schools that must improve to avoid punishment under HB 1842 are under consideration for partnerships or close-and-reopen plans, along with five other campuses that have been rated "improvement required" for consecutive years and could struggle to meet the state standard in the future. The ratings are largely based on whether schools meet targets for student performance and progress on state standardized tests. Several schools, for example, were rated "improvement required" because too few students passed the state's math, reading, writing, science and social studies tests.

The 15 campuses are Blackshear, Dogan, Highland Heights, Hilliard, Mading and Wesley elementary schools; Cullen, Henry and Lawson middle schools; Woodson PK-8; and Kashmere, Madison, North Forest, Wheatley and Worthing high schools. They combined to serve about 11,400 students last year.

Schools needing strengthening

District administrators haven't recommended which schools would employ partnerships or close-and-reopen. They are expected to present recommendations at a Feb. 1 board meeting, with community meetings planned throughout the month. Administrators are aiming for a board vote on the changes by early March.

The proposed changes will likely rattle parents and staff in the 15 schools, whose lives could be dramatically altered under the plan. Mading Elementary School parent Jeanette Tillery said it would be "a huge detriment" to her family if her son, a second-grader, was forced out of his home campus by a close-and-reopen decision

"My heart is just breaking to think that could even be a possibility," Tillery said. "Relationships are the big thing here. I feel like they actually care for us like we're not just a number."

Houston ISD leaders have the option of making no major changes to the 10 schools and hoping they all meet state standards this year, avoiding punishment from the state. But that would be risky given that a few schools would need to make monumental progress to meet state standards.

The district's chief academic officer, Grenita Lathan, said five additional schools are recommended for changes based on past academic performance and changes to the state's accountability system, which could make it more difficult to meet standards.

"I'm not saying today that they're not going to (meet state standards)," Lathan said. "I'm telling you, academically, we have some concerns and we need to strengthen their academic programming."

District officials are moving forward with the proposal as they await the Texas Education Agency's decision on whether to issue state accountability ratings to districts affected by Hurricane Harvey, including Houston ISD.

The state gave a one-year reprieve to districts affected by Hurricane Ike. A similar break would give Houston ISD an additional year to improve performance at the 10 long-failing schools before triggering the new state law.

Plans of action

Both options for revamping schools would reshape campuses.

If a school forms a partnership, the outside organization would take complete control over curriculum, governance and hiring decisions. Current staff members would remain Houston ISD employees, retaining their contracts and benefits.

District officials haven't said which organizations would be considered for partnerships. At close-and-reopen schools, all staff members would be automatically replaced  even though some of the 15 campuses underwent staffing overhauls this year in an effort to improve student performance.

District administrators said they would plan to shuffle staff members currently at close-and-reopen schools into other positions.

"We want to be really clear that we're not going to be wholesale firing teachers and getting rid of people," Carranza said.Closure-restart schools would also have a new curriculum or theme.

District administrators didn't offer specific examples under consideration.



EDUCATION: State takeover, campus closures a threat if 10 schools don't improve

It's also not immediately clear whether accommodations would be made for students who could no longer attend their current school, given that those campuses would only serve grades pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, sixth and ninth grades in 2018-19.

Houston ISD Board President Rhonda Skillern-Jones, whose district includes eight of the 15 schools, said she's withholding judgment on the proposal until she receives more specifics. She said she supports partnerships over closing and reopening schools, adding that the district would need to select reputable partners.

"I'm not opposed if it's something that looks like it's for the kids," Skillern-Jones said. "For me, it's not about avoiding takeover. It's about making the best academic decision for the kids. Until I know specifics, there's not a whole lot of commentary."

In addition to changes at the 15 schools, Houston ISD administrators are navigating a $200 million budget shortfall and dramatic restructuring of the district's magnet and school choice programs.The district is still reeling from Hurricane Harvey, which caused extensive damage to schools and delayed the start of classes by at least two weeks.
Federal officials have approved emergency assistance for fewer than half of the Texans who applied after Hurricane Harvey, according to an analysis by a nonprofit group.

Advocates for disaster survivors, meanwhile, are pressing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to release more detailed data to help monitor the allocation of billions of dollars in long-term recovery funds. A draft plan for using some of that money was released last week, with public comments due by Feb. 1.

Across a swath of Texas from Corpus Christi to Beaumont, 45 percent of homeowners and 36 percent of renters had been approved for assistance as of Jan. 8, according to an analysis by Texas Housers, an Austin-based nonprofit focused on the housing needs of poor Texans. The disparity can be explained in part by the fact that renters are not eligible for repair funds, but can get other types of help.

More recent data provided by FEMA to the Houston Chronicle shows that 895,342 Texans had registered for assistance as of Jan. 19. Forty-one percent had been approved and 31 percent deemed ineligible. The remaining applications had been withdrawn, were pending with FEMA, were awaiting an insurance determination or had been referred to the Small Business Administration for a possible loan.

FEMA stopped accepting applications Nov. 30.

The Texas Housers analysis represents an effort to determine where the greatest needs remain nearly five months after Harvey struck Texas, destroying thousands of homes and businesses with punishing winds and record-breaking floods.

Officials signaled a shift from emergency response to long-term recovery last week, when the Texas General Land Office released a draft plan for spending $57.8 million  the first batch in the billions in federal money expected to pour into the state in coming months.

The fact that most applicants have not been approved reflects two key concerns among hurricane survivors and their advocates: the slow pace of completing inspections, and the possibility that deserving applicants are being rejected unfairly.

After a disaster like Harvey, FEMA contractors hire inspectors to document housing damage or other issues, such as personal property losses, that may qualify an applicant for assistance. FEMA determines eligibility based in part on the inspectors' findings.

Federal officials deny assistance when an applicant is deemed ineligible, a decision based on many possible factors.

Many people misunderstand eligibility rules but apply anyway. FEMA cannot duplicate benefits, for example, yet some people seek government help even if they have insurance to cover the damage, said agency spokesman Robert Howard.

Other cases are harder to explain.

Malberth Moses, 60, a Houston carpenter, recently told the Texas House Urban Affairs Committee that FEMA denied him assistance to repair his house after Harvey's rains "poured down so much water that the house started to sink."

Moses said he had been unable to work since Harvey because he lost his car and his tools. He said he had to move into a motel because of the damage to his home.

But Moses said the FEMA inspector "told me that this is an existing problem."

"I don't understand that, because the house was livable before . . . Harvey came through," Moses said.

FEMA generally does not comment on individual applicants.

Among the other findings of the Texas Housers analysis:

 Applications for help from residents of the Houston-Galveston area accounted for 73 percent of the statewide total. About 40 percent of the requests from this area had been approved.

 Almost $1.5 billion in assistance had been awarded as of Jan. 8. About 58 percent of this sum had been used for home repair or replacement, 20 percent for rental assistance and 22 percent for other needs.

 Owners have received 84 percent of the assistance, compared to 16 percent for renters. The proportion going to renters ranged from a low of 5 percent in the Brazos Valley to 31 percent in the region around Victoria.

The report said the information provided by FEMA and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development would be more useful if it were more specific. FEMA provides data at the ZIP code level, and HUD at the census block group level.

Henneberger said Texas Housers wants FEMA to release data at the household level, without disclosing names. This would give planners a better understanding of factors such as the income levels of those seeking help, he said.

"It's our contention, and I think it's plainly evident, that if the public doesn't have access to the data about where the claims are, and doesn't have detailed data about the nature of the claims, it's impossible for the public to comment on how they're going to spend the money," he said.

FEMA spokesman Robert Howard said federal privacy laws forbid disclosure of these details. Street addresses could be used to determine identities, Howard said.
Three young children were found early Monday after being kidnapped in a stolen vehicle overnight, Houston police said.

About 2 a.m., the black Honda CR-V was stolen from a Shell gas station at Beechnut and Beltway 8, in Houston's Chinatown area, when a mother left the car running to go inside to pay for gas, said Houston Police Department Lt. Larry Crowson. The children inside the car were 4, 7 and 8 years old.
UPDATE:

6:30 p.m.: Local media is reporting the Guadalupe County Sheriff's Office confirmed that Richard Jose Concepcion has died from his wounds.

Sheriff's office officials did not return phone calls Sunday night.

11:40 a.m.: San Antonio police report homicide suspect Richard Jose Concepcion is being treated for a self-inflicted gunshot wound after being found in Guadalupe County. His 18-month-old son, Aaron Joseph Concepcion, was found unharmed.

Police say that Richard Concepcion is in grave condition.

ORIGINAL STORY CONTINUES

A confrontation between an estranged couple ended in the death of a mother of three children and a manhunt for the father who police say fled with couple's 18-month-old son after shooting the woman, police say.

San Antonio police are searching for Richard Jose Concepcion, 37, who was last seen in a white 2016 Toyota Tundra, license plate GH58MH.

According to court records, Sarah Alexis Furey, 32, filed a petition to divorce Concepcion on Oct. 31, 2017.

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said officers were responding to a call Sunday morning about 8 a.m., to the 10400 block of Arbor Bluff, for assistance in a child exchange when the call changed to shots fired.

RELATED: Deadly night on San Antonio streets as three killed in separate wrecks

When police arrived at the home, they discovered Furey shot dead at the doorstep of the home.

According to an Amber Alert, the child is Aaron Joseph Concepcion. McManus said Concepcion may be in the Seguin area.

Concepcion's Tundra has a specialty "bronze star" license plate. McManus confirmed Concepcion is a veteran of the U.S. Army and that police have contacted area military bases.

According to the Facebook account belonging to Concepcion, a photo posted Saturday shows him holding a certificate of discharge from the Army with the caption, "done!"

In the same Facebook page, Concepcion lists his birthplace as Eagle River, Alaska, and notes he joined the military in 2008.

RELATED: Horrific collision east of Bexar County leaves two dead

Officers have been called to the house several times for domestic issues in the past three months since the couple split-up, McManus said.

The estranged couple have two other children, but police say they were not involved in the incident. Police have not given any other details about the condition of the other two children.
Officers answered several family violence calls last week, including one from a woman who said her husband assaulted her 10 times in the past three years.

ASSAULT

A woman told police her husband assaulted her 10 times between Jan. 1, 2015, and Jan. 7, according to a police report filed in the 4600 block of Honey Creek Court.

Police arrested a Pearland woman, 29, for assault Jan. 10 in the 3500 block of Jamison Landing Drive.

Police took a Friendswood man, 56, into custody for injury to a child, elderly or disabled person Jan. 11 in the 2900 block of Broadway Street.

Police filed an assault report Jan. 11 after a juvenile male and juvenile female reportedly engaged in a public display of affection at school during school hours Jan. 8 in the 4700 block of Bailey Road.

Police filed an assault report Jan. 11 in the 1000 block of Bass Pro Drive.

Aggravated assault was reported Jan. 12 in the 2800 block of Oak Road, police said.

Police filed a family violence report Jan. 12 in the 2900 block of Candle Falls Lane.

Police cited a female suspect for assault, family violence Jan. 12 in the 9300 block of Sunbonnet Drive.

Assault occurred Jan. 13 in the 2800 block of Business Center Drive, police said.

Police completed a family violence report Jan. 13 in the 2900 block of Candle Falls Lane.

A male suspect assaulted a peace officer Jan. 13 in the 11200 block of Broadway Street, police said.

BURGLARY

Motor vehicle burglary was reported Jan. 9 in the 3900 block of Liberty Drive, police said. Officers completed a report for second break-in a few hours later in the 3800 block.

An unknown suspect forced entry into a vehicle Jan. 10 in the 2600 block of Broadway Street, police said.

Burglary of a habitation was reported Jan. 11 in the 3700 block of Cibolo Court, police said.

Motor vehicle burglary occurred Jan. 11 in the 2700 block of YMCA Drive, police said.

Burglary of a habitation was reported Jan. 12 in the 14000 block of Ginger Cove Court, police said.

Burglary occurred Jan. 12 in the 12400 block of Gentlebrook Drive, police said.

Burglary of a habitation occurred Jan. 12 in the 11300 block of Palm Bay Street, police said.

Police filed three motor vehicle burglary reports Jan. 14 in the 4200 block of Tawakon Drive.

Vehicle burglary occurred Jan. 13 or Jan. 14 in the 4700 block of Linden Place, police said.

Police completed a vehicle burglary report Jan. 14 in the 4100 block of Seminole Drive.

Several items were stolen from a vehicle Jan. 13 or Jan. 14 in the 4500 block of North Russett Place, police said.

THEFT

Shoplifting occurred Jan. 9 in the 11200 block of Broadway Street, police said.

Police filed a theft report Jan. 9 in the 4700 block of Bailey Road.

An attempted shoplifting was reported Jan. 10 in the 2700 block of Pearland Parkway, police said. Theft was reported about an hour later in the same block.

Theft occurred Jan. 9 or Jan. 10 in the 1100 block of Robert Street, police said.

Shoplifting was reported Jan. 10 in the 11200 block of Broadway Street, police said.

Theft was reported Jan. 11 in the 4000 block of Village Drive, police said.

A complainant filed a theft report Jan. 11 in the 10200 block of Broadway Street after a purse left at a UPS Store failed to arrive at its destination, police said.

A male suspect received a citation for shoplifting Jan. 11 in the 1900 block of Main Street, police said.

A vehicle was stolen between Jan. 4 and Jan. 11 in the 3900 block of Oakwood Drive, police said.

Motor vehicle theft occurred between Dec. 26, 2017, and Jan. 11 in the 2200 block of Hidden Meadow Lane, police said.

A male suspect stole money from a business Jan. 12 in the 1600 block of Broadway Street, police said.

Theft was reported Jan. 14 in the 2900 block of Amber Hill Trail, police said.

HARASSMENT

A complainant told police someone had been harassing her by phone and email, according to a police report filed Jan. 9 in the 3400 block of Meadowville Drive.

RECKLESS DAMAGE

A male suspect caused property damage Jan. 9 in the 2500 block of Business Center Drive, police said.

FAILURE TO IDENTIFY

Police charged a female suspect with failure to identify Jan. 9 in the 11700 block of Desert Bluff Lane. A Brazoria County man, 24, also was taken into custody for an outstanding warrant, according to the report.

NARCOTICS

Police charged two male suspects with marijuana possession and unlawful carrying of a weapon Jan. 10 in the 11300 block of Summit Bay Drive.

A Pearland man, 26, was arrested for marijuana possession Jan. 10 in the 3400 block of Meadowville Drive, police said.

Police arrested a female suspect for possession of a controlled substance and a false driver's license Jan. 10 in the 1500 block of Main Street. A stolen vehicle also was recovered.

Police filed a report for possession of a dangerous drug after confiscating an unknown substance from a vehicle occupied by three male suspects Jan. 11 in the 14700 block of Texas 288.

Police arrested a Pearland man, 32, for possession of a controlled substance and DWI Jan. 13 in the 8500 block of Hawk Road.

FRAUD, FORGERY

Credit card abuse occurred between Nov. 29 and Dec. 13, 2017, according to a police report filed Jan. 10 in the 10100 block of Broadway Street.

Theft via fraud occurred Jan. 4 in the 8200 block of Broadway Street, according to a Jan. 11 police report.

Credit or debit card abuse was reported Jan. 11 in 11400 block of Tidenhaven Court, police said.

A female complainant told police an account was opened in her name without consent, according to a report filed Jan. 12 in the 11400 block of Shoal Creek Drive.

An unknown subject passed a forged check on a complainant's checking account Jan. 10 or Jan. 11, according to a police report filed Jan. 12 in the 3400 block of Jacquelyn Drive.

Counterfeit money was passed Jan. 13 in the 3200 block of Broadway Street, police said.

ROBBERY

Robbery was reported Jan. 10 in the 11200 block of Broadway Street, police said.

DRIVING WHILE INTOXICATED

Police arrested a Brazoria County man, 34, for DWI Jan. 11 in the 8200 block of Broadway Street.

Police took a 41-year-old woman into custody for DWI Jan. 11 in the 4300 block of Dixie Farm Road.

A Houston man, 59, was arrested for DWI Jan. 12 in the 12600 block of Broadway Street, police said.

A Pearland man, 26, was arrested for DWI Jan. 13 in the 2300 block of Main Street, police said.

Police arrested a Houston man, 26, for DWI Jan. 14 in the 4100 block of Main Street.

Police took an Alvin man, 52, into custody for DWI Jan. 14 in the 3600 block of Main Street.

A male suspect was arrested for DWI Jan. 14 in the 2700 block of Broadway Street, police said.

Police arrested a Pearland man, 25, for DWI Jan. 14 in the 7900 block of Broadway Street.

GRAFFITI

An unknown offender painted on a complainant's garage door Jan. 10 or Jan. 11 in the 4300 block of Keystone Trail, police said.

FAILURE TO REGISTER

Police arrested a Pearland man, 30, for failure to comply with his sex offender registration requirements Jan. 11 in the 4400 block of Leyland Drive.

RESISTING ARREST

Police took a Pearland man, 43, into custody for resisting arrest, search or transportation Jan. 12 in the 3200 block of Orchard Mill Lane.

TERRORISTIC THREAT

Police took a suspect into custody for retaliation against a public servant Jan. 12 in the 4700 block of Bailey Road.

FUGITIVE FROM JUSTICE

Police arrested a 21-year-old Concord, California, man on a warrant and charged him as a fugitive from justice from another state Jan. 12 in the 3200 block of Broadway Street.

DISORDERLY CONDUCT

Officers responded to a verbal disturbance Jan. 13 in the 2400 block of Old Alvin Road.

TRAFFIC

A traffic stop resulted in the seizure of a fictitious temporary tag Jan. 14 in the 16600 block of Texas 288, police said.

An unknown person drove a vehicle through a fence and left the scene without attempting to contact the property owner Jan. 14 in the 9100 block of West Sterling Drive, police said.

FOUND, LOST

A firearm was found in a men's bathroom Jan. 9 in the 1500 block of Broadway Street, police said.

A shopper who left her wallet on a bench Jan. 9 in the 11200 block of Broadway returned to find it missing, police said.

ARSON

A dumpster fire was reported Jan. 14 in the 2700 block of Kingsley Drive, police said.
Two additional defendants were detained Monday in an expansive federal indictment involving a gang-connected brothel that allegedly operated for eight years in a southwest Houston apartment complex.

Shackled and handcuffed in an orange jail uniform, Walter Lopez, 26, of Houston, pleaded not guilty to 17 sex trafficking-related counts and waived his rights to a detention hearing Monday at the federal courthouse in Houston. U.S. Magistrate Judge Frances Stacy ordered him to remain in custody until trial, which is currently set for March, but will likely get postponed, a prosecutor said.

He faces up to life in prison if convicted of the most serious offense.

Lopez -- who has been a fugitive since November -- is accused of working as a pimp and enforcer for the Southwest Cholos' brothel that his mother is charged with managing. Four of Lopez's brothers are also indicted, and three are being held without bond in the case, along with his mother Maria Angelica "Patty" Moreno-Reyna, 51. A fourth brother, William Lopez, 27, who is charged with some of the most brutal treatment of sex trafficking victims, remains a fugitive.

RELATED: Feds: Gang brothel enslaved women in Gulfton

Lopez's lawyer declined to comment on the allegations.

The judge also held a detention hearing for Monday Claudia Soriano-Hernandez, 26, of Pasadena, who was arrested along with Lopez by Mexican federal police in Monterrey after eluding officials for more than two months.

During that hearing, FBI agent Stacey L. Mamasis testified that federal officials in Louisiana and Oklahoma had been collecting information about Soriano-Hernandez helping transport sex trafficking victims from Houston to casinos and racetracks in those two states to provide services for clients there.

Soriano-Hernandez, a native of Honduras, is indicted in the case for illegally re-entering the United States. The agent said she had been living in Pasadena and working as a prostitute.

Under cross examination, defense attorney Pat McCann questioned why the government would prosecute a sex trafficking victim who they believed were under the influence of dangerous sex traffickers.

The agent said the FBI did not consider his client a sex-trafficking victim because they believes she was sex trafficking minors herself.

McCann also asked what the logic was of extraditing her so they could prosecute her for re-entry. He asked the judge to allow her to remain at home in Pasadena on house arrest so she can care for her young children.

RELATED: Alleged sex trafficking fugitive wanted by FBI in cantina case

Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Goldman said she should be considered a flight risk. Soriano-Hernandez had failed to show up for a prior immigration hearing and then fled the country when she saw news of the federal indictment in this case, he said.

As for her parenting responsibilities, Goldman noted that that hadn't been a concern for Soriano-Hernandez during two-plus months she was on the run from federal authorities.

The judge ordered Soriano-Hernandez to be detained until trial.

"I could dream up (detention conditions) but I don't think she would follow them," the judge said.

The Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance, a collaboration between police and non-profits, has identified 13 women forced to work at the Cholos brothel in Gulfton, near Bellaire. The gang's enforcers lured undocumented women into prostitution under the guise that they'd be doing restaurant work and then strong-armed them into staying there, according to court testimony by an FBI agent. The pimps had several women tattooed with their street names to make it clear who was in charge, the agent said.

Twenty four people have been arrested in connection with the case, which also includes charges involving methamphetamine and heroin sales, gun trafficking and a lucrative immigrant smuggling operation.

Gabrielle Banks covers federal court for the Houston Chronicle. Send her email at gabrielle.banks@chron.com and follow her on Twitter.
Federal courthouses in Houston and elsewhere will remain open during the government shutdown, according to an online update posted by the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts.

The judiciary can continue to operate for about three weeks, through February 9, using accumulated balances from court fees and other funds that are not tied to appropriations.

The courts will proceed and deadlines will remain intact in most cases. In cases where an attorney from the executive branch has been put on hold by the shutdown, deadlines can be extended and court dates reset, the site says.

The U.S. Marshal's Office will also be functioning during the shutdown, according to spokesman Alfredo Perez. Likewise, the FBI, DEA, ATF and other law enforcement agencies are also exempted from the shutdown

In addition, court filing through the electronic system know as Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) or PACER will also remain intact.

After three weeks, work could continue as needed but resources would be exhausted. In that scenario, specific courts and federal defender's offices would determine the staffing resources necessary to remain functioning.

The majority of the Justice Department divisions, more than 82 percent of its employees, are shielded from the shutdown because the department's "mission relates to the safety of human life and the protection of property," according to a contingency plan written in September that employees are relying on for guidance.

This plan explicitly states that, "The law enforcement capacity of the U.S. Government should not be impaired or perceived to be impaired. To do so could constitute an imminent threat to the safety of human life and the protection of property."

Criminal cases will move forward for this reason, but civil cases will be in a holding pattern to the extent possible without endangering "human life or the protection of property."

Lawyers at the U.S. Attorneys office are encouraged to postpone civil cases when possible. And attorneys handling those cases will be reduced to minimum staffing levels. The instructions say that, "Receipt of summonses, pleadings and motions by mail may be delayed," for these lawyers.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons also has a separate carryover funding source and will not be impacted, according to the contingency plan.

Justice officials will remain in place to handle all immigration cases and appeals involving detentions.
Activists filed a lawsuit accusing Dallas County of unconstitutionally detaining poor people prior to trial just because they can't afford bail, mirroring the case that overhauled the Harris County bail system last year.

The ACLU of Texas, Texas Fair Defense Project and Civil Rights Corps--the latter two groups who led the landmark bail case in Harris County--filed the suit late Sunday, representing six people sitting in jail for inability to pay bail ranging from $500 to $50,000.

Attorneys say the Dallas suit is part of "a continuation of efforts to end wealth-based bail detention in Texas and across the nation."

Defendants include the Dallas County, the sheriff, all judges and all magistrates.

"No person should be kept in a cage just because she doesn't have enough money to make a payment," said Civil Rights Corps attorney Elizabeth Rossi. "The decision to throw a person who is presumed innocent in a jail cell is a serious one. And a person's access to money should not be the only factor that determines whether she is free or is in jail."

The case presents the same arguments that led a federal judge to rule last April that Harris County's bail system violated the U.S. Constitution's equal protection and due process guarantees. The main problem, U.S. Chief District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal found then: Harris County magistrates and judges had failed to meaningfully consider a person's ability to pay when setting their bail, which the Constitution requires. It's the same allegation the civil rights groups lobbed in Dallas.

The civil rights groups in the Dallas case, however, have taken the case one step further this time: They are not only representing misdemeanor defendants arrested on low-level charges, but also felony defendants arrested on violent charges.

The move represents a departure from the Harris County case, whose plaintiffs included two single mothers arrested for driving with an invalid license and failure to identify to a police officer respectively, and one man arrested for shoplifting toiletries and light fixtures from a Walmart.

In Dallas, Shakena Watson is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, with bail set at $15,000; and Erriyah Banks is charged with assault of a public servant and theft of property under $25,000 with two prior convictions. Her bail is set at $50,000. Both say in affidavits that they are unemployed, can't pay the bail amount and weren't asked if they could. Banks said she had to get home to take care of her mom, while Watson said she was in the middle of applying for community college.

Dallas County's bail system appears to present significantly longer delays for both misdemeanor and felony defendants than in Harris County, where officials have justified concerns about the county's rigid bail schedule by touting the speed of its judicial system. It does not appear Dallas County can raise the same defense.

According to the lawsuit, misdemeanor arrestees must wait four to ten days before their first "theoretical opportunity" to contest their bail amount before a judge, compared to Harris County's one to three. Felony defendants must wait two to three weeks if they waive indictment--a more formal set of charges--or even two to three months if they don't waive indictment. That's again compared to a matter of days in Harris County. The attorneys describe the opportunity to contest bail in Dallas as "theoretical" because defendants aren't actually brought before the judge unless they're pleading guilty, attorneys allege.

Meanwhile, wealthy defendants charged with any crime are able to get back to their lives immediately after posting bail.

"The situation in (the) Dallas County Jail is a crisis," Trisha Trigilio, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Texas, said in a statement. "Hundreds of people are locked in jail every day because they can't afford money bailwhile wealthier people charged with the same offense go free. This system is unfair and it's unconstitutional. It's time for county officials to treat this problem with the urgency it deserves."

The civil rights attorneys are asking a federal judge to block Dallas County from operating a "wealth-based detention system" that fails to consider inmates' ability to pay, as well as failing to consider non-financial conditions of release.

The Dallas County Sheriff's Department declined comment, while the chief magistrate and the presiding judge over the criminal district courts did not immediately return requests for comment.

Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price told the Dallas Morning News that the county had been expecting a lawsuit like this one--but added the county was amid bail reform already.

Price noted that the county if moving towards at formal risk assessment tool to be used by judges to set bail.

"I recognize the tenets of the lawsuit," Price said. "You've got to have the instruments to talk about the issue of public safety, which is first and foremost, and not to indenture yourself to a debtors' prison."
A Houston man has been charged with murder after a deadly shooting at an apartment complex on the city's southwest side.

Authorities arrested Alberto Sanchez, 22, after the shooting at 4 a.m. Sunday at the Post Oak Manor apartments, 12111 South Post Oak off South Main. Court documents identify the dead man as Renan Reyes.

Police said the men had been arguing.

When officers arrived at the complex, they found one man dead inside an apartment and took another into custody.

"From our initial report," said Houston police investigator Richard Ridel, "was that that they were in an argument."

Two roommates in the next room overheard the fighting and gunshots that followed, according to police.

It's not clear whether the shooter lived at the apartment or what his relationship was to the slain man.

"He didn't really go into detail when we asked if he lived there," Ridel said. "He was kind of a little gray on 'yeah I live there' or 'yeah, I come visit.'"

Authorities have requested a bond of $250,000 for Sanchez, citing a conviction from six months ago.

Sanchez was arrested in May on a felony aggravated assault charge. He pleaded guilty in June to a misdemeanor deadly conduct charge as part of a plea bargain and was sentenced to 180 days in the Harris County Jail.

Chronicle reporter Keri Blakinger contributed to this report.
Crime in Houston fell slightly in 2017 but police Chief Art Acevedo continues to lobby for hundreds of additional officers.

The city may need as many as 2,000 officers, he said this week, repeating calls from previous chiefs to grow the department's force.

And the chief again criticized Gov. Greg Abbott and other state officials, saying they make it difficult for cities to police and protect themselves by focusing on unnecessary legislation regarding immigration, gender issues and local control.

HOMICIDE COUNT: Houston murders drop 11 percent in 2017

"We're down to the lemon peel," said Acevedo, referring to staffing at the Houston Police Department. "That's what we're down to. I can't make lemonade from lemon peels."

Overall, crime in Houston was down by about 2 percent last year. The city tallied 33 fewer homicides - 269 - than the previous year. But the rate of sexual assaults and aggravated assaults rose by more than 10 percent each.

Police response times remained nearly identical for the most serious crimes, but they slipped more sharply for less-serious issues.

"The sad truth is, in a world of limited resources, we have to prioritize," Acevedo said.

The department has about 5,100 officers, about 300 more than a decade ago. But the department has 200 fewer officers than it had in 1997, when the city had 500,000 fewer residents, Acevedo said.

TAX CAP: Gov. Greg Abbott wants to limit how how fast local property tax revenue can grow

Acevedo said Houston's Police Department was understaffed compared with departments in other large cities, and that it needed as many as 2,000 more officers.

"We can't continue to be the fastest growing big city in the country and not grow the police department," he said. "It just doesn't work."

The union has pressed city officials to increase the department's forces by 500 officers during the next five years, a move Mayor Sylvester Turner and others say they support.

But paying for that increase would be difficult, said Mike Knox, an at-large City Council member said.

"There's no question we need more police officers in Houston," Knox said. "The issue is going to be paying for it. And I'm afraid the mayor and chief are working together to make people believe removing the property tax revenue cap will solve that problem, and it will not."

MORE: Houston's top cop sets whirlwind pace during first six months

Curbing Houston's crime rate requires more money targeted at investigations and patrols - and avoiding unnecessary assignments, says Larry Karson, an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Houston-Downtown.

"If you're putting the officers where they're really needed (and) working to attack violent crime the community is concerned about, the chief is right," Karson said.

Meanwhile, police -- through their union -- have complained that the department's reduced overtime budget has hurt their ability to solve cases.

"Cases are built over time. This is not CSI," said Doug Griffith, vice president of the Houston Police Officers' Union. "We can't solve a case in 15 minutes. It takes time, manpower, and it takes money. Two of those three, we don't have."

In 2016, the department had an operational overtime budget of about $18 million, he said. Now, it has $4 million for operational OT.

Acevedo also took time to address other issues.

On the long-running dispute between city and state officials over local control:

"We have the governor, who doesn't have to run a city, talking about further reducing the ability of cities to function and to be safe, by proposing a 2.5 percent (property tax growth) cap," Acevedo said. "It's pretty easy to do that when you're sitting at a capitol building and don't have to respond to crime scenes day in and day out."

On immigration:

The chief said that since Abbott signed SB 4 - the "show your papers" law - on May 7, the department recorded just two instances when officers asked people about their immigration status in non-arrest situations.

"For those who were afraid we were going to become immigration agents, the data speaks for itself," Acevedo said.

Acevedo has been a vocal opponent of the law that bans so-called sanctuary cities and that exposes local officials to criminal prosecution if they try to stop officers from asking about immigration status.

St. John Barned-Smith covers public safety and major breaking news for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Send tips to st.john.smith@chron.com.
Charges of racism erupted across social media over the weekend after NASA replaced Jeanette Epps, slated to be the first black crew member on the space station, from its next mission.

NASA did not offer an explanation Thursday night when it announced that Epps, a Syracuse, N.Y., native, would be replaced by Serena Aunon-Chancellor, a Hispanic flight surgeon selected as an astronaut alongside Epps in 2009.

An online petition was soon formed calling for both an explanation and Epps' reinstatement. Many who signed the petition questioned whether the move was racially motivated.

That sentiment exploded Saturday when Epps' brother, Henry, took to Facebook saying "My sister Dr. Jeannette Epps has been fighting against oppressive racism and misogynist in NASA and now they are holding her back and allowing a Caucasian Astronaut to take her place!" The post has since been removed.

Officials from NASA headquarters in Washington and at Johnson Space Center in Houston were unavailable to comment Monday due to the government shutdown.

READ MORE ABOUT THE NASA ANNOUNCEMENT HERE.

Calls to 12 people listed in the Whitepages with the last name Epps, both in Syracuse and Memphis, Tenn. (where Henry Epps lives, according to Facebook), either did not go through or went unanswered.

Henry Epps repeatedly shared on Facebook a link to an online petition demanding that Epps be reinstated to her space station mission. As of Monday at 5:15 p.m., the petition had more than 1,200 signatures, with many supporters calling on NASA to give a viable reason for their decision.

"Return Dr. Jeanette Epps or at the very least give a VALID reason for her removal," Tarnisha Williams, from Rocky Mount, N.C., commented on the petition Monday.

The petition, created by S.R. Ross, touts Epps' extensive resume, which includes seven years at the Central Intelligence Agency before joining NASA as an astronaut in 2009. S.R. Ross did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jeanette Epps would have been the 15th African American to fly in space, according to NASA.

Roosevelt Wright Jr., a retired captain in the U.S. Naval Reserve, commented on the petition Monday that he has watched Epps' "incredible growth and development."

His signature line continued, "she has paid her dues, and her resume is 'beyond the realms of greatness,'" he wrote. "She must be allowed to further 'Make History at NASA!'"

Several petition commenters brought up NASA's storied history with African Americans, particularly women, which recently was illustrated in the book "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly and film starring Taraji P. Henson and Octavia Spencer.

"Put Dr. Jeanette Epps back in her position for the NASA mission," wrote S. Hayes, from Orlando, Fla. "Or has NASA learned nothing about history and the black women who have contributed to the history of NASA."

Jeanette Epps did not respond to emails or Facebook messages from the Houston Chronicle but said in an email to the Washington Post that she couldn't comment on NASA's reasoning. She further told the Post that she did not have a family problem or a medical condition preventing her from participating in the mission.

In its announcement last week, NASA said Epps would return to the Astronaut Office at Johnson and would be considered for future space missions. Her replacement, Aunon-Chancellor, earned her medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston and is board certified in internal and aerospace medicine.

David Milliken, from Centennial, Colo., commented on the petition Monday that "NASA will be diminished in the eyes of the nation" by Epps' removal.

"This is a disastrous, racist administration. Its actions and appointments have all been made to benefit one extreme end of the political spectrum," Milliken wrote. "NASA should not be seen to be making a racially biased change to an established mission team."

Milliken wasn't alone in bringing President Donald Trump's administration into the discussion.

Michael J. Healy, who lives in Seattle and signed the petition Monday, commented that "in the political climate engendered by the current administration, this action by NASA seems suspicious."

But Chan Mainor, a Sacramento-based photographic artist and social editor, took a different approach on Facebook, saying he was "hesitant" to make Epps' removal about race  even though it would be "awesome" to have an African American living in space.

"NASA has proven time and again that race, gender, nationality is far secondary to the primary requirement of being able to do a very difficult job under very difficult circumstances," Mainor wrote Monday.

He added that decisions to bench astronauts "are made all the time."

"'Undisclosed reasons' means 'none of our business.' And since we aren't running a space program, it really isn't," he said. "Regardless of race, many many astronauts study, train and prepare for an opportunity that may never arise. A very select few actually strap in and hang on."

An Internet search by the Houston Chronicle turned up just three prominent cases in which an astronaut was removed from a mission to the space station:

NASA officials did not provide a list of astronauts removed from Space Station missions prior to the federal government shutdown Friday night.

Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.
The federal government shutdown has shuttered the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla. -- and with it, the test firing of SpaceX's new rocket.

That rocket, called Falcon Heavy, is set to be the world's most powerful rocket with a goal of one day taking humans to Mars. The 12-second test firing of the rocket's 27 Merlin main engines is like a test before a test: if it is successful, the company will know the rocket is ready to fly and will set a launch date.

Rocket test firing was scheduled for Saturday, but Florida Today has reported that the shutdown, now in its third day, continues to halt all rocket testing and launches.

SpaceX needs assistance from the Air Force's 45th Space Wing to conduct testing and too many personnel have been put on an unpaid leave of absence to do so, according to Florida Today.

"Due to the shutdown removing key members of the civilian workforce, the 45th Space Wing will not be able to support commercial static fires taking place on KSC," the Wing told Florida Today.

MORE CONTENT: 2,900 JOHNSON SPACE CENTER EMPLOYEES GOING WITHOUT PAY DURING SHUTDOWN

The Falcon Heavy is supposed to launch from LC-39A -- the same launch pad that was used for the Apollo missions to the Moon -- at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

READ MORE ABOUT THE FALCON HEAVY ROCKET HERE.

In a statement, SpaceX officials said they "remain hopeful that the Congress will quickly resolve their differences and put our partners in the Air Force and NASA back to doing their important work as soon as possible."

The statement said that the shutdown could negatively impact future missions for the company's customers. For example, SpaceX is schedule to launch at the end of January out of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station a communications satellite to be used by the government of Luxembourg.

It could also impact resupply missions to the International Space Station, according to the statement.

MORE CONTENT: TOURS OF MISSION CONTROL AT JOHNSON SPACE CENTER STILL ON DURING SHUTDOWN

Documents on NASA's website indicate that operations related to the International Space Station will continue through the shutdown "to protect the life of the crew as well as the assets themselves." It's unclear if that includes resupply missions.

Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.
A spot of good news has emerged for tourists planning a visit to Space Center Houston during the government shutdown: tours of the historic mission control still are running.

"So far, it's business as usual, said Meridyth Moore, space center spokeswoman.

HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: 94 percent of the Space Center's 3,000 employees on unpaid leave

Though the museum was able to stay open despite the shutdown -- it is a non-profit owned and operated by a separate organization -- space center officials originally thought its tours of Johnson Space Center, which include the historic mission control room and an actual Saturn V rocket, would temporarily be halted.

In fact, information on NASA's website indicated that all educational support activities, such as NASA instructors going into schools, would be discontinued, as would tours and public educational visits to agency facilities.

So far, museum officials have been able to keep the tours running, Moore said, adding that she wasn't sure if this would last through the entire shutdown. The shutdown is now in its third day.

If anything changes, Moore said the museum's website will be updated.

Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey
KABUL, Afghanistan - Security forces said Sunday they had killed the last of six Taliban militants to end an overnight siege at Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel that left at least 18 people dead, including 14 foreigners. Some of the 150 guests fled the gunbattle and fire sparked by the assault by shimmying down bedsheets from upper floors.

The militants, who wore suicide vests, pinned security forces down for more than 13 hours after the attack began about 9 p.m. Saturday. The gunmen roamed the hallways and targeted foreigners and Afghan officials inside the luxury, hilltop hotel.
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AKRON, Ohio - Students at the Lippman School want Akron City Council to pass a resolution designating the first Monday in October as "First People's Day."

They've teamed up with representatives of the Northern Cheyenne and Seneca nations to draft the resolution, which is also aimed at commemorating Akron's connection to Native American history and the importance of the Portage Path to native peoples as a transportation route in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The students presented their case at the Akron City Council Rules Committee meeting on Monday. Following the meeting, they met with Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan, and then attended the City Council meeting. Representatives from the Northern Cheyenne and Seneca nations were also present. Council members are expected to vote on the resolution next week.

"We felt that if the students could offer an alternative to 'Indigenous Peoples' Day,' and avoid the controversy that comes with attacking Christopher Columbus, we could have a day set aside to honor the culture, history and traditions of Native Americans," said David Lieberth, chair of the Summit County Historical Society Board of Directors.

Lieberth, retired judge Marvin Shapiro, Lippman School Principal Sam Chestnut and Lippman Middle School Humanities and Curriculum Coordinator Matt Russ worked with the students to draft the resolution. It was part of a problem-based learning unit for that asked 7th and 8th graders to find a way to honor and recognize the significant contributions Native Americans have made to the city of Akron, state of Ohio and the United States as a whole.

"(The Portage Path is a) little-known national treasure in our own back yard," Russ said. "There has been a lot of work the historical society and others have done, marking the path and making it known in Akron, but it still wasn't widely known beyond that. We wanted to make it more formal by officially recognizing a day to honor the contributions of Native Americans."

Lippman students have commemorated the history of the Portage Path before, highlighting its history in the annual Marking the Trail of the Portage Path walk.

The first Monday in October was proposed to allow student participation during the school day, and to align with the Marking the Trail of the Portage Path walk, which takes place in October, according to Russ.

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AKRON, Ohio -- Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan on Monday announced the city's proposed budget for police, fire and public service department improvements funded by the Issue 4 tax increase.

More than $13 million of the Issue 4 tax money will be spent on new investments in police and fire protection and road resurfacing, according to a statement released by the mayor's office..

The full 2018 Issue 4 budget is available at AkronOhio.gov.

Akron voters passed Issue 4 on Nov. 7, 2017. The charter amendment levied an additional .25 percent income tax to improve city roadways and services.

The tax took effect Jan. 1. Akron will receive additional revenue in February.

"While my administration continues to tackle difficult financial challenges resulting from cuts in state and federal funding, I am proud to budget for $13 million in new investment in our core city services that will keep our neighborhoods safe and strong," Horrigan said in a news release.

A total of $4.275 million is budgeted for the city's police department.

These funds would be used to replace 50 out-of-service or deteriorating cruisers, purchase tactical body armor, Tasers and gear and update the 911 operating software shared by police and fire departments.

"Without these funds, much of this simply would not be possible," Akron Police Chief Ken Ball said in a news release.

Funds will also be used for police training, staffing, safety and system improvements.

The Akron Fire Department will receive $4.418 million under the proposal.

This money would be used replace Fire Station 2, located at 952 E. Exchange St., and commission architectural design for the replacement of Fire Station 12, located at 1852 W. Market St.

Gear for 275 front-line personnel, a new ladder truck, EMS equipment and staffing is also included in the fire department's allotment.

"This year we will be able to purchase the recommended second set of fire gear for all our firefighters and extractor machines for every fire station to ensure our front-line personnel always have access to a clean, safe set of protective gear," Akron Fire Chief Clarence Tucker said in a news release.

The city budgeted $4.4 million to pave more streets and replace outdated or failing resurfacing equipment.

A total of $4.15 million will fund the milling and resurfacing of 54 miles of road in 2018.

The Issue 4 dollars will be included in the city's overall capital budget. Akron City Council held its first hearings on the capital budget Monday. Another is scheduled for Jan. 29. The full council will vote on the capital budget after that.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio - City Council approved three contracts Monday that will move Cleveland a step closer toward Mayor Frank Jackson's goal of paying every city employee at least $15 an hour.

Jackson announced the plan last June, saying then that it was important for people at the lower end of the wage scale to be paid a more-livable wage.

"This is our attempt to be in line with what we believe in," Jackson said then. "When you don't have a lot of money ... just a few dollars can make a big difference."

The goal is to have all 30 labor contracts settled by April 1 and for all employees to be paid no less than the new $15-an-hour minimum.

What's the impact?

About 500 city employees, part of a workforce totaling about 7,200, will benefit from the change.

With council's vote on Monday, contracts with 10 of 30 unions representing city workers now have the minimum rate built into the language. The contracts before council on Monday covered employees in Public Utilities and Public Works departments who are represented by the Utility Workers Union of America, the Treasurers and Ticket Sellers Union and the International Longshoremen's Association.

Those eligible for the new minimum work in a wide array of jobs, ranging from clerical and custodial staff to park and recreation workers to police and fire cadets. The workers are both full-time and part-time, union and non-union.

The administration's negotiators have been offering the new wage minimum in exchange for unions agreeing to settle for pay increases at 2 percent a year.

Workers making less than $15 an hour - the city's current minimum is $10 an hour - will step up to the new rate with a new labor contract.

What will it cost?

Initial estimates for raising everyone to at least $15 an hour set a maximum cost of about $1.9 million a year, the Jackson administration has said.

That total will be pushed down considerably, though.

That figure does not take into account raises that some workers in that group will get before their new contracts kick in. Those are costs the city would incur regardless.

Why $15 an hour?

The plan is increasing city employee pay to the minimum hourly rate that Raise Up Cleveland and the Service Employees International Union sought to be imposed on all public and private employers in Cleveland.

That hotly debated effort stalled last spring. Jackson opposed that effort, saying that limiting the minimum wage requirement to just jobs in Cleveland would hurt the city economically.

Jackson has said the issue should be addressed by state government. But also, he has said he agrees with the idea, in principal.

Some of his opponents in the 2017 mayoral race accused him of pushing for the raises as an election stunt. Jackson denied that, and also denied that the drive for a citywide minimum wage prompted this effort.

The mayor has acknowledged, though, that his $15-an-hour wage figure came from that movement.

"I picked $15 because that's what people were talking about," he said in a previous interview.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The superintendent of the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Detention Center retired last week in the wake of a riot inside the jail that caused an estimated $200,000 in damage.

Karmin Bryant retired Thursday after 32 years with the county. She did not specify why she chose to retire in her letter notifying the court's deputy human resources director and the deputy court administrator.

"I have truly enjoyed working for Cuyahoga County Detention Center, and I sincerely appreciate the support provided to me during my 32.5 years as part of your organizations," Bryant wrote in her two-sentence letter.

A search for her replacement is underway, Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court spokeswoman Mary Davidson said.

Former juvenile detention center superintendent Terrance Jenkins has been named acting superintendent, Davidson said.

Her retirement comes amidst a shake-up at the juvenile detention center. Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley called for reforms to be made at the center that is increasingly housing more and more violent offenders.

O'Malley has called for better training, more staffing and, if possible, for the Cuyahoga County Sheriff to take over operations at the juvenile jail. Juvenile court judges currently oversee the juvenile detention center.

Other changes are expected to be made, though county officials have said they have not made any firm decisions.

The jail is built to house 180 inmates, but have staff to cover only about 120. There are typically about 150 to 160 inmates being held in the detention center, either awaiting an initial appearance in front of a judge or waiting out the conclusion of their criminal case.

O'Malley said the jail has become stocked with juveniles accused of violent offenders, such as murders, carjackings and armed robberies, so much so that he said it feels more like a maximum security prison.

The Jan. 8 riot inside one of the housing pods hastened the process that O'Malley said he started weeks prior.

Six teens trashed their housing pod, using tables and other broken pieces of furniture to wreak havoc on the pod. They smashed security glass, a window, cell doors, sprinklers, parts of the ceiling, showers, toilets, light fixtures, and a television, officials said.

O'Malley said it appeared it was an organized riot that started with one of the inmates giving a signal to the others. Three inmates smashed a window and tried to jump out on to East 93rd Street, but were unable to get out, O'Malley said.

Another picked up shards of glass and threatened to stab Cuyahoga County Sheriff SWAT team members. It took the SWAT team about three hours to calm the riot.

An inmate and a SWAT officer suffered minor injuries during the incident.

To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page.
Pennsylvania's congressional districts are so gerrymandered for political gain that lawmakers were ordered Monday by the state Supreme Court to come up with a new set of maps in time for the May primary.



Could Ohio be next to face scrutiny, if it doesn't get redistricting reform right?



Already in the last few months, redistricting cases from North Carolina, Maryland, Texas and Wisconsin have landed in the U.S. Supreme Court. Pennsylvania could be next.

Read cleveland.com series Out of Line: Impact 2017 and Beyond, in search of a way to eliminate gerrymandering in Ohio.

While arguments differ from state to state, the basic premise is often the same - maps were drawn with heavy influence by one political party to squash the other, killing voter rights along the way. (The Texas cases instead focus on race.)



In Wisconsin, for example, the freshly drawn Statehouse maps in 2012 led to the GOP winning 60 of 99 seats with just 49 percent of the overall vote.



This is done by packing voters from the minority party into a handful of districts, then spreading the strength of the majority party throughout a larger collection of districts.



The Supreme Court in 1986 ruled that partisan gerrymandering violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, but left ambiguous the standard by which courts might rule on such claims.

It might do so this year in one or more of the pending cases.



Here's where things stand:



Ohio - No pending court case. Currently, the state legislature has wide latitude to draw the congressional maps the way it likes. The current set, drawn in 2011 with Republican control, has led to the GOP winning 75 percent of the races with 56 percent of the vote. Many districts make no geographic sense.



There are two reform efforts under way. The League of Women Voters, Common Cause and other groups are circulating petitions aimed at going to the November ballot with a redistricting reform plan they say will balance the process. Separately, a Republican in the State Senate is pushing for a redistricting plan this week, hoping to land on the ballot in May ahead of the petition effort. That plan has been panned by Democrats and the citizens groups as overly favorable to GOP dominance.



Wisconsin - The Supreme Court in October heard arguments but has not yet ruled. The crux of the case is whether courts can apply a test to determine when gerrymandering has gone too far. This case was brought by Democrats challenging maps that heavily favored Republicans. The question in Wisconsin involves statehouse districts.



Maryland - The Supreme Court in December said it would hear a second gerrymandering case this term, this one brought by Republicans upset with the work of Democrats on Maryland's congressional map. Oral arguments have not yet been heard.



Texas - The Supreme Court on Jan. 12 added two more redistricting cases to its calendar, agreeing to hear cases involving statehouse and congressional maps in Texas. The court will consider an appeal of a lower-court ruling that districts were drawn to discriminate against blacks and Hispanics. The court decided not to hear separate arguments involving political gerrymandering in Texas. Yet rulings in the Maryland and Wisconsin cases could apply to Texas.



North Carolina - A panel of three federal judges on Jan. 9 struck down the North Carolina congressional maps on gerrymandering grounds, and ordered new maps to be drawn in time for this year's election. The Supreme Court has since delayed the order to toss out the existing maps, allowing time for appeal and any potential guidance from the Wisconsin and Maryland cases. The North

Carolina case was brought by Democrats upset with Republican maps.

Pennsylvania - The Democratic-controlled court gave the Republican-controlled legislature until Feb. 9 to pass a replacement congressional map, and Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf until Feb. 15 to submit it to the court, reported pennlive.com. Otherwise, the justices said they would adopt a new map. A Republican spokesman said an appeal was expected to the U.S. Supreme Court. This case is similar to the North Carolina case.

Previously:
PAINESVILLE, Ohio -- Laketran and Mentor city planners are looking for ways to turn the transit system into an economic driver along Tyler Boulevard, which is home to at least 200 businesses - most involved in light and medium manufacturing.

The quest is for the best way to bolster the businesses along Tyler with workers from inside and outside of Lake County.

Mark Rantala, executive director of the Lake County Port and Economic Development Authority, said in a recent telephone interview that Tyler Boulevard is "one of the major manufacturing centers of Northeast Ohio.

"But many are finding it difficult to fill job openings," he said. 'We know we have to turn over every rock to fill the jobs."

"For some years now, that industrial corridor has enjoyed a resurgence," said Ron Traub, Mentor's director of economic and community development. "There are a lot of help-wanted signs out there."

Laketran does not currently serve Tyler Boulevard, but the concept has been talked about for years -- almost since the inception of Laketran in 1974, said Ben Capelle, the transit agency's new general manager.

What's different is that this may be the first time that all of the interested parties are being brought to the table to gauge need and potential solutions.

Capelle said that next month, surveys to gauge local needs are going out to all of the stakeholders -- the manufacturers, Mentor Chamber of Commerce, the county port authority and the private, non-profit Alliance for Working Together, a coalition that addresses the need of manufacturers in the region.

Laketran has a combined fleet of 123 vehicles: 85 small airport-style shuttles, 22 large over-the-highway commuter buses that ferry people from the heart of Lake county to downtown Cleveland, and 16 fixed-route buses similar to those used by the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority.

Capelle said one solution is to expand the role of the commuter vehicles that currently carry people to Cleveland during the day then return home empty.

Another is the small shuttles that presently perform dial-a-ride duties.

He said one goal is to start testing a plan by the end of 2018.

Another objective is to provide the service "at no additional cost,"

Capelle said.

He estimates that the expanded service could cost anywhere from hundreds of dollars to more than $100,000. One possibility is for the employers to subsidize the fares for their respective employees.

Currently, GCRTA's downtown Cleveland trolley service -- the heir to the old Loop bus routes - charge no fares because they are underwritten by businesses and other institutions along the routes.

County commissioner Jerry Cirino said by phone Friday that "Laketran is a very important variable in our quest for economic development, not only to that (Tyler) corridor but also in getting retail customers to other businesses."

The fact that employers are looking for more workers and Laketran is looking for a way to help is yet another example of the quiet prosperity that Lake County seems to be experiencing.

Already, the Great Lakes Mall enjoys a high occupancy rate, and there is a commitment to a $50 million investment to upgrade the place. This comes at a time when some predict the nationwide failure of 300 malls over the next 10 years -- about a quarter of the shopping centers currently operating in the U.S.

Mentor's Traub also said the Visconsi Companies have secured approval for a 20-acre retail development southwest of state routes 615 and 2.

He also said permits to build single-family homes have gone up sharply since 2012 (32 that year, 90 in 2014 and 84 units in 2015). He said the move-ins are a blend of millennials, young families and empty-nesters.

"The secret is that developers are making maximum use of their assets," he said, building modest village-green style clusters instead of large-lot developments.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Backers of a ballot measure to change how Ohio draws congressional districts are moving forward with little hope state lawmakers will draft a better plan.

The congressional redistricting reforms proposed last week by Republican Sen. Matt Huffman would make it impossible to draw districts such as the "snake on the lake"-shaped 9th district. But critics say the proposal, Senate Joint Resolution 5, will also ensure that the majority party -- currently Republicans -- can draw a map that gives them plenty of safe seats.

When leaders of the Fair Districts = Fair Elections coalition were asked what lawmakers could change about the proposal to win their support, they laughed.

"How much time do you have?" Ann Henkener of the League of Women Voters of Ohio said at a Monday press conference.

"I always hope that both sides of an issue can come together and figure out something," Henkener said. "I'm truly hoping this happens there. But there's a pretty big gulf between what we want and what SJR5 is proposing."

The league and other reform advocates will make the case for changes to the proposal in two Senate committee hearings this week. The Senate could hold a full floor vote on the plan as early as Wednesday.

Lawmakers are moving quickly to pass something by Feb. 7 to make the deadline for the May primary ballot. Huffman said he hopes the plan will garner support from his Democratic colleagues with some changes; so far, Democrats have panned the proposal.

Fair Districts = Fair Elections isn't waiting for lawmakers to act and is still collecting signatures to put its measure on the November ballot. It has until July 4 to submit at least 305,591 signatures of Ohio registered voters to qualify and claims to have collected more than 200,000 signatures with the help of volunteers.

What's wrong with Huffman's proposal?

A lot, according to Henkener, who has been working on redistricting reform for more than a decade.

Some of her concerns:

The proposal doesn't include any language prohibiting drawing districts to benefit a particular party or candidate.

If the party has a supermajority, it can draw a map without any input from the minority party and pass it with only one-third of the minority party's votes.

Large counties, where higher concentrations of Democrats live, could be split three or four times to craft more advantageous districts.

Voters could not mount a referendum to challenge a map approved by the General Assembly, as they can now.

Henkener said Huffman's proposal would allow lawmakers to draw a map with 12 safe Republican seats and three safe Democratic seats in 2021, when Ohio will likely lose a seat.

Huffman disagreed during his sponsor testimony last week, saying his proposal gives more power to the minority party than exists now.

Huffman said the Fair Districts plan has too many rules and would likely require courts to intervene. He also said the Fair Districts plan includes its own version of gerrymandering by requiring "representational fairness."

The ballot measure would require that the percentage of districts that leans toward each political party reflects the total lean of all voters in the state over the past decade. For example, if 55 percent of partisan votes in the past decade went to Republicans, then roughly 55 percent of the districts should lean Republican. Under the current configuration, Republicans received 60 percent of the total votes cast in 2014 but won 75 percent of the seats.

Ohio NAACP President Tom Roberts said last week's government shutdown shows why crafting competitive districts is important. Roberts said Huffman's plan would "institutionalize gerrymandering" in the Ohio Constitution and split minorities and communities apart.

"It is time for real change -- real fair districts that aren't determined by the majority," Roberts said.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - As the cost of higher education continues to climb, state support for public colleges barely grew between the last two fiscal years, according to an annual survey.

Ohio's support for higher education dropped slightly.

Overall state support increased by 1.6 percent, compared to 4.2 percent increase last year. It was the lowest annual growth in the last five years, according to the annual "Grapevine" survey released Monday. The survey was compiled by the Center for the Study of Education Policy at Illinois State University and the State Higher Education Executive Officers.

Nineteen states, including Ohio, decreased funding between the 2017 fiscal year, which spans 2016-17, and the 2018 fiscal year, which spans 2017-18.

The decreases ranged from 0.1 percent in Ohio to 14.6 percent in North Dakota. Eighteen states reported increases, ranging from 2 percent in Michigan to more than 11 percent in Florida.

Over the past five years, most states have increased appropriations for higher education, with a nearly 21 percent increase in spending nationwide, the survey said. During that time, 40 states spent more, including Ohio, which increased funding 12.2 percent.

Ohio spent $2.05 billion in the 2012 fiscal year, $2.226 billion in the 2015 fiscal year, $2.303 billion in the 2016 fiscal year and $2.3 billion in the 2017 fiscal year.

But Ohio's support declined 15 percent since the 2008 recession, according to a report last fall from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which examines state spending on two- and four-year public colleges over a decade.

"We've seen only anemic growth nationwide, with the exception of a few states," James Palmer, Grapevine editor and a professor of higher education at Illinois State University, told Inside Higher Ed. "This probably suggests the struggle of many states to sustain the revenue needed to increase funding for colleges and universities. In other words, the fiscal capacity to increase funding for colleges and universities doesn't seem to be there."

Almost all of the increase between fiscal year 2017 and fiscal year 2018 was due to more appropriations in California, Florida, and Georgia, the survey showed. Total funding across the remaining 47 states rose by only 0.2 percent.

"Sluggish state revenue growth" was the second major issue, behind changes in federal law, in the American Association of State Colleges and Universitites annual report of the top 10 higher education state policy issues for 2018.

Of the 50 governors' offices, 36 will be up for election this year.

"With its alternative revenue streams and discretionary status in state budgets, public higher education will be on the front lines of any fluctuations in state revenue in 2018," the report said. "Beyond scarce state revenues, the competition for new resources from other state services, such as K-12 education, transportation and corrections, remains as intense as ever."
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The federal government officially shut down Saturday at midnight after Congress and President Donald Trump were unable to come to an agreement about funding the federal government.

This left many Americans confused about whether their weekend post office run would be met with a closed sign, or if their travel plans would be halted, prompting many to ask what exactly gets shut down.

Work continued over the weekend to no avail. And now, days later, an agreement has yet to be made. Both parties are casting blame on the other side, frustrating furloughed, non-essential government employees and American people alike.

"We should not let the political feuds or policy disagreements obscure the simple fact that every member of this body cares deeply about the challenges facing our country," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Rep-Ky.) as reported by The Wall Street Journal. "All of us want to make life better for the American people."

As the country waits with bated breath, lawmakers continue to work toward an agreement with the next vote slated for noon today.

But is there something to learn from the current state of affairs? Do the American people need elected officials who make sure a shutdown like this doesn't occur in the future? And what will it take for this to happen? If you could talk face-to-face with members of Congress, what would you have to say?

Let us know in this moderated conversation today from noon to 1:30 p.m.

Comments on this topic will be reviewed by a moderator before they are published.

In our Talk it Out pre-curated conversation, comments are published after they are reviewed -- promptly -- to ensure they adhere to our community rules, which prohibit indecent, hateful, abusive or harassing comments, personal attacks, vulgar nicknames, personal information including telephone numbers and addresses, email addresses belonging to others, anything inciting criminal behavior and copyrighted material for which you do not own the rights.
PROSPECT, Kentucky -- An assistant police chief who was fired last year sent several racist messages to a police recruit, reports say, and even encouraged the recruit to shoot black people.

When given the scenario on what would be the right thing to do if the recruit caught three juveniles smoking marijuana, former assistant chief Todd Shaw sent a message to the recruit on Facebook saying, "F--- the right thing. If black, shoot them," the Courier Journal reports.

Given another scenario in which a juvenile is caught smoking pot, Shaw sent a message saying the recruit should have sex with the mother if she's attractive and that he should force the father to perform oral sex on him while handcuffed, according to the Courier Journal.

"Unless daddy is black. Then shoot him," the message says.

The messages were discovered by officials while Shaw was under investigation for possibly interfering with a sexual abuse case, reports say. The recruit was with the Louisville Metro Police Department.

Jefferson County Attorney Mike O'Connell then notified the city's mayor about the messages, according to WLKY, telling the mayor he had "serious concerns" about Shaw. The messages were sent in September and October of 2016.

Shaw has not been charged with any crime in connection with the messages, ABC News reports.

Shaw's lawyer, Michael Burns, argues that Shaw's record shows no racial bias.

"His Facebook messages were made privately between colleagues and friends who shared the reality of being police officers in today's culture where police are demonized and demoralized for doing what is required to keep the community safe," Burns tells the Courier Journal. "Actions speak louder than words and Mr. Shaw's actions during his career speak for themselves. He is not a racist in any sense of the word."

Louisville Police Chief Steve Conrad said he was "disgusted and appalled" by Shaw's message.

"Any person who holds these thoughts has no business ever donning a uniform and representing those who have sworn to serve every member of every community," Conrad said in a statement. "These actions spit in the face of the determined effort hundreds of thousands of law enforcement officers put forth to build trust and legitimacy in the communities they serve."
CLEVELAND, Ohio - U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge, a Democrat from Warrensville Heights, announced Monday she would back former federal consumer watchdog Richard Cordray in his bid for Ohio governor.

Fudge previously backed former U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton - who is now Cordray's running mate. Fudge said the Cordray-Sutton ticket provided Democrats with the best chance to win in November.

"Both Rich and Betty have made those 'kitchen table' issues their focus throughout their careers, from taking on the big financial institutions when they wronged people, to helping rescue the auto industry in the midst of the Great Recession," Fudge said in a statement.

Cordray is in a five-way primary for the Democratic nomination with former state Rep. Connie Pillich, state Sen. Joe Schiavoni, former U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Ohio Supreme Court Justice Bill O'Neill.
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Hedi Slimane announced as new creative director of Celine

Also announced is news the brand will expand into couture and menswear.

Hedi Slimane is set to be Celines newest creative director, replacing Phoebe Philo to helm the LVMH-owned French brand as of February 1.

Announced on Sunday in Europe, the parent company confirmed Slimane will take on the title of artistic, creative and image director, and will also expand the brand into menswear, couture and fragrance.

I am particularly happy that Hedi is back within the LVMH Group and taking the reins of our Celine maison, LVMH chairman and chief executive Bernard Arnault said in a statement. He is one of the most talented designers of our time. I have been a great admirer of his work since we collaborated on Dior Homme, which he launched to global critical acclaim in the 2000s.

Slimane was previously creative director at Dior Homme, then moved to Yves Saint Laurent (for the second time) in 2012 where he was known for re-branding the heritage label.

Known for driving impressive financial results at both Dior and Saint Laurent, Slimanes appointment sees a move from LVMH to continue Philos success for Celine moving forward  no doubt bringing his legions of dedicated fans (and their wallets) with him.

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BEIRUT, Lebanon, January 21, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- 2018 Report From J. Walter Thompson's Innovation Group MENA Forecasts 100 Trends, Depicting Region's Fast-Paced EvolutionA J. Walter Thompson Middle East and Africa's Innovation Group released its sixth annual consumer trends report, covering the MENA region for 2018. The "Future 100 Trends and Change to Watch in MENA" captures key themes accelerating the pace of change for consumers in the fast and dynamic economies of Egypt, North Africa, Lebanon, Jordan, the Gulf and Saudi Arabia, spurring similarities with the West. Authored by Mennah Ibrahim, MEA Director of the Innovation Group, the report is sliced into 10 main categories - Culture, Tech & Innovation, Travel & Hospitality, Brands & Marketing, Food & Drink, Beauty, Retail, Health, Lifestyle, and Luxury. Each trend in the Future 100 MENA Report is part of a growing phenomenon; that Middle Eastern consumers are increasingly identifying themselves as 'global citizens'. With the universal nature of digital networks, the region is experiencing a significant move towards a post-hipster world, bringing a new spin on parenthood, money and lifestyle matters overall. Rebranding sexual wellness: Trend #86

Sexual health is breaking out of its taboo status to become more aligned with health and wellbeing. "The Muslimah Sex Manual: A Halal Guide to Mind Blowing Sex",

is the first such guide written by a Muslim woman for women, addressing many of the misconceptions passed down by cultural standing. The tide on sexuality is fundamentally turning with wellness brands moving into the sexual health area. Mingling with the machine: Trend #07

According to Accenture, 82% of UAE respondents cited the availability of AI anytime, as a key reason they prefer it to human interaction. At the Future Investment Initiativein Saudi Arabia, a humanoid robot demonstrated her capacity for human expression and interaction. At GITEX Dubai, Robo-cops keeping the peace and Robo-surgeons performing surgery over 5G, were a major highlight. Halal space food: Trend #44

Saudi Arabia has invested $1 billion in Virgin Galactic, and Egyptian Mohammed Sallam is set to fly to the Red Planet as part of mission Mars One. With more Muslim astronauts travelling to space, Texas A&M University System plans to conduct research on halal food as part of its NASA program. "If there is a demand for Halal Food we will have research on it, to NASA requirements" said Mian Nadeem Riaz, NASA R&D director. By women for women: Trend #10

Women are using social media, girl-focused platforms and messages of empowerment to create content and solutions for women, by women. In Saudi Arabia, Google expects this content to rise by 75% over 2016's figures. Vlogger Njoud al Shammari said: "YouTube gives me the power to have a voice not only to express myself but to express what other women need, and what they feel needs to change in our society". Rebranding KSA: Trend #04

With a target of attracting 1.5 million foreign visitors by 2020, Saudi Arabia's cultural reforms and relaxed tourist visa laws are already attracting foreign investors, who find that the country's unexplored territories add to its mystique. Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson said: "This is an incredibly exciting time in the country's history, and I've always felt that there's nothing like getting a first-hand impression." Commenting on the report, Mennah Ibrahim said: "Borders are collapsing at the touch of technology, causing much faster trend evolution and similarities with the West, as the Middle Eastern consumer increasingly identifies as a 'global citizen'. Last year, I wrote about the growing demand for brands and lifestyle products to offer Muslim-centric options of diverse identity, social justice and social impact. Interestingly, these recurring themes, along with other emerging trends, are now flowing faster in the opposite direction. This East to West exchange is making those trends' influences felt across consumer categories around the globe - even in space." To download the full report: https://jwtmea.com/F100mena2018/ ABOUT J. WALTER THOMPSON COMPANY A J. Walter Thompson Company was founded in 1864 and has been making pioneering solutions that build enduring brands and business for more than 150 years. Today the company has evolved to include several global networks including J. Walter Thompson Worldwide, Mirum and Colloquial. In the Middle East and Africa, J. Walter Thompson is one of the leading communication agencies in the region with 27 offices in 24 markets. The MEA region is structured to deliver communication based business solutions across all channels needed to successfully deliver the marketing plan. For more information, please visit us www.jwt.com/mea a! nd follow us @jwtmea ABOUT THE INNOVATION GROUP A The Innovation Group is J. Walter Thompson's futurism, research and innovation unit. It charts emerging and future global trends, consumer change, and innovation patterns-translating these into insight for brands. It offers a suite of consultancy services, including bespoke research, presentations, co-branded reports and workshops. It is also active in innovation, partnering with brands to activate future trends within their framework and execute new products and concepts. It is led by Lucie Greene, Worldwide Director of the Innovation Group. Mennah Ibrahim is Middle East Africa Director of the Innovation Group. ABOUT J. WALTER THOMPSON INTELLIGENCE A The Innovation Group is part of J. Walter Thompson Intelligence, a platform for global research, innovation and data analytics at J. Walter Thompson Company, housing three key in-house practices: SONARTM, Analytics and the Innovation Group. SONARTM is J. Walter Thompson's research unit that develops and exploits new quantitative and qualitative research techniques to understand cultures, brands and consumer motivation around the world. Analytics focuses on the innovative application of data and technology to inform and inspire new marketing solutions. It offers a suite of bespoke analytics tools. Mennah Ibrahim is Middle East Africa Director of Brand Intelligence and Data & Analytics. MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA, ALL INQUIRIES

Philippa Clayre

T +961-1-973030

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Agriculture is a source of and solution to climate change. Convinced that agriculture can help achieve global goals of adaptation and mitigation to climate change, the European Union (EU) is supporting CTA to help smallholder farmers in Southern Africa become climate smart.

For many years, the EU has been at the forefront in the fight against climate change, taking an active role in international initiatives through the Conference of Parties (COPs) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Recently, the EU has provided financial support to the Southern Africa flagship project on climate change, a 1.5 million euros project being implemented by CTA and a consortium of national and regional partners in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Agriculture is very much affected by climate change, above all rain fed agriculture, said Dr. Arno Schaefer, Head of Co-operation, EU Delegation to the Republic of South Africa, at the meeting held in Johannesburg, South Africa to review the project Scaling-up Climate Solutions for Cereal and Livestock smallholder Farmers in Southern Africa.

Agricultural production systems and the farmers need to adapt to new realities, Schaefer said, noting that, We need to help farmers to be more resilient and adapt to climate change which, unfortunately, is to a certain degree is inevitable in the future.

Dr. Schaefer says while commitments in the recent COP 23 negotiations could have been higher to push for a cut in carbon emissions to put the world on a path to greener development, the message was clear that corrective action could not be postponed any longer. Even if governments cannot commit firmly at the current stage, the risks we are facing today are clear and we still hope decision making and awareness raising in various countries will accelerate in the near future, Dr. Schaefer said. The project promoted by the CTA and its partners is proof that farmers can ensure food security and livelihoods in the era of climate change by adapting smart and sustainable approaches.

The Paris Agreement established a clear long-term process for reducing global carbon emissions and agriculture can help absorb carbon in the ground. Dr. Schaefer mentions that the shift from fossil fuels for energy production to renewable energy should be accelerated to meet global goals of reducing carbon emissions while promoting more sustainable production and consumption patterns.

Dr. Oluyede Ajayi, Senior Programme Coordinator in CTA and who leads the project said that the southern Africa regional project seeks to encourage smallholder farmers to adopt climate smart agriculture (CSA) solutions.

Working through partnerships, the project seeks to improve and stabilize food security and income for 140,000 smallholder farmers in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe under a changing climate. The two-year project is promoting access of smallholder farmers to a multi-layer bundle of solutions to enable them address the challenges they encounter in their livelihood. Climate solutions involve the use of stress-tolerant seeds, weather information service using ICT tools, innovative weather-based insurance schemes and, expanded livelihood options through livestock. Ajayi said that while there has been a great amount of information on the challenges and impacts of climate change, especially to smallholder agriculture, there is comparatively less information available on solutions to the challenges to ensure that farmers have access to the solutions that are currently available.

We need to ask the questions on what are the specific solutions to making farmers resilient to the impacts of climate change and how to upscale the proven solutions among the farming communities, especially given the challenges that the traditional (face-to-face) agricultural extension systems face in some countries.
Westport residents Julie Mountain and Dana Noorily have come a long way since they opened their first Granola Bar. With five locations split between southwestern Connecticut and New York, they have their eyes set on opening another one, this time in Fairfield.

Mountain and Noorilys company the Granola Bar Restaurant Group will be opening its sixth location next month at 1876 Black Rock Turnpike. The opening is just months after the pair launched two New York locations.

Were very excited about Fairfield and (location) number six. Mountain said. We wanted to be up on the northern part of Fairfield. We felt like that area was greatly underserved. The space really spoke to us.

Mountain and Noorily will be setting up shop in what was once Miro Kitchen. The Asian fusion restaurant closed last spring a year after opening.

The duo started their business in 2013 as a hobby, but it has since developed it into brand known for its array of granola-themed cafes throughout the region.

The Fairfield cafe will be joining the business locations in Westport, Stamford and Greenwich, as well as in Armonk and Rye, N.Y.

Those just kind of came together naturally, and then additionally this past fall we learned of the Miro Kitchen space in Fairfield, and it was an opportunistic situation that we felt we needed to do, Noorily said.

While it has been five years since the first Granola Bar opened, the brand hasnt undergone many changes from its original concept, Noorily added.

Customers can take their pick from variety of freshly made granola, smoothies and coffee, while also choosing heartier items like breakfast burritos or the avocado grilled cheese made from locally sourced ingredients.

You can come into Granola Bar and eat vegan and vegetarian or you can eat a grilled cheese with extra bacon, Mountain said. Its a place of no judgment, and its a place (where you) can eat the way you want to eat.

As the brand has continued to grow in popularity, Noorily said she and Mountain regularly receive requests from customers in neighboring towns for a new store. A Fairfield location was among the requests, the duo said.

Mark Barnhart, the towns economic development director, said his office received several calls from residents regarding the business.

There was a rumor that they were looking for locations in this part of the county and Fairfield in particular, Barnhart said. We got a lot of calls from folks who were very excited about that possibility, so obviously, the news travels fast.

Mountain and Noorily said this will not be the end of their expansion both in Connecticut and beyond.

jordan.grice@hearstmediact.com; Twitter: @JordanEGrice
Republicans are starting to worry theres no path for narrowing the field of candidates for governor, now a bakers dozen, before the state convention in May.

With no clear front-runner and money spread fairly evenly, the GOP could see chaos and a dangerously crowded primary, especially with two or three rich self-funders in the mix. Throw in Republican-turned-unaffiliated Oz Griebel lurking as an independent candidate and hopefuls need to think big to stand out.

That means Republicans are talking about real reforms in the ways the state raises and spends money. Theyre not just spewing empty sound bites about lowering taxes and cutting wasteful spending.

OK, some of the Republicans are talking reform, some of the time, along with the usual click-bait of empty sound bites and silly promises that we hear from both parties in an election year.

Reform talk is coming in many stripes  much of it attacking union contracts and the income tax  with details scant for now.

Still, any serious talk of deep reforms contrasts with what we saw in the 2014 governors race, when the hapless Republican nominee Tom Foley outpolled John McKinney, the more thoughtful former state Senate GOP leader.

Not learning from his 2010 defeat, Foley softballed the looming $1.5 billion budget shortfall  perhaps because hed have had to say how he would fix it. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy was only too happy to campaign on the platform of Deficit? What deficit? as we in the media dropped the ball and let both of them play that game.

This time around, no one pretends we have anything but a full-on, broken system with a $3 billion shortfall forecast for 2021.

More Business Business Connecticut governor candidates look to break out from pack

The Republicans all blame Democrats and especially Malloy, even though the problem stems from both parties over many decades, and even though Republicans, given the keys to the budget car this past year, crashed with no workable plan. Regardless, the result is some welcome, big-picture talk.

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton hasnt yet said how hed eliminate the $9 billion state personal income tax, for example, though he concedes it could mean higher taxes on corporate profits and capital gains, as we had before the income tax started in 1991.

Rep. Prasad Srinivasan, R-Glastonbury, calls on his life as a physician to say he will treat the underlying sickness, not just the symptoms. Details to come  maybe.

Westport tech entrepreneur Steve Obsitnik wants the state to stop competing against the not-for-profit sector to deliver services, though much of it has already been outsourced.

We still have plenty of small-ball. As nine of the Republicans faced each other in a debate Jan. 10 in Hebron, some railed against specific spending items.

Attack-dog lawyer Peter Lumaj, of Fairfield, talked about the salary of the UConn president and the welfare state, apparently thinking were still in the 80s. Boughton talked about layers of public affairs officers at the board of regents. Former Trumbull First Selectman Tim Herbst went after the state Department of Motor Vehicles as a repository of waste, and several rolled out the usual saw, overtime.

All that criticism might be valid (except for the welfare remark), but as Mike Handler, a Stamford city official seeking the nomination, rightly pointed out, If we do all those things together, collectively achieve all those changes in the first 100 days, that is not even a rounding error.

He added, We need a bold solution, and even if we balance the budget, We need tens of billions of dollars to make ourselves dependable and predictable on infrastructure.

Back to the big stuff, Obsitnik and Dave Walker, of Bridgeport, a former U.S. comptroller general, both said we need to nix the newly renegotiated contract with state employees, a theme well hear often in 2018. The election could turn into a proxy on the 2017 labor deal.

And the Republican primary could become a referendum on the income tax, which several want to abolish. Walker correctly rails at that idea, saying its the kind of political pandering that has gotten us to where we are today.

Putting it all in perspective, Republicans nationally have gone after both regular spending and the overall system, with the attack on Obamacare and tax reform as evidence of the latter. But the nations healthy economy lowers a sense of urgency.

In Connecticut, no one is talking, or perhaps realizing, just how painful the reforms will need to be, a point made by political blogger Kevin Rennie.

But setting aside which big-picture ideas well need, the math makes clear that anyone who declares we need to cut spending as a main answer is not the right candidate.

Five giant obligations  Medicaid, state employee pension liability, municipal aid, employee and retiree health care and bonded debt  account for just over $11.5 billion, or 61 percent of the non-transportation budget. If we cut all agency spending by 25 percent overnight, wed save about $1.8 billion, which still wouldnt fix the problem.

And if we did cut all agency spending by 25 percent, wed send the state economy into a tailspin from the layoffs, not to mention gridlock in the courts and mayhem in mental health, public safety and the care of troubled children.

Bottom line: There may be waste in state government agencies, but its not the real problem, despite the colorful anecdotes. Malloy has cut the headcount by 12 percent, more than any modern governor in either party and we still have a crisis because the economy isnt growing.

Growth is key, and like the sword in the stone, the candidate who persuades voters how we can jump-start it while still paying the bills will be the next king or queen.

dhaar@hearstmediact.com
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BRIDGEPORT  A family visiting Connecticuts Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport got a bit of a scare Sunday afternoon when their little girl was bitten on the finger by a red-rumped agouti.

Zoo spokesperson Lisa Clair said a red-rumped agouti is a small South American rodent, that is about the size of a large guinea pig and looks similar to a squirrel. The animal, she said, is housed in an enclosure that consists of plexiglass panels.
Three of the top members of the board of directors of USA Gymnastics resigned Monday, as girls and women continue to make powerful statements describing in detail how they were abused by the organization's former team physician.

Chairman Paul Parilla, vice chairman Jay Binder and treasurer Bitsy Kelley submitted their resignations effective immediately. "We support their decisions to resign at this time. We believe this step will allow us to more effectively move forward in implementing change within our organization," USA Gymnastics president Kerry Perry said in a statement.

Larry Nassar, the longtime U.S. team physician, has been sentenced to 60 years in prison for child pornography and faces a minimum sentence of 25 to 40 years in prison on the molestation charges. He has admitted molesting athletes while he was employed by Michigan State and USA Gymnastics. His sentencing hearing, which is continuing, has drawn strong statements from Olympic champions Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney, Gabby Douglas and Jordyn Wieber, describing in vivid detail his abuse and the impact it has had on their lives. The women also accused the organization of being slow to make changes to protect young gymnasts.

On Monday, the presiding judge called the victims an "army" and "sister survivor warriors." Nearly 100 victim statements have been given by women who say Nassar was assaulting them while pretending to offer medical treatment.

"Most of you know me as a happy, giggly, and energetic girl. But lately . . . I've felt a bit broken," Biles, one of the most decorated gymnasts in Olympic history, wrote in a statement last week. "I am not afraid to tell my story anymore."

Biles's statement implied her abuse was similar to allegations made in lawsuits and public statements by more than 140 women, who accused Nassar of probing and fondling without gloves, warning or permission. Before Nassar pleaded guilty to a series of sex crimes late last year, both he and his attorneys denied the allegations and maintained he was providing legitimate pain therapy.

"It is not normal to receive any type of treatment from a trusted team physician and refer to it horrifyingly as the 'special' treatment," Biles wrote. "This behavior is completely unacceptable, disgusting, and abusive, especially coming from someone whom I was TOLD to trust.

"For too long I've asked myself, "Was I too naive? Was it my fault?" I now know the answer to those questions. No. No, it was not my fault. No, I will not and should not carry the guilt that belongs to Larry Nassar, USAG and others."

Raisman tweeted that she would not attend the sentencing "because it is too traumatic" but added that a letter will be read in court on her behalf. "I support the brave survivors," she wrote. "We are all in this together."
Here are three statements that really ought to be utterly uncontroversial.

Britains nationalised industries were bywords for shambolic incompetence. The Loony Left were a disaster. And the Marxist experiments of the 20th century led to economic stagnation, political repression and the deaths of millions.

Common sense, surely? Not if you ask Britains youngsters, for whom the economic disasters of the Seventies or the horrors of Soviet communism might as well belong to ancient history.

Months ago, after Jeremy Corbyns strong showing in the General Election, I warned that a generation of young voters were sleepwalking into the arms of the far-Left. And in the past few days, three stories have confirmed my fears.

Purged

The first is the collapse of the construction giant Carillion, which has reawakened calls to renationalise industries. Polls show massive support for public ownership of everything from telephones to water.

At the same time, events in Haringey, North London, reinforce the sense that the Left are on the march. The extremist group Momentum has purged old Labour moderates and is poised to control a budget running into the hundreds of millions.

For the first time since the Eighties, the Loony Left, as they were once called, are calling the shots. One paper reported yesterday that Momentums next project is the de-selection of 50 moderate Labour MPs, handing the party to the extremists for at least a generation.

Months ago, after Jeremy Corbyns strong showing in the General Election, I warned that a generation of young voters were sleepwalking into the arms of the far-Left

Were that not depressing enough, the third story is the news of a dramatic revival of Marxism in Britains universities. According to one newspaper, more than 3,000 students joined Marxist groups at freshers fairs last year.

Appearing on Radio 4s Today programme, Fiona Lali, president of the Marxist Society at Londons School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), explained that capitalism has outlived its usefulness.

Asked about the failure of Soviet Communism, she claimed that it had never had the chance to develop because of interference from the West.

My real thoughts about Ms Lalis version of history are not fit for publication. But lets put her to one side and start with the other issues.

Nationalisation first. The polls offer scant comfort for those of us who believe in private ownership. Even before the collapse of Carillion, surveys found that 76 per cent of voters back renationalisation of the railways, with even higher numbers wanting state ownership of electricity and gas (77 per cent each) and even water (a whopping 83 per cent).

Yet the history of nationalisation in Britain could hardly be less inspiring. In the Sixties and Seventies, British Rails very name became shorthand for world-class shabbiness and incompetence.

The car giant British Leyland lost so much money that, in the decade after 1975, the government was forced to hand it more than a million pounds every working day for almost ten years, just to keep it going.

And, perhaps most famously, our telephone system, run by the General Post Office, seemed to have been designed as an exercise in masochism.

In his biography of Margaret Thatcher, Charles Moore records that when he bought his first house in 1981, he waited six months for a phone because of a shortage of numbers.

As many readers will recall, the sheer lack of competition, absence of market discipline and reliance on public subsidies meant that customers were treated abysmally.

In September 1978, the Prime Minister, Jim Callaghan, told his Cabinet that he had called the Post Office about his phone bill. As he put it: I didnt give my name and I was treated disgracefully.

So, why this vogue? Many people have forgotten the woes of the past. They equate national ownership with lower prices, and assume that if, say, the railways were run from Whitehall, they would become cheaper, less crowded and more punctual overnight.

Yet history suggests a different outcome. The lesson of the post-war decades is that our utilities would be starved of funds, slow to innovate, subservient to trade unions and indifferent to customers.

But the hard-Left dont care about any of this. They are interested only in following the precepts of their quasi-religious cult. Which brings us to Haringey, where Momentum has taken over the Labour council and is set to control an 800 million budget.

Once again, this sounds depressingly familiar. In the early Eighties, the hard-Left seized control of councils across Britain, most notably Ken Livingstones Greater London Council (GLC).

They put up rates, often in open defiance of the law. They refused to co-operate with the governments civil defence preparations, despite the fact that this was one of the most dangerous points in the Cold War. They pandered to Sinn Fein and its IRA friends.

Yet the history of nationalisation in Britain could hardly be less inspiring. In the Sixties and Seventies, British Rails very name became shorthand for world-class shabbiness and incompetence

And they handed vast amounts of taxpayers money to their allies on the far-Left.

The GLC gave thousands to organisations such as the Lesbian Feminist Writers Conference Planning Group, Troops Out Of Ireland and even Babies Against The Bomb.

Today, people remember the Loony Left as a joke. But they were no joke at the time.

Baleful

As the Labour leader Neil Kinnock told his party conference in 1985, the Loony Left were outdated, misplaced [and] irrelevant . . . You cant play politics with peoples jobs and with peoples services.

Unfortunately, the cultists in Haringey regard Mr Kinnock as a Right-wing traitor. Far from forgetting the Eighties, they remember them all too well. The problem is that they think the wrong side won.

Indeed, yesterdays Sunday Times reported that Momentum plans to slash the pay of all Haringey employees over 60,000 by 40 per cent, and to bring in a punishing new council tax only for larger homes, which would be illegal.

In other words, they plan to proceed exactly as they did in the Eighties, with the same baleful results.

And so to the return of Marxism, the ideological cult that was supposedly buried almost three decades ago.

Contrary to what Ms Lali told the BBC, Marxism was given a perfectly good chance. The Soviet Union lasted for almost 75 years, while there were once Marxist regimes everywhere from Albania and Angola to Vietnam and Yugoslavia.

Hysterical

The story was almost always the same. Democracy and free speech were stifled; property was confiscated; millions were executed; millions more were sent to prisons, labour camps and psychiatric hospitals.

Marxisms renaissance, then, could hardly be a more damning indictment of our historical short-sightedness. Indeed, one poll last week found that many 18 to 24-year-olds see big business as a far bigger threat than Communism.

How could this happen? Yes, young people find it hard to get on to the housing ladder  and, yes, as they never tire of telling us, they have to pay towards their university education.

But the Lefts claim that capitalism has failed is hysterical nonsense. Todays youngsters live longer and healthier lives than ever. They are better fed, better housed, travel more and enjoy cultural opportunities their grandparents could barely have imagined.

The truth is that too many people, especially in our universities, are afraid to tell them that no generation can have it all. Politicians, too, often pander to young people, instead of having the guts to stand up for what they really believe.

Yet there are only two ways to beat the hard-Left.

One is to remind people, again and again, of the horrors that they inflicted on millions.

But talking about history can only get you so far. To beat the extremists, the forces of sanity  not just the Tories, but those decent Labour MPs who abhor Mr Corbyn and his works  need to offer a compelling vision of their own. So far, they have utterly failed. They have allowed Britains youngsters to be seduced by the apostles of envy, hatred and intolerance.

Our young people deserve better. Our country deserves better. And it is high time somebody carried the fight to the far-Left, before it is too late.
From Facetune to Photoshop, pictures are pretty easy to manipulate these days.

But one amateur snapper got more than he was bargaining for when he took some photos of Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada and Google Assistant offered him a bizarre montage of the three together.

Posting the digitally enhanced photo on Reddit, username MalletsDarker captioned the shot that features a giant head and shoulders of a man wearing ski goggles, placed behind some trees with: 'I took a few shots at Lake Louise today and Google offered me this panorama'.

Fail: Reddit user MalletsDarker posted the panoramic photo fail after Google Assistant couldn't figure out the correct scale and placed a giant head in the background of the shot

To scale: The giant head belongs to this original picture of a couple posing in ski gear

The hills are alive: The photographer also took this picture of the mountains in the background

He added: 'I literally took like three pictures, one with them in, and two without them. And for some bizarre reason Google Assistant offered me a really strange panorama of the 3 photos spliced together.'

The original shots feature one of a couple dressed in ski gear posing outside.

The next one is of some pine trees with snow-capped mountains in the distance.

And the the third shot features the same vista as the one behind the couple, but taken from a different angle.

He added: 'Source photos are here as well as proof that this was Google's work and not my terrible Photoshopping skills!'

However, since posting the picture in the r/funny subreddit thread, Google's fail has been Reddit's gain as the image quickly went viral, receiving thousands of comments in 24 hours.

And it seems people are having lots of fun in the comments section, posting their own interpretations of what the story behind the picture could be.

Redditor poopellar wrote: 'Attack On Titan Season 3 : Snowy Days.'

And broniesnstuff typed: 'Oh don't worry, that's just Steve. He's a helpful giant who offers skiers boosts to a nearby hill and generous amounts of hot cocoa.'

Game of Thrones fan rustedironchef quipped, 'Anybody else see the white walker in the reflection of his goggles? Under his left eye.'

Three's a charm: The third picture submitted featured the same vista as the one featuring the couple but Google seemed to miss this

Conspiracy: People had fun in the comments section, coming up with stories about how the giant man appeared in the trees

Trippy: Another Redditor complimented the accidental montage effect

Big brother: One Redditor expressed their concern that Google was digitally altering photos without the man's consent

FutureRick suggested, 'The Gentle Giant of Lake Louise. ...don't let the name mislead you. He'll eat your children.'

While quakeimp wrote: 'It is an abnormal titan!!!'

User NahAnyway took a more logical approach, writing, 'I think I see what happened here. If you look to the left of his head you can see that tree has been cut off and replaced upon the top of that other tree.'

They added: 'Given the perfectly blue sky behind both, google must have interpreted that tree - which was actually far behind him - to be a scale marker for everything else relative to his face in the image. That tree must have been sufficiently similar to the top of the other and boom - Skizilla.'

And lots of people have urged the owner of the photo to make it his profile picture on his social media accounts, despite the fact he isn't actually the man featured in it.

Redditor gsfgf wrote: 'That should be your new profile pic on social media. Double points if that's not you in the trees.'

And Wilskins agreed, saying: 'Thats a Facebook cover photo if Ive ever seen one!'
Last week Theresa May appointed a Minister for Loneliness. To help with her new role, MP Tracey Crouch should read the recent winner of the Costa First Novel Award, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine.

Gail Honeymans funny, troubling debut, out in paperback on Thursday, has been the past years word-of-mouth fictional hit. It is narrated by Eleanor, 31, a sole survivor, a routine-bound clerk who spends every weekend alone with two bottles of vodka.

As the gentle kindness of her colleague Raymond cracks her reserve and Eleanor reveals more about her mental and physical scars, you realise this novel is also a meditation on sociability as a skill that must be learned.

This week author Patricia Nicol, recommends the best books on loneliness to help you through the trickier times in life

The books Glasgow setting touched me, too. Its a city I love, yet when I moved there for work in my 20s I was horribly lonely, but too shy and proud to admit it.

Elizabeth Strout is another contemporary writer to weave something life-affirming from examining isolation. Her book Anything Is Possible, a series of interweaving stories, returns to the remote Illinois community left far behind by Lucy Barton, the writer-protagonist of her last novel.

In the story Sister, Lucy calls her brother Pete to say she will be visiting after 17 years. Pete, a loner, still living in their childhood home,  was astonished. Great! he said. And as soon as he hung up he felt fear. The three Barton siblings convene amid recriminations, but also love and redemption.

George Eliots gentle classic Silas Marner is a powerfully redemptive tale. Marner is seen as a miserly misfit by his fellow villagers. Then one New Years Eve, he discovers a little girl asleep on his hearth. His adoption of the child (Its a lone thing and Im a lone thing) is his social and spiritual rehabilitation warming him into joy.

Like all these books, it shows there is no shame in loneliness, and nor does it have to be a permanent state.
A man who tragically lost his wife following serious complications after giving birth to their three triplets has spoken out raising his sons five months after her death.

Last August, Chervonne Magaoa, died after shortly after her triplets Aayden, Blaise and Carson were born in Hawaii.

New Zealand-born Mrs Magaoa suffered a amniotic fluid embolism, a rare pregnancy complication which occurs when amniotic fluid containing fetal cells, hair, urine or other secretions from babies, enters the mother's bloodstream.

The boy's father, Martin Magaoa, 34, now raises his three babies, along with his six-year-old son Tanner, in Hawaii where the family lives.

The babies tragically lost their mother following a rare pregnancy complication

In an interview with The New Zealand Herald, Mr Magaoa spoke about how in the past few months the community had rallied to help him raise his boys.

He revealed that up to 50 volunteers had signed up to help care for the triplets since their birth.

He explained how each day, groups of people came to the family home on rostered shifts which started at 6am and ran through to 10pm.

Martin Magaoa (pictured) holding one of his three sons not long after they had been born

'Every day is just the regular feeding, changing diapers. It's not different from any other baby. The only difference is there's three so it's just a little more work,' Mr Magaoa told the publication.

Mrs Magaoa's father, Bishop Hyran Smith said the band of volunteers was mostly drawn from members of the local church, the local Maori community as well as family and friends.

All those who help out with the babies keep a log that tracks feeding times, weights and other details about the triplets well-being.

More than 50 volunteers have signed up to help Mr Magaoa raise his three newborn sons

Those supporting the family work rostered shifts which begin at 6am and run through to 10pm

'They are all grandmothers and mothers and when they come in, we have them scrub up, feed the babies, change diapers, swaddle them up and put them down,' Mr Hyran said.

But Bishop Hyram did admit the carers had a little difficulty when it came to putting the babies to sleep because all they wanted to do was to hold them.

Mr Magaoa, met and married his wife in 2007. Their six-year-old son Tanner was their first child. The triplets were conceived following IVF treatment.

Mr Magaoa said it was difficult to explain the situation to his oldest son and there were days when Tanner still asked for his mother.

While feeding, changing, swaddling and putting them down to sleep were regular duties, the babies also received plenty of cuddles

The father-of-four took Tanner to his mother's grave as a way of helping him understand, and to talk openly with his boy.

In the months since his wife's death, there's also been a virtual outpouring of support with many contributing to the GoFundMe page created by family friends Jan Lesuma and Billy Racule.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia previously, Ms Lesuma said the fundraiser was a 'small way' to help, and that many had reached out to the family after hearing news of their loss.

Mr Mangaoa said his oldest son Tanner (pictured) was still struggling to come to terms with losing his mum

'It has been far more than just financial assistance, there have been many uplifting well wishes and prayers that have help lift his and the family's spirits.

So far the page has raised more than USD$73,000 (AUD$91,238).

Speaking out about the flood of generosity, Mr Mangaoa said the words 'thank you' didn't express his gratitude for the support he had received.

Despite the family's loss, the 34-year-old father shared the babies continue to thrive.

'The babies are healthy and they're growing. They're happy, so we're happy. We can't complain.'
Australian Victoria's Secret model Bridget Malcolm is known for her enviable physique and impossibly flawless complexion.

And now the 26-year-old has revealed the ins and outs of her hair and beauty routine to offer an insight into how she maintains a healthy glow no matter where she is in the world.

Bridget's skincare routine is iron clad and she ensures to stick to it every day and night regardless of her schedule.

Australian Victoria's Secret model, Bridget Malcolm is known for her enviable physique and impossibly flawless complexion

And now the 26-year-old has revealed the ins and outs of her hair and beauty routine to offer an insight into how she maintains a healthy glow no matter where she is in the world

What products does Bridget Malcolm use? Dr Hauschka Cleansing Milk $61 Dr Hauschka Clarifying Toner $64 John Masters Organics Vitamin C Anti-Aging Face Serum $49.90 Dr. Hauschkas Rose Day Cream Light $62 Dr. Hauschkas Quince Day Cream $51 Bio-Oil $15 Shu Uemura Cleansing Oil $50 NARS Tinted Moisturiser $66 Maybelline Great Lash Mascara $12.95 Shu Uemura Drawing Pencil $34 Dior Eyeshadow Palette $107 Advertisement

Speaking to Byrdie, Bridget said she begins each day with Dr Hauschka's Soothing Cleansing Milk, followed by a clarifying toner.

She then applies the John Masters Organics Vitamin C Anti-Aging Face Serum which she uses to 'fight free radical damage'.

She then applies Dr Hauschkas Rose Day Cream Light and in the winter she switches to Dr Hauschkas Quince Day Cream.

'I also use sunscreen- always. My parents made me slather it on as a kid, and I hated it. Now I'm super-thankful, and will do the same to my kids,' she said.

'I also recently got turned onto double cleansing - with a milk followed by an oil - and have found my skin much fresher from it.'

In the morning she uses Dr Hauschka Soothing Cleansing Milk, followed by a clarifying toner

She uses a light moisturiser during the summer and then a heavier one for winter

In the evening she uses her regular cleanser, then a Shu Uemura cleansing oil on top.

She finishes off with a toner and lets her skin breathe overnight but if her skin needs some more tender love and care she will use Bio-Oil mixed with moisturiser.

If a spot appears on her face she uses tea tree oil during the day, which is known as as a home remedy for acne and then puts toothpaste on the spot at night to dry it out.

In the evening she uses her regular cleanser, then a Shu Uemura cleansing oil

Since Bridget spends a lot of her time wearing lots of make up she opts for a minimal amount, or none at all, when she's not working.

During the day she always applies sunscreen and then applies Nars Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturizer and Maybellines Great Lash Mascara.

'For a date night, I like to keep it simple. Again, Ill do my tinted moisturiser, a little eyeliner on my upper lidsIm currently using Shu Uemuras Drawing Pencil  and maybe some brown and gold shadow,' she said, adding that she also loves Dior eyeshadow palettes and Maybelline mascara.

If a spot appears on her face she uses tea tree oil during the day, which is known as as a home remedy for acne and then puts toothpaste on the spot at night to dry it out

Since Bridget spends a lot of her time wearing lots of make up she opts for a minimal amount, or none at all, when she's not working

When it comes to castings Bridget said she has to be prepare herself by ensuring her skin is in perfect condition as she only 'gets one chance'.

Her hair care routine is another thing that she keeps basic as she said she does 'next to nothing' with her hair.

Bridget goes years in between hair cuts, only shampoos once a week with organic coconut oil and only occasionally brushes her mane to de-tangle it.

Her hair care routine is another thing that she keeps basic as she said she does 'next to nothing' with her hair

She is also a fan of sea salt spray as she loves the look of beach style waves to create that effortless look.

As much as skincare and hair care makes up an important part of Bridget's life, so does health and fitness.

After Bridget wakes up she does some yoga followed by meditation, which she practices every day as she believes it has made her life 'simpler and less stressful'.
A London-based chef, left broken-hearted after being duped into a bigamist marriage, has found love again, only to discover that she cannot marry without herself committing bigamy.

It has been 18 months since Simon Crudgington, 41, was jailed for six months at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court in Staffordshire, after admitting making a false declaration to procure his marriage to Monika Crudgington, 39, and bigamy.

Monika, who currently lives in North London hails from the Czech Republic said 'I do,' to the illegal nuptials, after Simon faked an email claiming his first marriage was 'null and void.

'I was hoping I would never have to think of that liar again,' she said. 'Instead, I've discovered that I, too, will be a bigamist if I get married.'

Although UK law now regards Monika as single, in her homeland, where she met her new love Michal Polasek, in the romantic city of Prague, she is still married because her wedding took place there.

Her lawyer has initiated civil court proceedings there, to annul her marriage, but is still waiting for the first court hearings.

Monika Crudgington, 39, from the Czech Republic who lives in London was heartbroken when her former husband Simon Crudgington, 41, was jailed for bigamy

She's now found love with Michal Polasek but they can't wed as she's still considered married in the Czech Republic where her first wedding took place

Monika, who is living in Wood Green, north London, said: 'I've finally met my soulmate in Michal, after everything that has happened to me and the bad luck I had with men.

'I want closure  but I am still married to Simon in the Czech Republic.

'I just want all of this to be over, for everything to be sorted out and for me to be free of him.

UK LAW ON BIGAMY Under British law, anyone living in the UK who is already legally married in this country or elsewhere, must not enter into a new marriage while that husband or wife is still alive. The maximum prison sentence is seven years. Advertisement

'He went to prison for a few months, but I am the one who is still suffering. I've had a longer sentence than him by still being his wife.'

Monika wed ex-soldier, Crudgington, on June 27, 2014, at a picturesque spot in Hostivice, near Prague, after a high-octane romance, which began in London in 2012.

Bosnia veteran Crudgington, of Wolverhampton, West Midlands, had swept her off her feet at a central London casino, where they both worked, and proposed in Leicester Square in December 2013, where they shared their first kissed.

But, just 10 months into their marriage, their love affair came to a painful end, when Monika discovered he had shown her a fake e-mail from the register office, claiming his first marriage was 'null and void,' so he could tie the knot for a second time, without getting a divorce.

The chef is eager to marry Michal and start a family, and is heartbroken that she still can't put her marriage to Simon behind her

Simon and Monika on their wedding day in Hostivice, near Prague

Monika and Simon in Dubai. The bigamist contacted her after his release from jail and even asked her to go on holiday with him

Her husband was, in fact, still married to Elizabeth McLaren, the mother of his two children, who became his wife in August 2006 - going on to spend six years with her before their relationship broke down.

Monika explained: 'He had told me he'd discovered from the local register office that his marriage to Elizabeth wasn't legal, as the venue hadn't been licensed to perform ceremonies.

'But, the day before our wedding, I got a strange Facebook message from his ex, Elizabeth, saying we couldn't get married, because she and Simon weren't divorced.

'I forwarded the Register Office email Simon had shown me on to Elizabeth and told Simon about our conversation.

'I remember him reiterating that they had never been legally married. He said, 'Do you think I'd make that email up?'

Monika met Michal, also a chef, in a pub just a few months after she left Simon

'Feeling stupid for ever doubting him, I told Simon that, of course, I believed him. But I hated Elizabeth messaging me and causing trouble.'

Convinced Simon was single, she tied the knot with him, and in January 2015, moved to Dubai, where he was offered a job as an estate agent.

But, Elizabeth contacted Monika again, after spotting their wedding photos on Facebook. She insisted she was not divorced from Crudgington, claiming their marriage was bona fide.

Monika recalled: 'She said Simon had told her we'd only had a blessing in Prague, instead of a full wedding.

The couple in Dubai during happier times. Simon insisted he was no longer legally married to his first wife, but it turned out she'd refused his request for a quickie divorce

'She'd contacted the register office and, apparently, they'd never sent the email saying their marriage wasn't legal.'

At last alarm bells rang and Monika contacted the register office herself, discovering that their license to conduct marriages was valid and they had never sent the email.

Still in Dubai, devastated Monika pretended everything was okay, so she could leave quickly.

Once back on British soil, she shopped the cruel trickster to the police - resulting in Crudgington's prosecution.

Simon and Monika on their wedding day. His first wife contacted Monika to tell her the truth after seeing photos of their big day on social media

When she confronted him before the court case, he had pleaded for her forgiveness, admitting he was a bigamist. But it was too late.

The court heard how, in early 2014, Crudgington had asked Elizabeth for a quickie divorce, but she had refused, not wanting to rush - so he had married Monika anyway.

And now, unable to marry again without breaking the law, with him now free, she feels she has been handed a harsher sentence - as she is still seen as his wife.

Meanwhile, since his release, Crudgington has even contacted her, asking her to join him on a holiday in Cuba.

In January 2015, the couple moved to Dubai, where Simon was offered a job as an estate agent

Monika said: 'I am trying to move on with my life. I met Michal, also a chef, in a pub just a few months after I left Simon. He was a shoulder to cry on after everything I had been through.

'Michal is sweet and kind and someone I truly love. I had real trust issues after Simon and I found it hard to trust a man again, but I knew I had to if I wanted to be happy again.

'Me and Michal have talked about our future and starting a family. I would love to become a mum and I know Michal would be an incredible dad.

When Monika confronted Simon before the court case, he pleaded for her forgiveness and admitted he was a bigamist.

Monika is reluctant to wed Michal as she doesn't want to get him into trouble by committing bigamy

'He is sexy, funny and treats me so well. I adore him, but in the Czech Republic, I am still Monika Crudgington, married to Simon.'

Ironically, despite being the victim of the piece, she now risks committing the same crime as the man who duped her, if she ties the knot.

She said: 'I can't believe that, after everything he has done to me, if I wanted to get married again, I will be a bigamist.

'I'm not going to do that to Michal. I can't get him into trouble and make myself a criminal.

'One day I would like to get married again, though, and finally put everything that's happened behind me.'
A husband was left devastated after his wife died from cervical cancer five years after medics wrongly recorded the results of a smear test as 'normal'.

Mother-of-two Louisa Foster died in June 2013, two years after she was diagnosed with the disease. But doctors have admitted that they had missed a chance to inform Mrs Foster of possible abnormalities in 2008, three years before the diagnosis.

The Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust admitted that if Louisa's test results had been reported as 'abnormal' she would have been referred for more tests. With 'appropriate treatment' she 'would not have developed cervical cancer'.

Widower Graeme Foster, 49, of Granborough, Buckinghamshire, said the error meant their children, Poppy, now 10, and Casper, now seven, were growing up without a mother. He added: 'Louisa was everything to me and I miss her every day.'

Mother-of-two Louisa Foster died in June 2013, two years after she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Pictured, Louisa with husband Graeme and daughter Poppy, now 10

Louisa, pictured with daughter Poppy, went for a routine smear test in 2008 but doctors wrongly told her the results were 'normal', missing an opportunity for early treatment

Mr Foster said: 'Louisa was a beautiful and caring person and a great mum. To see her health deteriorate as the cancer took hold of her was heartbreaking.

'Although she was suffering extreme pain because of her illness, Louisa always tried to stay positive right to the end. She was more concerned about the wellbeing of others, especially Poppy and Casper.

'Louisa was everything to me and I miss her every day. Our family had the rest of our lives to spend together and this has now been snatched away from us.

'Louisa will never get to experience the up and downs of bringing up her children or be there to celebrate milestones such as Poppy and Casper sitting their exams, going to university or getting their first job.'

Graeme told how the illness robbed Poppy and Casper, pictured, of a life with their mother

Graeme said his family's life with Louisa, pictured together, had been 'snatched' away

Mrs Foster first underwent a test as part of the NHS Cervical Screening Programme at her GP surgery in July 2008.

Due to high demand for the service, and to meet national reporting targets, the test was sent to Sheffield for analysis.

The results were recorded as normal and Louisa was advised that she did not need another test for three years.

Had Louisa been given accurate results she could have sought further help and treatment before it was too late. My wife would still be alive and my children would still have their mum Graeme Foster

After giving birth to Casper in December 2010, Louisa started to experience pain and discomfort. However she was told it was an infection and put on a course of antibiotics.

She continued to suffer symptoms of cervical cancer, including weight loss and severe pain in her back, pelvis and abdomen, over the coming months.

After seeing doctors on several occasions she was referred to a gynaecologist. After further tests and a biopsy, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in April 2011.

Mrs Foster was told her cancer was incurable in late 2012. She was admitted to a hospice on 8 June, 2013, and died six days later.

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which was responsible for the test results, admitted liability for Louisa's death.

Louisa and Graeme, pictured with baby Poppy, now 10. They also have a son, Casper, seven

Her children, Poppy and Casper, pictured as toddlers, are now growing up without a mother

Louisa's husband Graeme is speaking out to raise awareness of the importance of testing

Mr Foster continued: 'When Louisa started complaining of pain in her stomach and back and started losing weight shortly after giving birth to Casper I instinctively knew something wasn't right.

What is a smear test? Cervical screening isn't a test for cancer, it's a test to check the health of the cells of the cervix. Most women's test results show that everything is normal, but for around one in 20 women the test shows some abnormal changes in the cells of the cervix. Most of these changes won't lead to cervical cancer and the cells may go back to normal on their own. But in some cases, the abnormal cells need to be removed so they can't become cancerous. Screening is usually carried out by the practice nurse at your GP clinic. You can ask to have a female doctor or nurse. If possible, try to book an appointment during the middle of your menstrual cycle (usually 14 days from the start of your last period), as this can ensure a better sample of cells is taken. It's best to make your appointment for when you dont have your period. If you use a spermicide, a barrier method of contraception or a lubricant jelly, you shouldn't use these for 24 hours before the test, as the chemicals they contain may affect the test. Source: NHS Choices Advertisement

'However, the doctors seemed to think Louisa's symptoms were connected to childbirth or she had an infection. We trusted their opinions and it's only now that we know the doctors faced a tremendously difficult task because they were referring to incorrect information on her medical notes.

'I appreciate those in the NHS face daily challenges but my family have paid the ultimate price because of the negligent recording of my wife's results.

'Had Louisa been given accurate results she could have sought further help and treatment before it was too late. My wife would still be alive and my children would still have their mum.

'No women should have to go through the pain Louisa did. It's so important that if any women feel they may have symptoms linked to cervical cancer they seek medical advice quickly, and if needs be don't take no for an answer. I hope that no other families have to suffer the devastation that our family have.'

Law firm Irwin Mitchell is now working with Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on a settlement.

Marcos Eleftheriou, expert medical negligence lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, representing Graeme, said: 'Louisa's case sadly highlights the devastating consequences that can happen because of delays in diagnosing and treating cervical cancer.

'Although Louisa's test results were recorded inaccurately it's important women continue to take part in the NHS' Cervical Screening Programme. We also join Graeme in encouraging any women who may think they have the symptoms of cervical cancer to seek medical advice at the earliest possible opportunity.'

Cervical Cancer Prevention Week is organised by the charity Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust. For more information visit www.jostrust.org.uk.
She's become a regular face on the fashion week circuit, as well as recently starring in her first campaign for Dolce & Gabbana.

And Lady Kitty Spencer looked perfectly at home as she arrived at the Schiaparelli Spring/Summer 2018 Fashion Show in Paris today.

The 27-year-old showed off her fashion credentials in a fitted green shirt dress by the Italian brand, featuring a whimsical print and metallic detailing down the sleeves.

Keeping her accessories to a minimum, she finished off her chic ensemble with a pair of black embellished heels by Manolo Blahnik.

Lady Kitty Spencer looked stylish in a printed green dress as she arrived at the Schiaparelli Autumn/ Winter 2018 Fashion Show in Paris

Wearing her glossy locks down over her shoulders, Kitty accentuated her glowing complexion with a dash of blusher, finishing off her glamorous make-up look with lashings of mascara.

The blonde socialite has become a regular fixture at fashion week, making her debut catwalk appearance for Dolce & Gabbana in Milan last year.

Princess Diana's niece also recently unveiled her first stunning ad campaign for the Italian fashion house, which was shot in Venice by the Morelli brothers.

In one shot, Kitty can be seen looking extremely glamorous as she tucks into a plate of spaghetti in a stunning black lace dress.

Wearing her blonde locks down over her shoulders, she accentuated her glowing complexion with a dash of blusher

She opted for a quirky frock for the Schiaparelli show, which featured a whimsical print

Kitty, who has become a regular at fashion week, finished off her stylish ensemble with a pair of black embellished heels by Manolo Blahnik

Another stunning image shows her striding through Venice's famous Piazza San Marco flanked by her fellow It Girls, including Sabrina Percy and Frankie Herbert.

Kitty has become somewhat of a muse for D&G over the past year, appearing in a special catwalk show at Harrods for the brand in December alongside the likes of Pixie Lott and and Lottie Moss.

It appears that Kitty has moved on from her split with property tycoon Niccolo Barattieri at the start of last summer, throwing herself into her fashion career.

She's not the only one with royal connections to feature in campaigns for D&G, with Lady Amelia Windsor also previously modelling for the brand.

Princess Diana's niece recently unveiled her first ad campaign for Dolce & Gabbana

The socialite was seen flashing a smile at cameras as she arrived at the show earlier today

The Dolce & Gabbana muse posed with Pixie Lott at the show, who she starred alongside during a special catwalk show at Harrods last December

Kitty was seen arriving at the show in Paris alongside Pixie's fiance Oliver Cheshire

Kitty posed for more pictures once inside the venue for the Schiaparelli Haute Couture show

She kept her accessories to a minimum, but showed off a dazzling ring on one of her fingers

The Schiaparelli Spring/ Summer 2018 show featured a series of whimsical gowns

Pastel colours featured in the stunning collection, including this strapless ball gown
A blonde ex-air hostess with 70S breasts who identifies as a black woman after undergoing radical tanning injections has claimed that her hair structure has turned 'naturally African'.

German glamour model Martina Big, 29, spent more than 50,000 on plastic surgery for her 70S cup size (UK 32S) breasts, said to be the biggest in Europe.

Yet those body enhancements were not enough for Martina and made the controversial choice to 'become black', vowing to get 'darker and darker and see what the limits are.'

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Formerly blonde glamour model Martina Big who had melanin injections to darken her skin has claimed that her hair structure has changed and is now 'naturally African'

Thanks to a new medical procedure in the US, the naturally light-skinned and blonde ex-flight attendant from the German Eifel region was able to darken her skin tone with three melanin boosting injections last year.

Bizarrely the German society figure now claims that her hair has become 'naturally African'.

Martina wrote on Facebook: 'I was at my African hair dresser to change my extension.

Martina spent more than 50,000 on plastic surgery for her 70S cup size (UK 32S) breasts. Pictured: Martina before surgery (left) and before melanin injections (right)

In recent Facebook post the model claimed that her hair was now 'identical' to an African woman's

'After taking out my extension I noticed how much my hair structure of my own hair has changed.

'I compared my own hair with the hair of the other Africans in the salon. They are identical to my [sic].'

According to Martina, it is 'the clear proof that I'm a real black woman now.'

Martina dubbed her transformation into a 'black woman' 'an internal one' that changed her whole body.

She also claims that besides her hair, her eyes have also 'changed colour' and now look more like those of African women.

Martina claims that her change in hair is 'proof' she is a 'real black woman now'

Martina claims that she 'will soon be identical to other black women' and claims that her she has also seen a change in her eye colour

Martina wrote: 'These are just a few examples of the most obvious changes. Many of my changes are very slow, but continuous.

'If my transformation continues to be so good, I will soon be identical to other black women. You can not imagine it is a great feeling to become more and more a black woman.'

Martina said her fiancee Michael, who she met at school in Germany's oldest city of Trier, is her biggest supporter in life.

Martina is also hoping to become the world record holder for the world's largest breasts

Michael, an ex-pilot who is now also taking the injections to darken his skin tone, is not only Martina's manager and style adviser, but also the love of her life.

Michael said: 'I got new into the class. I was 18 and she 17. There were three boys and 23 girls in the class, but I only saw Martina.'

Martina said: 'I first thought, he is not serious. But after two weeks we were a couple.'

Both worked afterwards for seven years for an airline based at the airport of Frankfurt Hahn, until Michael was not allowed to fly anymore because of an eye disease.

Martina said: 'And I wanted to enlarge my breasts. At least to 2,000 grammes. Then the airline told me, either you stay here or you chose your breasts.'

Martina went from a C cup to her massive 70S, which weigh a whopping 12 kilos. According to local media, her 70S breasts are equal to a bra size of '70 DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD'.

Martina is now forced to sleep on her back because of her enormous chest size.

Martina, who shares her time between Los Angeles and the German Eifel region, says her goal is to become the official Guinness World Record holder for having the largest breasts.

She said her breasts measure 49.6 inches, while her underbust measurement is 26.8 inches.

The model added: 'My shoes don't get wet anymore. For two years my breasts have been so big that I can't see my feet anymore.'

Martina also revealed that she is planning a nose job to 'make it look African', and she also wants 1.5 kilograms of implants added to each buttock.
A fashion magazine has raised eyebrows by publishing a photo gallery of beautiful woman with big feet.

The niche gallery was featured in Woman magazine in Russia where pride of place went to model and former beauty queen Anastasia Reshetova, 21.

Reshetova stunned her fans with her long legs and so-called huge feet when she shared photos from a recent break on a tropical island with her rapper boyfriend Timati, 34.

Russian fashion magazine Woman has released a bizarre photo gallery of beautiful women with large feet including model Anastasia Reshetova (pictured)

But what caught the attention of her army of 1.5 million fans on social media were the length of her legs and size of her feet with some describing them as flippers.

The angle of one shot - showing her stretching out in the sand - made it look as if her legs were twice as long as the rest of her body.

She was clearly aware of how the perspective distorted her body as she posted the photo with the comment: '180 centimetres (5 ft 11 ins) of bliss.'

Reshetova's feet first came to the attention of the public after sharing a photo of her on holiday on a tropical island where her followers compared them to 'flippers'

Also featuring in the gallery is Anastasia Volochkova who was famously sacked from the Bolshoi Ballet for being 'too fat'

Maria Pogrebnyak-Shatalova, the wife of ex-Fulham and Reading striker Pavel Pogrebnyak, who now plays for FC Dynamo Moscow, is known for her love for boots with huge platforms

Also featuring in the bizarre gallery is former WAG Olga Buzova, 31, whose marriage to FC Lokomotiv Moscow midfielder Dmitri Tarasov, 30, ended last year.

Online commentators often mock her large feet in the saucy selfies she regularly shares on social media - but her critics seem to have done little to stop the constant flow of photos.

Meanwhile, another Russian beauty who has attracted attention for the size of her feet is model Aiza Anokhina, 32, who has been dubbed the Russian Victoria Beckham.

Former WAG Olga Buzova is also featured in the gallery having been previously mocked by fans online for her larger feet

Aiza Anokhina, who has been dubbed the Russian Victoria Beckham, also made the cut of the bizarre gallery

Despite her petite size of 162 centimetres (5 ft 3 ins), Anokhina has publicly made jokes about her big feet, wishing that she took a smaller shoe size.

Maria Pogrebnyak-Shatalova, 30, the wife of ex-Fulham and Reading striker Pavel Pogrebnyak, 33, who now plays for FC Dynamo Moscow, is known for her love for ankle boots with huge platforms - which make her already large feet look even bigger in size.

And Anastasia Volochkova, 42, who was famously sacked by the world-famous Bolshoi Ballet for being 'too fat', has also attracted attention for her larger feet.
It was the moment the Royal family had been waiting for, and Jack Brooksbank pulled out all the stops when he presented Princess Eugenie with a dazzling pink-orange padparadscha sapphire ring.

The oval cut, salmon-coloured sparkler, surrounded by diamonds and set on a gold band, is a rare type of gem corundum and an unusual choice for an engagement ring.

At first glance, it bears a striking resemblance to the rock Eugenie's father proposed to her mother with in 1986 - however Fergie's ring was set with a pink Burma ruby.

And experts have predicted Eugenie's distinctive ring cost a relatively modest 7,000 compared to her mother's rumoured 25,000 sparkler.

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Jack Brooksbank propsed to Eugenie with a rare pink padparadscha sapphire ring (left); which echoes the pale pink ruby Andrew proposed to Fergie with back in 1986

However that's not the only thing that's similar, as eagle-eyed royal watchers have noticed nightclub boss Jack shares the same floppy hair and rakish grin as his future father-in-law Prince Andrew.

The Duchess of York's engagement ring, which was made by Diana's jewellers Garrard, was valued at around 25,000 for the stone alone, according to Hello!, which is the equivalent of 71,350 in today's money.

Sophie Lomax, head of design at 77diamonds.com, Europes largest online diamond retailer, estimates the price of Eugenie's rock at 7,000, as she believes the colour of the padparadscha sapphire looks stronger than a completely natural one; colour treated gemstones are generally not as pricey as natural untreated ones.

Eugenie is in good company with her distinctive pink stone; Liz Hurley and Nicole Richie both wore pink sapphire engagement rings, although they are not believed to be padparadschas - which comes from the Sanskrit/Singhalese word for 'lotus blossom'.

Happy news: The salmon-coloured sparkler, surrounded by diamonds and set on a gold band, is a rare type of gem corundum and an unusual choice for an engagement ring

Blast from the past? The Duchess of York's engagement ring, which was made by Diana's jewellers Garrard, was valued at around 25,000 for the stone alone, according to Hello!

Celebrities who have sported traditional blue sapphire jewellery include Katie Holmes, Keira Knightley and Helen Mirren.

Nightclub boss Jack proposed to his girlfriend of seven years during a trip to Nicaragua earlier this month, the couple announced on Monday morning.

Growing trend for coloured rings Jewellery expert Bobby White has previously commented on the growing trend for pink rings. He told MailOnline: 'There has been a trend in coloured engagement rings over the last few years and I believe [the Duchess of Cambridge's blue ring] played a big role in this trend. We create a lot of yellow and pink diamond rings. 'Also bespoke engagment rings handmade with sapphires and emeralds are growing in popularity year on year. 'When I first started making fine jewellery back in 1999, most, if not all engagment rings where made using clear diamonds. 'But in 2016, people want to have their stones pop with colour to work with their personal style and uniqueness.' Advertisement

Sophie Lomax, head of design at 77diamonds.com, told MailOnline FEMAIL: 'Princess Eugenie's ring features an oval cut padparadscha sapphire encircled with a cluster of pear shaped diamonds.

'Padparadscha sapphires are typically found in Sri Lanka and are one of the rarest colour of sapphire, being a beautiful and unique mix of pink and orange.

'The ring style that Jack has chosen Eugenie is reminiscent of the engagement ring Sarah Ferguson was given by Eugenie's father, Prince Andrew.

'The ring is a similar but a modern update to her mother's, with the cluster style being vintage whilst celebrating the centre stone.

'Coloured gems stones in engagement rings are becoming increasingly popular as women like to wear designs which are more personal to them and their partner.

'The ring features approximately a 2 carat oval padparadscha with around 1.5 carat of pear-shaped diamond in the cluster, set onto a yellow gold band.'

The happy couple this morning released a set of official portraits to mark their engagement, taken in the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace, in which a thrilled Eugenie shows off her engagement ring, padparadscha sapphire surrounded by diamonds

London jewellery designer David Law added: 'In keeping with traditional Royal engagement rings Jack Brooksbank proposed to Princess Eugenie with a diamond sethalo styled engagement ring but set around a rare paddelradscha sapphire.

'The paddelradscha sapphire is a very expensive sapphire and is little known by the general public.

'The term 'padparadscha' is derived from the Sinhalese word for aquatic lotus blossom, and has an unusual salmon colour. There is no uniformed standard colour for the stone and it straddles the colour boundaries between pink and orange.

'Although the ring is bespoke it is the rare stone rather than design that makes it stand out from the rest. '
The SAG Awards aren't always as glamorous an affair as the Golden Globes or the Academy Awards, but the stars brought it in a big way in the beauty department at last night's 24th annual event in Los Angeles.

From bold lips and burgundy eyeshadow to finger waves and giant curls, we've rounded up the night's most stand-out beauty looks.

See who made the list and how you can copy their hair and make-up below.

NICOLE KIDMAN

Not washed up or washed out: Nicole Kidman, 50, brought her signature old Hollywood glamour to the 24th Annual SAG Awards with a romantic chignon and red lip

Nicole, 50, took home the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries for her role in Big Little Lies.

During her acceptance speech, she reflected, 'And how wonderful it is today that our careers can go beyond 40 years old. Twenty years ago we were pretty washed up by this stage in our careers and that's not the case now.'

It also wasn't the case for her beauty look. Her hair and make-up may have channeled old Hollywood glamour, but the result was far from staid.

Hairstylist Kylee Heath pulled the actress' blonde strands back into a romantic chignon to one side of the nape of the neck and kept a soft, face-framing wave loose on the other side to balance it out.

Complementing the hair, make-up artist Molly Stern gave Nicole a deep red lip with Neutrogena Hydro Boost Hydrating Lip Shine in Velvet Wine.

DANIELLE BROOKS

Red is the new black: Make-up artist Michael Patterson gave Orange Is the New Black star Danielle Brooks, 28, a pretty crimson eye to match her Marc Bouwer gown

Last night red was the new black for Danielle - at least when it came to her eyeshadow.

Pro Michael Patterson gave the 28-year-old Orange Is the New Black star a metallic ruby eye that matched the crimson in her sequined Marc Bouwer gown.

For a similar effect, try the burgundy Make Up For Ever Artist Color Eye Shadow in M-847.

MADELINE BREWER

Red hot: Madeline Brewer, 25, paired her red hair with a similarly hued lip and cheek

The Handmaid's Tale star proved yet again that redheads can - and oftentimes should - wear red lipstick.

Madeline's make-up artist, Jenna Kristina, used a combination of products to give the actress, 25, just the right lip shade.

She first lined the lips with Nars Precision Lip Liner in Menton before applying Giorgio Armani Lip Maestro in Flesh.

An orange blush (Jenna used Chanel Joues Contraste Powder Blush in So Close) was key to making the look come together.

YARA SHAHIDI

Red-ish: Make-up artist Emily Cheng used five different products to give Grown-ish star Yara Shahidi, 17, a bold dark lip

With giant Diana Ross-esque curls and a bold dark lip, 17-year-old Yara crushed the beauty game once again on the red carpet.

Hairstylist Nai'vasha Johnson prepped the Grown-ish star's curls with Taliah Waajid Green Apple & Aloe Leave-In Conditioner before diffusing and brushing them out.

For Yara's burgundy pout, make-up pro Emily Cheng used a whopping five Chanel products: the Precision Lip Definer in Seduction, Rouge Allure Lip Colour in Pirate and Rouge Noir, Lip Balm and Powder Duo in Rosso Parthenope and Rouge Coco Gloss in Epique.

SAOIRSE RONAN

Pretty in pink: Saoirse Ronan, 23, dazzled in a pastel dress by Louis Vuitton

Hairstylist Adir Abergel used a vintage thread he found in Paris to craft the Irish actress' silver hair accessory

Saoirse, 23, is quickly becoming one to watch, for both her acting chops and beauty choices.

Her performance in Lady Bird didn't snag her a SAG yesterday, but her hair accessory definitely deserved an award of its own for matching the silver ribbons on her Louis Vuitton pink dress so perfectly.

Of the piece, hairstylist Adir Abergel wrote on Instagram, 'When creating styles, I think about shape, texture and details. This look is inspired by the details of the dress and the '60s effortless vibes. I used a thread I found in a vintage shopping excursion while I was traveling to Paris on a job. Finally in good use.'

ALLISON WILLIAMS

Get out! Allison Williams, 29, channeled the '20s with a beaded gown, red lip and finger waves

Allison, 29, said she channeled her 'best flapper vibes' in a beaded Ralph and Russo gown and had the hair and make-up to match.

Renato Campora gave the Get Out star a wet-looking updo with a nod to '20s-style finger-waves in the front using Tresemme Compressed Micro-Mist Hair Spray.

'When choosing a beauty look, we were inspired by old Hollywood screen sirens, and chose to center the makeup around a bold red, classic lip,' make-up artist Kelsey Deenihan said.

To make it happen, Kelsey mixed Avon True Color Perfectly Matte Lipsticks in Superb Wine and Supreme Red.
A woman was left with her eyes almost completely swollen shut after she suffered a painful allergic reaction to eyelash extension adhesive.

Isabelle Kun, a nursing student who is currently based in Ottawa, has been getting eyelash extensions done every two to three weeks for the past year or so and has never before had a problem with them.

However after the 20-year-old's most recent appointment, she was left horrified when her eyelids swelled up so much that she could barely see out of them - a condition which left her unsure whether she would 'ever be able to see again'.

Scary: Ottawa resident Isabelle Kun has shared images of the gruesome allergic reaction she had to eyelash extension glue - which left her eyes swollen shut

Isabelle, who normally pays $100 - or more - for her eyelash extensions, went to the same salon that she always frequents, Sara Beauty iLash Lounge, which is near her home, to have the lashes applied by an esthetician using an adhesive.

She told CTVNews.ca that she went to get her lashes done on a Tuesday and when she woke up two days later on Thursday morning, her eyes were swollen shut and she could not see a thing.

Describing to the outlet what happened that morning, she said, 'My girlfriend had slept over and I couldn't even see her. And, I was having a hard time swallowing and even breathing.'

Isabelle's girlfriend rushed her to the hospital where she was immediately admitted.

'They took me right in within seconds when they saw my face. My eyes are swollen both above and under and my tonsils were apparently really inflamed,' Isabelle described.

To try reducing the swelling, the hospital administered her with an antihistamine and steroid and despite the swelling staying the same, they released her and told her to continue taking the antihistamine pills until swelling goes down.

However, the nightmare keeps continuing for Isabelle as the swelling has not gone down, and in fact has only gotten worse.

Part of that is due to the fact that it won't get better until the adhesive is removed, but she can't take it off because her eyes are too swollen.

Reaction: The 20-year-old nursing student had an allergic reaction to the eyelash adhesive used to attach each individual lash

'My eyes are actually even worse now. There's like a sac of fluid under my eye now. It's so gross,' she says.

Telling the news exactly what unfolded, Isabelle stated that she got the same treatment last month and noticed that her eyes became swollen and asked the esthetician what adhesive brand they were using.

So, when she want back for a new treatment recently, she asked if they were still using the same brand of glue, explaining that she thinks she might be allergic to it, and they told her she was fine.

When Isabelle asked what glue they were using, the esthetician said, 'I don't know the name of the glue we use, but you should be good, don't worry.'

Isabelle explained that she said okay, 'I continued with it when I really shouldn't have. I shouldn't have done it when I heard she didn't even know what glue she was using or what the ingredients were or anything.'

Due to the fact that she didn't stop when she saw she may be allergic the first time, the allergic reaction only got worse and caused her eyes to swell completely shut.

Sara Du, owner of the salon that Isabelle went to, said her 'business is not able to offer allergy testing to every client, but will offer it to those who request it.'

She also declined to comment to CTVNews.ca, about Isabelle's experience, but did explain, 'With any reaction to a beauty service, it's often difficult to be sure what caused the reaction.'

Warning: Isabelle, who currently lives in Ottawa, wants other women to know about the risk of eyelash extensions and is urging them to make sure they ask for an allergy test

After going through this horrible experience, Isabelle is warning other women about the dangers of eyelash extensions, saying she had no idea she could suddenly develop an allergy.

She said she 'wants other women to know about the risk and to ensure they ask for an allergy test'.

'Also be very careful where you go. These people are dealing with your eyes, with your vision. I mean, this morning I woke up and I wondered if I would ever be able to see again,' she continued.

While many people would be scarred for life by this experience, Isabelle admitted that she hopes she can still get extensions again.

'I would want to do them again, but I will be going for allergy testing first, because I do love getting fake eyelashes.'

This isn't the first time someone has encountered a sudden allergic reaction to the eyelash adhesive and despite salons taking careful measures to prevent allergic reactions, a certain chemical in the glue can cause bad interactions regardless of allergies.

According to Lashology, the chemical found in almost all eyelash extension adhesives, even those for allergic and sensitive eyes, is cyanoacrylate.

This ingredient is what makes the adhesive actually stick and even if a client is not allergic to the chemical, they can have a reaction to it the first time they get lashes applied, or in worst cases, they can develop an allergy to it over time, eventually leading up to a horrible reaction.

Eyelash glue or adhesive containing cyanoacrylate is safe when used properly. However, if it gets in the eye or too close to the eye, it can have severe consequences and people should consider getting tested for this allergy.
The first hijab-wearing model to appear in a L'Oreal haircare campaign has been forced to step down over a series of anti-Israel tweets.

Amena Khan, from Leicester, said she 'deeply regrets' her remarks from 2014, and apologised for the 'upset and hurt that they have caused'.

She had been criticisied for a series of posts, including one that described Israel as an 'illegal state' and another branding the country as a 'child murderer'.

The backdated tweets, which have now been deleted, came to light after Amena was cherry picked by L'Oreal to appear in the promo alongside the likes of pop star Cheryl.

The blogger said that with 'deep regret' she would be stepping down from the L'Oreal campaign, as the conversations surrounding her tweets were 'detracting' from the 'positive and inclusive sentiment' the campaign aimed to send out.

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Amena Khan (pictured) has been forced to step down from a L'Oreal campaign for a series of recently unearthed tweets about Israel

In a statement posted on Twitter, Amena said: 'I deeply regret the content of the tweets I made in 2014, and sincerely apologise for the upset and hurt that they have caused.

'Championing diversity is one of my passions, I don't discriminate against anyone. I have chosen to delete them as they do not represent the message of harmony that I stand for.'

She continued: 'I recently took part in a campaign, which excited me because it celebrated inclusivity.

'With deep regret, I've decided to step down from this campaign because the current conversations surrounding it detract from the positive and inclusive sentiment that it set out to deliver.'

In a statement posted on Twitter, the blogger said she 'deeply regrets' her remarks from 2014

Since being unveiled as one of the faces of a new L'Oreal campaign, Amena has been criticised for tweets she posted about Israel in 2014, which have since been deleted.

One read: 'U repeatedly say "nobody is above the law". Well, under international law, Israel is an illegal state. Yet u support them. EXPLAIN #AskDavid'.

Another says: 'Israel = Pharoah. Both are child murderers. Insha'Allah, defeat also awaits the former; it's only a matter of time. #HopeForGaza #SaveGaza'.

In a third post, Amena tweets Channel 4 presenter Jon Snow: 'Your "children of Gaza" piece was incredibly moving. Israel is a sinister state & the one who suffer most are innocent children'.

In a series of tweets from 2014, she had called Israel an 'illegal state' and branded the country a 'child murderer'

It comes after the blogger and influencer starred along side Cheryl and Dougie Poynter in a new L'Oreal campaign.

Amena had been unveiled as the first model to star in a haircare campaign without actually showing hair, which she pointed to as being a big step for the beauty industry.

Speaking to Vogue the YouTube star said: 'You have to wonder  why is it presumed that women that don't show their hair don't look after it?

'The opposite of that would be that everyone that does show their hair only looks after it for the sake of showing it to others.

'And that mindset strips us of our autonomy and our sense of independence. Hair is a big part of self-care.'

Amena had been unveiled as the first hijab-wearing model to feature in a L'Oreal haircare campaign, starring alongside the likes of Cheryl

The controversy over picking Amena as a face of L'Oreal comes after transgender model Munroe Bergdorf was fired by the brand in September for her comments on racism.

In a lengthy Facebook post, she had written: 'Honestly I don't have energy to talk about the racial violence of white people any more. Yes ALL white people.'

A spokesperson for L'Oreal Paris UK said: 'We have recently been made aware of a series of tweets posted in 2014 by Amena Kahn, who was featured in a UK advertising campaign.

'We appreciate that Amena has since apologised for the content of these tweets and the offence they have caused.

'LOreal Paris is committed to tolerance and respect towards all people. We agree with her decision to step down from the campaign.'
He was the troubled teen who battled with bullies, gangs and a teenage pregnancy but it seems that EastEnders' Liam Butcher has come a long way.

James Forde, who played Liam in the soap, is a far cry from his baby-faced alter-ego in the popular soap.

Now 21, James's Instagram account sees him in shirtless selfies, sporting man buns and smoking cigarettes.

James Forde played Liam Butcher in EastEnders from the age of 11 to 18, but just two years after leaving the soap he looks VERY different

Despite leaving the drama in August 2015 James' fan base has not depleted with the actor now boasting over 46,000 followers on his account.

It seems that in his absence from the show James has stayed away from TV but appears to be branching out into the world of online influencers.

In several of his posts the former soap star can be seen plugging urban clothing brands to his loyal following.

Now sporting a shaggy haircut and stubble, 21-year-old James is a far-cry from his baby-faced alter-ego

The former soap star can be seen sharing selfies of him smoking cigarettes with his 46,000 strong following

James has also dedicated several of his posts to Maisie Smith who played his on-screen sister Tiffany Butcher.

Since departing the show Maisie has launched a singing career which James has been happy to bolster sharing her latest works on his account.

But while it seems there are no plans for James' return to BBC's long running show, he is in demand among fans.

Many fans have commented on the actor's photos to ask whether he will be making a return to the show to which he says he would love to

Among some of his most frequent posts are those where he poses shirtless before the camera

Several have left comments on his account asking if he will be making a long awaited return to the show, and James says he would be more than happy to rehash his old role.

Replying to a fan page on Twitter about whether he would return he wrote: 'Yes, if Liam ever does make a return I for sure would!'

James took on the role of Ricky Butcher (Sid Owen) and Bianca Jackon's (Patsy Palmer) son in 2008 at just 11, before departing the show in August 2015.

In his final story line Liam had fallen for Cindy Williams (Mimi Keene) who is pregnant with TJ Spraggan's (George Sargeant) baby following a one night stand.

After giving birth to her daughter Beth, Cindy and Liam left Walford Square together to start a new life in Germany.
Vegans across the country are rejoicing over the announcement that they will now have dairy-free Cornettos to munch away on during the summer months.

The brand new range of vegan ice creams will be hitting the shelves of Sainsbury's supermarkets next month.

The sweet treat will be made of soy-based vanilla flavour ice cream, dipped in vegan chocolate with the famous chocolate tip, sprinkled with nuts and all wrapped inside a gluten free cone.

But despite widespread joy from plant-based community, not everyone is happy - with some comparing soy-based ice cream to Brussels sprouts.

Cornetto has revealed that it will be launching a dairy free vegan ice cream cone in February

Following the company's success with the frozen dessert in Italy, they will now be available to plant-based Brits.

It's not just vegans who are overjoyed with the announcement, but the coeliac community - as the new cones will also be gluten-free.

One person took to social media this week to complain that next there would be a Brussels sprout flavour ice cream next.

Another moaned that they were sick of brands jumping on the bandwagon - referring to the rise in popularity in veganism.

But the vast majority of tweets were penned by people who are clearly very excited to be able to chow down on ice cream in the same way as their non-vegan counterparts.

They are following in the footsteps of Ben and Jerry's - who also revealed a range of vegan ice creams; not everyone was on board with the idea however, with one person likening it to Brussels sprouts

The vast majority were thrilled with the news of the dairy free and gluten free sweet treat

A host of vegans left tweets of praise to the announcement of the news - one hoping that the sun comes out as soon as possible so that they can enjoy the new ice cream.

The animal welfare charity PETA has taken to Twitter to voice its support for Cornetto's new animal friendly option.

Cornetto isn't the only huge brand to cater to the dairy-free market - Ben and Jerry's has recently unveiled its own range of vegan flavours - which include cinnamon and peanut butter.
Many royal children are kept out of the limelight, but like any doting mother Princess Charlene is eager to share snaps of her children on social media.

And the royal, 39, has been posting candid glimpses into her children's lives more regularly on Instagram of late, showing how her adorable twins Jacques and Gabriella, three, are growing up fast.

Over the weekend Charlene and the blonde twosome spent some time at the playground, where Gabriella fearlessly went down the slide head first after swinging from the bars at the top.

The youngster looked every inch the little Princess in a pink coat and fur trimmed boots in a matching shade, while her brother was more casual in a navy puffer jacket and jeans.

Princess Gabriella and Prince Jacques of Monaco, three, enjoyed a trip to the playground where they were entertained by colourful windmills

She was dressed like a little Princess in a smart pink coat and fur-trimmed boots, but it didn't stop Gabriella having fun on the slide

Prince Jacques looked delighted to get behind the wheel of a convertible at the Bugatti showroom

Jacques was also seen eagerly racing down the slide when it came to his turn, after getting a cuddle from another child.

The youngsters entertained themselves with colourful windmills before heading off to the luxury Bugatti dealership where little Jacques posed proudly beside one of the supercars. and even pretended to take a spin in a convertible.

The twins, celebrated their third birthday in early December 2017 with a wintry-themed party thrown by their parents Princess Charlene and Prince Albert.

Although no pictures of the celebrations have emerged Albert, 59, opened up to People magazine about the party held at the Oceanographic Museum with friends they've made at kids club and nursery.

Curious Princess Gabriella tries out going down the slide facing forwards

Her lively brother Jacques was equally eager to go whizzing down the slide

Getting that taste for luxury early! The young prince already looked completely at home in the Bugatti showroom

'Its kind of a Polar Arctic setting. Theres stuff like mechanized polar bears that move their hands and arms - it was really fun,' he said.

'Then we had a little celebration up at Roc Agel with Charlenes family, and that was nice.'

He also revealed that Prince Jacques had received a Hot Wheels launcher and truck for his birthday, while Princess Gabriella Barbie doll and the Barbie Dream Horse.

The youngster wore an adorable jumper emblazoned with his initial

The lively pair made a friend at the playground who made sure to keep a watchful eye on the twins

Prince Jacques posed up a storm for photos taken by his proud mother, Princess Charlene, who has been sharing more regular glimpses of her children's lives of late

Peek-a-boo! Prince Jacques peered over the side of the climbing frame as his mother took a snap

There's also an exciting year ahead for the young pair who will take a 'halfway-around-the-world' trip with their parents.

In another interview with People magazine, Prince Albert revealed the family is planning a trip to Polynesia in summer 2018.

'We did a cruise with them this summer and that was fine. We'll have to break up so it's not so long for them.'

He added that while he's eager for the twins to see the world, he is not planning any official visits with them until they're a little older.

Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella, three, pose for the Monaco royal family's traditional Christmas photo shoot

Princess Charlene, 39, and Prince Albert, 59, treated their children to a birthday party at the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco

The young princess tucks in during morning tea with Monsignor Barsi, the Archbishop of Monaco

When asked if a future state visit might involve getting together with their young royal counterparts, he replied: 'Are you asking me about a royal play date with Will and Kate's kids?'

'Maybe, but a state visit with the twins to any country, not just the UK, is a few years off.'

The twins are the first children born to Prince Albert and his wife Princess Charlene who married in 2011.

Jacques with longer curls at the Sainte-Devote festivities in Monaco in January this year

Princess Charlenes with Jacuqes and Gabriella before they had their curls cut shorter

Gabriella was born first at 5.04pm, and Jacques at 5.06pm, but it is Jacques who will be the future Prince of Monaco, because of the Mediterranean principality's male inheritance laws.

The Prince was by Charlene's side as the children were delivered at the Princess Grace Hospital, which is named after Albert's mother, the late Hollywood star, Grace Kelly.

Soon after 7.30pm, 42 cannon shots rung around Monaco, confirming that the babies had been born.
Her outing comes days after she was seen looking at prams at Mamas & Papas

She wrapped up warm in an oversized camel jacket, teamed with black jeans

Michaella McCollum, 24, kept low profile in a large floppy hat while shopping

Since returning home to Belfast, 'Peru Two' drugs mule Michaella McCollum has been indulging in a spot of retail therapy.

And it seems the former dancer could be buying with a new arrival in mind, after being spotted picking out children's clothing, just days after looking at new prams.

The 24-year-old appeared keen to keep a low profile at Jojo Maman Bebe, sporting a large floppy hat as she enjoyed a browse in the store.

Opting for a dressed-down ensemble, Michaella - who was jailed in 2013 for attempting to internationally smuggle drugs - wrapped up warm in an oversized camel jacket, teamed with black jeans.

'Peru Two' drugs mule Michaella McCollum has been spotted picking out children's clothing while out shopping

The former model, 24, seemed keen to keep a low profile as she enjoyed a spot of retail therapy

Michaella was seen examining a striped baby grow during her visit to Jojo Maman Bebe

Wearing her blonde locks down over her shoulders, she opted for a minimal make-up look for her shopping trip,

She was seen picking out a number of children's clothes inside the store, which was advertising a 50 per cent off sale.

It comes after she was seen perusing through the pram collection at Mamas & Papas last Thursday, alongside a male companion.

Michaella's representative previously declined to comment when asked if she was expecting.

Michaella wrapped up warm in an oversized camel jacket, which she teamed with black jeans

The former 'Peru Two' drugs mule was seen looking at baby clothing during her outing

Michaella's shopping trip comes days after she was spotted looking at new prams

The former model has been spotted on several shopping trips since her agent confirmed that she is currently working on a documentary about life in prison.

She is also due to publish her first book, which is set to hit shelves this summer.

It was previously reported that she had been offered a 250,000 deal for the book, detailing her criminal exploits and time behind bars in Lima.

Since returning to the UK, Michaella's lifestyle has been a stark contrast to former accomplice Melissa Reid, who has landed a charity job at Citizens Advice.

The ex model was seen picking out a number of items from rails inside the shop, which was advertising a 50 per cent off sale

Michaella hid beneath a large floppy hat while she enjoyed browsing through the racks

Wearing her blonde locks down, she opted for a minimal make-up look for her outing

Michaella was spotted looking at boys and girls clothing during her visit to Jojo Maman Bebe

The former dancer, who appeared to be alone, looked relaxed as she walked around the store

Michaella looked stylish in a dressed-down ensemble as she enjoyed her shopping trip

She seemed to take a fancy to a striped top while browsing in the store earlier today

Melissa applied for a job at the charity after she was released from the South American jail last June.

Meanwhile, Michaella has been accused of capitalising on her notoriety, after it emerged she has signed with a talent agency in May.

The pair were sentenced to spend six years and eight months inside a grim jail in Lima, after they were caught trying to smuggle the huge quantity of cocaine.

Michaella was released on parole last March after serving less than half of her sentence but initially had to stay in Peru.

She carried out voluntary work in the country until August, when she flew back home to Belfast.

Michaella's agent recently confirmed that she is currently working on a documentary about life in prison

She is also due to publish her first book, which is expected to hit shelves this summer

Michaella was released on parole last March after serving less than half of her sentence

She returned home to Belfast last August, after carrying out voluntary work in Peru

Michaella has been spotted on several shopping trips since returning home to Belfast

She seemed keen to keep a low profile as she wandered around the store today
Eric and Lara Trump's son Luke is known for his wild blonde hair that sticks straight up in the air, and at four months old he has already gotten his first haircut.

The 34-year-old son of President Donald Trump took to Instagram on Sunday to share adorable photos of his little boy getting his hair trimmed at his father's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

Using only the hashtag #FirstHaircut, Eric posted two snapshots of Luke wearing a cartoon-covered cape while a woman cut the back of his hair.

Milestone! Eric and Lara Trump's four-month-old son got his first haircut at his family's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach Florida

Too cute: Luke was all smiles as his mom held him up in the salon chair for his haircut

In the first photo, Luke's hair is sticking straight up in the air, while his mother holds him securely in the chair.

Although most children tend to fidget or even cry during their first haircuts, Luke let out a bright smile while he was being doted on.

The second snapshot shows Luke flashing a gummy grin in the middle of his haircut.

Eric and Lara's fans have been quick to compare Luke's unruly locks to his grandfather's infamous hair, and many people commented that he looks just like Donald.

'OMG! So cute, he has his Grandpas hair. Love it!' one person wrote, while another added: 'He looks like his grandpa!'

New 'do: Lara, 35, shared a photo of herself holding Luke while he modeled stylish baby sunglasses over the weekend

Boy's best friend: Lara and Eric also posted a snapshot of Luke lying in bed with Charlie  who is snuggled under the covers

Fans who were worried that Luke was going to get all of his hair cut off will be happy to know that he is now sporting a tamer version of his beloved baby mohawk.

A few hours after her son's haircut, Lara took to her own Instagram account to post a snapshot of Luke showing off his new 'do while wearing some pretty fashion-forward sunglasses for a four-month-old.

In the photo, Lara has on a pair of oversize shades and a Nike sweatshirt, while Luke looks stylish in a pair of white sunglasses with his blonde hair sticking up in the air.

When captioned the pictures, Lara opted to use the peace sign and smiley face with sunglasses emoji.

All smiles: Eric and Lara traveled to Mar-a-Lago to attend a fundraiser honoring the first anniversary of Donald Trump's inauguration on Thursday

Having fun: Eric and Lara posed with and Fox News host Jenine Pirro at the fundraiser

Strike a pose: They also took photos with Anthony Cuccolo, Anthony Vecchione and Scott Cohen

Since they became parents in September, Lara and Eric frequently fills their Instagram pages with pictures of her son, many of which see him bonding with their two dogs, Charlie and Ben.

On Saturday morning, Lara posted a picture of Luke lying in bed with Charlie  who is snuggled under the covers.

'Sometimes you just cant get out of bed #SaturdayMorning,' Lara captioned the image, which shows Luke wearing a white and navy striped polo, gray sweatpants, and red and white socks.

Eric shared the same photo a day later, writing: 'Happy Sunday Friends! #LittleLuke.'

The New York-based family traveled to Florida ahead of the weekend to attend a raucous fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago.

Workout: Lara was seen taking Luke for walk in his stroller on Sunday before they left the estate

Brisk walk: Lara wore a black long-sleeve and shorts for the walk around Mar-a-Lago

Eric proudly posted a snapshot of Luke on Lara's lap on Wednesday while she sat directly behind the pilot on their private jet, using the hashtag '#CaptianLuke' to caption the image.

The $300-a-head party, hosted by wealthy socialites who call themselves the Trumpettes, saw an estimated 800 people descend on the Palm Beach club on Thursday night.

Fox News host Jeanine Pirro gave a fiery keynote speech at the event with Eric and Lara in attendance, as the government shutdown loomed, the Palm Beach Post reported.

'Welcome to Mar-a-Lago. A magnificent place. It sure ain't no s***hole!,' Pirro opened her speech, referencing President Trump's notorious alleged remarks about Haiti, El Salvadore and African countries.

Out and about: Lara was pictured on the grounds of Mar-a-Lago on Saturday in a hoodie and white shorts, cradling one of her beloved dogs

Working: On Saturday, Eric and Lara addressed a room full of Trump fans at a training session in Palm Beach where they talked about his father's vision

'Captain Luke': Eric posted a snapshot of Luke on Lara's lap while she sat directly behind the pilot on their way to Florida on their private jet on Wednesday

The 'Red White and Blue Celebration'  reasonably priced by Palm Beach standards  sold out quickly, with a waiting list of 700 people, the organizers said.

'I'm excited about the event. There are so many friends here who care about our country,' Eric told the Palm Beach Post.

The event came two days before a much pricier $100,000-a-head fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday, which Trump was scheduled to attend but missed due to the government shutdown crisis.

The outrageous ticket price paid for a meal for two and for a photograph with the president. For $250,000, guests could sit in on a roundtable discussion with him, but the eleventh hour change means that Eric had to act as the guest of honor.

Lara was seen pushing Luke in a stroller around Mar-a-Lago on Sunday afternoon before the family flew back to New York City together on the Trump family jet.
A waiter in Los Angeles was both surprised and pleased to get a tip from a group of customers over a week after they'd dined at his restaurant.

The waiter had patiently served a group of four 13-year-old girls, who were dining on their own for the first time, but was frustrated when they finished their meal and left without leaving him much of a tip, despite thanking him for the good service.

As he found out later, they didn't mean to stiff him  they just didn't know any better. But when they realized their error, they went out of their way to make it right.

Stiffed: A group of teens at an LA restaurant tipped just $3.28 for their meal, considerably lower than the customary 16% to 20% in the US

'[There's] nothing more frustrating than when I get little to nothing for a tip and the customer is smiling and thanking me profusely as they exit,' the man, who goes by Seminole, wrote on Imgur.

Many people who work in the food service industry are also quick to complain about teenage diners, who are at times more likely to be stingy when it comes to tipping.

(In fact, Wayne Hills Diner in New Jersey diner made headlines in November when it added a 'teen tax' for this very reason, automatically including an 18 per cent gratuity for teenagers dining without parents.)

Yet when this happened to Seminole with a group of four 13-year-olds in early October, there was a happy ending.

A week and a half later, the teenage diners returned and left the waiter an envelope with cash and a note written in blue marker.

'About a week and a half ago, on October 7, my 3 friends and I came to eat at this restaurant as our own homecoming celebration,' the letter began. 'It was an exciting experience for us to be here alone, and it was all new to us.

'And you were the best waiter we could ask for. You were kind, helpful, accommodating, didn't treat us like babies, and were even able to fir the food to all my allergies! So I wanted to say thank you for making our "grown up" experience so amazing and fun.'

Sweet! They returned later with this note explaining that they hadn't understood how tipping worked and felt bad. They also included cash with the letter

Despite their good time, though, the group didn't leave much of a tip.

'I would also like to say sorry on behalf of my group,' the letter continued. Since we were new to all of this, our 13-year-old minds didn't exactly know how to deal with the bill. You were super helpful in dividing the check up and taking our not-so-preferable cash.

'The bill was reasonable, but we had completely forgotten (and frankly didn't know) what a tip even was, let alone how much to give. So we emptied our pocked and all our money added up to $3.28.'

The bill appears to have been for close to $100, which would make this tip less than four per cent.

'Not aware of how small this really was, we left, clueless of what we had left you for all your hard work,' explained the letter.

'Later, we realized our mistake and felt HORRIBLE. We knew we had to make it right. SO in this envelope you will find the correct 18% tip + extra for simply being amazing. We appreciate your help and patience, and thank you for making our night fun. Thank you!'

According to the waiter, there was an additional $18 and change in the envelope, more than covering the customary tip.

Cheap: Their waiter said he really appreciated the gesture. In the US, the federal minimum wage for employees who stand to make tips is just $2.13 per hour

'I've been serving a long time, and nothing like this has ever happened to me, or anyone,' the waiter explained. 'I don't know how you learned or educated yourself on tipping, but I really appreciate the effort and kindness. I hope your Homecoming was fantastic!'

Though the federal minimum wage in the US is $7.25, the rules that govern employees who make tips are different.

For any employee who stands to make at least $30 per month in tips, the minimum cash wage from employers is $2.13 per hour. Thus, it's customary to tip waitstaff 16 to 20 per cent to make up for the rest of their wages.

Other Imgur users were impressed by the story, applauding the teens for doing the right thing and their parents for raising them well.

'Someone's parents are doing a good job,' wrote one.

'I bet it made your whole week. What a wonderful thing for those young ones to do. Even better is how wonderful your customers feel about you,' wrote another.

A third person, who also appears to work in customer service, added: '28 years in the industry ... that's just lovely. I've had a few folk pop back with forgotten tips, but nothing so sweet as this!'
Amid the flurry of excitement following Princess Eugenie's engagement TV interview, one eagle-eyed fan spotted a hilarious subtitle blunder.

Revealing her plans for the wedding dress, in what should have read 'no meringue shoulders', text flashed up on the screen saying: 'gnome orang shoulders'.

And it did not go unnoticed, as viewer noticed the mistake and quickly took to Twitter to share the mistake.

Social media user Lou posted a snap of the subtitles on her TV screen, writing: 'Eugenie is going for an interesting dress, then...'

Scroll down for video

Blunder: A subtitle error on the BBC show made it look like Eugenie was planning on 'gnome orang' shoulders on her wedding dress following her TV interview

Aside from TV interview gaffes, the royal couple were flooded with mentions on Twitter, with fans saying how 'cute' the couple were.

Sarah Ferguson wasn't the only person to take to social media to share her joy over the announcement, people from across the country took the time to congratulate the princess on her engagement.

One user said: Lovely interview with Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank on BBC One just now, they seem very happy and Jack did well on his first ever TV interview.'

Another wrote: 'Princess Eugenie relationship is goals' followed by a crying emoji.

Jack captured the nation's heart when he described the ring as: 'What's amazing is it's colour, it changes from every different angle that you look at it, which is what I think of Eugenie.'

Tweets of congratulations poured in for the newly engaged couple, with some people calling their love 'relationship goals'

As well as making their debut as an engaged partnership on national television, their professional engagement photos were also shared. They posed together at Buckingham Palace, and Eugenie even wore a dress she had already worn before.

The recycled floral dress was by Erdem, which she previously wore for a photo shoot with Harper's Bazaar in 2016. She teamed her outfit with a pair fo Jimmy Choo shoes.

The eagle eyed fan spotted that there was a mess up with the subtitles during the BBC One Show

They also opted for the more laid back option of hiring a Press Association photographer, Jonathan Brady - rather than enlisting a celebrity photographer.

They are now set to exchange vows in the autumn at Windsor Castle - in the same chapel that will play host to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's nuptials in May.

The 27-year-old Princess' long-term boyfriend Jack Brooksbank, 31, popped the question in Nicaragua earlier this month with the unusual ring; a padparadscha sapphire surrounded by diamonds.
Our brain is probably the most abused and poorly understood organ in the body.

Brains are a 'work in progress'; they continuously revise and remodel, improving or slowly declining, depending on how we use them.

It means that, while brains are easy to exercise, they are also easy to neglect.

One of the leading causes of diminishing cognitive capacity is when healthy people simply let their brain lose ground.

By not implementing healthy brain habits, their neurons get weary and struggle more and more to pump blood through the brain as swiftly as before.

The good news is our brains can continually developing and there are a number of things people can take to maintain and support life-long cognitive capacity in the absence of disease.

Here, we break down exercises, foods, drinks and habits to incorporate into your everyday life to improve long term brain health.

MORNING

Fish for breakfast, like kippers and eggs, is a great option for boosting your nutrient intake

BREAKFAST

Incorporate brain food into your breakfast.

The omega-3 essential fatty acid DHA (found in salmon, eggs and seeds like linseed and pumpkin) can improve cerebral blood flow and help reduce inflammation.

Low levels of essential fatty acids have been linked to increased risk of dementia, Alzheimers and memory loss.

A 2013 study from New Zealand was hailed as a major step in brain nutrition as it found a clear correlation between DHA supplements (docosahexaenoic acid, an omega-3 found in fish oil) and improved memory and reaction time in healthy adults.

Two years later, a 2015 study in the journal Alzheimers & Dementia showed fish oils could even offset brain atrophy in healthy older adults.

Rob Hobson, Healthspan Head of Nutrition, recommends eating oily fish two to three times a week.

So what are your options?

1) Fish for breakfast: It may sound unusual, and to many unpleasant, but there is a longstanding tradition of fish as a fast-breaker.

Kippers and eggs: Try the old-fashioned English breakfast rich in omega-3 and protein

Smoked salmon on whole wheat: Swap out the less-nutritious New York bagel for a fiber-rich slice of toast in this American classic

Rice, grilled fish and miso soup: This is a standard breakfast in Japan - and according to nutritionists, it is one of the healthiest breakfasts you can have

2) Pimped-up oatmeal: Dont eat or like fish? Add some extras to your oats.

Linseeds (aka flax seeds): Rich in fiber, they promote bowel movement, and fight bloating. They are also rich in omega-3, which has anti-inflammatory properties to nourish our brains

Walnuts: This nut is richer than most in DHA, a type of omega-3 fatty acid crucial for brain health

Blueberries: These little blue fruits are known for their high content of antioxidants, which encourage blood flow and strengthen neuron connectivity in the brain

3) Take a supplement like gingko biloba

The results of a new clinical trial published in the online journal Stroke & Vascular Neurology show the herb ginkgo biloba can be effective at boosting memory. GP and Medical Nutritionist Dr Sarah Brewer concurs. 'Ginkgo biloba has long been used to boost memory and is believed to work by increasing blood flow, as well as having neuroprotective antioxidant effects,' she explains.

ON YOUR COMMUTE

Engage your brain on the train, tram, bus or however you commute to work.

Reading every day on your way to work helps exercise your brain

1) Play some games

Read, do a crossword or puzzle like Soduko, suggests family physician Dr Roger Henderson.

There has been a lot of debate recently about whether doing mental agility puzzles such as crosswords and Sudoku can slow down memory loss and the jury is still out on this one,' Dr Henderson explains.

'Our brains, however, just like our muscles  benefit from being challenged and I think we should all use it rather than lose it by stimulating it every day with a mental challenge. Keeping mentally active is vital for maintaining the connections between brain cells.'

2) Switch off the GPS if you drive to work

Nobody is saying this is not a helpful device but it can prevent you from using the part of the brain primarily involved in spatial navigation and memory - the hippocampus.

A 2000 study from University College London, showed London cab drivers had a more developed hippocampus after years of doing The Knowledge (the test to learn every street and every driving route by memory) and navigating their way across the capital unaided.

Save the GPS for when you are really lost.

3) Walk to work

Walking for at least 30 minutes a day will help improve blood flow to your brain and keep you clearer headed.

Dr Henderson says: Even low levels of physical activity can protect people from the decline in mental function that can routinely occur in healthy people as they age. Keeping active helps lower the risk of developing diabetes, heart disease and other circulatory problems, which can all contribute to memory loss.

'Exercise also improves mood and sleep, and reduces stress and anxiety which can often cause memory impairment.

LUNCHTIME

FOOD

Eat a crunchy lunch with herbs.

Crunchy vegetables like carrots, celery, green peppers and artichokes and herbs including parsley, thyme, rosemary and oregano are a great source of luteolin, an antioxidant flavonoid and suggested neuroprotective agent.

Studies suggest it can reduce neurodegeneration and inflammation and it is being tested to see if it can help both prevent, and/or treat, Alzheimers disease and dementia.

MOVE

Take a stroll outside, even if it's to grab a coffee or go to the bank or walk around the block. Use lunchtime as a natural break to get your blood pumping.

AFTERNOON

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK

Have a peppermint or chamomile tea. These also contain the antioxidant luteolin and the added water will help keep your brain well hydrated. A 2011 British study carried out on healthy teenagers found that being only mildly dehydrated meant their brains had to work a lot harder.

COMMUTING HOME

Take a different route home. Small changes in routine give your brain a mini workout. Ditto doing things like brushing your teeth with your left hand when you are right handed and vice versa will make your brain work that bit harder.

EVENING

BE ENTERTAINED - BUT NOT BY THE TV

Try to do something with friends and family. Regular social interaction and doing mentally stimulating activities will help engage your brain more. You dont have to take up quantum physics  it can be anything from chess to Bingo or Scrabble to painting or sewing.

Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York found in a 2009 study that older adults who frequently engaged in stimulating mental activity had a lower risk of dementia than those who didnt.

Try to make those activities a bit tough though  if you can do them on autopilot it probably isnt challenging your brain enough.

Switch off the TV. A 2015 study from the Northern California Institute for Research & Education in San Francisco tracked a group of people over 25 years and found those who watched telly for four hours or more a day were twice as likely to have reduced cognitive abilities in middle age.

SWITCH EVERYTHING OFF BEFORE BED

Log off from your iPad, laptop or smartphone at least an hour before bed.

The blue light from these devices can stimulate the brain precisely at the point when you want to calm it. Getting a good nights sleep is crucial to brain health.

A recently discovered brain detoxification system dubbed the glymphatic system is said to clear and recycle the brains toxins as we sleep.

Researchers have found older people who dont sleep for long or have poor quality sleep have more beta-amyloid plaque  a protein build-up implicated in Alzheimers disease.

No one is saying lack of sleep causes the condition but it could be a contributory factor.

NIGHT CAP

Cocoa has been shown to reverse age-related memory loss

Have a cup of cocoa. A component of chocolate has been found to reverse age-related memory loss in a small study carried out by Italian researchers involving healthy adults aged between 50 and 69. A specially prepared cocoa drink containing a large quantity of flavanols (compounds found naturally in cocoa and many fruits and vegetables) was given to some of the test group whilst others had a drink without flavanols. Those given the high flavanol drink over three months showed a decline in memory loss something the researchers attribute to it increasing blood flow to a specific region of the brain concerned with memory. Choose a cocoa with as high a percentage of cocoa (and therefore flavanol) as you can.

IN BED

SLEEP ON YOUR SIDE

As well as getting good quality sleep, the position in which we sleep can also be a factor in keeping our brain healthier.

Dr Marilyn Glenville, author of Natural Solutions for Dementia and Alzheimers, points out that research has shown some positions work better than others.

'When you sleep on your side, your body seems more able to remove the build-up of so-called brain waste chemicals, such as beta-amyloid proteins.'
A day in the life of a paramedic can involve a 12-hour shift, comforting heartbroken relatives and even treating stab wounds.

After ITV's This Morning's resident doctor Dr Ranj Singh joined the North West ambulance service for a shift, he learnt how the team work 'day-in, day-out', often without breaks, with no idea what the next 12 hours may bring.

Some are even physically and mentally abused by the very people whose lives they are trying to save, making them frightened of what they may encounter at every job.

At the end of a shift that involved having to break it to a husband that his wife had died and treat critical internal bleeding from a knife attack, Dr Singh said he felt 'broken' and without 'the mental reserve to keep going'.

Last year, around 2,500 paramedics were signed off work for stress.

This Morning's resident doctor Dr Ranj Singh joined the North West ambulance for a shift

Paramedic Pete Sutcliffe (pictured) told Dr Singh it is one of the few jobs that requires employees to be 100 per cent correct for an 11-and-a-half hour shift or it could be fatal

PATIENTS FORCED TO WAIT FIVE-AND-A-HALF HOURS AS 23 AMBULANCES QUEUED OUTSIDE AN A&E DEPARTMENT Patients waiting to be admitted were forced to wait for up to five-and-a-half hours on a Friday night in December as 23 ambulances queued outside a hospital's A&E department. The casualty unit at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth has previously been described by the Quality Care Commission as 'chaotic'. But it experienced an 'exceptionally difficult weekend' at the back end of December after a backlog of patients turned up with flu and other respiratory and winter illnesses. Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth blamed the recent drop in temperatures for the increase in demand on hospital services. Advertisement

'A mistake can be life-threatening'

On the way to treat a life-threatening case of a 'female not breathing', with no further details, paramedic Pete Sutcliffe told Dr Singh: 'I cant think of many other jobs where for 11-and-a-half hours you have to be 100 per cent correct because a mistake can be life-threatening,' ITV reported.

When they arrived at the scene, 85-year-old Elizabeth Roberts had suffered a cardiac arrest. Although they managed to get her heart beating again, she died shortly after arriving at hospital.

While battling with the shock of his loss, Mrs Roberts husband James said: 'The people that worked on [her] were absolutely first class; so polite; got on with the job well.'

Vvisibly moved by what had happened, Mike Conlan, senior paramedic team leader, said the team always come together to support one another after losing a patient and take comfort in knowing they tried their best.

Some call outs are even more distressing, with Mr Conlan adding: 'We deal with a lot of abuse on some scenes, sometimes you have to get the police involved.'

Heather Berry, emergency medical technician, said the misconduct occasionally makes her wary of doing certain jobs.

Back in the This Morning studio, Dr Singh told Holly and Phil: 'Its shocking that these people are there to save lives and sometimes [they] get treated the worst out of everyone.'

After an 85-year-old died from a cardiac arrest, Dr Singh comforted her daughter and husband James Roberts (both pictured), who described the paramedics as 'first class'

Dr Singh (shown doing CPR in an ambulance) said they were 'pummeled with emergencies'

'I didnt have the mental reserve to keep going'

After a busy working day, the last call out involved a knife wound, with the crew being unaware if the injury was accidental or a deliberate stabbing on the way to the incident.

Dr Singh said: I was broken when the last call came in.

'I didnt have the mental reserve to keep going. Every day is unpredictable, youre being pummeled with emergencies.'

Despite the job's challenges, Dr Singh was amazed that the team managed to enter every emergency smiling, adding: 'They are a passionate team of people who are there because they love their job.

'They are being pushed and pulled [but] its not their fault; they are doing their very best'.
A 15-year-old boy who was born with a rare genetic disorder that would leave him blind met the woman who saved his life.

Anthony Dones, of Long Island, New York, was four months old when he was diagnosed with malignant infantile osteopetrosis (known as 'stone bone'), a rare genetic disorder that makes bones prone to fractures and can cause bone marrow failure.

Doctors, who said Anthony would die if they didn't find a stem cell donor soon, found an anonymous donor within 24 hours of his diagnosis.

Now, 15 years later, Anthony has finally met Patti and Sam Bosque, the mother and son who donated the umbilical cord blood that saved his life.

Anthony, left, hugs Patti Bosque, right, the woman who decided to donate her son's cord blood

Anthony Dones was diagnosed with malignant infantile osteopetrosis when he was four months old. Pictured: Anthony in the hospital December 2002

'After 15 years I always thought about who she is, what she looks like,' Tracey Dones told Daily Mail Online. 'She has no idea what she's done for us.'

Patti told ABC News she doesn't remember much about her son, Sam Bosque's birth, and completely forgot she donated his umbilical cord's blood to the New York Blood Center's Cord Blood Program.

'I remembered doing it for my daughter [Olivia, now 18]... and then my son was born two-and-a-half years later, but I don't really remember anything,' Patti said. 'But Anthony was proof that I did.'

Tracey didn't know her only son was sick until November 2002, four months after he was born, when he woke up one day vomiting.

She took Anthony to a pediatrician who noticed the then-four-month-old had an abnormally high white blood cell count - which usually signals that a person has an infection or a bone marrow disease.

Anthony was diagnosed with malignant infantile osteoporosis and doctors told Tracey he needed a blood transfusion to survive.

Malignant infantile osteopetrosis, which affects about one in 200,000 people, occurs when osteoclasts - cells that break down bone - do not work properly.

Osteoclasts constantly break down small areas of the bone so that they can be made again by cells called osteoblasts. In essence, old bones are breaking down to make space for new bones.

It makes bones prone to fractures, and can result in vision and hearing loss. The condition also affects bone marrow by significantly reducing the area in which its found and limiting its ability to create new blood cells.

If untreated, this can result in death due to severe anemia, bleeding or infections, according to Medscape.

It can take as 'little as a few weeks' and sometimes years to find a perfect match, according to officials at the National Marrow Donor Program. Tracey said doctors were able to find a donor for Anthony in within 24 hours of his diagnosis.

Anthony, left, and his donor Sam Bosque, right, finally met for the first time on January 14

Doctors had no luck finding a match through the National Marrow Donor Program. So they checked the New York Blood Center's Cord Blood Program, a public bank for donated umbilical cord blood and found an anonynmous

A month later, doctors performed a stem cell transplant on Anthony, a procedure that saved his life.

'I'm overwhelmed. It's very overwhelming,' Patti told ABC News. 'When I donated the cord blood, I thought it was going to be used more for research. I certainly didn't think it would have such an individual impact on one person.'

Fast forward to November 2017, when Tracey got the results of Anthony's Ancestry DNA test, a genetic test that gives people clues about their family history, and noticed something interesting.

'Anthony's percentages weren't matching mine, they weren't matching his father's either,' Tracey explained.

Anthony's results said he was 48 percent Eastern European, while Tracey was just 38 percent European. Tracey said she didn't understand why Anthony had a higher percentage of Eastern European, especially since his father was Puerto Rican.

Tracey also noticed that he genetic test, which also matches people to those they might be related to, listed another woman as his mother.

After speaking with Ancestry DNA, Tracey said she realized that the test was picking up on the DNA from her son's donor and decided to reach out to Patti Bosques in Lindberg, New York.

'I did not set out to meet my son's donor,' Tracey explained. 'It was purely by accident. I knew it was a completely anonymous donation and I was fine with that.'

Tracey tried reaching out to Patti through the Ancestry DNA website, and then she reached out to her on Facebook.

'I saw a picture of [Patti's] son on her Facebook Page and I immediately knew by looking at this boy, that this was my son's donor,' Tracey said.

The two decided to meet for the first time on January 14 at Patti's home.

'It was very exciting for me,' Tracey said. 'I don't think she understand the magnitude of what her decision [to donate her son't cord blood] did.'

Tracey and Patti said they hope the two families can continue a relationship.


A father-of-five has received a life-saving kidney transplant after printing his plea for a donor on a t-shirt and wearing it for nine consecutive days.

Rob Leibowitz, 60, was suffering from chronic kidney disease and on a donor list for two years when he printed 'In Need of Kidney' with his phone number on a t-shirt and wore it while on a family vacation to Disney World last summer.

A photo of the shirt was posted to social media and within days caught the attention of Richie Sully, a 39-year-old father-of-two from Indiana, who reached out to the single father from New Jersey offering to donate.

After months of traveling to New York for tests, results revealed the men were perfect matches and they underwent successful transplant surgeries last week that saved Robert's life.

Robert Liebowitz, 60, wore this t-shirt for nine days in Disney World because he desperately needed a transplant due to his chronic kidney disease

Robert and Richie Sully, a 39-year-old father-of-two from Indiana, underwent successful transplant surgery on Thursday after Richie saw a photo of the t-shirt on Facebook

Robert (left) and Richie (right) traveled to New York to undergo a number of tests that determined they were a perfect match

Rob was put on the transplant list for a new kidney in 2015 when doctors told him it would only be a matter of time until the organs shut down.

With a waiting period of at least seven years, his doctors urged him to find a donor as soon as possible in order to save his life.

After Facebook posts searching for a donor came up short, Rob spent 35 dollars to get a t-shirt printed that said he is in need of a kidney, his blood type is O positive and to call the number printed.

He wore the t-shirt for nine days straight while on vacation with his family to Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

'I thought, you know, if I can get one person who's my blood type to just respond and maybe that's my match, you know, it's worth the 35 dollar investment for the shirt,' Rob told CBS.

A couple approached Rob at the park asking to take a photo of his t-shirt and for permission to post it to Facebook.

Within the first week, the post had 90,000 shares and his phone rang nonstop.

While sitting in a chair in Indiana to donate blood, Richie Sully saw the post and called Rob, unsure if they would be a match.

WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF KIDNEY DISEASE? Kidneys filter out waste products from the blood before converting them into urine. They also help maintain blood pressure. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a long-term condition where the kidneys do not work as well as normal. The risk of CKD increases as you age. CKD does not usually cause any symptoms until it has reached an advanced stage. It can be detected early on via blood and urine tests. The main symptoms of advanced kidney disease include tiredness, swollen ankles or hands, shortness of breath, nausea and blood in urine. Those with the condition have a greater risk of having a stroke or heart attack. It can also cause kidney failure, when sufferers will need to have dialysis and possible transplant. However, lifestyle changes and medication can stop it getting worse if it's diagnosed at an early stage. Advertisement

On a fundraising You Caring page, Richie wrote that he left a voicemail on Rob's phone that said: 'Hey, you don't know me, but I saw your post, I'm O+, I have an extra kidney, and you're more than welcome to have it. Also, I'm not crazy. Or on drugs. Oh, but I am in Indiana.'

Richie made several trips to New York where the two strangers finally met and underwent loads of tests to find if they were a match.

After months of blood tests, urine samples, psychological evaluations and x-rays, Rob learned he had found the perfect match.

'I broke down and I screamed but of course screaming in New York, everybody ignores you anyway,' Rob said.

The two fathers underwent successful surgeries last Thursday at New York-Presbyterian Cornell Medical Center.

Rob said that Richie has saved his life and 'he's giving me more time with my kids.'

Richie said: 'As a father, the one thing I want above all else is more time with my beautiful daughters. That's exactly what I'm giving this man.'

Kidney disease is the ninth leading cause of death in the US and about 31 million Americans suffer from the disease.

Those with the condition have a greater risk of having a stroke or heart attack and it can lead to kidney failure.

Rob developed the disease after having a severe kidney infection when he was 12 years old.

After years of being on medication, his kidneys began to shut down.

Lifestyle changes and medication can stop the disease from getting worse if diagnosed early.

However, if the kidney continues to deteriorate, sufferers will need to use dialysis or in Rob's case, have a transplant.
Every year around 1.6 million people in this country undergo surgery at a private hospital.

While many pay for it themselves, it is estimated that around half of the inpatients are funded by the NHS.

This is done to help clear waiting lists and for these patients in particular, it can seem like theyve hit the jackpot: going private may seem like the health equivalent of flying first class or booking into a top restaurant.

Most private hospitals don't have emergency care facilities meaning that if something goes wrong, patients need to be rushed to the nearest NHS hospital

But while the experience should be the best that money can buy  and of course many patients are happy with their care  if something goes wrong, private hospital treatment can fall woefully and dangerously short.

The problem is that while NHS hospitals are equipped with expertly staffed intensive care units, most private hospitals have no such emergency care facilities.

So should a patients condition suddenly deteriorate or a complication occur, they can end up being rushed to A&E at the nearest NHS hospital.

And the stakes can be very high  a report published last October claims that in the past three years alone, more than 100 patients have died after being transferred from private hospitals to NHS hospitals.

The report, written by Colin Leys, an honorary professor of research at Goldsmiths, University of London, was based on data including Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspections of 177 private hospitals and NHS figures obtained through Freedom of Information requests.

His findings echo those of a British Medical Association report in 2016, which found that up to 6,000 people annually need NHS care after bungled treatment at a private hospital. Around 2,500 of these were classed as emergencies.

This comes at huge personal cost to patients  and at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds to the already cash-strapped NHS.

One of the most telling findings from the new report is that some private hospitals allow surgeons to leave work after they have carried out an operation and be up to 45 minutes distance away from the hospital. This means theyre not on site to deal with any complications, a factor in avoidable deaths.

The report also warns that many private hospitals rely on only a single junior doctor to provide post-operative care for patients.

The potential consequences of this are all too real for Carmel Blooms family.

Bupa hospital administrator Carmel Bloom (pictured), 54, died of septicemia in the private hospital she worked at

Apart from a bothersome kidney stone, Carmel, 54, had been in good health when she went in for surgery to remove thestone at the Bupa-run Roding Hospital in Ilford, Essex.

But within hours of the operation, her condition deteriorated catastrophically. Carmel, a hospital administrator from Woodford Green, Essex, developed sepsis; her blood pressure plummeted and she went into multiple organ failure.

The private hospitals facilities could not cope with the emergency. Instead it sent her by ambulance to the NHS intensive care unit at Whipps Cross Hospital in East London.

Carmel died there ten days later in September 2002, having never regained consciousness.

It took 14 long years of campaigning by her brother Bernard, and an unprecedented three coroners inquiries, to shed light on what happened. In the last inquest, in late 2016, a coroner heard new evidence about a 999 call from the private hospital, which showed that staff were aware of the seriousness of her condition  that she was unconscious and deteriorating perilously.

The coroner ruled that her death was due in part to the absence of regular monitoring after her surgery. She also noted failings in communication between the private hospital nurses, urologist and anaesthetist while Carmels condition was worsening.

The private hospitals consultant urological surgeon did not arrive at her bedside until an hour and 20 minutes after she had been found to have developed life-threatening sepsis and the consultant anaesthetist was not called until two-and-a-half hours after the onset of sepsis. The transfer to the NHS hospital was mismanaged  the coroner ruled that the anaesthetist, did not intubate [insert a tube, typically into the airway] and ventilate Carmel before transferring her, or attach equipment which would have allowed for the monitoring of her vital signs during transfer.

During the ambulance journey, her blood pressure fell still further, causing the heart attack that fatally starved her brain of oxygen.

Bernard, 68, a luxury car dealer of Chingford, North-East London, told Good Health that the draining legal battle has ruined his own health. He now suffers from debilitatingly high blood pressure.

The stress of fighting through the courts, gathering expert evidence from top medics around the world and continually being confronted with setbacks has all taken an awful toll on my health, he says.

A British Medical Association report in 2016 found that up to 6,000 people annually need NHS care after bungled treatment at a private hospital

A spokeswoman for Bupa, which owned Roding hospital in 2002, said: We sympathise with Carmel Blooms family for their loss.

As we no longer own the hospital, its not appropriate for us to comment any further. You might feel that so manyyears after Carmels death, the problem of private hospitals failing to cope with post-operative emergencies would have been addressed by now.

But as Professor Leys report reveals, its a problem thats far from gone away.

Take the tragic story of Mary Roddy. Mary, 78, of Kearsley, Greater manchester, was perfectly healthy but suffering with pain in her right knee when she was advised by a consultant surgeon at the Royal Bolton Hospital that she could have a knee-replacement operation, funded by the NHS, at a local private hospital.

She was admitted to the BMI Beaumont Hospital in Bolton in 2010. Doctors noted that she was fit and well before carrying out the procedure.

Early in the morning after surgery, at around 2am, her blood pressure dropped significantly. Nurses noted that she was drowsy and confused. She was given intravenous fluid to increase her blood pressure. But it was the wrong response, because she had in fact suffered a heart attack that went undetected.

Later that morning at 7am she was seen by a junior doctor who gave her a second dose of intravenous fluid. Mary was finally reviewed by a consultant at 2pm who gave her a third dose of intravenous fluids.

The fluids cumulatively flooded her system and caused heart failure that was only diagnosed at 4pm. She was transferred to the intensive care unit at the Royal Bolton Hospital.

But the heart damage caused by the excess fluid was irreparable and she died eight days later.

Her husband John, 77, a retired charity worker, sued the hospital for negligence. I was adamant to take it all the way because I knew they were at fault, he said through his solicitors, Linder Myers.

By hook or by crook I wanted to get justice for Mary. She was an amazing person and everybody knew her and loved her.

In 2015, five years after her death, a court awarded John a five-figure settlement. In a statement at the time The Beaumont Hospital said: Following the conclusion of legal matters we have written to Mr Roddy to apologise for failings in the care of his wife. We always strive to provide the best care to our patients and accept that in the case of Mrs Roddy we fell short of the standards we aspire to.

However, the compensation was paid not by the hospital, but by the NHS Clinical Commissioning Board: in other words, the taxpayer  who also paid for the operation at the private hospital.

In the three years between 2013 and 2016 alone, private hospitals have cost the NHS around 250 million by sending them sick patients after treatment has gone wrong, according to Professor Leys report (commissioned by the Centre for Health and the Public Interest).

He found that in 82 English private hospitals, the majority of inpatients  and a third of outpatients  are funded by the NHS (figures from the NHS itself show its spending on private operations rose significantly from 241 million in 2015 to 381 million in 2016). This puts the NHS and the Department of Health in a very strong position to require changes to the private hospital business model to ensure the safety of NHS patients, he wrote.

The bungled operations that need to be fixed come at huge personal cost to patients and at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds to the already cash-strapped NHS

But exactly the opposite is happening: even when the NHS has paid a private hospital as a contractor to provide treatment on its behalf, if it goes wrong, its NHS that has to fund the compensation, which means there is no financial pressure for the private organisations to do better.

Figures uncovered by Labour MP Roger Godsiff in 2016 show that failures by private contractors had cost taxpayers nearly 33 million in damages in the previous five years.

When court costs are included, this adds up to almost 52 million, he said, adding that: The NHS should, at the very least, have the powers to recoup costs.

In one case, the NHS has paid tens of thousands of pounds to just two patients in compensation for botched eye surgery carried out by a private company at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton, Somerset.

The operations were done in 2014 by Vanguard Healthcare Solutions, which had been appointed by the trust to help clear a backlog of 400 patients. Vanguard then sub-contracted part of the contract to another company, The Practice, which then sub-contracted to Kestrel Ophthalmics.

Half of those operated on, 31 patients, suffered problems  a complication rate ten times the normal figure; NHS staff raised the alarm and the operations at the hospital were terminated after only four days.

In 2016 Health Minister Ben Gummer told Parliament that so far, ten compensation claims for these patients have been received.

Two have been settled, at a total cost of nearly 90,000  one of those was Michael Newcombe, 84, who was left blind in one eye after the surgery.

The money has come from the NHS, with no indication that it will be able to recoup the damages from the private company.

Ian Gillespie, chief executive of Vanguard Healthcare Solutions, said at the time: Operations were carried out by highly qualified surgeons, approved by the hospital, and with many years experience of working in the NHS.

Professor Leys report urges that the NHS mopping up after the private sector must come to an end, for there to be any hope of improving private care.

If the private hospital business does not have to deal with the consequences of post-operative complications, it has no incentive to prevent things from going wrong in the first place, he wrote.The refusal by private hospital companies to accept full responsibility for what happens in their facilities means that patients will always be at risk.

This is allowed to happen, he suggests, because surgeons are not directly employed by the private hospitals, but are instead considered to be independent professionals contracted by the private hospitals. So the hospitals argue they cannot be held legally responsible for the surgeons actions.

Professor Leys added: Private hospitals will not be truly safe unless they have adequate facilities to deal with those situations where a patients life becomes endangered following an operation and where the hazardous transfer of patients to NHS hospitals ceases.

The Royal College of Surgeons, backed by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, is calling for a national review of safety in the private health sector.

Its lay group chair, Derek Prentice, told Good Health: If the private healthcare sector is using the NHS as a safety net then questions must be asked about why that is.

NHS emergency departments are already overstretched and private hospitals need to have robust risk management plans to ensure that safeguards are in place with adequate aftercare.

Where a patient is admitted to the NHS due to the fault of private healthcare, the private sector should be expected to pay for the costs incurred by NHS emergency departments for that patients treatment.

Otherwise patients will continue to be perilously dumped back into the NHS  and we the taxpayers will have to pay the costs.
It looks like Rowan Atkinson is trying to make some space in his garage.

The actor and self-confessed petrolhead is set to offload two of his collectible sport saloon cars at auction next month.

The 1989 Lancia Thema 8.32 and 1993 Mercedes-Benz 500E - both appreciating and high-powered modern classics - will go under the hammer with no reserve, meaning they could sell for next to nothing.

Bean machines: This is the Lancia Thema bought by Rowan Atkinson in 2011 but it is no ordinary saloon. Instead it is the 8.32 powered by a Ferrari engine

The second car the Mr Bean actor is going to sell is this Mercedes-Benz 500E, which he only bought a couple of years ago

The actor, better known for owning, crashing (twice) and then selling a McLaren F1 for more than a 7 million profit, will let the super-rare pair go at the Silverstone Auctions Race Retro Classics on 24 and 25 February.

They are two of a number of desirable classic cars to be offered to four-wheeled fanatics at the event - some of which you can see further down this page.

Atkinson, who flogged his pricey McLaren in 2015, only recently released another vehicle from his estate - a limited edition Land Rover Defender that sold last summer for 48,000, which was 10,000 above estimate.

This pair are likely to raise similar funds to the Land Rover rather than the astronomical fee paid for the F1 supercar - though with no reserve on either there is the risk of both selling for low bid.

However, with both cars difficult to come by, especially in this condition, the Mr Bean actor probably isn't worrying too much.

Obviously with a keen eye on classic cars - and which models are going to increase in value - he bought this left-hand drive Lancia Thema 8.32 Series 1 model seven years ago.

It's not a bad choice, either - the Ferrari-engined saloon is one of just 20 examples currently registered and taxed in the country, according to the DVLA, making this 140mph late-'80s V8 very collectible by today's standards.

The Lancia is in meticulous condition and features this wonderfully period brown interior

The Lancia famously has a Ferrari engine under the hood - not bad for a practical everyday family saloon

The cabin of the Mercedes is in pristine condition, combining leather, hatched cloth panels and a walnut dash

Rowan Atkinson sold this end-of-production Land Rover Defender last year for 48,000 to make space in his garage

The Mercedes-Benz 500E, which was hand-built by the premium-car specialists, is also a left-hand drive model that's covered less than 53,000 miles in 25 years.

And it's not the only 500E the Blackadder star has owned, having bought one new in the '90s, Atkinson went hunting for another - this one - in 2015, probably knowing that the Mercedes saloon was ripe for a surge in value.

Atkinson is a self-confessed petrolhead who has managed to squeeze racing into his hectic acting career

The Blackadder star is better known for owning - and twice crashing - a McLaren F1. He sold the car in 2015 for 8million having bought it for less than 700,000 originally

Could the actor be looking to make space for some new cars to enter his collection? He has offloaded three models via auction in the last 12 months

Nick Whale, managing director at Silverstone Auctions, said: 'We're honoured that Rowan is once again entrusting his cars to Silverstone Auctions, this time with two much-loved models.

'Both are particularly fine examples of their marque and built in low numbers in left-hand drive only, offering the opportunity to own a modern classic with a distinguished past, possibly for a bargain price.'

The other rare cars to watch out for at the same sale

Atkinson's pair aren't the only rare vehicles being sold by Silverstone Auctions next month - here are four other models to keep an eye on at the Race Retro event:

This is one of just 90 RS200 road cars that reportedly left the factory. Expect it to sell for a big fee

1. 1987 Ford RS200 - 120,000 - 150,000 estimate

The RS200 was Ford's big hope for Group B rallying glory, but the series was soon defunct after it arrived over safety concerns. Ford had to make 200 road cars in order to be able to use the 444bhp all-wheel-drive monster in competition, though just 90 reportedly ever made it out of the factory. This is one of them, and it only has 8,876 miles on the clock.

The Jalpa is one of the little-known Lamborghinis. Think of it as the Huracan of the 1980s

2. 1983 Lamborghini Jalpa - 65,000 - 75,000 estimate

You might know the Diablo, Countach and Miura, but what about the Jalpa? It was the junior Lamborghini of the 1980s - like the Huracan is today - and was fitted with a 155mph 3.5-litre V8. Just 419 were ever made, and only 34 with the steering wheel on the right-hand side of the car. This was the first of the right-drive models to come to the UK and has covered less than 54,000 miles. It ticks the rare box.

This glorious looking Ferrari is just one of 44 right-hand drive UK cars ever made. It was also the quickest model the brand produced at the time

3. 1965 Ferrari 330 GT - 160,000 - 190,000 estimate

This is just one of only 44 UK right-hand drive Ferrari 330 GT 2+2 Series I examples, so it is undoubtedly a collector's item. The Pininfarina-designed two-door coupe has a snarling V12 engine under the bonnet producing a not-too-shabby 300bhp. When it launched, it was the fastest accelerating Ferrari ever built with a timed sprint from zero to 62mph in 6.2 seconds.

If you're looking for collectible race cars for you collection, look no further than this Subaru Legacy piloted by rallying legends Ari Vatanen and the late Richard Burns

4. 1993 Subaru Legacy RS rally car - 120,000 - 140,000 estimate

Being sold a day before the others is this iconic Subaru Legacy RS Group A rally car driven by legendary pilots Ari Vatanen and the late Richard Burns. Unmistakable in its blue and yellow bodywork, this car led the 1993 Acropolis Rally in the hands of Vatanen, ahead of the likes of Tommi Makinen, Carlos Sainz and Colin McRae. Meanwhile, Burns raced it to a second-place finish at the 1995 Bettega Memorial Rallysprint in Italy. It's a piece of rallying history.
Diesel cars have been getting a drubbing in recent months.

Tax surcharges on their purchase, use in inner-city areas contributing to pollution and parking costs have seen them rapidly fall out of favour with car buyers, with sales slipping by 17 per cent in 2017.

And new research is unlikely to help matters for the under-fire fuel type, with a new study finding them to be more than three times as likely to break down than petrol models - and 84 more expensive on average to fix when they do.

Diesel under the microscope again: A new study by MotorEasy found that used diesel cars are more than three times as likely to suffer a fault than a comparable petrol, and are 84 more expensive to repair on average each year

Car ownership and maintenance firm MotorEasy said it had reviewed 30,000 faults registered by owners of used vehicles that were three to eight years old across the last 12 months.

The data showed the average repair bill of 517 for a diesel car last year was 20 per cent higher than those for petrol vehicles.

Models fuelled with unleaded had repair receipts of 433 on average.

MotorEasy said the higher rate of diesel engine failures was mostly down to the fact that diesel engines are under more pressure than petrol motors.

'Diesel units rely on self-compression, meaning that fuel is compressed to a much greater extent, putting more pressure on internal engine parts,' it said in its report.

Some faults involving engine parts can be extremely expensive, the study revealed.

The most substantial diesel engine repair bill one owner received last year was a staggering 4,030.80.

Duncan McClure Fisher, founder of MotorEasy, said: 'Diesels experience many more small problems than petrol cars. They are less reliable and, when a big item goes wrong, it costs a lot more to put right.

'If you're still considering a used diesel car, our advice is to avoid high-mileage examples, particularly if you are only driving low mileage or doing city driving.'

Diesel cars were hauled back into the limelight this weekend after a Federal Motor Transport Agency (KBA) investigation in Germany found that Audi models fitted with Euro 6 diesel V6 engines had emissions cheating 'shut-off devices' fitted.

Diesel units rely on self-compression, meaning that fuel is compressed to a much greater extent, putting more pressure on internal engine parts MotorEasy

Some 127,000 models produced since the end of 2015 are affected, the report in Audi's home nation said, though it is still unknown how many of these are owned by UK drivers.

MotorEasy's study looked only at used cars, with the majority likely to be powered by older, Euro 5-compliant engines - those found to be fitted with diesel-emissions cheating devices by Audi's parent group VW in September 2015.

With millions of cars impacted by the industry's biggest scandal in modern history - which revealed some cars were coughing out up to 40 times the legal emissions limit - fears have grown over the harmful pollutants emitted by diesel cars.

In response, the government announced in the November 2017 Budget that, from April, all new diesels will face higher taxation unless they adhere to a standard called Real Driving Emissions, Step 2  a certification that will not exist until 2020.

Drivers of older models in the capital have also been having to pay London's new T-charge since January, while some boroughs have increased the cost to park diesel models in their areas.

Which brands have the least reliable diesel cars?

MotorEasy found that diesel models were less reliable than petrol for 71 per cent of car manufacturers.

However, it wasn't Volkswagen or one of the other VW-owned brands that topped the chart.

That unwanted title went to Italian car maker Alfa Romeo, with data showing that its diesels were more than four times as likely to have a fault than its petrol-powered vehicles.

Of all the Alfa Romeos analysed in the data, almost half (47%) of diesel-powered models suffered a breakdown in the last 12 months

Least reliable diesel cars by make 1. Alfa Romeo - 47% failure rate 2. Land Rover - 41% failure rate 3. Mitsubishi - 36% failure rate 4. Saab - 33% failure rate 5. Mazda - 33% failure rate 6. Kia - 29% failure rate 7. Mercedes-Benz - 27% failure rate 8. Vauxhall - 26% failure rate 9. Mini - 26% failure rate 10. Audi - 26% failure rate Source: MotorEasy

In fact, it was a VW Group manufacturer that was found to have the most reliable diesel engines.

Skoda, the Czech brand that now comes under the VW banner with others such as Seat, Porsche, Bentley and Lamborghini, had a failure rate of just nine per cent for its diesel vehicles.

Only seven of 25 car makers analysed showed fewer breakdowns for diesel models.

Petrol-powered BMWs experienced faults 60 per cent more often than its oil burners, while Audi, Skoda, Mini (also BMW) and Peugeot also bucked the trend.

Alfa Romeo, Land Rover, Kia and Mazda diesels had the highest average diesel engine repair cost versus petrol counterparts.
Star manager Terry Smith operates Fundsmith Equity from Mauritius, after relocating last year

Fundsmith has developed a considerable fan club of investors and it is not difficult to see why.

The Fundsmith Equity fund, run by city veteran Terry Smith, topped the bestseller lists of both the Bestinvest and AJ Bell DIY investment platforms last year and has returned a whopping 266 per cent in a little over seven years since it was launched.

In other words, a 1,000 investment would have turned into 3,663 over the period (to 15 January 2017).

The average rival fund would have turned the same amount into just 2,061 over the same period.

The fund is headed by Smith, one of Britain's most high profile investors, who unafraid to put his money where his mouth is, staked 25million of his own cash when Fundsmith launched - and another 115million in 2016.

The idea was to deliver a fund that offered a clearly defined and simple investment philosophy, investing in companies around the world that had the power to turn cash into consistent profits.

Smith's long-term investors have been cheered by that approach and he is likely to have made over 30million in notional profits from his investment in the past year alone.

Buffett-style investment philosophy

So what does Fundsmith do? The fund scours the globe for the best stocks for long-term growth and a combination of its popularity and successful investing has seen it grow to a huge 13.7billion.

When it comes to selecting shares, Smith adopts a Warren Buffett-esque investment approach of buying and holding a small number of quality companies that can withstand the test of time.

He says that he also aims to keep costs to a minimum by trading only when it is absolutely essential. This is highlighted by the very small gap between its ongoing charges figure of 1.05 per cent and its actual cost of ownership including transaction costs of 1.10 per cent.

One of the key things that Smith uses to evaluate such companies is a measure called return on capital employed, or ROCE, which looks at a company's profitability compared to how much capital is invested in the business.

This is measured by profits divided by a company's net assets. A high double-digit figure usually signals that a company has a competitive advantage over its rivals, as it can make more money from putting the same amount to work.

For those who want to understand more, Fundsmith takes the unusual approach of publishing an Owner's Manual. Its website lists its criteria for companies as:

high quality businesses that can sustain a high return on operating capital employed

businesses whose advantages are difficult to replicate

businesses which do not require significant leverage to generate returns

businesses with a high degree of certainty of growth from reinvestment of their cash flows at high rates of return

businesses that are resilient to change, particularly technological innovation

businesses whose valuation is considered by the Company to be attractive

This translates to a concentrated portfolio of 28 stocks with household name brands such as PayPal, Microsoft and Dr Pepper Snapple featured on the the fund's list of top 10 holdings.

Fundsmith's top ten holdings (Dec 2017) Paypal Amadeus Microsoft Novo Nordisk Dr Pepper Snapple Waters CR Bard Intercontinental Hotels Stryker Philip Morris

The latter of the three shares epitomises Smith's investment philosophy.

The Dr Pepper Snapple drinks giant has become a staple of the top ten holdings since the fund's inception and its share price has grown from $35.44 in 7 Jan 2011 to $95.90 on 17 January 2017.

Its share price has managed to maintain an upward trend throughout a turbulent time for some in the consumer products sector during the period.

In search of the best stocks, Smith and his researchers are reported to trawl through a plethora of research notes, annual reports and industry publications - from Tissue World magazine to the Petfood Forum - to uncover every last detail about a company.

This investment approach appears to have paid dividends.

The fund has returned 21.7 per cent, 78.22 per cent and 172.28 per cent over one-year, three-year and five-year investment horizons respectively - easily outstripping the performance of the benchmark MSCI World index, at 11.47 per cent, 52.85 per cent and 105.55 per cent, respectively.

The performance of Fundsmith Equity since its inception versus the MSCI World benchmark

The fund levies ongoing charges of 1.05 per cent, which may seem high - even for an actively managed fund - however, as noted above the charges are very close to the actual cost of ownership including transactions, which is not the case for many funds.

Many investors also say that they are happy to pay that little bit more for outperformance.

'He (Smith) has certainly developed a considerable fan club of investors who like his no nonsense buy-and-hold approach and the fact that he doesnt sit on the fence with his views,' Jason Hollands, managing director of Bestinvest, said.

'Earlier in 2017, some were calling time on the types of quality growth companies that Smith backs, anticipating a resurgence instead for the fortunes of value stocks and cyclical businesses on the back of the reflation of the global economy.

'But the year turned out to be another strong one for managers with a quality growth style bias and this has been yet another period of top decile performance for the FundSmith Equity fund.'

Rock group Kiss rang the closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange back in 2010 in conjunction with the 125th anniversary of the Dr. Pepper soft drink. Parent company Dr Pepper Snapple has become a staple of Fundsmith's top ten holdings since its inception

The man behind Fundsmith

Smith, probably the best known fund manager in the UK alongside Neil Woodford, has long been somewhat of an investment maverick.

In the eighties, he famously told investors to sell their shares in Barclays when working for the investment bank arm of the bank called BZW.

Smith later became head of research at UBS Phillips & Drew but was sacked from the role in 1992 when he refused to withdraw a book he wrote that questioned the accounting practice of some of the bank's own clients.

He has also been a vocal critic of the mainstream investment industry for excessive fees and frequent buying and selling of shares to give investors a decent level of returns.

At the launch of his fund, in November 2010, Smith promised that it would be the 'best fund ever' and would give Britain's 'fat and complacent' fund management industry a bloody nose.

Darius McDermott, managing director of online fund ratings company Fund Calibre, said: 'He's very opinionated, which makes him a columnist's dream and results in him having a high profile.

He has a very clear investment process and backs his convictions - he's talked a good game but importantly has delivered Darius McDermott, Fund Calibre

'He has a very clear investment process and backs his convictions - he's talked a good game but importantly has delivered.'

In 2014, Smith followed up the Fundsmith Equity fund with an emerging markets investment trust, Fundsmith Emerging Equity Trust, of FEET.

In recent years, Smith has become a bit more reclusive after abandoning his blog, which had provided a platform for his colourful views.

Last year, Smith fled from the hustle and bustle of City life to Mauritius because it is more convenient in terms of its timezone than London for dealing in Asian markets and for some peace and quiet to help him make investment decisions.

He follows in the the footsteps of investing stalwarts who prefer to be away from financial hubs, including Warren Buffett, who runs his Berkshire Hathaway business in Omaha, Nebraska; and the late Sir John Templeton who liked to run his funds from the Bahamas.

Fundsmith is heavily weighted towards the US market but also holds a big chunk in the UK

Will Fundsmith's outperformance last?

Fundsmith's performance has been buoyed by some strong tailwinds - most notably the growth in the US stock market and the success of large cap quality shares.

It has been able to capture a big chunk of that as almost 62 per cent of the fund is invested in US equities. Returns have been bolstered by the fall in the pound's value.

But those gains have been achieved through a long bull market that has seen the US stock market chased up to high levels of valuation.

Investors must ask themselves, will the outperformance continue if the US market hits bumpy times?

Ben Yearsley, director at Shore Financial Planning, said the US is not only a big portion of the fund but of global stock markets also - it makes up 60 per cent of the MSCI World index.

The good thing about buying long-term winners is it is quite likely that those companies will still be around and growing in 10 or even 20 years' time Ben Yearsley, Shore Financial Planning

'If the US markets catch a cold most markets will,' Yearsley said.

'The good thing about buying long-term winners is it is quite likely that those companies will still be around and growing in 10 or even 20 years' time. Therefore the problem with buying them is more about timing and price.

'Which leads me to the problem with the fund. It is packed with excellent long-term companies but you are being made to pay a high price for them currently.

'When you have scarce global growth, companies growing at even 2 per cent each year consistently are in demand.'

Ultimately, Fundsmith's approach in buying and holding such companies long-term reflects that of Buffett and another very successful UK fund manager dubbed Buffett-esque, Nick Train, who runs Finsbury Growth & Income and the Lindsell Train UK Equity and Global Equity funds (the latter with Michael Lindsell).

All three have emerged from the school of value investing, but have no problem in holding companies that trade at relatively high price-to-earnings ratios compared to the market average. Their argument is that there is a limited number of great businesses in the world and although sometimes you have to pay a higher price for them that may still be a good deal.

Like Train's investment trust and funds, Fundsmith has now built up a healthy track record of returns for investors.

Of course, when choosing an investment past performance is only one part of the equation. The calibre of those who have been given the reins to manage the fund should be a major factor in your decision. For now, investors seem to think Terry Smith passes that test.
Fixed-odds betting terminals are to be curbed significantly as the Government looks to slash the maximum bet from 100 to 2 in efforts to fight Britain's gambling problem.

The proposed restriction, first reported by The Sunday Times, have already had an affect on Britain's bookmakers with Ladbrokes Coral, which made about 800m from gambling machines in 2016, dropping 10 per cent, while William Hill fell 12 per cent.

A consultation on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBT) was launched by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in October following concerns that gamblers were able to place bets of up to 100 every 20 seconds.

The Government may slash the maximum stake on fixed-odds betting terminals from 100 to 2

According to the Gambling Commission, there are 33, 611 FOBTs in the UK which yielded approximately 1.8bn from April 2016 to March 2017. The machines have been referred to as 'the crack cocaine of gambling'.

The DCMS consultation, which is set to close tomorrow, has braced betting firms for lower profits and fears of potential shop closures if a 2 maximum is to be implemented.

The Government has previously stated that it would implement a maximum stake of somewhere ranging between 50 and 2.

A source told The Sunday Times that Culture Secretary Matt Hancock believes FOBTs are a 'social blight' and is therefore keen to implement the 2 maximum.

The machines, pictured, have been referred to as 'the crack cocaine of gambling' by allowing users to place bets of up to 100 every 20 seconds

A DCMS spokesman said: 'We are clear that FOBT stakes will be cut to ensure we have a safe and sustainable industry where vulnerable people and children are protected.

'We are currently consulting on what the exact cut should be, and will make a final decision in due course once all the evidence has been considered.'

The move has hit overall group revenues but not come as a surprise for investors.

Graham Spooner, investment research analyst at The Share Centre, said William Hill, in particular, had informed investors that profits were ahead of market expectations.

Mr Spooner added: 'The future decision by the Government regarding these machines had always been the elephant in the room for the group.'

'The bookmakers who realised that a cut is coming have lobbied hard for a smaller cut and suggested that some shops may have to close if the change was implemented leading to job losses and further pressure on the high street.'

Despite the incoming changes, Mr Spooner said William Hill remained a recommended buy for investors due to the potential for growth in mobile and an expansion overseas.

He said: 'Obviously the potential for further regulatory changes, both in the UK and Australia, along with increased taxes remain concerns so we regard the stock as higher risk.'

Foxy Bingo owner GVC, which has agreed a takeover by Ladbrokes Coral, also sank in excess of 3 per cent on the FTSE 250 in wake of the consultation.

Jim Mullen, chief executive of Ladbrokes Coral, commented: 'The triennial review has been running for over 15 months and throughout that time there has been constant rumour and speculation about potential outcomes, of which this is yet more.

'It should be noted that the current call for evidence is yet to conclude and industry responses have not yet been submitted to Government. We are very clear that stake cuts will fail to adequately address any issue of problem gambling.

'The industry has also always made it clear that a cut to stakes will have serious consequences - resulting in shop closures which will ultimately affect jobs, tax revenue and the funding of racing. There is also no evidence that machine customers will switch their spend to sports betting such as horse racing, and our experience is that they won't.'
Tesco is to axe 1,700 shop-floor jobs as part of a cost-cutting drive to make the customer experience in its stores 'more helpful'. the supermarket giant revealed today.

Britain's largest retailer said it is looking to 'simplify' its operational structure and said the changes will 'improve efficiency' by removing the roles of people manager, customer experience manager and compliance manager from its bigger stores.

This will give line managers more 'direct accountability' for customer service, Tesco said.

Tesco is to axe 1,700 shop floor jobs as part of a cost-cutting drive to 'simplify' the operational structure at Britain's largest retailer

Matt Davies, head of Tesco UK and Ireland, said: 'These changes remove complexity and will deliver a simpler, more helpful experience for colleagues and customers.

'We recognise these are difficult changes to make but they are necessary to ensure our business remains competitive and set up for the future.

Mr Davies added: 'Our priority now is to support affected colleagues through these changes in any way we can.

'We hope to retain as many colleagues as possible in the new roles we have created and in the vacancies we currently have available.'

'Drastic Dave' Tesco CEO Dave Lewis, pictured, has ordered more htan 10,000 job cuts

Tesco has said that it will attempt to find alternative roles 'wherever possible' for the 1,700 staff affected by the changes.

It plans to create 900 new roles with broader remits under the titles of people partners, learning partners and colleague relations partners.

The supermarket giant has axed at least a third of its jobs since Dave Lewis took over as chief executive in 2014.

Last year 1,200 jobs were culled at its head office not long after an announcement came of the closure of its Cardiff call centre, which cut another 1,100 jobs.

During his time as chief executive, Mr Lewis, dubbed 'drastic Dave' for his previous job cutting habits at the consumer goods firm Unilever, has ordered more than 10,000 job cuts spanning head office, supermarkets and overseas operations.

Tesco for its part has faced increasing pressure with the arrival of online retailer Amazon Fresh despite posting rising sales over the festive period.
A Broward Sheriff's Office report says deputies arrested the 20-year-old rapper, whose real name is Dieuson Octave, at his Pembroke Pines home on Thursday

Authorities say rapper Kodak Black was arrested several days after a guest at his Florida home live-streamed people handling marijuana and a handgun around an infant.

A Broward Sheriff's Office report says deputies arrested the 20-year-old rapper, whose real name is Dieuson Octave, after executing a search warrant at his Pembroke Pines home on Thursday.

Kodak Black was ordered held without bail during a Friday hearing because he was already on probation.

The arrest report says the video was streamed Saturday on Instagram, and the Thursday search of his home found more drugs and weapons.

One guest at the Pembroke Pines party had a handgun near the child while another had a marijuana joint 'inches away from the infant's face.'

A different man rolled a joint while another held a Sig Sauer handgun 'in a reckless manner,' according to the police report.

The arrest report says the video was streamed Saturday on Instagram, and the Thursday search of his home found more drugs and weapon

'Your phone's part of the search warrant  you're not going to get your phone back,' one officer could be heard telling Black during the raid.

95 grams of marijuana was found in Black's bedroom closet and when he gave cops the combination to his safe, they found cash and a loaded magazine for a Glock handgun.

The arrest report also shares that a 9mm Beretta handgun with ammo was found in the rapper's office.

Kodak Black faces seven felony charges including child neglect, grand theft of a firearm, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and marijuana possession

Deputies told the Sun Sentinel that that gun had been reported stolen.

Law officials would not detail the nature of Black's relationship with the infant.

Kodak Black faces seven felony charges. They include child neglect, grand theft of a firearm, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and marijuana possession.

His lawyer, Brad Cohen, plans to fight the charges.

'I've been working with Mr. Octave for the last six months and he has been making great strides. This is of course a setback that we will handle and raise defense issues,' Cohen told CBS Miami.

Kodak Black is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a Florence, South Carolina, hotel room in 2016. He has been jailed several times in Broward County after violating probation

He shared, during the hearing in Fort Lauderdale, that the firearm was found inside a home shared by at least six adults and that the safe is used by at least two more people.

Cohen added that some of those people have permits for the weapons.

And while the four men seen in the Instagram video were not arrested, Black's 26-year-old brother, Masnik Sainmelus, 26, was arrested on suspicion of possessing cannabis, codeine and Alprazoalam, or Xanax.

He was released on Friday on a $2350 bond.

Kodak Black is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a Florence, South Carolina, hotel room in 2016. He has been jailed several times in Broward County after violating probation.

He deleted his Instagram account in 2017 after receiving fierce backlash for saying that he wasn't interested in 'darkskin' black women.

His song 'Tunnel Vision' peaked at number 6 on Billboard's Hot 100 last March.

Another song - 'No Flockin' - is often cited as an influence on Cardi B's hit song 'Bodak Yellow.'
Two Americans and two Canadians who were kidnapped in Nigeria's north-central Kaduna state on Tuesday have been freed and are in good condition, police said Saturday.

Police and a special anti-kidnapping squad rescued the foreigners in the Kagarko local government area Friday night after a massive manhunt, state police commissioner Agyole Abeh said.

'No ransom was paid. It was the efforts of the police through the directives of the Inspector General of Police that led to their release,' he said.

Police and a special anti-kidnapping squad rescued the four foreigners in the Kagarko local government area Friday night after a massive manhunt. Kafanchan was the area where the people were taken

One suspect was arrested in connection with the kidnapping and police were on the trail of remaining suspects, Abeh said.

The foreigners have been taken to the capital, Abuja, Kaduna state police spokesman Mukhtar Aliyu said.

'They are in good condition but due to trauma they have to undergo medical observation.' Aliyu said.

Gunmen ambushed the foreigners Tuesday as they traveled from Kafanchan in Kaduna state to Abuja. Two police escorts were killed in what police called a 'fierce gun battle.'

Gunmen ambushed the foreigners Tuesday as they traveled from Kafanchan in Kaduna state to Abuja

The Americans and Canadians have not been publicly identified. Aliyu earlier said they are investors setting up solar stations in villages around Kafanchan.

The U.S. State Department said that 'we are aware of reports of two U.S. citizens kidnapped and released in Nigeria. The safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas are among our top priorities. Due to privacy considerations we have no further comment.'

Kidnapping for ransom is common in Nigeria, especially on the Kaduna to Abuja highway. Two German archaeologists were seized at gunpoint last year less than 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Abuja and later freed unharmed. Sierra Leone's deputy high commissioner was taken at gunpoint on the highway in 2016 and held for five days before he was let go.

Victims typically are released unharmed after ransom is paid, though security forces have rescued a few high-profile abductees. A number of bandits, including herdsmen, have been arrested.
China's official news agency said in a commentary on Sunday that the shutdown of the US government exposed 'chronic flaws' in the US political system.

Funding for federal agencies ran out at midnight on Friday in Washington after lawmakers failed to agree on a stopgap funding bill.

'What's so ironic is that it came on the first anniversary of Donald Trump's presidency on Saturday, a slap in the face for the leadership in Washington,' China's Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary by Xinhua writer Liu Chang.

The commentary said that the Trump administration had 'backtracked' on policies supported by his predecessor, Barack Obama, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement and US participation in the Paris climate agreement.

China's official news agency said in a commentary on Sunday that the shutdown of the US government exposed 'chronic flaws' in the US political system. President Donald Trump pictured with China's President Xi Jinping

'If there was any legacy that has survived the transfer of power, it was the spirit of non-cooperation across party lines,' the Xinhua commentary said.

While Xinhua commentaries are not official statements, they offer a reflection of Beijing's thinking.

'The Western democratic system is hailed by the developed world as near perfect and the most superior political system to run a country,' it said.

'However, what's happening in the United States today will make more people worldwide reflect on the viability and legitimacy of such a chaotic political system,' it said.

At a twice-a-decade congress of China's ruling Communist Party in October, President Xi Jinping was anointed for a second term as party chief, strengthening his grip on power.

The US government shutdown will extend into a third day after Republicans and Democrats failed to reach a deal on Sunday night.

In an olivebranch to the Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would seek to bring forward legislation involving the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) if enough Democrats vote to re-open the government.

But no such vote will take place until noon on Monday at the earliest, with any hopes of a last ditch vote taking place at 1am scratched.

'What's so ironic is that it came on the first anniversary of Donald Trump's presidency on Saturday, a slap in the face for the leadership in Washington,' China's Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary. The president worked through the weekend at the White House

'Should these issues not be resolved by the time the funding bill before us expires on February 8, 2018, assuming that the government remains open, it would be my intention to proceed to legislation that would address DACA, border security, and related issues,' McConnell said from the Senate floor.

'It is also my intention to take up legislation regarding increased defense funding, disaster relief, and other important matters. Importantly, when I proceed to the immigration debate, it will have an amendment process that is fair to all sides.'

McConnell and Democrat Chuck Schumer are continuing to negotiate but are yet to 'reach a path forward', Schumer said, according to Politico.

It comes after Senator Lindsey Graham predicted Sunday afternoon that there could be a 'breakthrough' in sight, as he joined a bipartisan group of senators to negotiate the end to the government shutdown.

'If there's going to be one, it will be tonight,' Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said.

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney (left) said on Fox News Sunday that he believes 'Democrats want to see the president give the State of the Union under a shutdown'

Graham told reporters that he believed the Senate could pass a continuing resolution to fund the government for three weeks, with an 'understanding' from McConnell that the upper chamber would then tackle immigration issues in the weeks ahead as part of a more long-term funding solution.

Negotiations had been at a standstill, with Democrats saying they wouldn't reopen the government until an immigration deal was etched out.

Republicans, including those at the White House, said they wouldn't negotiate on immigration until the government reopened.

Trump's budget chief predicted on Sunday that Democrats will deliberately extend the federal shutdown until the president has delivered his State of the Union on January 30.

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said on Fox News Sunday that he believes 'Democrats want to see the president give the State of the Union under a shutdown'.

Mulvaney claimed the Democrats are trying to hurt Trump by keeping the government closed.
Authorities say a 53-year-old man died while diving in a popular underwater network of caves in Florida.

The Hernando County Sheriff's Office says Davin Brannon was found dead Saturday at the Eagle's Nest cave-diving site in Weeki Wachee.

The sheriff's office says deputies and paramedics responded to reports of a diver in distress shortly after noon, and found Brannon dead when they arrived.

Victim: Experienced diver Davin Brannon, 53, was found dead on Saturday at the Eagle's Nest cave-diving site in Weeki Wachee

Popular spot: 12 people have died at the Eagle's Nest cave-diving site since 1981, as certain areas are deeper and more dangerous than others

Sheriff's spokesman Michael Terry told WTSP-TV that Brannon, a certified diver, and a friend were barely inside the caves when he experienced a 'medical episode'.

'They weren't planning to explore any deeper than the first room of the cave when the incident occurred,' he said.

'We don't know if he simply drowned or if he had a heart attack, it's hard to tell at this point.

'There are signs up above that tell you the dangers of going into the caves.

'There's nothing in this cave worth dying for.'

Medical episode: It is believed Brannon died of a heart attack rather than drowning. An autopsy is being conducted to determine the cause of death

An autopsy is being conducted to determine the cause of death.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, Brannon is the 12th person to have died while diving in the caves at Eagle's Nest since 1981.

Some of the underwater passages are more than 300 feet deep and anyone who dives this far need multiple tanks and a special mix of gas and compressed air.

A friend of Brannon's, Gregg Bonert, who was with Brannon at Eagles Nest on Saturday, said this tragedy had nothing to do with lack of experience or preparation.

'This was a fairly simple technical dive within his capacity. Something just went wrong,' he said.
The Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo has reopened the Statue of Liberty and promised it will keep receiving visitors during the government budget shutdown.

The statue was abruptly closed by the shutdown on Saturday but will reopen on Monday to once again beckon the 'huddled masses' as well as tourists with dollars to spend.

Speaking at the southern tip of Manhattan Island with the Statue of Liberty in the background, Cuomo explained that the state will provide the $65,000 it takes each day to pay the federal workers who keep the park open.

The Statue of Liberty, seen here from New Jersey, was closed for a second day on Sunday by the US government shutdown, but New York officials vowed to reopen it on Monday using state funds

The statue on Liberty Island, as well as the related museum on nearby Ellis Island, where arriving immigrants were once processed, annually welcome about 4.5 million visitors, with most coming by boat from Manhattan.

'We will not stand by as this symbol of freedom and opportunity goes dark,' New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a tweet Sunday, announcing that the state had found funds to keep the iconic landmark open.

Shutting the surrounding park 'jeopardizes an economic driver for the state of New York,' said Cuomo, a Democrat.

The governor alluded to the budget battle in Washington, where Democrats were seeking protection for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants before agreeing to Republican proposals to extend funding for the government.

The New York Governor promises to to keep the Statue of Liberty, pictured in the distance behind him, open despite the government shutdown

'This park is a symbol of New York and our values. And her message has never been as important as it is today,' he said.

As a result of the budget impasse, many government services including the Statue of Liberty have been closed since Saturday.

On Saturday hundreds of tourists were caught unaware, even if tour companies quickly offered boat tours, or reimbursement, as compensation.

The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France to the United States in 1886 to honor the centenary of US independence 10 years earlier.

It is among the hundreds of parks, battlefields, recreation areas and monuments managed by the National Park Service.

After Democrats and the majority Republicans in Congress missed a Friday deadline to pass a new federal budget, most 'non-essential' government services and programs were ordered to close.

Alcatraz Island is being kept open by subsidies from a local tour boat company

Some of the best-known parks have been kept open, including the Grand Canyon in Arizona and Yellowstone National Park. But most are operating with skeleton staff, meaning many stores, restaurants and even restrooms are closed.

In San Francisco, boat operator Hornblower Cruises & Events is subsidising Golden Gate National Recreational Area to the tune of $48,000 for security personnel and utilities at Alcatraz Island over the next few days.

It is one example of the risks some businesses that rely on the federal government must take to keep operations going.

'We are essentially funding the park,' Terry MacRae, chairman and chief executive officer of Hornblower Inc.

Opening hours at Alcatraz will be reduced and MacRae predicted that daily traffic would fall to between 5,000 and 5,500, from the usual 6,000 to 7,000.

In an unusual move, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, whose department oversees the parks service, said on Twitter that he had personally helped welcome visitors to the World War II memorial on the National Mall in Washington.

During the last government shutdown, a 16-day standoff in 2013, the memorial was closed. That prompted a group of military veterans, some of them in wheelchairs or hobbling on canes, to force their way in.

It was an embarrassment the White House of President Donald Trump has vowed to avoid.
Penny Mordaunt appeared to embrace the culture on her most recent trip as she wore an intricately designed headband and colourful necklace.

It was her first official visit to Kenya as International Development Secretary and Ms Mordaunt was shown how UK aid was supporting vulnerable communities in the north of the country devastated by East Africa's drought.

On the second day of her trip the Secretary of State for International Development was pictured in Marsabit - one of the country's poorest regions - to talk to mother's at a UNICEF and WFP centre in the village of Loglogo.

Penny Mordaunt appeared to embrace the culture on her most recent trip as she wore an intricately designed headband and colourful necklace

Ms Mordaunt wore an official t-shirt embellished with the title 'Department for International Development' on the sleeve

It was Ms Mordaunt's first official visit to Kenya as International Development Secretary

Ms Mordaunt wore an official t-shirt embellished with the title 'Department for International Development' on the sleeve.

She also wore an elaborate headband and vibrant necklace as she danced and embraced the locals.

While there she pledged further support from the crisis reserve to provide urgent cash transfer assistance to 71,000 families in Northern Kenya with severely malnourished children and pregnant and breastfeeding women.

While there she pledged further support from the crisis reserve to provide urgent cash transfer assistance to 71,000 families in Northern Kenya with severely malnourished children and pregnant and breastfeeding women

She was shown how UK aid was supporting vulnerable communities in the north of the country devastated by East Africa's drought

In Kenya's capital Nairobi she also heard how UK support for innovative programmes is helping to create jobs for a rising population

In Kenya's capital Nairobi she also heard how UK support for innovative programmes is helping to create jobs for a rising population and heard from British businesses about how new technology has helped them tap into the Kenyan market.

Ms Mordaunt said: 'I have seen how, in the face of East Africa's devastating drought, UK aid works and is saving lives.

'But 2018 will bring more desperate weather conditions to the region. This is a stark reminder that we need to back new ideas to future-proof against the biggest challenges in Africa.

Ms Mordaunt was embraced by locals as they danced with the smiling Secretary of State

She also heard from British businesses about how new technology has helped them tap into the Kenyan market

Ms Mordaunt said: 'I have seen how, in the face of East Africa's devastating drought, UK aid works and is saving lives'

'Here in Kenya technology is delivering UK aid in new ways, from innovative cash transfers using biometrics, through to trade technologies that support economic growth, jobs and investment.

'It is in all our interests that we harness the best of British innovation with African entrepreneurialism  to create jobs, defeat poverty, and support our future trading partners, as we work towards a shared prosperous future.'

The UK is the fifth largest exporter of goods to Kenya and trade between the two countries is worth over 1 billion annually.

When there she also met with the Governor of Marsabit County, Mohamud Mohamed Ali (pictured together)

The UK is the fifth largest exporter of goods to Kenya and trade between the two countries is worth over 1 billion annually

Innovative technology, supported by the Department for International Development, is helping Kenya build resilience to climate challenges, including drought, and to build a modern economy for the future

When there Ms Mordaunt also met with the Governor of Marsabit County, Mohamud Mohamed Ali.

Innovative technology, supported by the Department for International Development, is helping Kenya build resilience to climate challenges, including drought, and to build a modern economy for the future.

During her visit Ms Mordaunt also set out further UK aid support for the Hunger Safety Net Programme  a cash-transfer scheme that helps more vulnerable households and supports the Government of Kenya to own, manage and ultimately fund the programme.

Ms Mordaunt's visit to Kenya comes ahead of the Commonwealth Summit, taking place in April this year in London.
A fishing store has posted bizarre CCTV footage of a thief punching and kicking the air before allegedly stuffing his shirt with stolen goods.

The video posted by Hunting and Fishing New Zealand shows the man walking around the store in Westgate Shopping Centre, Auckland, on January 2.

The man, wearing sunglasses and shorts, can be seen entering the store with his arms swinging wildly before breaking into some air-kung fu.

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A fishing store has posted bizarre CCTV footage (pictured) of a thief punching and kicking the air before allegedly stuffing his shirt with stolen goods

The video posted by Hunting and Fishing New Zealand shows the man (pictured) walking around the store in Westgate Shopping Centre, Auckland, on January 2

A later clip shows the man appearing to put items under his shirt while trying to hide behind a display, and then pretending to examine goods hanging on the wall.

The store posted the strange video on social media alongside clips from the movie Rocky and the Pink Panther soundtrack.

'Please be aware of this master criminal working the Westgate area,' the caption to the video said.

'We were extremely lucky to foil his plot when we noticed the odd behaviour and the police were waiting for him at the front door during his getaway plan.

The man (pictured), wearing sunglasses and shorts, can be seen entering the store with his arms swinging wildly before breaking into some air-kung fu

'We recommend you do not approach this individual as he is clearly a kung fu master and should be considered extremely dangerous.'

Detective Senior Sergeant Roger Small of Waitemata Police told Daily Mail Australia: 'Police received reports of a man acting suspiciously at a hunting and fishing store in Westgate, Auckland on 31 December, 2017 and again on 2 January, 2018.'

'Police have made several inquiries which included reviewing CCTV footage and have identified the offender.

'Police can confirm that a 26-year-old man is facing a range of dishonesty related charges including shoplifting and traffic offences and has been remanded in custody.

'He is also likely to be facing further shoplifting charges when he next appears in the Waitakere District Court on 30 January 2018.'
As the winter months drag on, most people are looking for any reason to laugh.

And hilarious videos of confused dogs reacting to being forced into wearing shoes to go out into the show might just do the trick.

Adorable footage of perplexed pooches attempting to adjust to walking in dog shoes have flooded in the internet in the past few weeks after most parts of America experienced heavy snowfalls.

During the winter months dog owners are urged to outfit their pets with coats and shoes, just like they would do for themselves.

The booties protect their paws from snow, ice, salt and deicers that might hurt dogs paws and potentially be toxic if ingested.

But most dogs don't understand the new sensation of having something strapped to their feet, and their reactions are silly and hilarious.

In one clip a confused dog takes a walk with its owners - clearly not sure how to adjust to having something on its feet

And anyone who has worn a pair of uncomfortable shoes during a long walk can relate to the clear look of discomfort and unease the animal gives as it kicks its legs out in the air and waddles back and forth

Another clip shows a pug outfitted in a coat and booties - prancing around its living room as it adjusts to the new outfit

In one clip a confused dog takes a walk with its owners - clearly not sure how to adjust to having something on its feet.

And anyone who has worn a pair of uncomfortable shoes during a long walk can relate to the clear look of discomfort and unease the animal gives as it kicks its legs out in the air and waddles back and forth.

Another clip shows a pug outfitted in a coat and booties - prancing around its living room as it adjusts to the new outfit.

At one point the muddled pug seems to gallop around the room, before shaking its whole body as if attempting to throw off the winter gear.

In another clip a small gingery pup takes a few steps around her apartment before just giving up and looking up at her owner in clear defiance

Her owner can be heard saying 'come on' and 'good girl' in an attempt to coerce the pup to come forward - but she is having none of it and can't be convinced

Another video shows a dog jumping back and forth spastically, clearly not sure how to react to having shoes on his feet

In another clip a small gingery pup takes a few steps around her apartment before just giving up and looking up at her owner in clear defiance.

She looks up at her owner and takes a moment to stick each of her paws in the air sassily - as if giving her owner a chance to take the offending shoes off of her.

Her owner can be heard saying 'come on' and 'good girl' in an attempt to coerce the pup to come forward - but she is having none of it and can't be convinced.

Another video shows a dog jumping back and forth spastically, clearly not sure how to react to having shoes on his feet.

He hurls himself in the air so hard he even manages to kick off one of the shoes - to the apparent amusement of his owners who can't stop giggling in the background.

The fifth video shows a pooch named Molly, giving her owner a very concerned look as she sticks each paw out in the air but refuses to move from her spot

The final clip shows a well-behaved German shepherd putting his head on a kitchen chair as his owners put on his booties

After each bootie is on, he appears disoriented as he moves around the room. But then after his owner gives him a couple of treats he returns to normal and looks excited for a walk

The fifth video shows a pooch named Molly, giving her owner a very concerned look as she sticks each paw out in the air but refuses to move from her spot.

Molly seems to be puzzled by the idea of moving with the shoes on - and instead just stays in her spot and gives her owner puppy eyes.

The final clip shows a well-behaved German shepherd putting his head on a kitchen chair as his owners put on his booties.

After each bootie is on, he appears disoriented as he moves around the room. But then after his owner gives him a couple of treats he returns to normal and looks excited for a walk.
Three women have been arrested for allegedly tampering and hindering a police investigation into an Arizona man suspected of killing nine people in three weeks.

Cleophus Emmanuel Cooksey Jr, 35, was taken into custody in Phoenix on December 17 after a spree of shootings police said on Thursday.

Police recently arrested Cooksey's girlfriend, Liliana Vasquez, her sister Griselda Vasquez and Desaree Coronado, for allegedly tampering with evidence.

Coronado is the mother of Jesus Real's child. Police said Real was one of Cooksey's victims.

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Liliana Vasquez (left), her sister Griselda Vasquez (center) and Desaree Coronado (right), were arrested for allegedly protecting suspected serial killer, Cleophus Emmanuel Cooksey Jr, by tampering with crime scene evidence

Cooksey (left) was taken into custody in Phoenix on December 17 after a spree of shootings police said on Thursday. Authorities have linked Cooksey to the shooting death of Jesus Real (right) whose body was discovered on December 11, 2017

Police said Coronado is the mother of Real's child and the Vasquez sisters (pictured with Real) are the victim's sisters. Griselda (right) posted this photo on Facebook a day after her brother's death

Using ballistic evidence, Phoenix police have linked Cooksey to at least nine fatal shootings in three cities that took place between November 27 and December 17.

On December 11, Real, 25, was killed around 3.30pm near 500 E Harrison Drive in Avondale.

Officers responded to a shooting call for service and found the victim dead on arrival in an apartment complex, with the suspect having fled. Real was the brother of Cooksey's ex-girlfriend, Liliana Vasquez, and Griselda Vasquez, police said.

Authorities said Liliana discovered Real's body but left the apartment without calling the police, according to CBS 5.

Liliana reportedly went to pick up Griselda instead and called two other family members about Real being hurt and possibly dead.

They then went back to the apartment with Coronado and called 911.

Authorities said Liliana (left) discovered Real's body but left the apartment without calling the police. Liliana reportedly went to pick up Griselda (right) instead and called two other family members about Real being hurt and possibly dead. Coronado is pictured center

Griselda (left) told police that she took Real's cellphone off his body on December 11 and gave it to Coronado (right). Coronado reportedly admitted that she had the phone and only wanted it because it had photos of her and Real that she wanted to keep

When the three women were initially interviewed by police, all of them denied removing any evidence from the scene.

But police tracked Real's cellphone to a motel room in Goodyear where the Vasquez sisters and Coronado were staying on December 14, court documents show.

Griselda then told police that she took the cellphone off Real's body on December 11 and gave it to Coronado.

Coronado reportedly admitted that she had the phone and only wanted it because it had photos of her and Real that she wanted to keep.

Officers said Liliana told them she broke up Cooksey a night before Real's murder and left the apartment around 7am.

Police said Real was killed between 8am and 11am. The two shell casings haven't been found, according to the report.

Authorities said evidence also shows that Liliana's vehicle was in the area of two of Cooksey's murders.

The Vasquez sisters were both charged with hindering prosecution and tampering with physical evidence. Bond was set at $3,000 for both of them.

This map shows the locations and the victims of the nine murders Cooksey is accused of. The numbers refer to the order of the murders

Victim Andrew Remillard was one of the first two victims. It is unclear what relationship if any he had with the suspect Cooksey

Andrew Remillard, 27, (left) and Parker Smith, 21, (right) were the first two victims in the alleged murder spree. They were found dead together on November 27

Latorrie Beckford, 29, (left) and Kristopher Cameron, 21, (right) were killed on December 13 and December 15 respectively. Cameron was believed to be lured by a drug transaction

Coronado was charged with hindering prosecution, tampering with physical evidence and false reporting to law enforcement.

Cooksey's victims were of multiple races and both genders, ranging in age from 21 to 56.

The suspected serial killer aspired to be a rapper. He is also the grandson of a civil rights leader.

He has been in custody since December 17, when police found him at the scene of his mother and stepfather's murders.

Using forensic evidence and witness statements, cops say they quickly linked him to seven other recent murders in Phoenix as well as in nearby Avondale and Glendale.

Investigators said the murder spree began on November 27 at 10.45pm, when Andrew Remillard, 27, and Parker Smith, 21, were found dead together inside a car near 1500 E. Indian School Road in Phoenix.

Police have yet to identify a motive and are unsure whether Cooksey knew the victims.

On December 2, Salim Richards, 35, was killed around at 7.44pm near 4030 N 44th Avenue in Phoenix.

The victim was walking in the area when he was shot and killed. Some witnesses said Cooksey and Richards knew each other, police said. Property was stolen from Richards, including a handgun

On December 13, Latorrie Beckford, 29, was killed on around 6.53pm near 5038 N 55th Avenue in Glendale. Patrol officers were called to respond to a gunshot wound.

The male victim was treated on scene and died. Police had information that Cooksey was in the apartment complex at the time, but don't yet know a motive in the murder.

On December 15, Kristopher Cameron, 21, was killed around 7.22pm near 5045 N 58th Avenue in Glendale.

The victim was transported for care and died shortly after. Cameron came to that area to make a drug transaction with Cooksey, and forensic evidence links him to the murder, police say.

Maria Villanueva, 43, was kidnapped on December 15. Her body was found the following day with signs of sexual assault

Cleophus Cooksey (left and right) was arrested on December 17 when he was found in a residence with the bodies of his murdered mother and stepfather

Investigators provided this graphic tracing the homicides that they allege Cooksey was responsible for between November 27 and December 17

Hours later on the same day, December 15, Maria Villanueva, 43, was kidnapped near 58th Avenue and Camelback in Phoenix around 8.52pm.

She arrived to an apartment complex and got into a car with Cooksey under unknown circumstances. Her body was found with evidence of a sexual assault the next day.

Finally, on December 17 around 7.50pm, officers are called to a disturbance near 1300 E Highland in Phoenix.

The responding officer saw Cooksey with blood on him, and noted he appeared to be concealing something. Rene Cooksey, 56, the suspects mother, and his stepfather, Edward Nunn, 54, were found dead inside the residence.

Cooksey confronted the responding officer and shouted 'I'm the strongest man alive' and 'I'll cut your throat' as he was taken into custody, police said.

Cleophus Cooksey was then arrested and charged with murder. A task force including the Phoenix, Avondale, and Glendale police department, as well as FBI profilers and ballistics experts from the ATF, worked to connect him to the other murders.

Police said that evidence from shell casings tied at least some of the murders together, and that advances in forensic technology allowed investigators to get results from those tests within hours instead of weeks.

Cooksey's stepfather Ed Nunn (left) and mother Rene Cooksey (center) were the final victims. Cleo Cooksey was found at their residence with the bodies after police responded to a 911 call

The probable cause statement describing police's encounter with Cooksey on December 17. He was arrested at the time on suspicion of killing his mother and stepfather

'At the end of the day what this came down to was a patrol officer answering a call for service and doing the right things - taking a person into custody and noticing there were abnormalities to his behavior,' said Glendale Police Chief Rick St. John at a press conference on Thursday.

Despite stereotypes of patient killers who wait months or years between victims, the shocking apparent burst of murders in just three weeks is an increasingly familiar pattern for serial killers, said Enzo Yaksic, the co-founder of Northeastern University's Atypical Homicide Research Group, in an email to DailyMail.com.

'Cooksey represents the next crop of serial homicide offender, one not beholden to rule structures or averse to risk and empowered by their self-assumed sense of importance,' said Yaksic.

The expert believes that advances in law enforcement have put pressure on serial offenders, making them more likely to compress their crimes into bursts of activity in a race against the clock before they are captured.

'While the hurried nature of these crimes can sometimes make it difficult for law enforcement to catch up, it is also ironically often the cause of their demise given that little time is dedicated to properly planning their homicides and preparing to evade the fallout,' said Yaksic.

Cooksey is seen in two mugshots: Left from a prior incarceration, and right in a mugshot provided to the press last week

Cooksey is the grandson of civil rights leader Roy Cooksey, who was prominent in the Tucson area from the 1960s until his death in 2009, according to an obituary in the Arizona Daily Star.

Police said that Cleophus Cooksey was an aspiring musician, and homemade hip hop videos have emerged that show him showcasing his lyrical skills under the name 'King Playbola'.

Cooksey was previously imprisoned in Arizona for 16 years for manslaughter and armed robbery convictions.

Those convictions were in connection with the death of an armed robbery partner, police said.

State records show that he was released in July 2017 after being found guilty of 22 different disciplinary infractions while in prison, including assault of prison staff, disobeying orders, fighting, disorderly conduct, possession of drugs and more.

Cooksey faces two counts of premeditated first-degree murder and one count of weapon possession by a prohibited person in the December 17 murders.

He was ordered held pending $1million cash bail in that case and faces seven additional murder charges.

Anyone with information about the murders or additional connected crimes is urged to contact Silent Witness at 1-480-WITNESS.
They havent had the advantages of many public school pupils, but these teenagers in one of the poorest parts of the country could give them a run for their money academically.

The 22 state-school pupils at the London Academy of Excellence have all been offered places at Oxford and Cambridge.

It means one in ten of the upper sixth at the selective free school in Stratford, east London, will be heading to Oxbridge if they achieve the required grades in the summer.

The results rival the success rate of many of Britains most famous public schools, some of which charge more than 30,000 a year in fees.

Such results have earned the school the nickname of the East End Eton.

These 22 state-school pupils at the London Academy of Excellence have all been offered places at Oxford and Cambridge. The school has been nicknamed the East End Eton

But unlike 578-year-old Eton College, LAE was only set up six years ago with the aim of getting bright children from poor families into top universities.

Many of those with Oxbridge offers are from working-class and immigrant homes and will be the first in their families to go to university.

I'll be the first in my family to attend university Mirana Kqiku, 18, is set to become the first person in her family to go to university after she received an offer to study French at Oriel College, Oxford. She had never seriously considered applying to Oxbridge before moving to the London Academy of Excellence last year. She said: When I came to this school and I saw people go there I thought, I could do it. Mirana  whose parents moved to London from Kosovo, and whose first language is Albanian  gave up Friday evenings to practise interviews. She said: I got to go to Eton, where we had interviews with the staff. Every Friday we would interview each other and talk about our subjects and current affairs. It built my confidence up. Mirana said she was looking forward to the whole experience at Oxford, adding: Its a bit scary, but Im excited. Advertisement

Headmaster Scott Baker said: With hard work, the aspiration to succeed, excellent teaching and the right support and guidance, there really are no limits on what young people can achieve, irrespective of their gender, ethnicity or background.

It is regarded as a model to tackle the stranglehold privately-educated children have on admissions to elite universities. The sixth-form school is open to students from London and Essex, with decisions to award places based on an interview and GCSE scores.

There are ten applicants for every place, and the academy is supported by six prestigious public schools, including Eton, which provides two English literature teachers, and Brighton College. Last year, it achieved a record 99 per cent of A-level grades in the A* to C range, compared with 77 per cent nationally.

Louis Baxter, 18, who hopes to read history at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, only thought of applying to Oxbridge after taking a practice admission test at the school out of curiosity.

He said: I wanted to see how well I could do. I didnt really think about it before.

I did alright so I thought about applying.

He and his classmates spent four hours a night studying after school for several months to prepare for his Oxbridge entry test. Before Christmas, they held mock interviews with an actor at Eton College, which included practising shaking hands and making eye contact.

Headmaster Scott Baker said: With hard work, the aspiration to succeed, excellent teaching and the right support and guidance, there really are no limits on what young people can achieve, irrespective of their gender, ethnicity or background

He added: They were really good at helping us. We sat down after school just going through potential questions. When it came to the interview we did a lot on how to stay confident. In the interview they asked me a question about one small sentence in my personal statement and it caught me by surprise. But after learning how to deal with unexpected questions I was able to give an answer.

Fellow pupils include Romanian speaker Raluca Popan, who hopes to study history and modern languages at Cambridge, making her the first in her family to go to university; as is Shakila Akhtar, offered a place to take law at Oxford; and Bartek Staniszewski, who wants to do philosophy and theology at Oxford.

Louis put the academys success down to the attitude of pupils, adding: Its just the drive everyone has. Everybody is incredibly ambitious and wants to work hard.
Banning over-the-counter medication containing codeine could cause some people to turn to illegal drugs to curb their pain, Australia's chief medical officer has admitted.

Professor Brendan Murphy told SBS on Monday he believes the impending ban on products such as Panadeine, Nurofen Plus and Mersyndol as of February 1 will save lives, but agreed it's a possibility regular users could fill the void with alcohol, nicotine, cannabis or other illegal drugs.

'People who are already well established narcotic addicts who are using these drugs or misusing them, it's true that they might seek to find other illegal sources of the drug, but hopefully it will promote some of them to try and seek treatment for their addiction,' he said.

Australia's chief medical officer has admitted banning over-the-counter medication containing codeine could cause some people to turn to illegal drugs to curb their pain (pictured)

Professor Brendan Murphy (pictured) said he believes the ban as of February 1 will save lives, but agreed it's a possibility regular users could fill the void with alcohol, nicotine, cannabis or other illegal drugs

'If it's not easy to get hold of the drug, maybe it will be a wakeup call to them. So I think there is potentially some concern that they could seek other drugs but I don't think that should be a reason to continue to provide legally and over the counter drugs which are really of no value and causing harm.'

Mr Murphy said about 100 people die every year from codeine toxicity.

'We're very confident that it will have a significant benefit. I don't think it can be accurately quantitated but every life saved is worth it,' he said.

Between 2007 and 2011, there were 1917 recorded deaths involving either over-the-counter products containing codeine or Oxycodone.

The decrease in accidental overdoses will save taxpayers $5.2billion over the next decade, according to the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

But it is estimated an increase of 8.7million doctor visits will cost taxpayers $316million annually.

Pharmacies are seeing customers stock piling the product in a frenzied panic before the ban is enforced on February 1 (stock image)

Panadeine, Nurofen Plus and Mersyndol are amoung the products (pictured) being hoarded by people who use the drug for pain relief, including for migraines and toothaches

There are more than 5 million over-the-counter sales of Nurofen Plus, Panadeine, Mersyndol and Codral in Australia each year.

With just over a week until the Australia wide ban, people are rushing to get their hands on the product before the ban comes into play.

Australia will join the ranks of at least 26 other countries that currently require a prescription for codeine-containing products.

Codeine is an opioid and is related to heroin and morphine which can be highly addictive and can give users a high if taken in large doses.

Cough medications including Codral and Demazin will also require prescriptions because they contain condeine.

The Dean of the Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anesthetists Dr Chris Hayes told The Daily Mercury that people will still be able to manage pain with over-the-counter medications that don't contain codeine.

Between 2007 and 2011, there were 1917 recorded deaths involving either over-the-counter products containing codeine or Oxycodone (stock image)

'When exploring other alternative treatments it's good to be aware that unlike codeine, paracetamol and ibuprofen are not opioids and not addictive,' he said.

'There are many safer and more effective alternatives available that don't have the harmful side effects of low-dose codeine.'

While the nation-wide ban is to deter people from using the drug for non-pain related reasons, one pharmacist believes it won't make a difference.

'There is no way for GPs to monitor someone's opiate use,' pharmacist John Jones told The Herald.

'So you can go and see three different prescribers, get three different prescriptions and present to three different pharmacies and no one has any idea.'
Hundreds of primary school children are being investigated by police for swapping naked selfies, figures reveal today.

They are using smartphones, social networks and video games consoles to share explicit photos with classmates and strangers they meet online.

Almost 200 children under 12 have been branded suspects by police in the past three years, according to figures obtained by the Daily Mail.

Police are now questioning whether all these children should remain on their databases or if officers should be investigating in the first place.

At least 5,000 children under 18 were quizzed by police for sending or receiving nude images between April 2014 and April 2017, the figures show.

Hundreds of primary school children are being investigated by police for swapping naked selfies

Taking, sending or possessing naked pictures of a child is a criminal offence, even if the child took the photo.

It means police are required by law to treat these youngsters as suspects, which risks criminalising a generation of pupils.

The name of every child caught swapping naked selfies is placed on a police database alongside the crime they are alleged to have committed  potentially ruining their chances of employment as adults when they apply for certain jobs involving children.

Last year only 63 under-18s were actually charged with making, distributing or possessing indecent images under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

Thousands of other investigations were dropped because they were classed as experimental behaviour by the children.

Thames Valley Police investigated 642 children between 2014 and 2017, and Norfolk quizzed 575 youngsters. Some 432 were interrogated by West Mercia Police and 345 were investigated by Humberside.

Chief Constable Olivia Pinkney (above), the National Police Chiefs Council lead for children and young people, questioned whether many of the cases were worthy of police investigation

Some forces have seen a 16-fold increase in child suspects in only two years. Norfolk Constabulary investigated 408 children in 2016-17, compared to 25 two years earlier.

Derbyshire had 164 cases last year, up from eight in 2015. And the number of child suspects in Suffolk rose from 17 to 202 in two years. On one occasion a five-year-old was branded an offender by Hertfordshire Police for taking an indecent image of another child. In Northamptonshire, a seven-year-old girl was investigated after she used an iPad to film herself naked before putting the video on YouTube.

Neither could be prosecuted because they were under ten, the age of criminal responsibility.

At least 31 children under ten have been questioned over nude pictures in the past three years. Two were aged only five. Over the same period, police investigated 38 children aged ten.

Officers raid boy's home for sharing photo sent by girl A teenage boys mother says she was threatened with arrest after she refused to let him accept a caution for forwarding a naked selfie from a girl. The woman spent seven months battling police after officers raided her home and arrested her 13-year-old son. She refused to let him accept a youth caution for sending on the unsolicited photo, fearing it may harm his career. Describing the arrest by Leicestershire Police, she said: It was just, I am arresting you on suspicion of possession and distributing indecent images of a child. I was in shock. Police confiscated phones, a laptop, tablet and iPod and took the boy away before he was sent home by the custody sergeant as he was inconsolable. The family, who cannot be named, said a slightly older girl had sent the boy the photo, so he blocked her online, leading to a friend asking why. He then forwarded the image. The mother told the BBC: I thought someone was going to come and say, Im really sorry, this has been blown totally out of proportion. We realise it is kids being kids. Instead police insisted on a youth caution. The woman claims she was threatened with arrest for obstruction when she refused. She said she was worried her son would have to explain the caution to employers, adding: Something like possessing and distributing indecent images... I dont think you would get very far explaining that. The case was dropped seven months later. Leicestershire Police said the force took appropriate, proportionate and necessary action. Advertisement

More than 105 11-year-olds and 327 12-year-olds were quizzed.

Police also looked into allegations against 678 children of 13. On one occasion, a 13-year-old girl sent a boy a topless selfie to his Xbox console. Others used Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Skype to swap nude images.

The true figures are expected to be far higher because around half the 43 police forces in the UK declined to provide data.

Chief Constable Olivia Pinkney, the National Police Chiefs Council lead for children and young people, questioned whether many of the cases were worthy of police investigation.

She said: There is a difference between experimental behaviour in children and the malicious or abusive sharing of these images.

Children are supposed to be at least 13 before they can use most social networks but young pupils are simply bypassing flimsy or non-existent age checks to join the sites. Stock photo

Once it is reported to the police we have to record it. There is a school of thought that this record should be removed if there is no arrest. But the rules dont allow this at the moment.

Experts say easy access to online pornography as well as the growing prevalence of mobile phone ownership among young children is fuelling the problem.

Children are supposed to be at least 13 before they can use most social networks. But young pupils are simply bypassing flimsy or non-existent age checks to join the sites. Youngsters used social media to swap indecent images in three-quarters of the cases reported to the police.

The NSPCC said: We dont want to see children criminalised. But while many of them may see sending these images as harmless fun, it is illegal and can leave young people vulnerable.

Many children sent nude photos after being egged on by their friends, or at the request of their boyfriends or girlfriends.

Others sent them to paedophiles, believing the stranger they were talking to online was their age. On investigating cases, officers have been told to consider the childrens ages, whether a child has been coerced into sending or receiving an image, whether the pictures show full nudity and if the child has previously been involved in sexting.

But last month a 13-year-old boys mother claimed she was threatened with arrest after refusing to let him accept a caution for forwarding an unsolicited naked selfie a girl had sent to him. The woman spent seven months battling Leicestershire Police after officers raided her home and arrested her son.
Australian businessman Rohan Arnold, alleged by police to be at the centre of a $500 million Serbian drug bust, was millions of dollars in debt and recommended to ASIC by a liquidator to be investigated by the Federal Court after a series of failed international ventures.

Rohan Arnold - dubbed the 'king of steel' for his roaring success in the industry - was arrested at gunpoint inside the Metropol Palace Hotel, in Belgrade, last week alongside 48-year-old business associate David Campbell.

It is understood that Mr Campbell was detained by the Serbian Police in relation to 'authorised possession and carrying of weapons'.

Tristan Waters and Lebanese man Diab George were also arrested while drinking with the two businessmen in the hotel lobby. Serbian state media have reported that Mr George was detained on suspicion of having a fake passport.

Arnold's company Mass Steel were $11.5 million in debt after their Canberra-based venture struggled to deal with cheap Chinese mass imports, Fairfax reported.

The lawyer for the three Australians, Jaska Pekovic, has reportedly told colleagues he is seeking the release of Arnold and Waters today as they are facing no charges in Serbia and an extradition request is yet to be released.

Waters, a former Canberra nightclub bouncer turned billionaire construction owner, has been labelled as a 'big narco boss' by the Serbian media.

All four are suspected by the Australian Federal Police of having ties to an international drug syndicate - which allegedly attempted to smuggle 1.28 tonnes worth of cocaine into Sydney from China last year.

Australian businessman Rohan Arnold, alleged by police to be at the centre of a $500 million Serbian drug bust, was millions of dollars in debt and recommended to ASIC by a liquidator to be investigated by the Federal Court after a series of failed international ventures

Rohan Arnold (right) was arrested by Serbian police at gunpoint inside the Metropol Palace Hotel, in Belgrade, last week alongside business associate David Campbell (left)

Tristan Waters and Lebanese man Diab George were also arrested while drinking with the two businessmen in the hotel lobby

Arnold and Campbell are long-term business associates, but the former ran into deep financial trouble when his company was unable to match the costs of their Chinese counterparts.

The liquidators accuse Arnold of 'phoenix' activity, the transfer of assets from a company in debt to a new company to avoid paying employees, creditors and/or tax.

They liquidators appointed to the companies also alleged Arnold may have traded while insolvent, and suggested to ASIC that he be investigated in Federal Court, but Fairfax reported no action was taken.

'They were always difficult to get money from,' a former business associate said.

They also described Campbell as 'the most difficult pr*** I have ever dealt with'.

Campbell is being held on suspicion of carrying an unauthorised gun, while Arnold is suspected of laundering money for Waters.

Waters, reportedly manager of a security firm based in the ACT before moving on to build his own construction firm called Triswat, is suspected of purchasing the cocaine.

The businessman, who is now based in Dubai, was also reportedly connected to multiple companies linked to the ATO tax fraud syndicate run by Adam Cranston, the son of then ATO deputy commissioner Michael Cranston.

Arnold is a director of South East Livestock Exchange and also his own company 'Arnold Co' - a major player in the NSW construction industry

Campbell's lawyer is planning to have him and Waters released as early as Monday, arguing there is no legal basis in which to keep the pair in Serbia

Campbell's lawyer is planning to have him and Waters released as early as Monday, arguing there is no legal basis in which to keep the pair in Serbia.

He is also considering an application to have Waters moved to a hospital instead of his holding cell as he has a pre-existing medical condition.

Campbell and Waters' lawyer Mr Pekovic said the pair strongly deny any involvement.

The Serbian High Court however say Campbell has been remanded in custody for 30 days as they have fears he may abscond.

'It was just about the circumstances of the detention and not the criminal case. Where he lives, what he was doing jn Belgrade,' Higher Court spokeswoman Bojana Stankovic said.

'The judge ordered detention for 30 days... because of the risk of escape.'

A spokeswoman for the Serbian High Court, Bojana Stankovic (pictured), said Campbell has been remanded in custody for 30 days as they have fears he may abscond

He is also considering an application to have Waters moved to a hospital instead of his holding cell as he has a pre-existing medical condition

The four men were dramatically arrested in the lobby (pictured) of the lavish hotel in Belgrade

Australian Federal Police released a statement hours after the Serbian bust about the seizure, saying they had linked the three men to a the major drug bust in April.

'Operation Amorgos commenced in April 2017, with the interception of a container of pre-fabricated steel arriving into Sydney from a source country via China,' the statement read.

'AFP investigators commenced a tenacious nine-month investigation to pursue those allegedly responsible for this importation.

'No arrests have been made in Australia at this time, though investigations remain ongoing.'

Police said the men 'are linked to' the discovery of 1,280 kilograms of cocaine that was seized last April on a Chinese boat docked in Sydney.

They said the drugs were worth (AUD)$500 million.

Waters was a director of CREI Camperdown set up by Dev Menon, the Sydney lawyer who allegedly provided tax advice to the ATO syndicate, Fairfax reports.

Mr Arnold is a director of South East Livestock Exchange and also his own company 'Arnold Co' - a major player in the NSW construction industry.

The father-of-four was born and educated in Canberra where he graduated with a commerce degree in 1995, according to his business website.

Just days ago, he wrote on his personal blog that the global steel industry was thriving and that he was optimistic about the future.

'Global demand for mass steel looks likely to increase in 2018, with emerging economies including Latin America and the Middle East experiencing strong urban development,' he wrote.

This picture shows the table and lounge the men had been sitting on before they were arrested, as well as a bag police say contained various forms of currency

Arnold (pictured) has had a 20-year career in the steel manufacturing industry

Arnold's 20-year career in the steel industry and subsequent affluence has gifted him opportunities like competing in the Sydney to Hobart for a third time in 2017.

But just three weeks after successfully completing the prestigious yacht race, he finds himself accused by police of being at the centre of the second largest cocaine seizure in Australian history.

Mr Arnold is alleged to have first came to the attention of Australian Federal Police after they captured a 1.28 tonne cocaine haul - with a street value of close to $500million - hidden on a shipment of pre-fabricated steel which travelled from China to Sydney last April.

Following his dramatic arrest in Belgrade, the AFP on Wednesday raided Mr Arnold's home where he lives with his family on the NSW-ACT border.

One of his business premises in Goulburn was also searched - as were properties in Jeir and Canberra.

The bag was filled with cash including about $600,000 Euros and $10,000 Australian dollars, police said

The AFP on Wednesday raided Mr Arnold's home where he lives with his family on the NSW-ACT border

Video showed Mr Arnold sitting inside the lobby of the Belgrade hotel with three other men, completely unaware they were about to be raided by police.

The footage, released by Serbian authorities, showed officers throw the men to the ground during what police allege was a 'money handover'.

Officers said they found a bag filled with various forms of currency, including approximately $600,000 Euros and $10,000 Australian dollars.

One of Arnold's colleagues told Daily Mail Australia he was shocked to learn of his arrest in Serbia, saying he assumed Arnold had travelled to China.

'I spoke to him the other day and he said he was going overseas for a week but he'd be back before Sunday [for the opening of a new stock yard],' Brendan Abbey said.

'I was under the impression he was off to China. He went there often because he has interests in steel there.

Police are pictured storming into the Belgrade hotel moments before the dramatic arrests

A Serbian police officer is seen opening a bag which they said contained various forms of currency

One of the four men is taken into custody after being arrested over alleged links to a one tonne cocaine bust

'We're just in shock, utter shock. It's got nothing to do with us though.'

In a statement released on Thursday, the South East Livestock Exchange (SELX) said its business was not involved in any way with the police operation.

'SELX Pty Ltd owns livestock selling centres at Yass (SELX) and Mortlake (WVLX),' the statement read.

'The Directors of SELX Pty Ltd have become aware through the media that Rohan Arnold a Director of SELX Pty Ltd has been arrested by Serbian authorities in Belgrade.

'The operation and management of SELX and WVLX are not affected by this development. Livestock sales will continue as scheduled.'

Mr Arnold first came to the attention of Australian Federal Police after they captured a 1.28 tonne cocaine haul

A block of cocaine is pictured after it was seized in what was the second largest haul of the drug in Australian history

Arnold's lawyer said he expects his client (pictured) to be back in Australia within six weeks if he is not charged

The Arnold Co. website says it 'removes the unknown risks associated procurement with primarily construction related products from China'.

Mr Arnold's defence lawyer told The Sydney Morning Herald he was in the process of organising to see him in Serbia.

'That will be co-ordinated through [the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade],' Ben Aulich said on Thursday.

'If everything is co-ordinated smoothly and he is not facing charges in Serbia, then we expect him back in the country within four to six weeks.'

Video showed Mr Arnold sitting inside the lobby of the Belgrade hotel with three other men before police pounced
A burglar who sat on an elderly couple's bed and took his shoes off before choking a woman unconscious when he was confronted has been jailed for six years.

Finbar Shirley, 24, climbed through an open window before wandering around the house while the homeowners sat downstairs.

While on a trip to the toilet, a woman who lived at the property spotted Shirley but he leaped up and wrapped his fingers around her neck until she collapsed.

In the attack she was unable to scream out to alert her husband downstairs who eventually went to find her only to also be confronted by the intruder.

Finbar Shirley, 24, broke into the home of an elderly couple before taking his shoes off and sitting on the bed. When he was confronted he choked a woman until she lost consciousness

When he was arrested, Shirley told police he broke into the property so he could see how 'other people live'. A court heard he had an 'unhealthy interest' in the house

Bespectacled Shirley then calmly passed the husband on the stairs and walked out of the house and the police and paramedics were called.

Canterbury Crown Court heard Shirley told officers he wanted to see how others lived.

A judge jailed him for six years after he admitted burglary and assault after entering the house near Canterbury, Kent, on June 4, last year.

Detective Constable Steve Day said after the sentencing hearing on Friday: 'This is a particularly disturbing case that left the victim and her family absolutely terrified.

'Shirley had taken an unhealthy interest in the house and then calmly attacked the woman without hesitation when he thought he would get caught.

'He hadn't taken anything but had looked around and then simply sat down on the bed. When the victim came upstairs she was strangled until she passed out. Luckily her husband found her in time, otherwise the outcome could have been a lot worse.

At Canterbury Crown Court, Shirley was jailed for six years after he admitted burglary and assault

'Shirley is clearly a significant risk to the public and the victim and her family will no doubt suffer the emotional effects of his attack for some time. He'll now serve time in prison for his behaviour.'

A spokesman for Kent Police said: 'When Finbar Shirley was arrested on the day of the attack he told officers he liked to see how others lived and admitted to climbing through an open window at the woman's house.

'The court heard how once inside the property he looked around the bedroom, took of his shoes and sat down on the bed.

'When the victim went upstairs to use the bathroom during the early hours of the morning she saw the stranger's legs hanging off the end of her bed. When she entered the room, he grabbed her neck and squeezed as hard as he could in order to silence her from alerting the rest of the house.

'The woman passed out and it was only when her husband came upstairs and and saw her laying on the floor that Shirley calmly walked away down the stairs and out of the house.

'The incident was reported to Kent Police, Shirley was identified and subsequently arrested.'
Lord Mandelson has secretly offered to help Brussels in Brexit talks.

In a letter to the European Commission's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, the Labour peer pledged his loyalty to the survival of the European project.

The former EU commissioner, who is in line for an annual pension of 35,000 from Brussels, said he was 'deeply committed' to the EU.

In the letter, obtained from the European Commission using Freedom of Information laws, Lord Mandelson suggested that they held private talks at a conference they both attended in Brussels in November.

He wrote: 'I would welcome the opportunity to put some time aside for us to share some thoughts on the Brexit negotiations.

In a letter to the European Commission's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, Labour peer Lord Mandelson (pictured) pledged his loyalty to the survival of the European project

'As you know, I am deeply committed to the future of the EU as it strives for solidarity in the face of growing challenges from populist movements, geopolitics and a still recovering economy.

'I would be happy to brief you on the current pressures in British politics and share with you my assessment of how these will play out.'

European commissioners must remain loyal to Brussels to guarantee a generous pension.

EU rules state that they have to maintain a 'duty of loyalty to the Communities... both during and after their term of office'.

Lord Mandelson added that he had already held discussions with Frans Timmermans, the European Commission's First Vice-President.

Mr Barnier's office was unable to arrange a meeting for the dates suggested by Lord Mandelson, but expressed his 'sincere thanks' for the offer and asked if it would be possible for them to meet at another time.

His staff wrote to Lord Mandelson's office: 'May we suggest that you contact us upon Lord Mandelson's next visit to Brussels, so that we can organise a meeting at that time?'

Mr Barnier has held several meetings with British politicians in the past fortnight, including Tory rebels Anna Soubry and Dominic Grieve, Labour's Chuka Umunna, and former Ukip leader Nigel Farage.

Lord Mandelson has been a vocal critic of the Government's approach to Brexit, and argued in October that it could be cancelled because voters were not told the truth about leaving the EU.

He claimed on Radio 4's Today programme that 'nobody' had been warned before the referendum that Britain would leave the single market.

Mr Barnier's office (pictured) was unable to arrange a meeting for the dates suggested by Lord Mandelson, but expressed his 'sincere thanks' for the offer and asked if it would be possible for them to meet at another time

However, this argument unravelled immediately as it emerged that he had explained publicly how Britain would have to leave the single market just days ahead of the referendum.

In April, Lord Mandelson was branded a traitor by opponents after he advised the European Union to ignore the interests of Britain in Brexit negotiations.

He told a German newspaper: 'Basically, one can only advise the Europeans one thing: Forget Great Britain and take care of your own interests.'

The Labour peer claimed Brexit talks would break down because Theresa May has entered them with the 'wrong basic attitude'.

Lord Mandelson has previously insisted his Brussels pension pot did not influence his views on Brexit, telling peers: 'I was a Remainer, not because of my pension rights but because I am a patriot  a patriot, not a nationalist.'

He did not respond to a request for comment last night.
Boris Johnson hit out out at a major business group yesterday after it called for Britain to remain in a customs union with the EU.

The director-general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) will warn today that there is 'too much ideology, too little urgency' in Brexit talks so far.

Carolyn Fairbairn will make the case for a customs union after the UK quits the EU by spelling out the potential financial cost of leaving the area.

But Mr Johnson blasted the CBI chief's stance after a preview of her comments emerged.

Boris Johnson (pictured) hit out out at the Confederation of British Industry yesterday after it called for Britain to remain in a customs union with the EU

The Foreign Secretary tweeted: 'Makes no sense for CBI to keep calling to stay in customs union.

'PM was clear in Florence speech we are leaving. Brexit means taking control of laws, borders, money, and trade.

'I'm confidence British business can profit from the new opportunities.'

In another tweet he added: 'Staying in the customs union means effectively staying in the EU: the EU is a customs union.

'It means no new free trade deals, no new export opportunities, and no leading role in the WTO [World Trade Organisation].'

Director General of CBI Carolyn Fairbairn (pictured) will today make the case for a customs union after the UK quits the EU by spelling out the potential financial cost of leaving the area

Miss Fairbairn is expected to say in a speech at Warwick University that a 'Canada-style' trade agreement leaving Britain outside the EU's customs area could cost 2 per cent to 5 per cent of the UK's GDP.

In the latest manifestation of the CBI's campaign for a 'soft' Brexit, she will say: 'The overriding goal now is a good Brexit.

'This requires a profound change of approach: instead of ideology, we need facts and evidence to make the hard choices.'

She will stress urgent progress is needed on agreeing a transitional deal with the EU by the end of March.

She will say businesses are 'deeply apprehensive' about the current uncertainty.
This is the moment a foolish motorist is caught making a risky overtake on an ending inside lane - only to be pursued by a highway patrol car just moments later.

Dashcam footage posted online shows the driver of a white Mitsubishi Evo travelling along the middle lane of Davies Road, in Padstow, south-west Sydney.

The video divided viewers over whether the officer created more danger than he saved.

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The driver of a white Mitsubishi Evo can be seen travelling along the middle lane of Davies Road

A white Evo is filmed racing forward before suddenly swerving into the far left lane to overtake another vehicle

After pulling ahead of the Evo for only a moment, the vehicle is caught suddenly appearing again in the left of frame.

Accelerating quickly, the white Evo races forward and suddenly swerves into the far left lane, which dissipates in just metres as the three lanes merge into two.

The motorist luckily makes it through the gap, and speeds away, however a police patrol on the opposite side of the highway catches the entire stunt.

An officer, who was in a turning lane, approaches the median and conducts a U-turn, pulling in front of the car filming.

Social media users who viewed the video were quick to notice the danger the police officer put the oncoming traffic in.

'Love the way the police pulling out in front of traffic from behind a truck to chase someone speeding almost causes a crash,' said one commenter.

'How that cop car didnt end up getting t-boned is lotto luck. Those officers shouldve gone straight to NSW lotteries for a Thursday night punt,' another said.

A police car on the other side of the road sees the move and pursues a chase

Social media users who viewed the video were quick to notice the danger the police officer put the oncoming traffic in

'Cops almost cause a crash trying to be heroes...slow clap for them,' one person joked.

One person claimed it was motorists like the person behind the wheel of the evo that were giving sport car drivers a bad name.

'Nice job cops almost causing a collision by cutting half a lane.. the truck don't stop like cars too! Very lucky.. hope the Evo was caught. Driving like that is stupid AF and gives all us sport car drivers a bad name!'
The documentary is said to be based on a three-month investigation into three former Tory ministers (including Andrew Mitchell, pictured) accused of offering to give advice to Chinese companies on Brexit

A 'cash for Brexit' investigation by Channel 4's Dispatches programme was pulled from the schedules hours before it was due to be screened today.

The documentary is said to be based on a three-month investigation into three former Tory ministers accused of offering to give advice to Chinese companies on Brexit.

Former health secretary Andrew Lansley, former international development secretary Andrew Mitchell and Peter Lilley, who was a Cabinet minister in the 1990s, all deny wrongdoing.

The programme, called Politicians For Hire: Cashing In On Brexit, was scheduled to air tonight.

The broadcaster said it raised 'important questions about transparency and accountability in public life' and would be shown at a later date.

Mr Mitchell said he 'smelt a rat' within minutes of arriving at the meeting in Mayfair last October and realised he was the 'target of a sting'.

Former health secretary Andrew Lansley (right), former international development secretary Andrew Mitchell and Peter Lilley (left), who was a Cabinet minister in the 1990s, all deny wrongdoing

In an article for The Mail on Sunday, he said he was approached by woman calling herself Fei Liu, who said she represented Chinese investors through a Hong Kong-based consultancy.

He said he contacted the intelligence agencies because he feared he was being targeted by foreign spies.

Lord Lansley, who is undergoing treatment for cancer, has referred himself to Parliament's standards watchdog.

A spokesman for the peer said: 'Lord Lansley made clear at all times that any work that he carries out has to comply with the House of Lords Code of Conduct Rules and that any contract would have to have that code written into it.

'He has always kept his outside interests separate from his Parliamentary duties and at no time did he offer any privileged access, insider information, lobbying activity, parliamentary advice or services.

In an article for The Mail on Sunday, he said he was approached by woman calling herself Fei Liu, who said she represented Chinese investors through a Hong Kong-based consultancy. They were taken to their London offices (pictured) and offered a 'cash for Brexit' deal

The politicians were allegedly offered all-expenses-paid trips to Hong Kong (pictured) in return for information

Mr Lilley  who is reportedly in line for a peerage  said he had done 'nothing improper' and added that he had complained about the programme to Channel 4 and to the regulator Ofcom.

'It was a tawdry attempt at entrapment and I did nothing improper whatsoever,' he told the Mail on Sunday.

'I thought it might be a sting from the beginning.

'They said they had a budget of 18,000 but I told them I was already on the advisory board of a Chinese company, that I was comfortably off and I did not pursue the matter.'

Last night a Channel 4 spokesman said: 'This investigation raises important questions about transparency and accountability in public life.

'We are continuing to work on the film which will be broadcast soon.'
Pranksters turned around the bust of Oliver Cromwell in the House of Commons so that it was facing the wall

Parliamentary authorities were forced to step in to stop a prankster pointedly turning around a historic bust of Oliver Cromwell to face the wall.

The moving of the artwork, which sits in a House of Commons stairwell beside the Members Team Room, was discovered by Labour party whips in December.

Staff returned it to its rightful place, only to arrive the following morning to find further tampering of the Lord Protector.

Now the House of Commons authorities have been forced to intervene, it emerged yesterday.

The curators office has established an exclusion zone around it in an effort to stop it being moved.

The bust, thought to be the only statue of Cromwell inside the parliamentary estate, is now cordoned off with a sign saying: Fragile  please do not touch, according to the Times.

They have also appealed for help in catching the prankster, adding: For any information relating to this work please contact the curators office.

There were claims unknown individuals who revile his campaign of ethnic cleansing against Catholics in Ireland could have been interfering with the bust.

When it was first spotted, the Labour whips office posted the evidence on Twitter, speculating that it was the result of some underground, long-running war of attrition.

Cromwell was turned around the same day but within 24 hours, he had been switched to face the wall again.
Mary, a carrier pigeon, was hit by shrapnel, wounded by pellets and attacked by German war hawks as she flew over the Pas De Calais

For more than 150 years blue plaques have celebrated notable people and the buildings in which they lived.

But now a pigeon that delivered secret messages during the Second World War has become the first animal to be given the honour.

Mary, a carrier pigeon, was hit by shrapnel, wounded by pellets and attacked by German war hawks as she flew over the Pas De Calais.

Her loft in Exeter, Devon, was also bombed by the Luftwaffe in 1942 resulting in the deaths of many feathered comrades.

She lived with her owner, pigeon breeder Cecil Charlie Brewer, and the property in Exeters West Street had its plaque unveiled at the weekend.

He had been made a special constable in 1941 with responsibility for general control of war pigeons.

Mr Brewer used his skills as a bootmaker to stitch up her wounds and also made Mary a small leather neck support to ease her injuries.

She lived with her owner, pigeon breeder Cecil Charlie Brewer (right) and she died in 1950 and is buried with other animal heroes in the PDSA Pet Cemetery in Ilford, Essex

At the end of the war she was awarded the Dickin Medal for distinguished gallantry, the highest animal award for bravery.

She died in 1950 and is buried with other animal heroes in the PDSA Pet Cemetery in Ilford, Essex.

John Monks, of the Exeter Civic Society, said: Its a remarkable story of dedication to duty worthy of a blue plaque. But it is also a record of the roles humans required animals to play in bad times.

Mr Brewer died in 1985, aged 90, having raised money for charity by giving talks on his beloved bird.
A Polish doctor in Michigan, who fled to the US with his family nearly 40 years ago, faces deportation to his birth country after he was arrested at his home by ICE agents and thrown in jail.

Lukasz Niec, who has a permanent green card, was home with his two daughters Tuesday morning when three Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up, placed him in handcuffs and took him to jail.

The 43-year-old internal medicine physician at Kalamazoo's Bronson Methodist Hospital has spent the past several days at the Calhoun County jail awaiting his fate.

Lukasz Niec, a physician at Kalamazoo's Bronson Methodist Hospital, was arrested Tuesday by ICE agents and jailed.

The 43-year-old doctor was home when his two daughters when three Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up and placed him in handcuffs. Niec (left) is pictured here with his wife, Rachelle Burkart-Niec, and kids

Niec's family told WOOD TV that there's a chance the doctor could be deported to Poland, a country he left with his parents and sister nearly 40 years ago.

Iwona Niec-Villaire said her brother is 'shell-shocked' about being arrested and the possibility he may be deported.

'We did go see him on Wednesday, he was shaking,' she said.

Niec-Villaire, an attorney, told the outlet that her family left Poland in 1979 for a 'better life'. She said her brother was three years old at the time and this is the only home he's ever known.

'He cannot (go) back to Poland, a country he doesn't know, he has no family at, both our parents passed away in the United States, he doesn't know anyone, he wouldn't know where to go,' she said. 'He doesn't even speak Polish.'

The family believes Niec was arrested because of two misdemeanor convictions from when he was 17

Niec and his family fled Poland in 1979, when he was 3, for a better life in the US. The doctor is pictured on the right with his sister, Iwona Niec-Villaire

The family said they have not been told why Niec was arrested, but they believe it stems from a misdemeanor arrest when he was 17.

According to WOOD TV, Niec has two misdemeanor convictions for destruction of property less than $100 and receiving and concealing stolen goods.

He pleaded guilty to the charges under the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act, which allows young first time offenders to avoid a criminal record if they never offend again.

The family said Niec was unaware when he accepted the plea agreement that ICE does not honor it.

'Now, they're using this expunged case that's stamped non-public record against him,' Niec-Villaire told WWMT.

Niec could get a bond hearing in February but his family thinks a judge will deny bond because of the misdemeanors. If it is denied, Niec will remain in jail until it's decided whether he can return home or be deported.

Niec could get a bond hearing in February

'Until this gets heard, which could be up to six months, he could be stuck in a prison cell and not helping and being with his family,' Niec-Villaire told WWMT.

His wife, Rachelle Burkart-Niec, added: 'He's an excellent physician, he's loving, he's caring, he's an honorable husband and he's always helping others.' The couple has two children.

Niec's colleagues at Bronson are outraged at the situation and are hoping he will not be separated from his family.

'He's exactly the kind of person our immigration policies should be encouraging to prosper here, he's been here for 40 years, this is a ridiculous situation,' Dr. Michael Raphelson said.

Marc Asch, an immigration attorney in Kalamazoo, told WWMT in the last year ICE has been going after cases it wouldn't have made a priority in the past.

'These days there's less discretion being exercised in who they go after, they're being more aggressive, generally speaking,' he said.
Donald Trump's budget chief predicted on Sunday that Democrats will deliberately extend the federal shutdown until the president has delivered his State of the Union on January 30.

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said on Fox News Sunday that he believes 'Democrats want to see the president give the State of the Union under a shutdown'.

Mulvaney claimed the Democrats are trying to hurt Trump by keeping the government closed.

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Donald Trump's Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney (pictured) predicted on Sunday that Democrats will deliberately extend the federal shutdown until the president has delivered his State of the Union on January 30

Mulvaney (pictured Sunday) said negotiations are continuing and 'there's a chance it gets solved before Monday'

He said negotiations are continuing and 'there's a chance it gets solved before Monday'.

Restive Senate moderates in both parties searched for a solution to a partisan stalemate as they raced toward a late-night showdown vote and their last chance to reopen the federal government before hundreds of thousands of federal workers are forced to stay home Monday.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill said they were pursuing a deal to end the rare closure, prompted Friday by a messy tussle over immigration and spending.

There were no indications that a firm agreement had been reached, or that leaders of either party or the White House were on board. A stopgap spending measure was slated for a vote on Monday after midnight, but Democrats have so far refused to go along with the temporary fix.

Republicans have appeared increasingly confident that Democrats were bearing the brunt of criticism for the shutdown and that they would ultimately buckle. The White House and GOP leadership said they would not negotiate with Democrats on immigration until the government is reopened.

Restive Senate moderates in both parties searched for a solution to a partisan stalemate as they raced toward a late-night showdown vote and their last chance to reopen the federal government before hundreds of thousands of federal workers are forced to stay home Monday

There were indications Sunday that Democratic resolve was beginning to waver, with growing worries that a prolonged shutdown could prove to be an electoral headache for the party just as they have grown confident about their prospects in November.

The Senate's No. 2 Republican, Sen John Cornyn of Texas, indicated that Republican leaders were skeptical that Democrats would budge. Asked whether he thought the government would be closed Monday, he said: 'Right now, yes, I do.'

Frustrated with the government shutdown, Trump again floated the idea of changing the Senate rules so that legislation can pass with only a majority vote.

'Great to see how hard Republicans are fighting for our Military and Safety at the Border. The Dems just want illegal immigrants to pour into our nation unchecked,' Trump wrote Sunday. 'If stalemate continues, Republicans should go to 51% (Nuclear Option) and vote on real, long term budget, no C.R.'s!'

The president has long urged Senate leadership to scratch the 60-vote legislative filibuster, which would allow bills to flow through with only a simple majority, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell nixed the idea.

In May, when the president was last loudly grumbling about the filibuster, McConnell said there simply weren't enough senators to vote to go 'nuclear.'

'There are not the votes in the Senate, as I've said repeatedly to the president and to all of you, to change the rules of the Senate,' McConnell told reporters at the time. 'The votes are simply not there. But the good news is the top two priorities of the president don't require anything more than an simple majority.'

A spokesman for McConnell, David Popp, reiterated this point Sunday to USA Today.

'The Republican Conference opposes changing the rules on legislation,' Popp told the newspaper.

In the past, Republicans used the process of 'reconciliation' to push legislation through without 60 votes. That's how the GOP was able to get the president's tax bill passed in December, garnering zero Democratic votes.

The tax package was Trump's single large legislative victory in 2017.

This weekend, the president was expected to travel to Mar-a-Lago for a fundraiser that would have marked his first year in office, but was instead waylaid in Washington due to the government shutdown that started at midnight Friday.

Trump has aggressively blamed Democrats for the shutdown this weekend.

Trump started his Sunday by, again, assigning blame for the government shutdown to the Democratic Party and floating the idea of removing the legislative filibuster, which is called the 'nuclear option.' The appetite, even among Republicans, isn't there

The president worked through the weekend at the White House Saturday, amid the government shutdown. Trump floated the idea Sunday of the Senate going nuclear, but there's not interest among Republican Senate leadership

'Democrats are far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border,' Trump tweeted Saturday. 'They could have easily made a deal but decided to play Shutdown politics instead.'

'#WeNeedMoreRepublicansin18 in order to power through mess!' the president wrote.

Trump's presidential campaign also put out a video that called Democrats 'complicit in all murders' committed by undocumented immigrants.

'President Trump will fix our border and keep our families safe,' the video said.

Friday's Senate vote to keep the government open, which failed, wasn't a straight party line vote, with a handful of Democrats voting in favor of the Senate legislation and a number of Republicans voting against it.

On Sunday morning, Mulvaney, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, defended Trump's call for the Senate to invoke the 'nuclear option' pointing out this has long been the president's position.

'What the president did this morning is try and shed some light on the fact that if ordinary rules prevailed ... the government would be open as of today,' Mulvaney said on CNN's State of the Union.

'It also responds to the constant criticism we hear, "Oh you Republicans control the White House, the House and the Senate, why can't you just run the government?"'

'But the answer is, as you've just laid out, it takes 60 votes in the Senate,' Mulvaney stated.

'We cannot open the government without Senate Democrat support, we don't have Senate Democrat support, which is why we are where we are.'
Senior council officials and other public sector workers could see their pay slashed if Momentum wins control of its first council.

The hard-Left group, which grew out of Jeremy Corbyns leadership campaign, is expected to win a majority on Haringey Council following the May elections.

It would give Momentum control of its first town hall, and with it the North London borough councils 800million budget.

Momentum, the hard-Left group that grew out of Jeremy Corbyn's (pictured) leadership campaign, is planning to cut the pay of senior council officials if it wins control of a council

The group plans to slash salaries of council officials who earn more than 60,000 by between 5 per cent and 40 per cent, it was reported yesterday.

If all public servants are included that would mean senior teachers and heads, who earn up to 116,000.

This is probably aimed at supposed fat-cat council officers, but mass resignations by heads would be devastating for our children, one of the outgoing Labour councillors told the Sunday Times.

You cant govern in slogans, and Haringey is about to find that out the hard way.

A purge of sitting Labour councillors has seen 17 replaced with pro-Momentum candidates. The group is also planning a huge hike in council tax for large houses.

Nora Mulready, of Haringey Labour, said: This is going to be quite extraordinary to watch. It may be the undoing of the entire Corbyn project.

Momentum also denied claims that it has drawn up a hitlist of up to 50 moderate MPs who could face deselection.



Labour is also plotting to raise income tax on high earners, as well as taxes on private healthcare, for a multi-billion-pound boost to the NHS.

John McDonnell said anyone earning more than 80,000 would see their income tax rise to 45p in the pound.

Anyone earning more than 123,000 a year would pay 50p in the pound  a rise of ten percentage points.

Labour is also planning to increase the insurance premium tax on private healthcare to 20 per cent, which would bring it in line with the VAT rate.

Mr McDonnell claimed the hikes would raise 4.7billion a year. Critics argue that higher income taxes can cut revenue as they deter people from working harder and encourage tax avoidance.

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell (pictured) has said that Labour planning to raise income tax for the highest earners

White Labour members will pay more than ethnic minorities to hear Jeremy Corbyn give a speech, it emerged last night.

Tickets are 40 to attend the East Midlands Labour rally in Loughborough on February 17, but the charge for black and minority ethnic (BAME) members is 30.

Leicestershire Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: This is racism. In effect, Labour is levying a tax on the basis of the colour of a persons skin. It shows their contempt for the white working class.

But a Labour spokesman said: The basic price of a conference pass is the same for all members but, at the request of our East Midlands Regional Board, the party will subsidise part of the cost of this years conference pass for BAME members to encourage attendance and improve representation.
Goodness me, how George Osborne has changed his tune!

As Chancellor of the Exchequer, he was an ardent advocate of the Private Finance Initiative whereby government projects are contracted out to private firms such as Carillion, which collapsed last week with the potential loss of tens of thousands of jobs.

In October 2014, he made Treasury money available to Carillion to help boost its overseas business, saying: Its great to see successful companies like Carillion winning contracts around the world.

Today, as editor of the Evening Standard after being sacked from the Cabinet by Theresa May, Osborne takes a different view

Today, as editor of the Evening Standard after being sacked from the Cabinet by Theresa May, Osborne takes a different view. Why has the State found itself so dependent on a few very large outsourcing firms? his newspaper thundered. The failure to use a variety of smaller mid-sized companies undermines innovation and leaves services hostage when things go wrong.

Yet while others may have suffered from Carillions collapse, Osborne might not have done badly out of it. Last week, the Financial News revealed investment house BlackRock  which pays him 650,000 for one days work a week  profited to the tune of millions by gambling on Carillions share price going down.

When French President Emmanuel Macron was at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst last week, I wonder if he spotted the legend on the row of cannon outside the main building. Each one bears the words: Taken at Waterloo.

Pictured: French President Emmanuel Macron at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst

A Boris bridge too far

An ill wind for Foreign Secretary Boris Johnsons crackpot plan for a bridge across the English Channel? On the day he unveiled it, that rather more modest structure, the Dartford Crossing, spanning the Thames, was closed because of the winter gales.

Boris Johnson unveiled his plan for a bridge across the English Channel

As Labour MP David Lammy regularly points out, he represents one of the countrys poorest constituencies. In Tottenham, thousands are out of work: too many children grow up in workless households and workless estates, he once wrote in the New European.

As Labour MP David Lammy regularly points out, he represents one of the countrys poorest constituencies

At least Lammys doing OK. According to his entry in the Register of Members Interests, in the past six months hes received 2,526 for an hours work from lawyers Watson Farley & Williams; 2,750 for an hour from investment house Schroders; 3,036 from legal firm Berwin Leighton Paisner; 2,500 from Accenture for a one-hour speaking engagement; 2,530 for speaking at the MMA annual conference; and 1,647 for speaking at Nottingham Trent University. A tidy 15,000  on top of his MPs 76,000 salary.

Bristol North Wests Labour MP Darren Jones, in a vote to stay in the single market, took his one month-old daughter, Ophelia, with him through the division lobbies. Tweeting about the occasion, he said: Last votes on the EU Withdrawal Bill in the Commons before it goes to the Lords. And Ophelias first vote too! We both voted against Brexit.

Even Jon Lansman, founder of the hard-Left Momentum group, never thought Comrade Corbyn had what it takes to be Labour leader. He said that Jezzas election to lead the party was most certainly not planned in advance. We wanted a candidate to shift the debate left. Jeremy Corbyn was not the first person I thought of.

Even Jon Lansman, founder of the hard-Left Momentum group, never thought Comrade Corbyn had what it takes to be Labour leader

Labour's single market muddle

Former Lib dem peer Lord Oakeshott, who donated 300,000 to Labour candidates at the 2015 election, is at it again. Hes given 10,000 to Labour MP Heidi Alexander, who like Oakeshott, is a Remainer. Alexander has set up Labour Campaign for the Single Market to keep Britain in the EUs internal market. Has anyone told Comrade Corbyn? Last week, he committed a future Labour government to do exactly the opposite.

Lord Oakeshott has given 10,000 to Labour MP Heidi Alexander, who like Oakeshott, is a Remainer

Meanwhile, Shadow Brexit minister Jenny Chapman angrily denied on ITV last week that Labours stance on the EU was confused.

I get a bit irritated when you say its not clear, because, actually, it is very clear, she said.

Shadow Brexit minister Jenny Chapman angrily denied on ITV last week that Labours stance on the EU was confused

What were saying is that we want the benefits of the single market but that we are not, erm, were uneasy about accepting all of the ... the ... the ... erm ...

As clear as mud.
Witnesses have told of the carnage inside a Sydney train after it slammed into a barrier.

One witness, Brett, saw the crash and estimated the train was travelling at 50 to 70 kilometres per hour.

A total of 16 people were injured, two severely, when the train hit the barricade at Richmond Station about 10am on Monday.

Those treated for injuries included passengers, two rail employees and the train driver, according to New South Wales Police.

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Witnesses have told of the carnage inside a Sydney train after it slammed into a barrier (pictured is an injured passenger)

One witness, Brett, saw the crash and estimated the train was travelling at 50 to 70 kilometres per hour (pictured is an injured rail worker)

A total of 16 people were injured, two severely, when the train hit the barricade at Richmond Station about 10am on Monday (pictured is the train)

A 70-year-old woman has been taken to Westmead Hospital for treatment and two others have been transported to Nepean Hospital.

Two people have suspected spinal injuries, while another has a possible broken collarbone and another a broken leg, NSW Ambulance said.

'I witnessed all the people through the window, they were just flying through the air,' Brett said, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

'I was straight onto the train as soon as I seen people were injured ... I walked through and seen the blood everywhere. There is absolutely blood everywhere, it's a big hit.

Witness Christine Padroth said the impact threw the train into the air, and bystanders rushed to assist the injured (pictured is a damaged carriage)

Pictured, left and right, is the damaged train that crashed into a barrier, injuring 16 people

A 70-year-old woman has been taken to Westmead Hospital for treatment and two others have been transported to Nepean Hospital (pictured is an injured passenger)

Two people have suspected spinal injuries, while another has a possible broken collarbone and another a broken leg, NSW Ambulance said (pictured is an injured passenger)

'Inside the train is like a bloodbath. All the dividers in between the carriages are smashed, completely crushed flat on every single one, that's how fast it was going.'

On Facebook he wrote: '[The train] crashed at full speed into the barrier sending everyone flying like superman! It was insane!'

A caller to Sydney's 2GB radio who saw the crash said there was an 'almighty bang'.

He said the train came in at speed and hit the buffer and rebounded.

'There was a huge amount of dust,' he said.

'I witnessed all the people through the window, they were just flying through the air,' Brett said (pictured is an injured passenger)

'Inside the train is like a bloodbath. All the dividers in between the carriages are smashed, completely crushed flat on every single one, that's how fast it was going,' said Brett

'It's all chaos here,' another caller, Steve, told the station.

Witness Christine Padroth said the impact threw the train into the air, and bystanders rushed to assist the injured.

'You could tell he wasn't going to stop, he just kept on going and the train sort of flew up in the air and back down again,' she said, Nine News reported.

'I saw the people flying through the air and we screamed.

'One guy must have went flying back down the stairs and he just laid there, groaning.'

A caller to Sydney's 2GB radio who saw the crash said there was an 'almighty bang' (pictured is the train)

Sydney Trains boss Howard Collins said it was too early to speculate on the cause but, from what he had seen, the buffer stop worked 'effectively' (pictured is an injured passenger)

Sydney Trains boss Howard Collins said it was too early to speculate on the cause but, from what he had seen, the buffer stop worked 'effectively' and stopped the train from derailing.

'It is obviously very concerning,' he told reporters in the city ahead of a scheduled meeting with unions over pay for train workers, which has been postponed because of the incident.

Transport Minister Andrew Constance said investigators from the Office of Transport Safety Investigators, the Office of National Rail Safety Regulator and Safe Work NSW will start work immediately.

'Safety is our number one priority and we will now work to determine what caused the incident,' he said in a statement.
A new trailer allegedly for a Friends movie circulated on the internet over the weekend - sending fans into an excited flurry wondering, could it be?

Since the show that started Jennifer Aniston's career went off the air in 2004 - fans have been hoping it would return for reunion season or movie - like Sex and the City did in 2008.

And on Friday a trailer surfaced on YouTube that made it seem like that might finally be happening 14 years later.

But unfortunately, the trailer is a hoax.

Fans convinced this is the real deal have gone wild with excitement on social media.

A new trailer allegedly for a Friends movie circulated on the internet over the weekend - sending fans into an excited flurry wondering, could it be?

Since the show that started Jennifer Aniston's career went off the air in 2004 - fans have been hoping it would return for reunion season season or movie, and on Friday a trailer surfaced on YouTube that made it seem like that might finally be happening 14 years later

Fans reacted enthusiastically to the news on social media over the weekend - with many questioning if it was real but expressing their excitement regardless.

One fan wrote: I just saw a trailer for 'I JUST SAW A TRAILER FOR FRIENDS THE MOVIE AND I DON'T KNOW IF IT IS REAL BUT IF IT IS I'M GONNA SCREAM'.

The three-minute trailer released by the channel Smasher is done so well that, even though it's a fake, fans went wild, convinced it was the real deal.

The video, titled 'The One With The Reunion', even has a convincingly deep voice-over like many other movie trailers.

Fans reacted enthusiastically to the news on social media over the weekend - with many questioning if it was real but expressing their excitement regardless

One fan wrote: I just saw a trailer for 'I JUST SAW A TRAILER FOR FRIENDS THE MOVIE AND I DON'T KNOW IF IT IS REAL BUT IF IT IS I'M GONNA SCREAM'

In the trailer all of the fan favorite characters seem to reconnect. A scene shows Chandler, played by Matthew Perry, running up to Monica, played by Courteney Cox after they get int a fender bender.

In another scene Joey, played by Matt LeBlanc, and Ross, played by David Schwimmer, reconnect at a party, and in the next scene Monica and Rachel bond on their front stoop.

And in just two days it clocked roughly three millions views YouTube.

But after the initial excitement many fans realized that it was just too good to be true.

Multiple clips in the trailer were ripped from the show Joey and Cougar Town, one of LeBlanc's most recent shows.

In the trailer all of the fan favorite characters seem to reconnect. A scene shows Chandler, played by Matthew Perry, running up to Monica, played by Courteney Cox after they get int a fender bender

In another scene Joey, played by Matt LeBlanc, and Ross, played by David Schwimmer, reconnect at a party and hug

In the next scene Monica and Rachel bond on the front stoop of one of their homes

But as hard as it might be for fanatics to hear - most of the Friends cast has expressed multiple times that they have no interest in doing a reunion. Luckily for them though, every episode is on Netflix streaming and can be watched at any times

Friends was on NBC for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2014 - and brought many people years of tears and laughter from the dysfunctional group of 20-somethings in New York City.

After the Will and Grace reunion was announced in 2017 - fans are itching for another season more than ever.

But as hard as it might be for fanatics to hear - most of the Friends cast has expressed multiple times that they have no interest in doing a reunion.

Luckily for them though, every episode is on Netflix streaming and can be watched at any times.
Petra Ecclestone's ex-husband James Stunt, 36, has responded angrily to claims that the 90million burglary at his house was a fake

Billionaire James Stunt has reacted angrily to claims that the 90million burglary at his home was a con.

He had previously claimed that he was the victim of Britain's biggest ever burglary with 90million of cash and valuables said to have been stolen from his house in Belgravia.

Now, the 36-year-old has slammed critics who have accused the burglary of being a fake.

He said: 'I've nothing to hide. I'm a victim with no upside to this embarrassment of having no insurance.

'It's disgusting how people are commenting that I'm a criminal. It's not true or fair. I just want whoever did this arrested and my things back.'

Mr Stunt also said that his mother was reading some of the claims against him, telling The Sun Online that the criticism was 'not nice'.

He went on to say that his dead brother's watch was among the items that were stolen.

Mr Stunt also said he 'wished he had insurance' in a strong condemnation of the claims that the robbery was a con.

He told police that thieves had emptied the safe in the basement of his Georgian townhouse in Belgravia last month while he slept upstairs.

Cash, gold and diamond jewellery worth up to 90million was stolen in the raid, according to The Sun on Sunday.

Among the items taken from Mr Stunt's home was a number of diamonds, pink, yellow, white and blue ones as well as expensive watches

Petra Ecclestone's ex-husband told police that the Belgravia property, where he moved late last year, had been 'cleaned out'.

The missing items are said to include Audemars Piguet watches worth up to 500,000 each, including the one that belonged to his late brother, Lee.

Other items taken, according to the Sun, include pink, yellow, white and blue diamond rings, as well as cash, gold bars and his passport.

Mr Stunt also lost some gold bars and cash after the safe containing the valuable was broken into by the thieves

It was reported that Stunt, whose six-year-marriage to Ecclestone ended last year, had not yet installed CCTV cameras in the luxury home.

But the businessman still felt able to enjoy himself last night as he went out in Mayfair surrounded by bodyguards.

Stunt's safe containing the valuables was said to have been in the basement when the burglars struck.

Stunt, seen leaving C London in Mayfair last night, told police an astonishing 90million had been stolen from a safe in his basement

A Metropolitan Police statement said: 'Police were called at approximately 7.45am on Thursday December 14, 2017, by a man reporting the burglary of jewellery from a house in Westminster.

'Officers from Westminster attended the scene. The police investigation is being led by officers from the Flying Squad.

'A man, aged in his 20s, was arrested in December 2017 in connection with the investigation. He has been released under investigation.'

Police did not confirm the identity of the victim or the amount stolen.

Stunt was seen last night leaving the restaurant C London, surrounded by nine bodyguards and accompanied by various female companions.

The Italian restaurant is in Mayfair, not far from Stunt's new Belgravia home.

He was still wearing his wedding ring as he left the Italian restaurant, despite the break-up of his marriage last year.

The divorce was granted in October but legal wrangling has continued over the couple's shared 5.5billion fortune.

Stunt was out at the Italian restaurant in central London surrounded by nine bodyguards

Stunt and an unknown woman are pictured in the back of a car on their way to The Box in Soho

Flanked by some of his bodyguards Stunt felt able to enjoy himself in London last night despite the reported burglary

Stunt told the police that his house, pictured, had been burgled while he slept with cash, gold and gems stolen

Stunt was still wearing his wedding ring despite an ongoing legal battle surrounding the collapse of his marriage to Petra Ecclestone

The billionaire's staff and bodyguards were spotted piling belongings into the expensive property in Belgravia in December

Stunt moved into the Belgravia property in December after his expensive divorce taking numerous cars with him

Last night he was driven by his security people as he and an unknown woman were taken to The Box in Soho

UK's biggest raids Great Train Robbery, 1963 - 2.6million The famous heist saw a gang of robbers stop a mail train and steal what would be worth 46million today. Brink's Mat, 1983 - 75million Six burglars stole three tonnes of gold bullion from a Heathrow airport warehouse. They would be worth 75 million at today's prices. Securitas, 2006 - 53million Burglars bound and gagged Securitas staff as they made off with an astonishing 53million in banknotes. Graff Diamonds, 2009 - 40million Two men stole jewellery by posing as potential customers at the shop in New Bond Street, London. Hatton Garden, 2015 - 25million A group of older men drilled through a wall to steal jewellery from safety deposit boxes in a 2015 heist. Source: Latham's Advertisement

Stunt moved into the home after the his divorce amid bitter proceedings over the shared 5.5billion fortune of the businessman and Bernie Ecclestone's daughter at stake.

The couple also shared a 158million mansion in Los Angeles.

Mr Stunt said after the divorce hearing: 'I am devastated that my marriage has broken down. I love Petra and our children.'

He said the couple's 'most important responsibility' was now 'being mother and father to our wonderful children'.

Speaking after the hearing, Mr Ecclestone told MailOnline: 'I'm just glad it's over. Petra is too. She has been very tolerant and has been concerned about James.'

The couple married in a 12million ceremony in 2011, tying the knot in an Italian castle.

In the divorce proceedings Ecclestone secured the couple's Grade II-listed mansion in Chelsea, west London, believed to be worth up to 100million.

She was flanked by her Formula One tycoon father and her sister Tamara as she attended a hearing in the latest round of the legal battle last year.

Tamara Ecclestone had shared an image on Instagram on the day of the hearing, telling her sister: 'Hey little fighter, soon things will be brighter.'

The property is located in the heart of Belgravia and is one of London's most prestigious and sought after areas

Another of Stunt's expensive vehicles is pictured as he moved into his new Belgravia home in December

Stunt was seen with an array of female companions as he left the Mayfair restaurant in central London last night

Stunt, 36, was pictured entering the Italian restaurant weeks after he is claimed to have reported the burglary at his home

Stunt was pictured still wearing his wedding ring on his left hand despite his marriage to Petra Ecclestone ending in divorce last year

The wife of businessman Jay Rutland, Tamara lives in a 70million home in Kensington, also in west London.

She was represented at the hearing by Baroness Fiona Shackleton who previously acted on behalf of Sir Paul McCartney during his divorce with Heather Mills.

She launched accessories line Stark in 2011 and is believed to have a property portfolio valued at more than 130million, and also stands to inherit from her father Bernie.

The Stunt & Co website says that the billionaire has been involved with 'highly successful ventures in the gambling, art, mining and transcontinental shipping industries'.

But despite their divorce, Petra and James have vowed to be 'firm friends'.

Ecclestone and Stunt married in a 12million ceremony in an Italian castle in 2011 (pictured)

Stunt, wearing a grey jumper, was seen walking through the revolving doors behind a blonde woman

A variety of female companions were also seen in Mayfair where Stunt was out last night

Stunt was wearing a dark jacket as he walked out of the restaurant with a blonde companion

The businessman was pictured in Mayfair flanked by nine security guards on all sides

Stunt and various other women were seen at the Mayfair address. He moved to a new house nearby Belgravia last year
A graduate claims factor 50 sunscreen left her covered in agonising blisters and looking like a burns victim  and fears she is now at high risk of skin cancer.

Sarah Madden said doctors told her she will need regular melanoma skin checks for the rest of her life after suffering second degree burns from three hours in the sun last month.

The 35-year-old claims she slathered 'a very thick layer' of Banana Boat 'sport' 50+ suncream all over her skin 30 minutes before heading to a popular beach on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia, during a holiday there in late December.

Sarah Madden (pictured), 35, said doctors told her she will need regular melanoma skin checks for the rest of her life after suffering second degree burns during a holiday on the Sunshine Coast

Ms Madden (pictured) claims she slathered 'a very thick layer' of Banana Boat 'sport' 50+ suncream all over her skin 30 minutes before heading to a popular beach last month

Despite reapplying after getting out of the water, she claims the skin on her back erupted with massive fluid-filled blisters which needed hospital treatment (pictured)

Sarah, originally from Melbourne, said she spent three hours at the beach between 10am and 1pm on December 28 swimming, paddle boarding and sitting in the shade under a tree.

But despite reapplying after getting out of the water, she claims the skin on her back erupted with massive fluid-filled blisters which needed hospital treatment  and is still scarlet three weeks later.

Banana Boat have apologised to Sarah but said customers can be reassured their products provide 'safe and effective sun protection'.

Sarah said: 'I always take good care of my skin especially when going in the sun.

'So, before I went to the beach, I stood in front of the mirror and slathered myself in loads of Banana Boat sunscreen to the point where I looked super white.

'I made sure I put lots on and that I didn't miss any spots because I hate getting sunburnt.

'It says it is four hours water resistant and 50+ protection is meant to be strong, so I had faith in the product when I was applying it.

'I went out paddle boarding and then came back onto the sand and sat under the shade of a tree.

'I reapplied it vigorously before I went back out swimming. I thought I'd be okay.

'But when I got home and took a shower, I felt like my back was starting to get really hot.

Ms Madden, originally from Melbourne, said she spent three hours at the beach (pictured) between 10am and 1pm on December 28 swimming, paddle boarding and sitting in the shade under a tree

Banana Boat have apologised to Sarah (pictured) but said customers can be reassured their products provide 'safe and effective sun protection'

'I looked at my back in the mirror and saw these severe second-degree burns and all these blisters' (pictured)

'Later that afternoon it had taken on this deep red colour and I thought 'oh my god, how could I have gotten sunburnt?', so I lathered myself in aloe vera gel and went to bed.

'But the next morning the pain was just unbearable. It was 10/10 excruciating agony, I can't explain it.

'Then I looked at my back in the mirror and saw these severe second-degree burns and all these blisters.

'I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was the worst pain of my entire life. I felt like my back was on fire.'

Sarah said she is 'furious' the Banana Boat sunscreen did not protect her against the severe sunburn, which she said took over three weeks to heal.

She still has visible red marks all over her back more than three weeks after she was burnt on December 28.

She claims she was forced to visit her local hospital every day for a week so a nurse could change the dressings on her enormous oozing blisters, so they wouldn't get infected.

On top of this, she alleges she was forced to rely on over-the-counter medication to get some relief from her unbearable pain.

But Sarah said she did not truly comprehend the severity of her condition until a doctor warned her that she was now at high risk of getting skin cancer later in life because of her severe sunburn.

Sarah said: 'I've never had an issue with another sunscreen before.

'I've even used the Banana Boat 30+ sunscreen once before without any real issues, so I was outraged this happened to me.

'For whatever reason this sunscreen just did not protect me at all.

'I feel sick knowing I had been out in the sun without being protected.

Sarah (pictured) said she is 'furious' the Banana Boat sunscreen did not protect her against the severe sunburn, which she said took over three weeks to heal

'For three weeks, I couldn't even sleep on my back because the pain was so unbearable and if I accidently rolled over onto my back while sleeping, I'd wake up straight away in completely agony.

'Having a shower was an agonizing experience, I'd try and avoid having the water on my back and had to wash my hair with my head tilted over.

'Drying myself became a nightmare. I couldn't rub that area because it was so burnt, so I'd have to lean forward and gently place the towel on my back to dry it.

'It was the worst sunburn of my entire life and it still hasn't completely healed. I felt like a burns victim.

'I was getting a dressing changed and the doctor walked in a gasped.

'He asked me what happened, and I explained that I got sunburnt.

'He took a closer look and said that the blistering was a really bad sign because it is pre-cancerous condition and I'm now at risk of getting melanoma down the track because of it.

'That was really hard to hear. Now I will have to get skin checks all the time.

'I'm going to be worried for the rest of my life that I'll get skin cancer.

She claims she was forced to visit her local hospital every day for a week so a nurse could change the dressings on her enormous oozing blisters (pictured), so they wouldn't get infected

'Even now three weeks later, I'm still so sunburnt but at least the blisters have healed.

'I will never be using any Banana Boat products ever again and I'm warning all my friends and family not to either.'

A spokesman for Edgewell Personal Care, Banana Boat's parent company, said: 'We are very sorry to hear about Sarah's experience.

'While we cannot speak about her situation specifically, we want to reassure our consumers that they can feel confident using our products for safe and effective sun protection.

'All of our sun protection products undergo rigorous testing for SPF, broad spectrum and water resistance, ensuring they will perform as described on packaging, and are appropriately labelled for SPF.

'Every Banana Boat sunscreen sold in Australia is uniquely formulated to meet the high Australian standards, administered by the Therapeutic Goods Association.

'While our sunscreen products offer water resistance benefits, it's important to understand that when you go swimming, towel dry your skin or perspire during exercise, you can rub off some of your sunscreen.

'That's why we recommend you reapply more frequently, at least every two hours and more after swimming, excessive perspiration or towel drying.

'It was the worst sunburn of my entire life and it still hasn't completely healed. I felt like a burns victim' (pictured)

Sunscreens must be manufactured by a TGA approved manufacturing facility, and can only include TGA approved ingredients  each of which has been assessed for safety

'At Banana Boat, we also want to stress that sunscreen is only one part of an important combination of actions people must take to protect themselves against the sun.

'And no sunscreen  even SPF50+ products  provides 100 per cent protection from the sun. We always recommend our consumers avoid prolonged exposure to the sun, seek shade between the hours of 10am and 3pm and always wear protective clothing, hats and eyewear.

'It's also important to follow our product label instructions: always store sunscreen in accordance with its labels, use only as directed and reapply frequently as directed.'

The Australian Therapeutic Goods Association (TGA) states all sunscreens must meet mandatory requirements for labelling, advertising, testing and ingredients.

Sunscreens must be manufactured by a TGA approved manufacturing facility, and can only include TGA approved ingredients  each of which has been assessed for safety.
Under-fire actor James Franco has attended the SAG Awards in his first public appearance since he was accused of sexual harassment.

The Disaster Artist star dodged the red carpet but was seen sat at a table next to girlfriend Isabel Pakzad and applauding as the show got underway.

He was nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role but lost out to Gary Oldman for his performance in the Darkest Hour.

Franco wore a Time's Up pin at the Golden Globes earlier this month but was then criticised after five women came forward accusing him of sexual harassment.

Meanwhile Aziz Ansari, who was accused of sexual misconduct by a woman he went on a date with, gave the show a miss despite being nominated for a gong.

Under-fire actor James Franco has attended the SAG Awards with girlfriend Isabel Pakzad in his first public appearance since he was accused of sexual harassment

The Disaster Artist star dodged the red carpet but was seen sat at a table and applauding as the show got underway

Franco, who painted himself as a martyr of the Me Too movement after the Golden Globes, has been accused of inappropriate behavior by multiple women, including his former acting students.

Franco was last seen during a pre-recorded appearance on Seth Meyers' late show which aired on January 10.

During their discussion, he painted himself as a martyr of the Me Too movement and said he would 'take a knock' - in the form of what he characterizes as false allegations against him - because he believes in the cause.

At the time, Franco had been reminded of past impropriety and accused of groping by others.

He was under the siege of actresses including Ally Sheedy who tweeted during his Golden Globes win to suggest he was guilty of the harassment he and others present were condemning.

The day after his Seth Meyers appearance aired, five additional women were quoted by The Los Angeles Times describing fresh allegations.

Franco wore a Time's Up pin at the Golden Globes earlier this month but was then criticised after five women came forward accusing him of sexual harassment

Meanwhile Aziz Ansari, who was accused of sexual misconduct by a woman he went on a date with, gave the show a miss despite being nominated for a gong

They included claims from students who said he removed their nudity guards while performing sex scenes.

Franco defended himself to Seth Meyers, saying: 'I was sent a couple of the tweets, so yeah, I did read them. I haven't responded. I think, well the ones I read were not accurate, but one of the things that I've learned is that this is a conversation that obviously needs to be had.

'There are people, women and others who have not been a part of this conversation and I truly believe and why I was wearing the pin is that they need to be a part of this conversation and so I support that.

'There are people that need to be heard. I have my own side of this story, but I believe in, you know, these people that have been underrepresented getting their stories out enough that I will, you know, hold back things that I could say just because I believe in it that much.

'And if I have to take a knock because I'm not going to, you know, try and, you know, actively refute things, then I will, because I believe in it that much.'

Alison Brie, Franco's sister-in-law, also defended him on the red carpet on Sunday

Alison Brie, Franco's sister-in-law, also defended him on the red carpet on Sunday.

'I think that above all what we've always said is it remains vital that anyone that feels victimized should and does have the right to speak out and come forward. I obviously support my family,' she said.

'Not everything that has been reported is fully accurate,' the actress said. 'So I think we're waiting to get all the information.'

'But of course now is the time for listening and that's what we're all trying to do,' she added.

Brie was also grilled by ET's Cameron Mathison and added: 'You know, I really admire how he's handling everything, listening and being open to change.

'I think we all need to support men being open to change if we want to see major change in this industry.'

Ansari, who is nominated for his Netflix show Master of None, was accused of 'repeatedly cajoling' a woman into performing sex acts at his home in New York after they went on a date.

The 34-year-old has denied the allegations and said anything that took place was consensual.

'In September of last year, I met a woman at a party. We exchanged numbers. We texted back and forth and eventually went on a date,' Ansari acknowledged in a statement to Variety.

'We went out to dinner, and afterwards we ended up engaging in sexual activity, which by all indications was completely consensual,' Ansari said.

'The next day, I got a text from her saying that although 'it may have seemed okay,' upon further reflection, she felt uncomfortable. It was true that everything did seem okay to me, so when I heard that it was not the case for her, I was surprised and concerned,' he said.

'I took her words to heart and responded privately after taking the time to process what she had said.'

'I continue to support the movement that is happening in our culture,' he said. 'It is necessary and long overdue.'
Outraged pie-lovers have slammed Fray Bentos online for cutting the amount of meat in its iconic tins.

Named after a city in the cow-rearing South American country of Uruguay, the brand in the UK has been owned by Baxter's of Fochabers, Scotland, since 2011.

Pie fans have complained that the famous tinned Fray Bentos, a staple food for millions for 60 years, 'contains less meat' than it used to.

One Amazon purchaser posted online: 'Deep Fill? Fray Bentos are the sort of company that buy a 20ft swimming pool and empty a pint of water into it.

'There was hardly any meat and mostly a tasteless gravy.

Outraged pie-lovers have slammed Fray Bentos online for cutting the amount of meat in its iconic tins

'I bought stewed steak to put under the pie crust in the end - just as well I enjoy the pie crust or it would have received a one star review.'

Jean Ross raged about another Fray Bentos tin, saying: 'Had a chicken pie last night, and still looking for the chicken.

'There was none - it was not even one per cent chicken, never again. Pastry was good, never again.'

On a consumer website, William Johnstone wrote: 'I've just brought a Fray Bentos steak and kidney pie but when I opened it, half the pie was missing. I've never been so disappointed in my life.'

Catherine Holden said 'I bought two meaty puds, was really looking forward to them, what a let down.

The company have been inundated with negative reviews. Ian Langstone said his pie only had a couple of bits of meat, and that when he was a kid the pies were 'packed' with meat

'The suet was really thick and heavy, I know it can't be like home-made but where was the meat?

'I had a few very small pieces of kidney and the rest was just gravy with some very small bits except for the large piece of very nasty fat.'

Ian Langstone, 63, of Maidenhead, Berkshire, said: 'We bought a tin for dinner but when we sat down to eat it, we wondered how they had the nerve to say it was a meat pit.

'There were a couple of bits of meat and the rest was just suet and pastry. I remember Mum buying us Fray Bentons when I was a kid fifty years ago and it was packed with meat.'

A spokesperson for Baxters said: 'Fray Bentos takes pride in providing affordable meals for millions of customers every year.

'We believe our pies deliver great value for money, with the same great taste that has made them a family favourite for over 60 years.

'We do, however, take all customer feedback seriously.'
The gap between rich and poor continues to grow as it's revealed the number of billionaires has more than doubled in the past decade prompting calls for greater income equality across Australia.

Last year saw the biggest increase in the number of billionaires, and their wealth, with the country's top one per cent having more wealth than the bottom 70 per cent combined.

The report this month by Oxfam International shows that wealth inequality in Australia is among the worst in the developed world, with Australia ranked 22 out of the 35 OECD countries, the ACTU says.

The number of billionaires has more than doubled in the past decade prompting calls for greater income equality across Australia (pictured: James Packer)

A new report has prompted calls for greater income equality across Australia (pictured: top billionaire Gina Rinehart)

The ACTU says the report also found the top one per cent of people in Australia have increased their share of wealth from 22 to 23 per cent, while the wealth share by the bottom half has fallen.

Australia's top 10 billionaires 1. Gina Rinehart - 15bn 2. Harry Triguboff - 8.5bn 3. Andrew Forrest - 5.7bn 4. Frank Lowy - 5.6bn 5. Anthony Pratt - 4.4bn 6. John Gandel - 4bn 7. Vivek Chaand Sehgal - 3.7bn 8. Lindsay Fox - 3.2bn 9. James Packer - 3bn 10. Fiona Geminder - 2.6bn Advertisement

The figures prove the enterprise bargaining system is broken, ACTU secretary Sally McManus says.

'Working people can't get fair pay rises because workers rights no longer balance the power of employers, and as a result, we have rising and crippling inequality,' she said in a statement.

The nations top 10 billionaires include Gina Rinehart, and Andrew Forrest  who found success through iron or mining  joined by property and shopping centre magnates Harry Triguboff, Frank Lowy and John Gandel, Visy manufacturer Anthony Pratt, James Packer, Linfox transport owner Lindsay Fox, and Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brooke, Fairfax reported.

Oxfam Australia chief executive Dr Szoke told the Sydney Morning Herald hard work was no longer the guarantee into a better life as they system was clearly not working for so many people.

Wealth inequality in Australia is among the worst in the developed world according to a new report (pictured: Harry Triguboff)

The country's top one per cent have more wealth than the bottom 70 per cent (pictured: Andrew Forrest who places number three on the top billionaire list)

'Over the decade since the Global Financial Crisis, the wealth of Australian billionaires has increased by almost 140 per cent to a total of $115.4 billion last year. Yet over the same time, the average wages of ordinary Australians have increased by just 36 per cent and average household wealth grew by 12 per cent.'

'The richest one per cent of Australians continue to own more wealth than the bottom 70 per cent of Australians combined. While everyday Australians are struggling more and more to get by, the wealthiest groups have grown richer and richer,' she said.

A focus on greater tax transparency, she said, is vital and laws requiring companies to publicly report income, taxes and profit in all countries they work across.
John Worboys (pictured) could win damages if a judicial review to block his release fails, a lawyer has said

Serial black cab rapist John Worboys could win damages if a last-gasp judicial review to block his release fails, a lawyer has said.

Harriet Wistrich, a solicitor representing two of the sex predator's victims, is planning to launch a separate legal challenge to his release on Wednesday.

But Ms Wistrich, who works for Bimberg Pierce, told The Sun that if that bid fails, there's a chance Worboys could have a claim for damages.

'If we hold back his release, if we fail, he may have a claim for damages,' she told the newspaper.

'The fact is that under the law, his release would have been held back.'

She said a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to pay for the challenge will need to raise its target to 100,000 because of it. It has so far raised more than 53,000.

It came amid ongoing anger that Worboys is set to be freed from top-security HMP Wakefield after less than ten years behind bars for 19 offences.

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Harriet Wistrich, a solicitor representing two of the sex predator's victims, is planning to launch a legal challenge to his release on Wednesday

One of Britain's most prolific sex offenders, the 60-year-old received an indeterminate prison sentence in 2009, with a minimum of eight years, for drugging and sexually assaulting 12 women in his cab.

However, police fear he may have had more than 100 victims.

But a three-member panel of the Parole Board decided at the end of last year Worboys could be released as he no longer presented a risk to the public.

Since then, Boris Johnson has backed calls for Worboys to be banned from living in London after his release from prison.

The Foreign Secretary was among 25 MPs who signed a letter demanding that the serial sex attacker is not allowed to return to the city where he committed his crimes.

Ms Wistrich said a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to pay for the challenge will need to raise its target to 100,000

They called on the Parole Board to impose an 'exclusion zone' on the capital when the 60-year-old is freed on licence, which could be as early as this week.

Worboys' victims are terrified that if he is not prohibited from entering the city he will 'come after them'.

On Friday, Justice Secretary David Gauke came under fire for scrapping a last-ditch bid to block the controversial release.

Mr Gauke told parliament he had received legal advice that suggested launching a judicial review of the Parole Board decision would not be successful.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan joined a chorus of protest against the decision not to block Worboys' release from jail.

On Friday, Justice Secretary David Gauke came under fire for scrapping a last-ditch bid to block the controversial release

Khan said it was 'extremely disappointing' that the government was not challenging a decision by the Parole Board to free Worboys.

The opposition Labour Party, of which Khan is a member, also called it deeply regrettable.

Mayor Khan, who has previously said Worboys should not be allowed to set foot in London, said he had instructed lawyers to explore the possibility of a legal challenge from him.

The decision to release Worboys is 'astonishing and it is extremely disappointing that the governmment is accepting this without challenge,' Khan said in a statement.

Worboys (pictured in 2008), a licensed London black-cab driver, used alcohol and drugs to incapacitate his victims between 2002 and 2008

Worboys' release has provoked outrage from campaigners against sexual violence and exposed failings in the justice system after some of his victims were not informed of the decision to release him.

Gauke declined to explain his decision further, saying that publishing the legal advice could harm attempts by other groups to challenge his release.

Worboys, a licensed London black-cab driver, used alcohol and drugs to incapacitate his victims between 2002 and 2008.

He told some women he had won money at a casino or lottery and offered them spiked champagne laced with sedatives in an invitation to celebrate with him.

He then pounced on the victims in the back of his black cab and many were left with little memory of their ordeals and could only recall falling asleep in the back of the vehicle before waking up at home.
Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, has a message for white women when it comes to the fight for equality: 'do better'.

Richards joined a host of other speakers, including Cher and civil rights icon congressman John Lewis, at Sunday's Women's March 'Power to the Polls' rally in Las Vegas.

While promoting equality, Richards addressed white women telling them to 'do better' because the burden to push the country forward cannot rest solely on women of color.

Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, pictured here at the 2017 Glamour Women of the Year Awards in New York, gave a speech on equality at the Women's March Power to the Polls rally telling white women they need to 'do better' because the burden of pushing this country forward cannot rest solely on women of color

Thousands of activists flocked to Las Vegas for the first Power to the Polls rally on Sunday, the one year anniversary of the inaugural Women's March

Power to the Polls will target swing states and aims to recruit candidates to push back against the Trump administration and promote issues important to women and progressives

'All across the country, the Women's March inspired doctors and teachers and mothers to become activists and organizers and, yes, candidates for office,' Richards said. A video of her speech is being widely circulated on Twitter.

'And from Virginia to Alabama and to last week in Wisconsin, women have beaten the odds to elect our own to office. ... Women of color, transgender women, rural and urban women.'

Richards then said all those victories were 'made possible by women of color'.

'So, white women, listen up. We've got to do better. We've got to do better,' she said as the crowd erupted in cheers and applause. 'It is not up to women of color to save this country from itself. That's on all of us.'

She added: 'The good news is when we are in full on sisterhood, women are the most powerful, political force in America. And when we recognize that no one is free until everyone is free, and that means no matter what country you come from, no matter who you love, no matter what you look like. No matter what, we are unstoppable.'

Thousands of women gathered Sunday at the Sam Boyd Stadium following hundreds of sister marches across the United States for the second annual Women's March. The protests, held in cities including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, was held exactly one year after President Trump was sworn into office.

Richards, pictured above at the PEN Center USA's Literary Awards Festival in Beverly Hills, was one of several activists who spoke at the Power to the Polls

More than 4,000 people were expected to attend the Las Vegas Power to the Polls rally

The rally was held one day after hundreds of sister marches for the second annual Women's March

This was the first year Women's March founders added the Power to the Polls rallies, which were also held in Florida's Miami and St. Petersburg, as well as internationally in Paris, London and Melbourne, Australia.

Organizers of the Power to the Polls movement targeted swing states, including Nevada, aiming to recruit candidates to push back against the Trump administration and promote issues important to women, progressives and those feeling marginalized by the president's policies.

Las Vegas was picked to be host of the first Power to the Polls rally because it will see a high-profile Senate race in the near future, with incumbent Republican Dean Heller being deemed particularly vulnerable by analysts in the 2018 elections. There are also some House seats that could be flipped, as well.

'Last year, we dared to hope for a better, brighter, more inclusive world,' Richards said. 'And this year, we're going to go out and build it.'

Going forward, the Women's March founders will take the Power to the Polls rally to 10 swing states, hoping to encourage political action in those state

Power to the Polls will aim to register new voters, advocate for policies and candidates that reflect the movement's core values and look to help land more women and progressive candidates into political office during the 2018 midterm elections

Going forward, the Women's March founders will take the Power to the Polls rally to 10 swing states, hoping to encourage political action in those states.

They will aim to register new voters, advocate for policies and candidates that reflect the movement's core values and look to help land more women and progressive candidates into political office.

In Miami, Local10 reported that many rally goers carried signs supporting DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Disagreement over the continuation of DACA is largely held responsible for the government shutdown.
An elderly woman and her son were found dead in their apartment, leaving police puzzled about what caused their death.

The 93-year-old woman and her 66-year-old son, whose names have not been released, had no obvious signs of trauma on their bodies, police told the New York Daily News.

Police also found no weapons inside the home the pair lived in together on 62nd Avenue in Forrest Hills, Queens, near Yellowstone Boulevard.

The 93-year-old woman and her 66-year-old son, whose names have not been released, had no obvious signs of trauma on their bodies, police told the New York Daily News. The apartment complex where the bodies were found is pictured

Officers found the bodies around 9.20am Sunday after being asked to check on the pair.

It was determined they had been dead for more than a day by the time their bodies were found, police told the Daily News.

Their causes of death will be determined by New York City's Medical Examiner later this week.
Police have charged William Tyrrell's birth mother after she allegedly swore at cops in front of two children and spat in an officer's face at a Sydney shopping mall.

Karlie Tyrrell, 29, was arrested following a heated late night incident at a Ryde shopping centre on December 22 last year.

Security guards rang police for help with a woman who was 'acting aggressively toward customers' just after 9pm that evening, a NSW Police spokeswoman said.

When officers arrived, Ms Tyrrell 'repeatedly swore at the officers in the presence of two children' and before spitting on an officer's face, police alleged.

Karlie Tyrrell (centre) was charged with assaulting and officer in the execution of his duty and using offensive language in a public place earlier this year

Karlie appeared at Burwood Local Court on Monday morning. Meantime, William's father Brendan Collins is in police custody for minor charges

Little boy lost: There is an extraordinary $1 million reward for information which will lead police to the location of William, aged six

Ms Tyrrell was taken to Ryde Police Station and charged with assaulting an officer in the execution of their duty and using offensive language in, or near, a public place.

The children were taken into the care of a relative, police said.

Ms Tyrrell appeared at Burwood Local Court on Monday morning and a guilty plea was accepted. She will be sentenced next Monday.

The charges follow a turbulent period for William's family - more than three years after he disappeared from his foster grandmother's home in Kendall, NSW.

William's father Brendan Collins is in police custody after pleading guilty to a larceny offence last week.

Brendan was remanded behind bars last Tuesday, the same day another magistrate issued a warrant for his arrest after he failed to show in front of her court.

'Write whatever you like, have fun, see you later,' Karlie said following her court appearance

Brendan Collins failed to show in court last week on unrelated charges of carrying stolen credit cards. He was in police custody for another matter at the time

A police statement of facts for a stolen goods charge said cops found him carrying money in plastic bags.

The officers found him 'unsteady on his feet', zig-zagging across the pavement and carrying stolen credit cards.

He was convicted of possessing stolen goods and Magistrate Jennifer Giles issued a bench warrant for him to 'forcibly' be brought to court.

Brendan has been living with his grandmother, Moira, who said she rarely saw him at their home.

Little boy lost: William Tyrrell vanished from his foster grandmother's home in Kendall, on the NSW north coast, on September 12, 2014

WHO'S IN WILLIAM TYRRELL'S FAMILY? William's biological parents have been named as Karlie Tyrrell and her partner, Brendan. Brendan's mother, Natalie Collins, is the boy's outspoken grandmother. Brendan's father is Daryl Clifford. Daryl and his second partner Karen later are parents to 5 Seconds of Summer guitarist Michael Clifford, who is Brendan's half-brother and William's half-uncle. William was taken into foster care when he was about nine months old. His foster parents are from Sydney's leafy upper north shore. They have asked to remain anonymous. William vanished from his foster grandmother's home on September 12, 2014. There is a $1 million reward for information leading to him being found. Advertisement

After Brendan's recent troubles were revealed, his mother Natalie Collins pleaded with the public for assistance.

'He just needs help, can someone please help us?' she said in an interview with News Corp.

Karlie and Brendan, known to friends as 'Bonesy', do not live together.

The couple's identities were only revealed last year following a landmark court decision allowed details of William's complicated family life to be published.

William's confusing family includes Five Seconds of Summer star Michael Clifford as an uncle on his biological father's side.

Karlie Tyrrell did not have much to say following her court appearance on Monday.

'Write whatever you like, have fun, see you later,' she said.

Both William's foster and biological parents have been ruled out as suspects in the police investigation into his disappearance.
Matt Lauer has allegedly been kicked out of his Hamptons home by his wife, months after multiple women came forward to accuse the disgraced anchor of inappropriate sexual behavior. He is pictured with his wife in 2014

Matt Lauer has reportedly been kicked out of his $36 million Hamptons compound by his wife.

Annette Roque, who Lauer has been married to for 19 years, forced him out of the estate where they live with their three children over the weekend, according to Page Six.

A source close to the family said Lauer is staying at a home nearby so he can be close to the two kids who still live at home. His oldest son attends a boarding prep school.

This move comes months after multiple women came forward to accuse the disgraced anchor of inappropriate sexual behavior.

Then, just this past week, Lauer's former co-anchor Ann Curry spoke about her time on Today for the first time, saying their was a culture of verbal sexual harassment on the NBC morning show.

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Annette Roque, who Lauer has been married to for 19 years, forced him out of the estate where they live with their three children over the weekend, according to Page Six. The Sag Harbor home is pictured

Lauer was fired from his $250million yearly gig at The Today Show in late November after he was accused of inappropriate sexual conduct in the workplace. Shortly after he released a statement saying he was 'truly sorry'. He is pictured in September 2015 on the show

In addition to his North Haven compound, Lauer and his wife own a 40-acre horse farm in Water Mill and a 25-acre Sag Harbpor estate which thyey have been trying to sell for $14.9 million after first putting the house on the market for $18 million in 2016.

Roque lives in the North Haven home with the couple's three children, while Lauer would travel out for the weekends and spend the week in an Upper East Side apartment.

That residence is in the same building as the penthouse where disgraced banker Bernie Madoff lived with his wife Ruth.

This all changed when he was fired from Today, and for the past two months he has been living with his family in North Haven.

Since the allegations of sexual misconduct broke Lauer has been working tirelessly to save his marriage, a source told Page Six.

Roque is reportedly being 'very cold.'

Lauer's representatives have not yet said if the couples are formally separated, but Roque was seen meeting with divorce lawyers in New York last month.

Though the Dutch bombshell has yet to file for divorce from Lauer, Page Six reports that it will likely happen soon. The couple are pictured together left in 2012 and right in 1993

Lauer was fired from his $25million-a-year gig at Today in late November after he was accused of inappropriate sexual conduct in the workplace. Shortly after he released a statement saying he was 'truly sorry'.

He was accused of sexually harassing an unnamed former intern while they covered the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. After the initial allegations a number of women came forward with similar allegations.

The scandal could be the last straw for Roque - who filed for divorce from Lauer back in 2006.

At the time she cited 'mental abuse, extreme mental and emotional distress, humiliation, torment and anxiety.'

But she eventually withdrew the filing when he offered her a post-nuptial agreement and millions of dollars.
Detectives are investigating a suspicious arson and graffiti vandalism attack in Sydney's south west on Monday morning.

Emergency services were called to the Greenacre two-storey house on Greenacre Road just after 1am after a fire broke out in an attached garage.

The garage sustained minor damage.

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Graffiti vandalism was spray painted on the front fence of a Greenacre townhouse on Monday morning.

The front fence and garage was also sprayed with graffiti such as 'Tran is killer' and 'U r killer', Nine News reported.

It's not the first time arsonists have targeted the home.

Monday's incident was believed to be the fifth attack since last April, according to Nine News, which says the most recent attack was in November while the 70-year-old owner slept inside.

The house wasn't the only building targeted on Monday.

Nine News reported that footpaths, a nearby school and neighbours' homes were also vandalised with graffiti.

A NSW Police spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia on Monday afternoon that they were still investigating a number of lines of inquiry.

The house is currently unoccupied, according to police.

The fire is being treated as suspicious as police canvassed the neighbourhood on Monday.

Bankstown detectives have appealed for information from the public.
Aziz Ansari has failed to make an appearance at the SAG Awards after being accused of 'repeatedly cajoling' a woman into performing sex acts.

Master of None star Ansari, who denies the woman's claims, was nominated for an award but did not show up.

The actor and comedian, 34, was up for the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series award on Sunday night.

Aziz Ansari has failed to make an appearance at the SAG Awards after being accused of 'repeatedly cajoling' a woman into performing sex acts

A 23-year-old woman claimed in an interview with women's website Babe that she was 'violated' by Ansari after a date in New York.

She claims he performed oral sex on her and then asked her to reciprocate, which she did.

The woman claims he later stuck his fingers down her throat and allegedly kept moving her hand towards his penis.

She said she couldn't say whether Ansari was just clueless or actively ignoring her signals.

'I know I was physically giving off cues that I wasn't interested. I don't think that was noticed at all, or if it was, it was ignored,' she said.

She alleges that Ansari repeatedly asked her 'Where do you want me to f**k you?

'I cried the whole ride home. At that point I felt violated. That last hour was so out of my hand,' she said.

Master of None star Ansari, who denies the woman's claims, was nominated for an award but did not show up

James Franco, who has been accused of sexually harassing five women, did make an appearance at the SAG Awards

Ansari issued a firm denial, saying everything that happened that evening was consensual.

'In September of last year, I met a woman at a party. We exchanged numbers. We texted back and forth and eventually went on a date,' Ansari acknowledged in a statement to Variety.

'We went out to dinner, and afterwards we ended up engaging in sexual activity, which by all indications was completely consensual,' Ansari said.

'The next day, I got a text from her saying that although "it may have seemed okay," upon further reflection, she felt uncomfortable. It was true that everything did seem okay to me, so when I heard that it was not the case for her, I was surprised and concerned,' he said.

'I took her words to heart and responded privately after taking the time to process what she had said.'

'I continue to support the movement that is happening in our culture,' he said. 'It is necessary and long overdue.'

James Franco, who has been accused of sexually harassing five women, did make an appearance at the SAG Awards.

He dodged the red carpet but was seen at a table during the show, having been nominated for his role in the Disaster Artist.
Text messages between an FBI agent and a lawyer on special counsel Robert Mueller's team investigating alleged ties between Russian officials and President Donald Trump's campaign suggest they both knew the outcome of the Hillary Clinton email probe in advance.

The Justice Department on Friday turned over to Congress nearly 400 pages of text messages sent between FBI investigator Peter Strzok and lawyer Lisa Page.

Strzok, who was the FBI's deputy director of counter-intelligence, was removed from Mueller's team after an internal investigation revealed that he had sent anti-Trump messages. Page left the team before the texts became pubflic.

FBI investigator Peter Strzok (left) and lawyer Lisa Page (right) were both removed from special counsel Robert Mueller's team investigating ties between President Donald Trump and Russian officials

During the Trump investigation and a probe into Hillary Clinton (pictured) using a private email server, Page and Strzok exchanged text messages suggesting they they knew in advance that Clinton would not be criminally charged

According to Fox News, one exchange between Page and Strzok suggests that they knew Hillary Clinton would not be charged in an FBI probe of her using a private email server.

In the messages, sent July 1, 2016, Page and Strzok discussed then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch's decision to accept the FBI's conclusion in the Clinton investigation.

Timing looks like hell, Strzok said.

Yeah, that is awful timing, Page responded, adding in another message: Its a real profile in courag(e), since she knows no charges will be brought'.

Just a few days after those messages were sent, former FBI Director James Comey announced that no charges would be brought against Clinton even though he referred to the Democratic presidential candidate's use of the private email server as 'extremely careless'.

Other text messages exchanged between Page and Strzok, who were romantically involved, referenced a change in a statement Comey had prepared in anticipation of closing the Clinton investigation without criminal charges.

Other text messages between Page and Strzok focused on their opinions of President Trump (pictured) and other public figures

In an early draft of the statement, it said that Clinton and President Barack Obama had an email exchange while Clinton was 'on the territory' of a hostile adversary, Fox reports. The Obama reference was later changed to 'senior government official' and then omitted entirely in the final version.

When turning over the messages to Congress, the Justice Department noted that five months of texts between Page and Strzok were missing because the FBI had been unable to preserve and retrieve messages sent between December 14, 2016 and May 17, 2017.

Last month, the Justice Department released hundreds of text messages Page and Strzok had exchanged before becoming part of Mueller's team of investigators. Many of those messages were about the 2016 election and their personal thoughts on Clinton and Trump.
Two bombs exploded in the entryway of a JC Penney at a Florida Mall on Sunday evening, police have said.

The Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) exploded just before 5.20pm at the Eagle Ridge Mall in Lake Wales, Florida, according to CNN.

Police were called to the mall when an alarm was activated in the mall and the facility was evacuated.

Once on the scene the fire department was able to locate the source of the smoke.

A bomb exploded in the entryway of a JC Penney at a Florida Mall on Sunday evening, police have said

The Improvised Explosive Device (IED) exploded just before 5.20pm at the Eagle Ridge Mall in Lake Wales, Florida

They found that the smoke was coming from a corridor next to JC Penney, and then located the detonated bomb, Fox 35 reports.

The department also found a backpack with other potentially improvised explosive devices inside it.

Officers said the devices consisted of a smoke bomb placed inside a PVC pipe and sealed with tape.

The explosion didn't cause any injuries, but there was damage to a ceiling and potentially to the corridor wall, police said.

The Lake Wales Police Department was on the scene by 5.30pm and launched a criminal investigation into the person behind the bomb.

The explosion didn't cause any injuries, but there was damage to a ceiling and potentially to the corridor wall, police said. An officer with the Polk County Sheriff's Office is pictured talking to reporters

The FBI also responded to the scene alongside the Polk County Sheriff's Office, the State Fire Marshall and the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office Bomb Squad.

Witnesses described the suspected bomber as a middle-aged white male with a heavy or stocky build who was wearing a gray shirt and gray hat, according to Fox.

Officers around the country have been advised to be on alert.

The incident is not being treated as a terror attack, officers said, because 'we don't know what the person was trying to achieve.'
The brother of a man serving life in prison for kidnapping, raping and killing Tennessee nursing student Holly Bobo has pleaded guilty to facilitating her murder and kidnapping.

A judge has accepted a plea deal, imposing a 35-year-sentence on John Dylan Adams.

His Alford plea means that he maintains his innocence, but acknowledges that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict him of facilitating 1st degree murder and especially aggravated kidnapping.

John Dylan Adams looks back at family members after recess was called during a hearing to set a date for his trial in Savannah, Tennessee in November 2014

Holly Bobo (pictured) disappeared on April 13, 2011, leading to a massive search of the woods, fields and farms of west Tennessee, and her case received national attention

Bobo was 20 in 2011, when her disappearance in rural Parsons, Tennessee sparked a massive search.

An alleged accomplice said John Dylan Adams joined his older brother Zachary Adams, now serving life without parole, in the rape of Bobo.

John Dylan Adams has entered an Alford plea in the kidnapping, rape and killing of 20-year-old Tennessee nursing student Holly Lynn Bobo

Zachary Adams was sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 50 years in September for his involvement in the murder of Bobo, while a third suspect, Jason Autry, also faces charges over her death.

Bobo's disappearance on April 13, 2011, led to a massive search of the woods, fields and farms of west Tennessee, and her case received national attention.

Her remains were found in September 2014 by two ginseng hunters in woods not far from Bobo's home in Decatur County.

Zachary Adams had avoided a possible death sentence when he reached a deal with prosecutors minutes before his sentencing hearing was to begin in September.

Autry, who also is charged with kidnapping, rape and murder, testified in Zachary Adams' trial, telling jurors that Adams used graphic details when he told Autry that he, his brother John and friend Shayne Austin raped Bobo.

Autry said he served as a lookout while Zachary Adams shot Bobo under a bridge spanning the Tennessee River.

Karen Bobo (pictured) speaks to Zachary Adams during the victim impact statement Sept. 23, 2017 in Savannah, Tennessee

Holly's decomposed remains were found near John's brother Zachary Adams' home three years later

'We're very pleased today to end up with a guilty plea,' mother Karen Bobo said to media, according to WKRN. '[We're doing] better today than yesterday.'

Bobo continued, 'There's no such thing as closure when something like this happens. She's still the last thing on my mind every night and the first thing every morning.'

Shawn Cooper, who was jailed with Zachary Adams in Chester County after his arrest in March 2014, testified that Adams threatened his own brother for speaking about the Bobo case.

Zachary Adams is pictured in his 2014 mugshot (left). Police said he was in a dark world of methamphetamine when he killed Bobo. Jason Autry (right) was also charged in the killing but he testified in exchange for immunity

Zach Adams walks into the courtroom, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2017 for the penalty phase in Savannah, Tennessee

Bobo's family (above) welcomed the jury's verdict after Zachary Adams' trial

Cooper was awaiting transfer to the Obion County Jail on a separate case when he says Zachary Adams told him he was involved in the 'Holly Bobo murder case.'

Cooper said Adams told him his brother was being held in Obion County Jail. Adams then asked him to relay to John Dylan Adams that he should stay quiet or he would 'put him in a hole beside her,' Cooper said.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has said that the Bobo investigation was the most exhaustive and expensive in the agency's history.

Bobo's mother Karen told the court at Zachary's hearing that her daughter was a loving person who 'appreciated the small things in life.'

'She was the sweetest soul I ever knew,' Karen Bobo said.

She also pointed at Adams and called him an 'animal.' She said Adams has showed 'absolutely no remorse.'

Karen also said she saw her husband smile for the first time since their daughter went missing 6  years ago after he was sentenced.

'I didn't know the man had dimples,' prosecutor Jennifer Nichols told reporters after the court hearing.

Video courtesy News Channel 5
A massive $60million plan to save the Great Barrier Reef has been unveiled.

The cash injection that will protect the coral from bleaching includes $10million for an 'all-out assault' of crown-of-thorn starfish, $5million for more water patrol police and $36million to stop pollution.

The funding will also provide critical incentives for farmers to reduce reef-destructing pollution flowing into it.

Over the next 18 months there will be a major research and development program for coral reef restoration, supporting 64,000 jobs the reef generates and the $6.4billion it brings to the economy.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull unveiled a $60million plan to protect the Great Barrier Reef at Townsville on Friday

The Great Barrier Reef has experienced major losses of corals over the past few years, with a serious decline due to the back-to-back coral bleaching in the 2016 and 2017.

Rising ocean temperatures as a result of climate change pose the greatest challenge to the survival of the Reef, compounded by poor water quality and outbreaks of the major predators of corals, the crown-of-thorns starfish.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull revealed the plans, which include $6 million that will go to the Australian Institute of Marine Science and CSIRO to scope and design the program and look at how best to leverage private investment.

The plan includes cash to get more coral eating crown-of-thorn starfish killers out on the Reef

Mr Turnbull visited the Australian Institute of Marine Science in Townsville for the official announcement, which includes incentives for farmers to stop sediment run off into the reef

'For the first time The Commonwealth will bring together key agencies to explore ways the Reef can best adapt to the changing environment to protect it for decades to come,' he said.

'We want to ensure its future for the benefit of all Australians, particularly those whose livelihood depends on the Reef.

'It is a vibrant, resilient ecosystem and one of the best-managed coral reef ecosystems in the world. While it is facing increasing threats, we intend to remain leaders in reef management.'

The Reef is the worlds largest living structure and a global natural icon.

Mr Turnbull visited the Australian Institute of Marine Science in Townsville today for the official announcement.

Over the next 18 months there will be a major research and development program for coral reef restoration, supporting 64,000 jobs the reef generates and the $6.4billion it brings to the economy

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Chairman Dr Russell Reichelt said boosting the reef's resilience so it could withstand the increasing pressures from climate change and other threats was more critical than ever.

'This funding will enable us to protect live coral cover by expanding our crown-of-thorns starfish control program,' he said.

'Ramping up our on-water presence in the Marine Park to improve compliance with Reef-wide zoning and doing more in- park conservation work will protect Reef biodiversity.'
Two men have died and another is in serious condition after their boat capsized in frigid waters while they were duck hunting in Connecticut.

The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said in a press release that they were notified of an overturned vessel in Mumford Cove in Groton around 9am Saturday.

Two men have died and another was seriously injured after their boat capsized in Mumford Cove in Groton, Connecticut

One of the men was able to make it to the shore of Bluff Point State Park, where he was rescued. The other two men were found in the water in Mumford Cove.

All three men were taken to Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London. Two of the men died at the hospital, and the third remains in serious condition.

Investigators said the group was in a 16-foot open motorboat hunting for waterfowl when it overturned. The Hartford Courant reports that the water in nearby Thames River was just about 36 degrees on Saturday.

Police said the men were hunting waterfowl around 9am Saturday when the boat overturned. The accident is being investigated

The men launched out of Bayberry Lane State Access Area in Groton, police said.

The identities of the three men have not been released, but police did say that the two victims who died were residents of Connecticut.

The incident is being investigated by the State DEEP Environmental Conversation Police.
Todd Shaw allegedly told a Louisville Metro Police recruit to 'shoot' black juveniles if he caught them smoking marijuana

A former assistant police chief allegedly told a Louisville Metro Police recruit to 'shoot' black juveniles if he caught them smoking marijuana.

Todd Shaw was serving as the acting chief for the city of Prospect, Kentucky, when Jefferson County Attorney Mike O'Connell expressed his 'serious concerns' about Shaw in an August 31 letter to Prospect Mayor John Evans.

O'Connell wrote that Shaw exchanged 'highly disturbing racist and threatening Facebook private messages' with the former LMPD police recruit, according to WDRB.

Shaw and the recruit were reportedly talking about a paper the recruit had to write as a part of his training.

The paper was about the 'right thing to do' if he were to come across three juveniles who were smoking marijuana, according to O'Connell.

Authorities said the recruit appeared to have come to Shaw asking for advice about the paper in October 2016.

'F**k the right thing,' Shaw allegedly wrote. 'If black shoot them.'

Authorities claim that Shaw made other 'racially threatening statements,' which included instructions on 'how to handle the juveniles' parents'.

'...if mom is hot then f--- her,' Shaw allegedly wrote. '...if dad is hot then handcuff him and make him s--- my d---.'

'Unless daddy is black...Then shoot him...' Shaw allegedly wrote.

Jefferson County Attorney Mike O'Connell expressed his 'concerns' about Shaw in an Aug 31 letter to Prospect Mayor John Evans. O'Connell wrote that Shaw exchanged 'highly disturbing racist and threatening Facebook private messages' with the former LMPD (file) recruit

Nick Mudd told ABC News that authorities found the messages while investigating a case in which Shaw allegedly tried to help another officer by improperly accessing the National Crime Information Center database, his attorney in the criminal case.

Mudd said the charges were dropped against Shaw in that case because investigators found that he 'did nothing wrong.'

O'Connell said the messages were sent between September to October 2016.



In a September 2016 message, Shaw allegedly wrote: 'What has POLICING come to when all you can shoot are white people and injured deer. Lol.'

On April 8, 2017, authorities claim Shaw referred to Martin Luther King Jr. as 'nothing but a [racist] womanizer'.

'But because someone shot him, I get a day off with pay each year so I will take it,' the message allegedly stated.

In the letter to the mayor, O'Connell called Shaw's statements 'deeply offensive and racist'.

'There is no place in police departments for men or women who hold such strongly held prejudices, including recommending shooting people simply because of their race.'

After receiving the letter from Jefferson County prosecutors, Shaw was 'immediately' placed on paid suspension. He later resigned on November 20 after the Facebook messages were shared with the Prospect Police Department. Prospect City Hall is pictured

In response to the incident, Prospect Mayor Evans said the city 'finds the content of the messages to be abhorrent, disgusting, and, reprehensible'.

Shaw has not been charged with any crime as a result of the records.

Michael Burns, Shaw's attorney told the Louisville Courier Journal that his client 'treated all people fairly and respectfully regardless of their race' throughout his police career.

After receiving the letter from Jefferson County prosecutors, Shaw was 'immediately' placed on paid suspension.

He later resigned on November 20 after the Facebook messages were shared with the Prospect Police Department, which launched its own investigation.

Shaw started working for the department in 2012.
A possible grave site for the three missing Beaumont children, who disappeared almost 52 years ago has been uncovered.

Jane, nine, Arnna, seven, and Grant, four, Beaumont disappeared from Glenelg Beach, Adelaide, on Australia Day 1966, never to be seen again despite a major manhunt and one of the nation's biggest ever police investigations.

Over half a century later, a renewed interest in the case has uncovered a site in south east Adelaide where the children may have been buried.

A spokesperson from South Australia Police told Daily Mail Australia results of investigations into land and fresh information from witnesses has led police to examine a new part of the new Castalloy factory in Plympton.

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Jane (right), nine, Arnna (left), seven and Grant (centre), four, disappeared from Adelaide''s Glenelg Beach on Australia Day, 1966 never to be seen again

Results from geophysical tests and new information from witnesses has led police to return to the New Castalloy factory in Plympton (pictured)

The land was searched in 2013, but only a small part of it, and the new search will take place at the back of the plot.

Tests using state of the art machinery revealed a plot of disturbed land on the factory property, measuring about one metre wide, two metres long and two metres deep - the size of a grave,Seven News reported.

Harry Phipps, a deceased Adelaide businessman who was implicated in a book written about the case, The Satin Man, has returned to the forefront of the investigation as a possible suspect, Nine News reported.

He was not named, though enough information was contained in the book for him to be easily identified by those who knew him.

The book alleged he had killed the children and two other men had dug a large hole on the grounds of the factory to bury them in.

Harry Phipps (pictured) owned the factory at the time and was implicated in a book written about the case, published in 2013. In the book, his estranged son claimed he had seen the missing children in their backyard near Glenelg Beach the same day they vanished

Today Tonight named him at the time in a report about the book's contents.

The two men first came forward after images of Mr Phipps were used during a television broadcast.

They told police they had been asked to dig the trench, but neither of them were there when police began to excavate a very small section of the property.

'He was a paedophile, he was a predatorial [sic] paedophile and he was a dangerous man, we know that,' Bill Hayes, a former detective for SA Police told Seven News.

In 2013, Mr Phipps was not a suspect in the case. Major Crime detectives said at the time allegations which implicated him had been investigated and officers chose to leave them.

The factory (pictured) was searched in 2013 following information published in a book on the missing children, but nothing was found

Mr Phipps' estranged son Haydn had earlier claimed to author Alan Whiticker he saw Jane, Arnna and Grant in their backyard in Glenlg on the same day they vanished.

He further claimed his father buried them in the sand pit at the factory, which Mr Phipps owned.

Police say they do not yet have a confirmed date for the excavation, but are expected to begin work in the next few weeks.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted South Australia Police for further comment.



Over half a century later, results of geophysical tests and new testimony from witnesses has lead police to believe they may have uncovered the real grave site of the children

In the coming weeks, officers will return to the site and search a different part of the land, at the rear of the property
Norman Sanders always wanted to captain a ship but never got the chance before he died last year - so his children fulfilled his wish.

After saying farewell to the 89-year-old family patriarch in October, his ashes were placed in a homemade boat and set sail on Saturday headed for Britain.

The miniature wooden vessel's white sail was signed by many of his three children, six grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.



Norman Sanders always wanted to captain a ship but never got the chance before he died last year - so his children fulfilled his wish

'Norman lived life to the fullest and his life long dream was to be the captain of his own ship,' his granddaughter Kara Heinl said

'After all that he gave us it was the least we could do in return to fulfill his dream... It is because of this amazing man we are the family we are today.'

'Norman lived life to the fullest and his life long dream was to be the captain of his own ship,' his granddaughter Kara Heinl said.

'After all that he gave us it was the least we could do in return to fulfill his dream... It is because of this amazing man we are the family we are today.'

The mother-of-two asked others around the world for help getting her beloved grandpa back home from Corrigans Beach Batemans Bay, NSW.

'My one request would be if all could share this far and wide and if you see him sailing or he becomes to comfortable in one place and you think he needs to move on please give him a helping hand to continue his journey,' she wrote on Facebook.

'My one request would be if all could share this far and wide and if you see him sailing or he becomes to comfortable in one place and you think he needs to move on please give him a helping hand to continue his journey,' she wrote on Facebook

A message on the ship gives a similar instruction to anyone who might come across it washed up on a shore or bobbing in the ocean

'This boat contains by ashes, I am trying to make my way back home to England! If you see me beached please help by sending me back on my way!' it read

'If you do come across my captain and if possible I would love a photo or a message so I can share this journey with him.'

A message on the ship gives a similar instruction to anyone who might come across it washed up on a shore or bobbing in the ocean.

'This boat contains by ashes, I am trying to make my way back home to England! If you see me beached please help by sending me back on my way!' it read.

His voyage got off to a good start with the ship sighted on Saturday south of Montague Island - about 60km south of where it set off.

His voyage got off to a good start with the ship sighted on Saturday south of Montague Island - about 60km south of where it set off
'Outstanding performance by a female actor in a leading roll,' the card says for the actress who was nominated for her work in Victoria & Abdul

As the nominees for outstanding female actor in a leading role were being announced, many noticed that on Dench's name-card was a typo

The 2018 Screen Actors Guild Awards were on Sunday and while actress Judi Dench didn't win, she still came out as the biggest bread winner of the night.

As the nominees for outstanding female actor in a leading role were being announced, many noticed that on Dench's name-card was a typo.

'Outstanding performance by a female actor in a leading roll,' the card says for the actress who was nominated for her work in Victoria & Abdul.

And on Twitter, people had a field day with the bread reference, adding their own perfectly timed puns to the mix.

She played a fantastic French bread,' said Dave Itzkoff.

It was a sentiment shared by Ethan Sacks, who added: 'Once again, she's the toast of Hollywood.'

'She will now be known as Pan Judi Dench,' said user Lizzie Klemm.

'Outstanding performance by a female actor in a leading roll,' the card says for the actress who was nominated for her work in Victoria & Abdul

She played a fantastic French bread,' said Dave Itzkoff

It was a sentiment shared by Ethan Sacks, who added: 'Once again, she's the toast of Hollywood'

User Andrew Passons joked: 'I guess Judi Dench is playing a tumbler. Or maybe a bagel....'

Another said: 'I thought she was the yeast deserving.'

One user went the French route and added: 'Hear she was a real PAIN on set...'

'Don't pan her performance - she really rose to the occasion,' exclaimed user Jeff.

'She will now be known as Pan Judi Dench,' said user Lizzie Klemm

User Andrew Passons joked: 'I guess Judi Dench is playing a tumbler. Or maybe a bagel....'

Another said: 'I thought she was the yeast deserving'

Andy Orrock said: 'Finally, payoff for all those upper-crust portrayals.'

Frances McDormand won the award for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

The 24th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards were held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California.

One user went the French route and added: 'Hear she was a real PAIN on set...'

'Don't pan her performance - she really rose to the occasion,' exclaimed user Jeff
A fundraiser has been launched to fly the body of a Nepalese man, believed to have killed his British girlfriend in an apparent murder-suicide, back to his homeland.

Brazil Gurung, 33, is believed to have murdered his lover Amelia Blake, 22, inside the unit they shared on King Street in Newtown, in Sydney's inner-west, on December 12.

The heartbroken family of Ms Blake, who was backpacking around Australia, arrived in Sydney last week to take the body of their daughter home to the United Kingdom.

But it can now be revealed a campaign to fly Mr Gurung's body back to his homeland has been created by his friends and Sydney-based Nepalese group 'Tamu Samaj'.

The heartbroken family of Ms Blake, (pictured) who was backpacking around Australia, arrived in Sydney last week to take the body of their daughter home to the United Kingdom

Brazil Gurung, 33, (pictured) is believed to have killed Amelia Blake, 22, in unit they shared

'There is already fundraising to take back Brazil body to his family... but we decided not to post (it) on social media,' one commenter revealed.

Tamu Samaj is a community organisation aimed at preserving the unique ethnicity of Nepal.

Daily Mail Australia last week revealed the pair met while colleagues at Fogo Brazillia Churrasco, a restaurant where Gurung was the head chef and Ms Blake a waitress.

The restaurant is just a few minutes' walk from the grisly scene of the horror killing at a tiny apartment on busy King Street, at the heart of Newtown.

The pair both stopped working at the Brazilian eatery last year, with the young British backpacker taking up a farming job in rural Victoria before returning to Sydney.

A fundraiser has been launched to fly the body of a Nepalese man, believed to have killed his British girlfriend in an apparent murder-suicide, back to his homeland

It can now be revealed a campaign to fly Mr Gurung's body back to his homeland has been created by his friends and Sydney-based Nepalese group 'Tamu Samaj'

Shocked former colleagues told Daily Mail Australia that Gurung was 'weird' and had serious 'money troubles', while calling Ms Blake 'the nicest person you'd ever meet'.

'He asked all the staff for money, we knew there was something weird going on with him,' a colleague said.

'It was odd the fact that he was always looking for money, looking for money... he owed one of the guys a lot.

'She worked here as a waitress for about two months and he was a chef and that's when they met. She was funny, full of confidence, she was just lovely.

'It's just terrible, he seemed like a good guy and you would never expect that to happen, but how well do you really know someone?'

Another ex-colleague who no longer works at the restaurant said he recalled Gurung being 'infatuated' and 'constantly talking about' Ms Blake after she went fruit picking interstate.

Police believe Gurugn killed Amelia before taking his own life. A landlord discovered their bodies in a flat above a Persian restaurant

Ms Blake's shattered parents released a statement on their arrival in Sydney last week through the British Foreign Office.

'We are deeply shocked and saddened by the sudden passing of our much loved daughter and sister Amelia, who will be truly missed by all who knew her,' they said.

'We would like to thank everyone for the love and support shown to our family.

'As we try to come to terms with losing our beautiful girl, we would very much appreciate privacy at this extremely difficult time.'

Police believe Gurugn killed Amelia before taking his own life. A landlord discovered their bodies in a flat above a Persian restaurant.
Brandi Worley (pictured), 31, pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing her two children in 2016

A central Indiana woman has pleaded guilty to two counts of murder in the fatal stabbings of her young children after her husband filed for divorce in 2016.

Brandi Worley's plea agreement was accepted Friday in Montgomery Circuit Court.

Police said Worley, 31, of Darlington, called 911 on November 17, 2016, admitting she just killed her children, seven-year-old son Tyler and three-year-old daughter Charlee.

First responders found the children dead at the family's Darlington home about 40 miles northwest of Indianapolis.

Court documents showed that Worley told police she killed the children because she didn't want her husband, Jason Worley, to take them.

At the time Brandi Worley was hospitalized and treated for self-inflicted stab wounds to the neck following the tragic killings.

Worley said in a 911 call released at the time and obtained by The Indy Channel: 'I just stabbed myself and I killed my two children.'

The dispatcher asked her: 'You stabbed yourself and killed your two children?'

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Police said Worley, 31, of Darlington, called 911 on November 17, 2016, admitting she just killed her children, seven-year-old son Tyler (left) and three-year-old daughter Charlee (right)

At the time Worley (left) was hospitalized and treated for self-inflicted stab wounds to the neck following the tragic killings

Worley said in a 911 call released at the time and obtained by The Indy Channel: 'I just stabbed myself and I killed my two children'

'Mm-hm,' the mother replied.

Worley said the children's bodies were 'in my daughter's room on the floor'.

The dispatcher later asked her: 'And what caused you to do this today?'

Brandi Worley answered: 'My husband wanted to divorce and wanted to take my kids. I don't want him to have my kids.'

She told the dispatcher she stabbed herself in the neck, saying: 'There's blood everywhere.'

The dispatcher asked Worley how she was feeling at one point. The mother said that she was 'just tired,' explaining 'I took a lot of Benadryl'.

First responders found the children dead at the family's Darlington home (pictured) about 40 miles northwest of Indianapolis

Police tape surrounds a home after two bodies were found in Darlington, Indiana

Court documents said Worley told police officers she used a combat knife to kill the children and stab herself because she didn't want her husband to take the children from her.

Her husband, Jason Worley, had filed for divorce one day before the children were killed.

He was sleeping in the basement when the killings took place.

At the time a GoFundMe page was set up for the family to help with funeral expenses. It raised more than $50,000.

Worley will be sentenced on March 19.

Court documents said Worley told police officers she used a combat knife to kill the children and stab herself because she didn't want her husband, Jason Worley (pictured left and right with the children) to take the children from her
Nigel Farage has backed UKIP leader Henry Bolton as he vowed to fight on today despite being hit with a wave of resignations - and having his salary frozen by bosses.

Mr Bolton dismissed calls to quit after the party's executive committee voted for a motion of no confidence in him yesterday following revelations his ex-girlfriend sent racist messages about Prince Harry's fiancee Meghan Markle.

The pressure intensified today as 16 out of 24 frontbench spokesmen - including his deputy Margot Parker - announced they were quitting in the space of 24 hours, warning Mr Bolton that his 'time is up'.

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Henry Bolton (pic today, left) said in a statement that he was determined to 'drain the swamp' of tired UKIP figures. His stance won the backing of ex-leader Nigel Farage (pic on Jan 17 in the European Parliament, right)

Mr Bolton delivered his statement outside the Grand hotel in Folkestone after being hit with 10 resignations in 24 hours

But writing in The Telegraph in an opinion piece published this evening, Mr Farage said Mr Bolton could be 'Ukip's Jeremy Corbyn' by winning the backing of members.

'As one party spokesman after another resigns, I am reminded of the nightmare Jeremy Corbyn faced in 2016 when 21 members of his shadow cabinet resigned,' he wrote.

'Corbyn was written off by the Press, but the rank and file membership saved him.

'If Bolton has the courage and the vision to introduce a new constitution, and shows that he can be a strong spokesman for Britain leaving the single market, taking back its fisheries and restoring pride in the UK, he may well surprise all of his critics too.'

So far, 13 out of 25 members of Mr Bolton's top team have now stood down since he was engulfed in the scandal about his relationship with glamour model Jo Marney a week ago.

It also emerged this evening that Ukip bosses have frozen Mr Bolton's salary in the hope he will have to quit as he has no other income.

The Sun reported Mr Bolton as telling a friend that Ukip's treasurer had halted his paycheck it an attempt to 'get me out'.

Mr Bolton said in a statement this afternoon he was determined to 'drain the swamp' of tired UKIP figures. 'I shall not be resigning as party leader,' he said.

His call was supported by Ms Marney, who linked him in a tweet saying 'FlushTheBog' and accompanied it with a thumbs-up emoji.

Ex-leader Diane James, who lasted 18 days in charge before resigning citing 'personal and professional reasons', has also backed the leader and joined in criticism of the NEC.

Earlier, UKIP head of press Gawain Towler posted an image from the 1964 Michael Caine film Zulu, about the 1879 battle when a small group of soldiers defended a garrison despite being hugely outnumbered.

Ukip leader Henry Bolton has faced a stream of calls to resign since the highly offensive messages sent by his girlfriend Jo Marney (pictured together) were published

Mr Bolton's call to 'drain the swamp' was supported by Ms Marney, who linked him in a tweet saying 'FlushTheBog' and accompanied it with a thumbs-up emoji

Mike Hookem (left) quit as deputy assistant leader today, while Tim Aker (right) said he was standing down as local government spokesman in protest at Mr Bolton's leadership

Mr Aker said Mr Bolton should 'do the right thing' and quit so the party could move on

Mr Bolton has been holed up in a hotel in Folkestone for most of the day preparing to give his statement.

Addressing TV cameras in the street, he used Donald Trump's phrase about the culture in Washington.

'In a single phrase, it is time to 'Drain the Swamp',' he said.

Mr Bolton said he would be seeking support from party members in the vote triggered by the NEC's vote of no confidence.

'Let me reiterate, the most pressing issue facing our country is to ensure that we gain full independence from the European Union; that we do not allow the government to betray the country by compromising that goal,' he said.

FRONTBENCH RESIGNATIONS THAT HAVE ROCKED UKIP Deputy leader Margot Parker Trade spokesman William Dartmouth Education spokesman David Kurten Local government spokesman Tim Aker Assistant deputy leader Mike Hookem Immigration spokesman John Bickley Brexit spokesman Gerard Batten London spokesman Peter Whittle Culture spokesman David Meacock Work and Pensions spokesman David Sprason Disabilities spokesman Star Anderton Sports spokesman Bill Etheridge Advertisement

'That is the object to which I shall be directing all of my energies in the coming weeks.'

Mr Bolton later spoke to Mr Farage on his LBC show, during which he hit back against the national executive committee's vote of no confidence.

'The committee has lost the confidence of the broader party and we need to consolidate the party,' he said.

'While my private life is of interest, it should only be a side show.'

Mr Bolton also suggested he would be making changes to the Ukip constitution to make the party more efficient.

Mr Bolton has faced a stream of calls to resign since the highly offensive messages sent by Jo Marney, 25, were published by the Mail on Sunday.

He insists Ukip cannot afford another leadership election and says the result of the no confidence vote will lead to fresh in-fighting that could finish off the party.

Mr Bolton's use of the phrase 'drain the swamp' will raise fresh questions about his continuing closeness to Miss Marney - despite both insisting they have broken up.

Earlier today she welcomed the resignations saying they were 'draining the swamp' so Mr Bolton could make new appointments.

Announcing her departure this morning, East Midlands MEP Ms Parker told BBC Radio Northampton that Mr Bolton's personal life 'took over the job he was elected to do' and urged him to stand aside.

She said: 'It would be quicker and cleaner if he came to the conclusion he could go sooner rather than later. This is taking time away from doing the job. This puts the party in a limbo situation.'

Gerard Batten (left) and Peter Whittle have both stepped down from the UKIP front bench

Ukip's communications chief Gawain Towler posted an image from the 1964 Michael Caine film Zulu, which tells the story of the battle of Rorke's Drift, today as the resignations came thick and fast

Ms Parker will continue her role in the European Parliament.

Immigration spokesman John Bickley told LBC radio: 'I will be resigning today. I'm not going to do the job for Mr Bolton.

'We need to make it clear to Mr Bolton that his time is up. It would really be in his interests in going to sort out his personal life and get away from politics.

'By a number of people resigning and saying they don't want to work with him, that helps make up his decision for him.'

Trade spokesman William Dartmouth said in a letter to the leader: 'Your position is untenable. I am unable to serve under you.'

Local government spokesman Tim Aker said on Twitter: 'I cannot continue to serve under Henry Bolton.

'I hope he does the right thing and resigns before the EGM, so the Party can move forward with a new leader.'

Ukip deputy leader Margot Parker (pictured) said leader Henry Bolton should stand down from his position 'sooner rather than later', while William Dartmouth (left) also quit the front bench

Mr Bolton's use of the phrase 'drain the swamp' will raise fresh questions about his continuing closeness to Jo Marney - despite both insisting they have broken up - as she used an identical phrase just hours before the leader's dramatic speech

Assistant deputy leader Mike Hookem said members were 'crying out' for stability at the top of the party and he would 'consider stepping in as interim leader if required'.

Education spokesman David Kurten also announced he had quit. 'It is time for him to step down with dignity rather than extending the current debacle for another 4 weeks. I will continue to represent the party in the London Assembly.'

Peter Whittle, who stood as Ukip's candidate for London mayor in 2016, resigned as the party's spokesman for the capital saying: 'The current situation cannot continue.'

On top of the 10 resignations over the past 24 hours, MEPs Bill Etheridge and Jonathon Arnott have previously quit frontbench jobs, while councillor Star Anderton departed as disabilities spokeswoman.

Party members will now decide Mr Bolton's fate in a vote at an emergency meeting next month.

Ukip's national executive committee unanimously backed a vote of no confidence in Mr Bolton after he put his case to members for remaining in post.

A Ukip spokesman said: 'The committee took the decision to hold a vote of no confidence in the leadership of Henry Bolton. The vote was carried unanimously with the exception of the leader.

Mr Bolton left his wife Tatiana (pictured together), 42, who gave birth to their second daughter at London's St Pancras station in 2016 after going into labour on a train

David Sprason (left) and David Kurten resigned in protest at Mr Bolton's leadership

'This decision will automatically trigger an emergency general meeting of the party, to allow the membership of Ukip the democratic opportunity to decide to endorse or reject that vote of no confidence.'

Under Ukip rules, an emergency general meeting must be staged within 28 days. Members will be told about when and where it will be held in the next 10 days.

Mr Bolton said a contest to replace him 'would be financially almost unviable for the party'.

The under-fire leader said previously his 'romantic' relationship with 25-year-old model Ms Marney was over but he admitted they were 'still in touch' after pictures emerged of them meeting up.

He left wife Tatiana, 42, who gave birth to their second daughter at London's St Pancras station in 2016 after going into labour on a train, prior to his relationship with Ms Marney becoming public in early January.

Mr Bolton told ITV's Peston On Sunday: 'I don't believe I have done anything wrong. My own personal life, it's a little bit of a mess at the moment. I need to sort that out, of course.'

John Bickley (pictured left) resigned as UKIP immigration spokesman this morning. Speculation has mounted that Nigel Farage would return to take the helm of the party, but his spokesman said there is 'no chance' of this

Asked about reports his estranged wife still did not know if their marriage was over, he replied: 'My wife and I have exchanged lengthy emails on this. We have spoken a couple of times on the phone, but that is my business.'

Mr Bolton is the latest in a string of people to be elected leader of Ukip. The NEC result fuelled speculation that Nigel Farage would return to take the helm of the Eurosceptic party.

Party chairman Paul Oakden told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I think everybody would like him to have a greater role in Ukip. Whether that's as leader or not, I don't know if I would subject Nigel to that.'

But Mr Farage's spokesman said: 'There is no chance. He wouldn't consider it for a second.'

The spokesman also insisted Mr Farage is 'absolutely not' about to start a new political party.

Neil Hamilton, Ukip's leader in Wales, said Mr Bolton should 'seek psychological help'. He said: 'I support the NEC's unanimous decision to pass a vote of no confidence in Henry Bolton.

'He should now resign from Ukip immediately so we can get on with rebuilding the party without further distraction.

'If he forces us to hold an EGM, he will only humiliate himself further. His recent behaviour has been so irrational, he should seek psychological help.'

Ms Marney said the Ukip leader had 'done nothing wrong' and insisted what she had done was 'nothing to do with someone else'.

'I am flabbergasted at the NEC's disastrous decision to self destruct UKIP,' she tweeted.

'There's no doubt another leadership contest would be the final nail. The liberal media knows it and the NEC has just played into its hands (as usual). For Brexit's sake, let the man get on with his job!'
Insurance companies have today denied claims that drivers named Mohammed are charged more to get on the road.

An investigation suggested some of Britain's largest insurance companies charged less when a driver had the name 'John Smith'.

According to The Sun, a John Smith living in Leicester had to pay less for the same policy than a man who had the name Mohammed Ali.

Motorists called John Smith are typically charged less than drivers who are called Mohammed (stock photograph)

The newspaper received 60 quotes after entering details into comparison websites including GoCompare, which show results from each specific insurance company.

A Mohammed Smith living in London was quoted more for a policy than a man with the name John Smith.

And a John Smith living in Southampton was able to insure a 2009 Renault Clio for 992 with one company.

However, a Raj Singh living at the same address would have to pay 1,023 - 31 more even though all of the details were the same.

But one company today said: 'We do not and never have used a customer's name or any other piece of information to rate on race. The insurance quotes were not like for like.'

It comes as the average cost of insurance for millions of Britain's motorists is set to soar its highest ever level.

The average policy price is set to break through the 900 barrier by the end of this year, a new report warns today.

UK drivers are now paying 827 on average for their car insurance, according to Confused.com's latest car insurance price index for the last quarter of 2017.

The index reveals prices have accelerated by a 60 (8 per cent) since the last quarter of 2016 when premiums were comparatively cheaper at 767.

The findings come as policy prices are set to break through the 900 barrier this year

And the driver savings site says this makes it more important than ever for drivers to be checking what they paid last year before they renew for another 12 months.

Motorists are already feeling the pinch following a 3 (0.4 per cent ) car insurance price hike in December, not to mention the cost of fuel rising by 0.5p for petrol and 0.7p for diesel in just the past week.

Louise O'Shea, chief executive at Confused.com, says: 'It looks like the average cost of car insurance is going to be over 900 in 2018 - the highest ever.

'The good news is that insurers now have to show us what we paid for car insurance last year.

'Therefore, it's never been easier for drivers to check what they paid then and compare it to what they are asking you to pay now.

'January is always a difficult month after the excess of Christmas and that is true for drivers' wallets too.'
An SAS-style crack force has been deployed to Afghanistan to train local security forces in the battle against the Taliban and criminal gangs.

The 'hand-picked, battle-hardened' elite British Army specialised infantry soldiers from the 4 Rifles have been flown out as part of a new Specialised Infantry Group.

The increased support to train counter-terror forces in Afghanistan emerged after Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson confirmed an increase in UK military there.

The 'hand-picked, battle-hardened' elite British Army specialised infantry soldiers are from the 4 Rifles (pictured with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, who is their Royal Colonel, in 2008)

A source told The Sun: 'They are hand-picked and boast battle hardened skills.'

Prime Minister Theresa May had confirmed last May that 86 extra UK troops would go to the country after pressure from the US to increase support.

This figure then rose in November to 150, including the SIG platoon, with the troops based in northern Afghanistan at the main German base at Mazar-i Sharif.

An MoD spokesman told MailOnline: 'This deployment of Army Specialised Infantry soldiers will deliver training and leadership development to Afghan security forces as part of the wider UK commitment to help build a strong and secure Afghanistan.'

Members of the Afghan security forces in an operation against Taliban fighters in Helmand

Defence officials believe preventing terrorism in Afghanistan helps the fight against extremism in Britain, and are trying to work closely with the Afghan Government.

It comes as British troops in Kabul were called in when five gunmen stormed the Intercontinental Hotel on Saturday night, killing at least 18 people.

The soldiers, who are on a security mission in Afghanistan's capital, were dispatched to the hotel in heavily protected Foxhound vehicles.

Terrified guests were seen tying bed sheets together in a bid to abseil out of the six-floor building during the attack claimed by the Taliban.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson (right, pictured with Colonel John Clark last November) has confirmed an increase in UK military in Afghanistan

Hundreds of British troops remain in the capital carrying out training and security missions, although combat troops pulled out in 2014.

The 4 Rifles are based at New Normandy Barracks in Aldershot, Hampshire, and are one of just two infantry units to pilot the new Specialised Infantry role.

Since The Rifles were formed in 2007, 4 Rifles has deployed on five tours to Iraq and Afghanistan, together with other operations and training missions elsewhere.
A dog shot his master to death with a rifle in a freak accident in Russia.

Sergey Terekhov had let his two dogs out of his Lada car to run before he went on a hunting expedition in Russia's Saratov region.

One of the animals bounded up to him and clawed the trigger of his loaded TOZ-34 hunting rifle.

Sergey Terekhov, 53, (pictured) was shot dead when one of his dogs bounded up to him at a hunting expedition in Russia's Saratov region and clawed at the trigger of his loaded TOZ-34 hunting rifle. It is not known whether the dog pictured was the one involved in the incident

The bullet hit Terekhov, 53, in the abdomen.

The man collapsed on the frozen ground.

His cousin immediately called an ambulance, but Terekhov died on the way to hospital.

The bullet hit Terekhov (pictured with one of his dogs) in the stomach and he collapsed on the frozen ground. His cousin immediately rang for an ambulance

Paramedics were unable to save him, according to reports.

Terekhov died less than an hour after being shot by the dog.

The accident was at a popular hunting location some three miles from Dyakovka village.

A police investigator said: 'Having arrived at the scene, the hunter got his dogs out of the back of his car.

'The gun was on his knee.

The dog, which has not been named, was an Estonian Hound (as above). They are known for a balanced, calm and active temperament - and high intelligence

'The butt of the gun was on the ground, the barrel was directed to his abdomen.

'The dogs jumped out of the car and one of them sprang right on the owner, pressing the trigger.

'All has happened in front of the hunter's cousin.

'He immediately called an ambulance.

'The ambulance came quite fast from Dyakovka village, but he died on the way to hospital.'

Terekhov was rushed to hospital by ambulance (pictured), but doctors were unable to save him and he died less than an hour after the freak accident

The victim was 'sober' and had the relevant licenses for his hunting gun.

'This was an accident,' he said.

The dog - not named - was an Estonian Hound.

The breed is known for a balanced, calm and active temperament - and high intelligence.

It loves loves human attention and gets upset if left alone.

It was originally bred in Soviet times when the Communist authorities in Moscow ordered that every republic in the USSR must have its own breed.
A group of Japanese diners went to the police after claiming they were charged 1,009 for a basic meal at a restaurant in Venice.

The outraged visitors - students from the University of Bologna - said they ordered three steaks and fried fish at the Osteria da Luca near St Mark's Square.

With only glasses of water to accompany their modest meal, the group was left shocked by their 1,145 bill on Friday.

The outraged visitors - students from the University of Bologna - ordered three steaks and fried fish at the Osteria da Luca (pictured) near St Mark's Square

Marco Gasparinetti, the head of the April 25 civil rights group, said the students made a formal complaint soon after their visit to the restaurant, Venice Today reports.

Past visitors reviewing the restaurant said they were charged for seafood by weight - 8 euros per 100 grams.

The case - which Gasparinetti said was simply 'yet another' in a series of tourist rip-offs - is so egregious that it has prompted a response from the city's mayor.

Luigi Brugnaro wrote on Twitter that he will attempt to verify the claims of the diners.

He added: 'If this shameful episode is confirmed, we will do all we can to punish those responsible. We are for justice, always!'

The owner of the restaurant, however, said simply: 'I do not remember having problems with Japanese customers these days.'

Venice Today also reports that three members of the Japanese quartet had recently had a meal at the Trattoria Casanova, a nearby restaurant that hit the headlines in November after British tourists were charged 463 for lunch there.

The three Japanese diners said they were charged 308 for three dishes of pasta.

Luke Tang, a university lecturer from Birmingham, was dining with his 70-year-old parents and was so appalled by the bill he received at the Trattoria Casanova restaurant last year that he wrote to the mayor to complain.

Luke Tang, a university lecturer from Birmingham , was dining with his 70-year-old parents and was so appalled by the bill he received at the Trattoria Casanova (right) restaurant last year that he wrote to the mayor to complain. Left: His food

Venice Today also reports that three members of the Japanese quartet had recently had a meal at the Trattoria Casanova, a nearby restaurant that hit the headlines in November after British tourists were charged 463 for lunch there. Pictured: Central Venice, including St Mark's Square

In an interview on Italian television, Mayor Brugnaro said then: 'Theyre cheapskates. Someone eats and drinks in a restaurant, then says they cannot understand the language?'

Gasparinetti said tourists are increasingly at risk of being charged high prices in Venice, something he believes will damage the 'good name' of the city.

TripAdvisor currently rates the Osteria da Luca as 1.5 out of 5 stars.

Of the 322 reviews by customers, 83 per cent are 'terrible'.

One from last week reads simply: 'Rip off central, avoid at all costs.'

The Trattoria Casanova, meanwhile, is rated 'terrible' by 59 per cent of customers on the website.

On review site Yelp, many visitors to the Osteria da Luca explained how they were charged for seafood by weight - and were given huge portions.

Rosanne H, from Texas, wrote: 'The waiter never clarify's [sic] the prices on the menu even though he speaks near perfect English. On part of the menu it states that a fish is 8 euros. In reality (also in fine, very fine print it says 8 euros per 100 grams).

Surprisingly, there was no fee for breathing the air in their hole in the wall establishment

She added: 'IF YOU ORDER A FISH IT WILL END UP BEING AROUND 100 EURO'S [sic] per fish.

Paul H, from Maryland in the USA, wrote that he was charged five euros for a plastic bottle of water, eight euros for a beer and a service charge per person as well as for the table as a whole.

He added: 'Outrageous prices.'

Denise R, writing from California, said when she visited the restaurant they charged her more because she had been given a certain kind of rice.

'After [we] finished eating, we got the check which was $100 just for 3 people... We asked them why & they said you're charged more bc you got white rice.... & The two kinds of service charges,' she wrote.

On TripAdvisor, meanwhile, a user posting as StellaTravels100 said the restaurant proprietors are 'ripoff artists pure and simple.'

The review went on: 'These scammers lured me in on their "fish special" by charging me 8 euros per 100 gram - without informing me. They also charged my wife and I 2.50E each in "table fees."

'Surprisingly, there was no fee for breathing the air in their hole in the wall establishment. Our bill for a fish dinner, pizza and three drinks came to a whopping 123 euros.'
Leigh Wilde was found dead in his garage in Offerton after being suspended from his job

A father-of-two was found hanging in his garage after whistleblowing about alleged exam cheating at his college.

Leigh Wilde, from Offerton, went to the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) after noticing discrepancies in test results at the Openshaw campus of Manchester College, where he worked as a lecturer.

As part of his role verifying exams, the 45-year-old believed staff were fraudulently taking tests for his students to improve their marks, an inquest heard.

However the 'humble and very moral' father-of-two, who also served as a mechanic in the RAF, was said to be 'devastated' after being suspended escorted from the premises one week later.

The reason for his suspension was not made clear until three days later on March 16, 2017, when he received a letter from the college.

He hanged himself in his garage the same day, the inquest heard.

The contents of the suspension letter were not revealed in court but after the inquest his wife Carol revealed it contained accusations of bullying and harassment.

Mr Wilde's family say the complaints were 'unfounded' and 'completely without substance'.

His wife Carol claimed the college 'fatally' failed in its duty of care, adding: 'They are the only people to blame, we were a lovely happy family until the beginning of 2017.

'Leigh was a lovely dad and a generous, kind man who helped a lot of people. He was quiet, humble and very moral.'

Mr Wilde went to the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) after noticing discrepancies in test results at the Openshaw campus of Manchester College (pictured) where he worked as a lecturer

Mr Wilde had reported his concerns to professional body the Institute of the Motor Industry in a 'whistleblowing capacity' on February 15 which began an investigation.

He is also said to have reported the allegations to the college's HR department although managers told the hearing they could find no record of this.

The following week he was suspended and escorted from the premises, which his family said left him distraught.

Samantha Halliday, who works in HR for the LTE Group, which runs Manchester College, told the inquest that in his nine-year role no issues about his behaviour had been raised in any appraisals, held three times a year.

Returning a verdict of suicide coroner Alison Mutch said more steps should have been taken by the college to 'minimise the risk' to the individual if a decision had been taken to suspend them.

She added it was 'unhelpful that there was no clear record of how whistleblowers were dealt with'.

Speaking after the hearing Mr Wilde's wife Carol, 49, said: 'They were all unfounded [allegations] and nothing like him, it is very coincidental that he raised concerns about tests and the next week he was escorted off the premises.

'Manchester College has repeatedly - and as it turns out fatally - failed in its duty to my husband.

'The consequences of the lack of care is something me and my family will have to live with for the rest of our lives.'

The Manchester College has 15 campuses and describes itself as the largest further education college in the UK

Speaking on behalf of LTE Ms Halliday said the college had no record of Mr Wilde raising his concerns with HR.

But the IMI confirmed he had reported the matter and it was also said an anonymous whistleblower had made similar exam cheating allegations in 2014 - albeit ones that were not proven.

The college holds and marks exams internally before sending them back to the examining body which oversees them.

Mrs Wilde told the inquest: 'Leigh was such a good teacher and had immense patience. Some of the students were difficult, he took great pride in turning them round.

'He liked everything done right, he didn't like anything half done or cheated.'

Mr Wilde had suffered with some mental health problems following the death of a childhood friend some years earlier but had been gradually coming off the medication he was on, the inquest heard.

He also leaves behind sons Ashley, 23, and Lewis, 17.

The coroner said the IMI investigation was 'not able to progress' because it did not have the evidence.

But at the time of his death Mr Wilde is understood to have had evidence on his phone, which police have now accessed and will pass it on to IMI in a bid to get the investigation reopened.

The Manchester College has 15 campuses and describes itself as the largest further education college in the UK.

A spokesman said: 'We provided evidence to the inquest as requested by the coroner and we will note the coroner's verdict and comments. We will review these comments and respond appropriately.

'We extend our sincere sympathies to family members and colleagues for their loss.'
A police officer who body slammed a teenage girl to the ground at a high school is facing calls for his head.

The incident at Helix Charter High School in La Mesa, California, last week sparked outrage when video footage of the altercation went viral.

Officers were called to the school to deal with a 17-year-old girl who had been suspended but refused to leave the campus.

She was handcuffed and escorted off campus, but police say she tried to escape twice, prompting the officer to throw her to the ground and the school community have demanded he is withdrawn from duties around the grounds.

La Mesa police Chief Walt Vasquez appeared to back his colleague in a statement, which was reported in the San Diego Union Tribune, saying the school resource officer tried to get the girl to leave of her own accord.

When she refused, he ordered her to do so, but again the teenager said no, forcing him to handcuff her.

The chief said: 'As they were walking, the student became non-compliant on two separate occasions and made an attempt to free herself by pulling away from the officer.

'To prevent the student from escaping, the officer forced the student to the ground.'

But the force the officer used has been called into question.

The video clearly shows the cop throwing the girl over his shoulder down onto the concrete sidewalk below before using his body weight to pin her down.

She appears motionless on the ground and suffered what was described as 'minor abrasions'.

Police say once the girl stopped resisting, the officer helped her to her feet and they walked to a patrol car.

But the teenager's family contest the police's version of events.

The girl and the police officer in an altercation at the school before she is bodyslammed into the ground

The woman lies motionless on the ground as the officer uses his body weight to pin her down. The person who uploaded the video to Snapchat included the caption: 'Dude, what the hell'

Speaking on behalf of the family, Aeiramique Blake, said speaking on behalf of the girl's family, said it was an in-school suspension for 'tardiness' after she told a teacher she was feeling ill.

After explaining she was anemic and had suffered similar symptoms before, she was accused of being on drugs and her bag was searched, according to Blake.

Pepper spray was found, which the girl said she carried to protect herself on the way to and from school, but no narcotics.

Because the pepper spray was considered a weapon, the teacher told her she needed to leave the campus.

The incident at Helix Charter High School in La Mesa, California, last week sparked outrage when video footage of the altercation went viral

Blake told the Tribune the teenager felt she was being discriminated against, and refused to leave, which led to the police being called.

'No matter what was done or not done, that was not the appropriate way to handle a young lady,' Blake said. 'The community is completely outraged.'

Students, parents and community members are expected to ask that the officer not be allowed to patrol any other schools in the future.

Police investigators are looking into the incident.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg has spoken out in support of the Me Too movement, saying it is 'about time' people called out sexual harassment.

The 84-year-old Supreme Court Justice told an audience at the Sundance Film Festival that for a long time women were silent on the issue, 'thinking there was nothing you could do about it.'

But, she added: 'Now the law is on the side of women or men who encounter harassment and that's a good thing.'

Ruth Bader Ginsburg said women were silent for a long time about sexual harassment 'thinking there was nothing you could do', but that the law is now 'on their side'

Ginsburg was also asked by NPR's Nina Totenberg whether she had ever been sexually harassed and what she did about it.

'The answer is yes,' Ginsburg replied. 'Every woman of my vintage knows what sexual harassment is, although we didn't have a name for it.

'The attitude to sexual harassment was simply: Get past it, boys will be boys.'

She then recalled an episode at Cornell university when, as a student, she went to a chemistry professor because she was nervous about an upcoming exam.

The professor offered to give her a practice test, which she took, before sitting down the next day to do the actual exam and realizing the papers were exactly the same.

Asked specifically about the Me Too movement that sprung up in the wake of the sexual harassment scandal sweeping Hollywood, Ginsburg said it was 'about time'

Ginsburg spoke at the Sundance Film Festival, where a crowd of hundreds gathered to participate in the women's march taking place at the weekend

'I knew exactly what he wanted in return,' she added.

Asked how she had dealt with that, Ginsburg said: 'I went to his office and said "how dare you? how dare you do this?" and that was the end of that.'

Ginsburg spoke on the same weekend that tens of thousands of Americans took place in women's marches around the countries.

Hundreds gathered at a women's march event at Sundance, braving snow and freezing temperatures to hear speeches from Gloria Allred and Jane Fonda.

Allred told the crowd: 'We demand the right to be free of sexual assault, rape and abusewe demand the right to control our bodies.

'We demand the right to afford legal, safe and free abortions. We demand the right to get contraceptives while men are getting Viagra!'
An abandoned dog was shot dead after it was found tied to a telegraph post in freezing cold weather.

Police officers launched an urgent appeal to find the owner of the German Shepherd-type dog after it was found in Hartlepool yesterday morning.

However, veterinary professionals said the dog could not be re-homed because of its 'aggressive behaviour' and police made the decision to 'destroy it'.

The decision to kill the elderly dog has sparked outrage from animal lovers who have asked why officers did not tranquilise the pet.

The German Shepherd-type dog (pictured) was found tied to a telegraph post and police eventually made the decision to 'destroy it'

The RSPCA and veterinary experts desperately tried to save the dog but the police were forced to kill it

Hundreds of comments have been left on Dog Theft Awareness North East UK, where the incident was first reported.

Many stressed how they were pleading with police and the RSPCA to save the dog.

One wrote: 'Why don't they tranquillise the dog and get him somewhere safe, I hope they don't kill it.'

A second added: 'Can't someone help it before they destroy it.

'I'm the other end of the country, surely there is someone close, poor, poor dog, terrified, cold and abandoned.'

Witness Ian Robson told how he tried to reason with police moments before they shot the animal dead.

He said: 'I got a phone call from my wife saying to come down because there was a dog stranded.

'I came down to see if I could do something about it but I was told there was nothing that could be done and that police were about to shoot it.

'I suggested that they used tranquillisers to sedate it and calm it down because it was barking as people tried to feed it but they just kept saying it was an aggressive dog.

'And now they have gone and shot it which is bang out of order.'

Hundreds of people took to Facebook to voice their opinion on the incident,

and here's what they had to say:

One user wrote: 'This is absolutely disgusting to read. The poor dog wasn't even given a chance.'

Another commented: 'Absolutely horrendous. The poor dog was terrified, of course it was going to be aggressive.

'The people it trusted most in this world left him/her tied to a pole in the freezing cold with no shelter, food or water and then a bunch of strangers come along and make a decision to take its life.

'Shame on Cleveland Police and shame on the vet involved. Rest in peace poor baby.'

Other users suggested that the police made the right decision to shoot the dog.

One Facebook user said: 'As an ex-vet nurse this was 100% the right thing to do.

'If you think for a moment a dog behaving like this would have suddenly turned loving and sedate when it woke up in a vets cage you haven't been around many aggressive dogs.

'There's a risk it hurts or attacks a member of staff, I certainly wouldn't have wanted to risk being the guinea pig to see if it was different in a different situation.'

Cleveland Police said the decision to kill the dog was not taken lightly and animal lovers have asked why they could not tranquillise it instead

Witnesses have described watching a dog being shot dead after it was found tied to a telegraph post in the freezing cold

A Cleveland Police spokesman said: 'The decision to destroy the dog has not been taken lightly and this was the very last course of action that we wanted to take.

'All attempts to calm the dog failed. Vets advised that they were unable to sedate the dog due to not being able to approach it and not having equipment to sedate from a distance.

'Unfortunately veterinary professionals advised that the dog could not be re-homed due to its aggressive behaviour.

'The decision taken, in conjunction with the RSPCA and veterinary professionals, was that the kindest thing to do for the dog would be to destroy it.

'This has been a difficult decision and one that we had hoped we wouldn't have to make.'

A spokesperson for the RSPCA said: 'This was a police-led operation and it was extremely distressing for everyone involved.

'Police called a number of organisations to assist and the agencies worked together for hours to try to rescue the dog.

'Unfortunately, the dog was too aggressive to approach and vets advised police that it would not be possible to safely tranquillise the dog and the vet further advised that euthanising the dog was sadly the kindest option.

'The RSPCA believes that abandoning any dog is totally unacceptable. Any information about who might have done this, please contact the Hartlepool Police, quoting log number CVP/18/011857.'
Sarah Wilmoth, 30, entered a Publix store in Vero Beach to steal cosmetics and toilet deodorizer as her baby son cried alone in her car January 13

A Florida mother was arrested after she abandoned her baby in a cold car to shoplift several items from a local supermarket.

A couple in the parking lot of Publix in Vero Beach called the cops on Sarah Wilmoth, 30, who was raiding the store for cosmetics and toilet deodorizer at the time her crying child was spotted alone in the back seat of her SUV on January 13.

Wilmoth's arrest report said police broke into the vehicle, where the woman's son was hysterical.

Emergency officials were called to the scene to further care for the child.

During a license plate search, authorities tracked Wilmoth - who was then alerted over the store intercom to come to the front counter.

When the mother walked out of the store and saw EMS with her baby boy, she apparently screamed out: 'Oh my God! That's my son!,' seemingly in shock, according to the Miami Herald.

'My cousin was in the car with my baby and I don't know where he ran off to and why he would leave my son alone,' Wilmoth claimed.

A couple in the parking lot of Publix in Vero Beach called the cops after they saw the child crying in the backseat of the car, alone and in the cold

The Publix in Vero Beach is shown where the woman stole from and was later caught

Following her fib about her fleeing cousin, Wilmoth told police her son had fallen asleep and assumed it was safe to let him be for a few moments while she shopped around.

While searching Wilmoth, police discovered 'a clear rocky substance and a crack pipe' under her clothing.

Wilmoth admitted the drug was methamphetamine laced with cocaine. It's unclear whether she used the substance prior to the poor judgement incident.

Meanwhile, found stuffed in her bra, were several stolen items from the supermarket.

Wilmoth stole cosmetic and toilet spray items above - Opi Pinking of You pink nail polish and Poo Pourri Before-You-Go spray

Wilmoth has been charged with child endangerment, meth possession and shoplifting

They included a tube of face cream, clear nail polish, Opi Pinking of You pink nail polish and Poo Pourri Before-You-Go spray.

The mother was charged with child endangerment, meth possession and shoplifting.

Wilmoth was jailed, but posted $6,500 bond two days later.

The Vero Beach-born mom is pictured on Facebook smiling with her baby son, older daughter and boyfriend.

During the holidays in December, Wilmoth took to her page to share a snapshot of her children side-by-side.

'My babies at church this morning!!,' she wrote in the caption.

'My babies at church this morning!!,' Wilmoth wrote in the above photo caption in Decemeber

The Vero Beach-born mom is pictured in Facebook photos smiling with her son and older daughter (shown)
Lord O'Neill, who served under George Osborne and previously warned of serious damage from cutting ties with the EU, said he still believed it was a 'weird thing for the UK to impose on itself'

A former Treasury minister today admitted that he was wrong about how 'robust' the UK economy would be in the face of Brexit.

Lord O'Neill, who served under George Osborne and previously warned of serious damage from cutting ties with the EU, said he still believed it was a 'weird thing for the UK to impose on itself'.

But he said Brexit was not the biggest challenge facing Britain, and he now believed the economy would perform better than expected over the coming years, helped by strong growth in China and the US.

The comments, in an interview with the BBC ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos, will be seized on by Brexiteers as another nail in the coffin of 'Project Fear' pushed by ministers during the referendum.

The dire predictions of a housing crash and recession in the immediate aftermath of the historic vote have not materialised.

Lord O'Neil - who as a senior executive at Goldman Sachs coined the term BRICs to refer to Brazil, Russia, India and China - acknowledged that his views could be seen as having changed.

'I'm almost embarrassed to admit that it might sound like that,' he told Radio 4's Today programme.

'Because of course, in principle, I share the views of many that Brexit is a really weird thing for the UK to impose on itself from an economic perspective.'

However, Lord O'Neill said he had felt for a while that 'as important as Brexit is, it isn't the most important thing facing Britain's future'.

Lord O'Neill highlighted worldwide growth, boosting productivity and driving the economy outside of London as more important to the UK's prospects.

Saying he believed UK growth would be upgraded for the next couple of years, Lord O'Neill said: 'I certainly wouldn't have thought the UK economy would be as robust as it currently seems.'

'That is because some parts of the country, led by the North West (of England), are actually doing way better than people seem to realise or appreciate.

'As well as this crucial fact, the rest of the world is also doing way better than many people would have thought a year ago, so it makes it easier for the UK.'

Lord O'Neill served in the Treasury under George Osborne, regarded by Eurosceptics as the architect of 'Project Fear' during the EU referendum

Lord O'Neill pointed to a recent assessment by Cambridge Econometrics for Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, which suggested growth across the UK could be on average 3 per cent lower by 2030 than it would have been without Brexit.

'If that's the worst that Brexit will deliver, then I wouldn't worry about it,' he said.

'Now, my own view is if we go for a really hard Brexit or a no-deal Brexit, we'll probably suffer more than that 3 per cent.

'But if it is only 3 per cent, what's going on with the rest of the world - helping us - and with productivity improving, that will easily dwarf a 3 per cent hit over 13 years, easily.'

He added: 'Brexiteers are going to be like the cat with the cream. They're like "there you go, told you so", which of course is ridiculous.

Meanwhile, there are claims that Brussels is trying to force Britain into a 'soft' Brexit by refusing to agree a trade deal for the City of London.

European Council president Donald Tusk is said to be orchestrating a high-risk 'forgive and forget' strategy to encourage the UK to change course.

At the same time the EU is taking a hard line on a potential deal to highlight the consequences of leaving the bloc.

Both Mr Tusk and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker issued messages last week suggesting they would welcome the UK back into the EU in future.
This dejecting footage shows a dolphinfish with a stomach full of plastic objects after a fishermen slit it open.

The fish, also known as a Mahi Mahi, was caught by a fisherman off the coast of Costa Rica.

After the fish was hauled aboard the fisherman suspected that it was unwell so he cut the fish open to see what had been causing the sickness.

He was shocked to see the level of pollution inside that had been having a physical effect on the dolphinfish.

The fisherman filmed himself removing plastic jar lids, pieces of shredded plastic cups, bottle tops, a comb, a lighter and other small fragments of plastic.

Although fishing is one of the main industries on the island the video has sparked outrage for animal campaigners.

They warned that this is evidence of the rising amounts of plastic pollution that is contaminating and killing marine life.

A fisherman hauled a Mahi Mahi fish, also known as the common dolphinfish, onto his boat but suspected that the fish was unwell

He cut the stomach of the dolphinfish open and was shocked at the amount of plastic that he found instead

Marine scientist Erick Ross explained that fish often confuse the plastic pieces for food before ingesting them.

He said: 'The plastic does not melt and can block their intestinal tract, and then they cannot feed  preventing them from consuming food, and starving [them to death].'

Theresa May has backed plans for beach clean-ups to rid the environment of the scourge of plastic waste.

The Prime Minister wrote on Twitter of her support for community projects ahead of a major speech on the environment next week.

She said: Eight million tonnes of plastic makes its way into the worlds seas and oceans each year  our Government will do all it can to play its part in stopping this.

He removed plastic jar lids, pieces of shredded plastic cups, bottle tops, a comb, a lighter and other small fragments of plastic
A former SAS soldier who became a national hero following the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege said today the only terrorist to survive the raid should still be in prison - as he slammed his local council for leaving him homeless.

Bob Curry, 64, who became known as 'Backdoor Bob' after being photographed storming the embassy, served for 16 years in the Special Air Service and had a 17-year military career.

But despite his service to his country he is now forced to sleep on his daughter's sofa and in a B&B paid for by his old regiment after he lost his home.

Scroll down for video

Bob Curry, who became known as 'Backdoor Bob' after being photographed storming the embassy, served for 16 years in the Special Air Service and had a 17-year military career

Mr Curry, who appeared on Good Morning Britain today, revealed how he has been forced to sell off his medals and says he has been stuck in a constant battle with Herefordshire Council after becoming homeless.

Meanwhile Fowzi Nejad, 61, the only terrorist to survive the siege in 1980, cannot be sent back to Iran because of human rights laws so instead lives in Peckham, south London.

The 61-year-old has a plush flat with its own balcony, and as of May was living rent-free. The chain-smoker became eligible for parole three years ago after serving 28 years in jail and his application was approved in October 2008.

Mr Curry, a former sergeant, who has had two heart attacks and is registered disabled and a diabetic, saw action during the Falklands War and also served in Northern Ireland.

He became penniless after the breakdown of his marriage and the loss of his home following the collapse of his business, which taught veterans to become locksmiths, in July.

When asked about Nejad today, he replied: 'As far as I'm concerned he should still be in prison. He murdered people in this country.'

Mr Curry, circled, used a sledgehammer to break a window in the central London building to free the staff there being held by gunmen. The the n 27-year-old special forces soldier was called upon to carry out the potentially deadly mission when an explosive that was meant to blow a ground floor window in failed to explode. He ran forward, kicked the charge out of the way, smashed the window with a single blow and was the first to climb inside

Mr Curry, who helped to save 19 hostages during the embassy siege, said: 'If it wasn't for the legion, I would be sleeping in my car or on a park bench.

He also revealed that in one of the B&Bs he has stayed in since he became homeless he had to ask permission to go to the toilet.

He said: 'I had limited company from 1989 to last year, but when the MoD pulled the contract it all snowballed from there. I was left homeless on the streets and it went form bad to worse.

'I got 20,000 for medals but it all went into the business.

'It was heartbreaking because I was awarded them by this great country we live in. And it's not just me. It's the other veterans - the 13,00 of them living on the street.

'They were normal people when they went into the military. We owe them a debt of gratitude.'

Mr Curry stormed the Iranian Embassy during the iconic 1980 raid but is now living in a B&B because the council cannot find him a home

Mr Curry added: 'We have had a constant battle with the council, we really have.

'It wasn't until the ex mayor of Hereford stepped in and started asking questions that anything has happened.

'But to this day I still haven't got anywhere to live.'

Last week MailOnline reported that another hero, Warrant Officer Ian 'Chalky' White, who also stormed the embassy, was foced to sell his hard-earned medals in a bid to stay afloat.

Fowzi Nejad, 61, the only terrorist to survive the siege in 1980, cannot be sent back to Iran because of human rights laws so instead lives in Peckham, south London (shown in 2008)

SAS hero Bob Curry is pictured in his SAS days, during which he saw action in the Falklands War and Northern Ireland

Bob Curry, 64, was forced to ask for help from the SAS after Herefordshire Council failed to provide any accommodation

Their issues are in stark contrast to Nejad. A friend of his previously told The Sun: 'He lives off benefits and is on disability because he has a bad back.

'He also loves a night out in the West End and he has an eye for the ladies. He will say, "I went out, had a drink and got some p****". Its a proper playboy lifestyle.'

Nejad and five other gunmen forced their way into the embassy in West London in April 1980, demanding independence for part of southern Iran and taking 26 hostages.

They killed a hostage after six days, which led then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to order the SAS to storm the building. A second hostage was killed in the attack.

Nejad tried to hide among the hostages, but was caught and sentenced to life in jail for conspiracy to murder, false imprisonment, possession of a firearm and two charges of manslaughter.

He was rumbled by heroes including Ian White, who had to sell of his old medals last year to pay off his mortgage and finally retire.

Mr White, who served in the military for 25 years, said Britain should do more to help ex-servicemen.

Speaking in November, the ex-commando said: 'This is not a cry of poverty, it is my decision. I am end-gaming. I am trying to make a better life to finish with rather than be spluttering about.

Warrant Officer Ian 'Chalky' White (left) and Warrant Officer John Thompson (right), both veterans of the 1980 siege, have sold their medals since ending their military careers

Mr White, who served in the military for 25 years, said Britain should do more to help ex-servicemen

Ian White had to sell of his old medals (shown) last year to pay off his mortgage and retire

'It would be nice to think that I didn't have to do it. I know there are a lot of guys (ex-servicemen) who are up against it and maybe they could get more help.

'In America their veterans get money off this, that and the other but here there is a great amount of "let's diss the forces". Those people should stand up and take the bullets rather than stand behind them and diss them.'



Fowzi Nejad arrives at court in a prison van (pictured left). Nejad tried to hide among the hostages, but was caught and sentenced to life in jail

Fellow veteran Trevor Coult, a recipient of the Military Cross, revealed the soldier's plight in a tweet today, provoking the anger or many other social media users

Warrant Officer John Thompson also sold of his medals, back in 2012, after finding out how valuable they were after going on the ITV antiques programme Real Deal.

Mr Thompson was one of a SAS team flown into London by helicopter who then stormed the building by abseiling from the roof in a successful rescue bid that killed five of the terrorists.

Thompson and one of his three colleagues from A squadron were sent to the front of building where they fired gas canisters into the embassy - and were pictured doing so.

Former police man Trevor Lock, who was among the hostages taken during the siege, called for action to be taken to help Mr Curry.

The 78-year-old told MailOnline: 'It's such a sad situation. Nobody deserves to be homeless, especially those who have been in the military, but that is just my opinion.

'Different people deal with situations in different ways. I don't know his circumstances but some people struggle to deal with civvy life and adapting to it all.

'I feel very sorry for him and wish him well. He was the best of the best and now he is in this position. I needs sorting as far as I'm concerned.'

According to Mr Coult (pictured), the regiment is currently paying for the veteran to stay in a local B&B for several months.

Former sergeant Trevor Coult, who was awarded the Military Cross in 2006 for his bravery in a machine-gun ambush involving suicide bombers and gunmen in Baghdad, was made aware of his plight.

Mr Coult, who has spoken to the homeless veteran, told the Mail: This hero abseiled in and went through one of the windows with a charge and cleared rooms.

He eliminated targets in the Iranian embassy.

It is a disgrace this veteran is not being looked after. If we cant sort out these veterans in Hereford, where they lived, then what hope is there for other heroes?

It is understood the regiment have been paying for Mr Curry's B&B for around a month.

In 2015 the SAS veteran put his medals up for sale. He was one of the first to break into the besieged London building in May 1980 after 26 people were held hostage by six armed Iranian dissidents.

The special forces soldier, aged 27 at the time, was watched by millions of TV news viewers as he smashed open a window with a sledgehammer, allowing his colleagues to sensationally storm the building.

The Iranian embassy siege: The day the SAS emerged from the shadows The siege began when a group of six gunmen stormed into the Iranian embassy in South Kensington, London, on April 30th 1980. They took mostly embassy staff hostage but among them was BBC sound recordist Sim Harris who was at the embassy to get a visa. PC Trevor Locke, a member of the diplomatic protection squad and on duty at the building, was also among those held at gunpoint. The terrorists demanded the release of prisoners in Khuzestan Province in southern Iran during a series of tense negotiations with the police who sealed off the embassy and surrounding streets. The gunmen also demanded safe passage out of the Britain. The veteran was among those who took part in the famous SAS raid of the Iranian embassy in 1980 After becoming frustrated with the lack of progress over five days they shot one of the hostages and threw his body out of the embassy. The death was the signal for the SAS - motto Who Dares Wins  to be sent in. The SAS teams, who had arrived secretly in London from their Hereford base, were given permission by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to carry out a rescue mission given the code name Operation Nimrod. On the evening of May 5th TV news cut into normal programming to broadcast the beginning of the end of the siege as the SAS soldiers all clad in black abseiled down the front of the building. Millions watched in awe as they tossed stun grenades into the building to begin their assault. BBC cameraman Sim Harris was captured scurrying to safety, jumping over a balcony, while smoke billowed from the building after a curtain caught fire. What was unseen by cameras were the other teams  including Horsfall and Firmin - sweeping through the building in a race to free the hostages before they were shot. The raid lasted just 17 minutes and all but one of the six gunmen were shot and killed. A second hostage was shot dead by the gunmen and two others seriously wounded. The televised raid was the first time the British public had ever seen the Special Forces soldiers in action and elevated them to superstar status. Fawsi Najad, the surviving gunman, was jailed for life and freed in 2008 after serving 27 years. He was granted leave to remain in the UK. Advertisement

The 11-minute mission, which became a seminal moment in SAS history, was ordered by home secretary William Whitelaw on the sixth day of the siege after the terrorists shot dead a member of staff before dumping his body outside the embassy.

As millions of Britons watched the drama unfold, Curry ran towards the building, despite the risk that a failed explosive which was due to blow open a way into the embassy could still go off.

He then kicked the charge out of the way, smashed the window and was the first to climb inside.

His heroic actions allowed a crack squad of four SAS soldiers to enter the rear of the building in South Kensington and clear the ground floor and the cellar.

Five gunmen were killed and one was arrested. Although one hostage died, 19 were freed.

Afterwards, one SAS hero was awarded the George Medal and four others were given the Queens Gallantry Medal but Curry was not one of them.

He did however earn campaign medals for his service in Northern Ireland and the Falklands War.

It is understood he was made homeless after he split from his wife last year and contacted the council asking for accommodation.

The televised raid was the first time the British public had ever seen the Special Forces soldiers in action and elevated them to superstar status

He asked five times, it was claimed, but they offered him two homes which allegedly he claims were not suitable.

Curry was born in Cambridgeshire in 1953 and enlisted in the Royal Anglian Regiment as a 15 year-old junior soldier in 1968.

After serving in Northern Ireland, he passed the tough selection course for the SAS in 1979, training as an assault team member specialising in storming buildings held by terrorists.

After the Iranian Embassy siege he served with the SAS in the Falklands War and Northern Ireland.

Discharged in 1985, he spent three years working for the Al Fayed family, including one year as the personal bodyguard of Dodi Al Fayed, later killed alongside Diana, Princess of Wales in a Paris car crash.

A spokesman for Herefordshire Council confirmed an agreement was yet to be reached on a home for the veteran, but said two offers had been made.

A statement read: Herefordshire Council can confirm that it is actively working with this individual to secure accommodation within the county.

Unfortunately, to date the individual has not provided all the documentation needed to legally register for housing.

However, regardless of this, the councils housing team has found and offered two different forms of accommodation, in areas which were agreeable to the individual, but which have subsequently been turned down.

We are continuing to work with the individual to help them secure appropriate housing.
The EU is plotting to force Theresa May into a 'soft' Brexit by refusing to agree a trade deal for the City of London, it has been claimed.

European Council president Donald Tusk is said to be orchestrating the high-risk strategy.

Leaders in Brussels reportedly plan to reject Britain's bid to get a bespoke sectoral deal when trade talks start in earnest in April.

Instead, they will say the Prime Minister's 'red lines' of pulling out the single market and customs union mean the UK can only be given a limited free trade agreement.

They believe this will harden views among MPs and pile pressure on Mrs May - who has no overall Tory majority - to soften her Brexit strategy.

European Council president Donald Tusk (pictred in the European Parliament last week) is said to be orchestrating the high-risk strategy, which would see the EU stubbornly refuse to give Britain a bespoke sector by sector deal in the hope this will force the PM's hand to soften Brexit

At the same time as playing hard ball in trade talks, the EU reportedly plan to adopt a 'forgive and forget' strategy to hold the door open to Britain staying in the Brussels club.

They hope this pincer movement will force the Prime Minister's hand and in the Brexit negotiations.

Ukip chief Henry Bolton - who is clinging on as leader after losing a confidence vote last night - broke his silence to hit out at the secret strategy.

He said on Twitter: 'What is it about these people? We voted for our Independence in all things. If they dont get that were going to have to remind them!'

A European diplomat told The Times: 'The warm messaging that the door is open for Britain to stay in the EU will continue.

'In contrast, negotiations are going to show what a hard road lies ahead for Britain.'

A negotiator told the paper: 'There has been a very noticeable shift as the year starts to make it all less palatable.'

In Britain, there are signs that arch Remainers inside Labour's ranks could manage to change party policy to keep Britain inside the customs union.

And Remain-backing politicians inside the Cabinet, including Chancellor Philip Hammond and Business Secretary Greg Clark, are said to be plotting to try to exert pressure on the PM for a rethink.

One source told the paper that they think even leading Brexiteers like Michael Gove could be pushed to change direction.

But any attempt to keep the UK in the customs union - which would stop the country from negotiating new free trade deals around the world - or free movement rules are likely to be fiercely contested by Tory MPs.

Last night Boris Johnson blasted a bid by a business group to urge Britain to stay in the customs union.

Theresa May, pictured heading to church yesterday morning with her husband Philip in her Maidenhead constituency , has vowed to pull the UK out of the customs union and single market so we can strike new free trade deals around the world and regain control of Britain's borders

Ukip chief Henry Bolton broke his silence after losing a confidence vote in his leadership to hit out at the EU's secret strategy

Yesterday the CBI, Britain's main business group, called for a rethink on the customs union, warning: 'There may come a day when the opportunity to fully set independent trade policies outweighs the value of a customs union with the EU.

'A day when investing time in fast-growing economies elsewhere eclipses the value of frictionless trade in Europe. But that day hasn't yet arrived.'

But the Foreign Secretary hit back saying: 'Staying in the customs union means effectively staying in the EU: the EU is a customs union.

'It means no new free trade deals, no new export opportunities, and no leading role in the WTO (world Trade Organisation).'

While a new poll by The UK in a Changing Europe think tank found that three quarters believe it would be unacceptable for freedom of movement to continue during the transition period.

And more than 60 per cent also opposed any European Court of Justice jurisdiction in the UK after March 2019.
The Dublin hotel accused of 'bullying' a YouTube vlogger who asked for a free stay in exchange for a positive review has invoiced her nearly 5.3m for 'publicity'.

Elle Darby, 22, of Bath, Somerset, wrote to Paul Stenson, the owner of the White Moose Cafe and Charleville Lodge Hotel in Dublin and asked if he would like to 'collaborate'.

'I would love to feature you in my Youtube videos/dedicated Instagram stories/posts to bring traffic to your hotel and recommend others to book up in return for free accommodation,' she wrote.

Social media row: Paul Stenson, the owner of the White Moose Cafe and Charleville Lodge Hotel in Dublin, is asking that YouTube vlogger Elle Darby, pictured, pay up for all the publicity he has goten her over the past week

But her note was greeted with disdain by Mr Stenson, who not only poured scorn on the request but also posted the exchange online.

Mr Stenson, who famously barred vegans from his cafe in 2015, did not identify Ms Darby in his post, but Ms Darby outed herself after spotting it online and seeing the comments it attracted.

The hotel and cafe proprietor has now sent Ms Darby, who has 87,000 YouTube subscribers and 76,000 Instagram followers, an invoice for the publicity she has received in the wake of their exchange going viral.

The invoice states that she is being charged for 'the provision of features in 114 articles across 20 countries with a potential reach of 450 million people', and that the publicity Mr Stenson has obtained for her would be valued at 4.3m plus VAT.

Pay up: The hotel and cafe proprietor sent Ms Darby this invoice for the publicity she has gotten in the wake of their exchange going viral - valued at 4.3m plus VAT

Joker: Mr Stenson, famously barred vegans from his cafe in 2015 and has now also banned bloggers from his venues, placing a jug of 'tears of bloggers' on his counter

Influencer: Ms Darby has 87,000 YouTube subscribers and 76,000 Instagram followers

The 22-year-old blogs and records videos about beauty and fitness

He also posted a picture of a jug containing 'tears of bloggers' after getting attacked on social media when he posted his email exchange with Ms Darby online.

In his original post on social media, Mr Stenson included Ms Darby's email requesting a free stay, as well as his own reply to her, in which he told her she lacked 'self-respect and dignity.'

'Thank you for your email looking for free accommodation in return for exposure,' he said.

'It takes a lot of balls to send an email like that, if not much self-respect and dignity.

'If I let you stay here in return for a feature in your video, who is going to pay the staff who look after you? Who is going to pay the housekeepers who clean your room?

She asked about a 'possible collaboration' involving free accommodation at Charleville Lodge Hotel (pictured) in Dublin

Elle Darby wrote to Paul Stenson, the owner of the White Moose Cafe and Charleville Lodge Hotel in Dublin, asking about a 'possible collaboration.' He poured scorn on her request and shared it on Facebook

'The waiters who serve you breakfast? The receptionist who checks you in? Who is going to pay for the light and heat you use during your stay? The laundering of your bed sheets? The water rates?

'Maybe I should tell my staff they will be featured in your video in lieu of receiving payment for work carried out while you're in residence?'

Despite not being names in the post, Ms Darby responded by posting a video on her YouTube channel, with the title: 'i was exposed (SO embarrassing)'.

In the video, she claimed people over the age of 30 'had no idea how social media works these days' and revealed she had received hundreds of messages of abuse.

'I feel disgusting having to say this. As a 22-year-old girl, who's running her own business from her home, I don't feel like I did anything wrong,' she said.

Ms Darby responded by posting a video on her YouTube channel, with the title: 'i was exposed (SO embarrassing)'

Ms Darby claimed Mr Stenson's actions had led to her being targeted by online trolls

Ms Darby also claimed the response of hindering 'the younger generation from doing what they enjoy'

The emotional vlogger accused internet trolls of targeting her.

She added: 'These were all 30 years plus people internet bullying a 22-year-old girl who is just trying to run her own business and raise awareness of what appeared to be a stunning Dublin hotel.'

Ms Darby also claimed the response was hindering 'the younger generation from doing what they enjoy' and that she 'cried my eyes out in my car alone'.

In a follow-up post on Facebook, the hotel announced that all bloggers are banned from the business.

Mr Stenson wrote: 'I never thought we would be inundated with negative reviews for the simple reason that somebody was required to pay for goods received or services rendered.

'The girl in question was never identified in my original post, but she herself went on to create a video explaining how she was 'exposed' with 'malicious intent' for asking for a freebie.

'This kind of victimisation is very prevalent in the blogging industry, and is in keeping with their general modus operandi of wanting everything for nothing.

'If any of you attempt to enter our premises from now on, you will be ejected.'
A coroner has slammed a detective for acting as 'judge and jury' in the case of a grandfather who killed himself after being accused of historic sex abuse.

Alan Bailey was 'hounded' to his death after being accused of indecency and rape by a woman who said he had abused her when she was 15, the inquest heard last week.

The father-of-two, who maintained his innocence and was awaiting trial, faced a campaign of intimidation by the woman's partner leaving him 'paranoid' and suicidal.

But when he complained to South Yorkshire Police investigating officer Aneela Khali-Khan, she allegedly told him to 'man up' - failing to probe the harassment he faced.

Alan Bailey (left) complained to South Yorkshire Police investigating officer Aneela Khali-Khan (right), but she allegedly told him to 'Man up' and failed to look into the harassment he suffered

Just days before he was due to stand trial, the 56-year-old drove to a Peak District beauty spot in the village of Miller's Dale and plunged a kitchen knife into his heart.

Minutes before Mr Bailey - who died an innocent man in the eyes of the law - stabbed himself, he texted his daughter to say he had had enough of 'PC s***'. Another text read: 'I'm crying. I'm not guilty. They have broken my heart. Can't go on. Love u. Dad.'

His daughter, Theresa Bailey-Skews, said he also inadvertently phoned her and left a message on which she could hear his scream as he plunged the knife into his heart.

Now a coroner has slammed the police's 'Keystone Kops' handling of the case and said their failure to protect Mr Bailey led to him killing himself.

In a scathing conclusion, Derbyshire's Senior Coroner Dr Robert Hunter said Mr Bailey took his life while the balance of his mind was temporarily disturbed.

He said that was caused by 'the actions of a third party and individual and collective failures of South Yorkshire Police'.

Chesterfield Coroner's Court heard Mr Bailey was first arrested on New Year's Day 2010. The woman's partner contacted police alleging she had been raped by him.

Just days before he was due to stand trial, the 56 year-old drove to a Peak District beauty spot in the village of Miller's Dale (pictured) and plunged a kitchen knife into his heart

Days earlier the two men had been involved in a violent confrontation at his home in Sheffield. The former steelworker was questioned and bailed with no conditions.

Ms Bailey-Skews said his wife Karen moved out and within hours of his arrest he went into a 'downward spiral'. She told the court: 'I saw my dad, he was upset.

Daughter forced to listen helplessly on the phone as her father stabbed himself Alan Bailey's daughter, Theresa Bailey-Skews, said her father inadvertently phoned her and left a message on which she could hear his scream as he plunged the knife into his heart. Earlier on the afternoon of May 19, 2010, she had first become worried about her father after receiving a 'goodbye' text and rang him. Minutes before he stabbed himself, he texted Theresa Bailey-Skews to say he had had enough of 'PC s***'. Another text read: 'I'm crying. I'm not guilty. They have broken my heart. Can't go on. Love u. Dad.' Mr Bailey would only tell her that he was somewhere he loved walking. Frantically his family began a search of his favourite places in the Peak District and found his car in the early evening in the village of Miller's Dale. Ms Bailey-Skews called police, who later spotted her father on a hillside just off a walking trail. When officers approached he collapsed to the floor, bleeding from a chest wound. Advertisement

'He had been drinking and there were cuts to his hands, but he refused to go to hospital. He had changed, it was like I was looking at a stranger.'

The evening before he was due to answer bail, Ms Khali-Khan rang to say his estranged partner wanted to move back in the house.

She told him his wife should not suffer because 'she had done no wrong'. On February 18 he was charged with a series of sex offences against the woman.

The next day he appeared at court and was granted bail until his trial. But he was forced out of his home and ended up in a hostel for drug addicts and the homeless.

Eventually his daughters rented him a one bedroom flat and he returned to work as a delivery driver for Asda.

But his alleged victim's partner started turning up at the store and then driving slowly past Mr Bailey's flat, on one occasion with the woman in his car.

He reported four incidents of harassment, but no officers visited him. He became increasingly 'jittery' and 'tearful' fearing he would be re-arrested for breaching his bail, though he had done nothing wrong.

Ms Khali-Khan, who joined South Yorkshire Police in 2003, was a detective constable at the time with two years' experience in the criminal investigation department.

Last year she was promoted to Acting Detective Inspector. She confirmed ringing Mr Bailey to mediate between him and his wife over who should be living at the home.

Dr Hunter asked the officer: 'You said his wife had 'done no wrong'. What wrong, at that point, had Mr Bailey done? He had none. You assumed he was guilty?'

Ms Khali-Khan, who had no record of the phone call, replied: 'I would not have assumed that.'

Mr Bailey drove to the Derbyshire village of Miller's Dale (pictured) and left a note in his car which said: 'I'm scared to do this. I'm not guilty of rape or abuse'

Mr Bailey's other daughter Angela Bailey said after her father reported the other man driving past his house on April 22, Ms Khali-Khan rang him and told him to 'Man up'.

The coroner asked the officer about the phone call. She said they had a 'lengthy conversation', but her notes ran to just seven lines.

She could not remember Mr Bailey saying he was scared for his safety or that she told him 'no law had been broken'.

She claimed he only asked her to have 'words of advice' with the man. The coroner said he doubted her version of events. She denied telling Mr Bailey to 'man up'.

Dr Hunter asked why she had not fully investigated the intimidation or a possible case of perverting the course of justice that could have affected legal proceedings.

'You did not take him seriously, you dismissed him,' he told the officer. 'I put it to you that you had already acted as judge and jury and had already formed an opinion about Mr Bailey's guilt.'

'I disagree with that,' replied Ms Khali-Khan.

Over the following weeks Mr Bailey was subjected to more harassment, but did not report it. He lost faith in the justice system and his depression deepened.

On May 19, 2010 Mr Bailey drove to the Derbyshire village of Miller's Dale. He left a note in his car which said: 'I'm scared to do this. I'm not guilty of rape or abuse.'

Around mid-afternoon Ms Bailey-Skews became worried when she received a 'goodbye' text and rang him, but he would only say he was somewhere he loved walking.

Ms Khali-Khan (left) confirmed ringing Mr Bailey (right) to mediate between him and his wife over who should be living at the home

Frantically his family began a search of his favourite places in the Peak District and found his car in the early evening and called police.

At around 7.30pm two officers spotted Mr Bailey on a hillside just off a walking trail. When they approached he collapsed to the floor, bleeding from a chest wound.

Two knives were found nearby, one of them, a 11.5cm (4.5in) long serrated kitchen knife was blood stained.

The blade had punctured the heart and caused a 'slow bleed' into the pericardial sack around it, constricting the organ. Tests showed he had been drinking.

Police, paramedics and an air ambulance doctor battled in vain to save him.

Concluding he took his life while the balance of his mind was 'temporarily disturbed' the coroner added: 'This in part was contributed to by the actions of a third party and by individual and collective failures of South Yorkshire Police from taking appropriate action to mitigate relevant and genuine concerns.'

Dr Hunter said Mr Bailey 'lost all confidence in the force, his mental state deteriorated, and he had begun to self-harm'.

He called the investigation 'not fit for purpose' and said issues raised during the week-long inquest were 'extremely serious'.

Chesterfield Coroner's Court (above) heard Mr Bailey was first arrested in January 2010

He added: 'I feel Mr Bailey would have been better served by the Keystone Cops as opposed to South Yorkshire Police.

'When a complaint is made the police have a duty to investigate it thoroughly. Mr Bailey called the police four times and each time his concerns were dismissed.'

Dr Hunter accepted South Yorkshire Police's practices have improved significantly since 2010, but said he would be referring the force to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (formerly the IPCC) over the actions of officer Khalil-Khan.

He described her investigation as 'incompetent' and said there were 'serious questions about her conduct and probity that needed to be addressed'. She also 'missed opportunities' to deal with the intimidation.

Dr Hunter also referred the force over their handling of the family's complaint after Mr Bailey's death. He questioned their internal investigation and said his daughters received 'platitudes and a whitewash'.

After the hearing Ms Bailey said: 'We always felt that the police woman had made up her mind that Dad was guilty. What ever happened to innocent until proved guilty?'

A South Yorkshire Police spokesman said the force was aware of the coroner's comments.

The force added: 'As the coroner has referred the matter to the Independent Office for Police Complaints (IOPC) we are not able to comment further at this time, but will do so following the IOPCs findings.'
This is the shocking moment a four-year-old boy enjoyed smoking cigarettes at home in southern China.

Neighbours said they have seen the boy smoking for about one to two years already.

Some said he picked up cigarettes on the floor or stole them from shops inside local schools, reported btime.com.

A four-year-old boy is seen smoking cigarettes while sitting on a bamboo chair with his legs crossed (left). His grandparents were watching him as his parents were away (right)

The four-year-old boy, who remained anonymous, can be seen sitting on a bamboo chair with his legs crossed and having a cigarette in his hands while chewing coconut snacks.

It's also said that the boy was smoking while his grandparents were filming and laughing. The grandparents were said to be playing majhong nearby.

The footage was believed to be filmed in a local community, near Xinhua county of Hunan Province.

Another footage showed him lying on a bench and casually making smoke rings.

According to btime.com, the clip has sparked discussion among a closed chat group on Wechat, a Chinese instant messaging app.

There are neighbours said to have seen the boy smoking for about one to two years (left). Footage shows the boy inhaling the cigarettes and exhaling a smoke ring (right)

The boy is confirmed to be a 'left-behind' children after local town officials investigated the case (left). His grandparents were given verbal warning for letting children smoke (right)

Some neighbours claimed to have seen the boy stealing cigarettes from school's tuck shops and picking used cigarettes from the floor.

One said the boy had been smoking for a year or two.

Zeng Xiong, the deputy secretary of Wentian town government, told a reporter from btime.com: 'The children's parents are working in another city. He is being looked after by his grandparents.'

Government officials have visited the boy's home and gave a verbal warning to the grandparents.
Former Prime Minister David Cameron has been spotted in Disneyland Paris sporting a flat cap and enjoying the theme park's rides with his family.

Dozens of people have taken to social media to say they have spotted the former Tory party leader in and around Paris over the weekend.

One tourist wrote on Twitter: 'Currently eating in the same restaurant as David Cameron in Paris kmttt.'

A Twitter user posted a picture of her at the happiest place on earth with the former PM in the background sporting a flat cap,a North Face waterproof jacket and a glum expression

Another claimed to have see him in the French capital on Saturday, writing: 'Just seen David Cameron up the Eiffel Tower.'

A twitter user posted a picture of her at the happiest place on earth with the former PM in the background sporting a flat cap,a North Face waterproof jacket and a slightly glum expression.

She wrote: 'As if I was just stood next to David Cameron at Disneyland and I bottled it. Glad to see hes still enjoying free movement of people in the EU.'

The former MP for Witney left Number 10 in July 2016.

Dozens of people have taken to social media to say they have spotted the former Tory party leader in and around Paris over the weekend

In October he landed a job with the US electronic payments firm First Data Corporation, working for two or three days a month for the company.

His second job, announced in December, is leading a billion-dollar investment initiative agreed between the UK and China.

Earlier this month MailOnline reported that Chinese business chiefs paid more than 12,000 to have dinner with the former British prime minister as he visited the country to discuss a new UK-China investment fund.

Deep-pocketed guests at a high-end social event in Shanghai were reportedly encouraged to pay 109,800 yuan (12,519) so they could meet Mr Cameron at the Shanghai International Ball and Leaders Forum, according to the BBC.

Mr Cameron is currently writing his memoirs.
An unemployed father-of-four who drove a van into a group of worshippers outside a mosque, murdering a grandfather, had become obsessed with Muslims after watching a TV drama about the Rochdale grooming gang, a court has heard.

Darren Osborne, 48, crushed Makram Ali, 51, under the wheels of his rented Citroen van and injured nine other men near the Muslim Welfare House in Finsbury Park, north London in June last year, jurors heard.

Osborne allegedly jumped out of the vehicle and shouted: 'I'm going to kill all Muslims  I did my bit,' after attacking worshippers who had recently left night-time prayers.

The court heard he launched the attack days after watching the BBC drama 'Three Girls', a dramatisation of the Rochdale grooming scandal.

A rambling letter found in the van's cab hit out at Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, London mayor Sadiq Khan and singer Lily Allen over their responses to Islamist terror attacks and Asian sex gangs, the court heard.

Darren Osborne was said to have carried out a van attack on Muslims in Finsbury Park after becoming incensed about terrorism and the Rotherham sex abuse scandal

Osborne allegedly drove this hired van onto the pavement and into a crowd near the mosque

Osborne had searched for Britain First, who the prosecutor referred to as a 'far right' group, as well as Tommy Robinson and Jayda Fransen, the court heard.

His partner Sarah Andrews described Osborne as 'something of a loner' and an 'alcoholic', it was said.

She also said he had become 'obsessed with Muslims' after they watched the BBC drama 'Three Girls', documenting the Rochdale grooming gangs, broadcast on 16 May, 2017.

'He seemed brainwashed and totally obsessed with the subject,' Ms Armstrong said. 'He has been openly saying a lot of racist things and tarring all Muslims with the same brush.'

This was said to be the 'catalyst' of Osborne's obsession.

Osborne had written a note shortly before attack decrying terror attacks at the Manchester Arena, Westminster Bridge and London Bridge, as well as the 'lack of reaction' from London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

He also denounced Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and singer Lilly Allen not condemning the Rotherham child sex abuse scandal.

Osborne's partner said he was a loner and alcoholic who became 'obsessed with Muslims'

A group of Muslims held Osborne at the scene until police arrived and arrested him at 12.20am outside a cafe near the Muslim Welfare House on Seven Sisters Road.

Prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC told Woolwich Crown Court: 'To seek to kill merely because of their religion is a terrible thing and what makes this act particularly horrific is that the group he drove into had gathered in the street in order to help Makram Ali, the deceased.'

Makram Ali was killed in the attack

The prosecutor read the contents of the note to the court, saying: 'Why are there terrorists on our streets today?

'We have three recent terror attacks where children splattered against the walls of concerts - part and parcel by all accounts according to Sadiq Khan.

'No it isn't, how can you let this happen?'

Osborne referred to white British girls being sexually abused as part of the Rotherham scandal, prosecutors say.

The note continues: 'Where were you in Rotherham, Lilly Allen, Jeremy Corbyn? Nowhere to be seen.'

He goes on to tell Muslims to 'go back to the desert... and climb back on your camels'.

Osborne signs off the note by saying: 'Peaceful vigils only and don't look back in anger. God save the Queen.'

The note was recovered by police from within the van after the attack.

The prosecution claims that the note, which had Osborne's fingerprints on it, and the comments he made after the attack establish that the attack was an act of terrorism.

Unemployed 'loner' was 'ticking time bomb' of rage, says his ex The ex partner of Darren Osborne said he was a 'ticking time-bomb' of rage, a court heard. Sarah Andrews said Osborne made racist comments about all Muslims raping children and being capable of blowing people up after watching the BBC drama Three Girls, She said that the London Bridge and Manchester Arena terror attacks, which followed soon after, 'seemed to fuel the rage inside him'. The court heard a catalyst for the attack was Osborne watching 'Three Girls', a BBC drama about the Rochdale grooming scandal The court heard how devices seized from his Cardiff home showed internet searches for Britain First, the English Defence League and a video, said to be fake, which purportedly showed Muslims celebrating following the Paris terror attack. It appeared to Ms Andrews that the defendant was becoming brainwashed, and with the benefit of hindsight she described him a 'ticking time-bomb', Mr Rees said. She is said to have referred to her partner as a 'loner and a functioning alcoholic' with an 'unpredictable temperament'. Mr Rees said Ms Andrews felt their relationship had broken down during the last year to the extent that they did not really speak with each other any more. She revealed Osborne, who was on medication for anxiety and depression, had threatened to kill himself twice in the weeks leading up to the incident by putting cable ties round his neck, he said. Unemployed for the last decade, the defendant felt worthless and that he did not fit in, according to his partner. Advertisement

The day before the attack Osborne announced in a Cardiff pub that he wanted to write to Theresa May, claiming that Labour had 'gone to the dogs'.

Osborne hired the van in Wales and had driven from Cardiff to London, intending to drive it into the Al Quds Day march through central London organised by the Islamic Human Rights Conmission, the court heard.

The father-of-four had called Pontyclun Van Hire in Mid Glanorgan to enquire about hiring the van on Friday 16 June 2017, just three months after Khalid Masood's Westminster Bridge attack which saw four dead.

The next day Osborne paid 170 for the white van with 'Pontyclun Van Hire' marked on the side and attended the Hollybush pub, not far from his home in Pentwyn.

In the pub he falsely claimed to be a soldier in the British Army to Callum Spence, a serving soldier with the Royal Engineers 2-4 Commando, and had told Mr Spence: 'Your families are all going to be Muslim. I'm going to take it into my own hands', the court heard.

This was the scene in Finsbury Park following the incident after 12.15am on June 19 last year

Osborne allegedly intended to target the Al Quds Day march the following day which began in Portland Place just after 4pm, before deciding to attack the Seven Sisters site instead.

After the attack, he was heard to say: 'At least I had a proper go,' jurors were told.

Mr Ali died from multiple injuries at the scene at 1.04am, while nine men were rushed to hospital  two in a critical condition.

The worshippers had gathered round Mr Ali to administer first aid shortly before the attack when he suffered a suspected heart attack just after midnight.

Osborne, of Cardiff, denies murdering Mr Ali and the attempted murder of people at the junction of Seven Sisters Road and Whadcoat Street, which is close to the mosque.

He was raised in Weston-Super-Mare, but moved to Pentwyn, Cardiff, in 2006. The trial continues.
Tense footage shows a daredevil climber dangling by one hand from a 1,200-foot tower while giving a thumbs up to the camera.

Alex Nomernoy, 19, ascends the huge operating tower in Russia with no safety equipment, shimmying up dozens of narrow bars during the terrifying expedition.

And the Muscovite wastes no time in celebrating his incredible climb when he reaches the top.

After hoisting himself over the edge, he holds on to a spindly bar with just one hand while giving a thumbs up to his fans.

The thrill-seeker then makes a running motion with his feet against the backdrop of stunning panoramic views.

Alex, who regularly climbs high rise structures and buildings, captured the stunning views on his GoPro camera.

Relaxed: Alex Nomernoy, 19, ascends the huge operating tower in Russia with no safety equipment, giving a thumbs up to the camera when he reaches the top

Nerve wracking: He can be seen shimmying up dozens of narrow bars during the terrifying expedition

'The tower is highly secured, so I had to go early in the morning when the security guards aren't looking at the cameras,' he said.

'I had to climb over several fences on my way before climbing up the tower itself.

'It's 370 metres high but luckily I'm not afraid of heights so the climb wasn't too scary, the only thing I was concerned about was the cold wind at the top!

Risking his life: The daredevil dangles over the edge of the enormous structure while celebrating his ascent

A long way up: The operating tower is 1,200-feet high and overlooks the stunning landscapes below

Bird's-eye view: Footage from the top of the tower shows the great expanse of forest below

'When I got to the top I could feel the tower swinging side to side because of the wind.

'Then when I climbed down I thought the police were waiting for me, but fortunately I as mistaken and no one had noticed me.'

Alex described the passion he has for his work, detailing the techniques he uses to get his amazing shots.

'I really like to look at different towns and cities from an unusual perspective,' he said.

'A few years ago, I climbed to the roof of a tall building for the first time, there I realised how beautiful views are from heights.

The thrill-seeker gestures towards the beautiful view from the top of the tower in his latest terrifying stunt

'Since then, I've climbed numerous rooftops and towers, taking beautiful photos and videos so that people who are maybe afraid of heights can watch them online.

'I usually shoot with my GoPro camera and Canon 600D, I want to show people that you shouldn't look at the world from just one angle and there is something more than just walking through the streets.

'Most people are delighted with my photos, they like to look at photos from a height, especially those who are afraid to climb themselves.'

Alex has gained a large online following for his outrageous stunts, which include hanging from the front of a 75mph train while listening to music on his iPhone.
Tory grandees joined a backlash against Theresa May today as Sir Nicholas Soames branded her Government 'dull, dull, dull'.

Senior backbenchers and Cabinet ministers have joined forces to demand the Prime Minister pump billions more into the NHS.

Mrs May triggered the latest bout of infighting with her response to a cross-party letter demanding change in the health service with a promise to 'engage' with all sides and publish a policy paper.

Senior Conservatives reacted furiously to the letter from Mrs May, branding it 'disappointing' and lacking ambition.

The new clashes came after Boris Johnson signalled he would lead Cabinet demands for an extra 100million a week for hospitals.

Theresa May (pictured yesterday in Maidenhead with husband Philip) faced a major revolt on the NHS today as furious backbenchers were joined by five Cabinet ministers in demanding extra funding

Tory grandees joined a backlash against Theresa May today as Sir Nicholas Soames (pictured with a WWI tank in Trafalgar Square) branded her Government 'dull, dull, dull'

Grandee Sir Nicholas led the backlash today as he warned voters must be given positive reasons to vote Conservative

Mrs May's letter, sent to Liberal Democrat Norman Lamb who coordinated the cross party call, promised a green paper on social care and engagement with all parties but it has been derided by MPs as inadequate

Grandee Sir Nicholas led the backlash today as declared: 'It really wont be enough to get people to vote against The Corbini they must have really sound reasons to vote Conservative.

'We really need to get on with this.'

He then included a hash tag reading 'where's the bold and brave so far it's dull, dull, dull.'

Former Conservative minister Nick Boles, who has twice been treated for cancer, branded the response a 'disappointment' and added: 'This is not a time for business as usual on funding of NHS and social care.'

Health Committee chairwoman Sarah Wollaston said: 'The response lacks ambition.

'We need a clear understanding from PM that NHS, public health & social care are inextricably linked and urgency of the need to review current & long term funding as a single system.'

Johnny Mercer added: 'A disappointing response to a letter I was pleased to sign.

'This is the issue of our generation of politicians, regardless of how it 'polls' in focus groups.

'Like Defence, there are some challenges Government of the day must meet, or face a reality check at the ballot box.'

Former Conservative minister Nick Boles (file image), who has twice been treated for cancer, branded the PM's response a 'disappointment'

Senior backbenchers Heidi Allen and Johnny Mercer both slammed the response from Mrs May, warning the Government had to do more

Leading rebel Heidi Allen tweeted: 'Really? We have waited since 18 November for this reply? Not good enough.

'Our Prime Minister needs to prove she can deal with the biggest challenge of our time and now.'

Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson is said to have enlisted the support of other key ministers in the Cabinet for his plan - including Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove.

Mr Johnson famously travelled across in a bus that told voters the NHS could get an extra 350m when we quit the Brussels club.

And he has been pressing to see the pledge honoured, and last week made headlines for saying the figures had been an 'underestimate'.

Health committee chairwoman Sarah Wollaston said Mrs May's response 'lacks ambition' and there was

Mr Mercer said properly funding the NHS was 'the issue of out generation of politicians' regardless of the electoral ramifications

Ms Allen, who has repeatedly rebelled against the Tory whip, said Mrs May's response was 'not good enough'

Former minister Mr Boles insisted 'this is not a time for business as usual on funding of the NHS

But it is understood Mr Johnson has faced opposition from figures inside No10 who say there is no point the Tories trying to win over voters by championing the NHS - which is usually safe Labour territory.

One of Mr Johnson's allies told The Sunday Times: 'Boris knows that if the Tories are going to beat Corbyn at the next election it is vital that the government commits to more NHS funding.

'He is concerned the Tories are surrendering the No 1 issue to Labour instead of proving that it is only the Conservatives that can deliver a properly funded NHS.'

The PM's chief of staff Gavin Barwell is said to be among those who has voiced opposition to injecting the cash after Brexit.
The president of Ecuador has described WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as an 'inherited problem' that has created 'more than a nuisance' for his government.

President Lenin Moreno said the Ecuadorian government is working on ousting the 46-year-old from its London embassy, and said he soon 'hopes to have a positive result'.

Ecuador recently granted citizenship to Assange, in an unsuccessful attempt to provide him with diplomatic immunity and usher him out of its London embassy without the threat of arrest by Britain.

On the way out: President Moreno said the Ecuadorian government hopes to have a 'positive result' on the issue of Julian Assange, who has lived in their London embassy since 2012

Moreno said his country was continuing to seek mediation involving 'important people,' without specifying whom he meant.

Assange and his advisers are preparing to try to use Ecuadors decision to grant him diplomatic status to force Britain to declare him persona non grata and expel him, a source close to Assange said today.

He and his lawyers assert that if he did leave the Embassy, U.S. authorities would then produce criminal charges against him and seek his extradition to the United States, which they believe could result in a lengthy prison term for the WikiLeaks founder.

The source close to Assange said that his legal team were now working on filing a legal case with the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, seeking to have Assanges Ecuadorean diplomatic status affirmed under international law.

Britains Foreign Office declined to comment.

Ecuadors Foreign Ministry said that only the foreign minister, who is travelling in Chile, was authorized to comment on the Assange standoff.

And as part of their continuing criminal investigation of Assange and WikiLeaks, investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation recently sought new information about years-old contacts between WikiLeaks and Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. Army private who leaked the website thousands of classified U.S. government documents.

Assange fled to the embassy in 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden for alleged sex crimes, which he denies, and has remained in the building ever since.

Stuck: Assange was granted citizenship by Ecuador last month, in an attempt to try to speed up the process of ushering him out of its London embassy

Sweden later shelved its investigation, but Assange faces arrest by British authorities for fleeing justice in the Swedish case.

If arrested, he fears British authorities will then allow his extradition to the United States where he is wanted for publication by WikiLeaks of classified information in 2010.

The WikiLeaks founder has strained the patience of his hosts since taking up the offer of asylum made by then-president Rafael Correa in 2012.

He was publicly reprimanded for interfering in the 2016 US election after publishing hacked emails from the campaign team of Democrat Hillary Clinton.

More recently, he drew the ire of Correa's successor, President Moreno, when he used Twitter to pump out messages of support for Catalonia's independence drive.

Assange was joined by Pamela Anderson for a vegan lunch at the embassy today. The Baywatch star has regularly visited him since they met more than a year ago

Moreno was forced to respond to complaints from the Spanish government.

Commenting on the move to designate Assange a diplomat, Moreno said: 'This would have been a good result, unfortunately, things did not turn out as the foreign ministry planned and so the problem still exists.'

Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa has confirmed that Ecuador will maintain the asylum granted to Assange by the government of former president Rafael Correa.

Assange was joined by Pamela Anderson for a vegan lunch at the embassy today.

The 50-year-old Baywatch star has visited Assange regularly since they were introduced by fashion Designer Vivienne Westwood during a previous trip to the embassy.

'I wouldn't say it's romantic, but we are very close,' the American-Canadian model and philanthropist revealed last year.
Flt Lt Cunningham died on November 8, 2011

A Red Arrows pilot was killed when his faulty ejector seat fired while his jet was still on the ground and threw him 300ft into the air.

Sean Cunningham's parachute then failed to deploy and he suffered fatal injuries.

Martin-Baker Ltd, the company which manufactures the seats, today admitted a number of health and safety offences, which led to the death of the flight lieutenant, 35, on November 8, 2011.

A hearing today heard Cunningham, who served with the RAF's 617 'Dambusters' Squadron, was carrying out pre-flight checks on his Hawk T1 aircraft when the ejector seat engaged suddenly.

The Iraq War veteran, who served several tours, smashed through the canopy and was hurled into the air at the aerobatics team's base at RAF Scampton, near Lincoln.

The main parachute on the Mk 10 Martin Baker seat, which should have saved his life, failed to deploy and he crashed to the ground.

At Lincolnshire Crown Court today, s tatutory director of ejector seat manufacturer Martin-Baker Aircraft Ltd, John Martin, pleaded guilty on behalf of the company at to Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

Flt Lt Cunningham's inquest in 2014 heard that to trigger the 1960s ejector seat pilots must pull the firing handle - fitted between their legs - sharply upwards.

But tests since the tragedy revealed that if the handle was 'locked' in a certain position, a slight downward pressure could unexpectedly launch the ejector seat, the inquest was told.

It was claimed that dangers with the ejector seat were known by manufacturers but never passed on to the Ministry of Defence.

Born in Johannesburg, Flt Lt Cunningham landed the job after a career in the forces which had seen him complete several tours of Iraq.

He joined the RAF in 2000 and after completing training was based with 617 'The Dambusters' Squadron at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland.

The main parachute on the Mk 10 Martin Baker seat, which should have saved his life, failed to deploy and he suffered multiple injuries

Flight Lieutenant Sean Cunningham's parents, Jim and Monika, and sister, Nicky Cunningham, arrive at Lincoln Crown Court today

The Red Arrows Hawk T1 jet showing its smashed canopy being examined by investigators at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire November 9, 2011

Over the next three years, Flt Lt Cunningham was involved in operations in Iraq, flying close air support missions for coalition ground forces.

He started with the Red Arrows in 2010 but was killed in November 2011, aged 35.

In a tribute following his death, his father Jim, mother Monika and sister Nicky said: 'Since his childhood Sean had dreamed of flying fast jets in the Royal Air Force.

'Through his hard work and dedication he achieved that dream and the pinnacle of his career was to fly in the Red Arrows.

'Sean loved his flying and we hope that his life will be an inspiration to all those who share his dreams.

'His fun-loving nature has never failed to put a smile on the faces of those who knew and loved him - this is how he will be remembered.'

Flt Lt Cunningham (left) joined the world-renowned Red Arrows in 2010 and flew in air shows over the summer. Pictured (right) is his sister Nicky at court today

He started with the Red Arrows in 2010 but was killed in November 2011, aged 35 (pictured is his coffin being carried out at his funeral)

Pictured is the world renowned aerobatic display team which have been compiled for 'Red Arrows in Camera', a stunning photographic record of the world of the Reds

Flt Lt Cunningham moved to the UK in 1986 aged nine and attended the Ernesford Grange School in Coventry.

He qualified for his private pilot licence at the age of 17.

He studied electrical and electronic engineering at Nottingham Trent University, and completed Elementary Flying Training as a member of East Midlands University Air Squadron.

Speaking after his death, the then air officer commanding Number 22 (Training) Group, Air Vice-Marshal Mike Lloyd said: 'The Red Arrows personify the teamwork, professionalism and excellence that is common-place throughout the Royal Air Force and Flight Lieutenant Sean Cunningham demonstrated each of these values on a daily basis.

'His contribution to the service as an aviator in the Tornado GR4 Force, as a Red Arrows pilot and as an officer has been outstanding.

'Sean will be missed by all and our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.'

John S Martin (Joint Managing Director, left) and James W Martin (Joint Managing Director) stand behind a joint strike fighter ejector seat in production at Martin-Baker

Group Captain Simon Blake, the commandant of the RAF's Central Flying School, said at the time: 'His constant smile, energy, and joie de vivre was infectious and he will be sorely missed by his fellow pilots, the entire Red Arrows team and his many colleagues and friends in the wider Royal Air Force.

'Our heartfelt sorrow and sympathy go out to his family and all those whose lives he touched.'

In a statement released today, Martin-Baker: 'Firstly and most importantly we express our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Flight Lieutenant Sean Cunningham.

'Today, Martin-Baker Aircraft Company entered a guilty plea to a single breach of Section 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. This plea was entered following detailed and lengthy discussions with the Health and Safety Executive which have considerably narrowed the issues from when its investigation first started.

'It should be noted that this was an isolated failure relating to the tightening of a nut during maintenance procedures conducted by RAF Aerobatic Team (RAFAT) mechanics.

Legal representatives for Martin-Baker Ltd are pictured arriving at Lincoln Crown Court

'Martin-Baker Aircraft Company has designed and manufactured ejection seats for 73 years and in that time these ejection seats have been flown by 92 air forces, with over 17,000 seats currently in use. Our ejection seats have saved the lives of 1,050 British Royal Air Force and Navy aircrew, with a further 6,009 aircrew lives saved around the world.

'Martin-Baker's priority has and will always be the safety of the aircrew who sit on the Company's seats. We appreciate that the Health and Safety Executive, during this process, has acknowledged this dedication and track record of saving lives.

'A further and more detailed press statement will be released at the conclusion of these proceedings.'

A Health and Safety Executive spokesman said: 'HSE acknowledges the defendant's guilty plea but will not make a further comment until after sentencing.

Judge Mrs Justice Carr told the court: 'In light of the defendant's guilty plea the matter will now proceed to sentencing.'

She said the next hearing would be on February 12.

Prosecutor Rex Tedd said: 'The first matter in dispute is the question of design. We say it was defective from the outset.'
Labour left-winger Chris Williamson faced derision today after saying Jeremy Corbyn is a better leader than Clement Attlee - the father of the welfare state.

Mr Williamson said Mr Corbyn is 'the best leader that this party has ever had' in its 117-year history.

But Labour MPs mocked the claim - pointing out that while Mr Attlee's pioneering post-war Government created the NHS and built a generation of social housing, Mr Corbyn has never even won a General Election.

Leading Labour moderate Chris Leslie told Mail Online Mr Williamson was counting his chickens before they are hatched by giving Mr Corbyn the title.

And Labour MP John Mann said it is 'absurdly premature' to rank Mr Corbyn as number one in the pantheon of Labour leaders without setting foot in No10.

Labour leftwinger Chris Williamson went on the Kremlin propaganda channel Russia Today to say that Jeremy Corbyn is 'the best leader that this party has ever had' in its 117-year history - even better than Clement Attlle

In an interview with Kremlin propaganda channel Russia Today, Mr Williamson sang the praises of his party boss saying he will change the balance of power 'forever'.

He said: Jeremy Corbyn is the best leader that this party has ever had and I include Clem Attlee in that as well.

I think Jeremy, given the opportunity, will be a great Prime Minister and will absolutely transform this country and change the balance of power, I think forever, when we get the opportunity to be in Government.'

HOW DO CORBYN AND CLEM COMPARE? Clement Attlee: Helped Britain defeat the Nazis by serving as deputy Prime Minister in Winston Churchill's wartime Government. Secured an historic victory in the 1945 election sweeping Labour to power. Created the modern welfare state as PM, founding the NHS, building a generation of social housing, and making secondary school education free for all Britons for the first time ever. Jeremy Corbyn: Has never been appointed a minister of state despite being an MP for over 30 years. Lost the 2017 General Election despite the Tories running on what was dubbed the worst manifesto ever. Saw most of his frontbench team quit in a bid to oust him as leader and lost a confidence vote by Labour MPs. Advertisement

His comments come just over a week after the firebrand left-winger was sacked as Labours fire spokesman after calling for a council tax hike.

Mr Attlee helped lead Britain to defeat the Nazis by serving as Sir Winston Churchill's deputy in the Second World War.

And in 1945 he won an historic victory and set about creating the modern welfare state while in No10 - founding the NHS and extending secondary school education to all children in Britain.

Meanwhile, Mr Corbyn has never been appointed a minister despite having sat as an MP for nearly 35 years, and has faced repeated attempt by most of his labour MPs to oust him amid widespread criticism of his time in the top job.

Mr Leslie, Labour MP for Nottingham East who served in Tony Blair's Government, said Mr Corbyn needs to win over the electorate before he can be raked number one.

He told Mail Online: Im getting quite concerned that the best traditions of the broad church of the Labour Party where we can look back with pride as to what Labour achieved is slowly slipping away as we shift to a bit of a narrower sect.

And that would be very concerning and not in the best traditions of the party.

Asked who he thinks the best ever Labour leader was, he said: I think it is a combination of different ones.

So, I think Attlee put down some great foundations for welfare and health.

And I think Blair and Brown as a combination brought Labour values back to government. I would go for those two periods.

Clement Attlee (pictured left) created the modern welfare state after being elected to No10 in 1945 while Jeremy Corbyn (pictured right) has never held ministerial office despite being in his fourth decade in the House of Commons

But we havent had that many periods in Government and I think that first we must convince the majority of the country. It is like counting your chickens before they hatch.

Mr Mann, Labour MP for Bassetlaw, said: Well we will only know when he has been Prime Minister. Time will tell, but first of all he needs to get elected.

Clement Attlee won the election  thats always a big advantage.

Its absurdly premature. No comparison can be made until Jeremy has had the opportunity to have five years as Prime Minister.

He needs to come back in 2027 to be able to make that comment.
A courageous firefighter has been reunited with the man whose life he battled to save - but thought had died.

Chris Kendall gave CPR to the victim of a roadside heart attack in June last year, but was told by police the man had passed away.

Five months later, Chris, 33, got a text from a man whose name he'd never known.

Allan Hainey identified himself as the heart attack victim and thanked Chris for saving his life.

Last night the pair met for the first time at the 60th birthday party of Allan, from Wishaw, North Lanarkshire.

It was also the night of Chris, from Maidstone, Kent, 33rd birthday.

Last night Chris (centre) from Maidstone, Kent, met for the first time at the 60th birthday party of Allan (right) from Wishaw, North Lanarkshire. It was also Chris' birthday, he turned 33

Chris (centre) and Allan (right) met for the first time. In November Allan reached out to Chris who saved his life in the previous June

Allan said he was 'so grateful' for Chris and that 'the ambulance crew said I was the closest person to death they had ever seen after such a severe heart attack, but I made it through. I wouldn't be here without Chris'

A beaming Allan told Chris: 'I'm so grateful. The doctors said to me that it was remarkable that I had survived, and that wouldn't have been possible without what you did.

'The ambulance crew said I was the closest person to death they had ever seen after such a severe heart attack, but I made it through. I wouldn't be here without Chris.'

Allan was travelling home from a holiday lodge last summer when he suffered an almost fatal heart attack.

Chris Kendall (right) gave CPR to the victim of a roadside heart attack in June last year, but was wrongly told by police the man, whose name he never knew, had passed away. He later discovered Allan (left) was alive

Luckily, firefighter and former CPR instructor Chris spotted Allan being dragged from his car on the A1 near Cove, Scottish Borders.

Chris, who was living in Kincardine, Fife, at the time of Allan's heart attack, stopped to deliver life-saving compressions for 15 minutes - to the tempo of Staying Alive by the Bee Gees.

Allan, then 59, had a myocardial infarction so severe that it blew three holes in his heart, and without Chris' intervention it is unlikely he would have survived.

However, when Chris contacted police to find out what happened to Allan, he was told that he had passed away.

But Allan had spent 52 days in hospital recovering and having a pacemaker fitted.

While recovering in hospital, Allan tracked down Chris and contacted him to thank him for saving his life

The Police Scotland IT worker was so grateful that he tracked Chris' number down to thank him.

Allan's message, which Chris said came completely out of the blue, said: 'Hi Chris, my name is Allan Hainey. On the evening of Sunday 25th June this year I had 'a bit' of a heart episode near the A1 and Cove village.

'You stopped, assisted and by all accounts from the doctors and surgeons a Edinburgh Infirmary, saved my life.

'My wife, family and myself will be forever grateful.'

Allan invited Chris to his 60th birthday on Saturday night at a private club in Wishaw - the same night as Chris's 33rd birthday.

Allan's wife of 38 years Margo Hainey, who was at the roadside with them when the terrifying events unfolded, said that Chris was now 'part of the family'.

The three of them clearly share a powerful bond, and despite the emotional reunion were jubilant at being able to celebrate Allan's milestone.

Firefighter Chris said: 'It's the best thing I've ever done. It's still very surreal to me, and it's such a strange situation, but I couldn't have wished for a better guy to have come across at the side of the road.'

Allan (left) says he wishes he got in touch with firefigher Chris (right) sooner. He spent five months in hospital recovering after Chris saved his life

And Allan, who spent five months in hospital going through a difficult recovery, said: 'The only thing I regret is that I didn't get in touch with Chris sooner, I would have liked if he had been able to visit me in hospital.'

A touching video captured the moment when Allan and his wife Margo opened his 60th birthday party by dancing to 'Staying Alive' by the BeeGees.

The iconic song now holds a special meaning for the couple, after firefighter Chris kept the tempo of the song in his head while performing CPR on Allan at the side of the road.

Now both men are pushing for more people to learn CPR and Allan has arranged training for 900 employees at Police Scotland HQ.

Chris previously said that getting the text was 'the best news ever'.

He said: 'I thought he was dead, I was informed by the police that he had passed.

'So, I couldn't stop smiling when I got his message. I was so excited, because you never really know if you've done it properly.

'I was jumping up and down. I couldn't be happier that he's alive.

The hero also expressed he is keen to get more people trained in CPR in order to save lives.

He said: 'I would urge everyone to go and undertake formal training. You can walk into any fire station and with the help of a DVD and a dummy you walk out knowing how to do CPR.'

Allan and his wife Margo opened his 60th birthday party by dancing to 'Staying Alive' by the BeeGees - the song Chris used as the basis of the rhythm for CPR that saved Allan's life

Allan invited Chris to his 60th birthday on Saturday night at a private club in Wishaw - the same night as Chris's 33rd birthday. Pictured: Allan and his wife dancing to Staying Alive by the BeeGees

David McGown, Assistant Chief Officer in the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, said: 'Performing immediate CPR can keep oxygen circulating around the body until medical professionals arrive, and it only takes about half-an-hour to learn the technique.

'Firefighters are available to teach these life-saving skills to communities through schools, local groups and classes.

'This innovative partnership with the British Heart Foundation has equipped all 356 of Scotland's fire stations with Call Push Rescue training kits.

'Anyone can drop into one of these fire stations and learn CPR.'

For his birthday, Allan asked for donations to the British Heart Foundation and the Firefighters Charity.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson today insisted the 'special relationship' was still 'treasured' in Washington after he took Donald Trump's place on a visit to London.

Mr Tillerson held talks in Downing Street with Theresa May and then with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

The flying visit to Britain that also included a stop at the new US embassy.

President Trump had been due to make the trip and officially open America's new base in London but cancelled claiming to be angry at the embassy project.

The decision fuelled fears in Downing Street the relationship had gone cold amid ugly spats with Prime Minister Theresa May.

Mr Tillerson also had a meeting with National Security Adviser Mark Sedwill, with Iran and North Korea on the agenda.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held talks with Prime Minister Theresa May in Downing Street today, with Iran and North Korea on the agenda

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson (pictured today) for talks on Iran and North Korea during his flying visit to London

The pair met at Mr Johnson's official residence on Carlton Gardens (pictured) and not in the main Foreign Office complex off Whitehall

Downing Street will hope Mr Tillerson's visit will help smooth tensions in the US-UK relationship after a series of ugly public spats.

Following his meetings, Mr Tillerson said: 'We also view this as the special relationship. It has been and will be.

'We spend a lot of time talking about the world's problems. Sometimes we forget about the importance of our own relationship.

'We treasure this relationship. I treasure Boris's relationship with me personally.'

A No 10 spokeswoman said:'The Prime Minister attended a part of the National Security Adviser's meeting with the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at 10 Downing Street today.

'They discussed the continuing depth and breadth of the special relationship.

'They agreed on the importance of the international community coming together to counter Iran's destabilising regional activity, and the Prime Minister reiterated the UK's commitment to the Iran nuclear deal.'

President Trump (pictured last week) had been due to make the trip and officially open America's new base in London but cancelled claiming to be angry at the embassy project.

Mr Johnson echoed Mr Tillerson's support for the special relationship.

'It is always worth saying that the relationship between the US and the UK is absolutely fundamental to our diplomacy but also to our economy,' he said.

Both men called for 'restraint' on all sides following the incursion by Turkish forces into northern Syria, where they are attacking Kurdish fighters supported by Britain and the US.

Mr Tillerson said: 'We are concerned about the Turkish incident in the north of Syria.'

Mr Tillerson (pictured left in Downing Street this morning) was joined by US Ambassador to Britain Woody Johnson (pictured right) as he arrived for talks on Iran and North Korea

Mr Tillerson (right) made his first to the new cube-shaped 12 storey glass embassy building (pictured), which opened for business earlier this month but has not been ceremonially opened

Downing Street will hope Mr Tillerson's visit will help smooth tensions in the US-UK relationship after a series of ugly public spats.

Mrs May and Mr Trump are due to meet at the World Economic Forum in Davos later this week in what will be their first face to face talks in months.

Mr Tillerson made his first to the new cube-shaped 12 storey glass embassy building, which opened for business earlier this month but has not been ceremonially opened.

The new embassy building has been lambasted by Mr Trump as 'off location'.

Yesterday Mr Johnson called for President Trump to be welcomed to Britain ans warned that 'puerile' attacks on the US leader could harm the UK's national interest.

The Foreign Secretary said America is one of Britain's closest economic and security allies, with many billions of pounds of businesses between the two countries every year.

But he warned that 'puerile and backward-looking' Labour protesters trying to stop the President from visiting the UK risks jeopardising these close ties.

Britain is eager to strike a post Brexit free trade deal with America but there are fears that our increasingly frosty relations with our cousins across the Atlantic could harm the chances of getting one.

Boris Johnson has launched a scathing attack on 'puerile and backward-looking' Labour protesters trying to stop Donald Trump from visiting the UK

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Johnson wrote: 'The Labour Party is, of course, entitled to espouse all manner of puerile and backward-looking ideas.

'That is their privilege as a kind of glorified Momentum-based protest group.

'But in opposing the visit of the president of the United States to this country, they risk actually damaging the national interest.

'From Jeremy Corbyn downwards, Labour figures have been fulminating against what should be a routine event in the diplomatic calendar.'

The Foreign Secretary pointed out that Britain sells twice as much to America as we do to Germany.

And he warned that Jeremy Corbyn is letting his anti-Americanism damage Britain's ties with our closest ally.

He added: 'So when Jeremy Corbyn dismisses that partnership, and says there is nothing particularly important about it ('no, I think there are many important relationships', he burbles) the Labour leader betrays not only his anti-Americanism but also his ignorance of this country's economic interests.'

Mr Johnson is due to meet Rex Tillerson, the US Secretary of State, this week at the formal opening of America's new embassy in London.

It comes after Mr Trump pulled out of the visit saying the new embassy in Battersea is in an 'off location'.

Mr Johnson said the new US administration is showing a 'new willingness to get stuck in' in the Middle East to tackle Assad's use of chemical weapons and hasten the defeat of ISIS.

He added: 'President Trump has had highly successful visits to France, Germany, Japan, China, and other countries. It is absolutely right that we should welcome him here, and it is time for Labour to end their Spartist agitations.

Johnson's comments come after Tillerson said he hopes to visit the controversial new US embassy when he visits London this week

The Foreign Secretary's comments come after Tillerson said he hopes to visit the controversial new US embassy when he visits London this week.

The State Department said it had not been decided whether he would formally open the building.

Mr Trump cancelled a trip to London to open the embassy scheduled for next month, saying he did not want to endorse a bad deal agreed by the Obama administration to sell the old one for 'peanuts.'

Speaking to reporters while flying back to Washington from a trip to the North American west coast on Wednesday, Tillerson did not respond when asked if he would formally open the controversial building, but said he hoped to go there.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a news briefing on Thursday no 'ribbon-cutting ceremony' by Tillerson was currently scheduled during his January 21-23 London visit before the World Economic forum in Davos.

While the deal on the sale of the old embassy site was concluded under President Barack Obama, the decision to move from Grosvenor Square in up-market Mayfair to the south bank of the Thames was agreed in 2008 under Republican President George W. Bush.

Nauert said the new embassy opened this week and the bulk of staff had moved from the old building.

The cancellation of Trump's trip was a further blow to relations between Britain and the United States, for long the closest of allies. More than a year into his presidency, Trump has yet to visit London, with many Britons vowing to protest against a man they see as crude, volatile and opposed to their values on a range of issues.

Tillerson rejected the suggestion that Trump might see Britain as less useful now that it was embroiled in Brexit and other political issues.

'No, not at all,' he said. 'I mean, we still have the special relationship with the British people. As you know, President Trump was supportive of the UK's exit from the EU. He still thinks that was the right decision for them.

'Britain needs to focus on those Brexit negotiations right now, which is really important to them, and I think the president realizes that's where Prime Minister May really needs to focus her attention.'
A killer who slashed a father of two to death with a Swiss army knife in front of horrified barbershop customers has been jailed for at least 22 years.

Crispin Siddon, 34, tried to defend himself with an afro comb as he was brutally murdered by Anthony Allen, a day after his wedding anniversary, at Cutz Barbers in Harlesden, north London.

Violence erupted after Mr Siddon walked into the shop and punched Allen in the face, demanding: 'Where's my money?'

Father-of-four Allen, 34, then produced a folding knife and aimed five lethal 'swiping and jabbing' movements at his victims chest.

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Anthony Allen (left), 34, brutally murdered Crispin Siddon (right), during a row at Cutz Barbers in Harlesden, northwest London

Mr Siddon, who co-owned GB Records with hip hop star Corleone, died in hospital after suffering a fatal stab wound which pierced his heart and left lung.

CCTV footage of the aftermath of the stabbing showed Mr Siddon walk across the barbers as Anthony Allen fled the scene.

Allen, from Neasden, northwest London, denied murder and having an offensive weapon, but was convicted of both offences at the Old Bailey.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 22 years.

Mr Siddon's death, last May 5, was one day after he celebrated his wedding anniversary with his wife Georgina Seddon.

In a witness statement read to the court by prosecutor Bill Emlyn-Jones, Ms Seddon said: 'I have a five-year-old and a seven-year-old who cry every day for their dad.

Anthony Allen prepares to leap into an attack on Mr Siddon, as he holds the Swiss Army Knife

'That kills me. So much has been changed for them.

'There's not an hour that goes by where I don't care for him.

'My boys cling to me whenever they think I am going out because they think I'm going to go out and never come back like their dad did.'

Just over an hour after the fight, Allen told a doctor at West Middlesex University Hospital he had been punched and stabbed in the thigh by a stranger in a park and that he cut his finger on a fence.

The Common Serjeant of London, Judge Richard Marks QC, sentenced Allen to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 22 years.

Members of staff appear to be ordering Allen to leave the barbers after his lethal clash with Mr Siddon

Mr Seddon's sister Keisha Siddon said: 'Whenever we were together or speaking on the phone he would say 'I love you sis'.

'The jury verdict on Friday gave my family a sense of relief.

'Despite the verdict there is nothing for us to celebrate.

'Every time I think about what happened to him I find myself hoping it was just a bad dream.

'The last thing he said to me on the last occasion I saw him was 'I love you sis, I got you'.

'We cannot begin to describe how much we miss him.'

Crispin Siddon, wearing a grey hooded tracksuit walks through Cutz barbers in Harlesden, northwest London

His father, Rupert Siddon, said: 'I was very close to Crispin, he was my only son.

'People would say there were two of us because we were that close.'

The judge said: 'They will no doubt continue to remain absolutely devastated following their loss.

'The manner in which you used that knife went far beyond what could be regarded as reasonable self-defence.

'The sentence of the court on count one of this indictment will be one of life imprisonment and the minimum term will be one of 22 years.

'On count two there will be no separate penalty.'
Serial rapist John Alan Wilde, 56, is accused of carrying a knife, rope and roll of duct tape

A notorious serial rapist has faced court in Sydney accused of carrying a serrated knife, rope and a roll of duct tape in a public place.

Police charged John Alan Wilde, 56, after discovering a serrated blade, a roll of silver duct and a length of rope on his motorcycle in May 2017.

He was convicted of raping multiple women at knifepoint in the 1980s and 1990s.

But according to 9NEWS, Wilde is challenging the allegations on the grounds that police had 'no probable cause' to conduct a search of his Harley-Davidson.

Wilde was reportedly pulled over for a random license plate check, which revealed expired registration.

John Alan Wilde was convicted of raping multiple women at knifepoint in the 1980s and 1990s

But when Constable Jared Olaussen entered Wilde's details into the database, it was revealed that he has already been warned over knife possession in the past.

'I read the criminal history in regards to the sexual assaults and the situation in which it happened,' Constable Olaussen said in NSW Supreme Court.

'I asked him if he had anything which he shouldn't have. He said, "I may have a knife". He was pretty calm before that. When we spoke about the knife, his demeanour changed. He became nervous. His speech sped up. He stuttered twice during that time.'

Representing himself at a court hearing on Monday, Wilde countered: 'If their search was legal and their concerns were paramount why wasn't I arrested straight away? Why wasn't I charged straight away?'

He has pleaded not guilty to one charge of carrying a knife in a public place.

'I knew I had done no wrong,' he insisted. 'There is no crime in looking at a knife shop or swords, yet police are trying to infer that was grounds enough to conduct their search, and on that basis I argue that their search be deemed inadmissible and I then have no case to answer for.'

When questioned further about the weapon, Wilde claimed that the knife was for cutting up fruit. He later changed his story, claiming that the serrated blade was for buttering bread.

Wilde further claimed that the duct tape was for 'fixing his bike' - even though police noted that it was in 'excellent' condition. The hearing will continue in May 2018.

Wilde claimed that the knife was for cutting up fruit and the tape was for fixing his motorcycle

On Monday, John Wilde pleaded not guilty to one charge of carrying a knife in a public place

The convicted rapist was released from prison in 2013 after serving nearly 30 years, and has been under a supervision order ever since.

He was first charged with rape in 1981 but was released from prison in 1983 - only to attack another woman three months later.

While behind bars, Wilde refused to undergo the sex offenders treatment program.

Wilde was then imprisoned until 1991, when he struck again and raped 23-year-old woman. Each time his victims were threatened at knife point and bound and gagged.

This latest bout of legal trouble comes just five months after his interim high-risk sex offender supervision order was relaxed.
A video has emerged showing female protesters twerking against riot police during demonstrations in Honduras.

The footage shows two women gyrating their rears on the shields of policemen during a 'national strike' against the re-election of President Juan Orlando Hernandez.

The policemen look confused and occasionally smile awkwardly while the women perform passionately.

The footage shows two women gyrating their rears against the shields of policemen during a 'national strike' against the re-election of President Juan Orlando Hernandez

The policemen look confused and occasionally smile awkwardly while the women perform passionately

The left-wing Alliance in Opposition against the Dictatorship is heading a protest campaign insisting that the election was stolen from its candidate, former TV anchor Salvador Nasrallah

As crowds look on and cheer at the two women, another joins in.

The video comes as activists blocked roads and clashed with police over the weekend as part of nationwide protests against President Hernandez.

Dozens of people have been killed and hundreds jailed since Hernandez was declared the winner of the November 26 run-off election - after a three week stretch of often-interrupted ballot counting that stoked tensions and sparked accusations of fraud in the country.

The left-wing Alliance in Opposition against the Dictatorship is heading a protest campaign insisting that the election was stolen from its candidate, former TV anchor Salvador Nasrallah.

The opposition called for a 'national strike' on Saturday to block the country's main roads ahead of the start of the president's new term in office on January 27.

The government deployed police and soldiers to confront protesters.

One demonstrator was shot dead on Saturday, opposition leader and former president Manuel Zelaya said, identifying the victim as Anselmo Villareal, 60.

Seven other demonstrators were detained and two police were hurt, police spokesman Jair Meza said.

A military spokesman, Lieutenant Jose Coello, said that some highways had been blocked 'but they are being cleared in a peaceful manner.'

Bitter clashes have broken out across Honduras as police and the armed forces battle with protesters enraged by their president's re-election

Discontent is still raging after the re-election of centre-right President Juan Orlando Hernandez on November 26

Riot police are pictured trying to put out a burning tyre laid as a roadblock on the streets of Tegucigalpa over the weekend

Coello said police confiscated tires, presumably to be set ablaze, that protesters were carrying in their vehicles.

Protesters blocked the country's main highway between Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula at a point about 65 miles north of the capital, local media reported.

In Tegucigalpa, police fired tear gas at protesters trying to block a road and burn tires. The demonstrators responded by hurling rocks.

Hernandez has implicit backing from the United States, which is pouring millions of dollars into Honduras and neighboring Guatemala and El Salvador to improve security conditions there.

Those three countries, collectively known as Central America's 'Northern Triangle,' are the biggest source of undocumented migrants heading to the United States.
A large crowd of Chinese villagers flocked to collect oil from a dirty ditch after hearing a tanker lorry had crashed on a nearby motorway.

Footage shows dozens of people came equipped with buckets and ladles before squatting down to scoop the liquid.

According to reports, the oil was claimed to be cooking oil leaking from the wrecked vehicle.

One villager, left, can be seen scooping oil from a ditch using ladles and pots; but some carry a big bucket and fill it up completely (right)

Mobile phone footage emerged online showing villagers lining up for metres along the ditch and filling their containters with the alleged cooking oil, reported Kan Kan News.

It's said a tanker lorry had crashed into several cars on a motorway near Heze of Shandong Province.

The impact left an opening at the rear of the tank causing oil to flow to the ditch.

The accident, which took place on January 20, was believed to be caused by foggy weather, according to Pear Video.

Villagers all gather at the ditch and trying to get source as much oil as they can (left). It's said the tanker lorry carries gallons of cooking oil (right)

Web users guess the villagers would sell the oil to local restaurants and earn money from it (left). The ditch near the crash site in Shandong Province is more than a metre long (right)

Onlookers were shocked to see large flock of crowds carrying big buckets and even driving tricycle trucks to carry the buckets.

Web users guessed the villagers might try to sell the oil to restaurants while some worried the hygiene of leaked oil.

'In their eyes, this is a massive business opportunity to sell it to restaurant, right?' asked Weibo user 'haioulaileba'.

'These oil have no difference to the gutter oil that people scooped it from the sewage!' said 'sangedidandan'.
The heartbroken family of Ms Blake, (pictured) who was backpacking around Australia, arrived in Sydney last week to take the body of their daughter home to the UK

A Nepalese chef thought to have murdered his British backpacker girlfriend before killing himself could have been driven by cocaine abuse.

Friends of Brazil Gurung, 33, have revealed he was regularly taking the class A drug and became 'passionately angry' when he found out partner Amelia Blake, 22, planned to leave Australia.

Mercedez Briones, 23, was manager of the Sydney restaurant where Brazil and Loughborough backpacker Amelia met while she worked as a waitress.

She said Brazil was drowning in debt and using drugs heavily before the bodies of the couple were discovered in a cramped flat in the trendy suburb of Newtown last Friday.

Another friend revealed Brazil may still have been married at the time he was dating Amelia, who had been in Australia eight months and recently returned to Sydney from a farm in regional Victoria.

Mercedez, who lives in Sydney, said: 'Brazil was at the end of his rope. He was struggling with money issues, supporting his ex-wife, paying for his visa, and had no one for support.

'I know he was doing cocaine. I'm not sure if he did that night but I think it could have driven him to do what he did. He was probably using other stuff on the side.

Brazil Gurung, 33, (pictured) is believed to have killed Amelia Blake, 22, in the unit they shared

'Brazil was very lonely, he had no family or anyone there for him, so when she told him she was leaving he couldn't stand it and became passionately angry.

'We were close friends, and the last time we spoke he said his life was a living nightmare, he had his visa and so many things to pay off with his rent, studies and visa.'

Mercedez said Brazil's debt was compounded by his failed marriage, and that he was helping to pay his ex-wife's rent after the pair parted ways.

She said she grew concerned Brazil was becoming obsessive over Amelia, and that she believed he flew into a rage when he heard she planned to leave Australia.

But she said she was struggling to come to terms with the news of what he had done.

Mercedez said: 'I couldn't believe it when I heard. He's not that type of person. He's not a bad guy. It's so weird he would up and do that.

A fundraiser has been launched to fly the body of a Nepalese man, believed to have killed his British girlfriend in an apparent murder-suicide, back to his homeland

'What he did was wrong, but there might have been reasons behind it. I just wish he had spoken up and done something about it.'

Another friend, Kamal Prasai, 24, said Brazil may have still been married at the time of the suspected murder-suicide - but said he was not aware if Brazil was using drugs.

The 24-year-old, from Sydney, said: 'I don't know whether they were divorced or not, but I used to work with his wife in 2015. I lost touch with her after that.

'The last time I talked with him was in December when he asked me for some financial help which I did.

'I can't imagine his circumstances at that point of time when he did all this. No one imagined Brazil could do something like this.'

A spokesman for New South Wales Police confirmed toxicology reports would form part of the brief for the coroner from the postmortem.

The results of this are not expected to be released until an inquest is opened but New South Wales Police could not yet confirm when this would be.

Meanwhile fundraiser has been launched to fly Brazil's body back to his homeland.

The heartbroken family of Amelia arrived in Sydney last week to take the body of their daughter home to the United Kingdom.

But it can now be revealed a campaign to fly Brazil's body back to his homeland has been created by his friends and Sydney-based Nepalese group 'Tamu Samaj'.

'There is already fundraising to take back Brazil body to his family... but we decided not to post (it) on social media,' one commenter revealed.

Tamu Samaj is a community organisation aimed at preserving the unique culture of Nepal.

It can now be revealed a campaign to fly Mr Gurung's body back to his homeland has been created by his friends and Sydney-based Nepalese group 'Tamu Samaj'

Daily Mail Australia last week revealed the pair met while colleagues at Fogo Brazillia Churrasco, a restaurant where Brazil was the head chef and Ms Blake a waitress.

The restaurant is just a few minutes' walk from the grisly scene of the horror killing at a tiny apartment on busy King Street, at the heart of Newtown.

The pair both stopped working at the Brazilian eatery last year, with the young British backpacker taking up a farming job in rural Victoria before returning to Sydney.

Shocked former colleagues told Daily Mail Australia that Brazil was 'weird' and had serious 'money troubles', while calling Ms Blake 'the nicest person you'd ever meet'.

'He asked all the staff for money, we knew there was something weird going on with him,' a colleague said.

'It was odd the fact that he was always looking for money, looking for money... he owed one of the guys a lot.

'She worked here as a waitress for about two months and he was a chef and that's when they met. She was funny, full of confidence, she was just lovely.

Police believe Gurugn killed Amelia before taking his own life. A landlord discovered their bodies in a flat above a Persian restaurant

'It's just terrible, he seemed like a good guy and you would never expect that to happen, but how well do you really know someone?'

Another ex-colleague who no longer works at the restaurant said he recalled Brazil being 'infatuated' and 'constantly talking about' Ms Blake after she went fruit picking interstate.

Amelia's shattered parents released a statement on their arrival in Sydney last week through the British Foreign Office.

'We are deeply shocked and saddened by the sudden passing of our much loved daughter and sister Amelia, who will be truly missed by all who knew her,' they said.

'We would like to thank everyone for the love and support shown to our family.

'As we try to come to terms with losing our beautiful girl, we would very much appreciate privacy at this extremely difficult time.'

Police believe Brazil killed Amelia before taking his own life. A landlord discovered their bodies in a flat above a Persian restaurant.
Thousands of Melbourne residents have taken the extreme step of having bollards installed in their driveways as crime skyrockets around the city.

Car owners are having up to five bright yellow metal poles installed in front of where they park their car in a bid to stop people from stealing their vehicles.

Where just a few years ago nobody owned a bollard, a local retailer told Seven News 'every second house' is buying them now.

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Melbourne residents are having bollards installed in their garages (pictured) as a way to protect themselves from youth crime in the area

For car lover Brett Niddre, the decision to invest in the poles was an easy one.

'The crime here is terrible,' he explained.

'There's all these different gangs and all that sort of stuff kicking around these days, you can't trust anyone.'

Sam Surace, who installs bollards, said business had been soaring in the wake of highly publicised crime in the area.

'Twenty years ago, nobody even thought about a bollard in their garage at home,' he said.

'Now, every house is getting them just about.'

Sales of CCTV cameras have also spiked in the wake of the crisis. Some houses have spent more than $10,000 on home security systems.

Car lover Brett Niddre (pictured) said the crime near him is 'terrible' on account of 'all these different gangs', which is why he had multiple bollards installed in his garage

The capital city has been scourged by a youth crime crisis, where mostly Sudanese youths are accused of stealing cars, invading homes and businesses, and theft.

Recent statistics from Victoria's Crime Statistics Agency showed people who have migrated from Sudan to Australia were over-represented in alleged criminal activity, especially aggravated burglaries.

While only 0.1 per cent of the state's population is Sudanese, the population made up 4.8 per cent of all alleged offenders for aggravated burglaries in the area.

Victoria's Deputy Police Commissioner Andrew Crisp told 7.30 this month aggravated burglaries were the 'crime of choice' for the group.

'We've seen Sudanese youth become involved in aggravated burglaries,' he said.

'A lot of the time it's to steal keys, so they can steal cars to commit further crimes.

'It has become the crime of choice for this particular group.'

Locals are reacting to highly publicised crime in the capital city, which is usually caused by youth gangs (pictured is a car being stolen, captured on CCTV)

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and Citizenship Minister Alan Tudge have all called for harsher measures to be taken against migrant youths who break the law.

Mr Tudge and Mr Dutton have both publicly backed calls to begin deporting African nationals who had been convicted of a violent crime in recent weeks.

The Prime Minister told reporters earlier this month his government was 'very concerned at the growing gang violence and lawlessness in Victoria, in particular in Melbourne.'
This is the moment a proud officer poses for a picture after recovering 200 meth tablets from a man's bottom.

Police in northern Phayao province, Thailand, searched Pattapong Chaimongkol, 27, following a tip-off.

They then discovered more than 200 methamphetamine tablets hidden in the local's rectum during the roadside search.

Police in northern Phayao province, Thailand, searched Pattapong Chaimongkol, 27, following a tip-off and discovered 203 drug tablets stuffed in his bottom. The officer carrying out the probing search (pictured right) then posed for a photo to showcase his proud discovery

At first officers thought they were out of luck after a standard body search drew a blank.

But when Chaimongkol continued behaving suspiciously, they asked him to remove his underwear for a more probing search.

Stuffed inside his bottom was a blue plastic bag containing 203 yaba tablets - a mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine.

The jubilant officer who made the discovery then decided to pose for a photo next to the man's backside, showcasing his proud discovery.

Police said Pattapong confessed that the drugs were for personal use and for sale to teenagers in the Jun District, Thai media reported.

The man was charged with possession of the Category 1 drug with intent to supply.
At least 10 people killed in the devastating mudslides in California were in evacuation zones and seemingly refused to move, it has been revealed.

Six were in voluntary evacuation areas, 11 were along the border of voluntary and mandatory evacuation areas - but not necessarily inside them - and the remaining four were swept away from neighborhoods under mandatory evacuation orders.

The revelations fuel concerns over how the authorities dealt with the natural disaster which struck Montecito nearly two weeks ago.

There has been stinging criticism regarding how officials came up with which areas should be designated as mandatory evacuation zones and who were told to leave.

At least 10 people killed in the devastating mudslides in Montecito, California, were in evacuation zones and seemingly refused to move, it has been revealed

Homes ripped apart show the devastation caused by the Montecito mudslides in California. A Porsche crushed in a garage, bookshelves half covered in mud and a child's toy case still perfectly intact but now on the outside of the home are just some of the images showing the extent of the damage of the mudslides

With two people still missing - Lydia Sutthithepa, two, and 17-year-old John Cantin - the death toll could yet rise.

Both were last known to be in evacuations zones, which have been questioned.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said: 'It's very possible that they could be underneath a significant amount of mud that is drying and ultimately has to be removed,' Brown said of those still unaccounted for.

'And it is still also very possible that they  one or more of them  could have been swept out to sea.'

Residents were baffled by why their homes weren't included in the mandatory evacuation zones including Josie Gower, 69, whose house was wrecked in the storm.

Gower's son-in-law Alastair Haigh told the LA Times: 'She lived next to a creek.

'Youd think they would make those people evacuate no matter what.

'It must be hard for them to predict whats going to happen, but it does seem like theres been a huge mistake.'

Six victims were in voluntary evacuation areas, 11 were along the border of voluntary and mandatory evacuation areas - but not necessarily inside them - and the remaining four were swept away from neighborhoods under mandatory evacuation orders

The devastation of January 9 occurred in the early morning hours when torrents laden with boulders and debris swept down through neighborhoods, destroyed or damaged 430 homes and killed 21 people

More than a dozen new teams of search dogs arrived over the weekend to join hundreds of firefighters in the search for those still missing.

'We're searching deeper, we're searching wider,' said Anthony Stornetta, a county fire battalion chief.

The devastation of January 9 occurred in the early morning hours when torrents laden with boulders and debris swept down through neighborhoods, destroyed or damaged 430 homes and killed 21 people.
Families have turned vigilante crime fighters after police cuts left them feeling 'unprotected and unsafe'.

Volunteers say they have been forced to patrol the streets of Essex in the hunt for lawbreakers because of the decline in the presence of officers on the beat.

They have been walking the streets in Basildon and Wickford in a bid to break-up gangs, deter break-ins, and stop vandalism.

The vigilantes do not try to arrest criminals, but pass on information to police.

Volunteers have no formal training, but are hoping to team up with the famous Guardian Angels, from New York, after a trial meeting last week.

Crime in the Basildon district has seen an increase of 8.5 per cent between 2016 and 2017, with violence with injury rising by 12.1 per cent. The data compares June 2016 to May 2017 with the same dates in the previous year.

In Wickford Park, the most common crime between December 2016 and November 2017 was anti-social behaviour, accounting for 43.28 per cent of all crime in that area.

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The Wick Patrol group on the streets of Wickford, Essex. Locals say they are being forced to act as vigilantes due to police cuts

Inspired by New York's Guardian Angels, vigilantes in red uniform patrol the streets of Wickford, Essex

Group portrait of members of the Guardian Angels' as they pose in their headquarters, New York

Richer areas in Essex have hired private security firms to guard their streets, but the emergence of these gangs is thought to be the first-time locals have started patrolling on their own.

The 80-strong anonymous Wick Patrol Group claims businesses have stopped reporting crimes to police and CCTV footage is no longer shared between firms due to police cuts.

Last week they teamed up with Night Angels Pitsea, which formed before Christmas, and hit the streets with a contingent from the beret-clad Guardian Angels.

One founder of the Wick Group said: 'Since we've been in existence we don't seem to get the regular burglaries and break-ins and the community feels safer knowing we are out there patrolling.

'In my view this is the direction communities are having to go in because the police have become very reactive to crime rather than proactive.'

Burglary in Wickford Park made up 4.2 per cent of crime in that area between December 2016 and November 2017.

Another added: 'The government have cut Policing so much that it has made us feel unprotected and unsafe in Wickford.

How 47m in cuts and the loss of more than 400 officers in five years has created vigilante crime fighters Essex Police has faced more than 47 million of cuts and lost more than 400 Police officers since 2011. In 2011, Essex Police faced their biggest cut in peacetime history. They were to lose 41m of their budget within four years - including 388 (ten per cent) of it's frontline officers. The spending cuts also entailed the loss of about 600 support and office staff and 100 police community support officers. In 2015, they announced more cuts. They anticipated cuts of around 63 million by 2019-20, on an annual budget of around 262 million This included the closure of Pitsea and Billericay police stations, police staff cuts, new Essex Police headquarters and community support officers to drop from 250 to just 60. Advertisement

'Essex Police can only do what they can with the resources given. They are not to blame.

'We met businesses that do not report incidents to the Police because the Police do not attend as they are understaffed.

'CCTV pictures are not being shared with all retailers because the Police Retail team was disbanded last year.

'The Guardian Angels could fill a massive gap here in Wickford, all we need are volunteers to make it work.'

Duncan Lamont, who set up the Night Angels, said: 'The rapidly-increasing level of crime has to stop eventually, and we want to help where we can.'

Who are the Guardian Angels? The Guardian Angels began in 1979 and quickly expanded to other cities, welcomed by some people as a tough-minded neighborhood watch - but derided by others as loose-cannon, publicity-seeking vigilantes. By the mid-1990s, some chapters folded and the Guardian Angels' reputation took a hit when Sliwa acknowledged fabricating some of their early exploits. By 2006, they had a $200,000 New York state grant to do online safety education, and by 2015 they counted about 5,000 members in 18 countries. In New York, Guardian Angels still patrol parts of Brooklyn and the Bronx regularly. Advertisement

A spokesman for Essex Police however urged locals not to take the law into their own hands and asked them to join an official initiative.

Inspector Steve Parry, from Basildon Community Policing Team said: 'We understand fully that protecting our neighbourhoods will always be a top priority for people in the community, as it is for our officers.

'Our preference is for people to join our Active Citizen scheme.

'By being an Active Citizen, members of the public can work alongside us to help tackle local crime and community issues.

'Police officers conduct high visibility patrols across Basildon, Billericay, Pitsea and Wickford, and we continue to work closely with our partners and the public to keep communities safe.

'We always urge people to report incidents or information to us either directly or to Crimestoppers anonymously, as we will act on any information given to us.'

Locals were however keen to see residents taking to the streets.

Wickford Baker, Kevin Barke. said: 'Vigilantes, I'd bloody join them mate.

'My house got burgled and this place got burgled four times.

'If the police are not going to be here someone has to do something.

Portrait of American anti-crime activist and founder of the Guardian Angels Curtis Sliwa, as he crouches next to the door of a subway car, New York

Lisa Sliwa, a member of the Guardian Angels and married to its founder, Curtis Sliwa, patrols the subway while dressed in her Guardian Angels uniform, mid 1980s

Locals say they have been forced to patrol the streets themselves and regularly hunt for lawbreakers due to a lack of police on the beat

'We've has recessions before but there were always police stations in Wickford, they're closed now.

'I've got a lot of respect for the police, but it's the cutbacks.

'We can't go down the nick anymore and I often don't call up if I see something.'

The patrols come as residents in wealthy Tiptree, also in Essex, renewed the contract for private security to patrol their streets after PCSO funding was cut.

Locals pay an extra 1 a year on their council tax for the patrols from a private firm.

An ex-police officer, Lewis Kearney, also set up a security firm when he left the force to patrol Southend-on-sea.

He quit Essex Police as he was disheartened with the savage cuts and now offers homeowners around-the-clock protection for 49.95 a month.
Milesh Talreja, from central London, lived a life on luxury as he scammed people out of hundreds of thousands of pounds

A credit card fraudster who splashed out more than 100,000 on 20 British Airways flights and plastic surgery for a friend has been jailed.

Milesh Talreja, from central London, lived a life of luxury as he scammed people out of tens of thousands of pounds.

Using his ill-gotten gains he flew around the world to Dubai, Hong Kong and Switzerland.

The con-artist clocked up so many air-miles he even qualified for BA's 'Gold member' status.

While back in the UK Talreja stayed in exclusive hotels in London's West End at a cost of 40,000.

But today Talreja is beginning a two-year prison sentence after he admitted 21 counts of fraud, dishonestly spending 105,000, at Inner London Crown Court.

The con-artist used stolen cards and false documents to claim that he was a highly-paid employee of a major law firm.

Talreja had previously been convicted of credit card offences in his native Australia and had practised law in Hong Kong, but was struck off in 2017, the court heard.

Using 17 different cards, he booked flights around the world, including trips to France, Greece, Croatia and Italy, at a cost of 25,000.

For travel within the UK, between hotels, airports and other journeys, the defendant used one mini cab firm for approximately 50 journeys, using eight different cards.

Fraudster Talreja lived in a flat in this central London street, as he scammed thousands to fund his luxury lifestyle

Talreja also used stolen credit cards to pay for rent and a number of cosmetic surgeries for his girlfriend. These include surgery worth over 7,000 at one Harley Street clinic.

The fraud was investigated when intelligence was passed to the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit.

DC Alex Coubrough, who investigated the case said: 'Talreja believed he could live the high life using other people's credit cards and other people's money.

'The police take fraud very seriously and these sentences send a clear message to fraudsters: you will be caught and punished.'
A Dutch photographer who crashed into a police motorbike and injured the officer has apologised, saying that he wasn't used to driving on the left.

'I am really sorry for the officer and I'm really glad he's not badly injured,' said Wouter Roosenboom, adding that he wouldn't be getting back behind the wheel in Australia.

The 53-year-old Tour Down Under photographer pleaded guilty in the Adelaide Magistrate's Court to driving without due care.

Mr Roosenboom, 53, pleaded guilty in Adelaide Magistrate's Court to driving without due care

The Dutch photographer failed to give way at a T-junction, smashing into a police officer's bike

According to ABC, Mr Rosenboom was driving in Albert Street at Gumeracha in the Adelaide Hills on Friday when he approached a T-junction.

After failing to give way, the passenger side of his car struck the police officer and flipped him over the bike.

'I never saw it  it was very busy on the crossing,' Mr Rosenboom told Magistrate Alfio Grasso in court, adding that he was 'totally surprised' when the bike hit his car.

The officer was taken to Royal Adelaide Hospital with a lacerated leg, a concussion and soft tissue injuries, but was well enough to be released later that same day.

Mr Rosenboom told reporters outside court that he wanted to apologise to the officer in person before leaving in Australia.

He was fined $300 for driving without due care, but was not convicted of a crime.
An Oxford student attended a party dressed as Professor Stephen Hawking (pictured)

An Oxford University student has been disciplined for attending a college party dressed as Professor Stephen Hawking.

The student completed his outfit with an office chair with wheels attached to mimic the world-famous physicist.

He wore the costume for the 'Dress as your degree' themed party at Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) on Saturday.

But he was reported to the college dean after angry responses from fellow students following the stunt.

Junior Common Room president Lana Purcell said: 'This behaviour breaches our clearly expressed expectations for bop costumes.We are angry and disappointed that this has happened and have referred the person to the dean.'

An LMH spokesman added: 'Our dean will be speaking to the student to express the college's disappointment and to ask him to reflect on why his behaviour would be seen by many as offensive.'

The student was attending the 'Dress as your degree' party at Lady Margaret Hall (pictured)

Oxford Students' Disability Community also criticised the student for their costume.

Its president Miranda Reilly and college disability representative officer Josie Paton, an LMH undergraduate said in a joint statement: 'While it is not impossible to dress respectfully as Stephen Hawking, as a world-renowned physicist, this seems to have not been the case or intention.

'Mobility aids are an important tool in many disabled people's daily lives, and so it is disrespectful for them to be parodied in this way.

'Using disability as a punchline is unacceptable and this proves we need wider awareness of disability issues at this university. However, while many people will express shock at this incident.

The physicist was paralysed from a slow progressing form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

'We would incline you to consider the more subtle forms of disability as a costume, and question even where this is used respectfully.

'The majority of the very few disabled roles in film, stage and television go to non-disabled actors with no criticism outside of the disabled community.

'Ableism comes in many forms far more subtle than this incident at the bop.'

An Oxford Student Union spokesman said: 'Oxford SU has passed policy on Bop and Entz themes which believes that bops should be inclusive.

The student at Oxford University, where the Radcliffe Camera is pictured, has been criticised

'If the intention was to offend then this contradicts that belief and the spirit of the policy.'

How does physicist Stephen Hawking communicate? Professor Stephen Hawking is a world-renowned physicist. He is in charge of Cambridge University's Centre for Theoretical Cosmology. The 75-year-old, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 1962, has said he 'would not be here today if it were not for the NHS'. He was a promising 21-year-old scientist and former Oxford rowing cox when he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). People afflicted by it usually do not survive for more than ten years. Instead, Professor Hawking, has established himself as one of the most respected scientists, transforming the way many people regard the universe with best-selling books including A Brief History Of Time. He now communicates using a speech-generating computer that is linked to a single muscle in his cheek. Advertisement

A first-year student from Balliol College said: 'From talking to people, it has been taken very much in the spirit with which it was intended.

'While maybe not the best choice, for a guy in normal clothes sitting in an office chair, it seems to have been blown a bit out of proportion.'

Last year another student was criticised for trivialising the 'lived experience of survivors' of sexual assault after going to a party dressed as Harvey Weinstein.

The student appeared as the film producer, who has faced multiple allegations of sexual assault, for LMH's 'horror movie classics' themed party.

The student was asked to leave by other students, before later being asked to meet with the college dean to 'reflect on his behaviour.'

In 2016, a Christ Church student dressed as a Klu Klux Klan member for a '2016' theme, saying 'it was meant as a comment on Donald Trump's possible connections to KKK members, after the US election.'

Oxford-born Professor Hawking began his university education at the city's University College in 1959, aged 17.

The 76-year-old physicist was paralysed from a slow progressing form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
The Delicate Arch at Utah's Arches National Park is, as its name suggests, a rather fragile natural arch.

Park rangers have, over the years, considered multiple ways to maintain the sandstone arch, which is depicted on Utah license plates and has withstood thousands of years of weather and erosion.

Perhaps none are so outlandish as a plan to cover the parts of the 60-foot arch in plastic, a scheme dreamed up by rangers in the mid-1900s as part of The Delicate Arch Stabilization Project.

Park Rangers at Arches National Park in southern Utah have dreamed up multiple ways to keep its Delicate Arch (pictured in winter) standing

Officials once considered covering a vulnerable leg with plastic and even devised a scheme 'to ring the weak point of the weaker leg with a concrete collar'

The project began in 1947, after park custodian Russ Mahan observed the arch's 'eroded condition' and passed his concerns on to Arches' regional director, who in turn passed the concerns on to National Park Service officials in Washington.

NPS officials spent years dreaming up ways to save the arch - including spraying its vulnerable parts with a silicone epoxy plastic and even a scheme 'to ring the weak point of the weaker leg with a concrete collar'.

Park officials even requested samples of silicone blends from different manufacturers in an effort to test whether the scheme would work.

But, per a 1956 park memo, 'several of the chemicals had proven unsatisfactory, because exposure to the weather had caused them to turn white, or scale off, or both'.

Park ranger Jim Stiles (right) uncovered a park document called The Delicate Arch Stabilization Project and published his findings on his blog. He was inspired to do so after reading a passage from Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire

And so the scheme was called off - in part, because the park faced larger concerns.

The park's superintendent, Bates Wilson, wrote in a memo from the era: 'The increasing desire of fools to carve their names in public places has reached the highest level possible in Arches at Delicate Arch.'

The bizarre plot was uncovered by park ranger Jim Stiles, who researched old memorabilia during the winter off-season and published his findings on his blog, the Canyon Country Zephyr.

Stiles was struck by a passage from Desert Solitaire, a memoir by novelist, essayist and ardent environmentalist Edward Abbey detailing his time as an Arches ranger in 1956 and 1957.

The passage reads: 'There have been some, even in the Park Service, who advocate spraying Delicate Arch with a fixative of some sort - Elmer's Glue perhaps or Lady Clairol Spray-Net.'

Stiles wrote on his blog: 'When I first read that passage by Abbey, I thought he was kidding; I learned, over the years, to take some of Cactus Eds "facts" with a grain of salt. The idea of spraying Delicate Arch with a fixative was too ridiculous to be taken seriously.'

Park officials even went so far as to request silicone samples to test them, but found that 'several of the chemicals had proven unsatisfactory, because exposure to the weather had caused them to turn white, or scale off, or both'

Stiles became curious about proposed methods to keep the arch standing after reading a passage from Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire that reads: 'There have been some, even in the Park Service, who advocate spraying Delicate Arch with a fixative of some sort - Elmer's Glue perhaps or Lady Clairol Spray-Net'

Wryly, he added: 'This, of course, was before my decade of employment with the federal government.

If nature runs its course, the Delicate Arch will of course fall eventually. In 2008, for example, the nearby Wall Arch collapsed.

Arches National Park covers 120 square miles in southern Utah and receives 1.5million visitors annually. Its most well-known attraction, arguably, is the Delicate Arch.
Scarlett Johanssons absolutely furious.

I want my pin back! she screamed from the podium at Saturdays Womens March in Los Angeles.

The target of her rage is fellow actor James Franco, whos been accused of sexual misconduct by five women, and who sported a TimesUp pin on his tuxedo at last months Golden Globes.

My mind baffles, steamed Scarlett. How could a person publicly stand by an organization that helps to provide support for victims of sexual assault while privately preying on people who have no power?

Then came her I want my pin back, by the way sneer.

Sanctimonious Scarlett Johansson is absolutely furious. I want my pin back! she screamed to James Franco from the podium at Saturdays Womens March. He's been accused of sexual misconduct by five women. How could a person publicly stand by an organization that helps to provide support for victims of sexual assault while privately preying on people who have no power?

Franco denies the allegations and has not been arrested or charged with any related criminal offence.

But such trifling details cut no ice with Ms Johansson as she destroyed him in front of a huge crowd and millions more watching on TV around the world.

How is it OK for someone in a position of power to use that power to take advantage of someone in a lesser position? she seethed. Just because you can, does that ever make it OK?

She never used Francos name, but it was obvious whom she was talking about and her representatives later confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that she was referring to Franco.

So she was convicting him in the court of public opinion, a currently very fevered court all too willing to believe hes a sexual predator.

Perhaps he is; Ive never met Franco and have no idea what kind of man he is away from the cameras.

She never used James Francos name, but it was obvious whom she was talking about and her representatives later confirmed it. So she was convicting him in the court of public opinion, a currently very fevered court all too willing to believe hes a sexual predator

Similarly, Ive no idea if his accusers are credible or not.

I dont subscribe to the MY truth is automatically THE truth subtext of the otherwise laudable #MeToo campaign, not least because in Britain there have been numerous rape cases against young men that have collapsed recently after suppressed evidence emerged proving their female accusers had lied.

The truth, in matters as serious as rape and sexual assault, should be established by due legal process after all evidence has been considered. Otherwise what are we  a kangaroo court with trial by Twitter?

But Scarlett Johansson thinks otherwise; shes already decided James Franco is guilty and she is outraged about him.

Which is curious when you consider her very conflicting attitude towards two other Hollywood figures also mired in sexual assault controversy.

The first is Woody Allen.

Johansson has already decided that James Franco is guilty - but this same woman made THREE movies with Woody Allen (Scoop, pictured, Match Point and Vicky Cristina Barcelona), who is accused of sexually abusing his adopted daughter when she was just seven

Johansson has made three movies with him: Match Point, Scoop and Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

In 2007, she said of the director: Id sew the hems of his pants if he asked me to.

Yet this is a man whom we know seduced and later wed his girlfriend Mia Farrows adoptive young daughter, Soon-Yi.

And a man who stands accused by Dylan Farrow, his own adoptive daughter with Mia, of sexually abusing her when she was just seven years old.

Allens always denied the allegations, but when they were first investigated, a judge accused him of grossly inappropriate behaviour towards Dylan and ordered that measures must be taken to protect her.

The states attorney said he had probable cause, to pursue Allen on molestation charges, but would not do so, citing his and Farrows desire not to traumatise Dylan further.

So there was plenty of concerning smoke amid the firestorm of tabloid headlines. The kind of smoke that in todays climate would see Allen professionally and personally slaughtered.

In 2014, Dylan wrote an open letter to the New York Times after Allen was awarded a lifetime achievement Golden Globe.

In it, she recounted the alleged assault, and lambasted actors who still work with and celebrate him.

What if it had been you, Emma Stone? she wrote. Or you, Scarlett Johansson?

(Dylan, it should be noted, is 100% supported by her brother Ronan, whose own reporting for the New Yorker on allegations against Harvey Weinstein helped spark the whole #MeToo and #TimesUp campaigns.)

Johansson, when asked about Dylans letter, told the Guardian: Its not like this is somebody thats been prosecuted and found guilty of something and you can then go, I dont support this lifestyle or whatever. I mean, its all guesswork. I dont know anything about it. It would be ridiculous for me to make any kind of assumption one way or the other.

In 2014, Dylan wrote an open letter lambasting actors who still work with and celebrate him. What if it had been you... Scarlett Johansson? When asked about the letter, she said, Its not like this is somebody thats been prosecuted and found guilty of something and you can then go, I dont support this lifestyle or whatever. I mean, its all guesswork. I dont know anything about it. It would be ridiculous for me to make any kind of assumption one way or the other.

Right, unless its James Franco, whos been neither prosecuted nor found guilty.

And even if Woody Allen HAD been convicted of child molestation, I doubt it would have made any difference to Scarlett Johansson.

At the 2014 Cesar Film Awards in Paris, she found herself on stage at the same time as Roman Polanski.

She went over to him, placed her hand affectionately on his shoulder, smiled broadly and whispered something that made him smile too.

An odd reaction, you might think, from a woman outraged by powerful men preying on vulnerable women, towards a convicted child rapist that fled America to avoid being held accountable for his appalling crime.

Johanssons not the only shockingly two-faced actress in this regard.

At the 2014 Cesar Film Awards in Paris, she found herself on stage at the same time as convicted child rapist Roman Polanski. She went over to him, placed her hand affectionately on his shoulder, smiled broadly and whispered something that made him smile too

Saint Meryl Streep gave Polanski a standing ovation at the 2003 Oscars, and called Harvey Weinstein God from another awards podium.

Kate Winslet, star of recent Allen movie Wonder Wheel, was asked by the New York Times: Did the allegations against him give you pause?

Of course one thinks about it, she replied. But as an actor in the film, you just have to step away and say, I dont know anything really you put it to one side and just work with the person. Woody Allen is an incredible director.

Then, unprompted, she added: So is Roman Polanski. I had an extraordinary working experience with both of those men and thats the truth.

How lovely for her.

The Hollywood awards season - which I thoroughly enjoy - is always an unedifying orgy of self-congratulatory, back slapping bullsh*t and gruesomely worthy speeches.

But this year, its already scaled new heights of politically correct horror.

At the Golden Globes, everyone wore black and eight actresses, led by Meryl Streep, took along womens activists as their guests, like they were the latest red carpet accessory.

At the Globes, Saint Meryl Streep - she who gives Roman Polanski standing ovations - led the way dressed in black and accompanied by an activist. And at the SAGs last night, lifetime achievement honoree Morgan Freeman lamented the 'gender - specific' gong

At last nights SAG Awards, all the presenters were women, and Morgan Freeman bemoaned the fact that the gongs themselves were gender-specific. In other words, male.

Can you even imagine how awful the Oscars is going to be?

The way things are going, it will be a women-only event, attended only by women, hosted by a woman, and with exclusively female presenters and winners.

Oh, and it cant even be called the Oscars either, can it?

Because Oscar is a man, and the Oscar statuettes are therefore male.

So the event will have to be renamed the ah, well, thats a tricky one, because Morgan Freeman has a problem with anything gender-specific so it cant be a female name.

The Robins, perhaps? That gender-neutral enough?

I absolutely endorse the pursuit of womens rights and equality, in all its forms.

But what were seeing now in Hollywood is turning into a complete farce.

The worlds most famous town, wracked by guilt post Weinstein, has wrapped itself in a virtue signalling vice from which I see no escape.

And it wouldnt be so bad if all this new moral outrage had any kind of consistency to it.

Instead, were left with the likes of sanctimonious Scarlett crucifying James Franco but taking Woody Allens pay-checks and hugging it out with Roman Polanski.

If you think #TimesUp for these Hollywood hypocrites, #MeToo.
Richard Concepcion, 37 (pictured), from San Antonio, Texas, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after fatally shooting his estranged wife and kidnapping their 18-month-old toddler

A Texas man suspected of killing his estranged wife and kidnapping their toddler died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Sunday.

Richard Concepcion, 37, was listed in critical condition after police said he fatally shot 32-year old Sarah Alexis Furey and then fled with their 18-month-old son, Aaron Joseph.

The baby was found safe by police in the backseat of his father's pickup truck, but Concepcion was rushed to the hospital, where he later died.

Around 8am on Sunday, police were called to the 10400 block of Arbor Bluff in San Antonio for assistance in a custody exchange, according to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus.

While en route to the home, authorities received a call for shots fired.

When police arrived at the house, they found Furey fatally shot on the doorstep.

Around 8am on Sunday, police were called to the 10400 block of Arbor Bluff in San Antonio for assistance in a custody exchange between Concepcion and Sarah Alexis Furey, 32 (pictured)

While en route to the home, authorities received a call for shots fired. When police arrived at the house, they found Furey (pictured) fatally shot on the doorstep

Police said that Concepcion (pictured) took off with the toddler in a white 2016 Toyota Tundra and an AMBER Alert was issued. The truck was later found in Guadalupe County

Police have confirmed that Concepcion (pictured) is a veteran of the US Army. He joined in 2008 and appears to have been honorably discharged

Police said that Concepcion took off with the toddler in a white 2016 Toyota Tundra, which was later found in Guadalupe County.

An AMBER Alert was issued and, luckily, the 18-month-old was found unharmed in the backseat.

The estranged couple have two other children, but police say they were not involved in the incident. Police have not given any other details about the condition of the other two children.

Online court records show that Furey had filed for divorce last year on October 30 and that a temporary restraining order was granted on October 31.

The 18-month-old was found unharmed in the backseat but Concepcion had shot himself. He was transferred to a hospital, where he later died (Pictured, Furey with their three children)

Online court records show that Furey (right) had filed for divorce last year from Concepcion (left) on October 30 and that a temporary restraining order was granted on October 31

The estranged couple (pictured) have two other children, Ryland and Gabriel, but police say they were not involved in the incident

Police said that Concepcion had moved out of their home (pictured) approximately three months ago and that, since the separation, authorities had been called out several times

McManus asaid that Concepcion had moved out of their home approximately three months ago and that, since the separation, authorities had been called out to the home several times for 'domestic issues'.

The estranged couple have two other children, Ryland and Gabriel, but police say they were not involved in the incident.

A GoFundMe account has been created to support the three young boys. So far, $6,200 has been raised out of a $20,000 goal.

McManus also confirmed that Concepcion is a veteran of the US Army and that police have contacted area military bases.

According to his Facebook, the father-of-three joined the military in 2008.
The Romanian baker praised by Theresa May for his heroism during the London Bridge terror attack may sue the UK for abandoning him after the traumatic incident.

Florin Morariu, 32, hit one of the attackers over the head with a crate and then ushered 20 people into the safety of the bakery where he worked in Borough Market.

Prime Minister Theresa May praised him in Parliament but despite the accolade, Morariu says there was no follow-up support from authorities.

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Have-a-go hero: Florin Morariu, 32, hit one of the London Bridge attackers over the head with a crate and then ushered 20 people into the safety of the bakery where he worked

Eight people were brutally murdered and 48 injured in the attack at London Bridge last June, and Mr Morariu says he has been having nightmares ever since.

He says he asked for protection from British police, fearing the terrorists' associates would come after him, but was ignored, and claims his landlord even asked him to move out as she too fears reprisals.

Morariu eventually returned to Romania and has now told local media that he is taking legal advice over the situation.

He said: 'They told me that they cannot put me in a witness protection programme, because the three attackers were killed and the other 12 were arrested.

'Everywhere I go I must be careful. I will carry that fear with me for the rest of my life. Back then everybody hailed me as a hero, but now I realise that all the promises were not fulfilled.

Morariu says he asked for protection from British police, fearing the terrorists' associates would come after him, but was ignored, and is now looking to take legal action against the UK

Seven people were brutally murdered and 48 injured during the attack last June

A video he shot in the aftermath of the stabbings shows the chaos in Borough Market

'I am just a simple man, I can't fight on my own. I feel that I was treated unfairly, because I was left alone in this story. No one did a thing for me, they all washed their hands.'

The lawyer he has hired to represent him, Gianina Porosnicu, told Romanian media that Morariu deserves some kind of compensation because the terror attack in which he defended British citizens 'ruined' his life.

She added: 'Florin was working legally in England, for three years. It's time for everybody to do more for our hero.'

The June 2017 London Bridge attack saw three terrorists crash a van into pedestrians on London Bridge and then use knives to attack people in the busy shopping and restaurant area nearby. They killed eight people and wounded 48.

Armed police shot dead the three attackers Khuram Shazad Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba.

A further 12 suspects thought to be connected to the attackers were arrested shortly afterwards, and controlled explosions carried out.
Another new book peels back layers of turmoil inside the Trump White House, this time focusing on the staff's panicked efforts to handle the president's outbursts and the press.

Like 'Fire and Fury' before it, the new book contains incendiary passages involving former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon, who in the book is shown clashing with the president's daughter, Ivanka.

Bannon schools Ivanka at one scene in 'Media Madness: Donald Trump, The Press, And The War Over The Truth,' by former Washington Post reporter and TV contributor Howard Kurtz.

'My daughter loves me as a dad,' Bannon tells her, according to Kurtz. 'You love your dad. I get that. But you're just another staffer who doesn't know what you're doing.'

Another book describes chaos in the Trump White House

When he left the White House, Bannon told Trump of his plans for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: to 'bring him down,' according to the book.

'Trump said that was fine, that Bannon should go ahead,' according to Kurtz.

In another scene, this one in the Oval Office, Bannon tried to pin a leak on Ivanka Trump.

'Baby, I think Steve's right here,' Trump tells her,' according to the book, which was excerpted in the Washington Post.

President Donald Trump waves after addressing the annual March for Life rally, taking place on the National Mall, from the White House Rose Garden in Washington, U.S., January 19, 2018

Former White House strategist Steve Bannon leaves a House Intelligence Committee meeting where he was interviewed behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018

Ivanka Trump and her daughter, Arabella Kushner load up their Secret Service SUV with boxes & bags of toys. In Washington DC home

President Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump walk toward Air Force One as they depart Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, U.S., June 13, 2017

President Donald Trump speaks on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office of the White House, January 28, 2017 in Washington

Aides in the book describe the president's 'Defiance Disorder.'

Despite his frequent railing against leakers, the president himself was behind a number of leaks, according to Kurtz.

'The president himself leaked to reporters as well, his aides believed,' Kurtz wrote. 'And sometimes it was inadvertent: Trump would talk to so many friends and acquaintances that key information would quickly reach journalists.'
A cleric has beaten his eight-year-old pupil to death after he tried to flee a religious school in Pakistan.

Police said the boy - Mohammed Hussain - had been repeatedly struck with a blunt object after he managed to run away from the Islamic seminary in Bin Qasim Town, Karachi.

His parents then reportedly returned their son to the school after his Sunday escape, at which point cleric Qari Najmuddin allegedly killed him.

Police said the boy - Mohammed Hussain - had been repeatedly struck with a blunt object after he managed to run away from the Islamic seminary in Bin Qasim Town, Karachi. Pictured: A stock image representing violence against a child

According to the Hindustan Times, police said Najmuddin 'took out his anger on the boy'.

An officer added: 'He was beaten with a blunt object and stick and there were visible marks of torture on his body.'

The parents of the boy have reportedly refused to allow a postmortem examination of their son's body.

According to local media, the parents were unwilling to press charges against the cleric.

The state, however, has arrested the teacher and pledged an investigation regardless of the family's wishes.

Sindh province, where the death occurred, has outlawed corporal punishment.
An Indonesian Mayor has shown he gets a kick out of welcoming new staff to his team.

Mayor Ahyar Abduh of Matram, West Nusa Tenggara, was seen delivering an impressive roundhouse kick to the chests of new officials at the Public Order Agency (Satpol PP).

The Mayor is an expert in martial arts, and has displayed his skills at a number of public gatherings in the past, Coconuts reported.

A video from last year shows Mayor Ahyar kicking Satpol PP officials, who are police officers in Indonesia, in the chest as they stood in a straight line in front of crowds.

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Mayor Ahyar Abduh of Matram, West Nusa Tenggara, was seen delivering roundhouse kicks to law enforcement officials

The officials were seen clenching as the Mayor, who is an expert in martial arts, delivered kick after kick

The men were seen clenching their muscles as they tried not to move from their standing positions.

While the practice may seem bizarre, Mataram Satpol PP Chief Bayu Pancapati said his men are happy to be kicked by the Mayor.

'Its not because the Mayor is angry, its normal, the Satpol PP officers are actually happy [theyre being kicked],' he told Kompas.

'Not only my subordinates, but even I was tested by the mayor. Its normal for him to do that, to test our strengths.'

Chief Pancapati said the Mayor had individually tested his self-defence skills, as well as his physique.

But not everyone is as excited by the Mayor's special skills as the Satpol PP Chief

Local journalist Muhammad Kasim said the official's actions were 'not appropriate' for a public occasion.

One commenter on last year's video said it was 'a good thing [the Mayor's] pants didn't rip', and said things may have gone differently if the Satpol PP officials were able to respond.
A speeding driver who 'gambled' on an amber light at a busy junction was jailed for two years today after killing a graduate as she crossed the road.

Glenn Wall, 35, was speeding home to get to a family barbecue and failed to brake as he 'gambled' on getting through an amber traffic light in Timperley, Greater Manchester.

The IT manager's Vauxhall Astra car sped across a busy junction at 36mph and ploughed into Helena Thurm, 25, as she was crossing the road after a job interview.

Glenn Wall (left, pictured outside Manchester Crown Court today), 35, ploughed into Helena Thurm (right), 25, as she was crossing the road following a job interview

The former grammar school pupil was thrown into the air by the force of the impact and suffered multiple injuries, before dying the following day in hospital.

In a tragic twist, her parents drove past the scene of the collision and saw Wall talking to police at the roadside - but had no idea their daughter was the victim.

Today, the victim's family accused him of using his car like a 'killing machine' and condemned his 'selfish and thoughtless actions to get home quicker through traffic'.

Inquiries revealed Wall was just a mile from home when he undertook another driver before speeding through the amber light at Timperley at up to 36mph.

He been driving in a lane signposted for left hand turns only - yet he continued straight on and struck Miss Thurm, who believed it had been safe to cross.

Today, Miss Thurm's mother Sandra, 64, said: 'We had driven past the scene of the collision and I could see the defendant talking to the police officer and a paramedic. An hour later we were told that Helena had been hit by a car.

'She was an innocent young woman who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. She had so much to live for and unfulfilled potential.

'She always used to say that her dream job was to work in marketing and it is even more tragic that she was killed in her way back a job interview that day.

Miss Thurm (left), pictured with her brothers Stephen (centre) and Mike (right), was knocked down and killed by commuter Wall who 'gambled on an amber light' at roadworks

'Helena was starting a new chapter in her life of happiness and promise and she has been deprived of so much. We have to pass the scene when we leave or arrive home and we can no longer bear to live there as the memories are too painful.

'We have been forced to leave and move elsewhere. As a family we cannot express enough how much trauma this has left us in.'

Miss Thurm (pictured with Mike) graduated in public relations and digital communications at Manchester Metropolitan University,

At Manchester Crown Court in a statement to Wall, Miss Thurm's brother Stephen, 30, said: 'Driving a car is something which some people take all too frivolously and lightly even though it can ultimately be a killing machine.

The former company project manager added: 'Your selfish and thoughtless actions to get home quicker through traffic ended up taking someone's life.

'You may get what I see as a very brief custodial sentence, but my family and I will have a life sentence of loss and grief. Even though you were proven to be at fault it will ultimately be all of our family who pay the much heavier price.

'But the one you should be most repentant to is not here today, Helena, my lovely, wonderful sister. Every day you should ask for her forgiveness.'

Mr Thurm added: 'To me Helena wasn't just my little sister, she was also someone I lived with, worked with and constantly socialised with, and above all she was my best friend and someone who I had looked after since I was just three years old.

'She was the person in the world who I loved the most and her death has devastated my life. It has broken me and I no longer feel the same person who I was before.

'She was always there for me, she knew me better than anyone else in the world. The bond was irreplaceable and special, I never expected that to be broken and her life to have been ended in such a tragic way at such a young age.

'Since she was killed a year and a half ago I have quit my job due to the grief and I find life a constant depressing struggle and the one person who would most understand my pain and grief, Helena is no longer here to help me through that.'

Former grammar school pupil Miss Thurm (pictured) was thrown into the air by the force of the impact and suffered multiple injuries, before dying the following day in hospital

Wall, who was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving, showed no emotion as Judge Patrick Field QC also banned him from driving two years which will start when he is freed from jail.

The judge told Wall: 'The tragedy of what happened on an otherwise unremarkable summers day was palpable to all who have heard the evidence in this case.

'I accept that when you got into your car you had no intention driving dangerously and causing harm to others road users.

Wall, who worked in Rochdale, was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving

'But you were driving to get home after a day at work for a BBQ with your wife and you approached the traffic lights in the wrong lane.

'When the lights changed to amber you sailed on without slowing. You could have stopped safely at the lights but you decided not to do so.

'Helena Thurm was there to be seen by you but you failed to spot her and did not adjust your speed accordingly. Your intention throughout this case was to seek to prove that Helena Thurm was to blame.

'I am urged to consider suspending a term of imprisonment but to do so would be wholly inappropriate and whilst there are factors of personal mitigation, appropriate punishment would only be achieved by immediate custody.'

The tragedy occurred on June 20, 2016 after Miss Thurm, a former pupil at Altrincham Grammar School for Girls, who graduated in public relations and digital communications at Manchester Metropolitan University, had attended an job interview at a fashion retailer in the city.

Rob Hall, prosecuting, said: 'Afterwards she phoned her boyfriend and they chatted about how the interview had gone.

'She had some spare time so went shopping at the Arndale Centre and got her haircut. By 5pm she was getting a tram to get back to Timperley.

'On the way out of Manchester she phoned her father and mother to tell them how the interview went and discussed arrangements for that evening but that would turn out to be their last conversation with their daughter.'

Miss Thurm was described as an 'innocent young woman who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time'

Wall, who worked at an office 25 miles away in Rochdale, had been on his way home to Altrincham when he encountered a set of roadworks at the junction on the A56 Manchester Road at 6.08pm.

Mr Hall added: 'A witness, travelling in the right hand lane and as he approached the traffic lights, noted that the lights were changing to amber so he stopped.

'But this defendant who in the left hand lane did not take the same approach and he didn't slow.

'His response was to see that as an opportunity to get in front of the witness and he undertook his car and drove straight across the traffic lights where Helena Thurm was crossing - and where she had been waiting for some time.

'When she saw this defendant approaching in a left only lane she would have been entitled to think he would not be travelling straight onwards.

'But he went straight across the cross roads and drove straight through her throwing her into the air. This defendant was essentially gambling on an amber light.'

Wall denied wrongdoing and claimed he thought Miss Thurm was on her mobile phone at the time of the collision - but examinations showed the device was not being used at the time of the impact.

In mitigation his lawyer Richard Dawson said: 'This is a tragic case and involves a feature regrettably common to this type of incident. This is not a case of sustained bad driving - but a case of flawed decision being taken and ending badly.

'Although this may come as some surprise to the family the defendant has always expressed genuine remorse for his actions on that day. He reflects on this incident everyday and has suffered from panic attacks and flashbacks since the incident.'
President Donald Trump's trip to Davos for an elite economic conference was thrown into upheaval by the government shutdown, but the White House said that he would go as intended on Monday afternoon.

With federal funding up in the air, the president was reconsidering his plans to take flight on Wednesday.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee said at her daily briefing, though, that 'if all things go as expected,' and a bill passes this afternoon to reopen the government, 'the president's delegation will leave tomorrow, and the president will continue on his trip later in the week.'

A Member of Swiss special police forces stand guard on the roof of the Kongress Hotel next to the Congress Center during heavy snowfall on the eve of the 48th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland

A speech the president planned to deliver on Friday at the Swiss gathering that's famed for attracting a mix of world leaders, economists and CEOs had been put on ice prior to Sanders' briefing.

Trump spokesman Hogan Gidley told DailyMail.com the trip to Davos was 'on hold' on Monday morning as the standoff between Democrats and GOP leaders continued on Capitol Hill.

President Donald Trump's trip to Davos was thrown into upheaval by the government shutdown, but the White House said that he would go as planned on Monday

A breakthrough in talks that the White House credited to Trump standing 'firm' in his resolve put the trip back on the burner several hours later.

A Senate agreement to end the blockade and fund the government through Feb. 8 was expected to clear both chambers on Monday evening.

Sanders indicated that Trump would sign the measure later today, clearing the decks for his to depart the United States for Switzerland.

He is supposed to sit down in Davos with British Prime Minister Theresa May following the cancellation of a February visit to the U.K.

In a Jan. 11 phone call, Trump agreed to hold a bilateral with France's Emmanuel Macron, schedules permitting, the White House previously said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will also be in Davos, suggesting that Trump could engage in additional diplomatic talks.

Sanders said Monday morning on Hugh Hewitt's radio show that 'you have a number of leaders from around the world that will be there, particularly a number of people that lead in the economy. And we have been talking about the need and the priority of an America first economic system.

'This president has, I think, driven that message stronger and bigger than anyone probably ever has, and thats a message we want to continue to carry, and we want to continue to talk about the trade deficits that we have with other countries.'

She told reporters who caught up with her on the White House drive after another interview later that the Cabinet had postponed its departure for Davos amid the chaos.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin will be at the forefront of a 12-person delegation, including seven Cabinet secretaries and senior advisor Jared Kushner, that the administration is sending to Davos.

Trump will be the first U.S. president to attend since Bill Clinton, if his plans pan out.

Sanders had cast doubt on Trump's travel earlier in the morning when the Senate appeared poised to reject a spending deal.

'Our priority is making sure that the government is reopened and we start having the conversations that need to take place over the next couple of weeks,' she stated.

The White House spokeswoman said then that she did not believe it was 'likely' that Trump would go to Switzerland if the government was still shutdown.

Senior officials had been insistent in a Friday call that Trump could still attend, even if the federal government wasn't fully functioning, because diplomacy falls within the 'exercise of his constitutional responsibilities.'

The optics of Trump, a billionaire, mingling with financial power-players while hundreds of thousands of federal workers were furloughed could have done more harm than good for the president who's been accused by critics of profiting from the presidency.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (center) will be at the forefront of a 12-person delegation, including seven Cabinet secretaries and senior advisor Jared Kushner, that the administration is sending to Davos. Ivanka Trump (right) will not be on the foreign trip

In announcing Trump's trip, the White House said the president would be in Davos solely to push his 'America First' agenda.

'I can assure you that the members of his cabinet have no interest in going over there and rubbing elbows with anybody. This is about meeting business leaders. This is about meeting our counterparts,' Mnuchin said as the three-day visit came under scrutiny. 'This is about creating jobs, creating economic growth for the U.S.'

Trump appeared to be cleared for takeoff on Monday afternoon as the House proceeded to the floor for a vote on a Senate-approved stopgap bill.

After clearing a 60-vote threshold this morning, legislation authorizing temporary funding was also anticipated to pass in the upper chamber.

Trump is scheduled to leave Washington for Davos on Wednesday. He'll give the keynote speech at the economic conference before his return to the U.S. on Friday.
A tourist beaten unconscious by thugs while on holiday in Ukraine says he was targeted because of his multicoloured hair and facial piercings.

Liam Tong, 23, from Coventry, was set upon by three yobs in the street as he walked through Kiev.

The assailants struck him in the face causing him to momentarily black out, Romanian media report.

Liam Tong, 23, from Coventry, (pictured) was set upon by three yobs in the street as he walked through Kiev

They broke his nose and damaged his teeth in the brutal attack, leaving him in excruciating pain and having difficulty eating

Psychologist Maria Makukha spotted Liam lying in the snow covered in blood just after 2pm.

She agrees that the 'young British hipster' was probably attacked because of his 'non-standard' appearance.

He has bright purple and pink hair and wears piercings in his lip and nose.

The unidentified thugs made no attempt to steal anything from him.

'Basically I was pretty heavily attacked based on what I assume was my style,' Liam wrote on social media, describing his attackers as young adults or teenagers.

They broke his nose and damaged his teeth in the brutal attack, leaving him in excruciating pain and having difficulty eating.

Metal music fan Liam flew back to the UK shortly after the attack.

Psychologist Maria Makukha (pictured left with Liam) spotted him lying in the snow covered in blood just after 2pm. She agrees that the 'young British hipster' was probably attacked because of his 'non-standard' appearance

Heavy metal fan Liam (pictured) has purple and pink hair and nose and lip piercings

But the traumatic experience has not put him off going abroad again.

'There are bad people everywhere in the world and this should not scare anyone from travelling anywhere,' he wrote on social media.

He has now set up a GoFundMe page to raise money to replace five or six of his teeth damaged in the assault, as well as raise awareness of hate crimes.

'I genuinely thought I was going to die,' he wrote.

He describes how the assailants approached him at some traffic lights and threw a snowball at him before kicking his suitcase.

'I thought it was just some stupid people, so I carried on walking and ignored them,' he wrote.

But seconds later one of the attackers pushed him to the ground and he was savagely beaten.

The yobs then ran off laughing, he said.

Kiev district police spokeswoman Anna Zubreva said officers are investigating the incident.
A town less than two miles from the George Washington Bridge is putting up the 'keep out' sign for motorists seeking a shortcut to the world's busiest span.

The decision for the New Jersey town of Leonia comes as a response to navigation apps that re-route some of the tens of thousands of vehicles headed to the bridge each morning.

Leonia started barring the use of side streets to non-residents during the morning and evening commutes on Monday. Violators could face a $200 fine.

Local officials and police have said the decision isn't a hasty one and that they've done extensive studies of traffic patterns.

Police Chief Thomas Rowe said studies have shown more than 2,000 vehicles often pass through town from just one of the three exits off Interstate 95. Leonia has about 9,200 residents and a police force of 18.

'We are in a unique situation here,' Rowe said. 'We are a small town in a very busy area with a very small police force.'

A do not enter street sign stands in Leonia, New Jersery on Monday. Local officials are trying to reduce traffic congestion from the George Washington Bridge into New York

The decision comes as a response to navigation apps that re-route some of the tens of thousands of vehicles headed to the bridge

Leonia has started imposing fines on non-residents who drive on residential streets during the morning and evening commutes

Maria Favale, who has lived in Leonia for nearly 30 years, said recently she tried to get to her church one morning through the congested downtown and nearly gave up.

Standing outside the borough hall on Monday, she noticed a marked difference: Fewer cars.

'I don't know if it's because it's the first day and people are worried about tickets, but it's been great,' Favale said. 'It's beautiful; so peaceful. I can't believe it.'

More than 140,000 vehicles cross the bridge each day, most during commuting hours, and when there is an accident, lane closure or other problem, it has a ripple effect.

On one such day in 2014, a woman in Leonia was struck and dragged by a school bus and later died.

Leonia's traffic problems have been exacerbated in the last several years as navigation apps such as Waze have exploded in popularity.

They are programmed to send motorists to faster routes - and not necessarily with regard for where those routes go, Rowe said.

Vehicles and a cyclist cross over the busy George Washington Bridge on April 28, 2017 in New York City

'Any road that's open can be used regardless of topography, width, whether it's through a school zone,' he said.

'Sometimes I think they need to do a better job of seeing whether a road is suitable for cut-through traffic.'

That said, Rowe said Waze has been 'extremely helpful and extremely cooperative' and has changed its app to reflect the road closures.

Rowe said his officers initially will give motorists warnings, but will eventually begin writing tickets.

Leonia's plan has struck a chord around the world: Rowe and Mayor Judah Zeigler have fielded interview requests from France and Canada, as well as from the major television networks and CNN.

Road crews have been putting 'Do Not Enter' signs on about 60 side streets in town.

Residents are exempted from the restrictions, if they display a yellow tag hanging from their rearview mirror. About 1,400 tags had been mailed to residents as of last week.

'If we never write one ticket, I'd be very happy' Rowe said. 'Hopefully it will change people's driving behavior; that's the goal here.'

Local officials and police have said the decision isn't a hasty one and that they've done extensive studies of traffic patterns
Baggage handlers have been arrested over the theft of tourists' luggage at Phuket Airport.

Police were notified that passengers' items had been being stolen since December last year.

More than 100 items were seized including laptop computers, mobile phones, whisky, watches, sunglasses and jewellery.

Baggage handlers (pictured) have been arrested over the theft of tourists' luggage (pictured) at Phuket Airport

'Today (Sunday) Police arrested two suspects- Nirut Saksri, 29 and Manot Nakpijit, 30 both from Phichit,' Police Chief Col Jirasak Sieamsak told The Phuket News.

'Police then carried out a search of a house in Sakoo and seized several items. Police also found one more suspect- Chakrit Janprasert, 23 also from Phichit.'

The police chief noted all three suspects admitted to stealing passengers items while working at Phuket Airport.

'Nirut and Manot were charged with carrying forbidden limited items in to the kingdom by not passing the customs process and illegal possession of marijuana while Chakrit was charged with possession of a Category 1 drug,' Col Jirasak said.

The arrests came after police received multiple reports of passengers missing their luggage at the airport.
Shocking details are being released about the sex lives of the super religious California 'house of horrors' couple David and Louise Turpin.

The Turpins were arrested a little more than a week ago after one of their thirteen children escaped the family's Perris home and called police to report that she and her sisters were being held against their will. Cops raided the home and found the couple hastily untying several of the children, who were shackled to beds.

The couple have pleaded not guilty to nearly 40 counts including torture, false imprisonment, abuse on a dependent, and child abuse. David faces an additional charge of a lewd act on a child under 14.

The charges came as a shock to Louise's sister, Teresa Robinette, who appeared on Megyn Kelly Today on Monday to discuss the case.

She said she had no idea the children were being treated like prisoners in their own home. However, she says she did know that her sister and brother-in-law had begun to engage in what she considered deviant sexual behavior.

Scroll down for video

Teresa Robinette, the sister of California 'house of horrors' mother Louise Turpin, appeared on Megyn Kelly Today on Monday to discuss the case

Before they drifted apart, Robinette says she spoke to her sister on the phone often.

They really started to bond around Louise's 40th birthday, when the family quit the church and 'were experimenting with different religions'.

'At the time, she said...that the older children were helping take care of the younger children so her and David could sow the wild oats they didn't sow when they were younger,' Robinette says.

For example, Robinette says her sister called her the first time they went to a bar and got drunk.

But things quickly escalated and Robinette began to find the couple's behavior disturbing.

Robinette says that around 2009 or 2010, she got a call from her sister, saying she was going to sleep with a man she met online, with her husband's permission. Louise and David Turpin are pictured with their children at a vow renewal - one of the few times the kids were let out

Louise eloped with David Turpin after he signed her out of school and drove them to Texas when she was 16. The couple was caught and returned to their hometown to wed. Above they are seen in their wedding photo in Princeton, West Virginia in 1984

Around 2009 or 2010, she says she got one of these calls from her sister.

She says her sister told her of a plan she had, to sleep with a man she met online, with her husband's permission.

'It was a very weird thing to me, that I would never do,' Robinette said.

'She told me that her and David had met a man online from Huntsville, Alabama. And they were on their way there to meet him and that she was going to sleep with him. And that David was okay with that,' Robinette said.

WATCH: My main hope is that I can put my arm around them and just tell them they have family that loves them that is not deranged. That this is what it is supposed to be like #MegynTODAY pic.twitter.com/vAfOeoMgMc  Megyn Kelly TODAY (@MegynTODAY) January 22, 2018

Robinette teared up as she described being sexually abused as a child by a 'close family member'. she says the same family member abused her older sister as well

At one point, Kelly reached over to comfort Robinette as she grew emotional

Robinette said she told her sister she thought she was making a mistake, but that Louise went through with the plan anyway.

'What makes it weirder, is exactly one year to the date of the anniversary she did that, she called me and thought it was funny that David was taking her back to the exact same hotel room, the same everything, the exact same bed she slept with this man in, so that David could sleep with her in the same bed,' Robinette explained.

The Turpin children range in age from two years old to 29. This weekend, sources told Crime Watch Daily that investigators were considering conducting DNA testing to make sure the siblings are all related.

Robinette also grew emotional in the interview as she detailed how she and her sister were sexually abused by the same 'close family member'.

Robinette would not identify the family member, but said it was someone 'we should have loved and trusted' and who abused their mother as well.

After their arrests, Robinette says that her sister and brother-in-law are 'dead to me' but that she hopes to have a relationship with their children.

She says she already tried to get on a plane to go out and visit the kids, but that authorities have told her they need time to recover.

Louise and her husband (pictured in court last Thursday) each face nearly 40 charges related to the imprisonment of their children. David faces an additional charge of a lewd act on a child under 14

Robinette has only met the four eldest children in person, but met some of the younger kids in rare Skype conversations that her sister allowed her to have with the kids over the years.

She says she looks forward to getting to know them and introducing them to their cousins, her children.

'I hope that when they come out from where they're at now, our hope is that they're all - they can lead some sort of normal or happy existence.

'Obviously, they've never known happy, except maybe the older ones for a little while. My main hope is that I can put an arm around them and tell them that they have family that loves them, that's not deranged. This is what it's supposed to be like, you know?' she said.
A survivor of a tugboat explosion that killed three in Kentucky has told how he dragged his uncle and cousin to safety after the blast.

Tyler Wedeking, from Illinois, was working on the top deck of tow boat William E. Strait on Friday alongside uncle Jimmy Lang and cousin James Lang when the vessel blew up.

In the aftermath Tyler said he scrambled to pull James out from underneath a pile of twisted metal and drag him to safety, before returning to rescue James, who was thrown on to some scaffolding.

Tyler Wedeking, from Illinois (right), has told how he survived the tugboat explosion that killed three in Kentucky last week before pulling cousin James (left) to safety

Mr Wedeking, who is expecting his first child with partner Destiny Marie (together right), jumped into action despite suffering third degree burns to his face

He told KFVS12: 'I saw my cousin James laying on the ground. He has some stuff on him so I got it off of him and I could tell he broke his leg.

'Then we propped his head up and everything else and I looked over and saw Jim laying in some scaffolding, so I went over there and helped him as much as I could too. And the boat was still on fire.'

He managed this feat despite suffering second a third degree burns to a large amount of his face.

Tyler said the trio only survived because of where they were standing, and that had they been below deck they would have ended up among the dead.

After the blast Tyler was taken to hospital where he was treated for burns and then released later that night.

James was taken to the same hospital suffering severe burns to his hands and face along with a broken foot.

Mr Wedeking also saved his uncle Jimmy Lang, who suffered multiple broken bones and internal injuries and is now on a ventilator in hospital

James pictured before the accident. His face is now so swollen that he cannot open his eyes

He took a picture with Tyler which was posted on Facebook, showing his entire head covered in bandages.

Since the picture was taken James's eyes have swollen up so badly he can no longer see, WPSD Local 6 reports.

Meanwhile Jimmy suffered several broken bones and internal injuries. He cannot speak or breathe and is hooked up to a ventilator, brother Willie said.

Despite that he is listed as being in stable condition.

Tyler is an expectant father with his first child due in July, according to a GoFundMe page set up by girlfriend Destiny Marie.

She is asking for funds to help support the new family after the accident.

The other three injured in the blast were named by Kentucky officials as Javier Fuenes, Wilson Madrid, and Billy Counts.

Three others working below deck on the boat were killed in the blast on Friday afternoon, while three others were injured

Timothy Wright, 52, from Kentucky, Jerome Smith, 56, and 41-year-old Quentin Stewart, both from Louisiana, all died in the accident.

Kentucky State Police said the explosion was reported around 9am on Friday and that there was no early indication of foul play in the incident.

According to Marshall County Emergency Management Captain Justin Harris, the boat - which has been identified at the William F Straight - exploded while it was docked and being repaired.

No cause for the explosion has been reported yet. Preliminary reports are that an exploding boiler on the boat is suspected.

The US Coast Guard was called to the scene for a water search and KSP says an investigator with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is expected to arrive later in the day. Fire boats have been called in from local fire departments.
President Donald Trump 'absolutely' has '100 percent confidence' in his commerce secretary, the White House said Monday after a report claimed he was fed up with his commerce secretary's 'terrible' deal-making skills.

According to Axios, the president has been on the outs for months with Wilbur Ross, the 80-year-old billionaire who heads Commerce Department and is said to fall asleep and drool in meetings, using his tie as a bib.

The White House said Monday that Ross remains integral to administration's trade negotiations, however.

'He loves Wilbur, thinks he's doing a great job and has been a strong advocate for the administration and been a great leader,' press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.

President Donald Trump is reportedly fed up with his commerce secretary's 'terrible' deal-making skills. The 80-year-old billionaire who heads Commerce Department and is said to fall asleep and drool in meetings, using his tie as a bib

Trump, a former real estate mogul, is said to have tapped U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to take on the administration's fixer. Axios claimed that Trump no longer trusts Ross to be his 'killer' arbiter.

Ross' inability to get the Chinese to budge on trade imbalances is what reportedly set Trump off.

'These trade deals, theyre terrible,' the president told him in one instance, Axios reported. 'Your understanding of trade is terrible. Your deals are no good. No good.'

A deal to open the Chinese market to American beef that was panned as lackluster outside the administration was also laughed at within, Axios said.

A Trump spokesman, Lighthizer and the president's chief economic adviser had refuted Axios' reporting prior to Sanders' comments at at on-camera briefing.

'Secretary Ross and I work together every day on these trade items,' Lighthizer stated. 'We all value his sharp business acumen, his insight into trade policy issues, and his hard work to advance the Presidents agenda.'

National Economic Council head Gary Cohn said Ross is 'an important member of the Presidents economic team, especially when it comes to Trump's 'free, fair and reciprocal trade' platform.

Ross is seen here snoozing in broad daylight during the president's first trip overseas

Deputy White House Press Secretary Raj Shah told Axios that Ross' portfolio has only expanded, not contracted, since he was confirmed by the Senate 11 months ago.

'Secretary Ross is leading the administrations approach on steel, aluminum, intellectual property and trade. Far from souring on his performance, since taking office, the President has expanded his responsibilities,' Shah said.

But Axios' reporting was backed up by Politico, with White House reporter Eliana Johnson saying in a tweet, 'A source I had contacted about something more important responded that not only has Wilbur Ross fallen asleep at every meeting hes been in with source, but that he drools - and uses his tie to clean it up.'

Ross was seen snoozing in broad daylight in May, on Trump's first trip abroad since taking office, while the president was delivering a speech in Saudi Arabia.

The former investor is also reported to have wandered off from his security detail in December while he was in the Hamptons.

To that, the Commerce Department, said he was found within five minutes, according to a Page Six report.
This is the astonishing moment a cat is cut free after it was trapped inside a newly-built staircase for five hours.

The pet, called Sverre, could be heard meowing in despair after his owner could not find him anywhere else in the house.

But the video, which was filmed in Norway last week, had a happy ending as a neighbour with a drill helped to rescue Sverre from the accidental prison.

At the start of the clip the cat can be seen poking one of its paws through a little hole in the wooden boards underneath the stairs.

A man is then shown using a hammer as he tries to make a space large enough for the terrified pet to crawl through.

As pieces of wood are shaved away to make enough room the whole of Sverre's head is seen poking out from under the staircase as he looks for a way out.

After some 45 minutes of trying Sverre was eventually freed and her owner said he was 'very cozy' after getting out.

The woman who filmed the video said her children, seven-year-old Mikkel and four-year-old Julie, were just as scared as the cat after they realised what was happening.

She called on a neighbour who had a drill to come over and help extract Sverre from his predicament.

The pet, called Sverre, could be heard meowing in despair from underneath the stairs after his owner could not find him anywhere else in the house

As pieces of wood are shaved away to make enough room the whole of Sverre's head is seen poking out from under the staircase as he looks for a way out

The woman said: 'I came home from work happy to see that the stairs inside were finally finished. After a short while, we started to look for our cat.

'After we moved he doesn't like being outside, so I was sure he was indoors. I called his name 'Sverre' many times and after a while heard a weak meow.

'It was very difficult to open the planks, as it was very solid built steps.

'He was in there for five hours, so I could have ended very differently. So glad he replied when I called his name!

'He must have gone to check out the area under the stairs when the carpenter was outside to cut the planks for the stairs.'
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte told the army and police to shoot him if he becomes a dictator or stays beyond his term.

The firebrand leader made the solemn warning on Monday to eliminate speculation that he ordered loyalists in Congress to change the constitution.

His critics have raised concerns about the possible introduction of a federal system which would let him stay in power beyond 2022 when his single term ends.

'If I overstay and wanted to become a dictator, shoot me, I am not joking,' Duterte told soldiers during an army base visit.

President Rodrigo Duterte (pictured while giving a speech in Manila in 2016) told the army and police to shoot him if he becomes a dictator to eliminate speculation that he wants to change the constitution so he can stay beyond his single term

He added that security forces should not allow anybody to alter the constitution.

'It is your job to protect the constitution and to protect the people. Remember, it is your solemn duty,' he said.

Duterte has advocated federalism to tackle inequality, empower provinces and recognise the country's diverse makeup.

But a spokesman for the firebrand leader (pictured arriving for a meeting with Cambodia's Prime Minister in 2016) said the president does not want to stay longer than his term and, if anything, would prefer to retire earlier

The president's lower house allies voted last week to convene a constituent assembly to revise the charter by May this year.

This would scrap mid-term elections next year and extend the terms of all elected officials.

Constitutional reform has been a divisive issue in the country.

Critics have accused law-makers of trying to prolong their stay in office or find a way to keep hugely popular Duterte in power when his term ends.

Opponents warn that such a move could lead to a repeat of the oppressive rule of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

They say they are troubled by Duterte's admiration for Marcos and his similar authoritarian traits.

But Duterte's spokesman Harry Roque has repeatedly said the president does not want to stay longer than his term and, if anything, would prefer to retire earlier.
Pope Francis has apologised to victims of clerical sexual abuse, after defending a Chilean bishop who is under scrutiny, and accused alleged victims of slander.

Last week, the Pope saidthat until he sees proof that Bishop Juan Barros was complicit in covering up sex crimes of paedophile Reverend Fernando Karadima, accusations against Barros are 'all calumny.'

Speaking today, the Pope acknowledged that he had 'wounded many' with his choice of words and tone of voice.

Pope Frances admitted that he had 'wounded many' when he said that victims accusing Bishop Juan Barros of covering up sex crimes of a known paedophile were committing slander

But while the contrite pope expressed regret, he also said he was certain that Barros, was innocent and would keep his job.

His remarks last week demanding proof of Barros' guilt provoked outrage among victims and their representatives, who noted that Karadima was sentenced by the Vatican to a lifetime of 'penance and prayer' for his crimes in 2011.

A Chilean judge also found the victims to be credible, saying that while she had to drop criminal charges against Karadima because too much time had passed, proof of his crimes wasn't lacking.

'As if I could have taken a selfie or a photo while Karadima abused me and others and Juan Barros stood by watching it all,' tweeted Barros' most vocal accuser, Juan Carlos Cruz.

'These people are truly crazy, and the pontiff talks about atonement to the victims.

'Nothing has changed, and his plea for forgiveness is empty.'

Victims of Karadima (pictured in court in 2015) reported to church authorities as early as 2002 that he would kiss and fondle them in the swank Santiago parish he ran

The Karadima scandal dominated the Pope's visit to Chile and is likely to play a role in his three-day trip to Peru that began late on Thursday.

Karadima's victims reported to church authorities as early as 2002 that he would kiss and fondle them in the swank Santiago parish he ran.

They claimed Barros had witnessed the abuse but did nothing about it. But officials refused to believe them and Barros denied the allegations.

It was only when the victims went public with their accusations in 2010 that the Vatican launched an investigation that led to Karadima being removed from ministry.

The emeritus archbishop of Santiago then apologised for refusing to believe the victims from the beginning.

Wounds of the scandal were reopened by the Pope in 2015 when he named Barros, a protege of Karadima, as bishop of the southern diocese of Osorno.

His appointment outraged Chileans, badly divided the Osorno diocese and further undermined the church's already shaky credibility in the country.

The Pope had aimed to help heal wounds this week by meeting with abuse victims and begging forgiveness for the crimes of church pastors.

But he struck a defiant tone when asked about Barros by a Chilean journalist.

'The day they bring me proof against Bishop Barros, I'll speak,' he said.

'There is not one shred of proof against him. It's all calumny. Is that clear?'

He had previously defended the appointment of Barros in Osorno, calling the controversy 'stupid' and the result of a campaign mounted by leftists.

But the Vatican was so worried about the fallout from the Karadima affair that in 2014 it was prepared to ask Barros and two other Karadima-trained bishops to resign and go on a year-long sabbatical.

According to a letter dated January 31, 2015 from the Pope to the executive committee of the Chilean bishops' conference, the plan fell apart and Barros was sent to Osorno.

Juan Carlos Claret, spokesman for a group of Osorno lay Catholics who have mounted a three-year campaign against Barros, questioned why Francis was now accusing the victims of slandering Barros when the Vatican was so convinced of their claims that it planned to remove him in 2014.

'Isn't the pastoral problem that we're living (in Osorno) enough to get rid of him?' Claret asked.

The reference was to the fact that - guilty or not - Barros has been unable to do his job because so many Osorno Catholics and priests don't recognize him as their bishop.

They staged an unprecedented protest during his 2015 installation ceremony and have protested his presence ever since.

Wounds of the scandal were reopened by the Pope in 2015 when he named Juan Barros (pictured), a protege of Karadima, as bishop of the southern diocese of Osorno

Anne Barrett Doyle, of the online database BishopAccountability.org, said it was 'sad and wrong' for the Pope to discredit the victims since 'the burden of proof here rests with the church, not the victims - and especially not with victims whose veracity has already been affirmed.'

'He has just turned back the clock to the darkest days of this crisis,' she said in a statement.

'Who knows how many victims now will decide to stay hidden, for fear they will not be believed?'

For years Catholic officials have accused victims of slandering and attacking the church with their claims.

But until Francis' words on Thursday, many in the church and Vatican had come to reluctantly acknowledge that victims usually told the truth and that the church for decades had wrongly sought to protect its own.

German Silva, a political scientist at Santiago's Universidad Mayor, said the Pope's comments were a 'tremendous error' that will reverberate in Chile and beyond.

Patricio Navia, political science professor at Diego Portales University in Santiago, said Francis had gone much further than Chilean bishops in acknowledging the sexual abuse scandal, which many Chileans appreciated.

'Then right before leaving, Francis turns around and says 'By the way, I don't think Barros is guilty. Show me some proof',' said Navia, adding that the comment will probably erase any good will the pope had won over the issue.

Navia said the Karadima scandal had radically changed how Chileans view the church.

'In the typical Chilean family, parents (now) think twice before sending their kids to Catholic school because you never know what is going to happen,' he said.
Tragic death: John Albers, 17, was shot by a police officer performing a welfare check on him in suburban Kansas City on Saturday

A police officer in suburban Kansas City has shot dead a 17-year-old boy while responding to a report of a suicidal person.

The police-involved shooting that took the life of high school student John Albers took place in Overland Park, Kansas, on Saturday night.

According to a statement from the police department, officers responded to the 9300 block of West 149th Terrace to perform a welfare check for a suicidal man.

As they approached the Albers family's home to make contact, the garage door opened and a vehicle drove out, moving rapidly toward one of the responding officers.

The officer pulled out his service weapon and shot the 17-year-old driver, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said in a statement the responding officer opened fire after Albers sped out of his family's garage and drove toward the cop (scene is pictured)

A makeshift memorial is pictured near the Albers family's home where their eldest son was shot and killed by police o Saturday night

Albers was a junior in the Blue Valley school district, where his mother is a principal at Harmony Middle School.

Family members said in a statement to the station KCTV on Sunday that they are heartbroken and expressed thanks for the thoughts and prayers.

The incident is under investigation, and the officer who fired the fatal shots was placed on administrative leave, as is standard procedure in such cases.

Overland Park Police Capt. Keith Jenkins described the unnamed officer as feeling 'very shook up,' reported the Kansas City Star.

On Sunday night, a candlelight vigil honoring Albers' life was held at Sunset Ridge Elementary School, where he attended school as a child.

'We want to remember him in a way that's honorable,' Albers' friend Gabriel Bright told the station Fox 4 KC. 'I believe that this vigil brings awareness to how good he was. He wasn't always painted in the best light. I also think it brings awareness to suicide as he was suicidal.'

Celebration of life: Albers' friends on Sunday attended a vigil in his honor at an elementary school

Grieving friends said the 17-year-old boy was loving and had a heart of gold

Blue Valley Northwest High School staffer Megan Geenens said she held a special bond with Albers, who was in her class as a sophomore.

'John had a heart of gold,' Geenens told Blue Valley Northwest News. 'He loved everyone around him. People should learn from his kindness and carry that on with him as they move forward from this tragic event.'

John Albers is survived by his parents, Sheila and Steve Albers, and his two younger brothers.

The National Suicide Prevention line is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 1-800-273-TALK.
North Korean authorities are ransacking civilian homes to look for food to feed the military after they failed to fulfill their government quotas.

Villagers in Ryanggang Province, at the Chinese border, claim local farming officials have been barging into their homes and taking food intended for their families after last year's bad harvest.

This has 'become a source of conflict' between farmers and authorities, South Korean news reports.

Pictured are what is said to be North Korean soldiers rummaging through crop fields (circled)

'Officials carried out home searches in Paekam County (Ryanggang Province) to determine how much food some families had,' a source told Daily NK

'As an excuse to enter and demand bribes, they said to the residents, "Are we just going to let our military starve while the Americans lick their lips and prepare to eat us alive?".'

Earlier this month, Daily NK published images which appear to show soldiers stealing grains from civilians as they were seen in a civilian corn field.

Other sources said many residents have expressed 'pity about the situation' after soldiers are spending up to three months pillaging their crops.

It is claimed that a poor harvest, a drought and international sanctions have left the government with reduced food rations.

Similar images were circulated in August last year, which appear to shows desperate soldiers trying to find food

Kim Jong-un frequently boasts about his nation's military capability, although soldiers surviving on meagre rations have resorted to stealing from civilians

Another source added: 'Even though the price of rice hasn't changed much in the markets, people are especially worried that the effects of international sanctions will continue to mount and soon cause even more problems.'

In the last two months, two soldiers from the North have defected to the South. One of those who crossed the border was found to have parasitic worms in his stomach, one as long as 11 inches.

In August last year, it was reported that Pyongyang, which frequently boasts of the power of its military, had allowed soldiers to go and steal crops from civilians.
Labour is in a 'much worse' position under Jeremy Corbyn than when Michael Foot was leader in the 1980s, Tony Blair said today.

The former PM said hard-left infiltration of the party was being assisted by the leadership.

The intervention underlines fears among centrist Labour MPs about an impending purge.

But it will be please many on the left of the party who believe that Mr Blair is toxic and can only harm the cause of moderates.

Former PM Tony Blair said unlike in the 1980s hard-left infiltration of the Labour Party was being assisted by the leadership

Mr Corbyn has been accused of welcoming back many figures from the hard left and allowing them to occupy key posts

In an interview with the Evening Standard, Mr Blair also insisted Donald Trump should come to the UK despite the prospect of protests.

Delivering a grim assessment of Labour's fortunes, Mr Blair said the situation was even more dire than in the 1980s - when successive leaders fought to limit the influence of Militant.

By contrast Mr Corbyn has been accused of welcoming back many figures from the hard left and allowing them to occupy key posts.

'Now is worse,' Mr Blair said. 'Much worse, because it's happening with the support of the leadership.

'They are bringing back the more extreme elements that were either outside the party or marginalised.'

Mr Blair said that if Labour did get into power it would face a reality check on many of its policies.

'If you've got limited time and resources, is nationalisation the priority?' Mr Blair said.

'If you've got 8 billion a year to spend on education, is abolishing rather than reforming tuition fees the right way, or is early years education?'

Mr Blair, a critic of Brexit who has backed a second referendum, said he felt 'sorry' for Theresa May.

In an interview with the Evening Standard, Mr Blair also insisted Donald Trump (pictured last year) should come to the UK despite the prospect of protests

'She genuinely thinks her defining mission is to deliver Brexit,' he said.

Mr Blair endorsed Mrs May's decision to invite the US president to visit the UK, despite a series of rows including over Mr Trump retweeting a British far-right group.

'If we're out of Europe and you don't dare invite the American president to Britain, we have a problem,' the former PM said.

'No matter what you think of Donald Trump, Britain has to keep its relationship with America strong.'
A woman in Buenos Aires allegedly offered her 15-year-old daughter and niece as prostitutes on the internet.

The unnamed 42-year-old was arrested in the Pinamar area of the Argentine capital for reportedly advertising the girls on the internet for sexual services.

Police photos show sex toys, fetish underwear, hair extensions, cash and several mobile phones allegedly used by the woman to run her sordid business.

Officers also made the shocking discovery of a baby born to one of the girls.

Police photos (pictured) show sex toys, fetish underwear, hair extensions, cash and several mobile phones allegedly used by the woman to run her sordid business

The girls had gone to the woman's house on Christmas Eve believing they would spend the holidays there with their mother and aunt, local media reported.

If hired by a customer, the pair were allegedly taken to a meeting point by a chaperone or made to receive clients in the woman's rented home.

They were also told to pretend they were over 18 when dealing with clients, it is claimed.

Police officers (pictured) are said to have discovered how old the girls were after raiding the property. The woman has been charged with the exploitation of minors and could serve 10 years behind bars if convicted

Officers (pictured) also made the shocking discovery of a baby born to one of the girls during the raid

A few minutes of sex with either of the girls was said to be priced at 57 (1,500 Argentine Peso).

Police are said to have discovered how old the girls were after raiding the property, but the age of the niece has not been reported.

The girls and baby were put in the care of social services and the woman has been charged with the exploitation of minors.

She could face 10 years in prison.

Prosecutor Walter Mecuri called the case 'promotion and facilitation of prostitution'.

It is said that many of the alleged clients were tourists, although there were also locals.
Two top doctors are embroiled in a bitter row with their brother over their dead mother's 1.8million fortune.

Dominic, 53, and Jeremy Heath, 65, left their parents' 1.5million house in leafy Hampstead, north London, as young men, each forging successful careers in medicine.

However, while they went on to reach 'the top of their profession,' amassing 'wealth and properties', their brother Timothy never flew the nest.

Dominic (left), 53, and Jeremy Heath (right), 65, are embroiled in a bitter row with their brother Timothy over their dead mother's 1.8million fortune

Timothy, who describes himself as a 'self-employed creative,' is still living in his parents' home at the age of 62.

When their widowed mother, Rachel Heath, died aged 93 in October 2015, she left a will, splitting her estate equally between the three, and appointing them all executors.

But middle brother Timothy now claims he deserves a bigger share of the family fortune, because he acted as the 'primary carer' for their mother 'for many years' whilst his brothers 'took none of the burden' and 'left him to do it.'

James and Jeremy say he is 'over-egging the pudding' and should get out of their parents' house so the family wealth can be fairly shared out.

At London's High Court, Mr Justice Carr heard that the brothers' parents bought their Grade II listed family home in 1965.

Their three boys grew up there, before Dominic and Jeremy left to make their way in the world.

Timothy (left), who describes himself as a 'self-employed creative,' is still living in his mother's home at the age of 62 (right, Rachel Heath, with a carer before she died)

The pair have each achieved distinguished careers in the medical profession, their barrister, Mark Baxter, said.

Father-of-four, Dominic, is a consultant ophthalmologist who lives in Hertfordshire, whilst Jeremy, who the judge heard has also reached the 'top of his field,' lives in Wales.

Timothy is a maths graduate and a qualified barrister, but 'was never employed', Mr Baxter added.

He stayed on in the family home, where he has lived for over half a century, since he was aged 10.

He devotes his time to 'creative' projects and helping to run a society devoted to the life and works of William Blake, the court heard.

He said in the witness box that he was in effect an unpaid 'live-in carer' for his mother for the last eight years of her life during her battle with dementia.

And Timothy told the judge that his sacrifice ought to be recognised by him receiving a bigger slice of her estate than his already 'wealthy' brothers.

'I have been looking after mother for many years, a difficult person to look after. I was her principle carer for many years,' he said.

Dominic, he claimed, 'visited about once a month and stayed for an hour,' while 'Jeremy visited about twice a year.'

Timothy explained that his mother had two paid live-in carers, but that he took on an equal share of the care duties unpaid.

'I never asked to be paid. I didn't ask to be paid for looking after a parent. But my brothers took none of the burden,' he said.

'They pursued their careers and pensions and their income and they left me to do what they took advantage of,' he went on.

At London's High Court, Mr Justice Carr heard that the Heath brothers' parents bought their Grade II listed family home (pictured) in 1965

'The presence of myself in the house has made our mother's final years richer and allowed her to die in her own home, rather than in the secure mental unit my brothers wanted to send her to.

'There was no support from my brothers and what I was doing with my work totally collapsed,' he added.

'Dominic and Jeremy are at the top of their profession,' he told the judge, adding: 'You cannot have a society where somebody dedicates their life and is denied compensation, or a roof over their head.

The other two professional carers cost 45,000 a year each.'

He told Dominic, as the brothers faced off across the courtroom: 'You are employed as a consultant and you have multiple properties. You are a wealthy man.

'You offered no financial support. You didn't visit often enough for it to manifest any form of care. I've looked after her almost single-handedly.

'I don't own a house and I don't have a pension or a steady income.

'I'm not prepared to be bullied by people who have pursued a career with money and don't value things that don't attract money, and I don't think I should be made homeless or put into penury if it can be avoided.

'There was an implicit contract. You cannot have three people (carers) living in a house with two earning 45,000-a-year and one getting nothing... I think the estate should honour its debts,' he added.

Dominic, replying, disputed Timothy's claim to have acted as a full time carer for their mother and told him: 'It's not your house, it's mum's house.'

'I have admitted I am financially wealthy. I have saved assiduously. I am happy with where I am in life, but I want my children to be happy, and that's why we are in court, because you are not allowing my children the contents of our mother's will,' he added.

He told the judge that for many years he 'held Timothy in huge esteem and respect as the younger brother,' but that their relationship had since 'deconstructed' due to the 'huge conflict' between the three over their mother's house and money.

Mr Baxter told the judge that Timothy is currently 'in occupation and control of Mrs Heath's house and its contents' and accused him of using his position as executor as a 'bargaining chip' with his brothers.

Timothy had been 'wilfully obstructive to the administration of the estate by failing to comply with reasonable requests,' Mr Baxter claimed.

He asked the judge to remove Timothy as an executor due to an 'inherent conflict between his duties as an executor and his own personal interests.'

The barrister also disputed Timothy's claim that he had been unable to match his brothers' financial success in life because they had left the job of caring for their ailing mother to him.

'He was 45 years old by the time he began this care', said Mr Baxter.

'He is over-egging the pudding by saying that the care he has given for the last eight years has prevented him establishing himself in life.'

Ruling on the case, Mr Justice Carr accepted that Timothy was 'acting as one of three full time carers' for the last eight years of his mother's life, adding: 'Dominic did not give any recognition of the fact that his brother must have given care to their mother.'

'I accept that 24 hour-a-day care was provided by three carers, each doing eight hour shifts, one of whom was Timothy.

'I got the impression that Dr Dominic Heath didn't want to acknowledge that Timothy provided any care for their mother, despite living with her in the property for many, many years,' the judge said.

'I am not satisfied that Timothy has acted in any way improperly...nor do I accept that he has acted deliberately in any attempt to frustrate probate,' the judge went on.

But he found that there was an 'irreconcilable conflict between Timothy having a claim on the estate, on one hand, and being an executor on the other.'

'His position is that, for several years, he provided care for his mother and his brothers did not.

'He claims to be entitled to a greater share of the estate than the 1971 will provides, that he is entitled to recompense and that his services to his mother ought to be recognised.

'That gives rise to a conflict of interest between his duties as an executor and his potential claim against the estate.

'I think that the claim to remove Timothy as an executor is well founded and I intend to accede to it.'

The judge ordered Timothy to step down, to be replaced by an independent solicitor, but ordered the two medics to pay their own 25,000 costs of bringing the application to remove their brother as an executor.

He also warned the two doctors that they may have to step aside as executors themselves if further conflicts of interest arise.
The government shutdown has ended after President Donald Trump signed a short-term spending bill that will fund the government through February 8.

The three-day government shutdown came to an end Monday after the House passed a resolution to restore funding that had cleared the Senate hours earlier.

The deal passed the House easily, with nearly every Republican voting for it and about a third of House Democrats, following a breakthrough in the Senate.

The final vote was 266 to 150, effectively ending a three-day shutdown that furloughed workers and closed some government services, even as the Trump administration kept functions deemed vital running.

Fourteen House members didn't vote.

The key development occurred across the Capitol Monday, after Senate Democrats accepted a deal to reopen the government, after Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pledged to take up immigration legislation  including a permanent fix for the controversial DACA program  in the next three weeks.

The three-day government shutdown effectively came to an end Monday after the House passed a resolution to fund the government

The key to enactment came when McConnell and Minority Leader Sen. Charles Schumer came to an agreement for a debate on immigration within weeks.

'The Republican leader and I have come to an arrangement,' Schumer said on the Senate floor.

'It is a good solution, and I will vote for it,' he said. But Schumer did not obtain anything close to a guaranteed result.

The Senate bill had one final test, a fresh vote in the House of Representatives, but quick passage was expected over House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's objections.

'I refuse to be an enabler to the Republicans' failure any longer,' said Pelosi in a final and futile effort to stop the bill.

Eight-one senators including 33 Democrats voted to reopen the government on Monday folling a three-day standoff over immigration reform

The final 81-18 tally was a far cry from the crashing failure of a similar measure on Friday that saw handfuls of Senators from both parties crossing the aisle but fell well short of the 60 votes needed for passage.

When the dust settled, 33 of the 49 Democrats had voted to turn the lights back on. Republican Sen. John McCain, ailing with brain cancer, was absent.

'I am pleased that Democrats in Congress have come to their senses and are now willing to fund our great military, border patrol, first responders and insurance for vulnerable children,' President Donald Trump said in a statement.

'The Republican leader and I have come to an arrangement,' Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor, signaling an end to the three-day government shutdown

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday that if Democrats agreed to end the shutdown, he would promise to take up immigration legislation by February 8

Democrats, led by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, are standing their ground and show no sign of relenting in advance of a noontime vote

'As I've always said, once the government is funded my administration will work toward solving the problem of very unfair illegal immigration. We will make a long-term deal on immigration if, and only if, it's good for our country.'

Schumer, however, warned that 'the Republican majority now has 17 days to prevent the DREAMers from being deported.'

DACA, the program that protects millions of illegal immigrants from deportation because they were brought to the U.S. as minors, is the sticking point for Democrats who fear Republicans will reneg on any promise to save it before it expires in March.

'If an agreement isn't reached by February 8, the Senate will immediately proceed to consideration of legislation dealing with DACA,' Schumer said, describing his understanding of the deal.

'While this procedure will not satisfy everyone on both sides, it's a way forward.'

But he blasted the White House for sitting on the sidelines as senators hashed out an agreement.

'Despite all our entreaties, the president was obstinate,' he fumed.

White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah said after the vote on CNN that President Trump won't accept an immigration deal that makes the DACA program permanent without giving him a host of other wins.

Shah mentioned 'the issue of border security, and a southern border wall, the issue of ending the visa lottery system, and reforming the chain migration  the extended family chain migration system.'

'Those are still the points and the contours of a deal that this president would be open to,' he said.

White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah said the White House won't accept an immigration bill that doesn't address border security, the diversity visa lottery and chain migration

Monday's vote was eagerly awaited and hotly contested but ultimately even a majority of Democrats agreed to support the Republicans' proposal

Minutes before the lunchtime vote, Democrats emerged from a caucus meeting and word leaked that enough of them will vote with Republicans to push a short-term funding measure over the finish line.

'It was very positive. I think the government will be back open by 12:10 or 12:15,' West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin said after the Democrats' all-hands meeting.

Democrats were looking for a way out of the shutdown, according to people in the room, despite the lack of any assurance of what might happens in the House of Representatives once the Senate ricochets the result to the south end of the U.S. Capitol.

'I'm encouraged by commitments Leader McConnell has made,' Democratic Sen. Chris Coons told reporters as he left the meeting room, adding that he was 'looking forward to the vote and I think it will be important that we take a step forward.'

An end to the weekend stalemate looked unlikely just hours earlier in the upper chamber of Congress.

'It's like a circus without a tent,' Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana told reporters, describing the overall mood in the Senate.

McConnell said: 'I hope and intend that we can reach bipartisan solutions on issues such as military spending, immigration and border security, and disaster relief before this February 8 deadline.'

McConnell is presiding over a chaotic chamber where the typical comity has dissolved into open warfare over who is to blame for the shutdown

'Should these issues not be resolved by the time the funding bill before us expires on February 8, so long as the government remains open it  so long as it remains open  it would be my intention to take up legislation here in the Senate that would address DACA, border security, and related issues.'

Democrats moved quickly to frame Monday's result as a victory despite the widespread perception that they had caved.

'As recently as Friday night, Leader McConnell refused to commit to taking up the DREAM Act with any urgency,' Virginia Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner said in a statement.

'Today, Republican leadership has finally agreed to bring bipartisan legislation to protect Dreamers to the floor in the next three weeks, and both parties  as well as the American public  will hold them to it.'

The White House was having none of it.

'The fact that they're voting in favor of this proposal that they rejected just a few days ago is, sort of, evidence that they blinked,' deputy press secretary Raj Shah said of the Democrats on CNN.

Schumer claimed Sunday that he had offered Trump an authorization to build his border wall in exchange for passing a funding measure with a DACA fix attached, but that the president had refused.

'[He] can't take "yes" for an answer,' Schumer said on the Senate floor a day ago.

But White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney quickly called Schumer's offer a hollow one, saying that the 'authorization' has existed since 2006  something that Schumer himself voted for  but the New York Democrat hadn't promised to go along with actually funding it.

Democrats showed no sign of budging on Monday but insisted they're not to blame for the government shutdown.

'There's been a lot of positive progress made,' Michigan Democratic Sen. Stabenow told Politico. 'No one wants to shut down the government.'

Moderate Republican senators Lindsey Graham (left), Susan Collins (center) and Jeff Flake (right) said McConnell should have made a more ironclad pledge

The result, said Republican Sen. John Kennedy, is 'like a circus without a tent'; Kenned is pictured at the U.S. Capitol on Friday

She wouldn't commit to voting 'yes,' however, despite facing a tough re-election fight this year in a state the Trump won handily in 2016.

Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, another endangered Democrat representing a deep-red state, initially said he was likely to take McConnell at his word.

'I believe a man's word is his bond, so I'm going to take McConnell the same way,' he said. In addition to a pledge to work on immigration, Tester wants a commitment to fund community health centers.

But ultimately, Tester voted 'no.'

McConnell said Monday that 'the Senate cannot make progress on any of these crucial matters until the government is re-opened. We need to move forward. The first step is ending this shutdown.'

Talking to reporters after McConnell's speech, Republican Sen. Susan Collins said the majority leader should have made a stronger, more iron-clad promise.

HOW THE SHUTDOWN IS IMPACTING GOVERNMENT SITES What's Closed The Library of Congress Capitol Visitor Center The Liberty Bell Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church - the King Center will remain open Ford's Theatre and Museum - theater performances continue Cabrillo National Monument National Park Services in Boston NASA - no tours What's Open The Post Office The Grand Canyon - Gov. Doug Ducey keeping the monument open with state funds The Statue of Liberty - Gov. Andrew Cuomo reopening the monument with state funds Smithsonian facilities Mount Rushmore - some National Park Services facilities closed, but restrooms and concession stands open Yellowstone National Park - but with limited services Mount Rushmore - including concessions Alcatraz Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum Flight 93 Memorial - grounds are open, concessions are closed Advertisement

'I think it would be helpful if the language were a little bit stronger because the tensions are so high,' Collins said, although she added that Schumer should give McConnell credit for 'moving on the DACA issue.'

'In the end it's going to be up to the two leaders, and I hope that they can come together,' she said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, too, urged McConnell to use stronger language committing to an immigration vote.

And he called on Democrats to push the top Republican for a more ironclad promise.

'I can't believe I'm saying this but Rand Paul is right,' he quipped.

Graham said he hopes the government reopens by the end of the day. 'If it doesn't, I just don't know where we go from here,' he added.

Graham voted against Friday's funding measure whose failure led to the shutdown. Collins voted in favor of it.

Both supported Monday's measure. 'Today we've taken a significant step forward,' Collins said after the roll call.

President Donald Trump said Monday that Democrats 'are turning down services and security for citizens in favor of services and security for non-citizens' as they demand a DACA fix in exchange for government funding

President Trump lashed out at congressional Democrats on Monday morning for refusing to vote in favor of a funding reboot.

Republicans, who hold 51 Senate seats, need at least nine Democrats to join them in order to pass a 60-vote threshold for a short-term budget measure.

Meanwhile, some military and other national security funding is on hold  along with federal spending on social welfare programs like community health centers and children's medical insurance.

'The Democrats are turning down services and security for citizens in favor of services and security for non-citizens. Not good!' Trump tweeted Monday morning.

He also suggested that Senate liberals are pulling the strings of centrists who might be leaning toward ending the shutdown.

'Democrats have shut down our government in the interests of their far left base. They dont want to do it but are powerless!' he added in a second tweet.

Republicans and Democrats remain at loggerheads and have been unable to strike a deal to fund the government, extending Friday's shutdown to a third day  and into an uncertain workweek for federal employees.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Democrats, who hold enough votes to block a compromise, must 'stop playing games and come to the table and get serious'

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer assigned blame for the government shutdown to President Trump

The lack of a deal meant hundreds of thousands of public sector workers could not show up for work on Monday.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders blasted Democrats Monday on 'Good Morning America,' saying that they're 'playing political games' while soldiers go unpaid and children's health programs are left in the lurch.

'Democrats support everything in this piece of legislation. The fact that they won't simply vote for it, to re-open our government, fund our military, protect the most vulnerable children, is mind-boggling, I think, to everyone across this country,' Sanders said.

'I hope that Democrats will stop playing games and come to the table and get serious about what they were elected to come here and do.'

She insisted that the White House stands ready to negotiate on immigration policy  the Democrats' chief hang-up  as soon as the government is reopened.

'Open the government, then we'll resume negotiations,' House Speaker Paul Ryan said Monday morning. 'It's just that clear, it's just that simple'

White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney said Monday morning that 'the government should be open. We should not, however, be negotiating over a non-financial issue, the DACA issue, as part of keeping the government open'

House Speaker Paul Ryan, whose chamber passed a government funding measure on Thursday, said on 'Fox & Friends' that Democrats are wrong to hold the government 'hostage.'

'Open the government. Then we'll resume negotiations. It's just that clear. It's just that simple,' he said.

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said on 'CBS This Morning' that no one at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue wanted to see the government's wheels grind to a halt.

'Everyone admits and acknowledges the president did not want this shutdown [and] actively worked to prevent the shutdown,' Mulvaney said.

He also objected to Democrats holding the budget hostage to a permanent DADA solution.

'The government should be open. We should not, however, be negotiating over a non-financial issue, the DACA issue, as part of keeping the government open,' Mulvaney declared.

In his tweet on Sunday, Trump said, 'The Dems just want illegal immigrants to pour into our nation unchecked.'

Trump's presidential campaign also put out a video that called Democrats 'complicit in all murders' committed by undocumented immigrants. Late Sunday afternoon, his campaign put out a fundraising email again calling the Democrats 'COMPLICIT.'

WHITE HOUSE VOICEMAIL BLAMES DEMOCRATS FOR SHUTDOWN Americans trying to call the public comments line at the White House cannot get through because of the government shutdown. But the Trump administration has changed the voicemail message callers receive when they dial the number. Anyone calling 202-456-1111 gets the following message: 'Thank you for calling the White House. Unfortunately, we cannot answer your call today because congressional Democrats are holding government fundingincluding funding for our troops and other national security prioritieshostage to an unrelated immigration debate. 'Due to this obstruction, the government is shut down. In the meantime, you can leave a comment for the president at www.whitehouse.gov/contact. 'We look forward to taking your calls as soon as the government reopens.' Advertisement

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders also put out a statement whacking Schumer late Sunday afternoon, suggesting he wasn't being honest about what happened at Friday's White House meeting.

'Sen. Schumer's memory is hazy because his account of Friday's meeting is false,' Huckabee Sanders said in a statement given to reporters. 'And the president's position is clear: we will not negotiate on the status of unlawful immigrants while Sen. Schumer and the Democrats hold the government for millions of Americans and our troops hostage.'

The White House has since changed its voicemail message noting that the government has shut down.

Anyone calling 202-456-1111 to leave a message with the White House hears a recorded message saying that 'unfortunately we cannot answer your call today because congressional Democrats are holding government funding  including funding for our troops and other national security priorities hostage to an unrelated immigration debate.'
A Maine town manager expects to lose his job soon following the backlash after he bashed Islam and called for the preservation of white European heritage.

Local officials in Jackman are scheduled to meet with Tom Kawczynski on Tuesday morning and the 37-year-old expects to not have a job following the meeting.

'I don't know anything yet, but I strongly suspect that I'll be needing to be doing something else soon,' Kawczynski told the Bangor Daily News.

Tom Kawczynski, 37 (left and right), expects to lose his job as town manager of Jackman, Maine, soon following the backlash after he bashed Islam and called for the preservation of white European heritage

Local officials in Jackman are scheduled to meet with him on Tuesday morning over comments which Kawczynski denies are racist (Pictured, a post Kawcynski made on an alt-right forum)

Kawczynski told the newspaper he is against bringing people from other countries and cultures to the US, but denied that he is racist.

He also argued that one can be 'pro-white' without harboring hate against people of other races.

Kawczynski added that that people of different racial backgrounds are welcome in his movement as long as their culture is 'rooted in Western civilization'.

After he moved to Maine a year ago, he started a group called New Albion, which, according to its website, promotes 'traditional western values emphasizing the positive aspects of our European heritage and uniquely American identity.'

Albion was a term used by the ancient Greeks to refer to the island of Britain. New Albion's membership includes a 'few dozen people across the state,' Kawczynski said.

In one post about he makes an argument for the 'voluntary separation' of races. Another post refers to Islam as 'barbarism.'

Kawczynski said he's kept his personal views on race and culture largely separate from town business and that they do not represent those of the town government.

Kawcyznski (pictured, with his wife) has added that that people of different racial backgrounds are welcome in his movement as long as their culture is 'rooted in Western civilization'

Kawczynski (pictured, with his wife) started a group called New Albion, which promotes 'traditional western values emphasizing the positive aspects of our European heritage and uniquely American identity'

'I do not run [Jackman] in a way where we in any way discriminate against anyone who is there. And we follow all the guidelines. And we respect everyone that comes through,' Kawczynski said.

Kawczynski was hired as manager from among 14 applicants after multiple interviews and a background check, according to a news release from the town, which is near the Canadian border.

Originally from Arizona, Kawczynski said that he and his wife moved to New Hampshire and then to Maine, after years in Pennsylvania.

He said that 'a lot of people' come to northern New England for reasons similar to his. And he is encouraging more to do so on the website GAB, a major forum for the alt-right.

The local Chamber of Commerce's Facebook page has been active with comments decrying Kawczynski's viewpoints and also did so in a press release on Saturday as he attempts to raise money for legal fees (above)

Kawczynski said he's kept his personal views on race and culture largely separate from town business and that they do not represent those of the town government

On Martin Luther King Jr Day, Kawczynski wrote on GAB: 'I'm actually glad not to have today off. #NotMyHoliday'

The local Chamber of Commerce's Facebook page has been active with comments decrying Kawczynski's viewpoints and also did so in a press release on Saturday.

'We the business community of Jackman, would like to state that we do not condone the current view of Tom Kawczynski,' wrote Gary Hall, president of the Jackman-Moose River Region Chamber of Commerce.

'We believe in American values of freedom, diversity and inclusiveness. At this time, we are calling on our selectmen to take appropriate measures and protect our community for which so many have come to know and love.'

Kawczynski has started both a GoFundMe account and a Hatreon account in attempt to raise money for legal fees to save his job.
A kindergarten teacher in China has reportedly demonstrated how to dissect a pig to hundreds of young children.

Xiang Hongmao, the principal of Fuwawa kindergarten in Enshi, held the pig's organs in front of 600 pupils in his school to teach them about anatomy on January 19, according to footage and pictures from Chinese media.

According to Pear Video, Mr Xiang said what the pupils saw and learnt that day would be 'stored in their head' and lay a foundation for their future life.

Xiang Hongmao (right), the principal of a kindergarten in China, demonstrated how to dissect a pig on a playground in front of hundreds of young children who study in his school

Mr Xiang also hoped the lesson would let the children feel the atmosphere of the upcoming Lunar New Year, because the locals often butcher pigs for the occasion to prepare for family meals, reported Chinese news site Kan Kan News.

Footage shows the children were excited while watching the dissection on a playground. They were also seen applauding.

Apparently, the principal did not consider the lesson inappropriate.

He reportedly explained that he had deliberately avoided the 'gruesome' scenes of killing a pig, instead he had only brought 'a clean dead pig' to the school, said Kan Kan News.

The school teacher said he had informed the parents beforehand and received support

The teacher also claimed that he had informed the parents about the activity beforehand and the parents had apparently welcomed the suggestion.

The video has sparked an outcry on Chinese social media. Many people claimed the lesson was too bloody and could affect the pupils' mental health.

However, some people argued that the lesson could help toughen up the children.
A detective had sex with a woman he had cautioned for hitting her five-year-old child after she told him to pop round to her home whenever he was in the area, a misconduct panel heard.

Detective Constable Darren Stedman, based at the Child Abuse and Sexual Offences Command, started the relationship with the mother a year after he investigated her for assaulting her son in 2008.

Due to a computer fault there was a delay in issuing the caution and while they waited, Stedman took her out for a coffee.

She then invited him to her home if ever he was in the area.

The hearing heard that after the brief affair, the woman became a victim of domestic abuse and Stedman twice provided her with confidential information in January 2011 and July 2013.

Detective Constable Darren Stedman, based at the Child Abuse and Sexual Offences Command, started the relationship with the mother a year after he investigated her for assaulting her son in 2008

Charles Apthorp, representing the Met Police told the hearing in Fulham: 'He went for a coffee outside the police station with her and began to start and form the beginnings of a relationship.

'They went back to the police station and he administered the caution.

'They left the police station together and she invited him to her home if he was ever in the area.

'We say that is a rather unacceptable way to administer the caution and it diminishes the impact of it.

'He does appear to be starting the relationship with this lady rather an focusing on the judicial process.'

The search of the crime reports years later related to a separate case involving the same woman, who this time was the victim of domestic abuse.

Mr Apthorp said: 'This is a serious breach of duties. He was not involved in the case.

'It appeared out of friendship he supported a person who he had previously had an intimate relationship with.

'It is a wholly unacceptable breach of trust placed in police officers. He was helping a friend when there was no policing purpose for his search.

'He would not have done this and put his career on the line if this was just a causal acquaintance.

'The relationship poses a risk to himself and his colleagues.

'He was prepared to undermine the confidence in the service and involve himself in other officers case when there was no policing purpose to do so.'

In submissions Colin Banham, representing the detective, said he admitted they had a short sexual relationship.

However he added: 'The officer has admitted he had an intimate relationship with someone who had been a suspect in an investigation he had been involved in.

'He volunteered that and admitted that. However in a criminal sense the investigation had ceased as she had been cautioned.

'It was some time later he met up with her before they had a brief sexual relationship.'

He told the hearing his client did admit misconduct on some of the allegations, but denied gross misconduct.

Referring to the search of the police crime reports, he said his client had only searched in order to get the phone number of the officer in the case for the woman, as she had no way of contacting them.

The hearing heard that after the brief affair, the woman became a victim of domestic abuse and Stedman twice provided her with confidential information in January 2011 and July 2013

The detective faces a series of misconduct charges which allegedly amount to a breach of the force's standards of professional behaviour in respect of 'confidentiality, duties and responsibilities and discreditable conduct'.

It is also alleged he took home an album of crime scene photos relating to a separate case involving the murders of two children.

Mr Apthorp said the album had been found in a drawer in Stedman's home and may have been in his possession for as long as five years.

He said: 'This album were the detailed photographs of murdered children and we take this matter extremely seriously.

'This type of material should never be taken from a police station by an officer.

'He was not involved in this investigation and there was no legitimate reason for it being in his possession.

'It is inexcusable the officer would take sensitive evidence to his home and retain it for years.'

He is also accused of gross misconduct by using his home computer to edit video of three victims for another separate trial without properly deleting the material afterwards.

Stedman admitted keeping hold of the crime scene photos, but did not know how they came into his possession.

He claimed he must have been put in the drawer at one point and then forgotten about them.

Chairman of the misconduct hearing Julian Weinberg adjourned the hearing until 9.30am on Wednesday.
Staff at a Chinese environmental bureau have been left red-faced after their secret attempt to improve the air quality readings on the monitor went bust.

It's said staff at an environmental bureau in Ningxia, north-west China, blast their building with an anti-smog water cannon in an attempt to get rid of the smog, but their building was frozen after temperatures suddenly dropped.

The chief and deputy chief of the Shizuishan Environmental Bureau have been penalised for intentionally altering statistics, reported btime.com.

Shizuuishan Environmental Bureau staff sprays water cannon towards its building to clear the air quality around the air quality monitor (left). A night after, the building was frozen (right)

Pictures taken in early last December show the exterior of the Shizuishan Environmental Bureau in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Icicles can be seen covering the rain shields and ledges of the six-storeys building.

The pictures alerted Ningxia Environmental Protection Department, which launched an investigation in December.

Shizuishan Environmental Bureau claimed it was caused by a damaged drain pipes; however, investigation report stated that local bureau staff had used an 'anti-smog water cannon' to spray water towards the building.

Workers have to clean up the ice around the entrance of the building the next morning

The bureau staff wanted to alter the air quality statistics collected from the monitoring station

Investigators believed that the intention was to alter the collected data on the air quality monitor installed in the building.

However, temperatures in Shizuishan have dropped to minus 10 degree Celsius that night, causing the water to freeze.

Ningxia Environmental Protection issued a statement on January 15 to emphasise on the strict control of the air quality detector.

'It is clear to address the surrounding area of the air quality monitoring station should not be disturbed.

We have penalised Mao Junfeng, chief of Shizuishan bureau and Cai Tianmin, deputy chief of the bureau in regarding to this incident.'

The water cannon's designers claim the water mist dispels the pollution particles which are causing visibility problems for motorists

A truck carrying a cannon blasting a mist of water is driven through Beijing's streets in an attempt to dispel the smog blanketing the city

World's largest air purifier: The 328ft tower is said to be able to filter out toxic chemicals in air

Last week, China tested a 328ft tall air purifier in Shaanxi Province in northern China which was designed to clear smog and get rid of toxic air particles.

The tower was claimed to be the world's largest air purifier. Reports claim it could improve air quality within an area of 3.9 square miles, according to South China Morning Post.

MailOnline contacted the Institute of Earth Environment at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, but they said they were not able to verify the details from the reports.


Saudi Arabia could recover $100 billion in settlements after dozens of princes and businessmen agree to hand over huge sums to be freed from detention.

As part of the anti-corruption purge ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a number of billionaires are being held at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh.

If they do not cough up the cash to the government, they will face prosecution.

The 32-year-old has been accused of introducing the radical measures as a guise to mask his true motives - the elimination of any threat to his leadership.

As part of the anti-corruption purge ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (pictured), a number of billionaires are being held at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riadh

Late on Sunday, there were still 95 detainees at the hotel, according to Bloomberg, where 90 people have already walked free having brokered deals with the Saudi regime.

By the time everyone has settled, an unnamed senior official told the site Prince Salman will have recovered more than $100 billion.

Attorney General Sheikh Saud Al Mojeb said during an interview at the Ritz-Carlton: 'The royal order was clear.

'Those who express remorse and agree to settle will have any criminal proceedings against them dropped.'

Saudi billionaire Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal - who is one of the richest men in the world and owns the British capital's top hotel the Savoy - is one of the men who has been detained

Saudi billionaire Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal - who is one of the richest men in the world and owns the British capital's top hotel the Savoy - is one of the men who has been detained.

He also owns the huge Kingdom Tower in Riyadh - a 99-storey skyscraper which features a Four Seasons hotel, luxury apartments and a shopping maul.

His status remains unclear.

The arrests come amid a string of government spending cuts as Saudi Arabia, the world's largest producer of oil, pushes to diversify its economy following the 2014 drop in global oil prices.

The country plans to slash its generous welfare programme and open energy giant Saudi Aramco to partial privatisation.

The measures have been linked to rising tension within the royal Al-Saud family which counts thousands of members - only a handful of whom wield direct influence over the kingdom.

The economic overhaul has been linked to the arrest of more than 200 princes in an anti-corruption purge in November spearheaded by Prince Mohammed.

Most of those detained were held at the palatial Ritz-Carlton, which has turned into a luxury prison.

Inside the hotel, which hosted Donald Trump in May, detainees are said to have full access to the gym and spa.

Inside the hotel, which hosted Donald Trump in May (pictured), detainees are said to have full access to the gym and spa

On January 1, Saudi Arabia also hiked gasoline and fuel prices and imposed a five percent value-added tax on most goods and services, ending its decades-long tax-free policy, but income remains tax exempt.

The Gulf kingdom has also intensified efforts to boost employment of its own citizens. Most working Saudis are employed by the state.

Earlier this month, King Salman announced a string of benefits for Saudi citizens, particularly students, military personnel and public servants, to 'soften the impact of the economic reforms' in the coming year.

Saudi Arabia's information minister on Sunday said the handouts would cost the government up to $13.3 billion in 2018.

The unemployment rate among Saudis aged 15 to 24 stood at 32.6 percent last year, according to the International Labour Organization.
Wendell Blassingame has found his purpose in life: helping others in the City of Angels.

For the past 15 years, the 67-year-old can be found sitting at a table inside Skid Rows San Julian Park where he helps anyone who needs it, free of charge.

He has provided hundreds of desperate people find access showers, hot meals, clean clothes, social services, medical or dental treatment. He has even drafted resumes for those seeking work.

Im in the business of trying to set an example as a resource assisting individuals with housing and anything else they might need, Blassingame told DailyMail.com while sitting at his table in the crowded San Julian Park.

Last year I placed 159 people in housing by myself. Ive dedicated my life to make this a community.

His valuable and selfless work in Skid Row is needed even more now: homelessness in Los Angeles rose 26 per cent in 2017 as one in four homeless people in America live in the city, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Homelessness in Skid Row has long been an issue for California dating back to the 1930s where an estimated 10,000 people were living on the streets in the community. Historical articles during that time period state that many of the transient people worked as seasonal laborers. Over the years, officials and police have conducted several crackdowns on vagrants which resulted in hundreds of arrests, but the problem still persists.

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True Hero: For the past 15 years, Wendell Blassingame can be found sitting at a table inside Skid Rows San Julian Park under a yellow umbrella where he assists anyone needing help for free

Blassingame (right) has provided hundreds and hundreds of people with a labyrinth of resources including finding showers, hot meals, clean clothes, social services, medical or dental treatment, drafting resumes for those seeking employment and more

His valuable and selfless work in Skid Row (above) is needed even more now: homelessness in Los Angeles rose 26 per cent in 2017 as one in four homeless people in America live in the city, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development

Homelessness in Skid Row has long been an issue for California dating back to the 1930s where an estimated 10,000 people were living on the streets in the community

Betsy Starman, Blassingames close friend who works in the heart of Skid Row at non-profit human services organization Midnight Mission, knows first-hand how bad the issue has become in the area.

Skid Row has gotten worse. Its become a dumping ground for mentally ill people, Starman told DailyMail.com as her voice filled with admiration while discussing her friend.

But Wendell takes care of them. Hes very honest and upright and he does so much for so many people.

Starman noted how there are several shelters and agencies that provide different types of services for individuals in need, but Wendell does everything and knows how to help people.

Outside of just providing information, Blassingame has taken even further by using his credit to co-sign apartment rentals, fundraised to help pay for security deposits and used his personal credit to help people with purchases  despite the fact that he works for free and lives on a fixed income.

Im getting paid with how I can help and touch peoples lives, thats my reward, he said.

Hes just amazing, Im honored to know him, Id do anything for him. He is the man and he is so humble, despite everything he has been through in life, Starman added.

The Marine veteran previously was an alcoholic living on the streets following the death of his wife, Lois, more than a decade ago. That left him feeling lost, and even more so after two of his fingers were severed when he fell off a building while working as an electrician.

But last year, Blassingame (above with a homeless veteran he assisted) says he placed 159 people in housing by himself. He told DailyMail.com: 'Ive dedicated my life to make this a community. Im getting paid with how I can help and touch peoples lives, thats my reward'

The Marine veteran (above) knows first-hand what it's like to be homeless. He previously was an alcoholic living on the streets of Skid Row following the death of his wife, Lois, more than a decade ago. During the dark period, he says he had no cares in the world and loved to drink

The combination of both incidents caused Blassingames life to spiral out of control and into addiction.

I became addicted to alcohol. That became my major hobby. I didnt care about anything else, Blassingame revealed.

I started enjoying the crazy life in Skid Row, I didnt care, I wasnt being harassed and I had no peers of my own who would hold me accountable.

The bespectacled 67-year-old could be found every day carrying a tent and a cardboard sign that had a message asking for monetary help written on it while walking down Alameda or Fourth streets in downtown Los Angeles.

At night he slept on cardboard on the sidewalk because he preferred that over following the rules of shelters in the area.

He continued this destructive pattern of life for more than two years until he had a wake-up call one day.

Someone made me a statement at me, called me a drunk and filthy bum, Blassingame said with his voice cracking.

He paused before adding: That made me wake up and realize Im more than that. I have to start from here.

Instead of attending rehab or a program to treat his alcoholism, he sobered up on his own and cleaned himself up.

In the process of getting his act together, he visited several agencies and shelters asking for information, but wasnt getting all of the answers he needed. He realized that if he was having problems, others must be as well.

So I made up my mind, Im going to get all the info from all the agencies and be in the park and help the people more than I was helped, Blassingame stated.

But one day he had a wake-up call and eventually got sober to get his act together. During the process, he realized how hard it was to find certain information at agencies and shelters in the area. He is pictured above with friends while holding an award he received for his work in the community from The California African American Museum

Blassingame decided to set up shop in San Julian Park where he has seen a steady stream of individuals over the last 15 years who sought him out for help. Many in the neighborhood who know him call him the 'saint of Skid Row'

I hate for someone to ask the question and not get an answer.

Blassingame decided to set up shop in San Julian Park where he has seen a steady stream of individuals over the last 15 years who sought him out for help.

People have recognized that there is a place they can come that is accountable and reliable and thats me, he said.

Some people dont want to go into the walls of an agency. They know Im going to be here and theyre telling their friends. I treat everybody with how I like to be treated. Everybody is special to me and I dont care what condition you are in or what youre wearing, youre very special to me.

I go out of my way to make sure to assist them with whatever problem they have it its housing or if its just referral to get a rehab program to get them off the alcohol or drugs or if its just to hear the words how are you doing today hope youre feeling better goes a long way when youre homeless and dont have anyone to talk to, he shared.

Im so excited that I get a chance to touch some bodys life, he said. Every day I come out in the morning and encourage people and try to give them the desire to change youre at the bottom point only thing to do is to go off. Its the choices that we make that shape the future.

Blassingame, who has been dubbed the saint of Skid Row, feels that city and state officials are not doing enough to help curb the homeless crisis currently gripping the state.

In an effort to combat the issue that has long plagued Los Angeles, city officials within the mayors office created a new positon titled the Homeless Coordinator and appointed Meg Barclay to the job.

She is charged with coordinating city efforts with those of Los Angeles County in tackling the issue while keeping tabs on each piece of the puzzle.

Blassingame, who said he has not seen any improvements in the area since she took hold of the positon, said her job is a joke.

He said: Im so excited that I get a chance to touch some bodys life. Every day I come out in the morning and encourage people and try to give them the desire to change youre at the bottom point only thing to do is to go off'

I dont want to say that shes a joke, but her job position is a joke. How can you address the homeless issue when youve never been homeless thats number one, he quipped.

And number two, you have to get away from the CEOs or directors of the Midnight Mission, The Union, The LA Mission or Weingart and actually get in the encampment of the homeless people to really see and address their needs.

He added that Barclay needs to do more outreach before she can do anything.

Speaking from an office is one thing, but outreach is a very important part of dealing with individuals who have been displaced or are dysfunctional. This is not only a state of mind of homelessness, this is reality.

Blassingame, who is speaking from experience, said that some who live on the streets love it and enjoy it and become complacent.

So for her to say to shes going to representing these individuals, how can you represent them when you havent met them or got into the encampment? You have to go out there and sweat a little bit, and interact, and find out what actually caused them to become homeless, Blassingame shouted.

Different things caused people different ways to become homeless.

Outside of providing resources for those seeking help, Blassingame also hosts movies in a nearby community center on Saturdays and Sundays because he wants Skid Row to be more than a neighborhood known for homelessness.

Ive dedicated my life to make this a community, he said softly. This is not some place where people have lost hope or lost identity.

Everybody has choices to make. Some people make right choices and some people make wrong choices.

For his efforts, Blassingame was recently honored and awarded by property management company Goldrich Kest via there 60 Acts of Kindness campaign.

The Marine veteran was presented with a new laptop and a backpack to carry it in during a luncheon in his honor from the company after his was stolen from his table inside San Julian Park.
An anatomy teacher has been given probation despite admitting she had a six-month sexual relationship with a teen student.

Gabrielle Bauman, 25, a former Hiawatha High School biology and anatomy teacher, was arrested last August after being accused of having sexual relations with one of her students between November 2016 and May 2017.

It is unclear whether the student is male or female.

The Hiawatha Police Department then conducted an investigation after a report was made to school administrators in mid-June.

Gabrielle Bauman, 25 (pictured), pleaded no contest to a six-month sexual relationship with a teen student. She has been given three years probation and will register as a sex offender

Bauman had no prior convictions so the judge was able to give her probation instead of jail

Bauman, 25, was arrested in August after being accused of having sexual relations with one of her students between November 2016 and May 2017. (Pictured, left, Bauman with former science teacher Chris Vitt)

Because Bauman had no prior convictions, the judge in her case was able to give her probation instead of a jail sentence.

She will undergo various therapy treatments and will also have to register as a sex offender for 25 years.

The investigation saw an extensive and forensic review of several electronic devices by the Hiawatha Police Department's Digital Forensics Unit and the Heart of America Regional Computer Forensic Lab in Kansas City.

The criminal stated that the alleged victim was a 'person 16 years or older who was a student enrolled at Hiawatha High School where the offender was employed'.

Bauman resigned in July after teaching anatomy and biology at Hiawatha High School in Hiawatha, Kansas, for just one year.

The school board accepted Bauman's (pictured, center, in green) resignation in July 2017
A mass brawl has broken out at a German airport, sparked by demonstrators protesting about Turkish military action against Kurdish fighters.

Kurds who had gathered at airport for the protest came under attack from Turkish Airlines passengers, haz.de reported.

Video shows protesters waving flags exchanging punches with a group of men, who ran towards them, and some of the flags being used as improvised weapons.

According to haz.de, the police had to use pepper spray to separate both sides.

Kurds who had gathered at Hanover Airport for the protest came under attack from Turkish Airlines passengers

The brawl began by the Turkish Airlines desk at the airport's Terminal B, Neue Presse reported

The brawl began by the Turkish Airlines desk at the airport's Terminal B, Neue Presse reported.

Turkey's army launched a major air and ground operation, accompanied by allied Syrian rebels, in northern Syria at the weekend in a bid to oust the US-allied Kurdish YPG militia.

It considers the YPG to be a 'terrorist' group, as well as the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a bloody three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.

On Monday Turkish soldiers and their Syrian allies launched a new attack on the Kurdish militia from Azaz, about 20 kilometres to the east of Afrin, as part of 'Operation Olive Branch'.

'We will take no step back. We spoke about this with our Russian friends. We have an agreement,' said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 21 civilians - including six children - have been killed in the operation but Ankara says it has only hit 'terrorists'.

The fight took place at Hannover Airport (pictured) and reportedly involved 180 people

Turkish tanks being transported to take part in Operation Olive Branch against the YPG militia

Turkish-backed fighters fire towards YPG positions in the Tal Malid area, north of Aleppo




A watchdog group has asked the Justice Department and the Federal Election Commission to look into a $130,000 payment made by President Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen to porn star Stormy Daniels.

The non-profit group, Common Cause, filed a complaint Monday to the FEC, while also writing a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy, saying that the payment potentially represented an 'unreported in-kind contribution to Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.'

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Cohen used a private Delaware company to make the October 2016 payment to Daniels  whose real name is Stephanie Clifford  as she agreed to keep quiet details about an alleged affair with the then-Republican nominee.

A watchdog group asked the Department of Justice and the Federal Election Commission to look into the reported $130,000 payout given to porn star Stormy Daniels (pictured), suggesting it was technically an 'in-kind' contribution to the presidential campaign

The Wall Street Journal reported that lawyer Michael Cohen (left) facilitated the payment, which was to cover up an alleged sexual encounter between Stormy Daniels and now President Donald Trump (right)

Paul S. Ryan, the vice president of policy and litigation for Common Cause, argued in his letter to Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that the payout represented a contribution to Trump's campaign because 'the funds were paid for the purpose of influencing the 2016 presidential general election.'

Cohen's payment to Daniels happened the same month the Access Hollywood tape came out, in which candidate Trump had bragged about grabbing women by the 'p****.'

That alone had almost killed his campaign.

Daniels' story could have done more damage at this pivotal point.

Speaking to In Touch Weekly in 2011, for an interview that was never published until last week, Daniels spilled a number of intimate details about her initial liaison with Trump, whose wife Melania had given birth to their son Barron just four months before.

He called their sexual encounter 'textbook generic' and said they didn't use protection, while adding that Trump had compared the porn star to his eldest daughter, Ivanka, now a top White House adviser.

'We had really good banter. He told me once that I was someone to be reckoned with, beautiful and smart just like his daughter,' Daniels told the tabloid in 2011 about her 2006 encounter. She also said their affair continued through 2007.

That interview got buried once Cohen, the same lawyer to 10 years later offer the porn star hush money, threatened legal action against In Touch, according to the Guardian.

The Daniels' story reared its head again once Trump was running for president.

On Tuesday, Slate's Jacob Weisberg revealed that he had been in touch with Daniels between August and October of 2016 and she told him about the alleged affair.

She also told the reporter that Trump, through intermediaries, had offered to pay her a six-figure sum to keep quiet, though was now stalling with signing the final agreement and she worried the billionaire may not pay up.

She had wanted Slate to pay her for her story, something the publication does not do.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Daniels had also been in touch with ABC's Good Morning America about taking her story there.

In October she stopped texting Weisberg, with a source telling him that Daniels indeed accepted the Trump payment.

The source of that money is still unknown, with Common Cause filing its complaints against a 'John Doe,' along with The Trump Organization and Donald J. Trump For President, Inc.

Common Cause claims that Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. violated the Federal Election Campaign Act for accepting a $130,000 'in-kind' contribution, but also for not reporting the money as a campaign expenditure.

The complaint also points out that the Trump campaign could have violated federal election law if the source of the hush money was Trump's own company, the Trump Organization.

Federal law prohibits corporations from donating to federal candidates.

If a single donor donated the money than the six-figure dollar amount would be problematic there too, as individuals are barred from giving more than $2,700 to a candidate for a specific campaign.

Common Cause was started by Republican John W. Gardner in 1970, though has backed efforts that today are considered more left-leaning, like lowering the voting age to 18 and bringing about a conclusion to the Vietnam War.

Cohen has denied Trump's involvement with Daniels, but hasn't spoken about the hush money payment.
A senior manager at Rolls-Royce groped a mother pushing her baby in a pram as he jogged past her, a court heard.

Jeff Tozer, 45, is accused of 'grabbing' the woman between the legs as he passed her on the pavement where she was wheeling her infant son in a pram.

The head of engineering and business management for Rolls-Royce in Filton, Bristol, was arrested after the woman snapped a photo of the alleged attacker on her phone, and dialled 999.

The head of engineering and business management for Rolls-Royce in Filton, Bristol, was arrested after the woman snapped a photo of the alleged attacker on her phone, and dialled 999

Tozer denied a charge of sexual assault during a trial at Bristol Crown Court.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court she was walking close to the Rolls Royce factory site in September 2016 when she was molested.

She said a jogger came towards her and passed her on the pavement.

The woman said: 'Suddenly I felt a hand between my legs, which made me jump and turn. It came from behind.

Jeff Tozer, 45, leaving Bristol Crown Court. He is accused of 'grabbing' a woman between the legs as he passed her on the pavement where she was wheeling her infant son in a pram

'The only person there had been the runner. He put his hand between my legs, it was very forceful.

'It wasn't a flat hand, it was a grab with his thumb and fingers. I said it was three seconds, it wasn't a brush.

'For a split second I thought it was somebody I know trying to play a prank on me.'

The complainant said the jogger continued on his way as she got her phone from the pram and took as many photos as she could of him.

She added: 'I just thought he can't do that to me.'

The woman dialled 999 and reported the assault to police, who arrested Tozer.

The defendant said he was out running and had bumped into someone.

Tozer said: 'I was not paying proper attention and it was an innocent collision.'

A character witness said: 'He is a man of integrity who I trust implicitly.'

The case continues.
Marian Kabah (pictured in a police mug shot) was behind the wheel of a Nissan Juke when it crashed into families who had been celebrating Eid in Newcastle

A woman who sparked fears of a terrorist attack when her car ploughed into a crowd of people during Eid celebrations causing serious injury has been jailed for 16 months.

Marian Kabah left a seven-year-old boy with a brain injury and another man in a serious condition after she lost control of her Nissan Juke and careered into a crowd at Westgate Road Community College in Newcastle - injuring seven people.

The judge said the the case was so serious that a significant jail sentence was required, taking into consideration her decision to drive while knowing she was deprived of sleep and that she chose to drive onto the grass near so many vulnerable people.

Newcastle Crown Court earlier heard how there were fears at the time that the collision might have been terrorist related but the crash was later found not to be malicious.

The court heard how the 42-year-old had been attending the event, which was attended by between four and five thousand worshippers and celebrated the end of Ramadan, early that morning on June 25 last year.

Kabah was driving with three children and her friend in the car with her when she decided to mount the curb to enter a grassed area and lost control of the automatic vehicle.

Mark Giuliani, prosecuting, told the court: 'As she was leaving she noticed some friends of hers on the grassed area to her right.

'She decided she would stop and talk to them. The consequences of that decision was that seven pedestrians were knocked down.'

Scroll down for video.

Kabah is shown attempting to conceal her face as she left Newcastle Crown Court on December 13, after admitting to leaving a seven-year-old boy and a student seriously injured

Mr Giuliani told the court how Kabah accelerated to mount the curb and but didn't slow her car down or bring it to a stop.

Zaryab Rajib, then seven, and his father, Abdul, were both hit by Kabah during the multiple collision.

The child suffered brain and multiple orthopaedic injuries while his father, who is a taxi driver, suffered a fracture to his right ankle which has impacted on his work.

The court heard how the child, who has now turned eight-years-old, has suffered from a change in personality and suffers nightmares and wakes up screaming like he can't breathe following the crash.

In a victim impact statement read to the court Mr Giuliani, his mother said: 'This was the most horrific scene I have ever witnessed made worse by the fact it was my husband and my son. I collapsed in shock.'

Another man Abdullah Sio, 43, was run over by Kabah's car after pushing his son out of the way in order to prevent him from being hit.

Kabah's car (pictured) hit seven people and left two of them badly hurt, with a Newcastle University PHD student suffering 'life-changing' injuries

The PHD student suffered multiple injuries to his ribs, spine and vertebrate while his son, whose foot was hit by the car, received a twisted ankle.

Mr Sio, who is still using a wheel chair, read his victim impact statement to the court in which he said: 'The car could have killed me and my other family members.

'I still think what if I died then what would have happened to my family.'

Mr Sio said the injuries he has suffered have had an effect on his studying and he has not been able to explain what has happened to his family in Syria as he doesn't want them to suffer more than they already are.

Mr Giuliani told the court how Kabah said, 'I'm not feeling well', 'I didn't mean to do that' and 'I don't know what happened' as she was taken out of the car.

He told the court how Kabah did not suffer from a medical condition and there was nothing mechanically wrong with the car.

Mr Giuliani said Kabah might have panicked and pressed the acceleration pedal instead of the brake when she lost control of the vehicle.

Kabah, of Gateshead, admitted two charges of causing serious injury by dangerous driving at a previous court hearing.

Andrew Nuttall, defending, told the court how Kabah was the lone carer for her husband who needs 24 hour care after suffering a stroke.

The husband shouted 'Who will look after me?' and well-wishers wept as she was taken down from the dock at Newcastle Crown Court.

A seven-year-old boy was left with brain injuries while his father suffered a fractured ankle and four other people sustained minor injuries

He told the court: 'She came to this country in 2008 but prior to coming to this country she spent nine years in a refugee camp.

'She gave birth to her son within the camp and managed to get to this country, her son was eight years old.

'Within 12 months of being in this country her husband suffered a catastrophic stroke.

'He was in hospital, she wasn't sure if he was going to live or die for nearly 12 months.'

He told the court how social services took her son from her to be fostered while she tried to cope.

He said: 'She has been the full carer of her husband. He has severe difficulties, he really can't do anything for himself.

'She is essentially at home 95% of the time with her husband who really can't communicate in any meaningful way.

'She understands suffering and she understand what her actions have caused and she fully understand the distress that's been caused by her actions, her unintended actions.

'She is the last person that would wish to cause distress to anybody and yet here she is. She clearly did not intend what had taken place.'

Mr Giuliani told the court: 'At the time initially there was some concern that it might have been some sort of malicious terrorist act.

'A car driving into a crowd celebrating Eid could be misinterpreted as such.'

Mr Sio said: 'The car collided with me, it was a horrendous feeling of my bones cracking, I thought I was going to die. I was pulled from under the car and taken to hospital.'

Zaryab also suffered hearing loss and a problem with eye movement as a result of the collision.

Mr Giuliani told the court how Kabah was fasting throughout Ramadan and suffering from insomnia which may have had something to do with how she reacted to losing control of the car.

Judge Edward Bindloss told the court how two of the seven victims had suffered 'life-changing' injuries.

He said: 'It goes without saying it's a very sad and tragic case for all concerned.'

He sentenced Kabah to 16 months in prison, disqualified her from driving two years and ordered her to sit an extended driving test.
This is the horrifying moment a courageous 11-year-old boy had to run from his home to find help after his house was ransacked by masked machete-wielding burglars who 'threatened to kill' his mother.

One of the thieves pressed a knife to the 39-year-old mother's neck as they demanded passwords to open smartphone and tablets, threatening: 'We will kill her.'

CCTV footage from the home in Ilford, east London, captured the mother-of-three pleading with the armed gang to spare her eldest son who was dragged around the property at knife-point.

The clip begins with one of the burglars - who wore a hood and goggles like the other culprits - opening the door and then ushering the others into the property

The 17-year-old was threatened by the robbers, who demanded any money and valuables, before assaulting him with the butt of a blade, say the Metropolitan Police.

The teenage daughter of the family locked herself in the bathroom while the terrifying incident occurred but could still hear her mother's screams.

'It was like being in a horror movie. I was panicking but got hold of an aunty who got the police,'

'To scare mum they cut my brother in the face. She saw he was hurt and gave over everything she had', she told the Evening Standard.

One of the thieves pressed a knife to the 39-year-old mother's neck as they demanded passwords to open smartphone and tablets, threatening: 'We will kill her'

The masked thugs stole 800 in cash, gold and laptops, as well as keys to a Range Rover. But more crushing for the family was the loss of photos from the computers

She added that her hands were shaking too much to call the police herself.

The film, released by the family, shows the 11-year-old running to safety at around 6.25pm on January 11.

The youngest son was met by his dad who was returning home from shopping - the boy had hid from the burglars under a dining room table before escaping outside.

The brave little boy said: 'I just went for it. Neighbours were running out of their houses to help and police were here very quickly.'

The clip begins with one of the burglars - who wore a hood and goggles like the other culprits - opening the door and then ushering the others into the property.

CCTV footage from the home in Ilford, east London, captured the mother-of-three pleading with the armed gang to spare her eldest son who was dragged around the property at knife-point

The gang is thought to be made up of two white men and three black men who all wore dark clothing and fled the scene in a white Toyota pick-up truck and silver Ford C-Max

The masked thugs stole 800 in cash, gold and laptops, as well as keys to a Range Rover. But more crushing for the family was the loss of photos from the computers.

And the 17-year-old son needed stitches after suffering a gash to his forehead.

The family, who did not wish to be named, said they have now upgraded their security.

The gang is thought to be made up of two white men and three black men who all wore dark clothing and fled the scene in a white Toyota pick-up truck and silver Ford C-Max.

The film, released by the family, shows the 11-year-old running to safety at around 6.25pm on January 11

DC Jonathan Lam, of the East Area Command Unit, is leading the investigation. There have been no arrests

DC Jonathan Lam, of the East Area Command Unit, is leading the investigation.

He told the Mirror: 'This was a vicious aggravated burglary that has left a family deeply traumatised by what has happened to them in their own home.

'I am urging anyone who has information on this incident to contact me so these people can be taken off the streets.'

There have been no arrests.
A teenager who is possibly the last victim to have been sexually assaulted by Larry Nassar revealed that she is still being billed for her appointments with the convicted pedophile.

Emma Ann Miller was one of the many brave women to speak at the fifth day of Nassar's sentencing hearing on Monday, and said in her victim impact statement that her last visit with the defendant was in August 2016 - just days before he was terminated by Michigan State University.

Later in the day Kamerin Moore revealed how both she and her brother were sexually abused by the doctor after their father passed away.

By the end of the day, 117 victim impact statements had been read in court, with at least another 27 to go on Tuesday.

Standing strong: Emma Ann Miller, who is just 15, was one of the young women to speak on day five of Larry Nassar's sentencing hearing (Emma above with her mother Leslie)

Tragedy: The high school student revealed that she was assaulted by Nassar from the time she was 10 until August 2016, just days before he was fired

'I'm possibly the last child [Nassar] will ever assault,' Miller told the courtroom with her mother by her side.

'MSU charged me for those appointments.'

Miller, who is just 15, went on to deliver some of the most powerful remarks of the past five days as she stood opposite the man who assaulted her for years.

Judge Rosemarie Aquilina looked at the young woman in awe after she was finished, and said: 'Your words are as strong as any gun, taser or billy club.'

Miller spoke about how excited she was to meet Nassar as a young girl, explaining that she grew up with a single mother and had no father figure.

'It's always just been my mom and I. I needed a positive male role model in my life, and that's who Nassar was for me,' said Miller, with her mother by her side.

'I've known him since I was born, and now I wish I never met him.'

She went on to note: 'The word Nassar will permanently be associated with child sexual abuse.'

Miller, however, will not be defined by what her abuser did to her under the guise of medical treatment she said in her statement.

'I'm more than how he treated me. I am not letting him take any more time away from me,' declared Miller.

'No more time at appointments, no more time being misled and no more time being manipulated.'

Miller also had some strong words for Michigan State and those who ignored prior reports of Nassar's predatory behavior.

'My name is Emma Ann Miller and Im 15 years old and Im not afraid of you,' said the teenager.

'Nor will I ever be.'

The high school student then said that the college and its representatives should get used to being a courtroom.

'I didn't choose this circumstance. Nassar made that choice for us - your 20-year child-molesting employee,' said Miller.

'This is a burden at 15, I shouldn't have to bear. But believe me MSU, bear I will.'

She also asked Nassar to do all the victims a favor by outlining all the times he could have been stopped by MSA, USA Gymnastics or Twistars.

That would do much more good than a 'hollow, insincere apology' said Miller

'Please Larry - help my sisters. This would be a redeeming act, please don't waste your elocution on your grief, your regret or any other emotion,' said Miller.

'Don't tell us how you and God have made amends or how you are different. You need to confess the facts. You can help others, and if you do help my sisters, it might help earn my forgiveness.'

The teenager also pointed out that Nassar was going to be lving a far better life than he deserved after this trial.

'I know, and Nassar knows, that in federal prison he will be fed, he will clothed and hell be provided actual medical treatment,' said Miller.

'Dont get too excited, Larry. Youll probably never talk to a woman again except for one holding a gun, a taser, and a billy club, which is a good thing.'

Miller maintained her composure throughout the statement, which was the 95th of the hearing.

At the end of her remarks, Miller looked at Nassar and then the women sitting in the courtroom, before stating: 'We are just getting started'.

Coward: Nassar (above on Monday) kept his head down and refused to look at most of his victims while they spoke

Coming forward: There will now be 144 women speaking at Nassar's sentencing, which means the hearing could go on until Wednesday (Judge Rosemarie Aquilina above on Thursday)

Mad as hell: The first victim to speak on Monday was Bailey Lorencen (above), who took aim at Nassar and his close friend John Geddert

A few hours prior it was revealed that there would now be 144 victims speaking in court, almost double the 88 women who planned to speak at the start of last week.

Miller delivered her statement just days after an investigation by The Detroit News into MSU and their handling of the Nassar scandal revealed that 14 members of the faculty were made aware of incidents over the years, and at least one of those was reported to current president Lou Anna Simon.

'Those issues are points of dispute and part of civil litigation and I am not going to comment on,' said Simon when asked to comment.

'What I can tell you is what I knew, straight up. My standard response is to tell people to play things straight up and I did not receive a copy of the report.'

The first victim to speak on Monday was Bailey Lorencen, who took aim at Nassar and his close friend John Geddert.

It was Geddert's Twistars gym where a number of the victims claimed their were assaulted by Nassar.

Lorencen revealed that she began seeing Nassar after she broke her neck in four places following a fall, which Geddert at the time assured her was just a muscle injury.

The sexual abuse began soon after and lasted until Nassar told the young woman she had to stop gymnastics or she might never walk again.

'While it was happening, you said it was a medical treatment,' Lorencen said, adding that many of the young girls she spoke with described receiving similar treatments from Nassar.

She said that she now has nightmares and is terrified that men are going to rape her while she sleeps, along with anxiety.

Lorencen also earned a rare objection from the defense when she called out Nassar's attorney for smiling and laughing in court with him last week.

'I'm so confused by your career path and I do not respect you or your choices,' she said to Nassar's legal team.

The MSU alum also stated: 'I gladly say good-bye Lou Anna Simon, your time as president is over.'

When she was done speaking, those present gave her a standing ovation.

Invisible scars: 'You destroyed my ability to trust,' said Marta Stern (above), who is eight months pregnant and 'paralyzed with fear' that she might not be able to protect her daughter

Difficult memories: Whitney Mergens (above with her parents and boyfriend) was abused twice at the age of 11

Struggle: Clasina Syroby (above) said she was abused by Nassar in the early 90s, and described having 'sleepless nights, days of feeling nauseous and more tears than I care to admit'

Marta Stern had planned to remain anonymous, but changed her mind at the last second on Monday to face Nassar while delivering her statement.

'You destroyed my ability to trust,' said Stern, who is eight months pregnant and 'paralyzed with fear' that she might not be able to protect her daughter.

She also said in her statement that her husband must make loud noises before entering a room so he does not scare her, and described leaving her body and becoming emotionally withdrawn when Nassar would abuse her at appointments.

'Your monstrous actions took away so much, from so many,' said Stern.

She then said that she could no longer hold on to her hatred she had for her abuser.

'Despite all of this, I must forgive you, I must for the sake of myself, my husband and my unborn child,' explained Stern.

She then made a point of thanking her husband for being 'her rock.'

Whitney Mergens was abused twice at the age of 11, with Nassar winning her over when he presented her with a signed postcard from the female members of the 2008 Olympic team.

Mergens never revealed the abuse to her parents, however, until 2016, after the first reports began to emerge about Nassar.

It took her a week to build up the confidence and once she did things took a turn for the worse.

'It became real, the darkness took over my life,' said Mergens.

That is starting to change though, and Mergens revealed that sitting in court on Friday and hearing other women speak gave her the courage to share her statement.

When she was finished speaking, Judge Aqualina said: 'You are not damaged, you are never damaged, the defendant is the damaged one.'

Clasina Syroby said she was abused by Nassar in the early 90s, and described having 'sleepless nights, days of feeling nauseous and more tears than I care to admit' because of his assaults.

She took some time to gather herself before beginning her remarks, which also took aim at MSU and USA Gymnastics.

'What good is it to teach children to tell an adult if the grown-up doesn't listen, doesn't take action?', she asked.

She also asked Nassar if he knew how many victims were out there, a question that drew no response from the defendant.

'You have made it so that I'm embarrassed to tell people I'm a gymnast,' said Syroby.

She also did not hold back when speaking about the abuse she suffered saying through tears at one point: 'It felt like he was ripping my vagina apart.'

Predator: Kamerin Moore (above) said that Nassar actually asked if he could videotape himself performing a procedure on her, a request she denied at the time

Monster: 'You molested a little girl who had just lost her father,' said a devastated and disgusted Moore (Nassar above on Monday)

Kamerin Moore said that Nassar actually asked if he could videotape himself performing a procedure on her, a request she denied at the time.

The mother-to-be said that she was apprehensive about speaking out, but knew she had to confront the man who had assaulted her while she was a meber of the US junior national team.

'I didnt want this child Im carrying to be in the same room with a child molester,' said Moore.

She then spoke of her late night appointments with Nassar, which no one blinked an eye at and began when she was just 10.

'You called me your guinea pig because you would always try out new techniques on me,' said Moore.

'I vividly remember the first time. I remember you told me I had to wear either my leotard or shorts. I remember how absolutely mortified I was when you asked me if I started my period yet, because you could not do the treatment if I had a tampon in.'

Moore then said that she blamed herself most of all for the assaults.

'Im mad at myself when I think about every time you put your fingers inside of me and I continued to trust you no matter how disgusted and embarrassed I was,' said the young woman.

She later told the court that Nassar's abuse got worse when she was 12, after the death of her father.

'You molested a little girl who had just lost her father,' said a devastated and disgusted Moore.

She then revealed that it was not just her who was a victim of Nassar, but her brother too.

Moore said that her brother, a former gymnast at the University of Michigan, was treated by Nassar after he suffered a shoulder injury.

I was there for one person and had to watch them process their confusion - my own brother,' said Moore.

'He's now a gymnast at the University of Michigan and when he realized what a monster you where I watched his frantically search the Internet trying to find some proof that the chi in his shoulder was related to his genitals.'

Moore then gave some more context to her story.

'Because when he had surgery on his shoulder you treated him. In your basement. You pulled his pants slightly down to expose him, in front of one of your other female victims actually who was in that basement as well. And you put acupuncture needles next to his genitals,' explained Moore.

'I'm not sure how my brother's shoulder is connected to his balls, but I guess chi works in weird ways.'

Moore previously described the moment Nassar asked if he could tape her back in April of last year.

'To be very clear about what he was asking: he was asking as a 40-year-old man or however old he was, to videotape himself touching a 13-year-old girls naked private parts,' she explained in a video.

'And if nothing else, if he was a well-respected doctor still and he was a good person and they hadnt found thousands of images and videos of child pornography on his devices, this would still be wrong.'
A southeast Missouri man has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for strangling his mother with a dog leash and burning a car with her body and two dogs inside in 2013.

Twenty-nine-year-old Neil Howland Jr. also was sentenced Friday to four years each on five other charges, for a total sentence of 120 years.

The Southeast Missourian reports that during the sentencing hearing, a judge ordered deputies to duct tape Howland's mouth closed.

A judge sentenced a Scott City man Neil Howland Jr. Friday to life in prison without parole for strangling his mother with a braided dog leash

The horrific murder happened in 2013. The killer's victim and mother, Cynthia Canoy, is shown before her death

These two dogs were also inside the car that Howland Jr. burned with Canoy's body inside

The order came after he would not stop interrupting the victim's husband, who was making a victim impact statement.

Howland was convicted of killing his mother, Cynthia Canoy, in August 2013 at her Scott City home.

He then put her body and her two pet dogs into a car, drove into a cornfield and burned the vehicle.

The son admitted to killing his mother just three days after the horrific murder, but later while on trial said the 'confession was a lie,' according to the newspaper.

Howland Jr. (pictured on Twitter) also was sentenced by Judge Fred Copeland to four years each on five other charges, bringing his total sentence to 120 years

Howland Jr.'s girlfriend, Tiffany Warner, described in the rebuttal testimony how he strangled his mom and put the leash around her neck.

Prosecutor Morley Swingle said during the sentencing a more lenient punishment wouldn't have been appropriate.

'If you kill your own mother, you will kill anybody,' Swingle said in the statement.

'There was not a shred of remorse,' he added. 'Justice was achieved here.'
A Florida woman accused of fatally shooting and then dismembering her boyfriend may be linked to a similar cold case, police say.

Nelci Tetley, 67, was arrested on Thursday on a first-degree murder charge for the death of 55-year-old Jeffrey Albertsman, who was found dead in his Daytona Beach home in July 2017.

Police were called to the residence for a wellness check and quickly found Albertsman's body. He had been shot in the head and the chest and his arms and legs were missing, according to an affidavit.

The decomposing limbs were found at a fernery in western Volusia County two months later.

Nelci Tetley, 67 (pictured), was arrested on Thursday on a first-degree murder charge for the death of 55-year-old Jeffrey Albertsman, who was found in his Daytona Beach home in July 2017

Albertsman (left) was shot in the head and the chest and his arms and legs were missing. Police say Tetley was a person of an interest in a 2007 case where the body of Michael Scot Louis (right), a man she dated, was chopped up and found in garbage bags along the Tomoka River

The affidavit notes that Albertsman and Louis, were both dismembered in an unusual way with the use of a knife (Pictured, Tetley in court)

Tetley was arrested after police said they got the DNA results from the crime scene.

'We processed the crime scene, we had to send some blood evidence off her DNA,' Daytona Beach Police Chief Craig Capri said.

According to the arrest affidavit, Tetley and Albertsman had been in a romantic relationship for nine years, but court records reveal that it was a rocky relationship.

Records show that Tetley was arrested in October 2016 after she struck Albertsman and told him, 'I could kill you tonight if I wanted.'

She was sentenced to 11 months probation, which she completed in May 2017.

Court records also show incidents where Tetley allegedly pepper-sprayed Albertsman and stabbed him.

Police said Tetley was also a person of interest in a similar homicide case out of Ormond Beach that happened 10 years ago.

Tetley (left and right) was arrested after police said they got the DNA results from the crime scene. Tetley and Albertsman had been in a romantic relationship for nine years

Tetley is currently being held without bond and it is unclear if she has a lawyer (Pictured, Albertsman's Daytona Beach house where he was found)

WKMG reports that this is the 2007 case of Michael Scot Louis, whose chopped-up body was found in garbage bags along the Tomoka River.

The affidavit notes that Albertsman and Louis, were both dismembered in an unusual way with the use of a knife.

Tetley denied remembering that Louis, a man she dated, had been murdered, according to the report.

She is currently being held without bond and it is unclear if she has a lawyer.
Fraternity chapters at Yale University (file photo) postponed rush events when students ineligible for membership indicated they planned to attend

Several fraternity chapters at Yale University have postponed recruiting events amid a push by student activists to make the social organizations open to both men and women.

Chapters put off the rush events this weekend when students ineligible for membership indicated they planned to attend, North-American Interfraternity Conference spokeswoman Heather Matthews Kirk said Monday.

Yale senior associate dean Burgwell Howard urged fraternity leaders in a letter Thursday to keep rush events open to all students, regardless of gender, while being clear about their organizations' membership criteria.

'My basic advice is that it does no harm to have your rush events open to all eligible members of the Yale community - regardless of gender,' he said in a statement per the Yale Daily News.

'Whatever you do, please be consistent and honest with all potential new members who come through your process.'

He wrote that the New Haven, Connecticut, university has no interest in dictating to student organizations who they select.

Yale senior associate dean Burgwell Howard said in a statement to fraternities: 'My basic advice is that it does no harm to have your rush events open to all eligible members of the Yale community - regardless of gender'. Pictured is a view of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity

Engender is a Yale student group working to end what it considers to be discrimination by all-male fraternities (file photo of Sterling Memorial Library)

A student group called Engender has been working on the Ivy League campus to end what it describes as sex discrimination by all-male fraternities.

The group said in a statement: 'We view Dean Howard's statement as a helpful demonstration that the only real barrier to gender integration is the enforcement of sex-discriminatory membership policies from above by national fraternities and the NIC - not the free choices of students or administrators.'

The percentage of Yale's student body that participates in Greek life is difficult to track, owing to the existence of off-campus options and a decentralized administrative approach to it.

The recent Yale College Council Task Force on Greek Life notes: 'Although most websites cite the size of the Greek community at 10% of the undergraduate population (or about 545 students, using the reported 5,453 undergraduates), the Task Force estimates that the membership size of Greek life at Yale is actually larger.'

The Ivy League university has a residential college system into which new undergraduates are divided.

Yale's Greek life attracted international controversy in 2011 after pledges chanted: 'No means yes! Yes means anal!', across the campus.
Meghan Markle could meet Prince Harry's ex-girlfriend Cressida Bonas at Princess Eugenie's wedding.

The Queen's 27-year-old granddaughter announced her engagement to her long-term boyfriend Jack Brooksbank on Monday.

The couple have decided on an autumn wedding at St George's Chapel, the same venue where Ms Markle will marry Harry on May 19.

And although Eugenie has yet to set a date for her ceremony, Cressida Bonas  who split from Harry in 2014 - is likely to be among the guests.

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Meghan Markle (right) could meet Prince Harry's ex-girlfriend Cressida Bonas at Princess Eugenie's wedding

Eugenie is close friends with the 28-year-old actress and originally introduced her to Harry.

The prince will also be expected to attend the ceremony, along with his new wife.

It's not the only potentially awkward encounter that could occur at Eugenie's wedding.

Her mother, Sarah, Duchess of York, is likely to come face to face with Prince Philip.

Sarah paved the way for her exit from the royal family in 1992 after the paparazzi snapped her sunbathing topless while having her toes sucked by her financial advisor.

Princess Eugenie announced her engagement to her long-term boyfriend Jack Brooksbank on Monday

Princess Eugenie is getting married at St George's Chapel, the same venue where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (pictured) will wed in May

Prince Harry split from his girlfriend Cressida Bonas in 2014 (pictured together in March 2014)

She was staying at Balmoral when the images were published and the Windsors came across them in the morning newspapers at the breakfast table.

Her relationship with her in-laws, particularly the Duke of Edinburgh, was left in tatters.

In recent years, the Duchess has been to Balmoral for short breaks with the Queen, her ex-husband Prince Andrew and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie  but is thought to have stayed when Prince Philip was away.

She wasn't invited to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's wedding.

'It was so difficult. Because I wanted to be there with my girls and to be getting them dressed and to go as a family,' Sarah, who also wed at Westminster Abbey, later admitted.

Eugenie is close friends with Cressida Bonas (pictured together in November last year) and originally introduced her to Prince Harry

Prince Harry and Cressida Bonas are both expected to attend Eugenie's wedding (pictured together in 2014)

'And it was also hard because the last bride up that aisle was me.'

But happier days are on the horizon  and on Monday, the Duchess exuberantly welcomed the news of her daughter's engagement.

In a series of tweets, she branded the news 'Total joy!!', adding: 'We love Jack and I am so excited to have a son, a brother and a best friend'.

She said: 'Eugenie is one of the finest people I know and so together it will be pure harmony.'

As for the wedding itself, while Harry and Ms Markle's nuptials will be televised and attract thousands of media and well-wishers to Windsor, Eugenie's should be more low key.

Eugenie has yet to set a date for her wedding, but she and Jack Brooksbank are planning an autumn ceremony

But the taxpayer will foot the bill for police presence at Eugenie's wedding, just like Harry's.

With the Queen and other senior royals attending the big day, security will be tight as the monarch and her family gather for the celebration.

Others who could make the guestlist are Eugenie's friends Ellie Goulding, Sir Richard Branson's Holly, model Cara Delevingne and presenter Natalie Pinkham.

But her older sister Princess Beatrice is the favourite to a bridesmaid or even the maid of honour.

Sarah, Duchess of York, (pictured in 1986 after announcing her engagement to Prince Andrew) has tweeted her joy at the news of her daughter's engagement

Following the wedding, Eugenie - currently eighth in line to the throne - can stay a Princess and retain her HRH title after her wedding when she marries plain Mr Brooksbank.

She would become 'HRH The Princess Eugenie, Mrs Jack Brooksbank'.

She could, however, choose to relinquish her royal style and title on marriage, but this is thought unlikely.

But the Queen could even offer Mr Brooksbank - the UK brand ambassador for Casamigos Tequila - an Earldom ahead of his wedding day, which would mean Eugenie would become a Countess.

In 2016, Andrew said there was 'no truth' in rumours of a rift between him and the Prince of Wales over his daughters' participation as members of the royal family, and insisted he had not asked for any future son-in-laws to be made Earls.
An Arkansas man with burns on his face has been charged with kidnapping after the charred remains of his ex-girlfriend were discovered in a shipping container two days after she went missing.

Joseph Porter, 25, of Jacksonville, Arkansas, was charged with kidnapping his ex-girlfriend, Cristina Prodan, 27, of Edina, Minnesota in a federal court in Minnesota Friday.

Authorities believe that it was Prodan's charred body that was discovered in a shipping container in New Orleans on January 6, the day after her mother reported her missing.

Final identification of Prodan's body is pending however authorities believe it is her body based on statements they have obtained, the Star Tribune reports.

Cristina Prodan, 27 (left), was reported missing from Minnesota on January 5, a few days after taking her abusive boyfriend, Joseph Porter (right), back. Porter was arrested in Arkansas five days later, with burns on his face. Authorities believe they have found Prodan's charred body

Charging documents filed by Arkansas authorities and the FBI, regarding Porter's prior felony theft charge in Arkansas, revealed that Porter's 44-year-old husband, Richard T. Crawford told investigators that Porter admitted to having killed Prodan in Minnesota on January 4 after they argued.

Crawford allegedly told investigators that Porter brought Prodan's body to New Orleans, where he put it in a shipping container, poured gasoline over it and then set it on fire on January 6.

While setting Prodan on fire, Crawford said Porter sustained burns on his face, hands and arms. Porter's facial burns are evident in his most recent mugshot.

Porter is said to have turned up at the Jacksonville home he shared with Crawford in the days immediately following Prodan's murder, driving a car he allegedly stole from a New Orleans towing year near where Prodan's body was found.

FOX9 reported that state troopers stopped Porter two times during his apparent flight from Minnesota - once while driving in Missouri on the evening of January 4 and against in Arkansas on January 5.

Porter violated a restraining order Pordan had taken out on him in December. Pordan (left and right) took him back soon after, only to go missing a few days later

The Missouri trooper is said to have observed a shovel and pickax in the passenger area of Porter's car. Meanwhile, the Arkansas trooper is said to have seen two suitcases, a shovel and another type of tool in the car.

Surveillance footage obtained by state police and the FBI showed Porter and Crawford at a Walmart store near their Arkansas home on January 9. It's the same location where a cellphone that matched the type Prodan opened was pawned.

Porter (pictured in a December mugshot) allegedly became abusive and Porter took out a restraining order against him

A search of the couple's Jacksonville home and the stolen car from New Orleans turned up several of Prodan's possessions - which her mother identified - including a jewelry box, clothing and electronics.

Porter's arrest warrant included a statement from his mother, Arlie Kathryne, who said that three weeks prior, Porter told her that he intended to kidnap Prodan, steal all of her money, take the guns from her safe deposit box and then leave her somewhere no one would be able to find her. She also said that Prodan suffered from epilepsy which made her an easy target for Porter's abuse.

Kathryne had previously told the Star Tribune that Porter had physically assaulted Prodan in December, resulting in a miscarriage during the first trimester of her pregnancy.

Porter is currently in jail in Little Rock, Arkansas, with bail set at $500,000. He has not been charged with Prodan's death.

Prodan's mother, Livia, has said that her daughter invited Porter to move in with her in October after the two met online.

Soon after they started living together, Porter allegedly became abusive, and Prodan eventually took out a restraining order against them.

On December 28, Porter pleaded guilty to violating the order, and he was sentenced to time served.

Soon after, he got back together with Prodan and she went missing just a few days later.

On January 11, Livia Prodan told WCCO that local police had told her they believed her daughter was dead.

Prodan invited Porter to move in with her in her apartment (above) in Edina, Minnesota in October, after neeting him online

Prodan's mother says police have told her they believe her daughter is dead

'The deputies told me that they are looking for the body, but I don't know if they find it or not,' the mother told Fox 9.

Livia says she warned her daughter away from Porter.

'She felt in love with him - she wanted to get married,' the mother said. 'I told her, "He doesn't love you, he just came to you to steal from you - he's homeless, he doesn't work."'

Porter has a lengthy criminal record with arrests for battery, burglary, and property damage in Arkansas, where he also lived.

He was also the subject of another no-contact order with another woman in Hennepin County,Minnesota in 2014.

In one case, discovered by WCCO, a girlfriend wrote that Porter 'beat her unconscious...and killed her dog violently.'
California prosecutors said an Uber driver living in the country illegally has been charged with raping, assaulting and robbing young women.

San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow said Monday that Alfonso Alarcon-Nunez's alleged four victims are between 19 and 22 years old and three were intoxicated when they were assaulted.

The 39-year-old Mexican citizen faces 10 criminal charges including forcible rape and first degree burglary for the alleged incidents that occurred on December 17, 2017, January 5 and January 14.

Alfonso Alarcon-Nunez, 39, has been charged with sexually assaulting at least four women in California. The Uber driver allegedly targeted intoxicated women after parties, soliciting them for rides and then assaulting and robbing them once at their homes

Alarcon-Nunez is suspected of having sexually assaulted at least four women in California's San Luis Obispo, but authorities said there could be additional victims in the county and its neighboring Santa Barbara, KSBY reports.

Alarcon-Nunez, who has also used the name Bruno Diaz, was arrested at his Santa Maria, California home on January 17.

Authorities then discovered that he is an undocumented immigrant, who had returned to the US illegally after having been voluntarily deported from New Mexico in 2005.

He now faces multiple charges of rape of an intoxicated victim, first-degree burglary and oral copution of an intoxicated victim. He also faces charges of assault with the intent to commit a sex offense, forcible rape and grand theft.

Officials said that Alarcon-Nunez was in the US illegally, after having been voluntarily deported in 2005. It is not known when he reentered the US

Authorities said that while Alarcon-Nunez was on duty as an Uber driver, he specifically targeted parties with the intention of soliciting rides from intoxicated women. Once arriving at their homes, he then allegedly assaulted them and stole items including cell phones, computers and jewelry.

Police said that he used a Venmo app account - under the name 'Brush Bat' - to collect his Uber payments in an effort to obfuscate both his identity and his Uber records.

Dow said detectives are looking for potential witnesses and trying to determine if there are additional victims in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties northwest of Los Angeles.

At his Monday arraignment, prosecutors asked for $1.48million in bail - a significant increase from the $200,000 bail asked for at his arrest, The Tribune reported.

During a press conference Monday, Dow noted that US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement confirmed that Alarcon-Nunez is a Mexican citizen and said that he was using a 2015 California driver's license, although it was not known how long he had been residing in the US.

He is being held at San Luis Obispo County Jail.
Robert Lewis, 41, who allegedly broke into Brett Palos' 18million St John's Wood mansion, has refused to give evidence in court. Pictured: Palos with wife Magda

A burglar who menaced the half-naked wife of Sir Philip Green's billionaire stepson as he grabbed jewellery worth 2million from their mansion in north London refused to give evidence in court today.

Robert Lewis, 41, allegedly broke into the 18million St John's Wood mansion and threatened Magda Palos, 37, as she was getting out of the shower.

Mrs Palos - wife of Sir Philip's stepson, Brett Palos - was subjected to a terrifying ordeal as her six-year-old daughter looked on, Harrow Crown Court heard.

Lewis brandished a pair of 12-inch wire cutters and forced Mrs Palos into handing over the watches and jewellery, it is said.

Among the haul was an 11 carat diamond ring, a Chanel Camelia ring, a heart-shaped diamond ring, a Daytona Rolex, a day-date Rolex, an Explorer Rolex, a diamond Rolex and three gold Cartier bracelets.

At the time of the crime Lewis was under surveillance by police and was required to sign on at Charing Cross police station.

Jurors were told Lewis has 14 convictions for burglary or attempted burglary dating back to 1999.

Lewis simply denies he is the intruder and Elroy Claxton, defending, said he will not be giving evidence during his trial.

Mr Claxton told the court in his closing speech: 'I am not going to be rude but some people who live in very large houses have never seen their wire cutters.

Brett Palos was born in 1974 to Robert Palos and Tina Green (pictured left) who is now married to retail billionaire tycoon Sir Philip Green (pictured right)

'If it was him they may not have been brought to the house by Mr Lewis - but Mr Lewis' account remains that it was not him that was the intruder.

'Mr Lewis, as you know, has got other convictions and they are what's called bad character and what it means is that previously he has committed offences and been convicted or pleaded guilty.

'Mr Lewis is not at all suggesting that he hasn't committed burglary in the past. What he is asking you to do is to consider the prosecution case and not give a dog a bad name.

'What the defendant says, effectively, is on 28 November I am doing what I am supposed to do weekly, which is to sign on at Charing Cross police station.

'He must know he's under surveillance.

Lewis simply denies he is the intruder and Elroy Claxton, defending, said he will not be giving evidence during his trial at Harrow Crown Court (pictured)

'But in short the place where he lived is not that far away from where the burglary was and so what Mr Lewis is saying to examine the argument.

'On Christmas Eve when this statement [Mrs Palos' statement] is being taken, this is being done when the witness is outside the UK.

'The police had a detailed account of what he looks like when the statement was being taken.

'Did he have a big head? Did he have a big nose?

'Look at the identification procedure carefully as well because the person who was carrying out the identification procedure would have wished the witness to look at the film a number of times.

Lewis, of no fixed address, denies aggravated burglary and robbery, claiming mistaken identity. The trial continue.
Ivanka Trump is shopping for a replacement for Chief of Staff John Kelly, Vanity Fair reported, as his relationship with President Trump has soured, even more in recent days.

'I've got another nut job here who thinks he's running things,' Trump told one friend, who in turn told a Republican source that Vanity Fair talked to. 'This guy thinks he's running the show,' Trump reportedly told another pal.

Trump is known for getting especially steamed when his staff members try to make themselves out to be the adults in the room, while suggesting the president is spending his time tweeting and watching TV.

Vanity Fair reported that Ivanka Trump is assisting her father in finding a replacement for Chief of Staff John Kelly (pictured), on the heels of him telling members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus President Trump was 'not informed' on the border wall

Both President Trump (left) and Ivanka Trump (right) have asked people for advice on replacing Chief of Staff John Kelly, Vanity Fair reported Monday. Though the magazine's sources did not expect his ouster to occur anytime soon

During last week's heated immigration debate, Kelly did that and more, by describing the president's view on the proposed U.S.-Mexican border wall as 'not informed,' and suggested his position was 'evolving' to members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

The New York Times, which described the riff, said the president was initially 'calm,' but soon believed Kelly had undermined him.

Now Vanity Fair is openly questioning if the two men's relationship has gone beyond the point of no return.

Two prominent Republican sources told the magazine that Trump has discussed Kelly's successor, asking a friend what he thought of David Urban, a GOP lobbyist who assisted Trump's presidential campaign, helping the candidate in the swing stage of Pennsylvania, which he won.

At the same time, first daughter and White House adviser Ivanka Trump is taking a prominent role.

'Ivanka is the most worried about it,' a source who talked to the first daughter said to Vanity Fair. 'She's trying to figure who replaces Kelly.'

Sources also told the magazine that Kelly won't be out by the end of the week, or anything like that.

'He wants to stay longer than Reince,' an outside adviser told Vanity Fair.

Reince Priebus, the president's first chief of staff and a former Republican National Committee chair, started alongside Trump last January and was out on the last day of July, the day Kelly was sworn in.

The politics of Trump having another high-level staff departure also look bleak.

'This could be like Sessions,' one Republican explained.

Trump has long considered getting rid of his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, over the former senator's decision to recuse himself from the Russia probe, but so far Sessions has remained.

But while Sessions has seemingly tried to get back into the president's good graces, Kelly's attitude has remained unchanged.

As the New York Times described, Kelly often is 'positioning himself as a one-man check against dangerous or reckless moves by the commander in chief,' as he says his loyalty is not to this particular executive, but to the Constitution.

Kelly has managed the president, not by taking away his phone so he cannot tweet, but rather by strictly enforcing which aides get face time with Trump each day.

'I was put in the job to make sure the staff process better informs him on a range of issues,' the chief of staff said on Fox News.

He's also worked hard to manage the flow of news and information into the Oval Office.

'I have said many times I was not put in this job to change the way the president of the United States does business,' Kelly also said.

The White House has pushed back on Vanity Fair's reporting saying there's no beef between Kelly and Trump.

'[I]t's categorically false that Trump is unhappy with Kelly,' a spokesperson said.

Kelly, too, has said, 'I am in this for the long haul.'

'It is the most important thing I've ever done in my life,' said the retired general and ex-secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to Fox's Bret Baier. 'Because if the administration fails, if the president of the United States is uninformed one time and makes the wrong decision, that's on me.'
Matt Lauer dined out on Monday afternoon, with the disgraced Today anchor photographed in Sag Harbor while grabbing a pizza and bag of chips for lunch.

The former Today host was seen heading into Harbor Market and Kitchen, a local take-out shop that is just a few miles away from each of his three massive Hamptons properties.

He was also seen a few hours earlier at one of those Hamptons properties, the 40-acre equestrian facility Bright Side Farm.

Lauer, 60, was outfitted in his standard off-duty uniform of jeans, a down coat, suede boats and a wool cap as he made his way in to the stables at the farm around 11 am, where he was joined by his estranged wife Annette.

The two were photographed entering the facility at separate times, and Lauer headed off on his pizza run after a little over an hour at the facility, with Annette staying behind.

Lauer was also not wearing his wedding ring, which has now been off for close to two months.

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Bachelor in pizza-dise: Matt Lauer was photographed grabbing pizza and a bag of chips for lunch on Monday in Sag Harbor (above)

Free bird: The disgraced Today anchor, 60, was not wearing his wedding ring (above) amidst reports his wife had kicked them out of their Hamptons home

Carbs: Lauer got a bag of Stacy's 'Simply Naked' plain flavored pita chips to go with his pizza

Shroud of secrecy: A source close to Lauer disputed this, saying the couple haven't been together or lived under the same roof for many years (Annette above on Monday)

Smile through the pain: Annette and her estranged husband did spend Monday morning together at their equestrian facility, Bright Side Farm (Lauer above on Monday)

Talk has now turned to when Annette might file for divorce and how much she stands to make in the split.

There had been a report that she kicked Lauer out of their Hamptons home over the weekend, but sources tell DailyMail.com that is not entirely true.

One person who is close to Lauer said that even though he and Annette have been technically 'married' for almost 20 years, they haven't been together or lived under the same roof for many years.

It seems that Lauer is staying at the family's $ 18million compound in Sag Harbor while Annette is with their two youngest children at their $36 million North Haven estate. The couple's oldest son is away at boarding school.

Lauer had been seen entering and exiting the North have compound as well, but that was when his wife was in Europe as the NBC scandal broke.

He has been spotted with Annette though a handful times at the horse facility, where their daughter Romy rides and trains the family's horses on a near-daily basis.

Lauer revealed in a 2013 interview with Parenting that he wished he could spent more time with his children - Jack, 16, Romy, 14 and Thijs, 11.

'We made a decision a couple of years ago to move out of the city. Way out. So my home is in the Hamptons and thats where our kids go to school. As a result, Im in the city three or four nights a week, and Im home on weekends,' explained Lauer.

'I go for school events--I do get out there for those. Because of this decision we made - and wanted to make for them - my time is consolidated into three intense days. The time is more precious and the time you spend is more significant.'

So much land: Lauer owns three properties in the Hamptons: two massive estates and the equestrian facility

Meal for one: It is believed he is staying in the family's $15 million Sag Harbor home while his wife and two youngest children as in their $36 million North Haven estate

That New York City apartment meanwhile is the one location Lauer has not been spotted at in recent weeks.

Lauer purchased that apartment in 2004 for $5.9 million, and the deed is in just his name .

He had been looking to sell his 8,000-square-foot home in Sag Harbor after purchasing the North Haven compound, but a buyer never materialized despite a $2 million price reduction.

Lauer now appears to be living at that 25-acre property while his wife and two youngest are just a few miles away.

Bright Side was picked up by the couple back in 2012 for $3.5 million, and then opened two years later after massive renovations to the grounds and facility.

It was reported last month that Annette had been seen entering the law firm Latham & Watkins in Manhattan.

She is reportedly looking to end her marriage with Matt after 20 years in the wake of recent sexual misconduct allegations.

Meanwhile, in the eight weeks since those allegations of misconduct cost Lauer his $25 million-a-year job at NBC as host of Today, the show is doing better than ever in the ratings.

It sis expected that Annette will be looking to get more money if she files for divorce from Lauer, something she previously did in 2006 before withdrawing her complaint.

'The post-nup will likely specify how much Annette would get if they divorce, but she is expected to challenge it given Matts earnings since 2006, and given how he has humiliated her,' a source told Page Six.

'There are also issues over all the property and land they own, both in the Hamptons and abroad.'
Two California sisters died within days of each other after a driver fleeing from law enforcement in a stolen truck allegedly ran a red light and crashed into the car their mother was driving.

Lenexy Cardoza, four, was killed immediately after the crash on Wednesday and Camila Cardoza, two, had been declared brain-dead but was on life support. On Sunday evening, she succumbed to her injuries.

Their mother, Edith, is currently recovering in the ICU after suffering major injuries in the crash.

California sister Lenexy Cardoza, four (left), Camila Cardoza, two (right), died within days of each other after a driver fleeing from law enforcement in a stolen truck allegedly ran a red light and crashed into the car their mother was driving

Lenexy (left) died immediately after the crash on Wednesday and Camila (right) had been declared brain-dead but was on life support, On Sunday evening, she succumbed to her injuries

Noe Saucedo, 23, was arrested on suspicion of murder felony evading, possession of a stolen vehicle, possession of methamphetamine and possession of heroin.

Prosecutors filed a second charge of murder Monday morning after Lenexy's death.

He is currently being held at Martinez Detention Facility in lieu of $1,050,000 bail.

According to the Contra Costa Sheriff's Office, a call came in regarding a stolen white Ford F-250 pickup truck around 12.47pm.

Deputies followed a vehicle matching the description of the stolen truck from Bailey Road onto eastbound Highway 4.

Video courtesy KRON 4

Noe Saucedo, 23 (pictured), was arrested on suspicion of murder felony evading, possession of a stolen vehicle, possession of methamphetamine and possession of heroin

Lenexy (center) passed away after arriving at the hospital. Camila (left) was on life support after being declared brain dead. Her family decided to take her off and donate her organs on Saturday

'The girls were the only girls from the family. We all had boys and my mother-in-law had all boys, so it hurts more that we don't have our girls.,' she said (Pictured, Camila and Lenexy)

Before the deputy activated his emergency lights, Saucedo allegedly sped off at the Somersville Road exit.

Authorities say, Saucedo ran a red light at Somersville Road and then crashed into a southbound gray Ford F-150 carrying the Cardoza girls and their mother.

Lenexy passed away after arriving at the hospital. Camila was on life support after being declared brain dead. Her family decided to take her off and donate her organs on Saturday.

The girls' mother, Edith, underwent surgery Thursday morning for major injuries including a broken back, shoulder, an arm and some ribs, reported KNTV.

According to the Contra Costa Sheriff's Office, a call came in regarding a stolen white Ford F-250 pickup truck (pictured) around 12.47pm

Authorities say, Saucedo ran a red light at Somersville Road and then crashed into a southbound gray Ford F-150 (pictured) carrying the Cardoza girls and their mother

The girls are survived by Edith, their father Jesus, and 11-year-old brother also named Jesus.

Laura Cardoza told SFGate that Lenexy, loved dressing up as Elsa from the Disney movie 'Frozen' and belt out songs while Camila would jump up and down.

'The girls were the only girls from the family. We all had boys and my mother-in-law had all boys, so it hurts more that we don't have our girls.,' she said.

A GoFundMe account has been set up for the family. So far, $18,084 has been raised out of an initial $10,000 goal.
He used to push legislation through Congress, now he's relegated to pushing strollers.

Former Sen. Al Franken was pictured on grandpa duty in New York City on Sunday, pushing an empty stroller through the streets of Manhattan.

It's unclear why the pram was empty, but Franken does have a young grandson who lives in the city, two-year-old Jacob, who he may have dropped off or been heading to pick up for some quality time. In some of the pictures, Franken is seen chatting with an unidentified woman.

The outing comes nearly three weeks after Franken was forced to resign from the Senate after being hit with multiple accusations of sexual harassment.

Former Sen. Al Franken was seen pushing an empty stroller through the streets of New York City on Sunday

At times, the former senator from Minnesota was seen speaking to an unidentified woman

Franken announced his intentions to retire on the Senate floor on December 7 (pictured above), but didn't officially leave office until January 2.

Franken announced his intentions to retire on the Senate floor on December 7, but didn't officially leave office until January 2.

Since giving up his position, Franken has been laying low, but his home-state pride was too great to stay quiet when the Minnesota Vikings made it to the NFC finals.

On January 14, he posted a picture of him watching the Vikings beat the New Orleans Saints in a nail-biter, his wife Frannie and their grandkids by his side.

The couple have three young grandchildren. Four-year-old Joe and one-year-old Avery from daughter Thomasin, and two-year-old Jacob from son Joseph Franken II.

Thomasin lives in Washington, DC while their son lives in New York, meaning it was likely Franken was spending time with little Jacob this weekend.

Yesterday marked another big day for the Vikings, who took on the Philadelphia Eagles for a chance to play in the Super Bowl. But they lost big time, 38-7, meaning the Eagles will take on defending champs the New England Patriots in two weeks.

Last week, Franken posted a picture of him watching a Minnesota Vikings game with his wife and three grandkids
The family of a teenage mother missing for 26 years have enlisted private investigators in a last-ditch attempt to find her body.

Relatives of Nicola Payne say the search is their 'last hope' after a catalogue of blunders by police.

The 18-year-old vanished after saying goodbye to her boyfriend and baby son to walk the six-minute journey to her parents' home on December 14, 1991.

Despite a murder investigation, nobody has ever been brought to justice.

The family of Nicola Payne (above), a teenage mother missing for 26 years have enlisted private investigators in a last-ditch attempt to find her body

Nicola's distraught parents, John and Marilyn, both 72, despaired of ever seeing justice after being told police did not have enough resources to continue searching for her body.

But a social media campaign for help caught the attention of investigative reporter Mark Williams-Thomas and forensic search specialist Peter Faulding. They were so moved by the family's plight they offered their services for free.

Yesterday a team of their specialists launched a fresh search at Coombe Country Park near Coventry near where Nicola disappeared after receiving fresh information.

The investigation involved a helicopter and a painstaking search of a lake bed by divers.

Nicola's distraught parents, John and Marilyn (pictured) despaired of ever seeing justice after being told police did not have enough resources to continue searching for her body

Relatives have described the original police probe as an 'absolute debacle'.

Brothers-in-law Nigel Barwell and Thomas O'Reilly, both 53, were arrested within days of the teenager's disappearance but released after witnesses failed to identify them.

The 18-year-old vanished after saying goodbye to her boyfriend and baby son to walk the six-minute journey to her parents' home on December 14, 1991

They were rearrested in 2013 after a review of the case and charged with murder after advances in DNA testing linked them to a tent said to belong to Mr Barwell.

Mr Barwell denied ever owning the tent, which contained a strand of hair linked to the missing mother, and it was not formally recorded in a police log for a month.

Both men were acquitted after a trial in 2015 and police were forced to apologise to Nicola's family for the botched probe.

Although officers carried out several searches of Coombe Country Park, parts of the lake were not investigated along with a once-abandoned property where it has emerged there was a deep well.

Yesterday West Midlands Police confirmed it was 'working with a specialist search team as part of their continued search for Nicola'.

But her brother Scott said the private investigators are doing what police had failed to do in 26 years.

The 50-year-old said: 'This is our last hope. The police have let us down so badly. Just before Christmas we decided to put together a campaign on social media to find her after the case was shelved.

'But the police response was an embarrassment. We were told that police don't have the resources to carry on looking for her, they have to prioritise live crimes with good leads.'

Calling the original police investigation 'an absolute debacle', he added: 'There was a catalogue of errors and they just kept saying she had probably run away.

Peter Faulding from Specialist Group international and journalist Mark Williams-Thomas are pictured searching Coombe Abbey Country Park in Coventry for Nicola Payne's body

'But the evidence has been there all along. We were lied to as police said all relevant part of Coombe Park had been searched when it hadn't. We would not be here now if they had done their jobs properly.'

Mr Williams-Thomas, a former detective, has identified potential new leads in the case and linked it to the earlier disappearance of mother-of-one Barbara Finn from the same area in 1991.

Mr Williams-Thomas said: 'It is early stages but already I am receiving information which will be shared with police.

'The information is such that a very detailed search is required of a large area both in water and on land.'

A team of specialists launched a fresh search at Coombe Country Park near Coventry near where Nicola disappeared after receiving fresh information

Mr Faulding, a forensic search specialist who has worked on high-profile cases for police in the UK and US, said: 'A very detailed sonar and fingertip search will take place on the lake bed while a range of radar machines and advanced metal detectors will search the park. There are many pieces to this jigsaw.'

A police spokesman said: 'The inquiry into Nicola's disappearance is subject to continual review and we are committed as ever to investigate any new information to bring closure for her family.'
The White House on Monday pinned the DACA program's fate squarely on congressional Democrats, saying that so-called 'DREAMers' should take out their frustrations on lawmakers.

President Trump said in early September that he would wind down the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals system in six months, giving Congress a deadline to codify it in law or watch it wither on the vine.

Asked what she would say to people brought to the U.S. as minors  the illegal immigrants protected by DACA, his spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters on Monday that 'they should storm Capitol Hill and protest there.'

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday that illegal immigrants spared deportation under 'Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals' rules should 'storm Capitol Hill' and demand both Republicans and Democrats find a way to pass a permanent fix

Pro-DACA protesters are a common sight on Capitol Hill, and at the White House, including this group egged on by Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin on Sunday

The fate of DACA was tied to Friday's federal shutdown as Senate Democrats demanded the program's survival must be attached to any funding bill that would keep the government's lights on.

Democrats caved to pressure on Monday after Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pledged to bring the issue up for a vote by February 8.

That measure, however, could be laden down with the White House's entire immigration wish list.

Sanders said Monday that Democrats in the Capitol 'held up' discussion about DACA, which gives at least 700,000 people a guarantee they won't be deported unless they commit crimes.

'Democrats are the one that shut this discussion down by forcing a shutdown, by being unwilling to fund the government,' she insisted.

Sanders framed DACA recipients' worries as products of a 'failure to actually address the issue' on Capitol Hill.

'They're the ones that actually pass and make those laws,' she said of Congress.

'And the president gave a six-month timeframe in order for them to do that. And now I think all of America is counting on them to show up and make sure that happens.'

Protesters often demand a 'clean' DREAM Act, a measure that would codify DACA in law without any strings attached, but Republicans see leverage and will use it to fund President Trump's border wall and win other immigration concessions

Illegal immigrants and their supporters demonstrated last year in front of the White House after Trump said he would end DACA unless Congress acted to save it

The DACA program's uncertain fate continues to serve as leverage for the president to demand funding to construct a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

He also wants an end to 'chain migration,' a system that allows green card holders to sponsor large numbers of relatives for lawful admission into the U.S.

And Trump is demanding that Congress scrap a diversity visa lottery that awards residence and work permits to people who come from 'underrepresented' countries. He has said he prefers a 'merit-based' system that pays no notice to anyone's country of origin.

Trump's wall in particular, a constant campaign promise that consistently riled up crowds in 2015 and 2016, has become a sticking point for many Democrats.

At least one outspoken congressional advocate for illegal immigrants, however, is willing to grudgingly go along.

'I think the wall is a monumental waste of taxpayers money, and it's to build a monument to stupidity and it's just idiotic,' Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois said Sunday on ABC.

'Having said that, if thats what its going to take in order to put 800,000 young men and women in the country ... in a safe place and put them on course to full integration in our society ... I say pay it.'

'Its not about a wall,' Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois said Sunday. 'Well build him a wall. Tell us how high you want it. But free the DREAMers'

The White House was a hotbed for reporters on Monday, with many asking whether Trump would back a DACA bill that included other immigration pot-sweeteners

Trump has said he will 'take care of' DREAMers, but it's unclear whether they will be protected permanently before the program expires; Trump could also extend it unilaterally if Congress is close to an agreement with the March 5 deadline looming

'Its not about a wall,' Gutierrez told CNN. 'Well build him a wall. Tell us how high you want it. But free the DREAMers.'

That group of immigrants 'takes its name from a failed piece of Senate legislation called the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act.

It was first introduced in 2001 and most recently proposed in 2012, but has never made it to a vote on the Senate floor.

The DACA program also faces an uphill legal climb following a federal judge's injunction forbidding the White House from ending the program as scheduled.

The Trump administration is appealing that ruling directly to the Supreme Court.
Suzanne Somers is a Donald Trump supporter, and she doesn't care who knows it or what it does to her career.

The Step By Step star was dining in West Hollywood eatery Madeo with her husband Alan Hamel over the weekend when she was asked about the government shutdown.

The 71-year-old said politicians need to 'get it all together', and had no qualms about voicing her support for the President.

Huge fan: Suzanne Somers outed herself as a Trump supporter at the weekend when she said she was happy about him being President

West Hollywood: The star was asked about the government shutdown while she was out with husband Alan Hamel and joked her career was over

She said: 'Im happy about him. Im happy that the economys doing so much better.'

When TMZ said it was very rare to hear someone say that in LA, she laughed and replied: 'And now my career is over.'

This isn't the first time the Dancing With the Stars alum has spoken about her political beliefs.

In 2012, she described her politics as 'very personal', telling the Huffington Post: 'I am an independent and vote the candidate, never the party.'

Two years later she called the Obama administration the 'most divisive' she has ever experienced in her lifetime.

'And its become divisive in the industry that if youre not part of the group, you should probably keep your thoughts to yourself,' she told Fox Business Network at the time.

Unequal pay: Somers was fired from hit show Three's Company when she asked for a salary that equaled her costar John Ritter

Reality TV: She appeared on Season 20 of Dancing With the Stars with pro partner Tony Dovolani but was voted off on week five

The actress appeared in Three's Company from 1977 to 1981 but was fired after she asked for a raise to match her costar John Ritter's salary, despite winning multiple awards for her role as Chrissy Snow.

During Season 5 negotiations, she asked to be paid $150,000 instead of $30,000.

ABC only offered her a $5,000 increase and subsequently fired her when she missed two episodes in protest.

She told The Hollywood Reporter in 2015, 'Getting fired for asking for a raise wasn't fair, but I landed on my feet and I've done OK.'

Somers appeared on Season 20 of Dancing With the Stars with pro partner Tony Dovolani, but was voted off on week five.
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Vladimir Putin could start hostilities against the West sooner than we expect, the head of the Army has said.

Warning of Russias eye-watering military capabilities, Sir Nick Carter laid bare the scale of the threat.

The Chief of the General Staff said the Kremlin was a clear and present danger and predicted a conflict would start with something we did not expect.

They are not thousands of miles away, they are on Europes doorstep, he said in a speech at the Royal United Services Institute.

Britains ability to pre-empt or respond to the threat will be eroded if we dont match up to them now, he said, adding: Russia could initiate hostilities sooner than we expect.

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Vladimir Putin (pictured) could launch hostilities against the West 'sooner than we expect', the head of the Army has said

Using the dire warning to make the case for more money for the armed forces, General Carter said:

Britain could scale back its military withdrawal from Germany to allow personnel to race to Eastern Europe if war breaks out;

Syrias civil war was exploited by Moscow to get its troops combat-ready while testing long-range missiles and other equipment;

Russias conventional forces give it a calculable military advantage;

Hostile action would be hard to predict and the time to address the threats was now.

General Carters major speech came as experts issued their own warnings about the threat from Russia and the need for Britain to spend more on defence.

The head of the National Cyber Security Centre warned that a major attack on the UK was a matter of when, not if.

General Sir Nick Carter (pictured left) warned of Russia's 'eye-watering' military capabilities as he laid bare the scale of the threat Britain faces

A stark comparison between British and Russian power highlights how Moscow spends more than twice as much of its GDP on defence when compared with Britain

Ciaran Martin said Britain had been fortunate to avoid a category one hacking attack. This is defined as one that could cripple infrastructure such as energy supplies and the financial services sector.

He suggested one was likely in the next two years, telling the Guardian: It is a matter of when, not if, and we will be fortunate to come to the end of the decade without having to trigger a category one attack.

And the former head of spy agency GCHQ, Robert Hannigan, told the BBC he was seriously concerned about Russias growing aggression in cyberspace. He said: Its the single country thats kept me awake, because their intent has changed over the years.

In his speech in London on Monday, General Carter said there were stark parallels between the situation before the First World War in 1914 and how Russia might view things now.

He said: Our generation has become used to wars of choice since the end of the Cold War. But we may not have a choice about conflict with Russia. And we should remember Trotskys advice that you may not be interested in war but war is interested in you.

Showing a Russian military propaganda video, he said Moscow was developing an eye-watering quantity of capability.

The Royal British Navy shadows Russian ships as they transit close to UK sovereign waters in the English Channel as they make their way to Syria

He cautioned that hostilities would not start with little green men  a reference to conventional ground troops in camouflage.

It will start with something we dont expect. We should not take what weve seen so far as a template for the future, he said.

The Army chief said Russias doctrine for war utilises all of the instruments of national power, not just the military. He added: The character of warfare is making it much harder for us to recognise true intentions and distinguish between what is peace and what is war.

He said credible deterrence could be underpinned only by genuine forces and commitment that earns the respect of potential opponents.

To deter Russia in Eastern Europe, Britain and its Nato allies must improve their speed of recognising what was going on, speed of deciding what to do and speed of assembling forces if needed, he said: The time to address these threats is now  we cannot afford to sit back.

Britain must take action now so that the Armed Forces can tackle the threat from Russia, General Sir Nick Carter (pictured at RUSI) warned in a speech

General Carter said there were no longer two clear and distinct states of peace and war.

He said: The risk we run in not defining this clearly, and acting accordingly, is that rather like a chronic contagious disease it will creep up on us, and our ability to act will be markedly constrained. And well be the losers of this competition.

General Carter said he was actively examining keeping supply bases in Germany open once British personnel are brought home.

This would enable troops to return at short notice with equipment already in place. At one point 55,000 UK personnel were stationed in Germany but the latest figure is no more than 4,000.

How Russia is using the battlefields of war-torn Syria to test frightening arsenal

Russia has used the battleground in Syria to test a frightening range of missiles and other deadly weaponry, the head of the Army warned.

General Sir Nick Carter said Vladimir Putin had been able to develop an expeditionary capability for his military in the war-torn country.

The fighting in the Middle East has given large numbers of Russian officers high-end war experience.

The Kremlins military has been able to try out more than 150 new weapons  including long-range missiles  and items of equipment in its war against opponents of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, he said.

Russia has used the battleground in Syria to test a frightening range of missiles and other deadly weaponry, the head of the Army warned

In October 2015, Russia launched strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria from warships in the Caspian Sea  about 930 miles away.

Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said at the time that four warships fired 26 cruise missiles at 11 targets, destroying them and causing no civilian casualties.

General Carter showed a three-minute Russian propaganda video of Moscows deadly weaponry detailing what he called eye-watering capabilities.

The Chief of the General Staff said it was vital for Britain to invest in ballistic missile defence, training and getting back to understanding ground-based air defence. At the Royal United Services Institute, he said: [The Russians] have used Syria to develop an expeditionary capability.

Spelling out specific threats, the Army chief said that Russia was also using large numbers of drones to locate precise targets before firing missiles at them at an extremely rapid rate. The general said that electronic warfare prompting drone attacks, which then deliver a very frightening array of missiles, is something that is significantly challenging for us.

In just the past five years the number of Russian air, sea and land-based launchers for long-range missiles has increased by a factor of 12, he said, while Moscow has also boasted of increasing the number of missiles with a range of up to 2,500 miles by a factor of 30.

These advances have given the Russians the capability to create mobile missile domes, which then enable them to seal airspace over significant distances, the Army chief warned.

General Carter said that these missile domes acted as a shield in which they can assure their freedom to manoeuvre and deny us the ability to act.

The Russians are also using electronic warfare at a scale to cue precise targeting by large numbers of drones that enable very accurate and instantaneous fires.

He said that these included thermobaric warheads, which are fuel-air explosives that can destroy an opponents forces.
An Army corporal trainer and personal trainer allegedly sexually assaulted two young girls as he offered to show them how to stretch at a park.

Stuart Bugeja, 36, was exercising with his dog Rusty at Arpenteur Park in Baldivis, Western Australia, last January when he came into contact with two local schoolgirls aged 11 and 12 who were also exercising at the park.

Bugeja offered the girls, who were there with younger siblings and friends, advice on stretches, back bends and other gymnastic moves, WA's District Court heard on Tuesday.

Bugeja (pictured) offered the girls, who were there with younger siblings and friends, advice on stretches, back bends and other gymnastic moves, WA's District Court heard on Tuesday

Prosecutors allege Bugeja touched the two girls indecently, on their buttocks and between their legs, while encouraging them to hold their stretches, The West reported.

In recorded interviews with the police, the 11-year-old girl said she felt so uncomfortable she stopped physically interacting with the Iraq veteran.

'He touched me inappropriately and I knew what was going on. It wasn't normal for him to touch me there,' she told the police.

One of the girls filmed the encounter with Bugeja on her mobile phone and the footage was played to a jury this week.

In the footage, Bugeja was heard counting the time the girls held their stretches, before the girls asked him if he was a teacher.

The girls made allegations the man indecently assaulted them immediately after the incident.

In the footage, Bugeja (pictured) was heard counting the time the girls held their stretches, before the girls asked him if he was a teacher

Bugeja told the court he was a fitness fanatic and physical instructor, and liked training others.

Bugeja faces six counts of indecently dealing with a child under 13.

He denied he was guilty of all six charges.

The trial continues for the rest of this week.
A couple have been denied a chance to rent a home as the landlords refused to lease them the property because they 'weren't Asian or Chinese'.

The New Zealand pair found a two-bedroom house located just outside of Auckland's CBD and immediately applied.

They believed they had a strong chance of securing the place, but after they had been reviewed by the owners, the real estate agent informed they were unsuccessful with their application because of their race.

'I've made a complaint to the Human Rights Commission because I think we need to send a message that this is not on,' the woman told the New Zealand Herald.

'I treat everybody fairly. It doesn't matter what race you are, I take people at face value.'

A couple have been denied a chance to rent a home as the landlords refused to lease them the property because they 'weren't Asian or Chinese' (stock image)

The couple, aged in their 30s, approached the commission as they believe they are victims of racial discrimination.

They have not been in contact with the owners who declined them due to not being 'Asian or Chinese', and are still searching for another home.

The property manager explained the owners decided to decline their application because they felt the other couple, who were Asian, would be a better fit.

'The landlords were a little concerned they weren't married, because if you rent a property out to a couple and they break up, then you have to find new tenants, which isn't very convenient,' the real estate agent told the NZ Herald.

'The other tenants also happened to be Asian, and they felt if anything were to happen, like if a window was to break, they felt more comfortable because they can speak to them in their own language.'

The property manager explained the owners decided to decline their application because they felt the other couple, who were Asian, would be a better fit (stock image)

She also said the owner felt better about the Asian family because they had a child, rather than the New Zealand pair who had a cat.

Bizarrely, the property manager instead apologised for revealing the sentiments of the owners and causing the situation.

'[The landlords] had told me that in confidence and if anything is to blame, it is my inexperience, un-professionalism, and honesty,' she said.

'I apologise my inexperience has led to this big misunderstanding.'

The Human Rights Commission of New Zealand states anyone who 'discriminates against people because of their race, age, sex, sexual orientation, family status, disability' faces potential legal action.
Taxi driver John Worboys was jailed for raping and sexually assaulting passengers in 2009

Black cab rapist John Worboys has returned to London ahead of his imminent release from prison.

It is understood that the 60-year-old was secretly driven from HMP Wakefield to his new temporary home of Belmarsh prison.

Worboys will stay at the prison until he is finally freed, in a move that is likely to cause outrage among the public and his victims.

His move from West Yorkshire to south east London, reported in The Sun, means Worboys will be released into the city where the majority of his attacks took place.

Several of his victims have revealed their fear that he might track them down again, with the pervert known to have kept a record of some of their addresses.

One of his victims spoke on Sunday to reveal that she was 'genuinely terrified he is going to come after me'.

She added: 'He knows where so many of his victims live. Why should we think he won't?

'It could so easily be your mother, your wife, your sister, your daughter, your friend.'

She said the 14 women who testified against Worboys in court nearly a decade ago were told they had provided enough evidence to 'jail him for a long time, probably life' but that 'turned out to not be true'.

The Foreign Secretary was among 25 MPs who signed a letter demanding that the Black Cab rapist is not allowed to live in London if he is released.

They called on the Parole Board to impose an 'exclusion zone' on the capital when the 60-year-old is freed on licence, which could be as early as this week.

It said Worboys' victims were terrified that if he is not prohibited from entering the city he will 'come after them'.

The letter to parole board warned that anything short of a ban 'would be a betrayal of his victims and evidence the parole system is not fit for purpose'.

Worboys will stay at the prison until he is finally freed, in a move that is likely to cause outrage among the public and his victims (Worboys is pictured in 2009)

The Foreign Secretary was among 25 MPs who signed a letter demanding that the Black Cab rapist is not allowed to live in London if he is released

Theresa May has been blasted by MPs in her own party for her 'pathetic' decision not to order a judicial review into the release.

Victims and their supporters have stepped in and are raising cash to mount the legal challenge instead.

Worboys, known as the 'black cab rapist', was jailed for raping and sexually assaulting 12 passengers in 2009.

He was accused of carrying out sexual assaults on more than a hundred women after spiking their drinks.

The Parole Board recommended Worboys' release without contacting any of his victims, causing an uproar.

At his sentencing Worboys was told he must serve a minimum of eight years in prison for his attacks and would not be released until officials were convinced he did not pose a threat to women.

It is understood that the 60-year-old was secretly driven from HMP Wakefield (pictured) to his new temporary home of Belmarsh prison

His move from West Yorkshire to HMP Belmarsh (pictured) in south east London means Worboys will be released into the city where the majority of his attacks took place

Yet the 60-year-old's release has been signed off by the Parole Board, despite a pre-sentencing report in 2009 finding that he was 'a repetitive predatory sexual offender'.

Police believe Worboys may have carried out more than 100 attacks, despite convictions for just 12.

Campaigners are questioning why further convictions were not sought, as Worboys would likely have been given a much longer sentence preventing him from being released in 2018.

Worboys will now have to report to probation staff each week, having spent ten years behind bars and a period on remand.

A former porn actor and stripper, Worboys attacked numerous women during a five-year period between 2002 and 2008.

Many of his victims were young women who had been drinking in trendy night spots in the West End and Chelsea.

On several occasions he offered to drive a woman home for a fraction of the normal cost, or even for free, claiming that he lived in their direction.

Victims and their supporters have stepped in and are raising cash to mount a legal challenge against Worboys' release

But once he had them secure in his taxi, the driver  who occasionally used the name Paul or Tony - would put his plan into action.

His constant theme was sex and often asked the women if they would perform sex acts for varying amounts of money, or exposed himself.

He took trophies from his victims, including a wristband from one and scribbled the names and addresses of several others in a notebook.

During the seven week trial, victim after victim told how they felt safe with the middle-aged driver because they were stepping into a registered black London taxi.
An elderly woman in China has to walk 24 kilometres (15 miles) a day in order to take his disabled grandson to school.

Shi Yuying, 76, makes four return trips a day pushing Jiang Haowen, nine, to school and back in the rural Guangxi Province in southern China, according to Huanqiu.com, an affiliation of People's Daily.

The strong-willed grandmother, who is the boy's sole carer, said to a local reporter: 'As long as I have strength, I will carry on [pushing him].'

Dedication: Shi Yuying (pictured) has pushed her grandson Jiang Haowen to school for four years. In order to do so, the 76-year-old has to walk a total of 15 miles a day in rural China

The long and winding road: Ms Shi walks along the mountain path to take Haowen to school and back eight times a day. Haowen has cerebral palsy and cannot move his body freely

Haowen suffers from cerebral palsy, a number of brain conditions that affect movement and coordination. He cannot walk on his own and needs full-time care.

WHAT IS CEREBRAL PALSY? Cerebral palsy is the umbrella term for a number of brain conditions that affect movement and coordination. Specifically, it is caused by a problem in the parts of the brain responsible for controlling muscles. The condition can occur if the brain develops abnormally or is damaged before, during or shortly after birth. It's estimated that 764,000 children and adults in the US have one or more symptoms of the disorder. The CDC says that about 10,000 babies born every year will develop cerebral palsy. There's no cure for cerebral palsy, but some treatments are available to ease symptoms, such as physiotherapy. Life expectancy is usually unaffected, however, the emotional and physical strain can put a great deal of stress on the body which can cause further problems in later life. Advertisement

Haowen's parents divorced when he was four years old.

His father is now working in another city so he could support the family, and his mother has remarried, according to the Huanqiu report quoting Netease.

Ms Shi and Haowen live in the Daizhuyuan Village, Huangguan Town in Guangxi Province's Guanyang County.

The determined pensioner first used a bike to push Haowen.

Last July the local authority provided the family with a wheelchair as poverty relief.

Since then the elderly villager has been using the wheel chair for the school run.

The woman has been doing the school run for four years, come rain or shine.

Ms Shi told Pear Video that Haowen diagnosed with cerebral palsy when he was about two years old. The boy's parents took him to see the doctor because he hadn't been able to walk.

Afterwards, Haowen took him to seek medical attention in nearby cities, such as Nanjing and Liuzhou, but the treatment didn't bring much change.

What's more? The family ran into huge debts due to medical bills.

Ms Shi told Pear that she has to take Haowen to school four times a day: once in the morning and once in the afternoon. She also needs to walk from home to his school to collect him twice: once at noon and once in the evening.

'As long as I have strength, I will carry on': Ms Shi does the school run come rain or shine

She is the sole care of the nine-year-old Haowen whose father works in another city

Haowen's school is located about three kilometres (1.86 miles) from his home. This means Ms Shi would have to walk a total of 24 kilometres a day.

However, Ms Shi said she was happy to take on the task. She also said though Haowen couldn't move freely, he is a smart child.

Ms Shi said the boy is particularly good at maths and has excellent memory.

Apart from doing the school run, Ms Shi also looks after all aspects of Haowen's life.

She said she was looking for a good school for disabled child, hoping she could send Haowen there one day.
A piece of Neolithic pottery links early human populations in Spain with other ancient groups in Europe for the first time.

The clay shard, found in a cave in northern Spain, sports an ochre-coloured motif previously only seen on Neolithic artefacts found along the Mediterranean coast.

Researchers suggest that the fragment, found more than 400 miles (700 km) from where it was likely made, shows that early humans in Spain were in contact with Italian or Central European communities as far as 12,000 years ago.

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A clay shard found in northern Spain sports an ochre-coloured motif previously only seen on Neolithic artefacts found along the Mediterranean coast. The artefact shows that early humans in Spain were in contact with other European communities as early as 12,000 years ago

WHY IS THE SIERRA DE ATAPUERCA CAVE SUCH AN IMPORTANT SITE? Researchers recently found fragment of pottery at the Sierra de Atapuerca cave complex in Burgos, northern Spain. The caves hold fossil evidence of the first known humans in Europe, according to UNESCO. The ancient remains are approximately one million years old. The newly found pottery shard dates to the Neolithic era, which began around 12,000 years ago. It is decorated with a motif previously only seen on ancient pottery found at archaeological sites along the Mediterranean coast. The period saw a shift in many human civilisations from roaming nomads to permanent settlements. The shard suggests that early humans in Europe travelled great distances to make contact and share ideas with other groups, the researchers said. Advertisement

Researchers found the fragment within the Sierra de Atapuerca cave complex in Burgos, northern Spain.

Experts have dated the pottery shard to the Neolithic era, which began around 12,000 years ago.

The period saw a shift in many human civilisations from roaming nomads to permanent settlements.

The pottery piece is notable for its tidy edges and appears to have been made using homogeneous clay, the researchers said.

These characteristics suggest it was 'not so much of a container for domestic use but rather of a container with a symbolic function, and possibly made by very expert hands,' lead researcher Dr Alfonso Alday, from the University of the Basque Country, in Leioa, Spain, said.

The team said the shard's motif was crafted with a comb, whose impressions were filled with ochre to enhance the pattern's colouring.

The 'most surprising thing' is that this type of decoration had only been found in certain locations along the Mediterranean coast until now, according to the researchers.

'Recognising this element for the first time in the interior of the Peninsula shows us relations between both points,' they wrote in their paper.

'Moreover, and this is newer in what it represents, it also puts the inhabitants of the Sierra de Atapuerca in contact with Italian or Central European communities.'

The shard suggests that early humans in Europe travelled great distances to make contact and share ideas with other groups, the researchers said.

The shard suggests that early humans in Europe travelled great distances to make contact and share ideas with other groups, the researchers said. Pictured is the archaeological dig site in a cave in northern Spain where the artefact was found

'All this shows a symbiosis between regional entities and a certain sense of globalisation,' Dr Alday said.

'Ideas are shared but then each group, like the one settled in the surroundings of the Sierra de Atapuerca, develops its own variants to, perhaps, not lose their identity.

'It is a very interesting idea that would surely also involve the movement of people and, in this sense, perhaps also marital ties or pacts.'

The caves at the archaeological site of Atapuerca, where the shard was found, hold fossil evidence of the first known humans in Europe, according to UNESCO.

The ancient remains are approximately one million years old.
Love of fast food has led intelligent crows to fashion elaborate hook tools from bendy twigs, a study has shown.

Famously clever New Caledonian crows are known for their ability to winkle beetle grubs out of forest trees using sticks.

But some of the birds are not content with ordinary straight foraging sticks. They go to the trouble of whittling their wooden tools into carefully crafted hooks.

Now scientists have found hook-shaped tools allow the crows to scoop up hidden food up to 10 times faster than the more basic design.

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Some crows 'craft' elaborate hooked tools out of branched twigs that are up to ten times more effective than using non-hooked tools (pictured)

WHAT DID THEY FIND? The Scottish team conducted experiments to record how long wild-caught crows took to extract food from a range of naturalistic tasks, using either hooked or non-hooked tool designs. Depending on the task, they found that hooked tools were between two and ten times more efficient than non-hooked tools. Going the extra mile allows these crafty creatures to get at hidden food several times faster than if they used basic (non-hooked) tools. Although crows are capable of extracting food with straight twigs, researchers found some of them actively manufacture hooked stick tools before going hunting. Advertisement

Birds produce these remarkable tools from the side branches of certain plants, carefully 'crafting' a crochet-like hook.

'It's a painstaking sequence of behaviours,' said lead author Dr James St Clair, from the School of Biology, University of St Andrews.

'Crows seek out particular plant species, harvest a forked twig, and then - firmly holding it underfoot - carve, nibble and peel its tip, until it has a neat little hook.'

Biologists have long assumed that there was some benefit to crows manufacturing hooked tools, but had no idea just how much better they might be.

The Scottish team conducted experiments to record how long 17 wild-caught crows took to extract food from a range of naturalistic tasks.

They have evolved to use 'non-hooked stick tools', which are simple unmodified twigs or leaf petioles and 'hooked stick tools' crafted from freshly harvested branching twigs.

The tools are used to winkle beetle grubs and other small prey out of hiding places.

Depending on the task, they found that hooked tools were between two and ten times more efficient than non-hooked tools.

'That's a huge difference', said project leader, Professor Christian Rutz from the University of St Andrews.

'Our results highlight that even relatively small changes to tool designs can significantly boost foraging performance.'

These new findings help explain why New Caledonian crows, which live on the remote tropical island of New Caledonia in the South Pacific, have evolved such remarkable tool-making abilities.

Going the extra mile allows these crafty creatures to get at hidden food several times faster than if they used basic (non-hooked) tools. Pictured are some of these elaborate hooks

Although crows are capable of extracting food with straight twigs, researchers found some of them actively manufacture hooked stick tools before going hunting

New Caledonian crows are the only species besides humans known to manufacture hooked tools in the wild. Birds produce these remarkable tools from the side branches of certain plants, carefully 'crafting' a crochet-like hook

Biologists have long assumed that there was some benefit to crows manufacturing hooked tools, but had no idea just how much better they might be

THE BEST HOOK Adult crows - which are expected to have the most tool-making experience - did not produce the deepest hooks and favoured the 'quick and dirty' technique. Researchers believe experienced birds may not want to spend time making deep hooks as they also break more easily when inserted into small holes. The depth of the hook was influenced by both the properties of the plant material, and the technique crows used for detaching branches. When birds made controlled cuts with their sharp bills, the resulting hooks were significantly deeper than when they used a 'sloppier' alternative method of simply pulling off branches. Careful cutting may leave more wooden material at the tip of the stick from which the hook can subsequently be 'sculpted'. Advertisement

'In nature, getting food quickly means that birds have more time and energy for reproduction and steering clear of predators', said study co-author Professor Nick Colegrave from the University of Edinburgh's School of Biological Sciences.

'It's really exciting that we were able to measure the benefits of these nifty crow tools,' he said.

Scientists still don't know how crows acquire the 'know-how' and make hooks; they may inherit the ability from their parents, or learn by observing experienced birds.

Either way, because hooked-tool users will live longer and leave more offspring, the skill is expected to spread.

'We've all heard that the early bird gets the worm. In the case of the New Caledonian crow, it's the skilled hook-maker that gets the worm, or at least it gets many more worms than its less-crafty neighbours!' said Professor Rutz.

Last month researchers found adult crows, which are expected to have the most tool-making experience, did not produce the deepest hooks and favoured the 'quick and dirty' technique.

Depending on the task, they found that hooked tools were between two and ten times more efficient than non-hooked tools

Researchers believe experienced birds may not want to spend time making deep hooks as they also break more easily when inserted into small holes.

The study, also done by researchers from the University of St Andrews, reveals how crows manage to fashion particularly efficient tools, with well-defined 'deep' hooks.

'We suspected that tools with pronounced hooks are more efficient, and were able to confirm this in controlled experiments with wild-caught crows. The deeper the hook, the faster birds winkled bait from holes in wooden logs', said Professor Rutz.

According to the researchers, making very deep hooks may not be the best strategy in the wild.

Scientists still don't know how crows acquire the 'know-how' and make hooks; they may inherit the ability from their parents, or learn by observing experienced birds

Last month researchers found adult crows, which are expected to have the most tool-making experience, did not produce the deepest hooks and favoured the 'quick and dirty' technique

Professor Rutz said: 'It probably takes more time and effort to make such tools, and experienced birds may try to avoid these costs. It is also possible that deep hooks break more easily when inserted into narrow holes and crevices.'

Scientists found crows visualised the task before starting in a similar way to how humans would.

The depth of the hook was influenced by both the properties of the plant material, and the technique crows used for detaching branches.

When birds made controlled cuts with their sharp bills, the resulting hooks were significantly deeper than when they used a 'sloppier' alternative method of simply pulling off branches.

Careful cutting may leave more wooden material at the tip of the stick from which the hook can subsequently be 'sculpted'.
A spotted hyena has been sighted in a Gabon national park for the first time in 20 years, conservationists said Friday, the latest large predator to have returned to a region where many had gone locally extinct.

The Bateke Plateau National Park lies close to Gabon's border with the Republic of Congo.

Its forests and grasslands once teemed with wildlife, including many large mammal predators, but the ecosystem was decimated by decades of poaching.

A spotted hyena has been sighted in a Gabon national park for the first time in 20 years, conservationists said Friday, the latest large predator to have returned to a region where many had gone locally extinct

Officials said a spotted hyena had been caught on camera traps in the park for the first time in two decades giving hope that more large mammals might return after years of conservation efforts.

The sighting comes two years after a lone male lion was photographed by camera traps after returning.

'The return of these large carnivores is a great demonstration that the efforts of our rangers and partners are having a positive effect on Bateke wildlife,' professor Lee White, director of Gabon's National Parks Agency said in a press release.

The spotted hyena was so unknown in recent memories that when researchers showed local park rangers the photographs from the camera traps they did not know the species.

But village elders in communities north of the park instantly recognised the hyena, researchers said.

The sightings are a far cry from when researchers first set up their camera traps in 2001.

AS THE SPOTTED HYENA RETURNS TO GABON: WHAT IS IT, AND IS IT IN DANGER? Spotted hyenas are native to Sub-Saharan Africa. File photo The spotted hyena can be found throughout sub-Sahararn Africa. The species, also known as the laughing hyena, is listed as being of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature  but, poaching and habitat loss have begun to bring on dramatic population decline. Spotted hyenas are said to be the most common large carnivore in Africa, though it's thought they may have originated in Asia and even ranged through Europe until the Late Pleistocene. In Gabon's Bateke Plateau National Park, where spotted hyenas and other wildlife were once common, decades of poaching have since rendered them locally extinct. Now, one of the creatures has been spotted for the first time in 20 years. Advertisement

That year all they photographed in Bateke was a lone antelope and multiple poachers crossing into the park from the Republic of Congo.

The lion first spotted in 2015 has since made the park his home. But he has yet to be joined by any others.

'This lion... has been continuously photographed during his three-year reign of the park, but remains alone, calling for a mate,' the researchers said.
The latest Apple leak has revealed the firm could cancel the iPhone X.

In a new report, an analyst says the new model's disappointing sales could lead to the phone being cancelled - with production stopping as soon as this summer.

This could be the first time Apple has cancelled a phone model since the iPhone 5C in 2014.

Experts believe the lack of interest in the phone is largely due to the notch, which many potential Chinese customers believe removes too much space on the screen.

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The latest Apple leak has revealed the firm could cancel the iPhone X (pictured). In a new report, an analyst says the new model's disappointing sales could lead to the phone being cancelled - with production stopping as soon as this summer

WHY ARE EXPERTS PREDICTING POOR IPHONE X SALES? Experts say the high price of the iPhone X  Apple's most expensive handset yet  and its 'lack of interesting innovations' could deter many buyers. According to Sinolink Securities analyst Zhang Bin, shipments could be as low as 35 million in the first quarter of this year  roughly 10 million less than previously estimated. Some analysts have also flagged disappointing demand. US-based JL Warren Capital is predicting shipments of just 25 million units. Chinese broker Sinolink Securities said it expects the model's price would dampen consumer enthusiasm for the product, adding that slow production rates could also hinder sales. Advertisement

Apple plans to ship around 18 million of the iPhone X in the first quarter of 2018, according to Apple KGI security analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

He predicts the iPhone X could be 'end of life' as soon as this summer, rather than being kept on as a cheaper option for the following year.

According to the report seen by Apple Insider, Chinese interest in the phone has been lower as consumers believe there is less usable space than on the iPhone 8 Plus.

The notch contains the 3D scanning sensors and cameras that power Face ID, but cuts into the top of the display.

Mr Kuo believes an 'iPhone X Plus' model will debut instead of the current model that will mitigate concerns about unusable screen area.

The iPhone 6 and 7 have been more popular than expected meaning the firm remains 'positive on Apple [and] the iPhone supply chain', the report said.

Mr Kuo also believes there will be a modest 5 per cent growth in overall sales during the first half of 2018.

Experts say the high price of the iPhone X  Apple's most expensive handset yet  and its 'lack of interesting innovations' could deter many buyers.

According to Sinolink Securities analyst Zhang Bin, shipments could be as low as 35 million in the first quarter of this year  roughly 10 million less than previously estimated

During a trip to China last month Apple CEO Tim Cook (pictured) said he 'couldn't be happier' with the demand for the iPhone X in the country

WHY THE IPHONE X COSTS JUST $357.50 TO MAKE Apple new flagship iPhone X makes the company more money per phone than its iPhone 8 model, according to an analysis. A report from TechInsights found the iPhone X's flashier parts cost Apple 25 percent more than the iPhone 8, but that it retailed 43 percent higher. The iPhone X smartphone costs $357.50 to make and sells for $999, giving it a gross margin of 64 percent, according to the firm, which tears down technology devices and analyzes the parts inside. The analysis found: The 5.8-inch (14.8 cm) edge-to-edge display and associated parts cost $65.50, compared with $36 for the iPhone 8's 4.7-inch display, the analysis found.

Stainless steel chassis of the iPhone X, which cost $36 versus $21.50 for the aluminium housing of the iPhone 8. Advertisement

Some analysts have also flagged disappointing demand.

US-based JL Warren Capital is predicting shipments of just 25 million units.

Chinese broker Sinolink Securities said it expects the model's price would dampen consumer enthusiasm for the product, adding that slow production rates could also hinder sales.

During a trip to China last month Apple CEO Tim Cook said he 'couldn't be happier' with the demand for the iPhone X in the country.

Apple suppliers that were most hit included Genius Electronic Optical which dropped 2.4 per cent on Tuesday to take its losses this week to 11.4 per cent.

There were only 4.97 million Weibo posts mentioning the iPhone X so far in December compared to over 11 million for the iPhone 6 in the equivalent period in 2014, the analysis showed.
Humans could soon be living in floating balloons in the stormy skies above Venus and on one of Jupiter's moons, say the entrepreneur behind the Mars One project.

The surface of Venus is far too hot for human survival, but its upper atmosphere is an ideal temperature for a human habitat.

Europa is one of Jupiter's largest moons and is thought to have an ocean of water, also opening up the possibility for space-travelling humans making it their home.

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Bas Lansdorp (pictured) is leading the Mars One mission to get people to Mars. The one-way project is set to take-off in 2031 and the astronauts would be unlikely to ever return to Earth

Bas Lansdorp, founder of the Mars One project, is leading a mission that would send humans on a one-way flight to Mars by 2031.

The project was initially delayed due to a lack of funding, but Mr Lansdrop now claims to have his mission back on track.

Whilst it is not due to launch for another 13 years, the Dutch entrepreneur is already viewing Mars as merely a stepping stone to colonies on other planets.

Mr Lansdorp told the Independent: 'Mars won't be the final destination for humans looking to set up permanent settlements away from Earth.

'After that, space explorers will be thinking about floating cities in the atmosphere of Venus in an extremely large balloon, or moving to one of Jupiter's moons, or an asteroid.

'Humans have always settled in new places they have discovered.'

The Mars One project has come under scrutiny as experts claim the funding and expertise of the company is inadequate to achieve such an ambitious undertaking.

As well as the plan to move to Mars in just 13 years, one of Jupiter's moons, Europa (pictured), is a prime candidate for human habitation. With an ocean of water and ice-shelves it is likely a better candidate for human life than Venus or Mars

Venus (pictured) is one of our closest space neighbours and has a hot and stormy atmosphere. The surface is far too hot for humans to survive but it is possible humans could survive higher in the atmosphere in balloons

Despite the criticism, Mr Lansdorp is confident his plan will succeed.

After taking off in 2031, a four-person crew will take six months to reach Mars where they will be expected to survive in the extremely harsh conditions of the barren landscape.

The mission will be extremely demanding for the colonists.

The small planet is beleaguered with dust storms and water is scarce.

Participants will be unable to shower for up to two years.

As well as being several million miles away from home, the space travellers will have to contend with minimal water, growing their own food and face near constant sand storms

Travellers to Mars will have to grow their own food and will be unable to leave the small camp alone.

'The first crew to make the trip will have the toughest time, they are on their own and the level of comfort will be very low,' said Mr Lansdorp.

'But the scarcity of water is nothing compared to the psychological impact.'

A return to Earth is impossible, once participants are on the departing rocket, they will likely never return to Earth.

Bas Lansdorp, head of the programme intending to colonise Mars, believes humans will one day live on Mars as well as Venus and Europa, one of the largest moons of gas giant Jupiter

WHAT WAS THE MARS ONE MISSION? A privately funded project, Mars One was set up by Dutch energy entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp and European Space Agency scientist Arno Wielders. It aimed to create a permanent human settlement on Mars starting in 2031. A new four-person crew was envisioned to depart every two years. The company never selected an aerospace company to build the spacecraft, but claimed it would be built using existing technology. Inhabitants of the pods would likely become reality TV stars as Mr Lansdorp aims to sell exclusive rights to the broadcast footage in order to further fund the project Participants would be sent up with just a one-way ticket. Mars One hoped to establish habitable inflatable pods with life-support systems and units for growing fresh food. Due to initial costs, Mars One said there would be no launch facilities for a return rocket. Mars One planned to raise funds through private investors and media exposure. A reality TV deal with the maker of Big Brother fell through, however. The mission was expected to cost around 4.33 billion ($6 billion). Advertisement

Applicants will soon begin a selection process that will involve psychological assessments and training in essential skills for such a perilous task.

More than 200,000 people originally applied for the voyage and that list will be whittled down by the brutal selection process.

'We are focused on selecting the best team players, and will then train them in the skills they will need  engineering, emergency medicine, basic surgery, how to grow their own food,' Mr Lansdorp says.

The first flight to mars One would consist of four people who would live in a small settlement in specialised pods. Several missions are expected to follow but the first mission will be the hardest and comfort conditions will be 'very low'

'They will need to cope with the stress of knowing that whatever happens, they will need to fix it.'

Every year, between now and the launch of the Mars One mission, participants will be cooped up in a replica of the Mars Outpost.

Roughly the size of an average house, the potential astronauts will not be told how long they will be in the simulation in order to mimic the mental strain of incarceration.
Facebook has finally admitted that the social media platform may be detrimental to democracy.

In a series of blog posts today, Facebook execs said the site was far too slow in identifying negative influences that rose with the 2016 US election, citing Russian interference, 'toxic discourse,' and the dangerous consequences of fake news.

Now, Facebook says it is making up for lost time in fighting forces that threaten to 'corrode' democracy.

The firm is set to roll out major changes to the News Feed, with plans to prioritize content from friends and family, and make posts from business, brands, and media less prominent  and, ensure the 'news people see, while less overall, is high quality.'

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Facebook says ads that ran on the company's social media platform and have been linked to a Russian internet agency were seen by an estimated 10 million people before and after the 2016 US presidential election

In three blog posts, Facebook warned today that it could offer no assurance that social media was on balance good for democracy.

While social media previously seemed like a positive, Facebooks Global Politics and Government Outreach Director Katie Harbath says the last US presidential campaign changed that.

'Facebook should have been quicker to identify to the rise of fake news and echo chambers,' Harbath wrote, acknowledging the influence of foreign interference.

According to the company, Russian agents created 80,000 posts during the 2016 US election, which reached around 126 million people over two years.

The firm said it was trying what it could to stop alleged meddling in elections by Russia or anyone else.

But, according to Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebook Product Manager, Civic Engagement, 'we at Facebook were far too slow to recognize how bad actors were abusing our platform.'

The acknowledgement takes the company another step further from CEO Mark Zuckerberg's comments in 2016 that it was 'crazy' to say Facebook influenced the US election.

Facebook has a 'moral duty to understand how these technologies are being used and what can be done to make communities like Facebook as representative, civil and trustworthy as possible,' Samidh Chakrabarti, a Facebook product manager, wrote in a post

HOW FACEBOOK PRIORITIZES FRIENDS IN YOUR NEWS FEED Up until now, Facebook has prioritized material that its algorithms think people will engage with through comments, 'likes' or other ways of showing interest. But 33-year-old founder Mark Zuckerberg says he wants to change the focus to help users have 'more meaningful social interactions.' The move follows his resolution in 2018 to 'fix' the site. It is also in response to criticism that Facebook and its social media competitors reinforce users' views on social and political issues. Critics also say sites like Facebook lead to addictive viewing habits. Zuckerberg cited research that suggests reading 'passively' on social media was damaging for people's mental health, while interacting proactively with friends was positive. According to Adam Mosseri, Facebooks New Feed boss, in practice the change mean Posts from friends and family will get more prominence that video, news, and other content from formal Facebook pages, such as companies and celebrities

The number of comments on a post will count more than the number of Likes

Posts where people have spend the time to write lengthy comments will be prioritized over those with only short comments

While, news and video will still appear in News Feed, the number of friends sharing it will matter more than its overall popularity The shift could mean that the time people spend on Facebook and some measures of engagement would go down in the short term. However, Zuckerberg said it would be better for users and for the business over the long term. Advertisement

The sharing of false or misleading headlines on social media has become a global issue, after accusations that Russia tried to influence votes in the United States, Britain and France.

Moscow denies the allegations.

But, Facebook's problem goes even beyond Russia, the execs say.

'Without transparency, it can be hard to hold politicians accountable for their own words,' Chakrabarti wrote.

'Micro-targeting can enable dishonest campaigns to spread toxic discourse without much consequence. Democracy then suffers because we dont get the full picture of what our leaders are promising us.

'This is an even more pernicious problem than foreign interference. But we hope that by setting a new bar for transparency, we can tackle both of these challenges simultaneously.'

HOW MANY AMERICANS SAW RUSSIA'S DIVISIVE ADS DURING THE 2016 US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION? Facebook says ads that ran on the company's social media platform and have been linked to a Russian internet agency were seen by an estimated 10 million people before and after the 2016 US presidential election. The company turned 3,000 ads over to three congressional committees in October 2017 as part of their investigations into Russian influence in the 2016 election. In a company blog post, Facebook's Elliot Schrage said the ads appeared to focus on divisive social and political messages, including LGBT issues, immigration and gun rights. In many cases, the ads encouraged people to follow pages on those issues. Facebook said last month that the ads appear to have come from accounts associated with a Russian entity called the Internet Research Agency. Fewer than half of the ads - which ran between 2015 and 2017 - were seen before the election, with 56 percent of them seen after the election. Advertisement

Facebook, the largest social network with more than 2 billion users, addressed social media's role in democracy in blog posts from a Harvard University professor, Cass Sunstein, and from an employee working on the subject.

'If theres one fundamental truth about social medias impact on democracy its that it amplifies human intent  both good and bad,' Chakrabarti wrote in his post.

'At its best, it allows us to express ourselves and take action. At its worst, it allows people to spread misinformation and corrode democracy.

'I wish I could guarantee that the positives are destined to outweigh the negatives, but I cant.'

Facebook, he added, has a 'moral duty to understand how these technologies are being used and what can be done to make communities like Facebook as representative, civil and trustworthy as possible.'

Contrite Facebook executives were already fanning out across Europe this week to address the company's slow response to abuses on its platform, such as hate speech and foreign influence campaigns.

In a series of blog posts today, Facebook execs said the site was far too slow in identifying negative influences that rose with the 2016 US election, citing Russian interference, 'toxic discourse,' and the dangerous consequences of fake news

US lawmakers have held hearings on the role of social media in elections, and this month Facebook widened an investigation into the run-up to Britain's 2016 referendum on EU membership.

Chakrabarti expressed Facebook's regrets about the 2016 US elections, when according to the company Russian agents created 80,000 posts that reached around 126 million people over two years.

The company should have done better, he wrote, and he said Facebook was making up for lost time by disabling suspect accounts, making election ads visible beyond the targeted audience and requiring those running election ads to confirm their identities.

Twitter and Alphabet's Google and YouTube have announced similar attempts at self-regulation.

Chakrabarti said Facebook had helped democracy in ways, such as getting more Americans to register to vote.

Sunstein, a law professor and Facebook consultant who also worked in the administration of former US President Barack Obama, said in a blog post that social media was a work in progress and that companies would need to experiment with changes to improve.

Another test of social media's role in elections lies ahead in March, when Italy votes in a national election already marked by claims of fake news spreading on Facebook.
Apple fans who are worried about the firm's smart devices recording their private conversations may be in for some good news, according to a new find.

Experts discovered icons in the latest version of iOS that suggest always-listening microphones on Apples Homepod speaker can be disabled.

The delayed 350 ($349) Echo-killer, which will be activated with the words 'Hey Siri', is due for release in the next four to six weeks.

If confirmed, the microphone mute feature will assuage privacy concerns raised over smart speakers eavesdropping on conversations.

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Apple fans who are worried about the firm's smart devices recording their private conversations may be in for some good news. Experts discovered icons in the latest version of iOS that suggest always-listening microphones on Apples Homepod speaker can be disabled.

The find was reported by Apple expert Filipe Esposito, based in Londrina, Brazil, who discovered Homepod icons with microphone off symbols in the developer build of iOS 11.2.5.

The icons were found buried in the assets for Apples Home app.

Some of the microphone mute icons also contain the text 'Siri-off' in their filenames, lending further support to his conclusion.



As with other smart speakers, like Amazon's Echo and Google's Home ranges, command phrases are used to trigger voice activated services.

But some users are uncomfortable with the idea that the devices are always listening out for these vocal prompts.

Users previously uncovered a quirk in some models of the Google HomeMini which meant that the gadget was constantly monitoring and recording their speech.

Due to what Google has called 'phantom touches', the Home Mini was in a constant state of anticipation, listening for and awaiting verbal instructions, even before the 'Ok Google' vocal prompt was given.

While this in itself is a fairly minor inconvenience, it has major implications for the privacy of users and could, in theory, let Google monitor everything that is said in your home.

This information is also transmitted to the Mountain View firm's servers, raising the possibility of the information being recorded.

The ability to switch off the microphones until they're needed may go some way to addressing similar privacy concerns in the Homepod.

Writing on Twitter, Mr Esposito said: 'According to the Home app assets, users with Homepod will be able to create "scenes" that disable Siri temporarily.'

'It will probably be very useful for parties.'

Last week it was claimed Apple supplier Inventec had begun a limited shipment of one million Homepod speakers to Apple.

The gadget, originally supposed to go on sale last year, is said to be launching 'within weeks', according to reports in the Taipei Times.

Inventec is one of two suppliers manufacturing the HomePod at launch, alongside manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry.

Last fall, it was reported that the two companies would split production evenly.

The icons were found buried in the assets for Apples Home app. Some of the microphone mute icons also contain the text 'siri-off' in their filenames, lending further support to Apple expert Filipe Esposito's conclusion

The gadget will battle Amazon's Echo and Google Home for the lucrative smart speaker market, using Apple music and Siri to do everything from play music to give news and traffic updates - but was delayed from its inital launch date of November.

The firm said it needed 'a little more time before it's ready'.

The delay in HomePods launch was caused by the fine-tuning of software and hardware integration, said another industry source who also declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, the Taipei Times said.

Tech analysts GBH insights say that it expects Apple's delayed HomePod smart speaker to be launched 'in the next 4-6 weeks', according to 9to5Mac.

APPLE'S HOMEPOD SPEAKER- HOW IT WORKS Two speakers can be linked together to form a stereo pair At just under seven inches tall, HomePod represents years of hardware and software innovation, Apple says. It is activated by a user saying 'Hey Siri'. It has an Apple-designed upward-facing woofer, paired with the custom A8 chip, enables bass management. Custom array of seven beam-forming tweeters, each with its own amplifier. Apple-designed A8 chip provides the brains behind the audio. Automatic room-sensing technology allows HomePod to quickly learn its position in a room The 350 ($349) speaker will work with Apple Music and has several speakers and a built in woofer Six-microphone array with advanced echo cancellation enables Siri to understand people whether they are near the device or standing across the room. Siri waveform appears on the top to indicate when Siri is engaged, and integrated touch controls also allow easy navigation. Automatic detection and balance of two speakers using both direct and reflected audio to deliver amazing audio wirelessly for an even more immersive experience. Easy setup that is as intuitive as setting up AirPods  simply hold an iPhone next to HomePod and it's ready to start playing music in seconds. Six-microphone array with advanced echo cancellation enables Siri to understand people whether they are near the device or standing across the room Advertisement

However, it warns that it will face an 'uphill climb' as it seeks to compete with entrenched competitors such as Amazon and Google.'

Apple has now commented on the imminent launch, but when it announced the delay, said: 'We can't wait for people to experience HomePod, Apple's breakthrough wireless speaker for the home, but we need a little more time before it's ready for our customers.

'We'll start shipping in the US, UK and Australia in early 2018.'

The HomePod was first unveiled at the 2017 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June.

The delayed 350 ($349) Echo-killer, which will be activated with the words 'Hey Siri', is due for release in the next four to six weeks. If confirmed, the microphone mute feature will assuage privacy concerns raised over other smart speakers eavesdropping on conversations

Apple boss Tim Cook took to the stage at the McEnery Convention Centre in San Jose to unveil the speaker which he claimed will 'reinvent home audio.'

'We want to reinvent music in the home in the way we invented mobile music,' said Cook.

'We really think its going to take your home music experience to the next level.'
Nasa has begun testing its new probe that will 'touch the sun', when it launches into space this summer.

Dubbed the Parker Solar Probe (PSP), the 430,000mph (692,000km/h) craft will collect vital information about the life of stars and their weather events.

This will help scientists improve how we predict dangerous solar flares, which can disrupt satellites and power supplies here on Earth.

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Nasa has begun testing its new probe that will 'touch the sun', when it launches into space this summer. The Parker Solar Probe (pictured) will spend seven weeks in vacuum chamber, simulating the harsh conditions that the spacecraft will experience in space

Experts from Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland lowered the PSP into a 40 foot (12 metre) tall thermal vacuum chamber.

The chamber simulates the harsh conditions that the spacecraft will experience on its journey through space, including near-vacuum conditions and severe hot and cold temperatures.

The spacecraft will remain in the chamber for about seven weeks, coming out in mid-March for final tests and packing before heading to Florida, where it's scheduled to launch in July 2018 aboard a Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle.

In a written statement, a spokesman for the space agency said: 'Nasa's historic Parker Solar Probe mission will revolutionize our understanding of the Sun, where changing conditions can propagate out into the solar system, affecting Earth and other worlds.

'Parker Solar Probe will travel through the suns atmosphere, closer to the surface than any spacecraft before it, facing brutal heat and radiation conditions and ultimately providing humanity with the closest-ever observations of a star.'

Nasa gave a sneak peak of its new probe that will 'tough the sun' in September 2017, including newly installed thermal shielding that can withstand temperatures of 1,371C (2,500 F).

The PSP is due for launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station,Florida and will fly directly into the atmosphere of the sun in a world first.

The device has now been shown in flight configuration for the first time at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, where it is being built.

After launch, it will reach an orbit within four million miles (6.5 million km) of the sun and will measure activity at its outer surface, known as the 'corona'.

The craft will collect vital information about the life of stars and their weather events, and will help scientists improve how we predict dangerous solar flares.

The revolutionary heat shield that will protect the spacecraft was installed for the first time on September 21, 2017.

It measures 8 ft (2.43 m) in diameter and is made of a 4.5 inch-thick (11.43 cm) carbon-composite.

Nasa officially announced PSP during a live stream event in May at the University of Chicago's William Eckhardt Research Centre Auditorium.

'We wanted to take the challenge of going to the worst thermal environment in the solar system - and surviving it,' said Dr Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of Nasa's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

'We want to measure the environment there and find what the heating processes are that make the corona hot, and what processes accelerate the solar wind.'

Dr Zurbuchen then announced, live on air, that the probe - originally dubbed the Solar Probe Plus - was to be renamed the Parker Solar Probe after University of Chicago scientist Eugene Parker, who pioneered solar wind science.

The revolutionary heat shield (top left) that will protect the spacecraft was installed for the first time on Sept 21. This is the only time the spacecraft will have its thermal protection system - which will reach temperatures of 2,500 F (1,371C) while at the sun - attached until launch

The craft will collect vital information about the life of stars and their weather events, and will help scientists predict solar flares

Dr Parker, who was also speaking at the event, responded: 'I am extremely honoured to be associated with this heroic space mission.'

Dr Nicola Fox, mission project scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, then took to the stage.

She said that until now, Nasa didn't have the advanced materials needed to make such a close trip to the sun's corona.

She added that the corona is actually hotter than the sun's centre, and that finding out why is a key part of the probe mission.

'I like to think of this as the coolest, hottest mission,' she said.

She explained that Parker Solar Probe will gradually 'surf' closer and closer to the sun, into its corona.

The PSP will need to withstand temperatures outside the spacecraft of 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,377 degrees Celsius)

The craft will to withstand higher temperatures than any probe that has come before it.

'We will finally touch the sun,' she said.

Answering questions from the audience, Dr Fox described some of the state-of-the-art equipment that the Parker Solar Probe will carry.

The craft's kit includes a white light imager called Whisper, which will take images of solar waves as the craft propels through them at high speeds.

To measure the 'bulk plasma' of solar winds - which Dr Fox described as the 'break and butter' of the flares - a set of magnetic imaging equipment will also be stored on board.

The spacecraft will swoop within 4 million miles (6.5 million km) of the sun's surface - bringing it seven times closer to the sun's surface than any spacecraft before it.

The craft will face extremes in heat and radiation and will reach speeds of up to 450,000 miles per hour (725,000 kph) at its closest flyby of the star.

This image shows the planned route and flybys of the PSP craft on its six-year mission

It is hoped that PSP can help scientists to better understand solar flares - brief eruptions of intense high-energy radiation from the sun's surface that can knock out communications on Earth.

According to Nasa, observations from this new vantage point will help to uncover the physics of how stars work, and could improve our ability to predict space weather.

These events have impacts on Earth as well as the satellites and astronauts in space.

Scientists have long wanted to send a probe through the sun's corona to better understand the solar wind and the material it carries into our solar system.

'This is going to be our first mission to fly to the sun,' Eric Christian, a Nasa research scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said of the mission in 2017.

'We can't get to the very surface of the sun,' but the mission will get close enough to answer three important questions, he said.

Until scientists can explain what is going on up close to the sun, they will not be able to accurately predict space weather effects that cause havoc at Earth.

The latest mission could help predict a 'huge solar event', Nasa says.

The sun is the source of the solar wind; a flow of gases that streams past Earth at speeds of more than a million miles per hour (1.6 million km per hour).

Disturbances in the solar wind shake Earth's magnetic field and pump energy into the radiation belts.

One recent study by the National Academy of Sciences estimated that without advance warning a huge solar event could cause two trillion dollars in damage in the US alone.

It could leave the eastern seaboard of the US could be without power for a year.

The PSP will be protected by the sun's heat by a 4.5 inch-thick (11.43 cm) carbon-composite shield

Millions of tons of highly magnetised material can erupt from the sun at speeds of several million miles an hour.

'This mission will provide insight on a critical link in the sun-Earth connection. Data will be key to understanding and, perhaps, forecasting space weather,' said Nasa.

'Until we can explain what is going on up close to the sun, we will not be able to accurately predict space weather effects that can cause havoc at Earth.'

'At its closest point, the PSP will be travelling at 450,000 miles per hour.'
The Falcon Heavy rocket boasts 27 engines and three separate re-usable cores that will return to Earth

SpaceX scheduled a static fire test on Monday, a crucial step before the Falcon Heavy is ready for liftoff

The government shutdown is delaying SpaceX's Falcon Heavy launch as well as NASA operations

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It looks like SpaceX's giant Falcon Heavy rocket won't be ready to shoot for the stars just yet.

Elon Musk's rocket company was expected to complete a test fire of the Heavy's 27 engines today after several delays, but the ongoing government shutdown has postponed any launches until further notice.

In a static fire test, all of the Heavy's 27 Merlin engines are fired up to make sure they can ignite properly. If all goes according to plan, the Falcon Heavy will be one step closer to liftoff.

The Senate voted 81-8 today on legislation to reopen the government - but, it remains unclear when activities at the launchpad will resume.

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Elon Musk has announced SpaceX will launch 'the world's most powerful rocket' in 2018 with his own electric car on board. The Falcon Heavy 'megarocket' (pictured) will fire beyond orbit from the former Apollo 11 moon rocket launchpad at the Kennedy Space Centre near Cape Canaveral, Florida

With Congress unable to fund the day-to-day operations of the federal government, SpaceX can't complete the Heavy test.

SpaceX relies on personnel from NASA's Kennedy Space Center and the U.S. Air Force's 45th Space Wing to oversee operations.

Until the government shutdown ends, commercial space companies like SpaceX are likely to be delayed for the time being.

Dailymail.com has reached out to the firm for comment.

'We remain hopeful that the Congress will quickly resolve their differences and put our partners in the Air Force and NASA back to doing their important work as soon as possible,' said SpaceX spokesperson John Taylor in a statement to Engadget.

'This shutdown impacts SpaceX's Falcon Heavy demonstration, which is critical for future NSS missions,' Taylor continued.

'It also impacts critical missions for our customers, including important international allies scheduled to launch shortly from Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Air Force Base, as well as upcoming missions this spring to resupply the International Space Station.'

NASA, the Justice Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, are just a few federal agencies who have tweeted that their accounts wouldn't be updated until the government shutdown is resolved. Additionally, some of NASA's day-to-day operations have been put on hold, which has affected launch schedules for companies like SpaceX.

SpaceX has won two national security space contracts, or 'NSS missions,' so far.

The shutdown has also impacted NASA operations, as the federal agency has been forced to send some workers home without pay.

The official NASA Twitter and other accounts run by U.S. agencies have tweeted that they're on hiatus during the government shutdown.

It's not the first time that the Heavy launch has been delayed.

Musk had hoped to launch 'the world's most powerful rocket' by the end of 2017, but now the company is aiming for liftoff sometime in 2018.

This week's government shutdown could possibly push back the Heavy launch even further.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN SPACEX'S FALCON HEAVY FINALLY LAUNCHES? If all goes according to plan, the Falcon Heavy will lift off and enter Earth's orbit on February 6 from from launchpad 39A at the Kennedy Space Centre near Cape Canaveral, Florida. Two of the 70-meter- (230-foot) long craft's booster rockets separate off and return to Earth at Cape Canaveral in controlled landings. The rocket's central core will then separate from the main module, containing Musk's car, and begin its own controlled descent back to Earth, landing on the firm's 'Of Course I Still Love You' drone ship in the Pacific Ocean. The main module will continue its trajectory into 'deep space', the billionaire said, with a destination set for the orbit of Mars 140 million miles (225 million kilometres) away. According to SpaceX founder Elon Musk: 'Destination is Mars orbit. Will be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn't blow up on ascent.' Advertisement

The Falcon Heavy 'megarocket' will fire beyond orbit from the former Apollo 11 moon rocket launchpad at the Kennedy Space Centre near Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Musk said the launch vehicle will blast off at the 'end of the month' on an unmanned mission with a unique payload - the billionaire's cherry red 2008 Tesla Roadster, which will be fired toward Mars.

The rocket will use 27 engines and three separate re-usable cores that will return to Earth after liftoff during the test flight, which is set to be one of the firm's most technically complex challenges to date.

Before the maiden launch, a full test firing of the rocket's engines is expected next week, Musk said.

'Falcon Heavy now vertical on the former Apollo 11 moon rocket launchpad,' he wrote on Instagram on Thursday.

'At 2,500 tons of thrust, equal to 18 Boeing 747 aircraft at full throttle, it will be the most powerful rocket in the world by a factor of two. Excitement on launch day guaranteed, one way or another.

'Hold-down test fire next week. Launch end of the month.'

When it lifts off for the first time in late January, the Falcon Heavy will become the most powerful rocket in the world thanks to its 5.1 million pounds of thrust generated through 27 Merlin engines.

The vast rocket, which is ultimately three Falcon 9 rockets linked together, will have the combined thrust to eventually launch 140,000 pounds (63,500kg) of cargo into orbit.

The mission marks SpaceX's most ambitious project to date.

Musk founded SpaceX in 2002, with the aim of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonisation of Mars.

The 46-year-old South African is also the CEO of Tesla, and predicts Falcon Heavy's payload will stay in deep space for a while.

If all goes according to plan, the Falcon Heavy will lift off and enter orbit before two of its booster rockets separate and return to Earth at Cape Canaveral in controlled landings. The centre core of the rocket will then separate from the main module, containing Musk's car, and begin its own controlled descent back to Earth, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean

Musk said the launch vehicle will blast off at the 'end of the month' on an unmanned mission with a unique payload - the billionaire's cherry red 2008 Tesla Roadster, which will be fired toward Mars. Pictured is the car strapped into the Falcon Heavy's main module

A photo of the unusual cargo - Musk's cherry red 2008 Tesla Roadster - was released last month.

Images released by SpaceX show an original Roadster perched on a large cone inside the Falcon Heavy on what appears to be a secure mount to keep it stationary as the rocket makes its maiden flight.

'Test flights of new rockets usually contain mass simulators in the form of concrete or steel blocks. That seemed extremely boring,' Musk said in December.

THE FALCON HEAVY Height: 70 meters (229.6 feet) Stages: 2 Boosters: 2 Cores: 3 Engines: 27 Payload to LEO: 63,800kg (140,660 lb) Payload to Mars: 16,800kg (37,040 lb) Total width: 12.2m (39.9 ft) Mass: 1,420,788kg (3,125,735 lb) Total thrust at lift-off: 22,819 kilonewtons (5.13 million pounds) Advertisement

'Of course, anything boring is terrible, especially companies, so we decided to send something unusual, something that made us feel.

'The payload will be an original Tesla Roadster, playing Space Oddity, on a billion year elliptic Mars orbit.'

If all goes according to plan, the Falcon Heavy will off and enter Earth's orbit.

'At liftoff, the boosters and the center core all operate at full thrust,' according to SpaceX.

'Shortly after liftoff, the center core engines are throttled down.'

'After the side cores separate, the center core engines throttle back up,' the firm continued.'

Eventually, the main module will continue its trajectory into 'deep space', the billionaire said, with a destination set for the orbit of Mars 140 million miles (225 million kilometres) away.

Musk has said the payload 'will be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn't blow up on ascent.'

In a Washington, D.C., speech last July the Tesla founder which said Falcon Heavy is one of the most difficult and technically complex projects SpaceX has ever undertaken.

'There's a lot of risk associated with Falcon Heavy,' he said during the 2017 International Space Station Research and Development Conference.

The rocket will use 27 engines and three separate re-usable cores that will return to Earth after liftoff during the test flight, which is set to be one of the firm's most technically complex challenges to date

The vast rocket, which is ultimately three Falcon 9 rockets linked together, will have the combined thrust to eventually launch 140,000 pounds (63,500kg) of cargo into orbit

'Real good chance that the vehicle doesn't make it to orbit. I want to make sure to set expectations accordingly.'

Musk has spent the proceeding months building up hype for the historic launch with a series of social media posts.

Last month he posted an image to Twitter of people stoof next to a landed Falcon Heavy rocket to give an idea of the vehicle's scale.

He tweeted: 'Falcon Heavy launching from same @NASA pad as the Saturn V Apollo 11 moon rocket.

'It was 50% higher thrust with five F-1 engines at 7.5M lb-F.

'I love that rocket so much.'

He also confirmed the rocket will have a 'max thrust at lift-off is 5.1 million pounds or 2300 metric tons,' adding the first mission will run at 92 per cent capacity.

'Falcon Heavy to launch next month from Apollo 11 pad at the Cape.

'Will have double thrust of next largest rocket. Guaranteed to be exciting, one way or another,' Musk originally posted.

Once the three main cores (pictured) of the rocket have separated, the main module will continue its trajectory into 'deep space', with a destination set for the orbit of Mars 140 million miles (225 million kilometres) away
Self-driving cars promise to be the transportation of the future, but one old-world problem could throw a wrench in the whole experience: motion sickness.

It's likely that riders in self-driving vehicles will pass the time reading a book, checking their phone or watching a movie while they sit in an autonomous car - but, these activities all increase the likelihood of getting motion sick.

University of Michigan researchers have developed a pair of prototype glasses that could prevent motion sickness in self-driving vehicles.

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The glasses sit on the bridge of the wearer's nose and have a built-in 'light array system' to prevent motion sickness. The lights help to prevent nausea by mimicking the car's movement

RIDING IN A SELF-DRIVING CAR? BRING A BARF BAG About half of adults struggle with motion sickness when they read a book in a moving vehicle. That number is expected to increase once self-driving cars hit the mass market, as more people won't be driving their own cars. University of Michigan scientists have patented a pair of glasses that can reduce nausea in autonomous cars The glasses use a 'light array system' to mimic the car's movement It's just a prototype for now, but researchers expect to meet with automakers and suppliers about commercializing the product Advertisement

In a newly discovered patent, the researchers describe a pair of glasses that sit on the bridge of your nose and display light in the wearer's field of vision that mimics the car's movement.

About half of adults suffer from motion sickness when reading a book inside a moving vehicle, the researchers said.

Motion sickness is expected to become an even bigger problem once autonomous vehicles become ubiquitous, as the pool of riders who aren't driving in a moving vehicle becomes larger, University of Michigan researchers found in a separate study published in 2015.

'[Motion sickness] is more important with the introduction of autonomous vehicles,' said Michael Sivak, one of the co-inventors of the product. 'In autonomous cars, everyone will be a passenger. So you will have a larger potential pool of sick people.'

'The protection that drivers have received from driving won't be there anymore,' Sivak added.

Riders get motion sick when what you see is out of sync with your vestibular system, or the network in our bodies that manages balance.

Our brains have a difficult time deciding whether we're stationary or moving, resulting in feelings of nausea or discomfort.

These sensations could get even worse in self-driving cars if riders sit in chairs that are facing backwards.

The glasses would help solve that issue because the 'light array system' would show streaks of light that are moving in unison with the car in the wearer's peripheral vision.

The technology would also be embedded in the car, so that it can respond to turns, brakes and other movements.

Last year, Uber filed a patent that provided a solution for motion sickness in self-driving cars.

The patent describes using vibrating or moving seats, light bars and air ventilators to reduce nausea in autonomous cars.

Unlike the Michigan patent, however, Uber proposes installing light bars in the car's ceiling or doors.

Uber has a good reason to focus on motion sickness in self-driving cars.

The researchers said that the 'light array system' could be built into the passenger compartment of a vehicle. The lights being shown in the glasses lenses would be more responsive to when a self-driving car turns, brakes or makes some kind of a sudden movement

Last November, the ride-hailing firm agreed to purchase 24,000 autonomous vehicles from Volvo to develop its own self-driving car fleet.

Uber isn't the only Silicon Valley giant that has big plans for autonomous cars.

Google's self-driving car unit, Waymo, is currently testing a fleet of self-driving cars.

Uber rival and ride-sharing startup Lyft has also been testing autonomous vehicles, while Tesla, BMW and Ford also have similar ongoing ventures.

Lyft partnered with self-driving technology provider Aptiv to test self-driving, on demand cars. The ride-hailing firm is just one of a few tech companies and automakers that plan to develop autonomous vehicles. Uber, Waymo, Ford and Tesla are also exploring self-driving cars

It's likely that all of them will have to explore some kind of solution to motion sickness.

In a 2015 survey of 3,200 adults, the University of Michigan found that more than a third of respondents said they would read, text, watch movies or television, play games or finish up work while in a self-driving vehicle.

The glasses are just a prototype for now, but the Michigan researchers said they are contacting various suppliers and automakers to discuss commercializing the device.
Waymo, Alphabet Inc's self-driving car unit, would start testing its self-driving vehicles in Atlanta, it said on Twitter on Monday.

'Atlanta is a major hub for technology and innovation, and a natural fit for Waymo's testing program,' Waymo said on Twitter.

With over eight years of testing under its belt, Waymo is a pioneer of self-driving technology, and is already testing vehicles in suburban Phoenix, Michigan, Silicon Valley and San Francisco.

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Waymo, Alphabet Inc's self-driving car unit, would start testing its self-driving vehicles in Atlanta, it said on Twitter on Monday. The latest step marks the 25th city Waymo has tested in, according to the firm

While self-driving car companies test their vehicles in public, they routinely have a human in the driver's seat ready to take over if the technology fails.

Waymo announced the plans on Twitter today, revealing the move follows the success of its recent trials in Arizona - where there are no restrictions on self-driving cars.

The firm launched their Phoenix program back in November 2017.

'Hello ATL! Metro Atlanta is the next stop for Waymo's test program,' the firm wrote on Twitter.

'Now that we have the world's first fully self-driving vehicles on public roads in AZ, we're looking to take our tech to more cities.'

The latest step marks the 25th city Waymo has tested in, according to the firm.

'With Atlanta, Waymo has now officially tested in 25 cities across the US,' the firm said on Twitter.

'That includes complex places such as the foggy hills of SF, the snowy streets of Michigan, and the rainy roads of Kirkland, WA.'

With eight years of testing under its belt, Waymo is a pioneer of self-driving technology, and is already testing vehicles in suburban Phoenix, Michigan, Silicon Valley and San Francisco. Pictured, John Krafcik, CEO of Waymo, debuts a customized Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid

This past fall, Waymo launching a ride-hailing service for the general public in Phoenix, Arizona with no human driver behind the steering wheel.

Leading up to the decision, the firm tested such fully self-driving cars on public roads in Arizona, Chief Executive John Krafcik said.

The announcement by Krafcik at the Web Summit technology conference in Lisbon marked a major advance in the roll-out of fully autonomous vehicles.

HOW DOES WAYMO TEST ITS SELF-DRIVING CARS BEFORE PUTTING THEM ON PUBLIC ROADS? Waymo built 'Castle,' a hidden mock city that can quickly be configured to test different scenarios. It's located north of the Merced metro area where the Castle Air Force Base used to be an has been rented by Google since 2014. As part of the initial two-year lease, the firm rented 80 acres from Merced Country for $456,000, being paid in $19,000 monthly installments. It has different driving environments including residential streets, expressway-style streets, cul-de-sacs, and parking lots. The Waymo test site is located north of the Merced metro area, where the Castle Air Force Base used to be At Castle, the roads are named after famous cars, such as DeLorean, Bullitt, Thunderbird, Fury, and Barbaro. For the structured testing, Waymo looks at how self-driving cars perform on real roads to determine how they need to practice - then they build what's required at Castle. The fake city has no buildings except one - a converted military dorm Waymo employees sleep in when they're too tired to make it back to San Francisco. It's hidden, and you need GPS coordinates to find it. Castle is located north of the Merced metro area where the Castle Air Force Base used to be, 2.5 hours from the company's headquarters. There, Waymo is testing several types of self-driving cars, including Chysler Pacificas minivans Advertisement

While self-driving car companies test their vehicles in public, they routinely have a human in the driver's seat ready to take over if the technology fails.

Large tech companies, established automakers and well-funded startups are all vying for what they expect to be a new era for vehicles and a lucrative opportunity.

At the time, Waymo said that members of the public would begin riding in its fleet of Fiat Chrysler Pacifica minivans outfitted with Waymo technology - and without human drivers - in the next few months.

At first, the passengers will be accompanied in the back seat by a Waymo employee, but eventually the passengers will travel alone in the robotic car.
There is nothing immediately striking about room 306. Faded apricot sheets are tucked neatly around twin beds. Between them stands a small round table, topped with a brown telephone.

Yet this bedroom in Memphis's Lorraine Motel either silences visitors or makes them sob. This is where Martin Luther King Jr was staying when, on April 4, 1968, he was shot dead on the balcony.

Now the room is a poignant exhibit in the National Civil Rights Museum, housed in the motel's original building.

Site of memorial: The former Lorraine Motel, Memphis, where Martin Luther King was shot

With the 50th anniversary of King's death coming up next year, the people and places associated with the civil rights movement he led are being remembered anew.

Tour agency Travel South USA launches a Civil Rights Trail in January, mapping sites throughout America, while car rental company Hertz is adding a civil rights route to its internet Road Trip Planner so you can follow King's life from his birthplace in Atlanta, Georgia, on and up through Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi.

I pick it up in Memphis, staying at stylish Hotel Napoleon seconds from brightly lit Beale Street, home of the Delta blues.

Music is the heart and soul of this Tennessee city, drifting from its bars and rising from the muddy banks of the Mississippi River. When America's South was racially segregated and marred by violence, the music played on regardless. At Stax Records, in south Memphis, artists were judged on two criteria - whether they could make music and whether they had soul.

High note: Memphis is a lovely city, home to Delta blues and music bars galore on Beale Street

A tour of the studios, which recorded Otis Redding, reveals how King's assassination altered that dynamic. For the first time, said Steve Cropper of house band Booker T & The MGs, there was a division between black and white artists.

Driving south through Mississippi, I pass trees stretching from swampland and maroon fields tufted with cotton. U.S. Route 61 - the Great River Road - runs parallel to the wide, wiggly Mississippi.

I stop in Clarksdale, where the impressive Delta Blues Museum tells more musical history.

Exhibits include Muddy Waters's ramshackle timber cabin, where he lived as a sharecropper before becoming a huge blues star.

Next door, Ground Zero Blues Club, co-owned by actor Morgan Freeman, serves crispy fried catfish and burgers alongside local craft brews. A guitar signed by John Lee Hooker sits above the bar while the tablecloths, chairs and walls are covered with visitors' scrawls. I have to use a rickety stool, placed precariously on the bar, to reach an empty spot and sign my name.

Star of the South: The Mississippi capital Jackson can be another key stop on any King tour

A few hours' south in Jackson, the Fairview Inn's thickly carpeted corridors lead to grand rooms with four-poster beds, whirlpool baths and fireplaces.

The city also witnessed key moments in the civil rights struggle. The movement's Mississippi leader, Medgar Evers, was assassinated outside his Jackson home in June 1963, shot by a lone Klansman.

On a tour of the ranch-style building, now a museum, I run my fingers over a bullet hole that pierces the wall between the living room and kitchen. Faded pink patches stain the driveway where Evers's blood soaked into the flagstones. It was also in Jackson that anti-segregation Freedom Riders, arriving on Greyhound buses in May 1961, were rounded up, beaten and thrown in jail.

The city's new Mississippi Civil Rights Museum records such events unflinchingly.

It opened this month alongside the Museum of Mississippi History, ahead of the state's bicentennial in 2018. That the two share a lobby is no coincidence - this is the civil rights movement in context. Everyone walks in together.

Exhibits include the flaking, whitewashed doors of Bryant Grocery from Money, Mississippi, where, in August 1955 Emmett Till, a 14-year-old visiting from Chicago, was accused of wolfwhistling at the white shopkeeper. His brutal torture and murder four days later galvanised the civil rights movement.

Taking a new approach: The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum opened last autumn

There's a wall of Freedom Riders' mugshots and the singed door of a pickup truck belonging to Vernon Dahmer, a civil rights leader murdered by the Klan.

Monoliths, listing the names and crimes of lynching victims in Mississippi, loom menacingly in each gallery.

Relief comes in a central, circular space called This Little Light Of Mine, where photos of civil rights heroes line the walls and a light sculpture sends tendrils creeping into the surrounding galleries. The song, a civil rights anthem, plays constantly in the background.

As more people gather, the sculpture brightens and the tune swells in volume - a testament to those whose light, even in the darkest moments, could not be dimmed.
My two-year-old son Harlen Bodhi White was recently described as the worlds most followed baby.

Im a professional photographer and I have uploaded more than 1,500 photographs and videos of him to Instagram where he is now followed by more than 215,000 people.

From the age of six I was a child model, so when I gave birth to my daughter Harlow six years ago, it was natural for me to post photographs of her on social media, where she quickly became something of a celebrity.

Chelsea White's children Harlen and Harlow go hand in hand as they paddle in the crystal clear waters

Weve been lucky enough to be approached by companies keen to promote clothes and other items to young mothers. I receive so many goods from suppliers that I have to hold a flash sale of pre-worn clothes every few months. It lasts 48 hours and always sells out.

Both children enjoy being photographed  theyre used to it.

Theyre also both experienced travellers, flying from a very early age; actually the younger they are, the easier it is to travel. Babies tend to go to sleep on a plane whereas toddlers can get a little fractious.

I was really looking forward to taking them to the Beaches family resort on the Turks and Caicos islands. The resort has an amazing 45,000 sq ft waterpark and five magnificent villages boasting the architecture and ambience of Italy, France, the Caribbean and Key West. It sits on a huge beach lapped by clear turquoise waters.

The resort promised lots of fun activities for Harlen and Harlow  they were looking forward to meeting the Sesame Street characters.

Id never been to a Beaches resort before. Id read reviews online and they were all really positive. I liked the fact that it was a big place, even if this meant lots of walking for the children (I had a little scooter for Harlow so she didnt have to walk too much, although she would have managed OK).

We travel fairly light. My biggest items are the two professional cameras I take, along with a video camera and my GoPro camera. I try to photograph the children as naturally as possible  I like to take pictures of them while they are playing in the water. Harlow is an amazing swimmer.

Splash out: The 45,000 square foot water park at the Beaches resort on the Turks and Caicos islands

The flight was very easy and they both slept very well on our first night at the resort  with no jetlag! They got up a little earlier than normal but not at too crazy a time.

From the very beginning Harlow was keen to get to the Pirates Island water park. Highlights included the Lazy River, which had loads of slides  the children absolutely loved that.

Also popular was the surf simulator with the wave machine. Harlow had never seen anything like this before and she adored it.

But perhaps the real highlight was snorkelling in the Caribbean where Harlow could see all the brightly coloured fish right in front of her. It was like stepping into a David Attenborough programme.

Harlow holds hand with mum as she prepares to give snorkeling a go

We also felt privileged to take a 20-minute catamaran ride to Iguana Island. Harlow loved the fact that there was a party atmosphere on the boat  lots of music, plenty of food ... very lively.

I was very impressed with all the food at the resort. Id never been to an all-inclusive resort before so I wasnt sure what to expect. I thought that there would be one restaurant with a buffet service.I was astonished to discover that the resort actually had 19 restaurants and in most of them you were able to order off the menu.

A big plus for the children was that most of them had a salad bar where you could get something to eat while you were waiting for your meal to be served.

One of the best places to eat, we thought, was Kimonos, where they cook your food in front of you: its an amazing place with lots of singing.

My kids faces were priceless: they had never been to anything like that before.

They also enjoyed the swim-up bar on Pirates Island and the special kids restaurant and ice cream shop. So much is included in the all-inclusive price  it was a real eye-opener.

I was a bit worried that it might be too hot or that the children would get too much sun  but things were fine.

There was a nice cool breeze off the sea most of the time. They have cabanas on the beach so you can get out of the sun whenever you like.

The holiday was a real success. The children keep asking me when were going back.

I would go back tomorrow!
A frozen ball of human excrement that fell on an Indian village with a 'big thud' is believed to have leaked from an aircraft, officials say.

A chunk of ice weighing almost two stone landed in Fazilpur Badli in Gurgaon on Saturday, to the shock of local villagers.

Many are said to have kept pieces of the ice, after thinking the ball was celestial rock or an extra-terrestrial object.

The almost two-stone chunk of ice that landed on a village in India, which is believed to be human excrement from an aircraft

However, when a small sample was sent for testing, officials found that it was not a meteorological phenomenon, but instead most likely to be frozen airline excrement.

Local official Vivek Kalia told the BBC: 'It was a very heavy icy ball of ice which dropped from the skies early on Saturday morning.

'There was big thud and people of the village came running out of their homes to find out what had happened.

'Some villagers thought it was an extra-terrestrial object. Others thought it was some celestial rock and I've heard that they took samples home.'

Waste from planes is held in a tank until the aircraft lands and the tank can only be emptied using an exterior lever

People regularly report having human waste fall on them from aircraft, including 'blue ice', which they believe is excrement that has been coloured blue by a chemical added to the toilet water and frozen at high altitudes.

Waste from planes is held in a tank until the aircraft lands and the tank can only be emptied using an exterior lever.

However, it is possible for leaks from the tanks to occur.
She was rumoured to be dating Egyptian multimillionaire Louis C. Camilleri, 62, in July after they were seen enjoying a string of London dinners.

But it seems catwalk queen Naomi Campbell has moved on in her pursuit of love, turning her attention to Grime artist Sketpa, 35.

The stunning supermodel and rapper were seen getting cosy at not one, but two Paris Fashion Week parties on Thursday and Friday.

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'They are taking it very slowly': Naomi Campbell, 47, is 'secretly dating' rapper Skepta, 35, after getting VERY close at swanky Paris Fashion Week bashes

'Taking this slowly': The stunning supermodel and Mercury award-winning rapper were seen getting cosy at not one, but two Paris Fashion Week parties on Thursday and Friday

A source close to the fashionista revealed to The Sun: 'Naomi and Skepta have been meeting up for a string of secret dates.

'They are both very creative which is why they have hit it off with each other.

The model and Mercury Prize winner reportedly first caught each others eye when they were introduced by mutual friends, and while things are reportedly going well, they are taking their relationship 'very slowly'.

Skepta - real name Joseph Junior Adenuga - hasn't been shy of showing his affection for the much-lauded model, posting a picture of the pair on his Twitter page in October, adorned with a heart emoji.

He also sang her praises to The Sun in June, saying that fashion icon was his 'favourite cover girl' and 'she broke down boundaries by doing those early Vogue covers'.

Skepta - real name Joseph Junior Adenuga - hasn't been shy of showing his affection for the much-lauded model, posting a picture of the pair on his Twitter page in October, adorned with a heart emoji

MailOnline have contacted representatives for Naomi and Skepta for comment.

Despite supposedly partying the nights away during the high-fashion season event, Naomi ventured solo for the Azzedine Alaia:Je Suis Couturier' Exhibition as part of PFW on Sunday.

After 30 years in the business, Naomi proved she still knows how to turn heads with her immaculate style at the swanky bash, catching all the attention in a mid-length black leather jacket, with numerous buttons down the edgy outerwear.

The classic fabric wound its way around the slender model in a risquee bandage top over a woolen roll-neck top, and chic mid length flowing skirt, cinching her tiny waist with bulky black belt.

Adding even more height to her tall frame, Naomi posed up a storm with plush black velvet killer ankle heels over some cosy black tights.

Eye-catching: Naomi Campbell, 47, proved she still knows how to turn heads with her immaculate style at the Azzedine Alaia:Je Suis Couturier' Exhibition as part of Paris Fashion Week on Sunday

Photo-ready: The age-defying beauty stunned onlookers in a striking black leather ensemble, covering her statuesque frame from head-to-toe

Her signature glossy pin straight raven locks draped delicately down past her shoulders, while decadent tortoiseshell sunglasses shielded her eyes from the flashing lights.

Naomi's natural beauty shone through with her chic smokey eye and shimmering glossy lip, accentuating her stunning features.

Her eye-popping getup had extra touches of shine with a statement silver ring and midnight blue beaded bracelet.

The Streatham native clutched onto a faux-crocodile skin purse as she perused the stylish exhibit, rubbing shoulders with fashion heavyweights Marc Newson, Jenke Ahmed and fellow supermodel queen Cindy Crawford, who dazzled in an intense leopard print coat.

Rubbing shoulders: Naomi, who stopped to take a quick photo with French novelist Francois-Marie Banier, caught all the attention in a mid-length black leather jacket, with numerous buttons down the edgy outerwear

Model pose: The Streatham native rubbed shoulders with French model Fraida Khefla, and fellow supermodel queen Cindy Crawford, who dazzled in an intense leopard print coat

Rocker chic: The classic fabric wound its way around the slender model in a risquee bandage top over a woolen roll-neck top, and chic mid length flowing skirt, cinching her tiny waist with bulky black belt

Perfect pout: Adding even more height to her tall frame, Naomi posed up a storm with plush black velvet killer ankle heels over some cosy black tights

As ever, Paris Fashion Week has been a hectic one for the highly celebrated supermodel, who also spent time with gal pal Kate Moss.

Both supermodels modeled in the Louis Vuitton show in matching shiny branded raincoats.

Naomi and Kate have been modeling together for three decades, complementing each other with their opposite sense of style, Kate with her rocker look and Naomi preferring pure glamour.

Though it's their first time walking in the menswear show, Kate and Naomi last walked in a Louis Vuitton show together in 2001.

Ultra glam: Her signature glossy pin straight raven locks draped delicately down past her shoulders, while decadent tortoiseshell sunglasses shielded her eyes from the flashing lights

Strike a pose: Naomi, who posed with Farida and star stylist Jenke Ahmed, had her natural beauty shine through with her chic smokey eye and shimmering glossy lip, accentuating her stunning features

All together: Naomi clutched onto a faux-crocodile skin purse as she perused the stylish exhibit, rubbing shoulders with fashion heavyweights Marc Newson and his family

Back to basics: As ever, Paris Fashion Week has been a busy one for the highly celebrated supermodel, who also spent time with gal pal Kate Moss.
She was a household name in the 1970s and 80s when she played Kitty Sullivan on popular Australian TV series The Sullivans.

After the show wrapped up in 1983, however, actress Susan Hannaford kept a low-profile before vanishing without a trace in 2013 when her abandoned Sydney home was sold by the Commonwealth Bank.

But according to this week's Woman's Day, Susan is alive and well, with the publication finding the former star living in Beverly Hills.

'It's a big story!' Missing Sullivans star Susan Hannaford is FOUND in Beverly Hills... after vanishing without a trace five years ago

Photos published by the magazine show Susan looking almost unrecognisable, sporting platinum blonde hair that reaches past her shoulders - a far cry from the mousy red hair she was known for in her heyday.

In the images, she could be seen in skin-tight black mini-shorts, a midriff-baring crop top and thigh-high boots.

Susan has been MIA since being evicted from her lavish waterfront home in Sydney, which was sold by her financiers in April 2013 for $3.15 million.

And when quizzed by Woman's Day about what she'd be doing in the years since, Susan Hannaford was coy with her response.

'It's a big story and I'm shortly going to break it,' she told the magazine.

The magazine reported that Susan now calls a multimillion-dollar Beverly Hills mansion home.

She has also lived in Los Angeles and Las Vegas over the past few years, according the publication.

A staffer at Beverly Hills' Montage Hotel told the magazine that Susan regularly shows up at the venue to grab coffee with two kids at the venue.

My, how she's changed! Susan shot to fame playing Kitty Sullivan on popular soap The Sullivans

Susan had shot to fame at a young age, portraying 10-year-old Kitty on the show which also featured the likes of Michael Caton, Mel Gibson, Kylie Minogue, Sam Neill and Gary Sweet at various times.

After her stint on the hit soap, Susan tried her hand at fashion designing, with Susan claiming on her website that she had opened a boutique store in the exclusive suburb of Double Bay.

Susan also claimed to have worked on US soap The Bold and the Beautiful, stating she was 'written in to the show as a famous fashion designer'.
He's set to tie the knot to a complete stranger in the upcoming season of Married At First Sight.

But Sean Thomsen's on-screen nuptials may be particularly hard to watch for his ex-girlfriend, Jasmine Pugh.

On Monday, the single mum told Woman's Day that Sean had been talking about marrying HER, before she found out he had gone and applied for the show.

'I never suspected he wanted to apply for the show. I thought we were in love': Married At First Sight's Sean Thomsen has come under fire from his ex-girlfriend Jasmine Pugh (pictured) who shared her story with Woman's Day

'He was talking about us getting married... I never suspected he wanted to apply for the show. I thought we were in love,' Jasmine told the magazine.

Sean has steadfastly denied his ex's claims in the publication.

24-year-old Jasmine, whose occupation is listed as a 'shot pourer' on Facebook, met Sean at a Perth casino in late 2016.

Short-lived romance: The couple both shared loved-up pictures on social media

According to the publication, they began a relationship a few months later, with the couple both sharing loved-up pictures on social media.

However, their romance reportedly came to an end partway through last year.

Even after their split, however, the 35-year-old FIFO worker told his ex he had not applied for the show, even though she had heard rumours of him doing so.

Now, the blonde has a warning for Sean's new bride, telling Woman's Day: 'He's only in it for the fame!'

'He's only in it for the fame!' Jasmine believes Sean is more interested in raising his public profile than pursuing a serious relationship

'Tinder playboy': In Married At First Sight's new promos, Sean has been billed as a 'Tinder playboy' who claims he has slept with hundreds of women

Jasmine even claims she has had to block Sean from making contact with her as 'he sends links to articles written about him to rub it in my face [that] he's a 'ladies' man''.

Indeed, in Married At First Sight's new promos, Sean has been billed as a 'Tinder playboy' who claims he has slept with hundreds of women.

Speaking to Woman's Day, the new reality star denied Jasmine's versions of events.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to both parties for further information.

He said, she said: Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Jasmine (pictured) and Sean for further information




He has suffered from poor health in recent years, and was seen arriving in a wheelchair to the Australian Music Vault launch last month.

And in Monday's New Idea, 'friends' close to Molly Meldrum have alleged that the music critic is 'struggling to stay upbeat'.

Experiencing crippling back pain caused from three serious falls, the 'insider' was claimed to have told the publication: 'He is in constant agony.'

'He's in constant agony': Molly Meldrum, 74, is reported by New Idea to be 'struggling to stay upbeat' following crippling back pain caused by three serious falls

A 'source' allegedly told New Idea: 'He does his best to be positive, but he's not the same old Molly.

'He is in constant agony and, although he has lots of mates around to help, his life seems more chaotic than ever,' they went on to say.

The weekly went on to allege that the breakdown of his relationship from Thai businessman Yan Wongngam, who he had dated for more than a decade, has also taken a toll.

Representatives for Molly declined to comment on the claims.

Claims: A 'source' allegedly told New Idea: 'He does his best to be positive, but he's not the same old Molly

The music legend, who was the subject of acclaimed TV mini-series 'Molly' last year, has suffered from poor health in recent years.

In December 2011, Molly suffered life-threatening injuries after he fell from a ladder at his Melbourne home.

He fractured his skull, punctured his lungs and broke his ribs in the accident.

In January 2016, he slipped outside a hotel in Bangkok and dislodged a vertebrae, requiring emergency surgery.

Health: The music legend, who was the subject of acclaimed TV mini-series 'Molly' last year, has suffered from poor health in recent years

The former Countdown host made headlines at the 2017 Logie Awards in April after interrupting Samuel Johnson's acceptance speech.

Samuel had won the Gold Logie for his performance as the TV legend in 'Molly'.

But his delivery was cut short when the real-life character took over the microphone for a rambling performance.

Molly later apologised, telling News Corp: 'I got a bit caught up in the moment.'
Amy Schumer was spotted with her boyfriend Chris Fischer on Saturday night.

This was a rare sighting as the Snatched movie star and the chef-turned-farmer have not been seen together in two months.

The pair were caught arriving at NBC Studios in New York City to watch Saturday Night Live.

Date night! Amy Schumer was spotted with her boyfriend Chris Fischer on Saturday night

They were also there to support friend Jessica Chastain who was on the show.

Amy had a big smile while wearing a vintage Eazy-E T-shirt.

The Trainwreck star added a blue cardigan and slacks as she led the way inside, followed by her boyfriend. Knee-high boots added an edge.

Right step: The Trainwreck star added a blue cardigan and slacks as she led the way inside, followed by her boyfriend. Knee-high boots added an edge

Handsome fellow: The food doctor had on a grey shirt over a blue T-shirt with dark jeans and brown boots

The food doctor had on a grey shirt over a blue T-shirt with dark jeans and brown boots.

He failed to crack a smile as he held on to his cell phone.

Amy was last seen on Saturday at the Women's March in New York City with fellow actress Amber Tamblyn.

In November the actress was photographed on a romantic date with 37-year-old Fischer, who is reported to be her assistant's brother.

'Today we march': Amy was last seen on Saturday at the Women's March in New York City with fellow actress Amber Tamblyn

With fans: Here the stand-up comedienne posed with fans who wore pink hats

The two sipped glasses of wine and chatted intently, gazing into one another's eyes as they enjoyed a cozy night.

Fischer is the first man Amy has dated since she split from Ben Hanisch in May after 18 months.

The comedienne previously admitted Ben - who she met on a dating app - was the perfect man for her as he wasn't phased by her celebrity status.

Also seen heading into the SNL after party was Chastain, who starred on the show

A bubbly blonde: One of the SNL skits on Saturday was about a dating show

More from the hit show: Here Jessica is seen in another skit at a restaurant

That's something that Fischer - a good friend of Jake Gyllenhaal - should also be able to handle.

And like furniture maker Ben, it seems Amy's new man is good with his hands.

Having made a name for himself at Mario Batali's upmarket Babbo in Manhattan and the famed River Cafe in London, Chris gave up his city life to take over the family farm in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

He wrote his critically acclaimed Beetlebung Farm Cookbook while working at New England farm-to-table restaurant Beach Plum, named as a favorite of Barack and Michelle Obama in 2013.

Chris took over Beetlebung in 2010 from his aunt Marie and his grandmother, who still owns the farm at the age of 102.

He's a fan: Director Steven Spielberg, who has a hit with The Post, also made the scene

According to his website, Ben's grandparents Regina and Ozzie founded the five-acre Beetlebung Farm in 1961.

The two raised their four children there while farming cows, and growing vegetables and flowers they sold on a farm stand.

His Instagram feed shows his idyllic life, featuring plenty of moody shots of the countryside, beautifully plated vegetable-rich meals, and family photos.

A star for sure: Schumer has been on a roll for five years; seen in November

And Chris sure seems to be living the good life. In an interview last year he talked of his annual Thanksgiving celebration with friends.

'Its a whole day spent cooking and takes a big effort to clean up the next day, but this work adds seasoning to our appetites,' he said. 'The festivities are always great with friends huddling around the fires to stay warm deep into the night, and as usual, I was too busy hosting and organizing to eat a proper meal on the night of the party.

'This year, I took home the tender boiled meats and ate them alone in my living room the following night, in front of my fire, having said goodbye to all those who made the trip.'
The TV journalist spent 10 years as the co-host of the Today show, before resigning from Nine amid failed contract negotiations and jumping ship to Channel Ten.

But despite Lisa Wilkinson's extensive on-air experience, reports claim she is nervous about her highly-anticipated debut on The Project this Sunday.

A source revealed to New Idea on Monday: 'She knows all of Australia will be watching her, waiting for any slip-up.'

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'She knows all of Australia will be watching her, waiting for any slip-up': Former Today show host Lisa Wilkinson is 'incredibly nervous' ahead of her debut on The Project this Sunday

The 58-year-old told TV Week last month the move to Channel 10 was a 'no-brainer', and was hopeful it will advance her news and current affairs coverage.

Meanwhile, an insider told New Idea this week: 'Lisa is incredibly nervous about her new role on The Project.'

'This is a really important turning point in Lisa's career and she just wants it all to go well... she knows all eyes will be on ratings, her banter with Carrie and any argument she makes - of course she's feeling nervous right now!' they added.

'She knows all eyes will be on ratings, her banter with Carrie and any argument she makes': A source told New Idea that Lisa was nervous for how audiences will react to her arrival

The journalist has already starred in a variety of comedic promotional videos and commercials for the show, which poke fun at the media hype surrounding her arrival.

Lisa recently returned from a New York holiday with husband Peter FitzSimons prior to her starting her new role on The Project panel.

'Lisa really wants this new gig to go well and is really feeling the pressure. It's one of the reasons her hubby Peter whisked her off to New York for a trip before her start on TV - to try and get her mind off things, get her to relax a little before she hits the TV screens again,' the source said.

Daily Mail Australia have reached out to Lisa Wilkinson for comment.

'Her hubby Peter whisked her off to New York for a trip before her start on TV - to try and get her mind off things, get her to relax a little before she hits the TV screens again': Lisa recently returned from a New York holiday with husband Peter FitzSimons prior to debut on The Project panel

Last month, Lisa spoke about feeling humbled by the overwhelmingly positive response from the public to her departure from Today.

'It's a response I never could have predicted,' she told News Corp.

'I am so grateful to everyone who has taken the time to send messages, stop me in the street and generally make their feelings on the issue widely known.'

Done! The veteran magazine editor and journalist abruptly left the Nine network in October, after 10 years on the show, after failing to achieve pay parity with co-host Karl Stefanovic

The veteran magazine editor and journalist abruptly left the Nine network in October after failing to achieve pay parity with co-host Karl Stefanovic.

Lisa reportedly secured a $2.3 million salary to front The Sunday Project on weekends and helm the new digital site Ten Daily for Channel 10.

A statement from Channel Nine said the network was 'unable to meet the expectations of Lisa Wilkinson and her manager on a contract renewal'.
Stranger Things' Natalia Dyer dazzled Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards in a dramatic b&w Christian Dior ball gown inspired by the zodiac.

Stylist Brad Goreski dressed the Nashville-born starlet - who just turned 21 - in the celestial creation printed with astrological signs and topped with a black sheer bodice.

The former NYU student currently plays Nancy Wheeler in the eighties retro binge-watching favourite, which was renewed by Netflix for a third season on December 1.

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Starstruck: Stranger Things ' Natalia Dyer dazzled Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards in a dramatic b&w Christian Dior ball gown inspired by the zodiac

Hairstylist Gio Campora coiffed Dyer's sleek bun and make-up artist Kira Nasrat made sure she was ready for her close-up.

The brunette beauty finished off her red carpet ensemble with Beladora Jewelry and Christian Louboutin heels.

Joining Natalia on the red carpet at LA's Shrine Auditorium were her handsome castmates Dacre Montgomery and Joe Keery.

In Stranger Things, Dyer's character romances Keery's Steve Harrington, but her troubled real-life leading man Charlie Heaton was noticeably absent.

Just turned 21! Stylist Brad Goreski dressed the Nashville-born starlet in the celestial creation printed with astrological signs and topped with a black sheer bodice.

Cat eye-liner: Hairstylist Gio Campora coiffed Dyer's sleek bun and make-up artist Kira Nasrat made sure she was ready for her close-up

'Princess couture': The brunette beauty finished off her red carpet ensemble with Beladora Jewelry and Christian Louboutin heels

'Last touch up!' Natalia is pictured with her glam squad getting ready before the TNT/TBS-broadcast ceremony

Teen: The former NYU student currently plays Nancy Wheeler in the eighties retro binge-watching favourite, which was renewed by Netflix for a third season on December 1

The 23-year-old Englishman - who plays Jonathan Byers - publicly wished his girlfriend a happy birthday on January 13 after denying he possessed cocaine when US customs found traces on him October 21.

Natalia and 17 of her co-stars - including Charlie - scored a nomination for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series.

But the Upside Down squad faces heavy competition against The Crown, The Handmaid's Tale, Game of Thrones, and This Is Us.

Millie Bobby Brown sparkled in a pink-sequin halter Calvin Klein mini-dress featuring a cape and classic white Converse low-tops selected by stylist Thomas Carter Phillips.

Flanked: Joining Natalia on the red carpet at LA's Shrine Auditorium were her handsome castmates Dacre Montgomery (L) and Joe Keery (R)

The man behind the hairdo: In Stranger Things, Dyer's character romances Keery's (R) Steve Harrington, but her troubled real-life leading man Charlie Heaton was noticeably absent

'Stoked!' The 23-year-old Englishman - who plays Jonathan Byers - publicly wished his girlfriend a happy birthday on January 13 after denying he possessed cocaine when US customs found traces on him October 21

Bunning: Natalia and 17 of her co-stars - including Charlie - scored a nomination for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series

The British 13-year-old - with ribboned raver buns by Gianpaolo Ceciliato -is up for the female actor in a drama series trophy for her scene-stealing role as psychokinetic tween Jane 'Eleven' Ives.

David Harbour turned up in a black velvet tuxedo selected by stylist Ashley Weston to compete for the male actor in a drama series trophy as paternal Hawkins Police officer Jim Hopper.

To de-stress before the bustling awards show, the bearded 42-year-old pampered himself with an 'extremely manly' facial at Dermalogica.

Two-time Oscar nominee Winona Ryder - who plays Joyce Byers - flashed a hint of cleavage in a black gown beneath a tuxedo blazer selected by stylist Micaela Erlanger.

Caped crusader: Millie Bobby Brown sparkled in a pink-sequin halter Calvin Klein mini-dress and classic white Converse low-tops selected by stylist Thomas Carter Phillips

Think pink! The British 13-year-old - with ribboned raver buns by Gianpaolo Ceciliato -is up for the female actor in a drama series trophy for her scene-stealing role as Jane 'Eleven' Ives

Nominee: David Harbour turned up in a black velvet tuxedo selected by stylist Ashley Weston to compete for the male actor in a drama series trophy as paternal Hawkins Police officer Jim Hopper

Prep: To de-stress before the bustling awards show, the bearded 42-year-old pampered himself with an 'extremely manly' facial at Dermalogica

Wino forever: Two-time Oscar nominee Winona Ryder - who plays Joyce Byers - flashed a hint of cleavage in a black gown beneath a tuxedo blazer selected by stylist Micaela Erlanger

16-year-old Caleb McLaughlin - who plays Lucas - looked smooth in a white Louis Vuitton blazer, Antonio Marras patterned pants, and patent leather Jimmy Choos selected by stylist Darryl Glover.

13-year-old Noah Schnapp - who plays Will - in a custom green velvet Stella McCartney tuxedo and black Jesu-SegunLondon loafers selected by stylist Philippe Uter.

15-year-old Gaten Matarazzo - who plays Dustin - preferred to rent his tux while his 15-year-old co-star Sadie Sink looked lovely in a white embellished frock and silver stilettos.

Lip Sync Battle champ: 16-year-old Caleb McLaughlin (L) - who plays Lucas - looked smooth in a white Louis Vuitton blazer, Antonio Marras patterned pants, and patent leather Jimmy Choos selected by stylist Darryl Glover

Dapper: 13-year-old Noah Schnapp - who plays Will - in a custom green velvet Stella McCartney tuxedo and black Jesu-SegunLondon loafers selected by stylist Philippe Uter

15-year-olds: Gaten Matarazzo - who plays Dustin - preferred to rent his tux while his co-star Sadie Sink looked lovely in a white embellished frock and silver stilettos

Oscar nominee: Sean Astin - who played Bob Newby - posed in a classic tux alongside 21-year-old daughter Alexandra (R) from his impressive 27-year marriage to Christine Harrell

Elegant: Cara Buono - who plays MILF Karen Wheeler - easily defied her 43 years in a sleeveless caped creation selected by stylist Samantha Frappied Brown

Who will win? Once inside the venue, Caleb caught up with their directing duo Ross (2-L) & Matt (2-R) Duffer and awaited their awards fate, including a trophy for stunt ensemble

Oscar nominee Sean Astin - who played Bob Newby - posed in a classic tux alongside 21-year-old daughter Alexandra from his impressive 27-year marriage to Christine Harrell.

Cara Buono - who plays MILF Karen Wheeler - easily defied her 43 years in a sleeveless caped creation selected by stylist Samantha Frappied Brown.

Once inside the venue, Caleb caught up with their directing duo Ross & Matt Duffer and awaited their awards fate, including a trophy for stunt ensemble.
Chat show host Trisha Goddard has revealed she divorced her third husband last year.

The Trisha presenter, 60, split from psychotherapist Peter Gianfrancesco after almost 20 years of marriage in 2017, but had since found a new romance.

The mother-of-two, who continued wearing her wedding ring after the divorce was finalised, said the couple had begun to grow apart after her recovery from breast cancer, admitting their relationship suffered some 'terrible lows'.

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New start: Chat show host Trisha Goddard has revealed she divorced her third husband psychotherapist Peter Gianfrancesco last year

Speaking to Hello! magazine, she said: 'Our relationship was a rollercoaster. One day things were fine between us - great even. The next they were terrible - the arguments, the detachment, there were real lows.'

And opening up about her recovery from cancer, she said: 'As time passed and I recovered and got stronger and was therefore no longer reliant on him, that's when I felt things started to change.'

But things are looking up for the presenter, and she has since found new love, admitting: 'For the first time in a very long time, I feel womanly, beautiful and sexy.'

Moving on: The Trisha presenter, 60, split from psychotherapist Peter Gianfrancesco after almost 20 years of marriage in 2017, but had since found a new romance

Trisha was first married to Australian politician Robert Nestdale 1985, before discovering he was gay- he later sadly died of Aids in 1989.

She then went on to marry TV producer Mark Grieve in 1993, and the duo welcomed two daughters  Billie, 28, and Madison, 23.

However they divorced soon after amid accusations he had started an affair during her second pregnancy.

The discovery drove her to a nervous breakdown, and Trisha later admitted she was 'suicidal' and spent weeks in a psychiatric hospital.

Former flame: She then went on to marry second husband TV producer Mark Grieve in 1993, and the duo welcomed two daughters  Billie, 28, and Madison, 23

She went on to have therapy and was prescribed anti-depressants - but weaned herself off them before she launched her TV career in Britain in 1998.

She later met Peter in 1996, who supported her through her battle with breast cancer, before marrying him in 1998.

Goddard became a household name in the UK after launching her Trisha show on ITV.

Trisha's full interview is out in this week's Hello, out now

She then moved to Channel 5 and continued working despite her diagnosis with breast cancer, but the series was dropped when the station said it could no longer afford the programme.

However things improved again when she landed a chat show with NBC in 2012, telling Hello at the time: 'When I started out back in 1987, I never dreamed I would get a job as a television presenter in Australia, that I would be the first black female presenter in their history or that I would then be head-hunted back to England to present there.

'Cancer has definitely changed me. I love what I do - I love connecting with people, whether it's in the street or on television - but I'm far more relaxed about it all now; I'm not some career-driven beast these days,' Goddard said at the time.

Trisha's full interview is out in this week's Hello, out now.
She's dodged rumors about her romantic life since splitting with Aaron Rodgers during the summer.

And Olivia Munn continued to clear up allegations about her dating life as she shared a lengthy text to Anna Faris on her Instagram stories Sunday morning.

The 37-year-old actress denied dating Faris' estranged husband Chris Pratt, saying she would 'never respond to random tabloid stories,' but had to let her friend know the real truth.

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Setting the record straight: Olivia Munn continued to clear up allegations about her dating life as she shared a lengthy text to Anna Faris on her Instagram stories Sunday morning; seen dressed up on Instagram

'Hey there! Sooo... I would never respond to random tabloid stories, but since we know each other I wanted to reach out to you personally to tell you the story about me and Chris dating has 0% truth,' the wordy text message from Munn said.

'I'm sure you already know it's not true, or maybe didn't care either way, but I just wanted to reach out personally to tell you it's not true,' she continued.

Olivia and Pratt recently dodged rumors they had been dating, just months after he filed for divorce from Anna.

Texts: The 37-year-old actress denied dating Faris' estranged husband Chris Pratt, saying she would 'never respond to random tabloid stories,' but had to let her friend know the real truth

'Anyway, I hope you had an amazing holiday and an even better 2018,' she finished the text followed by a slew of yellow hearts and stars.

Anna seemed somewhat beside herself at the text, but responded with glee saying, 'Hi!!!! Oh my god-this town is so f****ng crazy - you are so sweet to text - i love you - having said that if you were my new sister in law I would be thrilled!'

Olivia furthered her quest to distance herself from Pratt by posting multiple messages on social media.

Oh no! Anna seemed somewhat beside herself at the text, but responded with glee saying, 'Hi!!!! Oh my god-this town is so f****ng crazy - you are so sweet to text - i love you - having said that if you were my new sister in law I would be thrilled!; seen in October 2017

Family: Anna and Chris share co-parenting of their son Jack; seen on Anna's Instagram

'Refrain from judgement, be the rock of understanding, be the well of empathy,' she shared in one post.

Pratt and Faris shocked Hollywood last summer when they took to Facebook to announce their separation after eight years of marriage, making clear that Jack's well-being was their first and foremost priority.

'Our son has two parents who love him very much and for his sake we want to keep this situation as private as possible moving forward,' the couple said in a joint statement.

Since her split with Pratt, Faris has been linked to Michael Barrett, a cinematographer she met on the set of her upcoming comedy Overboard.

'Refrain from judgement, be the rock of understanding, be the well of empathy,' she shared in one post on Instagram
Call The Midwife (BBC1)

Rating:

Heavens to Murgatroyd! The midwives are back - and Sunday evenings are perking up.

Like snowdrops, usually the nuns and nurses of Nonnatus House are with us by early January, and the past couple of weekends have been heavy going without them.

McMafia, which started so strongly, has been as hot-and-cold as a broken radiator lately - James Nortons enigmatic act is wearing thin, and who cares if another anonymous Indian gangster or Israeli blackmailer gets bumped off?

The midwives are back: We were plunged into the coldest winter in decades, the one of 1963, which, like Londons smogs and Michael Fishs unexpected hurricane, has passed into the mythology of British weather

What we need at this time of year are home truths and heart-warming playlets. Call The Midwife (BBC1) delivers with gusto.

We were plunged into the coldest winter in decades, the one of 1963, which, like Londons smogs and Michael Fishs unexpected hurricane, has passed into the mythology of British weather.

To evoke that, writer Heidi Thomas cleverly let us glimpse something that must have made millions of viewers say with a laugh: I remember that! - little fountains of frozen milk bursting out of bottles on the doorstep.

Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter) is still in charge but, as usual, she has mislaid a couple of midwives.

This time, secret lovers Patsy and Delia are on a jaunt around the world, sending their latest postcard from a safari in Botswana. To replace the gadabouts, Nurse Lucille Anderson arrived from the West Indies, via a training school in Taunton.

Nurse Trixie (Helen George) is still on duty, all leopard-print coat collar and scent by Dior, trying to smile like Diana Dors as she handles another breech birth

In case anyone was in any doubt of her Caribbean origin, actress Leonie Elliott is doing an accent that makes the Saint Marie cast of Death In Paradise sound like Cockneys.

Nurse Trixie (Helen George) is still on duty, all leopard-print coat collar and scent by Dior, trying to smile like Diana Dors as she handles another breech birth.

Christopher, her smarmy boyfriend, is starting to look like a bit of a cad - he propositioned her in the chapel and wants to drag her away for a dirty weekend in Epping Forest.

Trixie isnt that sort of girl and, as she whispered to Nurse Valerie, she never has been - not even once.

The romances and new arrivals didnt get in the way of two strong storylines, which built up steadily and gave us time to become involved with the characters.

One was a West End stripper who couldnt bear to give up her baby for adoption, the other an elderly woman trying to hide the symptoms of terminal cancer as she and her husband faced eviction.

Tears, but no schmaltz; hard reality, but smiles all round in the final scene - Call The Midwife is just what the doctor ordered.

Vera (ITV)

Rating:

Vera (ITV) is another Sunday institution and Brenda Blethyn as the grouchy detective chief inspector in the shapeless hat gives a dependable performance as she solves another murder.

I cant say I like the character. It grates to hear her dismiss the latest victim: Yer typical middle-class suburban wife - nice kids, nice house, nice life. And that accent never seems convincing. Yerve got quite the croosh on her, she told one suspect. Does anybody say crush like that?

I cant say I like the character. It grates to hear her dismiss the latest victim: Yer typical middle-class suburban wife - nice kids, nice house, nice life.

Her maverick streak can be irritating, too, whether shes pouring whisky on her cornflakes or racing off in her Land Rover to arrest this weeks least probable killer.

But all of that - as scores of readers declare whenever I breathe a word against Vera - is exactly what fans love about her. And this episode did feature Sixties star Rita Tushingham, particularly good as a devious drug smuggler.

You could do a lot worse on a Sunday evening.
Rarely an episode of This Morning goes by without the pair erupting into giggles on air.

And Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby showed no signs of stopping on Sunday night's Dancing On Ice, as they were left in stitches by a very cheeky joke.

When shown a throwback snap of himself on a bike in the 1970s, the silver-haired host, 55, claimed he was 'at his happiest, astride the chopper' - leaving his co-stars and viewers in hysterics.

Playful: Phillip Schofield left Holly Willoughby and viewers in stitches on Sunday's Dancing On Ice, when he made a cheeky joke about his 'chopper'

Playful: The 55-year-old made the cheeky joke when he was shown a throwback photo of himself on a bike from the 1970s

The funny incident occurred when the hosts and judges were shown photos of themselves in the 70s, in honour of the show's disco week.

Phil's image depicted him on a chopper bike with his younger brother, both complete with the decade's trademark thick hairstyle and brightly-coloured retro clothing.

Starting to chuckle, Holly commented: 'This is the most 70s photo I have ever seen! Look you've got the flares going on there and the tank top and the chopper.'

Gaffe: Laughing himself at the photo, Phil said: 'Yep that's my brother on the back and that was when I was my most happiest...' before trailing off, and adding: '...astride the chopper'

Can't contain their laughter: Realising his gaffe, Holly began to giggle in front of cameras

In hysterics: Meanwhile judge Ashley Banjo burst into laughter, and Christopher Dean even dropped his head to the table

Laughing himself at the photo, Phil then replied: 'Yep that's my brother on the back and that was when I was my most happiest...' before trailing off, and adding: '...astride the chopper. I just loved it.'

Realising his gaffe, Holly began to giggle in front of cameras - while judge Ashley Banjo burst into laughter, and Christopher Dean even dropped his head to the table.

The comment went down a storm with viewers, who immediately took to Twitter to address the funny incident.

In stitches: The comment went down a storm with viewers, who immediately took to Twitter to address the funny incident

One wrote in shock: 'Can't believe @Schofe just said his happiest times were sitting astride a Chopper on live TV at 7.55pm!'

While others wrote: 'Absolute gold...@Schofe '...at my absolute happiest, astride a chopper' and 'Great chopper joke @Schofe'

One could not contain their delight at the joke, adding: 'Showing a picture of Phillip Schofield's chopper on national TV...' followed by a number of laughing emojis.

Poking fun: The presenting duo had joked about Phillip's younger appearance earlier in the week, during a typically playful episode of This Morning

Good look: Sharing a snap of the presenter at Disneyland in the 90s, the blonde could not stop laughing at his full head of brown fluffy hair, which Phil joked looked 'like a brush'

While another simply said, in an equally cheeky fashion: 'Phil's got a big chopper!'

The presenting duo had joked about Phillip's younger appearance earlier in the week, during a typically playful episode of This Morning.

Sharing a snap of the presenter at Disneyland in the 90s, the blonde could not stop laughing at his full head of brown fluffy hair, which Phil joked looked 'like a brush'.

The pair are known for their playful presenting style, having hosted This Morning together since 2009

The pair have fronted This Morning together since 2009, as well as Dancing On Ice from 2006-2011, before returning for the reboot earlier this year.

While they have won over viewers with their onscreen chemistry, the duo are also known to be close friends away from work - and have enjoyed a number of holidays together in recent years.

They even attended Davina McCall's 50th birthday party together last weekend, and shared a number of clips of themselves downing shots together on social media.
Kenya Moore stormed out of filming on Sunday's episode of The Real Housewives Of Atlanta and flipped off producers as she walked off.

The 46-year-old fiery reality star told producers 'I'm done with this' as she flew into a rage after a dreadful dinner with co-stars Porsha Williams and Cynthia Bailey, along with their sisters and Shamea Morton.

The drama unfolded after Kenya was accused of bad behavior and for being rude during the group's trip to Houston to do Hurricane Harvey relief work.

Dinner drama: Kenya Moore bolted from dinner on Sunday's episode of The Real Housewives Of Atlanta and then stopped filming for the Bravo reality show

'I am done with this. I didn't come to constantly be dragged in the mud,' she said angrily on camera.

'I don't give a f***. I don't give a f*** about any of them bitches. Every time I do something positive it turns into some bull****.'

Kenya was not shy in letting the show's producers know how she felt as the cameras continued to roll.

'I wasn't rude to nobody at that event. F*** these motherf***ing h**s. The whole table is f***ing stupid as s***.'

Flipping out: The reality star flipped off the camera as she told producers to stop filming

Producer question: A producer asked Kenya to listen after the reality star fled to a bathroom

New husband: Kenya said the women's behavior was why her new husband Marc didn't want to be part of the show

The former Miss USA winner then told the cameras that her co-stars were the reason that husband Marc Daly has not yet appeared on the hit show.

'That's why Marc don't wanna be part of this. Because every time you turn around and trash his f***ing wife,' she said.

'Sick of it. I don't f***ing gotta do s*** no more. Take my mother f***ing mic off.'

No need: The former Miss USA winner said she didn't have to anything

Stop recording: Kenya demanded that her microphone be removed

Kenya was not having any of it when Porsha came to check on her.

'No this is not a moment. See ya later. Bye,' she said flipping off the cameras.

Kenya then stormed out of the restaurant and got into her car and told Cynthia: 'I'm just going to go back to the hotel. I'm not feeling well. Bye, can this is not a moment.'

Swift exit: The RHOA star stormed out of the restaurant

'If Marc could see how these ladies are attacking me he would probably make me leave this table before I decided to get up and leave myself,' she said during a confessional.

Tensions ramped up earlier when Kenya was abrupt on the phone at a Habitat For Humanity event.

'I am not your assistant, Shamea. Ask the volunteers, got to go. We're working, we're trying to get people back in their homes. Bye,' Kenya told her on the phone.

Surprise visit: Kenya surprised the others by arriving in Houston to help with hurricane relief

Shamea was upset at Kenya's attitude towards her.

'I felt like you were pretty dismissive. I want you to understand why so it doesn't happen again,' Shamea told her.

Kenya told Shamea that she was reading too much into the situation.

Dismissive discussion: Shamea Morton was trying to tell Kenya how she felt dismissed by her

'I'm sorry if I made you feel like that, but we were busy working. It's not about you sweetie. It's about the people of Houston not you and your feelings,' Kenya said.

'Let's not make this an issue. Honestly, Shamea, we are all here, we had a great time. I think you should just give the benefit of the doubt and let it go. That's a better look.

'Shamea's really trying to make me look like I did something that overshadows all the good I came to do and I'm just disgusted by it,' Kenya said during a confessional.

Non issue: Kenya insisted that Shamea was trying to make her look bad

'You guys want to talk about negative stuff, I'm just not here for that right now,' she told the women.

The show kicked off with Porsha arranging medical supplies and relief items for flood-ravaged Houston through her family charity.

'It really hit home. I am often in Houston, it feels like a second home to me,' explained Porsha.

Hit home: Porsha said the hurricane damage hit home since she considers Houston a second home

'It was so devastating that I felt inside that I needed to do something.'

Porsha said she hoped the women could set aside their differences to help out the charity work.

'For a collective effort this would have been great for the people and great for us,' said Porsha.

Helping out: The reality star used her family charity to help out hurricane victims

Porsha's friend Shamea called her and offered her help in the charity drive.

The pair had fallen out at a wedding shower and Porsha admitted that it was 'weird' to get the call.

Cynthia Bailey met for dinner with Kandi Burruss , but Kenya bailed on the girls date night.

Nice try: Cynthia Bailey tried to get Kandi Burruss to join her in Houston

Kandi asked her about NeNe's 'elephant room' meeting and the fight between Kenya and Kim Zolciak.

Cynthia told Kandi that she was also helping the Hurricane Harvey relief efforts as she has family ties to the city, but Kandi told her she could not make the event.

'I have given over $20,000 to individual families as well as organizations benefiting Houston and I really need to spend time with my family right now,' she told the cameras.

Family time: Kandi said she had donated plenty to Houston and needed to spend time with family instead of Porsha

Kandi told the cameras that the women were not keen on helping Porsha's relief efforts.

'I would not go down the street for Porsha, let alone Houston,' she said firmly.

Cynthia then spoke with Kenya and asked her to go to Houston, but she also said she could not make it.

'I am a little bummed she is not going to be able to come to Houston to support my event, she has family there and I feel like I always support her,' said Cynthia.

Little bummed: Cynthia admitted she was a little bummed that Kenya wasn't going

'Kenya is always a good time but since she got married she is focused on being a good wife.'

Sheree Whitfield then took a phone call from her imprisoned boyfriend, Tyrone.

She told the cameras that she would love to go to Houston but following her accident she was under doctor's orders to not travel because of a back injury.

Texas shelters: Hurricane Harvey victims were living in shelters after the devastation

Sheree told Tyrone that NeNe had been talking about him to the other women, which did not go down well.

'How long has NeNe Been married? Is she married? Let's just say this, NeNe would never want to speak anything negative about me. She don't wanna go down that road,' he warned Sheree.

'My focus has been you from the beginning not NeNe,' he added.

Prison call: Sheree Whitfield talk to imprisoned boyfriend Tyrone on the phone

Sheree told the cameras that NeNe knew Tyrone before she did, and that she was not sure if if she had pursued him before.

But she added that she was not sure if NeNe was separated from husband Gregg at the time.

'I'm surprised that she's even mentioning my name. She needs to stay away from that,' he said.

Stay away: Tyrone during the phone call advised NeNe Leakes to stay away from talking about him

Sheree then said that NeNe had invited Tyrone onto the set of The Apprentice and had driven to Philadelphia to see him.

'She was really trying to pursue this man but she is really not his type, he was not into her, nope,' said Sheree.

'Let them say what they're saying, I am focused on you and getting home to you,' he added.

Wrong type: Sheree said that NeNe was not Tyrone's type

In Houston, Porsha and Cynthia visited a community center her family had donated to as part of the relief effort.

Both women were deeply moved by the devastation they saw and Porsha recalled her own struggles with poverty.

'We realized we had each other and we realized we had hope and for these people in Houston that is all I want them to remember,' said Porsha.

Hurricane damage: The women drove around to see the hurricane damage

Busy shelters: Shelters were full of people left homeless from the hurricane

Shamea showed up and although Porsha was thrilled she admitted it was 'awkward.'

'It is a little weird of a way to make amends,' said Porsha.

Back in Atlanta, Kandi's daughter, Riley, turned 15 and got her driving permit and Kandi took her out for driving lessons in her luxurious Mercedes G-Wagon.

Little weird: Porsha admitted it was a 'little weird' making up with Shamea Morton

'You did pretty good I'll give you that,' said Kandi as they got home without incident.

Kandi took a call from Riley's dad, Block, who was at the hospital waiting for the arrival of his son.

Kandi told the cameras that Block had been making the effort to have a better relationship with his daughter and that the situation had improved.

Driving lesson: Riley after turning 15 got a driving lesson from mother Kandi

'I am just trying to be supportive of Riley, even if it is just for her to get closer to her other siblings,' said Kandi.

Away from the cameras Riley could be heard sobbing as Kandi urged producers to take their mics off.

Back in Texas, Cynthia and sister Malorie drove around devastated neighborhoods while Porsha did a radio interview to promote her charity work.

Devastated neighborhoods: Cynthia drove around seeing the devastation up close

Porsha told the cameras that working with Cynthia in Houston had brought them closer together and said she felt obligated to go to Cynthia's benefit concert to support her.

'We want to lift everyone's spirits, we are here to get down and lift people up,' said Cynthia.

Porsha told the cameras that she and Shamea were not ready to be best friends, but she was happy her friend had joined their Houston effort.

Not yet: Cynthia said she wasn't yet ready to be best friends with Shamea

Cynthia also reflected on her bond with Porsha.

'Porsha and I have always had this love-hate relationship. She has always come off as more of a taker than a giver, but being here in Houston with Porsha has given me an opportunity to see a different side of her, it is nice,' said Cynthia.

'This is validation for me that I am in the right place.'

Right place: Cynthia after seeing Porsha in action knew that she was in the right place

The girls then got a big surprise as Kenya Moore showed up at the event unannounced from Los Angeles.

'I had to move mountains to get to Houston but I have a lot of close family there, to see the devastation I knew I had to do something,' said Kenya.

Back at their hotel Porsha and Shamea spent time together but it didn't take long for the tensions to rise up again.

Surprise visit: Kenya surprised the women by showing up in Houston

'I don't like to rehash everything over and over,' Porsha told her as Shamea said she wanted to apologize for what happened previously.

'I felt you were showing out. We could have done better with that,' said Porsha as they hugged in bed and made up.

'She acknowledged how I felt, thank you girl, let's move on, let's twerk,' said Porsha happily.

Making up: Porsha and Shamea made up after a heartfelt conversation

On the second day in Houston, Cynthia joined Kenya in doing charity work for Habitat For Humanity.

Porsha was happy the pair were doing charity work, but she admitted to the cameras she felt like Cynthia's 'side chick' now that Kenya was on the scene.

'We dragged our tired butts to her event last night, hello, what about the sisterhood,' said Porsha cheekily.

Teaming up: Kenya after arriving teamed up with Cynthia for some charity work

Side chick: Porsha admitted that she felt like Cynthia's 'side chick' after Kenya arrived

Back in Atlanta, Kandi visited Block to talk to him about Riley and how upset she had been.

'I try my best to not have a negative interaction with Block because I don't want it to be like every time we communicate it has to go left,' said Kandi.

Kandi told him how upset Riley had been and told Block that Riley needed to be prepared to have chats with her dad.

Staying positive: Kandi met up with Block and suggested counseling with Riley

Block told Kandi that they needed to become 'great examples' to their daughter.

'I can't force Riley to be cool with her dad, she is 15, and you are just now pushing to have this relationship, but what I can do is to try and have a better communication with him myself,' said Kandi.

'I want this to move in a positive direction, hopefully she will see that and start opening up.'

RHOA continues next week on Bravo.
She is gaining praise for her role in the lauded Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

And Abbie Cornish turned head as attended the 24th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday.

The 35-year-old wore an unusual high-necked gown that featured delicate ruffles on the shoulders and cuffs.

A vision in white! Abbie Cornish wears unusual high-necked lace frock as she attends SAG Awards in Los Angeles

Abbie was all smiles as she posed up a storm on the red carpet.

Known for rocking conservative ensembles at events, the Hollywood A-Lister was covered head-to-toe in the gown.

She encased her svelte arms in the semi-sheer material, while a black belt cinched in at her slender waist.

Covered up: Known for rocking conservative ensembles at events, the Hollywood A-Lister was covered head-to-toe in the gown

Stunning! Abbie encased her svelte arms in the semi-sheer material, while a black belt cinched in at her slender waist

The blonde beauty's outfit was adorned with a line of black bow detailing with silver studs across her chest.

Abbie elongated her frame with a pair of Chloe Gosselin black stilettos and accessorised with a glitzy silver box clutch

Not detracting from her dress, Abbie went minimal on the bling with silver rings and simple ear rings.

Simple: Abbie elongated her frame with a pair of Chloe Gosselin black stilettos and accessorised with a glitzy silver box clutch

Natural beauty: Abbie finished her look with a light rose lipstick, manicured eyebrow and a subtle application of blush to accentuate her cheekbones

The Seven Psychopaths star left her long blonde locks out in loose tousled curls, parted over her shoulders.

She finished her look with a light rose lipstick, manicured eyebrow and a subtle application of blush to accentuate her cheekbones.

Abbie rose to fame after appearing opposite Heath Ledger in 2006 drama film Candy.
She's currently on the promotional trail for her latest film I, Tonya.

And Margot Robbie looked flawless as she arrived at the SAG Awards red carpet, in Los Angeles on Sunday.

The 27-year-old channelled old Hollywood glamour in a halterneck pastel pink frock with feather detailing.

Bird of a feather! Margot Robbie, 27, channeled old Hollywood glamour in an embellished dusty pink frock, as she arrived at the SAG Awards on Sunday

Margot stunned as she posed for photos in front of the media wall at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

The former Neighbours actress highlighted her slim figure in a pastel pink halterneck frock that also featured a dramatic train.

Beading around the waist and feather detailing also drew the eye to Margot's slender waist.

Pastel perfection: The I, Tonya actress highlighted her slim figure in a pastel pink halterneck frock that also featured a dramatic train

Svelte: Beading around the waist and feather detailing also drew the eye to Margot's slender waist

Red carpet ensemble: Accessorising with a silver box clutch and diamond jewels, the Queensland-born star styled her blonde locks semi-straight and in a centre part

Accessorising with a silver box clutch and diamond jewels, the Queensland-born star styled her blonde locks semi-straight and in a centre part.

Finishing off the look was a makeup palette consisting of a matte complexion, defined brows, subtle kohl-rimmed eyes and a nude colour on her plump pout.

Making time for fans, Margot happily posed for selfies and signed her autograph on promotional posters for her latest film I, Tonya.

She's a beauty: Finishing off the look was a makeup palette consisting of a matte complexion, defined brows, subtle kohl-rimmed eyes and a nude colour on her plump pout

Sweet gesture: Making time for fans, Margot happily posed for selfies and signed her autograph on promotional posters for her latest film I, Tonya

Recognised: Margot is nominated for I, Tonya, in the category Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

Margot is nominated for I, Tonya, in the category Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role.

She not only played the starring role in the film, but also acted as producer alongside husband Tom Ackerley, Steven Rogers and Bryan Unkeless.

I, Tonya follows the real-life story of US figure skater Tonya Harding whose reputation is tarnished when her husband conspires to injure her rival Nancy Kerrigan.

The film is also tipped for Oscars greatness after it scooped up a win and three nominations at the Golden Globes.
They are mother and daughter.

And Goldie Hawn and Kate Hudson proved the perfect companions on the red carpet for Sunday's SAG Awards in Los Angeles.

Almost Famous actress Kate, 38, and her mom Goldie Hawn, 72, swapped parenting stories as they chatted to reporters at the Shrine Auditorium.

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Tickled pink! Kate Hudson turned heads in an over-the-top pink and black Valentino dress at Sunday's SAG awards in Los Angeles

Kate, when asked what she has learnt from Goldie, explained: 'I feel blessed that I have a role model that I can call mom.

'I think that [she has taught me] to be compassionate. Family is everything. How I raise our children is our most important legacy.'

As for Goldie, she said Kate's different parenting style was an education.

Kate has taught me a lot, in that she is in many ways tougher than I was with the kids,' she said, admitting: 'I wanted them to be happy all the time.'

Mom and me! Next to the actress, mom Goldie Hawn, 72, looked mesmerizing in aquamarine dress with a flouncing asymmetrical sleeve and fitted floor-length skirt

Hollywood stars: Goldie and Kate were the center of attention together on the carpet

For the mother-daughter date, Kate's pink Valentino dress featured a high lace collar and semi-sheer panel atop her cleavage.

Another row of ruffles framed a deep scoop neckline, this time constructed from a bold pink fabric with black hearts scattered on front.

The Marshall actress's dress was belted in the center with a velvet ribbon and piled on more ruffles with a tiered train.

She carried a boxy mother-of-pearl clutch in hand while adorning her ears with diamond jewelry.

A flirty peek: Kate's couture dress featured a high lace collar and semi-sheer panel atop her cleavage

Black hearts: The dress also featured little black hearts

Kate's short tresses were styled with chunky texture and dark roots.

She radiated a all-around glow while matching her dress's dots with a noir manicure.

Mom Goldie was classic in a turquoise Monique Lhuillier number paired with chandelier earrings, a glittering cuff bracelet and a supersized ring on her hand.

She styled her golden blonde tresses with a polished flip across her layers.

Never better! Mom Goldie, 72, was classic in a glam turquoise number paired with chandelier earrings, a glittering cuff bracelet and a supersized ring on her hand

Ruffling feathers: The Marshall actress's dress was belted in the center with a velvet ribbon and piled on more ruffles with a tiered train

Teaming up; Lupita Nyong'o teamed up with Kate on the carpet

The mother-daughter duo joined forces with fellow starlet Dakota Fanning on the red carpet.

Fanning looked lovely in a pale pink Prada design and elegant ballerina bun.

The event will be hosted by actress Kristen Bell who is the show's first host in its 24 year history.

The SAG Awards air Sunday 5pm PST on TNT and TBS.

Star studded! The mother-daughter duo joined forces with fellow starlet Dakota Fanning on the red carpet for the event, airing Sunday at 5pm PST on TBS and TNT

Dynamic duo: Mother and daughter also took the stage together to present an award

On stage: Goldie and Hawn presented Milo Ventimiglia with the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series for This is Us
She is the winner of two past Screen Actors Guild Awards.

And Halle Berry, 51, showed the newcomers just how it's done as she walked the red carpet on Sunday night.

Outside Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium, Halle was radiant in a cleavage-baring sleeveless gown that featured colorful sequins on a nude field.

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Stealing the scene: Halle Berry was a showstopper when she walked the red carpet for this year's Screen Actors Guild Awards

Her hair was slicked back at the front and wound into a high ponytail, and she accessorized her ensemble with a pair of Yael Sonia drop earrings.

Over the backless dress, Halle had pulled on a high-waisted translucent black skirt that featured a bit of a train dragging on the carpet behind her.

While at the starry red carpet, she posed with This Is Us actress Eris Baker, and each of them put an arm about each other.

Smile and wave: Outside Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium, Halle was radiant in a cleavage-baring sleeveless gown that featured glittering work on a nude field

Touch of glitz: Her hair was slicked back at the front and wound into a high ponytail, and she accessorized her ensemble with a pair of Yael Sonia drop earrings

Hands at the waist: Over the backless dress, Halle had pulled on a high-waisted translucent black skirt that featured a bit of a train dragging on the carpet behind her

Spread it wide: Halle showed off the skirt to advantage in front of the cameras

Inside the Shrine, she posed up a storm while flanked by Black-ish stars Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross.

This trio were seen enjoying a conversation as they stood together, during which Tracee appeared to be having a chuckle.

The whole ensemble of Black-ish were nominated that evening as a group, as was Anthony individually.

Pedigree: Halle has previously earned two Screen Actors Guild Awards herself

So sweet: While at the starry red carpet, she posed with This Is Us actress Eris Baker

Keeping close: Each of them put an arm about each other

Trio: Inside the Shrine, she posed up a storm while flanked by Black-ish stars Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross

Halle shared a hug in the Shrine with none other than her fellow Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong'o, who is also a SAG winner.

Lupita, Halle, Tracee and Niecy Nash - who was presenting that night - all cozied up together as a quartet for a couple of group photos, with Anthony peeking in.

That night, Halle took the stage and presented the award for Outstanding Female Actor In A Motion Picture - an award she has won.

Hobnobbing: This trio were seen enjoying a conversation as they stood together, during which Tracee appeared to be having a chuckle

So dapper: Anthony Anderson teamed a black suit with a black bow-tie

Timeless elegance: Tracee, the daughter of Diana Ross, wore a sleeveless white gown with a flowing cape stretching down the back

Bright spirits: Tracee was seen with a radiant smile on her face during the chat

Moments of mirth: Halle seemed to be quite enjoying the conversation as well

This year, it went to Frances McDormand for her role as the avenging bereaved mother Mildred Hayes in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

From one winner to another, Halle gave Frances a hug as the latter advanced to the stage to collect the first of two trophies she would earn that evening.

Halle scooped up her first Screen Actors Guild Award in 2000, earning Outstanding Performance By A Female Actor In A Miniseries Or Television Movie.

Legends: Halle shared a hug in the Shrine with none other than her fellow Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong'o, who is also a SAG winner

Party of four: Lupita, Halle, Tracee and Niecy Nash - who was presenting that night - all cozied up together as a quartet for a couple of group photos, with Anthony peeking in

Photobombing? Anthony's face was visible between Lupita and Niecy

Her winning performance was as the title character in Introducing Dorothy Dandrige, an HBO movie about the eponymous movie star, who in 1955 became the first black woman to be nominated for the Oscar For Best Actress.

In 2002, Halle became the first black woman to win that Oscar - doing so by way of Monster's Ball, which also earned Halle her second Screen Actors Guild Award.

The event was hosted by actress Kristen Bell and was her first time ever emceeing an awards show. She was also the first ever host of the SAG Awards in its 24 year history.

It was night celebrating women as the SAG Awards will feature mostly female presenters including Halle, Olivia Munn, Emma Stone, Lupita Nyong'o, Marisa Tomei, and Gina Rodriguez.

Passing the torch: That night, Halle took the stage and presented the award for Outstanding Female Actor In A Motion Picture - an award she has won

History: Halle won that award for the 2001 film Monster's Ball - a performance that also made her the first black woman to win an Academy Award For Best Actress

Looking back: Halle scooped up her first Screen Actors Guild Award in 2000, earning Outstanding Performance By A Female Actor In A Miniseries Or Television Movie

After a successful night at the Golden Globes just a few weeks ago, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri led nominations with four.

The dark comedy received acting nominations for Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, and Woody Harrelson, the first two of whom won.

It also earned what is considered the top honor of the night: Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

They faced stiff competition in the category as they are up against Lady Bird, Get Out, Mudbound, and The Big Sick.

The handover: This year, Halle gave the prize to Frances McDormand for her role as the avenging bereaved mother Mildred Hayes in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Warm moment: From one winner to another, Halle gave Frances a hug as the latter advanced to the stage to collect the first of two trophies she would earn that evening

Big winner: Three Billboards also earned what is considered the top honor of the night: Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
She has wowed critics and fans with her mesmorising performance as the young Princess Margaret in the Netflix series The Crown.

And Vanessa Kirby left little to the imagination in a semi-sheer nude Valentino gown as she walked the red carpet for the Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles.

The 29-year-old beauty oozed elegance in the gown as she was joined on the red carpet by her co-star Matt Smith, 35.

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Supporting the royals: The Crown stars Vanessa Kirby and Matt Smith came out in force to support the Netflix period drama at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday

Vanessa styled her blonde tresses into a messy updo, with several strands hanging loosely over her alabaster complexion.

The dress, which sported a semi-sheer nude overlay was covered with a slew of flowers embroidered into the material, with all other accessories kept to a minimum.

Vanessa, who has been critically lauded for her performance in The Crown, kept all other accessories to a minimum allowing the dress to truly take centre stage.

The beauty also sported a statement red lip with her look, keeping the rest of her makeup natural adding to the beach-chic vibe of the look.

Stunning: Vanessa left little to the imagination in a semi sheer gown covered with floral embroidery

Flawless: Vanessa teamed her look with a loose blonde updo, as she walked the red carpet in Los Angeles

Legendary: Vanessa wowed critics with her performance as Princess Margaret

Vanessa was joined on the red carpet by her on-screen brother-in-law Matt Smith, who looked totally dapper in a tailored black tuxedo by Burberry as he walked the red carpet.

Matt, who played Prince Phillip in the period drama, looked totally relaxed as he arrived for the awards show.

The Crown received two SAG award nominations, and Vanessa and Matt were out in full force to support the series as they prepare to hand their roles over to other actors.

Dapper: Matt Smith, who plays Prince Phillip in the drama, also put on a smart display in a a tailored tuxedo by Burberry

Smart: Matt will also be giving up his role as Prince Phillip in the near future, as the entire series is recast to meet with the ageing royal family

After it was all-but confirmed that Helena Bonham Carter would be taking over Vanessa's role last week, news broke on Saturday that Paul Bettany was in talks to take over from Matt.

Paul met with several producers for the Netflix drama, and has been lined up to take over the role for the upcoming third and fourth series.

Fans will have to wait and see how the new The Crown cast takes she, but the news that Olivia Colman would be taking on the role of Queen Elizabeth II already caused fan delight.

Legendary: Matt also won critical acclaim for her performance as Prince Phillip, and rumours have circulated that the role will be taken over by Paul Bettany

Suave: The Crown was nominated for Best Cast in a Drama Series, and Best Actress for Claire Foy
Felicity Huffman sent husband William H Macy a racy tweet after he won a top honor on Sunday at the SAG Awards in Los Angeles.

'I LOVE YOU SO MUCH WILLIAM H MACY. I will be the blonde in your bed forever! @WilliamHMacy #SAGAwards,' she tweeted to her more than 240,000 followers.

Her tweet came after the 67-year-old actor won the Actor for Outstanding Performance By A Male Actor In A Comedy Series for Shameless in the ceremony at the Shrine Auditorium.

'I love you so much,' William told his wife of more than 20 years during his thank you speech.

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Adorable: WIlliam H. Macy planted a sweet smooch on wife Felicity Huffman as they arrived at the 24th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday night in Los Angeles

Bed forever: Felicity took to Twitter after William's big win and said she'd be his 'blonde in your bed forever!'

The actor also gave a shout-out to the couple's daughters Sophia, 17, and Georgia, 15.

'Im proud to be your dad,' he told the teenagers.

Over on Twitter Felicity also posted photos of her and William on the red carpet and tweeted:'Date night meets #sagawards. @WilliamHMacy'.

William and Felicity have been married since 1997, and dated for 15 years before that.

Date night: The 67-year-old actor and his 55-year-old ladylove packed on the PDA as they arrived at the gala event at the legendary Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles

Handsome: William looked dapper as always in a black tuxedo featuring a crisp white dress shirt and black bowtie

They looked as loved up as ever on the red carpet, packing on the PDA as they arrived at the gala event.

Felicity looked absolutely gorgeous in a long black gown featuring a low-cut neckline.

Her blonde locks were done in an elegant updo as she accentuated her natural looks with complimentary make-up.

William looked dapper as always in a black tuxedo featuring a crisp white dress shirt and black bowtie.

He arrived at the event mustachioed as his longer locks were combed to the side.

Never let go: William hammed it up as he posed with both arms extended as Felicity held him by the hips

William previously won the 2015 and 2016 SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series for his work in Shameless.

He also won the 2003 SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie for his starring role in the TV movie Door To Door.

William for his latest SAG Award beat out Anthony Anderson for black-ish; Aziz Ansari for Master of None; Curb Your Enthusiasm's Larry David; Sean Hayes in Will & Grace and GLOW's Marc Maron.

Stunning: Felicity looked absolutely gorgeous in a long black gown featuring a low-cut neckline

As one of the steadiest bellwethers of the Academy Awards, the SAG Awards have considerable sway on the Oscar race.

James Franco won Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for The Disaster Artist at the Golden Globes just a few weeks ago but has since been accused of sexual harassment by multiple women.

And though he passed up an appearance at the Critics Choice Awards last week, he will be in attendance at tonight's event.

He is nominated in the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role category against Timothee Chalamet (Call Me by Your Name), Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour), and Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role will also be competitive as Judi Dench (Victoria & Abdul), Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water), Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Margot Robbie (I, Tonya), and Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird) are all up for the prize.

Taking the plunge: Her blonde locks were done in an elegant updo as she accentuated her natural looks with complimentary make-up

Actors make up the largest branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, though the guild's ranks are much larger. Only about 1,000 of their 160,000 members are in the film academy.

The Oscars race so far is considered wide open, and by winnowing the field down to five movies for its top award on Wednesday, the Screen Actors left out many frontrunners.

Steven Spielberg's Pentagon Papers drama The Post was shut out entirely, including its lauded stars, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks.

No doubt it is a crucial time as the Oscar nominations will be announced just two days from now on Tuesday, January 23.

Catching up: Felicity and Tracee Ellis Ross shared a laugh as they said hi to one another

The television categories will also be very competitive as The Crown, Game of Thrones, The Handmaid's Tale, Stranger Things, and This is Us, will compete for best TV drama ensemble.

The TV comedy best ensemble race comprised Black-ish, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Glow, Orange is the New Black, and Veep.

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries will also be interesting as castmembers from two series comprise the entire five nomination category.

Big Little Lies stars Laura Dern, Nicole Kidman, and Reese Witherspoon will face off against Feud: Bette & Joan stars Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon.

Morgan Freeman will be the recipient of the 2017 SAG Life Achievement Award.

The 24th Annual SAG Awards was airing both on TNT and TBS at 8pm EST/ 5pm EST.
She has been spending time with husband Mark Wright in LA as he continues to flourish in his role as a presenter for Extra.

And Michelle Keegan looked every inch the California girl as she spotted leaving the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Beverly Hills on Sunday, after reportedly dropping off Mark to the La Prairie Spa for a birthday pampering.

The Our Girl actress, 30, slipped into a leopard print dress for the occasion, two days after taking to Instagram to wish the former TOWIE star a happy 31st birthday.

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Understated: Michelle Keegan looked every inch the California girl as she spotted leaving the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Beverly Hills on Sunday

Making the most of her enviable tan, Michelle showed off a hint of leg below her leopard-print midi dress.

Opting for understated chic in the warm weather, she teamed the dress with a pair of white trainers, accessorising with a delicate gold necklace and watch.

The actress, who appeared to be making the most of the climate before returning to England, completed her look with a pair of sunglasses, injecting a splash of designer with a Louis Vuitton holdall bag.

Tribute: The Our Girl actress, 30, slipped into a leopard print dress for the occasion, two days after taking to Instagram to wish the former TOWIE star a happy 31st birthday

On Friday she paid tribute to her husband of over two years as he celebrated his 31st birthday.

Sharing a snap of the duo to Instagram, she wrote: 'Happy 31st birthday to my love.'

She then shared a throwback snap of Mark as a youngster, adding: 'Birthday boy!!! How bl***y cute!'.

Mark was later seen enjoying a ride on one of the two $5,861 his and hers bikes he was gifted for his birthday.

The pair first started dating in December 2012, before getting engaged in September 2013 and going onto tie the knot in May 2015.

Wild thing! Making the most of her enviable tan, Michelle showed off a hint of leg below her leopard-print midi dress

Having wrapped on BBC drama Our Girl, Michelle is in the area spending time with her husband.

She recently admitted that she is trying to find more acting work, even though she is engaged on projects again as of next month.

Michelle told OK! magazine: 'I'm in LA with Mark for about a month, then I've got work starting in February.I'm auditioning again now, which is weird.'

Michelle will resume filming for a third series of Our Girl, in which she plays Lance Corporal Georgie Lane, later this year.

She had been away for filming for seven months and said she signed on without knowing if a new series would come about.

'Obviously the first time it was for five episodes,' she told Women's Health. 'Nut this time it was for 12 so it's overly doubled. I didn't know that at the time either.'

She added: 'It's been a long, long filming schedule. I was away for three months last time and this time I was in South Africa for three months and then I had three weeks off then I was in Malaysia for three months.

'So over all I was away for seven months. It was a long time being away from home. I had to do it, the contract was signed. Book me a flight!'

Sweet! She then shared a throwback snap of Mark as a youngster, adding: 'Birthday boy!!! How bl***y cute!'
The Hollywood Reporter recently claimed she threatened to appear in fewer episodes of Black-ish if she wasn't paid the same as her male co-star, Anthony Anderson, 47.

But Tracee Ellis Ross, 45, took to Twitter to address the article on Saturday, hours before arriving at the Screen Actors Guild awards at the Shrine Exhibition Center in Los Angeles on Sunday night.

'The words and thoughts that were in the original article that started this public conversation were not mine; there were never any threats.'

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All right in white: Tracee Ellis Ross, 45, kept it simple on the red carpet, opting for an all-white ensemble, including white heels and box clutch purse

The THR article stated that Ross was being paid less than her Transformers starring costar and that she had threatened to appear in fewer episodes if she continued to be paid less than Anderson.

But the daughter of Diana Ross refuted that she had made any threats in her statement, although she implied she felt she was worth more than she was currently being paid.

'I wanted to be compensated in a way that matches my contribution to [the] show.'

Her statement: The actress took to Twitter to address the THR article on Saturday

Her point made, later that day the actress looked fabulous in the floor length gown by Ralph & Russo with matching cape.

The Girlfriends alum kept the color theme going with white heels and a white box clutch.

Tracee matched her ruby red lips to her ruby teardrop earrings from Lorraine Schwartz.

Picture perfect: On the ABC hit Black-ish, Tracee plays Dr. Rainbow Johnson

Hear her roar: The daughter of Diana Ross looked fabulous in the floor length gown by Ralph & Russo with matching cape

Social media: The Girlfriends actress kept the color theme going with white heels and a white box clutch, as seen here in a pic from her Instagram account

A hint of color: Tracee matched her ruby red lips to her ruby teardrop earrings

Ross was joined at one point by her onscreen daughter, Diane (played by Marsai Martin).

The Fun Mom Dinner actress wore a full length red dress that trailed behind her as she walked.

The 13-year-old wore a full face of makeup and her raven locks were wore pinned back with a loose fringe and an off-center part.

We are (onscreen) family: Ross was joined at one point by her onscreen daughter, Diane (played by Marsai Martin)

Lady in red: The Fun Mom Dinner actress wore a full length red dress that trailed behind her as she walked

Good hair: Martin wore a full face of makeup and her raven locks were wore pinned back with a loose fringe and an off-center part

A lot of character: Marsai plays Diane in ABC's hit comedy, Black-ish

Anderson, meanwhile, wore a navy suit with blue lapels that matched the color of wife Alvina Stewart's dress.

The Transformers star wore black leather loafers - sans socks.

At one point the Kangaroo Jack actor showed what a gentleman he is by kneeling on the red carpet to fix a strap on his wife's shoe.

Matching couple: Anthony Anderson, 47, meanwhile, wore a navy suit with blue lapels that matched the color of wife Alvina Stewart's dress

Sockless star: The Transformers star wore black leather loafers - sans socks

At one point the Kangaroo Jack actor showed what a gentleman he is by kneeling on the red carpet to fix a strap on his wife's shoe

The event will be hosted by actress Kristen Bell as it is her first time ever emceeing an awards show. She is also the first ever host of the SAG Awards in its 24 year history.

Surely it will be a night celebrating women as the SAG Awards will feature mostly female presenters including Halle Berry, Olivia Munn, Emma Stone, Lupita Nyong'o, Marisa Tomei, and Gina Rodriguez.

After a successful night at the Golden Globes just a few weeks ago, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri led nominations with four.

Back in black: Yara Shahidi, 17, looked gorgeous in an all black ensemble

Triple threat: Shahidi is an activist, model and actress

The dark comedy received acting nominations for Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, and Woody Harelson.

It was also nominated for what is considered the top honor of the night: Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

They will face stiff competition in the category as they are up against Lady Bird, Get Out, Mudbound, and The Big Sick.

As one of the steadiest bellwethers of the Academy Awards, the SAG Awards have considerable sway on the Oscar race.

Famous friends: Marcus Scribner, 18, posed with Stranger Things star Caleb McLaughlin, 16, on the red carpet

Dapper: Scribner rocked a black tuxedo with white lapel stripes

James Franco won Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for The Disaster Artist at the Golden Globes just a few weeks ago but has since been accused of sexual harassment by multiple women.

And though he passed up an appearance at the Critics Choice Awards last week, he will be in attendance at tonight's event.

He is nominated in the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role category against Timothee Chalamet (Call Me by Your Name), Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour), and Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role will also be competitive as Judi Dench (Victoria & Abdul), Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water), Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Margot Robbie (I, Tonya), and Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird) are all up for the prize.

Actors make up the largest branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, though the guild's ranks are much larger. Only about 1,000 of their 160,000 members are in the film academy.

The Oscars race so far is considered wide open, and by winnowing the field down to five movies for its top award on Wednesday, the Screen Actors left out many frontrunners.

Steven Spielberg's Pentagon Papers drama The Post was shut out entirely, including its lauded stars, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks.

No doubt it is a crucial time as the Oscar nominations will be announced just two days from now on Tuesday, January 23.

The television categories will also be very competitive as The Crown, Game of Thrones, The Handmaid's Tale, Stranger Things, and This is Us, will compete for best TV drama ensemble.

The TV comedy best ensemble race will comprise Black-ish, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Glow, Orange is the New Black, and Veep.

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries will also be interesting as castmembers from two series comprise the entire five nomination category.

Big Little Lies stars Laura Dern, Nicole Kidman, and Reese Witherspoon will face off against Feud: Bette & Joan stars Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon.

Morgan Freeman will be the recipient of the 2017 SAG Life Achievement Award.

The 24th Annual SAG Awards will air both on TNT and TBS at 8pm EST/ 5pm EST.
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He's the My Kitchen Rules judge who advocates a Paleo lifestyle.

And Pete Evans, 45, has given fans a look inside his $1.2 million 10 hectare farm in northern New South Wales, shared with wife Nicola Robinson.

Snaps shared to Instagram reveal the property's unique features including two residences, three dams, a games room, six bedrooms and a spacious outdoor area.

Two residences, three dams, a games room, meditation area, six bedrooms and a spacious outdoor terrace: Inside My Kitchen Rules judge Pete Evans' $1.2 million 10 hectare farm in northern New South Wales, he shares with wife Nicola Robinson

Pete purchased the farm at Round Mountain in northern New South Wales for $1.2 million in 2015, having previously resided in a home in Sydney's Bondi.

With plenty of room to move, the abode consists of two residences, with the main boasting three bedrooms, two bathrooms, two living rooms and a spacious kitchen and outdoor area.

The second residence also contains three bedrooms as well as a barn for the family's horses.

Room to move: An open-plan layout, the lot features mahogany wooden floorboards, white-washed walls and floor-to-ceiling windows

Active: Perfect for the summer months, an outdoor pool offers the chance to cool off, with a tiled area also accommodating yoga practice

A shed has also been converted into a granny flat with two generously-sized bedrooms.

With an open-plan layout, the lot features mahogany wooden floorboards, white-washed walls and floor-to-ceiling windows.

Pete can even practise his award-winning dishes in a spacious kitchen, with a white island, state-of-the-art appliances - including a double-door fridge - and a generously-sized pantry.

Perfect to relax and unwind, there's a games room with a pool table which looks out onto a large paddock, while in the summer months an outdoor pool offers the chance to cool off.

Peace of mind: A meditation area is close-by, with plush drapes, greenery and a compact tea station

Kick back and relax: A games room with a pool table looks out onto a large paddock

A meditation area is close-by, with plush drapes, greenery and a compact tea station.

The farm also holds a special place in the hearts of Pete and wife Nicola, having been the location of their nuptials in 2016.

At the intimate affair, New Zealand-born Nicola stunned in a bohemian-style frock with bell sleeves, accessorising with a flower crown.

Design: Interiors feature white drapes and unique touches including a chandelier

Domestic: Pete can even practise his award-winning dishes in a spacious kitchen, with a white island, state-of-the-art appliances - including a double-door fridge - and a generously-sized pantry

Their clean-living mentality also saw guests dine on local produce and a Paleo wedding cake.

Nicola announced her marital status to Instagram in April 2016, uploading a wedding day snap of the couple, with the hash-tag 'husband'.

Fans were quick to take to the comments section, with one in particular writing: 'Congrats, wishing you many happy and blessed years together with your soulmate and little angels creating even more beautiful memories.'
One of the biggest risks in Australian breakfast TV history appears to have marginally paid off.

Today Show viewers flocked to the show's social media accounts on Monday, praising Channel Nine's decision to put Georgie Gardner in the hosting seat next to Karl Stefanovic.

'It''s like she never left,' wrote one viewer. 'Great decision TODAY'.

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Good move: Today Show viewers this morning flocked to the shows social media accounts praising Channel Nine's decision to put Georgie Gardiner in the hosting seat next to Karl Stefanovic

While another wrote: 'Love Georgie. Such a nice lady and to top it off a wonderful news presenter'.

Georgie stepped in to co-host the show three months after former host Lisa Wilkinson suddenly quit to join Channel Ten's 'The Project'.

Despite heaping praise on the network for Georgie's placement, viewers were not so happy about the show's decision to keep Karl Stefanovic.

'Love Georgie, can't stand Karl,' wrote one viewer. 'Hope Channel Nine wake up, he is not worth the $$. How many more times does he have to appear drunk or hung-over'.

While another wrote: 'Don't like Karl, get him off.'

'Love Georgie': Georgie stepped in to co-host the show three months after former host Lisa Wilkinson suddenly quit to join Channel Ten's 'The Project'

Georgie made her highly-anticipated return to the Today show on Monday, four years after she quit as news anchor.

And on the debut episode, Karl took a tongue-in-cheek dig at his new co-host.

'You haven't made any significant errors yet,' the 43-year-old playfully directed at the mother-of-two.

An hour after making her debut as co-host on breakfast television, Karl quipped lightheartedly on-air: 'Now into your first comeback show Georgie and you haven't made any significant errors yet.'

Smooth start: On her debut episode, Karl took a tongue-in-cheek dig at his new co-host. 'You haven't made any significant errors yet,' the 43-year-old playfully directed at the mother-of-two

Caught slightly off-guard by his playful remark, Georgie responded: 'Oh, you reckon? What about the off-air stuff?' referring to their antics off camera.

'That's being recorded too,' Karl responded in a tongue-in-cheek fashion.

The remarks come shortly after Georgie revealed concerns about potentially losing herself in her new hosting role.

'Ditch him': Viewers appeared to have turned on Karl Stefanovic urging Channel Nine to dump him

Antics: Caught off-guard by his playful remark, Georgie responded slightly awkwardly: 'Oh, you reckon? What about the off-air stuff?' referring to their antics off camera

Georgie told The Daily Telegraph on Sunday that the pressures of live television in conjunction with the social media age have made her nervous about intense 'scrutiny.'

'There's a part of me that feels wary because we live in a time now where there is just so much scrutiny, we live in this very weird era of clickbait and I just hope with that I don't lose my spontaneity,' she said.

'I figure we're all at risk of saying something that we might... regret or feel 'oh gosh I wish I didn't say that.' But I hope that doesn't override the genuine side of me and my authenticity.'

Concerns: Georgie revealed concerns about potentially losing herself in her new Today show hosting role, in an interview with The Daily Telegraph

When asked about rumours of a feud with her co-host Karl, Georgie dismissed it as gossip, saying it's been 'hyped up a fair bit.'

It comes after an insider claimed the Perth-native will face a pressure test in her new role.

The breakfast TV host will be getting the 'hard-hitting interviews' on the show to make her mark, while it's been claimed that her and Karl's rumoured tension has been 'overplayed.'

Scrutiny: 'There's a part of me that feels wary because we live in a time now where there is just so much scrutiny, we live in this very weird era of clickbait and I just hope with that I don't lose my spontaneity,' she said

'I'd be giving her the main interviews of the day for the first few weeks to stamp her authority,' an insider told News.com.au.

'She can't be seen as Karl's offsider. Given his strong personality, it's vital she's given space to show that it's now just as much her show as his.'

On Geogie and Karl's rumoured tension, the insider said: 'If she didn't like the guy, she wouldn't have taken the job.'
The host of Seven's The Morning Show was caught off guard on Monday, when he was pranked by Nova's Fitzy And Wippa.

And a red-faced Larry Emdur has now apologised to radio star Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli after being busted dissing him live on-air.

During a new segment called 'celebrity screeners', Larry chose not to take Wippa's call as he sat with a newspaper and coffee at a cafe in Sydney's CBD.

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That's awkward! The Morning Show's Larry Emdur apologises to Nova's Wippa after he's busted dissing the radio star during a live radio prank

Wippa had hyped up the call to viewers, confidently insisting: 'Larry and I are close and when he sees my name on the screen itll be, "Wippa, how are you mate? Whats going on?" I bet you that's how he answers the phone.'

Fitzy informed the producer, who was hiding behind a tree as they dialed the TV star's number, 'If he doesn't answer, he will, then you race over, okay?'

'There's no way he'd avoid my call,' Wippa said as he watched Larry reach for his phone, look at it, and sit it back down on the table.

'There's no way he'd avoid my call': During a new segment called 'celebrity screeners', Larry chose not to take Wippa's call as he sat with a newspaper and coffee at a cafe in Sydney's CBD

'Laz, Ive just told everybody how were mates!' Wippa (R) was shocked at the TV host avoiding his call, as he called out the media personality live on-air

The producer then raced over to the unsuspecting media personality to pass him a phone with a heartbroken and shocked Wippa on the other end.

Wippa told Larry: 'Hey mate! This is a segment called celebrity screeners and we just watched you pick up your phone, have a look at me calling and put it back down again... Laz, Ive just told everybody how were mates!'

Larry, visibly embarrassed, defended his actions, 'We are mates, but you only ever call when you want me to do stupid stuff', using a voice to imitate Wippa, saying: 'Hey Laz, we're mates let's do rap battles.'

'We are mates, but you only ever call when you want me to do stupid stuff': Larry, visibly embarrassed, defended his actions

'Aw, man, I'm sorry, can you maybe text me next time?' Fitzy (L) was in hysterics as Larry continued to explain why he didn't pick up the call

Fitzy was in hysterics as Larry continued to explain why he didn't pick up the call: 'Aw, man, I'm so sorry, can you maybe text me next time?'

Larry confirmed he was still on good terms with Wippa, as he chuckled while saying: 'Friends forever.'

After complaining that his coffee was going cold, the radio due let the TV host go, as Larry repeated: 'Love ya, love ya, love ya.'
She gave birth to her second child, daughter Rudy Hazel, in July last year.

And author and beauty guru Zoe Foster Blake spoke candidly on post-baby identity, in an Instagram post on Friday.

A close-up snap that saw the 37-year-old sporting a new look, consisting of natural curls and a full fringe was captioned in part: 'My New Me arrived today!'

'My New Me arrived today!' Zoe Foster Blake, 37, spoke candidly on post-baby identity in an Instagram post on Friday, after giving birth to daughter Rudy Hazel six months ago

'After pregnancy, and giving birth, and being tethered to your delightful sprog for months upon months, you begin to yearn for your pre-baby identity to return. Any identity, actually. [I'd take Gary two doors down],' Zoe began.

'Who IS this person, chained to the house, eating granola for dinner, smattered with stale breastmilk? Enough! Enough. Old You is no more, and this new mum phase can't hang around forever, so it must be time for New You.

'It could take three months, or three years, but my god you've earned a bit of self-care and probably some new shoes. New You signals to the world that you're back, you're better than ever, and you're not to be f***ed with, actually.

'My New Me arrived today! Features include my natural, air-dried curls, zero styling, the fringe I've wanted since 2015, cup holders, and duh, 500 selfies. Thank you, @hairbylaurenm, and thank you Flashdance/Dirty Dancing/Hot Shots Part Deux for the inspo,' the author went on to say.

The media personality delighted in her 'New Me' writing: 'Features include my natural, air-dried curls, zero styling, the fringe I've wanted since 2015, cup holders, and duh, 500 selfies'

The image shared with Zoe's 642,000 Instagram followers saw the mother-of-two in profile, sporting a black singlet top and drawing attention to natural curls, a full fringe and a blemish-free visage.

Zoe's candid post comes before she shared a heartfelt Instagram snap of three generations of women in her family.

The beauty posed alongside her mum Gerda and her six-month-old daughter Rudy wearing a jumpsuit with the words: 'THE FUTURE IS FEMALE' emblazoned on the front.

The future is female: Zoe shared a heartfelt snap of three generations of women in her family, including her mother Gerda and six-month-old daughter Rudy, to Instagram on Saturday

In the close-up snap, Zoe and her mother Gerda are both beaming with the newborn nestled between them, giving a somewhat curious look at the camera.

Zoe captioned the snap: 'I reckon it just might be, girl.'

The entrepreneur married funnyman Hamish Blake, 36, in 2012, welcoming their first child, son Sonny in May 2014.

Zoe and Hamish announced the birth of daughter Rudy Hazel in July last year.
She's the Instagram model and socialite who is hoping to find a husband on this year's season of Married At First Sight.

But there's one part of her resume that Davina Rankin may want to keep secret from her future mother-in-law.

The busty bride-to-be stripped down for a raunchy Zoo Magazine photo shoot in 2014, Daily Mail Australia can reveal.

Busty bride-to-be! Married At First Sight's Davina Rankin (pictured) stripped down for a raunchy Zoo Magazine photo shoot in 2014, Daily Mail Australia can reveal

The 26-year-old, who previously starred in First Dates, flaunted her ample curves in skimpy activewear during a sexy gym-themed shoot.

In one picture, Davina shows off her pert derriere in a G-string while performing a squat in front of a full-length mirror.

The reality TV contestant tied her brunette hair in a scruffy ponytail while glancing seductively over her shoulder.

Lads' mag model: The 26-year-old, who previously starred in Channel Seven's First Dates, flaunted her eye-popping cleavage during a gym-themed shoot

In another photo, Davina is shown suggestively gripping a gym weight with both hands while gazing into the camera.

She wears a pair of knickers, pink Nike sneakers and a workout top, which is zipped down to reveal her eye-popping cleavage.

Davina has accumulated an Instagram following of more than 240,000 fans thanks to her habit of regularly posting busty, scantily-clad selfies.

Glamour girl: Davina made several appearances in Zoo Magazine

But she has complained that her social media notoriety attracts the wrong type of attention and can make her boyfriends feel jealous.

'After a while, you see their insecurities come out, and they start telling you they don't like you being so much in the public eye,' Davina told The Fix.

And in Monday's NW magazine, Davina also revealed she is sick and tired of men simply wanting a sexual relationship.

Social media sensation: Davina has accumulated an Instagram following of more than 240,000 fans thanks to her habit of regularly posting busty, scantily-clad selfies

'Every day I get d**k pics sent to me,' she confessed.

'It actually is f**king hard for me to find someone that wants to date me for me instead of someone wanting to get into my pants.'

Married At First Sight returns to Channel Nine on January 29
Frances McDormand won the best actress award from the Screen Actors Guild on Sunday as her film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, also won the SAG equivalent of best picture.

That establishes the actress, 60, as the Oscar frontrunner in her category following similar success at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice and Broadcast Film Critics awards shows.

'Golly gee whiz,' McDormand exclaimed after being handed her trophy by Halle Berry.

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Frances McDormand celebrated a big win at the SAG Awards in LA on Sunday night, taking home the trophy for best actress in a movie for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

The actress, 60, received a warm hug from Halle Berry who presented her with the award known as an Actor

McDormand went on: 'I come out of the woods every few years, and you invite me to the party.'

'Theres a lot of young ones coming out, too, and they need doorstops, too,' she said, brandishing her award that's known as an Actor.

McDormand, who won a Best Actress Academy Award in 1997 for Fargo, plays a woman determined to obtain justice for her raped and murdered daughter despite the seeming lack of interest in finding the killer from her local small town police department.

'Golly gee whiz,' McDormand exclaimed. 'I come out of the woods every few years, and you invite me to the party...... Theres a lot of young ones coming out and they need doorstops, too

McDormand celebrated on stage again after her film Three Billboards won outstanding ensemble, the SAG equivalent of best picture

Three Billboards is written and directed by Martin McDonagh and McDormand paid tribute to the London-born Irishman.

'He wrote, meticulously crafted, a tsunami, and then he allowed his troupe of actors to surf it into the shore,' she said.

The actress stars in the film opposite Woody Harrelson, who plays the town's chief of police, and Sam Rockwell, who is the assistant chief.

Rockwell won the SAG Award for supporting actor, his first win from his guild. He picked up a Golden Globe for the role on January 7 making him the Oscar favorite too in that category.

The actress stars in the film opposite Woody Harrelson, who plays the town's chief of police, and Sam Rockwell, who is the assistant chief

McDormand, who is married to filmmaker Joel Coen, planted a smacker right on Sam Rockwell's lips when he was announced as the winner of supporting actor

McDormand plays a woman determined to obtain justice for her raped and murdered daughter despite the seeming lack of interest in finding the killer from her local police department
Scott Disick had a hard time letting Kourtney Kardashian move on with her life on Sunday's episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

The 38-year-old reality star revealed how Scott, 34, had called her at 2am to talk about life and how she finally and bluntly told him that model Younes Bendjima, 24, was her serious boyfriend.

Kourtney told her sisters that the next day she had rushed over to see Scott because he was behaving erratically.

New boyfriend: Kourtney Kardashian, 38, relayed how she told Scott Disick that she has a new 24-year-old boyfriend during Sunday's episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians

But when she got there he acted 'aggressively' toward her and she sat him down for a serious talk about their family's future.

The drama unfolded as Kourtney told Khloe about the phone call from Scott.

'Last night Scott called me at like 2am, he never calls me late at night ever. He was just ranting like ''What are we doing in life? What am I doing What are you doing?''

'I will go ''But what are you doing?'' or then he will say ''But what are you doing? Is it any better?''

Father of three: Scott called Kourtney at 2am to talk about life and she informed him about new boyfriend Younes Bendjima

Hung up: Kourtney told Khloe how Scott hung up the phone upon hearing she had a boyfriend

'By the end of the conversation I was just like ''I have a boyfriend and he is 24-years-old, it's not the craziest thing that has ever happened in the world.

'And he was like ''He is your boyfriend?'' and then he hung up the phone,' Kourtney said.

Khloe asked her if she had tried to call him back.

'No, I just went to bed,' said Kourtney smiling.

'Cut The. Cord,' said Khloe.

Bed time: The reality star said she didn't call Scott back and went to bed

'Got to do what you have to do. I just thought he knew. I thought how could he not know, we have been to St Tropez and Egypt together. What does he think that I just go on these elaborate trips?'

Khloe told her that Scott - or the rest of the family - would not have assumed anything.

'I thought it was a guy you were dating. Why would we assume anything unless we hear it from you, you cannot assume people know,' said Khloe.

Khloe told the cameras that she was proud of Kourtney for opening up to Scott about her relationship.

Proud sister: Khloe was proud of Kourtney for telling Scott about her relationship

Best friends: Malika haqq and Khloe were riding together when Kourtney called after another Scott episode

Attention seeker: Kourtney was at Scott's house after his latest acting out

'I am happy that there is motion moving forward for her,' said Khloe.

Khloe later took a drive with pal Malika Haqq during which she got a call from Kourtney who was sitting outside Scott's house.

'I was like "what are you ****ing on" and he's like, "everything",' said Kourtney over the phone.

'He is just doing this for attention right now,' said Khloe.

'I just think you are doing exactly what he wants. Of course, you can do whatever makes you feel better, but he is doing this for attention you know,' Khloe advised.

'I'll see the vibe I guess when I get in,' said Kourtney.

'He does this all the time, I am sorry for sounding cold,' Khloe told Malika.

'You are speaking the facts, you are not going to put sugar on s***,' said Malika.

Sister talk: Kim and Khloe listened as Kourtney opened up about Scott

Back at home, Kourtney talked to her sisters and told them that Scott had been 'out of it and very aggressive.'

'I was like ''I am leaving'' then I just started crying and was like ''I do not even need to be here.'' You have to talk to him like crazy otherwise he won't listen.

'I was like, sit down across the room from me, ''what the f*** is wrong with you? When is it going to be enough? I have three kids to take care of.''

'He was just being a beast and I was like I am getting out of here and I just left,' Kourtney revealed.

Kourtney told the cameras that whenever Scott seemed to be doing well something bad always happened to derail him.

Three kids: Kourtney said she confronted Scott about his behavior

'It is not fair, it comes off as me telling him that I am in a relationship. It seems that when I am happy and in a good place in my life then Scott does something to get my attention. I want to be supportive but I think it is time to set new boundaries with Scott,' Kourtney said.

Kourtney then told them that Scott had asked for his watches, credit cards and passport back from her.

'I am happy he is doing somewhat better,' said Khloe.

Showing support: Kim listened as Kourtney shared her struggles with Scott

The show kicked off at Kim's house with Kourtney late to a meeting with her sisters.

She was berated by Khloe for her tardiness.

'I don't even know why I try to argue with you. I think you are inconsiderate of other people's time and that is one of the biggest signs of disrespect you can show anybody,' said an annoyed Khloe.

Too late: Khloe blasted Kourtney earlier for being late to a meeting

The pair then had a play fight, with Kourtney landing a few heavy kicks on her sister's legs and spanking each other.

Kris then met for lunch with friend Faye Resnick and they discussed O.J. Simpson being up for parole, which he was later granted.

'I know, it scares the death out of me. I have been having nightmares about that,' said Faye, who was a close friend of Nicole Brown Simpson.

Fight time: Kourtney and Khloe playfully fought with each other

Good friends: Faye Resnick caught up with Kris at a restaurant

Kris immediately told her friend how good her pasta was and got called out for her lack of sympathy.

'How do you go from that conversation to ''This is so good'',' said an irritated Faye.

'I am in denial,' said Kris.

'Obviously,' Faye told her.

Some fans then came up to Kris for a picture and one told her that they had turned her grandmother's cremated ashes into a ring.

Kris tried it on but admitted she was 'creeped out' by it.

Fan favorite: Fans asked for a photo with Kris and one showed her grandmother in stone

'I think that the one thing that most families aren't prepared for is death. Although I have investigated a lot of options before it has always been pushed to the side,' said Kris.

Kris told Faye she would prefer that option rather than going into a hole in the ground before she met Scott Disick at a home furnishings store.

Shopping trip: Scott made himself comfortable while shopping with Kris

Business opportunities: Kim talked to Kourtney about her work ethic

She told the cameras that Scott 'seemed a little on the feisty side' as they shopped.

'I don't know what his deal is right now. I am not going to call him out in front of the whole store but his behavior is a little weird,' she said.

At Khloe's house the sisters discussed a Miami trip and Kourtney told them she wanted to produce an interior design show, but her sisters were skeptical.

'This already sounds like too much of a commitment. You are never realistic. Work is still a commitment,' Khloe told her.

'I think we are just a little frustrated that you never show up to do work,' added Kim.

Kourtney was annoyed at their attitude and told them that she was serious about doing it.

'I love Kourtney and want to support her but I have definitely heard this song and dance before,' Khloe told the cameras.

Same song: Khloe rolled her eyes after Kourtney unveiled another ambitious project

'She comes up with great ideas but doesn't follow through with any of them and can't even show up to a meeting on time.'

Kris after the shopping trip then told the girls she was 'sincerely worried' about Scott's wellbeing and Kourtney chastised her mother for not saying something to him.

'I think he really wants to be invited to all the things we do and stay part of the family,' said Kris.

Sincerely worried: Kris told Kourtney that she was worried about Scott after shopping with him

Over it: Kourtney said she was over everyone giving her constant Scott updates

Kourtney told her that he would always be part of the family but that she had to say something to her estranged partner.

'I am so sick of people not saying anything,' Kourtney told Kris.

'I am over everyone feeling they need to report to me every little detail going on with Scott, this situation is extremely hard and complicated but I do have my own priorities and things that I have to focus on and he is just not my biggest concern anymore,' Kourtney said during a confessional.

Kris then received a package of the display case she would use if she turned her cremated ashes into a diamond.

'We would turn you into a diamond?' said a disbelieving Kim.

Kris told the cameras she believed she was going to heaven but felt the need to make plans for her future and did not want her children to have to worry.

'Is it a real diamond or a fake, dusty diamond made of ashes?' said Kim.

Diamond questions: Kim wanted to know about the quality of diamond made out of her mom

Kris admitted she didn't know and needed to do more research.

Kourtney during a car ride in Los Angeles told Kim that she needed to get her creative energy out.

'My biggest priority is being a mom and I already feel spread thin being a working mom so anything I take on, it need to to be something I feel excited, happy and passionate about,' she told the cameras.

Drive time: Kourtney told her sisters that she wanted to get her creative energy out

Body language: Kim had her arms folded when talking to Kourtney about her career plans

Kourtney told Khloe and Kim that she wanted to flip houses the same way Scott did.

'Why don't you go into business with Scott?,' asked Kim.

'I have thought about it but it doesn't make sense any more,' Kourtney said

Kourtney then told the cameras that Kim and Khloe's 'negative' attitude was frustrating.

Kim then discussed Kourtney's situation with Khloe and called her sister 'too co-dependent.'

'I think she is legitimately waiting on a sister trio, we have to do something to get her motivated,' said Kim.

Sister trio: Kim told Khloe that she was worried about Kourtney waiting for a joint sister project

Khloe told her that she and Kim both enjoyed working and agreed they should get Kris to speak to her.

Kris continued her diamond research and asked the company if she could turn her body into six diamonds.

'Maybe you should gain some weight right before you die then we could make more,' joked Kim.

Forever jewelry: Kris was told by Kim to gain weight before she dies for more diamonds

Kris admitted that there were many options for the diamonds and that she had a lot of children to consider.

'I just don't get how you can turn a body into a diamond. People would just be killing other people and taking their bodies and making it into diamonds and selling it,' said Kim.

Kourtney then talked about her interior design business ideas with mom Kris, who urged her to do research and get it done.

Work effort: Kris called out Kourtney for her work ethic

Kim told her sister that she got passionate about projects but when faced with the first bit of adversity she 'dropped the ball.'

'I want you to find something you really want to do and that you love to do and can do for years to come,' said Kris.

'You have a different work ethic than the rest of us and part of that isn't working as hard as everyone else,' the momager said.

Lit up: Kim looked on as Kris showed her a display case that could hold her remains

Kourtney told her that she could still do something.

'You don't want to give as much as the rest of us have to give to make something happen,' her mom told her honestly.

'I don't and I agree with you, but that doesn't mean that I am not going to do anything, it just needs to make sense for my kids,' said Kourtney.

Family first: Kourtney was looking for the right career that would work for her kids

'You just have to stay focused,' said Kris.

Kris then spoke to Khloe about turning her ashes into a diamond.

'I don't think I can take the anxiety of it all, my heart can't take it any more,' Kris told her.

Plans changed: Kris ditched her idea to turn herself into a diamond after death

'I don't really care, my body here doesn't matter to me, where I am in heaven is all that matters to me,' said Khloe.

'I don't care where my human form goes. I have seen my dad's grave one time. I think a grave is bull***, I don't care for that stuff.

'I talk to my dad every day, that's what I do, I pray. My dad is not there, buried in dirt, that is ridiculous to me.'

Grave talk: Khloe said she didn't believe in graves

Kris told her that she actually did not want to become a diamond and would rather wear one.

She then told the cameras she was done stressing about it and would let her children sort it out when the time came.

'The truth is it doesn't matter where my body goes as I will always be with my kids,' she added.

Jewelry preference: Kris said she'd rather wear a diamond instead of becoming one

Back at Kim's house, Kourtney told her how she was losing a lot of weight and was now just 97lbs.

She told Kim that she had spoken to Scott and told him that he dictated his own path.

'If he is in a good place he can come around and be a part of things. I don't care as much to be monitoring his every move as long as I can tell that he is okay.

Lost weight: Kourtney said she weighed 97 pounds after her vacation

'I just want him to be happy and healthy and I will always be there for him as much as I can.

'Scott has to figure this all out on his own, he is 34, what life does he want to live? It is up to him not up to me. There is only so much I can do and I think I have done it all.'

Kourtney then told the cameras she had spent 10 years 'doing the best I could to make sure he is okay.'

Tough time: The reality star was dealing with career decisions, a new boyfriend, an ex-boyfriend and raising three kids

'If he doesn't truly want it for himself then there is nothing I can do. Whatever changes he wants to make he has to do it himself.'

Kourtney then set her house up for a magazine shoot with interior designer Martyn Lawrence Bullard and he urged her to find a particular area she wanted to go into.

'I am realizing I don't need my sisters permission, ideas or feedback to do my own thing. Everybody finds there path at different times.

Different path: The reality star realized she was on her own career path

'I am at a place in my life with work and relationships where I need to take charge and live life for myself and for my kids.'

The episode ended with Scott at the house with Kourtney and the children and Mason telling his mom how he liked to spend time with his dad.

'I definitely realize now a lot of the mistakes I have made in the past and have been able to learn a lot from it and mature form it,' Scott said.

'One of my biggest concerns is that I don't want to jeopardize my relationship with Kourtney as a friend because of our children and I need to watch out for myself and keep a decent lifestyle to be around my family,' he added.

Keeping Up With The Kardashians airs Sundays at 9pm on E!. Stream in the UK & Ire Mondays on hayu.
He's the hunky truffle farmer who left My Kitchen Rules fans swooning after his short cameo last year.

But farmer Henry Terry doesn't appear to be single anymore, with reports claiming a relationship may be brewing with his co-star Jazzey, 21.

According to TV Week on Monday, the Perth-based waitress and 26-year-old Henry were found constantly flirting with each other on set.

Brewing romance? Farmer Henry Terry doesn't appear to be single anymore, with reports claiming a relationship may be brewing with his co-star Jazzey, 21

'It got pretty serious,' revealed Sydneysider contestant Jess.

'They're both such lovely people. And I think it will spill over into real life at the right time.'

However, according to the publication's chat with Jazzey, she said she hasn't yet seen Henry since filming wrapped.

Flirting on set! 'It got pretty serious,' revealed Sydney-sider contestant Jess

And although Henry's protective younger sister stood in the way of her blossoming friendship, Jazzey said it wasn't an issue as she had already won her over.

'It was actually to my benefit that Anna, 24, and I also became really close. She is definitely one of my best friends in the competition,' she added.

Daily Mail has reached out to Channel Seven's representatives for comment.

No problems there: And although Henry's protective younger sister stood in the way of her blossoming friendship, Jazzey said it wasn't an issue as she had already won her over

One viewers hearts: Last year, Henry made quite the impression on viewers after he sold fellow Tassie couple Damo and Caz Aherne some delicacies

Last year, Henry made quite the impression on viewers after he sold fellow Tassie couple Damo and Caz Aherne some delicacies.

Back by popular demand, the star will be joined by his sister to compete on the reality series.

'To experience something like this with your sister and best mate is once in a lifetime,' Henry said in the latest preview for the show, almost causing his sister to cry.

But their love of truffles may prove to be a disadvantage if some of the other contestants don't hold the same torch for fungi.

'Truffle's are the most expensive dirt on Earth,' says 'villains' Olga and Valeria.
Alexander Skarsgard has won yet another award for his role in Big Little Lies.

The Swedish actor was honored with the trophy for Outstanding Actor in a TV Drama at Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles.

During his acceptance speech the handsome stage star, 41, poked fun at himself, quipping: 'A lot of people have been talking about who the greatest male actor ever... Is it Mr Robert De Niro or the tall dude from True Blood?'

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Winner! Alexander Skarsgard wasn't above poking fun at himself during his acceptance speech for outstanding actor in a TV drama awarded during Sunday's SAG honors in LA

The talent was referring to his break-out American role as the undead Eric Northman on the HBO supernatural show.

For Syunday night's award he pushed out screen legend DeNiro's part as Wall Street schemer Bernie Madoff from The Wizard Of Lies, another HBO production.

He graciously took the trophy from presenter Gina Rodriguez before going on with the lighthearted acceptance.

Skarsgard continued: 'The thespians have spoken, thank you so much for that.'

You looking at me? During his acceptance speech the handsome stage star quipped 'A lot of people have been talking about who the greatest male actor ever... Is it Mr. Robert De Niro or the tall dude from True Blood?'

Truly honored: For tonight's award Skarsgard eeked out screen legend DeNiro's part as Wall Street schemer Bernie Madoff from The Wizard Of Lies, another HBO production.

Jane the giver: He graciously took the trophy from presenter Gina Rodriguez before going on

Winning duo: The actor got a hug from co-star and fellow winner Nicole Kidman

Humbled: 'I'm incredibly embarrassed and infinitely grateful. Thank you, thank you so much for this,' the son of actor Stellan Skarsgard added

'I'm incredibly embarrassed and infinitely grateful. Thank you, thank you so much for this,' the son of actor Stellan Skarsgard added.

The Tarzan actor got thanks from the likes of I, Tonya's Margot Robbie and castmate Nicole Kidman following the honor.

He also stopped for a picture with Orange Is The New Black's Jessica Pimentel, who plays Maria Ruiz in the Netflix women's prison dramedy.

The actor rose to the top of a very-competitive category for his win.

Competing with the best: In addition to DeNiro, the actor beat out Benedict Cumberbatch, Jeff Daniels, and Geoffrey Rush for the honor

I, like you! The Tarzan actor got thanks for the likes of I, Tonya's Margot Robbie

Sealed with a kiss! Upon returning to his seat, the happy actor offered table-mate Jack McCormick a smooch on the cheek, much to the 30 Rock alum's delight

I just met a girl named Maria: He also stopped for a picture with Orange Is The New Black's Jessica Pimentel, who plays the character Maria Ruiz

Big little wins! Alexander wasn't the only won to bring home honors for Big Little Lies

Also up for the award was Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes, Jeff Daniels in Netflix's Godless, and Geoffrey Rush as Albert Einstein in the NatGeo series Genius.

Upon returning to his seat, the happy actor offered table-mate Jack McCormick a smooch on the cheek, much to the 30 Rock alum's delight.

Alexander wasn't the only won to bring home honors for Big Little Lies.

Castmate Nicole Kidman also took home the trophy for her part in the prestige premium cable drama.

Behind the scenes! Alexander was picture reacting to castmate Nicole Kidman's win backstage

Going on the mantelpiece: Backstage the star signed his name before collecting his statue

Tall, dark, handsome: The 6foot4 talent was striking in a navy suit during the festivities

Double trouble! The Big Little Lies talents teamed up for more photos after their wins

Skarsgard was pictured watching her win from the monitors backstage.

Later the duo teamed up for some post-awards portraits.

Skarsgaard's been lauded for his role as Perry Wright in Big Little Lies.

He also took home the Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe for the part.

Perry nice! Skarsgaard's been lauded for his role as Perry Wright in Big Little Lies, also taking home a Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe for the part
Her Lady Bird character Julie reaches a major moment in her arc on prom night.

So when Beanie Feldstein attended the Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles Sunday, her outfit choice was little surprise.

As she told The Cut, the Kay Unger gown that 24-year-old Beanie selected for the awards show was her own high school prom dress.

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As she told The Cut , the Kay Unger gown that Beanie Feldstein selected for Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles was her own high school prom dress

In the interview, which The Cut posted online this Friday, Beanie said of the dress: 'I put it on and it fit, surprisingly maybe better than it did in high school!'

The Los Angeles native confided: 'I looked at myself and I was like, WHAT!? and my mom and her best friend were just laughing so hard, like: "You have to wear it! There's just no other dress that would be better.'

Beanie was of course cognizant of the significance of this dress to her character.

Meaningful: Her Lady Bird character Julie reaches a major moment in her arc on prom night; she is pictured in that scene with her co-star Saoirse Ronan (right)

'Its just a gorgeous dress, and I love how my characters story ends at the prom, so like, for the first time Im going to an awards show as a nominee with the cast, its like, You gotta wear your prom dress girl, and honor Julie.'

Beanie and Ben Platt - himself the Tony-winning star of Dear Evan Hansen - attended their prom together at Harvard-Westlake School, according to Vanity Fair.

She is no slouch when it comes to showbiz links stretching back to childhood - one of her brothers is Jonah Hill, the other the late Maroon 5 manager Jordan Feldstein.

History: Beanie and Ben Platt - himself the Tony-winning star of Dear Evan Hansen - attended their prom together at Harvard-Westlake School, according to Vanity Fair

Lady Bird was written and directed by Greta Gerwig and starred Saoirse Ronan as the title character, whose parents named her Christine.

Julie is Lady Bird's best friend in high school.

The ensemble cast - Beanie included - were nominated for Outstanding Performance By A Cast In A Motion Picture.

Seen on screen: Lady Bird's cast were nominated for Outstanding Performance By A Cast In A Motion Picture, losing to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Amid a category that also included Get Out, The Big Sick and Mudbound, that prize wound up going to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Saoirse was also up for Outstanding Performance By A Female Actor In A Leading Role, losing to Frances McDormand for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Laurie Metcalf, who plays Lady Bird's mother, lost Outstanding Performance By A Female Actor In A Supporting Role to Allison Janney for I, Tonya.

Trio: Saoirse (left) and Laurie Metcalf (right) were each nominated individually Sunday but lost; they are pictured at the SAGs with Lady Bird's writer-director Greta Gerwig (middle)
Claire Foy won her second SAG Award in a row for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in the Netflix drama series The Crown.

The British actress, 33, won Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series for her performance.

However, Foy was not in Los Angeles to collect her award in person as she is currently in Berlin, Germany, filming the thriller The Girl in the Spider's Web.

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Claire Foy won her second SAG Award in a row Sunday night for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in the Netflix drama series The Crown

'She's really sorry not to be here,' her co-star Matt Smith, who plays Prince Philip, told Access Hollywood on the red carpet.

The Crown was also nominated in the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series category but lost out to the NBC drama This Is Us.

The actress, 33, pictured at the Golden Globes in LA on January 7, skipped the SAG Awards, however, as she is currently filming in Berlin, Germany

Foy has starred on the Netflix drama for two season opposite Matt Smith as Prince Philip. The show was nominated for best TV drama at the SAGs but lost out to NBC's This Is Us

Smith, 35, did make the awards show as did Vanessa Kirby, 29, who plays Princess Margaret on the series. Smith told Access Hollywood that Foy was sorry not to be there

Foy has played Queen Elizabeth in the Crown over two seasons that detailed her marriage to Philip, her accession to the throne and her struggle to balance her constitutional role with being a wife and mother and a devoted sister to Princess Margaret.

Moving forward, though, as the series jumps several years, the role of Elizabeth is being taken over in season three by Olivia Coleman, from The Night Manager and Broadchurch.

Helena Bonham Carter is set to replace Vanessa Kirby as Margaret and while no-one has yet been officially cast as Philip, there are rumors that Paul Bettany is in talks for the role.

Foy first came to Hollywood's notice as Anne Boleyn in the PBS drama Wolf Hall with Mark Rylance
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Not only were they representing strong homegrown talent, but they were re-imagining landmark moments in British history.

So it was double the honour for actors Gary Oldman, 59, and Claire Foy, 33, to walk away winners at Sunday night's Screen Actors Guild Awards in Hollywood.

And while actress Claire was unable to attend, due to filming commitments in Berlin, her The Crown co-star Vanessa Kirby brought some sparkle to the red carpet on behalf of the Brits, as she joined Irish actress Saoirse Ronan.

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Glittering Brits: Vanessa Kirby (left) and Saoirse Ronan (right) brought British glamour to the red carpet on Sunday night, for the SAG Awards in Hollywood

Far from the blackout that took place at this year's Golden Globe Awards, colour - and notably sparkle - returned to the red carpet.

Glittering in pink, Vanessa wore an ethereal floor-sweeping dress adorned with applique flowers in red, yellow and green.

The flesh-coloured garment showcased her lithe figure, while a striking red lipstick offset the look and added edge like her wet-look hairstyle.

Ladybird star Saoirse also wore a full-length pink gown, which was structured with silver detail and a thin black waistbelt.

Homegrown talent: Claire Foy (left) walked away victorious for The Crown, in which she stars alongside Vanessa (right)

The big winner: Gary Oldman (left) took the gong for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour

Great honor: Veteran actor Gary was obviously overcome with emotion when he accepted his Best Actor accolade

Distinguished: Oldman, 59, won the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role for his work in Darkest Hour

Inside the event, it was actors Claire and Gary who walked away victorious on behalf of the Brits.

Claire won her second SAG Award in a row for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in theNetflix drama series The Crown.

The British actress, 33, won Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series for her performance.

However, Foy was not in Los Angeles to collect her award in person as she is currently in Berlin, Germany, filming the thriller The Girl in the Spider's Web.

Flawless: Vanessa teamed her look with a loose blonde updo, as she walked the red carpet in Los Angeles

Pink lady: The Irish bombshell looked sleek in a pretty pink frock with silver seams

Cute beauty: British actress Millie Bobby Brown, best known for her breakout role in Stranger Things, boldly wore trainers

From one actor to another: Gary Oldman was introduced to teen talent Millie inside the awards bash

Doing it for the Brits: Claire won her second SAG Award in a row Sunday night for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in the Netflix drama series The Crown

Unable to attend: Actress Claire, 33, (pictured at the Golden Globes in LA on January 7) skipped the SAG Awards, however, as she is currently filming in Berlin, Germany

'She's really sorry not to be here,' her co-star Matt Smith, who plays Prince Philip, told Access Hollywood on the red carpet.

The Crown was also nominated in the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series category but lost out to the NBC drama This Is Us.

Foy has played Queen Elizabeth in the Crown over two seasons that detailed her marriage to Philip, her accession to the throne and her struggle to balance her constitutional role with being a wife and mother and a devoted sister to Princess Margaret.

British star: Foy has starred on the Netflix drama for two season opposite Matt Smith as Prince Philip. The show was nominated for best TV drama at the SAGs but lost out to NBC's This Is Us

Legendary: Vanessa wowed critics with her performance as Princess Margaret

Turning out: Smith, 35, did make the awards show as did Vanessa, 29, who plays Princess Margaret on the series. Smith told Access Hollywood that Foy was sorry not to be there

Supporting the royals: The Crown star Matt came out to support the Netflix period drama at the Screen Actors Guild Awards

Moving forward, though, as the series jumps several years, the role of Elizabeth is being taken over in season three by Olivia Coleman, from The Night Manager and Broadchurch.

Helena Bonham Carter is set to replace Vanessa Kirby as Margaret and while no-one has yet been officially cast as Philip, there are rumors that Paul Bettany is in talks for the role.

Meanwhile, Gary's portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour is being considered a once-in-a-lifetime Hollywood moment.

Hot stuff! English model Iskra Lawrence certainly made the most of her enviable curves as she arrived at the SAG awards

Thighs the limit! Making the most of her incredible proportions, the off-the-shoulder dress offered a glimpse at her enviable waist to hip ratio

The actor walked away with the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role award, and broke down as he made his acceptance speech.

As he was honored for his work in the wartime film, he was obviously overcome with emotion as he hunched over with his hands holding his head as his name was announced.

He decided to quote the former British Prime Minister as he concluded his speech by saying: 'Churchill reminds us we make a living by what we get, what we make of life, by what we give.'

Though Kidman and Oldman stole the show emotionally, the night belonged to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri as the film earned top honor of the night: Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

Statement look: English actor Daniel Kaluuya, who starred in the film Get Out, was on the red carpet in a sockless ensemble

But it wasn't all actors who were courting attention on Sunday, because English model Iskra Lawrence proved quite the show-stopper in Hollywood.

Having bagged a ticket to the prestigious awards ceremony, Iskra made the most of her red carpet moment in a black dress slashed to the waist.

The split seam, running right along her left hip, revealed her very voluptuous figure as she jutted out one leg confidently.

Elsewhere, Stranger Things actress Millie Bobby Brown looked cute in a sequinned pink dress that featured a petite train at the back.

The kooky 13-year-old dared to wear bright white Converse trainers to the awards ceremony, as she turned out with her American Stranger Things castmates.
The SAG Awards were just the beginning of a fun night out for stars Sunday.

After the ceremony, plenty of talents continued the celebration at People and EIF's post-party at The Shrine Auditorium later in the evening.

Generations collided when Stranger Things talent Millie Bobby Brown, 13, and veteran actor Robert DeNiro, 74, crossed paths for a star-studded moment at the event.

SAG stars! Millie Bobby Brown appeared elated to share a moment with Academy Award winner Robert DeNiro during an after party for Sunday's SAG Awards in Los Angeles

Millie, who was nominated in tonight's outstanding TV actress category, glowed as she approached the Academy Award winner.

The lifelong New Yorker looked equally as thrilled to meet the rising star, wearing a warm smile as they spoke.

The teen talent already looked like an awards season veteran in her sequined pink look while the Meet The Parents actor donned traditional black and white with wire framed glasses.

DeNiro and Brown posed for a photo with Jane The Virgin's Gina Rodriguez later on.

Pretty in pink! The teen talent already looked like an awards season veteran in her sequined pink ensemble

All stars! The teen talent and awards veteran shared a photo with Jane The Virgin's Gina Rodriguez later

It's not unusual! Stranger Things kids Gaten Matarazzo and Caleb McLaughlin posed with Dacre Montgomery, who was introduced as the surly Billy during the show's latest season

Chit chat: DeNiro took time for some solo conversation with actress-turned-director/producer Gina

Winona forever! David Harbour, who was nominated for the part of Police Chief Jim Hopper, looked handsome in a velvet suit while snapping a picture with ST matriarch Winona Rider

Fellow Stranger Things kids Gaten Matarazzo and Caleb McLaughlin posed with Dacre Montgomery, who was introduced as the surly Billy during the show's latest season.

David Harbour, who was nominated for the part of Police Chief Jim Hopper, looked handsome in a velvet suit while snapping a picture with ST matriarch Winona Rider.

Joe Keery, who plays Steve in the series, looked dapper in head-to-toe black.

He was accompanied by girlfriend Maika Monroe, who sizzled in red at the affair.

Cute couple: Joe Keery looked dapper in head-to-toe black while accompanied by crimson-clad girlfriend Maika Monroe

Smoking: Harbour held an unlit cigar while he shared a moment with actress/musician Alison Sudol and The Crown's Vanessa Kirby

Well suited! Stranger Things kids Gaten Matarazzo and Caleb McLaughlin looked handsome as can be in their evening apparel

Princess style! Diane Guerrero and Jackie Cruz, who play the near-inseparable Flaca and Mauritza on Orange Is The New Black, struck a pose together at the event

Orange Is The New Black's Diane Guerrero and Jackie Cruz, who play the near-inseparable Flaca and Mauritza on the show, struck a pose together.

Jackie looked princess-perfect in a cloud-hued gown with dramatic feathered skirt.

Besides her, Diane commanded attention in a blue set that showed off her enviable center with a cropped mock-turtleneck and enchanting tulle skirt.

Co-stars Jessica Pimatel (Maria), Laura Gomez (Blanca) and Lin Tucci (DeMarco) all teamed up for a glam cast photo.

No orange to be seen! Co-stars Jessica Pimatel (center-right), Laura Gomez (far left) and Lin Tucci (middle) all teamed up for a glam cast photo

Shine bright! Mudbound's Mary J Blige radiated glamour in black and white as she posed with Samira Wiley, who took the plunge in a celestially inspired gown

She's a fan! Danielle Brooks dazzled in a red-and-black sequined look while posing with the handsome Sam Richardson, who earned an award as part of the Veep ensemble

Mudbound's Mary J Blige radiated glamour in black and white as she posed with OITNB's Samira Wiley, who took the plunge in a celestially inspired gown.

Star Danielle Brooks dazzled in a red-and-black sequined look by Marc Bouwer which offered up a hearty look at her chest.

She looked excited to pose with the handsome Sam Richardson, who earned an award as part of the Veep ensemble.

Elsewhere, Veep star Tony Hale posed with The Big Sick writer/actor Kumail Nanji.

Veep-IP: Veep star Tony Hale posed with The Big Sick writer/actor Kumail Nanji

Munn's the word! Veep castmates Paul Scheer and Dan Cakkedahl took time for a photo with the lovely Olivia Munn, who presented the evening's honor for actor in a TV drama

On fire! Alison Brie of GLOW looked lovely in red while posing with husband Dave Franco and SNL alum Molly Shannon, who was also clad in crimson

Fellow Veep castmates Paul Scheer and Dan Cakkedahl took time for a photo with the lovely Olivia Munn, who presented the evening's honor for actor in a TV drama with the wonderful Niecy Nash.

Alison Brie of GLOW looked lovely in red while posing with husband Dave Franco and SNL alum Molly Shannon, who was also clad in crimson.

Later she teamed up with her GLOW castmates Kimmy Gatewood, Sunita Mani, and Britt Baron for a photo.

You GLOW girls! GLOW castmates Kimmy Gatewood, Sunita Mani, Britt Baron and Alison Brie joined forces for a group photo

Lovely ladies: Winner Alison Janney shimmered in gunmetal silver as she cozied up to screen legend Susan Surandon at the post-awards festivities

Candid camera! Inside the event, the duo looked overjoyed as they snagged a goofy picture with actor Willem Dafoe

Winner Alison Janney shimmered in gunmetal silver as she cozied up to screen legend Susan Surandon at the post-awards festivities.

Earlier, Janney earned the award Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for her gritty part in I, Tonya.

She appeared simply glowing as she proudly carried the acting statue.

All that glitters! Saradon glittered in a blue off-the-shoulder design by Alberta Ferretti, later stopping for a photo with People's editorial director Jess Cagle

Call a doctor! Matt Smith of Dr. Who fame flashed a cool peace sign while sporting a slick pinstriped suit inside the auditorium

Men of the evening: Veep actors Matt Walsh, Timothy Simons, Sam Richardson, and Nelson Franklin (left to right) flanked fellow winner Alexander Skarsgard for a picture

So many stars: Winona posed with actor Cary Elwes, who is best known for his roles as Westley in The Princess Bride

Besides the West Wing alum, pal Saradon glittered in a blue off-the-shoulder design by Alberta Ferretti.

Inside the event, the duo looked overjoyed as they snagged a goofy picture with actor Willem Dafoe.

Goldie Hawn and daughter Kate Hudson stood out in colorful designer looks.

Family affair! Goldie Hawn and daughter Kate Hudson stood out in colorful designer looks

She's got the blues! Sterling K Brown, who also won an individual honor, hugged his on-screen sister Chrissy Metz as she sported ruffling blue

Trophy life! Alexander Skarsgaard posed with Geena Davis and his newly earned SAG trophy

Matt Smith of Dr. Who fame flashed a cool peace sign while sporting a slick pinstriped suit inside the auditorium.

The cast of This Is Us was ecstatic after earning the evening's award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

Sterling K Brown, who also won an individual honor, hugged his on-screen sister Chrissy Metz as she sported ruffling blue.

Glamour: The plus-sized beauty also shared a photo with Niecy Nash and Lucas Hedges of Lady Bird

Be careful! This Is Us star Justin Hartley let his leather-clad love Chrishell Stause hold his trophy

Then and now! Justin Hartley posed with Logan Shroyer, who plays his This Is Us character Kevin during his teen years on the show

This Is Us star Justin Hartley let his leather-clad love Chrishell Stause hold his trophy.

He also took time with his castmate Logan Shroyer, who plays his character Kevin as a teen.

Elizabeth Moss of The Handmaids Tale exchanged compliments with Sam Rockwell of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Lots of love! Elizabeth Moss of The Handmaids Tale exchanged compliments with Sam Rockwell of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Gimme a hand! Comedienne Cheryl Hines, best known for her work on Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Mary J Blige spoke at the event

Best dressed: Leslie Bibb, hubby Sam Rockwell, and comedian Sarah Silverman all donned their best

Ruffling feathers: Hong Chau of Downsizing shimmered in a pale, yellow ruffles

Show up and GLOW up: GLOW's Sydelle Noel, Shakira Barrera, Jackie Tohn, and Ellen Wong all turned heads in their own looks

Elsewhere comedienne Cheryl Hines, best known for her work on Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Mary J Blige spoke.

Hong Chau of Downsizing shimmered in a pale, yellow ruffles.

The earlier awards show was hosted by Frozen star Kristen Bell.

Up and comers! Newcomers Lonnie Chavis, Faithe Herman, Parker Bates, Eris Baker, and Alexandra Breckenridge (left to right) earned awards for their parts on This Is Us

Anchoring the evening: The earlier awards show was hosted by Frozen star Kristen Bell. Above you can see GLOW's Chris Lowell, Betty Gilpin, Kate Nash, and Jackie Tohn
She's a TV and movie star, a director and a producer.

But despite all her Hollywood success, Jane The Virgin star Gina Rodriguez, 33, who has also been announced as the host of the 20th Costume Designers Guild Awards, still fought hard for Latinos in the industry on the Screen Actors Guild Awards red carpet on Sunday.

'I have another action [film] called Miss Bala... and it comes out this summer with Kevin Misher and Sony. Ya, yay Sony for putting a Latino as the lead because barely [any] people do that'.

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Fighter: Jane The Virgin star Gina Rodriguez, 33, fought hard for Latinos in the industry on the Screen Actors Guild Awards red carpet on Sunday

Speaking to E! on the red carpet of the event at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Rodriguez put Hollywood studios on notice for overlooking Latino talent.

'I mean, [Latino audiences] do make 55 million plus [dollars] in the country. No big deal,' she said sarcastically.

'You should throw us in a movie or two. It would make sense.'

'We do buy one in every four tickets, every single weekend, and make sure that your movies do well. So, it would do you service. Not only of service, it would be, I don't know...integrity,' said the Deepwater Horizon star.

'So, thank you Paramount and Sony because you two are doing it, you're opening up the doors.'

Fired up: Speaking to E! on the red carpet of the event at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Rodriguez put Hollywood studios on notice for overlooking Latino talent

Co-stars: The actress, whose sci-fi thriller Annihilation is in theaters February 23, wore a brightly colored floral print dress for the evening. She poses here with Yael Grobglas, 33

The Costume Designers Guild announced that Golden Globe award-winning actress Gina Rodriguez will host the 20th CDGA (Costume Designers Guild Awards) taking place February 20, 2018 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

The Guild also announced that critically acclaimed Costume Designer Joanna Johnston will be honored with the Career Achievement Award, presented by THE OUTNET.COM, renowned film director and producer Guillermo del Toro will receive the Distinguished Collaborator Award, and preeminent jeweler and metalworker Maggie Schpak will receive the Distinguished Service Award at the gala.

Rodriguez shared, I am thrilled the Costume Designers Guild asked me to host the platinum anniversary of the CDGA ceremony. Working with my Jane the Virgin Costume Designer, the marvelous Rachel Sage Kunin, has been one of the most fulfilling collaborative relationships of my career. I cannot wait to celebrate with Rachel, and her peers, on this milestone evening.

TV stars: The Ferdinand voice actress later presented an award with Will & Grace's Megan Mullally

The actress, whose sci-fi thriller Annihilation is in theaters February 23, wore a brightly colored floral print dress for the evening.

The proudly displayed a Times Up badge, in support of the legal fund which provides subsidized legal support to those who have experienced sexual harassment, assault, or abuse in the workplace.

Meanwhile her raven tresses were parted down the center and held back in a low pony tail, and she modeled a 'glam bohemian' makeup look created by artist Carissa Ferreri using Lancome products.

'My biggest inspiration was Ginas dress; it was beaded, patterned, floral, and colorful,' makeup artist Carissa said of the actress's beauty look.

'I wanted to make her lips pop and do something a bit different- once we found the right lip tone, she just lit up!'

In order to create the perfect lip, Carissa used a mix of three products - the Le Lipstique in Raisinberry, the Matte Shaker in Fly Me to Maroon, and the L'Absolu Gloss in Cafe Creme 'on just the center of the lips to add moisture and enhance their fullness'.

The Ferdinand voice actress later presented an award with Will & Grace's Megan Mullally.

She also posed for selfies with both celebrities and fans alike.

In one particularly memorable moment of the evening, Gina and actress Olivia Munn posed during the awards show with mouths agape in mock surprise.

Say cheese! In one particularly memorable moment of the evening, Gina and actress Olivia Munn posed during the awards show with mouths agape in mock surprise

Self(ie) absorbed: Earlier this month, Gina celebrated her directorial debut on an episode of Jane The Virgin

Earlier this month, Gina celebrated her directorial debut on an episode of Jane The Virgin.

The Chicago native posed for an Instagram photo to mark the occasion.

Joining her in the triumphant post are her co-stars Yael Grobglas, 33, and Rosario Dawson, 38.

Success! The Chicago native posed for an Instagram photo to mark the occasion with co-stars Yael Grobglas, 33, and Rosario Dawson, 38

The event was hosted by actress Kristen Bell as it is her first time ever emceeing an awards show. She was also the first ever host of the SAG Awards in its 24 year history.

The night celebrated women as the Awards featured mostly female presenters including Halle Berry, Olivia Munn, Emma Stone, Lupita Nyong'o, Marisa Tomei, and Gina Rodriguez.

After a successful night at the Golden Globes just a few weeks ago, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri led nominations with four, winning three of those.

The dark comedy received awards for Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, and what is considered the top honor of the night: Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

Woody Harelson was the only actor from the film to miss out.
She is expecting her first baby with her billionaire husband Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel.

And Miranda Kerr proved pregnancy suited her down to the ground when she headed out for a coffee with friends in Brentwood, California on Sunday.

Orlando Bloom's ex-wife, 34, let her burgeoning baby bump take centre stage in a striped dress which clung to her maternal curves.

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Bloom-ing baby bump! Pregnant Miranda Kerr showed off her growing stomach in a striped dress as she grabbed a coffee with friends in Brentwood, California on Sunday

The first Australian Victoria's Secret Angel model draped her coat over her shoulders to keep the chill to the winter sun at bay during her outing.

With her brunette tresses scraped from her face with her circular frame shades, the Sydney born beauty added a pop of colour to her look with a shade of red lipstick.

The mother of one flashed a glimpse of her slender legs in the midi dress which she teamed with a comfortable pair of trainers.

Bumping along: The first Australian Victoria's Secret Angel model draped her coat over her shoulders to keep the chill to the winter sun at bay during her outing

Pregnant model Miranda and her husband Evans were delighted to announce they were expecting their first child together.



A spokeswoman for the family in a statement released to DailyMail.com: 'Miranda, Evan, and Flynn are looking forward to welcoming the newest member of their family.'

The fashionista had revealed the pair were waiting until they were married before they tried for a baby.

She told Vogue: 'I'm not planning for a child yet. Not until after we get married. My partner is very traditional. We're just waiting.'

Must be love: Miranda and Evan Spiegel (pictured in Los Angeles, February 2016) were delighted to announce they were expecting their first child together

Miranda and Evan made their debut as a couple in June 2015 after first meeting at a Louis Vuitton dinner in New York City in 2014.

The couple tied the knot in an intimate backyard ceremony at Evan's home in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles in May 2017, in front of just 45 family and friends.

Miranda shares her seven-year-old son Flynn Christopher Bloom with her ex-husband and actor Orlando.

The former flames were married in a romantic ceremony in July 2010 but they went their separate ways for good in 2013.
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Gary Oldman cried as he picked up his Screen Actors Guild Award on Sunday.

The 59-year-old actor couldn't hide his emotions as he picked up the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role for his portrayal of late former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.

He paid tribute to the 'giants of acting' within the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles as he spoke about the role which has led him to be tipped for Oscars success.

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Emotional: Gary Oldman cried as he picked up his Screen Actors Guild Award on Sunday for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role for his portrayal of late former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour

Uncanny: He ended his speech with a quote from Churchill, saying: 'Churchill reminds us we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give and you have given enormously tonight' [Gary pictured as Churchill]

He looked visibly shocked as he heard he had won, getting a big kiss from his fifth wife, art curator Gisele Schmidt, upon hearing the news.

Taking to the stage, he said: 'I've become emotional. Thank you, SAG-AFTRA for this tremendous honor. I am honestly and truly thrilled and overjoyed to be in this room tonight, not only with my amazing fellow nominees, but my friends and peers.

'There are giants of acting in this room tonight. Two of them share my table: Geoffrey Rush and Richard Jenkins.

'Robert DeNiro, Morgan Freeman and of course the extraordinary, my old sparring partner, Denzel Washington.'

Winning: He paid tribute to the 'giants of acting' within the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles as he spoke about the role which has led him to be tipped for Oscars success

He said as he took to the stage: 'I've become emotional. Thank you, SAG-AFTRA for this tremendous honor. I am honestly and truly thrilled and overjoyed to be in this room tonight, not only with my amazing fellow nominees, but my friends and peers'

Adding: 'There are giants of acting in this room tonight. Two of them share my table: Geoffrey Rush and Richard Jenkins'

Gary was nominated for the award alongside The Disaster Artist star James Franco, Call Me By Your Name's Timothee Chalamet, Daniel Kaluuya from Get Out and Denzel Washington for Roman J. Israel, Esq.

He ended his speech with a quote from Churchill as he expressed his pride and gratitude for winning his first ever award at the ceremony.

He concluded: 'They are telling me to wrap up and that very sad music seems to follow me everywhere, so I will just say this, that Churchill reminds us we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give and you have given enormously tonight and I am so deeply, deeply honoured and proud to receive this magnificent award. God bless you all, thank you!'

Darkest Hour tells the story of the early days of World War II, in which the fate of Western Europe hung on the newly-appointed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

He who must decide whether to negotiate with Hitler, or fight on against incredible odds. It is currently out in UK cinemas.

Elsewhere at the event, Frances McDormand picked up the SAG award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for her role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, while her co-star Sam Rockwell took home the Male Actor in a Supporting Role prize.

Their movie also scooped the coveted Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture trophy, and Allison Janney won Female Actor in a Supporting Role for I, Tonya.

Fellow actor Nicole Kidman, 50, took home the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries gong for her role in Big Little Lies.

In pure shock: Gary put his head in his hands as his name was called out on the night

Gary, who is the brother of EastEnders star Laila Morse, appeared to be rather taken aback by the news

Showing her support: He received a kiss from his doting wife, art curator, Gisele Schmidt, as he got up to collect his award

Sweet: Gisele placed her hands around her husband's face as they shared a moment together

Taking a moment: It's clear to see the couple are still very much in love

The big one: Gary proudly carrying his award off the stage - many believe he is set to pick up an Oscar for his role as Churchill

During her emotional speech she revealed that she had worked late the previous night and is in the middle of battling the flu as she said: 'I was working until 1am.

'I'm incredibly nervous because this is reality colliding with fantasy right now. I have the flu and Im playing a pretty out there raw character right now so Ive been having trouble shedding it but Im here and Im incredibly grateful.'

She thanked her fellow co-stars, Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern, who she beat out for the award along with Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange while expressing her delight that all these women over 40 are being recognized.

Big little win: Nicole Kidman won Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries for her work in Big Little Lies

'I was working until 1am': During her emotional speech she revealed that she had worked late the previous night and is in the middle of battling the flu

Taking a stand: She thanked her fellow co-stars, Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern, who beat out for the gong along with Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange while expressing her delight that all these women over 40 are being recognized

Good company: She was presented the award by Marisa Tomei (left) and Rosanna Arquette (right)

Shining star: Nicole proudly showed off her shiny new trophy in the press room

Dapper: Nicole Kidman's Big Little Lies co-star Alexander Skarsgard was also recognized for his role on the HBO series as he won Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries

Dynamic duo: The two stars proudly showed off their shiny new trophies as they played a troubled married couple in the series

Nicole said: 'And how wonderful it is today that our careers can go beyond 40 years old. 20 years ago we were pretty washed up by this stage in our careers and that's not the case now.

'I am so proud to be a part of an industry that is making this change. We have proven that we can do this but only with the support of that industry.'

Though Kidman and Oldman stole the show emotionally, the night belonged to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri as the film earned top honor of the night: Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

The film's star Frances McDormand continued to prove that she is the Oscars favorite as she won Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role.

Top spot: Though Kidman and Oldman stole the show emotionally, the night belonged to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri as the film earned top honor of the night: Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

Talented: The film's star Frances McDormand continued to prove that she is the Oscars favorite as she won Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

Talented: Sam Rockwell won Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role for his work in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

However she was gracious in victory as she said: 'I also want to say, this is really great and I thank you but theres a lot of young ones comin' up and they need doorstops too. Lets think about that.'

McDormand's co-star Sam Rockwell also found success as he earned Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role for his work in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

The 49-year-old actor could not help but gush about his co-star as he said: 'Frances, you're a powerhouse.

Shimmering: Allison Janney won the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for her work in I, Tonya

Shimmering: She earned the prize for her work in I, Tonya and no doubt is the Oscar-favorite as she won the Golden Globe in the same category just weeks ago

'I stand shoulder to shoulder with you and all the incredible women in this room who are trying to make things better. It's long overdue.'

Earlier in the night Allison Janney, 58, won the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role.

She earned the prize for her work in I, Tonya and no doubt is the Oscar-favorite as she won the Golden Globe in the same category just weeks ago.

This Is Us could be considered as the biggest winners on the television side as the cast earned the top prize: Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

The entire cast looked shocked as their name was announced by mother-daughter duo Goldie Hawn and Kate Hudson. Elisabeth Moss series The Handmaid's Tale was considered to be a favorite along with The Crown.

Actor Milo Ventimiglia was grateful for viewers of the show as he said: 'The people that watch with us every Tuesday night and embrace this show that reflects positivity and hope and inclusion, we love you.'

Just before that leading man Sterling K. Brown accepted the actor for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series.

'We love you': This Is Us could be considered as the biggest winners on the television side as the cast earned the top prize: Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

Shining star: Just before that leading man Sterling K. Brown accepted the actor for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series

Open: The This Is Us actor - who is the first black male actor to win the award - said: 'Everybody is weird and strange, [actors] just embrace ourselves for who we are'

Head-to-head: Sterling proudly showed off both This Is Us trophies in the press room

Fantastic four: Chrissy Metz, Alexandra Breckenridge, Mandy Moore, and Susan Kelechi Watson - pictured from left to right - from This Is Us all proudly posed with the ensemble award

The This Is Us actor - who is the first black male actor to win the award - said: 'Everybody is weird and strange, [actors] just embrace ourselves for who we are.'

Nicole Kidman's Big Little Lies co-star Alexander Skarsgard was also recognized for his role on the HBO series as he won Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries.

William H. Macy, 67, took home the first gong of the night in the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series category.

He was honored for his work on Showtime series Shameless and marveled at being able to do this as a career during his acceptance speech as he said: 'It's a glorious way to make a living.'

As there have been dozens of sexual harassment and misconduct allegations circulating in Hollywood over the past month, he said 'it's hard to be a man these days' after leaving the stage after accepting his award.

'I think a lot of us feel like were under attack, and that we need to apologize, and perhaps we do, and perhaps we are,' Macy told reporters backstage. 'But well keep talking. To repeat, Im blessed that Im in this business.'

Big moment: William H. Macy was given the first gong of the night in the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series category

Life imitating art: As there have been dozens of sexual harassment and misconduct allegations circulating in Hollywood over the past month, he said 'it's hard to be a man these days' after leaving the stage after accepting his award

Talented: Connie Britton and Mandy Moore accepted the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series on behalf of Julia Louis-Dreyfus who has been battling breast cancer

Hilarious: Veep was a big winner in the night as the entire cast won the coveted Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series prize as Matt Walsh accepted the prize

The second award of the night was in the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series as Julia Louis-Dreyfus reigned victorious for her role in Veep.

As she has been battling breast cancer, presenters Connie Britton and Mandy Moore accepted the award in her honor.

Veep was a big winner in the night as the entire cast won the coveted Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series prize.

Clare Foy won Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series for The Crown but she was also not in attendance.

Perhaps the most emotional moment of the night came when Morgan Freeman was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

The 80-year-old actor was bestowed the honor by fellow actor and former co-star Rita Moreno as they acted alongside each other in 1971 on children's show The Electric Company.

Woman of the hour: The event was hosted by actress Kristen Bell as it is her first time ever emceeing an awards show. She is also the first ever host of the SAG Awards in its 24 year history

Living legend: Perhaps the most emotional moment of the night came when Morgan Freeman was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award

Attention to detail: Toward the end of his speech, he even called out the statue itself as he said: 'from the back it works, but from the front its gender specific. Maybe Ive started something!?'

Together again: The 80-year-old actor was bestowed the honor by fellow actor and former co-star Rita Moreno as they acted alongside each other in 1971 on children's show The Electric Company

Still stunning: The 86-year-old West Side Story star gushed about the longtime actor before saying: 'This man is a national treasure'

The 86-year-old West Side Story star gushed about the longtime actor before saying: 'This man is a national treasure.'

Freeman kept his acceptance speech short as he said: 'This is beyond an honor. This is a place in history.'

Toward the end of his speech, he even called out the statue itself as he said: 'from the back it works, but from the front its gender specific. Maybe Ive started something!?'

The event was hosted by actress Kristen Bell as it is her first time ever emceeing an awards show. She is also the first ever host of the SAG Awards in its 24 year history.

Golden girls: Goldie Hawn and daughter Kate Hudson presented Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series

Shimmering splendid: Brie Larson and Lupita Nyong'o presented the biggest award of the night: Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

Glowing: Halle Berry shined in a sheer number featuring sequins

Hilarious: Megan Mullally and Gina Rodriguez had a good time as they presented

Stunners: Marisa Tomei (left) and Rosanna Arquette presented the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series

How angelic: Mary J. Blige looked fantastic alongside Jason Clarke

Cheery: Molly Shannon and Leslie Mann had fun on-stage together

'We are living in a watershed moment,' the 37-year-old actress said during her opening monologue. 'Let's make sure that we're leading the charge with empathy and diligence.'

Surely it was a night celebrating women as the SAG Awards featured mostly female presenters including Halle Berry, Olivia Munn, Emma Stone, Lupita Nyong'o, Marisa Tomei, and Gina Rodriguez.

Before the event two stunt award winners were announced as Wonder Woman earned Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture and Game Of Thrones was awarded with Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series.

It is also a crucial time in Award season as the Oscar nominations will be announced just two days from now on Tuesday, January 23.

Simply stunning: Margot Robbie looked absolutely gorgeous while seated at her table

Loved up: James Franco was spotted staring adoringly at girlfriend Isabel Bakzad

Tremendous trio: Connie Britton, Allison Williams, and Taryn Manning looked fantastic as they posed together

Beaming: Anthony Anderson and Halle Berry shared a giggle

Chatting it up: Tracee Ellis Ross and Brie Larson were spotted catching up

Gorgeous: Samira Wiley, Jenifer Lewis, Niecy Nash and Bresha Webb - pictured from left to right - proudly posed together

Back in black: Sarah Silverman posed it up in the press room after presenting
She's always one to wow the style brigade in her array of sensational designer looks.

Despite enjoying time away from the runway, Gigi Hadid, 22, was back to her old fashion tricks as she stepped out in Manhattan in a flawless off-duty look on Sunday night.

The supermodel highlighted her statuesque frame in a pair of high-waisted black joggers which tapered towards her ankles as she went out and about in the Big Apple.

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Fashion fiend: Gigi Hadid, 22, was back to her old fashion tricks as she stepped out in Manhattan in a flawless off-duty look on Sunday night

The beauty teamed her laid-back garment with a matching Paradised jumper which featured 'time to dance' emblazoned across the chest in a soft pink.

The Californian beauty - who has a successful collaborations with fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger and beauty giant Maybelline - added a vibrant pop of colour to her ensemble with a pink Burberry leather trim shearling oversized jacket.

Swapping her usual heels, Gigi donned a pair of patent leather boots for the occasion which drew attention to her slender pins.

Pin-credible: The supermodel highlighted her statuesque frame in a pair of high-waisted black joggers which tapered towards her ankles

All in the details: While leaving her honey-hued locks in a tousled style, she accessorised her ensemble with a pair of nineties-inspired shades, nude-coloured leather bag and an eye-catching sparkling ring on her left hand

While leaving her honey-hued locks in a tousled style, she accessorised her ensemble with a pair of nineties-inspired illesteva shades, nude-coloured leather bag and an eye-catching sparkling ring on her left hand.

Last week, Gigi celebrated their doting mother Yolanda on social media for her 54th birthday alongside her sister Bella, 21.

The supermodels posted a series of sweet tributes to their mom on Instagram ahead of the premiere of her new show, Making a Model with Yolanda Hadid.

Walk this way: The beauty teamed her laid-back garment with a matching Paradised jumper which featured 'time to dance' emblazoned across the chest in a soft pink

Gigi shared an adorable throwback image as a toddler in her mother's arms to her nearly 38 million followers.

'Ive had the greatest role model since day 1. @yolanda.hadid- your beauty is only outweighed by your compassion, ability to help others, and your endless talents,' the blonde beauty wrote.

'I feel so lucky that I got such a bad-ass, independent, smart, and creative human to call my super-mom !

'Thank you for everything, always. You deserve all the great health, happiness, and light in the world ! I love you my Mamma, happiest birthday.'
She's preparing to release her upcoming fourteenth studio album Golden.

And while her musical comeback is imminent, Kylie Minogue, 49, showcased her envy-inducing style as she arrived at Schiaparelli AW18 fashion show during Paris Fashion Week.

The Australian songstress highlighted her petite frame in a chic black midi dress which hugged her narrow midriff with a matching fabric belt as she sashayed to the venue.

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Hitting the right notes: Kylie Minogue, 49, showcased her envy-inducing style as she arrived at Schiaparelli AW18 fashion show during Paris Fashion Week.

Leading the stylish attendees, Kylie's chiffon look featured pleated detailing down the torso which offset her semi-sheer sleeves and daring side-slit that flashed her slender pins.

The Confide in Me hitmaker added inches to her diminutive frame with a pair of pointed stilettos which statement floral detailing across the foot.

Taking inspiration from her Parisian surroundings, she continued her all black look as she carried a silk trench coat over her forearm.

Getting chic done: Kylie's look featured daring side-slit that flashed her slender pins

Going for gold: She accessorised her stylish look with a statement gold pendant while she worked her blonde hair into a tousled wave

Walk this way: The Confide in Me hitmaker added inches to her diminutive frame with a pair of pointed stilettos which statement floral detailing across the foot

Wrapped up: Taking inspiration from her Parisian surroundings, she continued her all black look as she draped a silk trench coat over her shoulders

Sheer bliss: Leading the stylish attendees, Kylie's chiffon look featured pleated detailing down the torso which offset her semi-sheer sleeves

She accessorised her stylish look with a statement gold pendant while she worked her blonde hair into a tousled wave.

Keeping to her glamorous ways, Kylie sported a dramatic smokey eye which she complemented with a nude-coloured lip.

Earlier this month, the pop legend gave her fans a sneak peek at her return by dropping the official tracklist for her upcoming fourteenth studio album, Golden.

Picture perfect: She beamed as she got her photo taken during the occasion

Beauty: Keeping to her glamorous ways, Kylie sported a dramatic smokey eye which she complemented with a nude-coloured lip

Music to our ears: Earlier this month, the pop legend gave her fans a sneak peek at her return by dropping the official tracklist for her upcoming fourteenth studio album, Golden

Sharing is caring: 'I am SUPER excited to share with you the track listing for #GOLDEN,' she wrote on Instagram

Signature: An array of tracks on the album contained her signature titles, including 'Raining Glitter' and 'One Last Kiss'

Catching up: She caught up with British actress Laura Carmichael (R) at the event

Camera ready: Kylie posed for a photo with actress Melissa George (L)

Complementary: The trio complemented each other in their all black ensembles

'I am SUPER excited to share with you the track listing for #GOLDEN,' she wrote on Instagram.

An array of tracks on the album contained her signature titles, including 'Raining Glitter' and 'One Last Kiss.'

With her lead single 'Dancing' released, the Into the Blue songstress also released a behind-the-scenes teaser from the song's music video.

Changing it up: Kylie was later pictured donning a more quirky ensemble as she dined at the city's Cafe de Flore restaurant

Sweater weather: The music icon perfected a look that was both comfortable and stylish in a knitted roll neck jumper, which was emblazoned with an offbeat face motif

Finishing touches: She paired the blue and grey number with skinny, ripped jeans and elongated her petite frame with a pair of heeled, white boots

Hair she is! Giving the style a nonchalant finish, she swept her tresses up into a loose ponytail, allowing tendrils of hair to fall freely around her face

'I promised my fans that I would be putting my heart and soul into this record, and I stayed true to my word,' Kylie said in a voice-over as guitars gently strummed.

'I was able to do that, which was challenging and fun and rewarding and it's ended up with a different direction for sure. But essentially I'd still say it's very much a Kylie record,' she added.

Meanwhile, Kylie was later pictured donning a more quirky ensemble as she dined at the city's Cafe de Flore restaurant.

Style savvy: Also attending the stylish event was fellow songstress Pixie Lott, 27 and fiance Oliver Cheshire, 29

Making a statement: Pixie looked incredible as she opted to go braless in a statement velvet blazer with embroidered pocket detailing

Far from pants: She donned a pair of matching wide leg trousers with her textured blazer

There's not a thorn in her side: She carried a rose in her manicured mitt

Cute: The pair cuddled up for a photo

All that sparkles: She showcased her diamond earrings while tucking her hair behind her ear

Model behaviour: Oliver smoldered down the camera

Leading the charge: Oliver's statement jacket featured a lobster embroidered on it

Mane attraction: She worked her trademark platinum blonde locks off her face and sporting a bold red lip

Following suit: Complementing his other half's look, model Oliver sported a green military jacket over his black roll neck

No shade: Oliver donned a pair of statement shades for the event

The music icon perfected a look that was both comfortable and stylish in a knitted roll neck jumper, which was emblazoned with an offbeat face motif.

She paired the blue and grey number with skinny, ripped jeans and elongated her petite frame with a pair of heeled, white boots.

Giving the style a nonchalant finish, she swept her tresses up into a loose ponytail, allowing tendrils of hair to fall freely around her face.

Also attending the stylish event was fellow songstress Pixie Lott, 27 and fiance Oliver Cheshire, 29.

Heating up: Olivia Palermo looked chic in a frill-detailed knit

Work it: The fashionista draped a statement bomber jacket over her petite frame for the stylish occasion

Skirting around the issue: She donned an ankle-length skirt for the day

Eyes on the prize: She accentuated her flawless complexion with a brown smokey eye

Pixie looked incredible as she opted to go braless in a statement velvet blazer with embroidered pocket detailing.

She offset her plunging number with a pair of black trousers while working her trademark platinum blonde locks off her face and sporting a bold red lip.

Complementing his other half's look, model Oliver sported a green military jacket over his black rollneck.

All smiles: The royal and Pixie posed together for a photo

Dressed to impress: Lady Kitty Spencer looked charming in her midi dress

Golden girl: She left her hair in a sleek straight look

Her triumphant appearance comes after she looked understandable downcast earlier this month when she arrived home in a wheelchair at London's Stansted airport following an unfortunate skiing accident.

Following suit: The beauty followed behind Oliver as she arrived alongside him and Pixie

The Baby hitmaker - who is planning to tie the knot in the near future - cut a somewhat sombre figure as she was assisted through the terminal by a female friend.

Pixie bundled up in a scarlet anorak to keep the cold at bay as she touched down in London, after making the difficult journey from France.

The singer looked somewhat downcast - after twisting her knee while she was skiing on the icy slopes at La Folie Douce Val d'Isere.

Whimsical: The show featured whimsical and ethereal designs

Mixing it up: There was a mix of textures such as lace applique and tulle within the presentation

Drama: Dramatic gowns made of chiffon and silk made their way down the runway

Style: Downton Abbey's Laura Carmichael (L) and actress Lily Newmark showcased their signature style

However, avid skier Pixie defiantly claimed she will return to the slopes, and assured the injury has not put her off future getaways.

A spokesperson for Pixie told MailOnline: 'She twisted her knee while skiing. She arrived back home in the morning and she is having it checked out to see what is wrong with it.

'She didnt cut her holiday short as she had always planned to come home last night. She said the injury hasnt put her off and she loves skiing so wont let it stop her.'

Other stars at the fashionable event included British star Laura Carmichael, actress Melissa George and fashionista Olivia Palermo.

Deighted: (L-R) Farida Khelfa and Stylist Bertrand Guyon pose after the Schiaparelli Haute Couture Spring Summer 2018 show

Fashion: Lauren Santo Domingo (L) donned a plaid coat alongside Lucie de la Falaise

Suit you: Actress Melissa George slipped into a tailored suit for the afternoon

Simple: She teamed her look with a crisp white shirt
She's the popular actress best known for playing Tori Morgan on Home and Away.

But on Monday, Penny McNamee swapped the soap world for the stage as she attended the Sydney Theatre Awards at the Seymour Centre in Darlington.

The 34-year-old put on a leggy display in a cute patterned miniskirt that showed off her trim pins.

Workin' it! Penny McNamee attended the Sydney Theatre Awards at the Seymour Centre in Darlington

She added with a white tank top, and accessorised with a blue handbag.

The beauty added a flirty twist to her look by styling her hair in a youthful ponytail.

Penny lived and worked in America for several years before returning to Australia.

Leggy lady! The 34-year-old put on a leggy display in a cute patterned miniskirt that showed off her trim pins

During her time in the States. she starred in the 2006 horror film See No Evil with fellow Aussie Rachael Taylor and WWE wrestler Kane.

She also appeared in a number of U.S. dramas like Elementary and Blue Bloods.

However, the beauty found her biggest success starring on Home and Away.

Feeling blue? She added with a white tank top, and accessorised with a blue handbag

The Aussie soap earned the mother-of-one a Logie nomination for Best New Talent.

Speaking with The Daily Telegraph, Penny said that despite her decade long career on the stage, it was Home & Away that made her a household name.

She said: 'Its amazing, as an actor you can have an entire career and people not really know your name.'
She's one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, with a fitness empire under her belt.

And it's been revealed that Kate Hudson, 38, will be coming to Australia next month, to talk about her fascinating life.

The How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days star will reportedly be heading to Sydney for a Business Chicks tour, with tickets for guests starting at $239.

Heading Down Under: Kate Hudson is set to visit Sydney to talk her Hollywood career and fitness empire

According to the Business Chicks website, Kate will be attending a lunch and will be interviewed by the founder of Business Chicks.

Guests will also receive a copy of Kate's book, Pretty Fun.

Kate - who is the daughter of screen icon Goldie Hawn - is known for films including Almost Famous and Something Borrowed.

Interests: The mother of two has two books under her belt and founded activewear label, Fabletics

The mother-of-two has two books under her belt and founded activewear label, Fabletics.

Kate has just walked the red carpet at the SAG Award in Los Angeles on Sunday, with her mother Goldie, 72.

The pair swapped parenting stories at the event, with Kate gushing about her mother.

Sweet: Kate has just walked the red carpet at the SAG Award in Los Angeles on Sunday, with her mother Goldie, 72

'I feel blessed that I have a role model that I can call mom.

'I think that [she has taught me] to be compassionate. Family is everything. How I raise our children is our most important legacy.'

As for Goldie, she said Kate's different parenting style was an education.

'Kate has taught me a lot, in that she is in many ways tougher than I was with the kids,' she said, admitting: 'I wanted them to be happy all the time.'
He swapped the Manchester cobbles for the Melbourne beaches.

And fans are given their first glimpse of Ryan Thomas making his hotly anticipated arrival on Ramsay Street as the scarred stranger in Neighbours' special episode.

In scenes which will leave fans on the edge of their seat, the 33-year-old former Coronation Street star showcased his hunky physique when he stripped off his shirt.

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Neighbours SPOILER: First look at shirtless Ryan Thomas as the mysterious newcomer when he arrived on Ramsay Street in nail-biting scenes which will air on Neighbours

The television hunk slips into the shoes of newcomer Rafael Humphrey who is an English tourist harbouring a dark secret and a taste for bitter sweet revenge.

A shocking photograph revealed Ryan's transformation as his back can be seen covered in scars when he is stripped down to his Calvin Klein's.

Rafael's arrival on the scene and motives remain an enigma but when he begins to fall in love with a resident, it could throw his revenge plans into chaos.

Enigmatic: A shocking photograph revealed Ryan's transformation as his back can be seen covered in gruesome scars when he is stripped down to his Calvin Klein's

Ryan's latest role is worlds away from the cheeky character and mechanic Jason Grimshaw who made him famous on Coronation Street.

It was time for the soap star to master a new role as he finally decided to make the advantageous move after 16 years on the cobbles.

The hunk and his Corrie co-star Tina O'Brien, who plays Sarah Platt, share their eight-year-old daughter Scarlet but the pair called it quits on their six-year romance.

In recent months, Ryan made the move to Australia despite finding love with Essex girl Lucy Mecklenburgh in 2017.

Fresh character: The television hunk slips into the shoes of newcomer Rafael Humphrey who is an English tourist harboring a dark secret and a taste for bitter sweet revenge

Dramatically different: Ryan's latest role is worlds away from the cheeky character and mechanic Jason Grimshaw (pictured in 2012) who made him famous on Coronation Street

But the couple proved they were still going strong when the former TOWIE star joined his family for New Year's celebrations.

They found love on Bear Grylls' Celebrity Island where they were in the midst of water shortages, extreme hunger and tropical storms.

Keen to keep the flames of their passionate romance going after the show, they continued seeing each other on home turf.

Neighbours one hour special 'Hit and Run' will air at 10pm on Channel 5 on Monday February 12.
She's worked with him numerous times throughout her successful career infront of the camera.

And now Kate Moss, 44, beamed as she toasted to acclaimed photographer David Bailey at his surprise 80th birthday party at Mark's Club in London on Monday.

The supermodel - who appeared in his 1998 documentary Models Close Up - looked in jovial spirits as she posed in an eye-catching navy velvet blazer for the lunch hosted by British Vogue editor Edward Enninful and fashion photographer Tim Walker.

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Picture perfect: Kate Moss, 44, beamed as she toasted to acclaimed photographer David Bailey at his surprise 80th birthday party at Mark's Club in London on Monday

Boasting a golden glow, she teamed the textured garment with a matching silk shirt which highlighted her decolletage.

The British beauty continued to showcase her signature style as she slipped on a pair of burgundy high-waisted trousers which accentuated her seventies-inspired fashion.

She accessorised her look with a colourful printed thin scarf while decorating her hands with a number of intricate rings.

The fashion star worked her golden tresses into a centre parting and fell into a straight style down her shoulders.

Style savvy: The supermodel - who appeared in his 1998 documentary Models Close Up - looked in jovial spirits as she posed in an eye-catching navy velvet blazer for the lunch hosted by British Vogue editor Edward Enninful and fashion photographer Tim Walker

Getting chic done: Boasting a golden glow, she teamed the textured garment with a matching silk shirt which highlighted her decolletage

Far from pants: The British beauty continued to showcase her signature style as she slipped on a pair of burgundy high-waisted trousers which accentuated her seventies-inspired fashion

Other famous faces at the bash included David Bailey's wife Catherine Dyer and son Sascha.

The style icon's relationship with David has spanned over two decades and in 1998 he directed a documentary, Models Close Up, commissioned by Channel 4 Television which featured the Croydon born star.

At the time, it offered a rare insight into the model who notoriously never gave interviews or spoke in public. During the documentary the star revealed she used to get very embarrassed being a young model posing naked.

The interview for David's documentary was also one of the first times Kate addressed being blamed for making young girls want to be thin and also the heroin chic label she was tarnished with.

Icons: The style icon's relationship with David has spanned over two decadesand in 1998 he directed a documentary, Models Close Up, commissioned by Channel 4 Television which featured the Croydon born star

Speaking out: At the time, it offered a rare insight into the model who notoriously never gave interviews or spoke in public

Pals: Kate posed for photos with British Vogue editor Edward Enninful at the lunch

Close: The pair were cheek to cheek as they posed for photos on Monday afternoon

Good times: Kate was in high spirits as she socialized with the Vogue editor

Say cheese: (L-R) Edward Enninful, David Bailey, Kate Moss and Tim Walker

Picture perfect: Kate enjoyed a cigarette while posing with iconic photographer Bailey

Recently, Kate interviewed David for the Guardian and discussed the worst things they have said to each other in the heat of the moment and how they got away with it.

He asked: 'What did I say? Youre Kate Moss, or something?'

To which she answered: 'That was it! When I first met you, you walked into the dressing room and I was so excited but really, really nervous, obviously, and scared. Terrified because everyone had told me that you made every model cry'.

While insisting his never made anyone cry, Kate recalled their first meeting and admitted his words could insult some girls.

Mane attraction: The fashion star worked her golden tresses into a centre parting and fell into a straight style down her shoulders

Going for gold: She accessorised her look with a colourful printed thin scarf while decorating her hands with a number of intricate rings

Chit chat: She chatted to Don McCullin during the festivities

Adding: 'I was sitting having my hair and makeup done and you went, So youre Kate Moss? Whats all the fuss about? And walked out! Some girls would have taken that as an insult whereas I was like, "Yes. He is f***ing Bailey!"

Her appearance comes after she raised a few eyebrows when her name appeared on the front cover of a new self-help book that advises readers to 'get to bed at 10:30' and cut down on alcohol.

The new lifestyle manual - Self Care For The Real World by Nadia Narain and Katia Narain Phillips - boasts Kate's name on the front cover, plus a glowing review from the veteran socialite.

Kate gushed on the calming blue cover, saying: 'I want to give this book to everyone that I know!'.

Glowing: She looked glowing as she stopped for photos

Catching up: The photojournalist chatted to British artist Brian Clarke

Birthday wishes: Don wished David Happy Birthday at the event

The self-care guide aims to 'accepting you are human with all your beauty and flaws' but does hand out some strict advice, including a bed time of 10:30pm, avoiding 'too many late nights in a row', and alcohol be cut down to 'several dry nights a week.

The authors also suggest that extroverted people need to embrace what they call 'JOMO' or 'Joy of Missing Out' to get used to being on their own'.

Kate's moniker emblazoned on the front cover may turn heads on book shop stands as the social butterfly has famously broken all the rules featured within its pages.

At the height of her career - and rebellious partying ways - in the 1990s, Kate was earning around 3m a year, and hit the headlines numerous times with her scandalous late night outings.

Celebrations: David attended the bash with his wife Catherine Dyer

Wedded bliss: The couple have been happily married since 1986

Low-key: The couple opted for a low-key look in their denim and plaid shirts

Despite a stint in rehab in 1998 and the infamous 2005 photo scandal supposedly showing Kate snorting cocaine, her wild antics have somewhat slowed down, and her endorsement of the self-help guide could be an indication the blonde beauty is turning over a new leaf.

Having toned down the partying ways of her youth, Kate has recently been ringing her 43rd birthday during a romantic trip with boyfriend Count Nikolai von Bismarck, with whom she has become inseparable.

Kate embarked on a romance with German aristocrat Nikolai in late 2015, following her split from The Kills rocker husband Jamie.

Fashion friends: Model Penelope Tree, 68, rested her head on David's shoulder

Fun-filled: He cuddled up alongside socialite Heather Kerzner

The pair were hit by split claims in October last year, but silenced rumours by putting on a loved-up display at a number of public events soon after.

Proving their romance is only going from strength to strength, the pair were even seen purchasing a new puppy in London in December.

The model is already a mother to Lila-Grace, 14, who she shares with ex partner Jefferson Hack.

Stepping out: British Vogue editor Edward looked dapper for the occasion alongside David and Catherine's son Sascha Bailey, 23

Action! Matt Nicolson, Heather Kerzner and Tim Marlow caught up at the event
Priyanka Chopra puts the urban in suburban, even when it's freezing outside.

On Sunday, The 32-year-old Indian actress made her way to a snowy Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, to promote her upcoming film, A Kid Like Jake.

Chopra has been spotted lately trying to keep warm from low temperatures as she's in the middle of shooting for Quantico in chilly New York City.

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Fashionable girl! Priyanka Chopra braved the icy cold weather to promote her new movie at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on Sunday

Chopra didn't let Utah's cold weather stop her from looking good.

The Baywatch actress pulled off an edgy look in the snow by rocking an ensemble that was urban and stylish.

Chopra wore a beige turtleneck, a green blazer and fitted camouflage pants. The actress also donned a light brown trench coat over her attire.

The India-born star accessorized this outfit with round metal-rimmed sunglasses and black Christian Louboutin biker-style booties. Chopra was cool and she knew it, as she flashed a peace sign while heading to her event.

Peace out: Chopra's rocker-chic ensemble was an interesting choice for snow weather, but the actress was cool and confident as she flashed a peace sign while walking in Park City

Keeping it cool: The snow wasn't an issue for the actress, as she smiled in her chic attire

Snow bunny: The Miss World 2000 winner stepped out in a beige turtleneck sweater, camouflage skinny jeans, and a chic olive green blazer

Ice queen: The 35-year-old actress made sure to put on a fashionable display as she arrived to appear with her A-list cast members

Priyanka Chopra stopped by to chat about her recent project A Kid Like Jake" at the MoviePass estate in park city and talk about her new season of her hit show Quantico and relax after a long day of interviews!

MoviePass: Priyanka Chopra stopped by to chat about her recent project A Kid Like Jake" and the new season of her hit show Quantico and relax after a long day of interviews!

Chopra's new movie, A Kid Like Jake, also stars Jim Parsons, Claire Danes, and Octavia Spencer.

The dramatic story follows a couple who struggles to negotiate their young son's gender. The Miss World 2000 winner stars as Amal in the film adaptation of Daniel Pearle's play.

A Kid Like Jake premieres Tuesday at Sundance.

A-listers at Sundance: A Kid Like Jake followsa couple whose son doesn't fall follow typical gender norms

On Wednesday, Chopra sent temperatures soaring as she filmed her series in a sizzling black dress with a daring thigh-high slit in New York City.

The Quantico star was also seen sharing a passionate kiss with her co-star Alan Powell, as they brought to life their popular drama show.

The actress turned heads in a provocative black dress with edgy silver accents along the neckline and a black fur coat. She stepped out in a pair of sexy black high heels and rocked a head full of gorgeous curls and bold dark red lipstick.

Legs get going! Chopra sent temperatures soaring as she filmed her series in a sizzling black dress with a daring thigh-high slit in New York City on Wednesday
They've been inseparable while taking Paris Fashion Week by storm, hitting up all trend-setting haunts.

And now Topshop heiress Chloe Green, 26, and her 'hot felon' beau Jeremy Meeks, 33, continue to prove they're more in love than ever as they attended the Ralph & Russo show in the French capital on Monday.

The socialite held on tight to her handsome other-half, making it a family affair with her mother Tina Green in toe.

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Family Affair! Chloe Green, 26, shows off her unique style in an eyecatching beaded jacket as she steps out with model beau Jeremy Meeks, 33, and mum Tina for the PFW Ralph & Russo show

Chloe bundled up in an eye-catching chic beaded jacket, with the decadent embellishments festooned across the impressive outerwear.

Her petite frame was shielded from the cold with the faux-fur trim along the cuffs and the hem.

Braving the wintry city, the former Made in Chelsea star paired her stunning sartorial choice with classic black straight-leg trousers, and added height in killer black heels.

Close knit: The socialite held on tight to her handsome other-half, making it a family affair with her mother Tina Green in toe

Wrapped up: Chloe bundled up in an eye-catching chic beaded jacket, with the decadent embellishments festooned across the impressive outerwear

Family outing: Braving the wintry city, the former Made in Chelsea star paired her stunning sartorial choice with classic black straight-leg trousers, and added height in killer black heels

Mums the word: The brunette beauty draped her pin-straight tresses down past her shoulders, letting her demur smokey eye and taupe lip highlight her natural beauty.

The brunette beauty draped her pin-straight tresses down past her shoulders, letting her demur smokey eye and taupe lip highlight her natural beauty.

Her sharply dressed model boyfriend Jeremy didn't disappoint with his high-fashion wardrobe choices, rocking a smooth black suit jacket, embellished with rose needle-work on the chest.

The dashing look was complemented with a streak of casual style, donning a pair of black skinny jeans and comfortable suede loafers.

Dashing: Her sharply dressed model boyfriend Jeremy didn't disappoint with his high-fashion wardrobe choices, rocking a smooth black suit jacket, embellished with rose needle-work on the chest

Sharp style: The dashing look was complemented with a streak of casual style, donning a pair of black skinny jeans and comfortable suede loafers

The runway star accessorised his handsome ensemble with striking silver chains and dog-tags as he pulled his signature pout for the cameras.

The Californian hasn't wasted any time getting to know Chloe's mum Tina better, having soaked up the son in Monaco in July.

And it appears the billionaire businesswoman gave her seal of approval on the controversial relationship, posing with the pair before the fashion bash.

The stylish wife of Topshop owner Philip Green gave her daughter a serious run for her money as she turned heads in a leather jacket accented with edgy black tassels and chains across the sleeves.

Sharply cut: The runway star accessorised his handsome ensemble with striking silver chains and dog-tags as he pulled his signature pout for the cameras

Meet the in-laws: The Californian hasn't wasted any time getting to know Chloe's mum Tina better, having soaked up the son in Monaco in July

She opted for form fitting leather trousers and skyscraper heels to complete the daring look, finishing off with a decadent silver rose pendant and leather studded clutch bag.

It is no surprise the lovebirds have flocked to Paris during Men's Fashion Week as Jeremy first official modelling appearance at New York Fashion Week in 2017.

Before hitting the runway, Meeks shot to fame in 2014 when his mug shot was posted by the Stockton Police Department after he was arrested on weapons charges amid a gang sweep, later getting a prison sentence of 27 months in connection with the incident.

The image went viral on Facebook and Twitter, with plenty of admirers gushing over his chiseled face and bright blue eyes.

Model pose: It is no surprise the lovebirds have flocked to Paris during Men's Fashion Week as Jeremy first official modelling appearance at New York Fashion Week in 2017
They quickly forged a romance after meeting on set of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies in 2014.

And Lily James and Matt Smith proved their romance was stronger than ever as they cosied up at the Screen Actors Guild Awards afterparty, hosted by Netflix, on Sunday night.

The 28-year-old actress showed off her effortless style in a plunging bow-detail dress as she posed with her handsome beau, 35 - before going on to pose with his The Crown co-star, Vanessa Kirby.

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Hot couple: Lily James, 28, and Matt Smith, 35, proved their romance was stronger than ever as they cosied up at the Screen Actors Guild Awards afterparty, hosted by Netflix, on Sunday

Lily once again cemented her style credentials in the figure-flattering dress which boasted an almost quilt-like design and a line of oversized bows down the middle.

The Baby Driver actress sported a bronzed make-up look, which focused on chiselled cheekbones, smokey shadow and nude gloss.

The beauty, who has been rocking her tousled fringed mane in recent weeks, looked undeniably happy with Matt, who made for a very slick display in a snazzy black suit.

Lily proved that she had well and truly immersed herself in Matt's circle of friends, as she went on to pose with his co-star Vanessa.

Glamorous girls: The actress went on to pose with Matt's The Crown co-star, Vanessa Kirby

Industry event: The British actress showed off her effortless style in a plunging bow-detail dress as she posed alongside her Darkest Hour co-star, Gary Oldman

Lily also looked thrilled to be posing with Gary Oldman, who she stars alongside with in the upcoming critically acclaimed flick, Darkest Hour.

Recently Lily praised the women in Hollywood who have recently shared their experience of sexual harassment and abuse.

The British star is pleased that the sex scandal has sparked a debate about the movie industry's culture.

She said: 'I think the bravery of everyone that's come forward and spoken, the fact that they've shared their pain and their stories in order to make change is the most admirable brilliant thing.

'Brilliant': Recently Lily praised the women in Hollywood who have recently shared their experience of sexual harassment and abuse - pictured at Golden Globes on January 7

'Brave': The British star is pleased that the sex scandal has sparked a debate about the movie industry's culture

'And I'm so hopeful that now there's going to be a huge shift in how that power balance has been and how people have been treated.'

This comes after Lily reflected on her own activity on social networks in light of Daisy Ridley's decision to delete her accounts, and has confessed to experiencing a 'constant inner battle' about the issue.

Reflecting on Daisy's choice, Lily shared to the BBC: 'I completely and utterly relate to that. I believe it to be true, and therefore I am a hypocrite. I am on [social media], and I have a constant inner battle about it.'

The beauty went on to say that she had chosen not to join micro-blogging site Twitter because '[you shouldn't] put something down in concrete that's going to come back and haunt you.'
She is currently working under a busy schedule, while filming upcoming British biographical film Vita and Virginia.

But Gemma Arterton took a stylish break from her acting duties as she attended the Christian Dior Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2018 collection during Paris Fashion Week on Monday.

Gracing the event in a stone coloured ensemble, the 31-year-old turned heads with her plaid number as she was joined by her sister and Walking On Sunshine actress Hannah Arterton at the starry event.

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Chic: Gemma Arterton took a stylish break from her acting duties as she attended the Christian Dior Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2018 collection during Paris Fashion Week on Monday

The English actress wowed in her unique attire, which featured a strikingly plunging neckline and plaid patterns throughout.

Giving a peek at her slender waist with the help of a belt, the statement frock was embellished with a loose pleat design along the bottom of the dress.

The attention remained on her stylish dress as she complemented her attire with simple black stilettos.

Stylish siblings: She was joined by her younger sister Hannah, who looked sensational in a floral embroidered white dress

Sensational display: Gemma's short raven tresses were styled into a slick comb over do, while she focused on her natural beauty through her minimal makeup choice - a hint of glitter on her eyelids, rose colour blush and a simple nude lip

Her short raven tresses were styled into a slick comb over do, while she focused on her natural beauty through her minimal makeup choice - a hint of glitter on her eyelids, rose colour blush and a simple nude lip.

She was joined by her younger sister Hannah, who looked sensational in a floral embroidered white dress.

Paired with an eccentric animated chainbag, the Hide and Seek actress accentuated her slender physique in the complementing white frock, while she teamed her number with nude pointed heels.

With her blonde locks loosely tousled, Hannah favored her sibling in the makeup department as she added a subtle liner to her eyes, faint pink blush to the ample of her cheeks, and rose lipstick.

Sibling love! The Kent natives gave each other a warm embrace as they posed for the cameras

Chic bunch: Paired with an eccentric animated chainbag, the Hide and Seek actress accentuated her slender physique in the complementing white frock as she was joined by Alexa Chung

Stylish: The English actress wowed in her unique attire, which featured a strikingly plunging neckline and plaid patterns throughout

Unique: Giving a peek at her slender waist with the help of a belt, the statement frock was embellished with a loose pleat design along the bottom of the dress

Before the event: With her blonde locks loosely tousled, Hannah favored her sibling in the makeup department as she added a subtle liner to her eyes, faint pink blush to the ample of her cheeks, and rose lipstick

The Dior runway proved to be a truly spectacular feast for the eyes, with eye-catching garments focusing on neutral monochrome hues - all serving to accentuate a woman's physique.

While many looks - designed by Maria Grazia Chiuri - proved to be simple and understated in design, others featured commanding patterns and detailing.

Structured masks where also propped on the models to give the overall collection a more distinct edge. The show was inevitably met by a rapturous applause by spectators.

Impact: While many looks proved to be simple and understated in design, others featured commanding patterns and detailing

While at the starry show, Gemma took a well-deserved break from her busy schedule, as she is currently filming TV series Watership Down and drama film Vita and Virginia.

Speaking about her time in Hollywood last August, the actress shamed an obese Hollywood producer who previously ordered her to lose weight on a few films.

Gemma revealed that producers flew a personal trainer out to Morocco to ensure she lost weight - and had her filmed in the gym to prove she was exercising - during production of an unnamed title.

Fashion-forward: The star paired her outfit with an open-front cape coat earlier that day

Incredibly, the actress - size 10 at the time - said she was even told she couldnt eat dried apricots by the weighty Hollywood boss.

Gemma revealed: There was one film that I was on and we were out in Morocco and a couple of weeks went past and they literally were like We need a personal trainer - stat.

And they flew someone out overnight that gave up their whole life to be with me and be my personal trainer.

'You know when its like - Is it that f****** bad that I need an emergency... [it was as if they were] like on speed dial - Get that trainer out here now. It was so traumatic at the time.
She began her climb to stardom modelling for fashion heavyweights Dolce and Gabbana and Dior.

And Italian actress Monica Bellucci, 53, returned to where it all began - and looking as sensational as ever at the Christian Dior Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2018 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on Monday.

The age-defying model proved her catwalk prowess in a stunning black ensemble that showed off her head-turning physique flawlessly.

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Age-defying: Youthful Monica Bellucci, 53, flaunted her eye-popping cleavage in a plunging curvaceous gown as she makes an entrance at Dior's fashion show at PFW

The Matrix star exuded glamour as she poured her hour-glass figure into a low-cut black mid-length dress, with a dangerously low neckline to showcase her ample cleavage.

The plunging neckline gave a saucy glimpse at her lacy black lingerie, which drew the attention towards her busty frame.

Monica slipped into sophisticated black tights and a pair of sky-scraper heels as she paraded the jaw-dropping monochrome Dior venue in the French capital.

Sensational: The age-defying model proved her catwalk prowess in a stunning black ensemble that showed off her head-turning physique flawlessly.

Italian beauty: The Matrix star exuded glamour as she poured her hour-glass figure into a low-cut black mid-length dress, with a dangerously low neckline to showcase her ample cleavage

Sneak peak: The plunging neckline gave a saucy glimpse at her lacy black lingerie, which drew the attention towards her busty frame

She carried her worldly possessions in a polished black faux-snake skin bag with an edgy silver strap, offsetting the minimalist colour scheme.

Letting her curvaceous figure do all the talking, the Spectre Bond girl added a tiny touch of shimmer to her matte look, with a delicate silver necklace as her only accessory.

A smokey eye and a nude rose glossy lip further accentuated Monica's natural beauty, with her cropped raven tresses hanging neatly down onto her shoulders, framing her face perfectly.

Strike a pose: She carried her worldly possessions in a polished black faux-snake skin bag with an edgy silver strap, offsetting the minimalist colour scheme

Dainty touch: Letting her curvaceous figure do all the talking, the Shoot-em-up actress added a tiny touch of shimmer to her matte look, with a delicate silver necklace as her only accessory

Despite the black and white colour scheme for the event, Monica did anything but fade into the background, catching all the attention while sitting in the front row of the decadent fashion show.

Showing off her incredible figure, it is easy to wonder how they stay in such great shape. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph newspaper in May, she said that she doesn't favour the gym in a quest to stay slim, instead preferring to enjoy life and eat pasta and cake.

Monica explained: 'Im not someone who wakes up at 6am to go to the gym. The truth is that I like cakes and pasta, the odd glass of wine and a very occasional cigarette. My advice is: eat well, drink well, have good sex  and laugh a lot. The rest comes all on its own.'

Brunette vixen: A smokey eye and a nude rose glossy lip further accentuated Monica's natural beauty, with her cropped raven tresses hanging neatly down onto her shoulders, framing her face perfectly

Monica has be rubbing shoulders with the creme-de-la-creme of the fashion elite while enjoying the high-paced couture season.

She continued to turned heads on Monday night as she rubbed shoulders with Diane Kruger and Marian Cotillard at the star-studded Cesar - Revelations 2018 party in Paris the week before.

Choosing for the versatile black once again, paring a dazzling black suit with Louboutin heels and a quilted shoulder bag.

Wow factor: Monica Belluci (right) turned heads as she rubbed shoulders with Diane Kruger and Marian Cotillard (left) at the star-studded Cesar - Revelations 2018 party in Paris
She catapulted into the spotlight after her leading role in British teen drama Skins over a decade ago, and has since gone on to star in Hollywood blockbusters such as Clash of the Titans and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

And Kaya Scodelario flashed her toned pins as she attended a UK fan screening for her latest film, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, in London's West End.

Turning heads in a sleek keyhole dress, the 25-year-old was joined by co-star and Love Actually actor Thomas Brodie-Sangster on Monday.

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Leggy: Kaya Scodelario, 25, flashed her toned pins as she attended a UK fan screening for her latest film, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, in London's West End on Monday

Embellished with studded chains along the pockets of her black dress, Kaya appeared glamorous in her mini frock, which boasted at her slender frame.

She paired her dark ensemble with feline-print ankle boots while she accessorized her look with a simple gold bracelet.

The West Sussex star wore her brunette tresses in loose waves as her locks grazed her chest.

Sporting an edgy smokey eye, Kaya ensured all eyes were on her with her glossy nude lipstick and rose blush.

She was joined by co-star Thomas Brodie-Sangster, who put on a dapper display in a suave black suit, which he paired with a metallic gold shirt.

Co-stars: Turning heads in a sleek keyhole dress, Kaya was joined by Love Actually actor Thomas Brodie-Sangster, 27

Stunning: Embellished with studded chains along the pockets of her black dress, Kaya appeared glamorous in her mini frock, which boasted at her slender frame

Suave: The former child star put on a dapper display in a suave black suit, which he paired with a metallic gold shirt

It proved to be a family affair for Kaya, as she was joined by her mother, Katia who blew a kiss at her talented daughter.

The affection didn't stop there as the Moon actress proceeded to share a smooch with her husband Benjamin Walker.

The pair have been married since December 2015, and share a son, born 11 months later.

Doting mother: It proved to be a family affair for Kaya, as she was joined by her mother, Katia who blew a kiss at her talented daughter

Kisses all around! The affection didn't stop there as the Moon actress proceeded to share a smooch with her husband Benjamin Walker

Loved-up: The pair have been married since December 2015, and share a son, born 11 months later

Starry event: Also in attendance was radio presenter Clara Amfo, who looked sensational in a elegant white dress

Smart: Will Poulter, 24, looked dapper as he sported a light brown suit on the red carpet

The dystopian science fiction movie is the third and final installment of the Maze Runner film series.

The sequel to Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials was originally set to hit screens in February last year, but is postponed for a US release of January 26, as leading star Dylan O'Brien sustained injuries during filming.

The American actor - who fronts the film as Thomas - was left fighting for his life after crashing his motorcycle in a terrifying accident for a movie stunt.

Last film: The dystopian science fiction movie is the third and final installment of the Maze Runner film series

Brave: Dylan O'Brien - who fronts the film as Thomas - was left fighting for his life after crashing his motorcycle in a terrifying accident for a movie stunt

According to a report from WorkSafeBC, he suffered a concussion, facial fracture and lacerations when his head hit the ground.

Dylan later revealed how combat training for his titular role in American Assassin was therapeutic for his recovery process.

'I didn't really even want to leave my couch necessarily when I was allowed to, so yeah, it was a big step doing this,' the Deepwater Horizon star told ET last July.

'The state that you're in after something like that, you just want to run from all that stuff.'
She's the fashion model and reality TV star known for her dedication to fitness.

But even Elyse Knowles struggled during a challenging outdoor yoga workout on Monday.

Taking to Instagram to share a clip of the training session, the 25-year-old wrote in the caption: 'Can't even touch my toes!'

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'Can't even touch my toes!' The Block's Elyse Knowles struggled during a challenging outdoor yoga workout on Monday

Revealing her slender figure in a bikini, Elyse completed a yoga sequence with the Murray River in the background.

In the short video, she performed a few downward dogs followed by a series of plank push-ups.

The Block winner captioned the post: 'Not a yogi - can't even touch my toes. Prime location for a stretch and full body activation.'

Referring to her dog, who was sleeping the video, Elyse jokingly added: 'Isla has a different idea.'

Holiday workout: Revealing her slender figure in a bikini, Elyse completed a yoga sequence with the Murray River in the background

In the short video, she performed a few downward dogs followed by a series of plank push-ups

Elyse's workout comes after she hinted at a new project in a cryptic Instagram post.

She shared a photo of a computer screen with her website ElyseKnowles.com.au on display, alongside the text 'something is coming'.

It's possible she is planning another renovation with boyfriend Josh Barker after selling their Elsternwick home on The Block to Dave Hughes for $3,067,000.

'Something is coming': Elyse's workout comes after she hinted at a new project in a cryptic Instagram post

In November, Josh and Elyse also sold their Coburg home, which the couple had done up after purchasing it for around $600,000 in 2014.

The reality TV stars spent 18 months renovating the property before selling it at auction for $1.63 million.

Since the Coburg auction, Elyse and Josh have been enjoying some rest and relaxation, visiting former Block co-stars Sticks and Wombat over Christmas.
Candice Swanepoel is expecting another boy.

The 29-year-old South African model made her big reveal on Sunday with an Instagram video of her one-year-old son Anaca kissing her bump.

'My boys,' the Victoria's Secret Angel wrote warmly in her caption.

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The big news: Candice Swanepoel's second baby will be a boy, she has announced

She first publicized the pregnancy with a December Instagram snap of herself cradling her bump. Her caption effervesced: 'Christmas came early.. #2'.

Candice has been with her children's father, Brazilian model Hermann Nicoli, since 2005, having reportedly met him in Paris when she was all of 17 years old.

She first walked the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in Los Angeles in 2007. Three years later, the brand proclaimed her one of its Angels.

This past November, she made her triumphal return to the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, which for the first time was held in Shanghai.

Heartwarming :The 29-year-old South African model made her big reveal on Sunday with an Instagram video of her one-year-old son Anaca kissing her bump

The trilingual model - who now has 11.8 million Instagram followers - took 2016's Paris edition of the extravaganza off, having delivered Anaca the month prior.

In a British Vogue interview last year, she confided that since becoming a mother 'I cant watch movies, or even commercials, where kids are in any kind of danger now.'

As she recalled to the magazine: 'The last two movies I watched were Lion and Mama, with Penelope Cruz, and I mean, just bawling on the couch. Oh my god, they are both so beautiful but you just wont get through it.'

Growing family: 'My boys,' the Victoria's Secret Angel wrote warmly in her caption

She said of parenthood: 'Its all so new to me and I think, especially in the beginning, that everything is such a joy; youre excited about every moment.'

To her, 'Becoming a mother makes the world feel so much better. Nothing can get me down. I just look at him and see him seeing the world for the first time, and its just such a pleasure to see it through his eyes.'

She shared with British Vogue that 'Im loving being a mum and this new stage in my life. Its always been about me, and my career, and its so nice to have this shift and put all my love and energy into something else.'

Bluebella have recently declared Candice the 'most influential lingerie model' on Instagram, claiming she can earn 50,000 per post.

'Christmas came early..': She first publicized the pregnancy with a December Instagram snap of herself cradling her bump
Ex-AFL player Colin Sylvia has pleaded guilty to using stolen credit card details at a Melbourne brothel and to buy pornography.

The former Melbourne and Fremantle midfielder also used the details, which he copied from a customer when he worked at a Renault dealership, to transfer more than $4000 into an online betting account.

Sylvia, 32, pleaded guilty to several charges in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday, including using the credit card details to buy two one-hour sessions at the now-closed Daily Planet brothel at Elsternwick.
A convicted rapist has been found guilty of murdering West Australian teenager Hayley Dodd almost 20 years ago.

Francis John Wark, 61, was granted a judge-alone trial in the WA Supreme Court last year and Justice Lindy Jenkins handed down her judgment on Monday.

Hayley, 17, was last seen walking along a road near rural Badgingarra, where Wark had lived for 15 years, on July 29, 1999.

Under Western Australia law Wark had been charged with wilful murder but was instead found guilty of murder.

Justice Jenkins was visibly shaken as she handed down her verdict.

Wark showed no emotion but Hayley's family wiped away tears.

Wark will face a sentencing hearing on January 30.

Prosecutors had alleged Wark lured Hayley into his ute between 11.40am and midday, murdered her and disposed of her body before 1.36pm when he paid an account at Badgingarra roadhouse while riding his motorcycle to Perth.

Wark's lawyer Darryl Ryan argued it was possible an ankh-shaped earring matching a description of the style Hayley was wearing when she went missing could have been planted by police.

The key piece of evidence was only found in September 2013 when a car bench seat cover that police seized one week after Hayley vanished was examined at the state forensic laboratory.

Prosecutors argued the fact the hook on the earring was bent suggested a violent struggle, but there was no DNA recovered from it.
Unheralded Brit Kyle Edmund says he's not in the Australian Open quarter-finals to make up the numbers and believe he has what it takes to win his first grand slam title.

The world No.49 has a final-eight berth booked on Tuesday against world No.3 Grigor Dimitrov, who ousted local hope Nick Kyrgios.

Edmund had a tight four-set win over Italian Andreas Seppi in the fourth round, only managing one straight-sets win en route.

The 23-year-old is the first British man apart from the injured Andy Murray to reach the last eight in Melbourne since John Lloyd on the grass back in 1985 - and the first other than Murray at any slam since Tim Henman 14 years ago.

Edmund's previous best Open result was a second-round appearance last year when Dimitrov was beaten by Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals an epic five-setter.

Few give him any chance of upsetting Dimitrov, who recorded the biggest victory of his career when he won the year-end ATP Finals in London in November.

But Edmund is a believer.

"You have to believe it," he said.

"I mean, that's why I'm in the quarter-finals because every time I step on the court and I'm playing, I believe I'm going to win so it's no different now."

Edmund can take confidence from his last meeting against Dimitrov, who was at his best in the four-set win over Kyrgios.

At this month's Brisbane quarter-finals, he pushed the Bulgarian before falling 6-3 6-7 (7-3) 6-4.

"Brisbane was obviously a very good match," Edmund said.

"I played well ... Of course we can take things from that. There were a lot of things I did well and maybe a few things I could do better."

With his patchy Open form before the Kyrgios match, 26-year-old Dimitrov said he wouldn't be underestimating Edmund, who he also beat in three sets in Washington last year.

"He's gone that far so for sure I need to be ready," said Dimitrov, who despite his success is still searching for his maiden grand slam title.

"There is no place for underestimation or anything like that.

"At the beginning of the tournament, I wasn't hitting the ball too well but I'm happy that I went up a gear and played better and hopefully I can do even better in the next match."
Muslims are just the latest group to be demonised in Australian society, in a practice that dates back to the earliest days of European settlement according to the head of Australia's peak Muslim body.

Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC) president Rateb Jneid says there can be no doubt anti-Islam sentiment in the country is growing.

"Australia has a history of isolating groups from the mainstream and there is no question that it is Muslims that are currently the focus of this practice," Dr Jneid told AAP.

"There has been a clear trajectory of increasing negative stereotyping and discrimination of Muslims in this country for nearly two decades.

Dr Jneid said the current climate left Muslims in Australia feeling ostracised and fearful.

He said Australian society needed to recognise its own struggles with discrimination before anything could be done to reverse the situation.

"Until such time as we are prepared to acknowledge the racism that underpinned the very creation of this country we will not be able to properly address the ongoing issues faced by other minority groups including Muslims," he said.

"Secondly, this is a leadership issue.. There will be no significant change on these issues until such time as our political leaders step up, call out this behaviour for what it is and denounce it as something which is not part of what Australia stands for."

A 2017 report into Islamophobia in Australia by Charles Sturt University concluded that there was a "disturbing amount" of the practice at institutional and personal levels in Australia.

The report also features statistics from the Islamophobia Register which showed external events such as "global and national terrorist attacks, sieges, legislation targeting Australian Muslims and protests" coincided with an increase in reports of incidents.

Dr Jneid isn't surprised by those findings and says the rise of far-right political parties such as Pauline Hanson's One Nation and the Australian Liberty Alliance showed anti-Islam sentiment wasn't an underground issue.

"We have politicians attending far-right and Islamophobic rallies, openly expressing views that clearly raise fear, anxiety and distrust of Muslim Australians," he said.

"Almost every day there is a negative story of Muslims in one of the national media platforms. For all the cries of political correctness supposedly stopping people expressing themselves, there seems to be no shortage of individuals in the public domain who are openly and repeatedly demonising Muslims."
A major policy backflip, a handful of by-elections, a pricey stadium spend and a record set of books - it's been a seesawing first year for NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

Mike Baird's sharp fall from favour as he grappled with unpopular policies and shied away from others, culminating in his snap resignation, thrust Berejiklian into the top job on January 23.

Handed the task of implementing a doomed council amalgamation policy, the grace period for the former treasurer was remarkably short-lived as she was forced to back down on the plan under overwhelming public pressure.

Berejiklian spent much of her first year in the job hosing down spotfires left behind by the once golden boy, with a handful of government resignations prompting a series of by-election tests in city and regional seats.

Leaked documents exposing massive cost blowouts to the controversial WestConnex roads project paired with an indefinitely delayed emergency services levy were seized upon by the opposition.

Despite a turbulent first year in the job, Berejiklian did inherit a healthy set of books after her predecessor's decision to privatise half of the state's poles and wires businesses.

The lease of 50.4 per cent of the state's Endeavour Energy raked in more than $7 billion for the NSW government - leading to a massive surplus in Ms Berejiklian's first budget as leader.

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet announced a record surplus of $4.6 billion for 2016/17 and a forecast surplus of $2.7 billion for the following financial year.

Berejiklian kept her pledge to "go harder" on building infrastructure with a whopping $22.3 billion set aside for projects across NSW in 2017/18.

Berejiklian pointed to the government's strong economic position, massive infrastructure spend and inroads in housing affordability as major milestones and described her first year as "rewarding".

However, a decision to knock down and rebuild two Sydney sporting stadiums at a cost of more than $2 billion prompted a massive backlash from voters and threatens to dog the premier through 2018.

And while Berejiklian may have breathed a sigh of relief to leave 2017 behind, a planned train strike that has the capacity to shut down the city hasn't provided a positive start to the new year.

Meanwhile, the opposition weren't able to escape 2017 without corrupt ghosts of the past reappearing.

Former NSW Labor Minister Ian Macdonald was jailed for at least seven years for his role in granting a mining licence to a company run by former union boss John Maitland.

Maitland himself was jailed for at least four years.

Working hard to distance himself from some of Labor's shady past, opposition leader Luke Foley is targeting healthcare, education and the stadium spend in the lead-up to the March, 2019 state election.
Lifting a ban on fracking in the Northern Territory would be welcomed by consumers as a move to help put a lid on future gas prices, an inquiry has been told.

The Australia Industry Group and the Business Council of Australia have presented a joint submission to the territory government's inquiry into hydraulic fracturing or fracking.

Ai Group chief executive Innes Willox says lifting the ban and replacing it with a robust, scientifically-based regulatory framework would have immediate and long-term benefits for the NT economy and the broader community.
A bouncing baby male red panda has played up for the cameras at Perth Zoo as he was given his first health check-up.

The Nepalese Red Panda cub was given a clean-bill of health as keepers proudly introduced the grumpy two-month-old to the public for the first time.

It comes after Australian conservationists helped rescue six red pandas last week from being trafficked across the Laos-Chinese border.

Unfortunately, three of the bears died from the severe stress of their ordeal and potential diseases.

Perth Zoo keeper Marty Boland said the recent rescue highlighted how vital co-ordinated zoo breeding programs are for the survival of the endangered pandas.

"We were very excited to welcome a new cub to the zoo family, however, it coincides with the rescue ... emphasising just how perilous it is out there for these animals," Mr Boland said.

The cub is the 19th red panda born at Perth Zoo since 1997. His nine-year old mother Anusha is also a local while his father, Makula, was born in Canberra.

The pandas originated in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains, where they spend their days munching on bamboo and using those formidable front claws to climb trees.

The population remains under threat from deforestation and illegal poaching, with less than 10,000 thought to be left in the wild.

The zoo helps fund a wildlife crime analyst position, to investigate poaching and trafficking, alongside international wildlife monitoring network TRAFFIC.

Donations can be made to the zoo to support its breeding and conservation programs.
Queensland children will be surveyed about their experiences with cyberbullying, as the state government takes a more active role in dealing with the issue.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Monday announced a statewide Queensland Families and Children Commission survey to be undertaken between March and June.

QFCC Commissioner Cheryl Vardon is expected to meet with the federal government's eSafety Commissioner in Sydney on Tuesday, while stakeholders will be brought together to discuss the issue with Education Minister Grace Grace after next week's cabinet meeting.

The announcement came after Ms Palaszczuk called on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to put the issue on next month's COAG agenda.

The premier is calling for action on the issue similar to that taken to address domestic and family violence, and pledged to "rededicate" her government to working with children, parents, schools and the community to help stop cyberbullying.

Her comments came as Queensland's 817,000 students began returning to classrooms for the start of the school year - a week ahead of their interstate counterparts.
The Queensland government is calling on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to be more consultative in his approach to protecting the Great Barrier Reef.

Mr Turnbull announced a multi-million-dollar plan to protect the Great Barrier Reef against coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish and farm run-off on Monday.

The $60 million scheme will include funding farmers to reduce sediment run-off and research over the next 18 months.

Queensland Environment Minister Leeanne Enoch welcomed the funding, but said it was just a starting point.

Ms Enoch said the federal government needed to acknowledge climate change as a major threat to the reef, and back the Queensland government's target of 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030.

The federal announcement was also met with criticism from environment groups who slammed Mr Turnbull for "tinkering around the edges" and not doing enough to reduce harmful emissions.

The state government has earmarked $256 million over the next five years to improve reef water quality.
The Queensland government is being urged to take the lead in addressing the state's high fuel prices.

Premier Annastacia Palazczuk on Monday said her government had no plans on rolling out a real-time fuel pricing app or website to help motorists shop around and keep retailers accountable.

Instead, Ms Palaszczuk urged the national consumer watchdog to take the lead on the issue.

However, in a statement on Monday the ACCC insisted it doesn't have a role in regulating fuel prices, merely monitoring them, and pointed out a number of jurisdictions, including NSW, that have introduced their own fuel price transparency schemes.

Price-monitoring agency Fueltrac has flagged the appointment of a new fuel commissioner and the introduction of capped profit margins as another solution to the high prices.

But motoring club RACQ said fixed prices could result in higher prices overall and called on consumers to instead support smaller retailers.

The Palaszczuk government has made several moves to try to lower petrol prices in the last year, including introducing legislation to ban discounted prices from being displayed on price boards at service stations, to give motorists a clear idea of how much petrol costs on a given day.
Firefighters hope to contain a blaze that has burnt through more than 2000 hectares of land in the Royal National Park in Sydney's south.

Smoke from the fire along Sir Bertram Stevens Drive, which is believed to have been deliberately lit on Saturday, blanketed southern Sydney and the NSW south coast on Monday afternoon as strong winds fanned the blaze.

Firefighters have been trying to gain an upper hand on the fire and worked through the night to strengthen containment lines in the hope the blaze will be contained on Tuesday.

The park will remain closed all day.

Firefighters are also battling with a bushfire that's destroyed more than 54,000 hectares of land in the Pilliga Forest between Coonabarabran and Narrabri in NSW's north west.

The fire is burning on multiple fronts but no homes are under threat and firefighters with the support of water bombing aircraft are working to slow the spread of the fire.

Another blaze at Bannaby in the Southern Tablelands is burning out of control with more than 1880 hectares of land destroyed.

The fire burning near Wombeyan Caves has forced the closure of the caves and the Wombeyan Karst Conservation Area to visitors.

Firefighters are keeping a close eye on bushfires across NSW with two regions - the Southern Ranges and Southern Slopes - subject to total fire bans on Tuesday.
The families of Melbourne's Bourke Street Mall victims will pay tribute to their loved ones at a public memorial marking one year since the car attack.

Six people were killed and dozens more injured when a vehicle ran down pedestrians along the city's busy pedestrian mall on January 20 last year.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says Tuesday's public memorial at the Royal Exhibition Building will be a difficult day but will also help people heal.

"It's an important milestone, an important part of that journey towards healing," he told ABC radio on Monday.

"On the worst of days we saw the very best of the Victorian spirit.

"We saw that wonderful kindness of strangers, people running to the danger."

The public memorial follows a private service for families at an inner-city park on Saturday, where two plaques were unveiled.

A Bourke Street retail worker earlier told AAP there was mass confusion during the rampage, which people feared was terrorism.

"It was just the noise, that's the main thing I remember ... it sounded like gun shots and it was very loud," she said on the eve on the one-year anniversary.

"Obviously after, we put it together that that was him hitting people across the street ... and then we heard the gun shots that stopped him."

Alleged driver Dimitrious Gargasoulas has pleaded not guilty to 39 offences, including six counts of murder and 38 of attempted murder, over the rampage.

Among those killed was 22-year-old Sydney insurance worker Jess Mudie, 33-year-old Bhavita Patel and 25-year-old Japanese man Yosuke Kanno.

Matthew Si, 33, also died, moments after having lunch with his wife.

The youngest victims were three-month-old Zachary Bryant and Thalia Hakin, aged 10.

Tuesday's public memorial service will begin at midday, with doors open from 10.30am.
Outgoing ALP president Mark Butler has hit out at the "backroom buffoonery" of factional warlords in his own party as he launches a fresh push for reform.

Addressing the Victorian Fabian Society, Mr Butler warned Labor is barely "treading water" given falling membership numbers and it needs to give the rank and file more say.

"I'm sorry to say that ours remains a party that gives ordinary members fewer rights than any other Labor or Social Democratic Party I can think of," he said in the speech on Monday night.
A 75-year-old man is in custody after allegedly committing two acts of indecency in front of a 12-year-old boy at a Newcastle beach.

Lifeguards alerted police after the boy reported seeing the man commit the acts in a public change room at Bar Beach over a four-day period.

Police arrested the man on Monday afternoon and charged him with two counts of commit act of indecency with person under 16 years between Thursday and Monday.

The man was refused bail and is due to face before Newcastle Local Court on Tuesday.
Civil libertarians are demanding an end to a Queensland Police operation targeting youth crime in Mount Isa.

The Queensland Council for Civil Liberties has told the ABC it will ask the Privacy Commissioner to investigate the legality of police photographing children found roaming the streets of the Queensland mining city.

QCCL vice-president Terry O'Gorman says he'll also be writing to the police minister urging an end to Operation Tucson which has seen police stop children, record their names, addresses and where they're going, and often take their photos.
Margot Robbie has emerged as Australia's great Oscar double threat.

A-list acting talent Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Naomi Watts, Jason Clarke, Ben Mendelsohn and directors Craig Gillespie and Warwick Thornton looked like contenders for Oscar nominations a few months ago, but all have faded from view during Hollywood's busy awards season

When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces its nominees in Los Angeles at 5.22am Tuesday (12.22am Wednesday AEDT) Robbie could pull off the rare feat of collecting best actress and best picture nominations for I, Tonya.

The Queenslander not only portrayed US figure skater Tonya Harding in the black comedy, but produced it.

"Margot is so fearless and brave and such a rock star," I, Tonya co-star Allison Janney, the favourite to win the best supporting actress Oscar for playing Harding's mother, said at Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles.

"She paved the way for all of us to make courageous choices."

If Robbie does snare a best actress nomination she will have to squeeze out some of Hollywood's most formidable actresses.

Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) and Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water) are considered certainties for nominations, leaving Robbie to battle for the remaining three slots with Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird), Judi Dench (Victoria & Abdul), Meryl Streep (The Post), Jessica Chastain (Molly's Game), Michelle Williams (All the Money in the World), Helen Mirren (The Leisure Seeker) and Emma Stone (Battle of the Sexes).

Under the Academy's preferential voting system, there could be between five and 10 best picture nominees.

I, Tonya is competing against Three Billboards, The Shape of Water, Dunkirk, The Post, Call Me By Your Name, The Disaster Artist, Get Out, Lady Bird, Darkest Hour, The Big Sick, The Florida Project, Mudbound and Phantom Thread for the limited slots.

Australia's Lee Smith, editor on Dunkirk, is close to a certainty for the third nomination of his career (The Dark Knight in 2009 and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World in 2004.)

Australian set decorator Bev Dunn and sound mixer Guntis Sics, for their work on Thor: Ragnarok, are in the hunt for nominations.

LA-based Aussie film making couple Sean Meehan and Sam McGarry are strong chances for a live action short film nod for their 14-minute movie Lost Face.

The couple funded the $US100,000 film themselves and battled minus 14 degrees Celsius snowy conditions at the bottom of the Canadian Rockies to make it.

The Academy announced last month Lost Face was one of 10 films, from 165 eligible entries, in contention for the five live action short nominations to be announced on Tuesday.

"For us, an Oscar nomination would mean the chance to do what we've wanted to do our entire lives, to produce and direct feature films and television," Meehan said.

"We've been practising for 20 years and we're so ready."

Kidman, for The Beguiled and Killing of a Sacred Deer, and Hugh Jackman, for The Greatest Showman and Logan, have failed to gain much traction for Oscar nominations.

Watts (The Glass Castle), Mendelsohn (The Darkest Hour), Clarke (Mudbound), Gillespie (I, Tonya) and Warwick Thornton (Sweet Country) have also fallen off the Oscar radar.

The Academy Awards ceremony will be on March 4.
Oxfam has just released its annual report, and the media have dutifully covered its conclusion that 82% of all growth in global wealth in the last year went to the top 1%, while the bottom half of humanity saw no increase at all. Here are five significant concerns every Christian should have with it:

Inequality is not the same as poverty

The report admits, Between 1990 and 2010, the number of people living in extreme poverty (i.e. on less than $1.90 a day) halved, and has continued to decline since then. That decline has caused Oxfam to focus instead on economic inequality.

The poverty industry has successfully reoriented the storyline from the relief of poverty to the reduction of inequality, said Rev. Richard Turnbull of the Centre of Enterprise, Markets, and Ethics (CEME), at Actons Reclaiming the West conference last December 6. The churches have entirely bought in to this narrative.  It is remarkable that so many evangelicals fell for it. Measuring the wrong metric leads to unusual outcomes, such as.

Donald Trump: Oxfam pauper?

Todays report chides President Donald Trump for appointing a cabinet of billionaires, presumably like Betsy DeVos. Yet many of the people cheering its release may be surprised to learn that, under Oxfams formula, The Donald may have qualified as one of the downtrodden.

Oxfam evaluates the wealthy by subtracting a persons net liabilities from net assets. Thus, a lawyer with substantial student loans who was just hired by a prestigious Wall Street firm is considered poor. Fortune magazine surveyed Donald Trumps least successful years and asked, Wouldnt it be remarkable if the tycoon, who was claiming even in his darkest days in the 1990s to be worth over $1 billion  was really not just dead broke, but hugely under water? If he were in debt, Trump would be among Oxfams poorest, worse off than someone earning two dollars a day with no net liabilities.

End extreme wealth

The report states, To end extreme poverty, we must also end extreme wealth. This is rather like advising, To end extreme disease, we must also end extreme health. The section reads in full:

End extreme wealth. To end extreme poverty, we must also end extreme wealth. Todays gilded age is undermining our future. Governments should use regulation and taxation to radically reduce levels of extreme wealth, as well as limit the influence of wealthy individuals and groups over policy making.

The recent period of tremendous wealth generation coincides with the unprecedented fall in extreme poverty. Global GDP per capita has more than doubled since 1994. Despite coinciding with a rise in inequality, rates of global happiness enjoyed an unbroken rise since 1995, according to the World Values Survey.

Far from a pox, Rev. Turnbull said that wealth creation, for the Christian, is actually a spiritual imperative, part of the creation mandate. God created mankind in His image, endowed us with unmatched rational faculties, provided ample natural resources, and commanded us to get to work adding value. We would do well to honor, rather than disparage, those who create wealth and take entrepreneurial risk, he said.

Minimum wages maximize unemployment

The report advises every nation to adopt a living wage in the same section that laments youth unemployment:

Almost 43% of the global youth labour force is still either unemployed, or working but living in poverty.  Sadly, many countries still have no minimum wage or collective bargaining and most minimum wages are significantly lower than what is needed to survive or what could be described as a living wage.

A growing body of data demonstrates that higher minimum wages increase joblessness among the less educated, young people, minorities, and those living in the most economically struggling communities. A UK think tank found that its rising National Living Wage will shed countless new low-wage jobs through increased automation. In the U.S., minimum wage laws increased unemployment among high school dropouts aged 16 to 30 by 5.6 percent. Californias $15-an-hour minimum wage will cost an estimated 400,000 jobs, according to the Employment Policy Institute (EPI). And Canadas Fraser Institute found that Ontarios $15 minimum wage would have the most severe effects on people who already live in economically weaker regions.

The myth of omniscient government

Oxfam bases its calculations on data from Forbes and the Credit Suisse Global Wealth databook. Last years report confidently asserted that eight men own the same wealth as the 3.6 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity. This years report quietly notes that its estimate changed from eight people to 61.

A revision of 763 percent is no small inaccuracy.

Despite its own mistake, Oxfam expects every government to accurately calculate and enforce a single living wage appropriate to all its citizens. Every corporation must undertake the same task for every single employee, as well as every worker in every segment of its global supply chain. If such micro-measuring is beyond Oxfams competence, perhaps it is beyond the competence (not to mention the purpose) of any corporation  let alone every corporation.

Creating absolute economic equality is also beyond Oxfams ability. No two people have the same circumstances, skill-set, and opportunities as one another  nor to themselves at different points in their own lives. The average person will see a much different economic picture at 22 years old graduating from college as a 65-year-old about to retire at the end of peak-earning years. This diversity brings glory to God in a multitude of unique ways.

Instead of lamenting wealth inequality  and the wealth creation that decimated global extreme want  people of faith should focus on alleviating true poverty, expanding economic opportunity, and carrying out the creation mandate to improve the world God has temporarily entrusted to us.

(Photo credit: Kabai Ken. CC BY-SA 4.0.)
Queensland police have nabbed two men allegedly responsible for a year-long spate of ATM robberies across southeast Queensland.

Officers arrested the pair as they attempted to flee following the robbery of a machine Albany Creek Road at Aspley overnight, with one of the men being bitten by a police dog during the incident.

It's alleged that one of the men was involved in nine ATM robberies across the southeast, dating as far back as January 2017.

A 34-year-old Helensvale man will appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Tuesday charged with four counts of entering a premises and committing an indictable offence.

His co-accused, a 38-year-old Albany Creek man, is due to be charged with nine counts of the same offence, as well as obstructing police.
Rocket Lab conducted its first launch last May from its New Zealand launch base when the firm put a rocket into space, but it did not reach orbit

Aerospace company Rocket Lab said Sunday it had successfully fired a rocket into orbit for the first time from its New Zealand launch base.

"Electron is orbital. Successful payload deployment," the company tweeted.

The Electron rocket, named "Still Testing", took off from Mahia, on the east coast of the North Island, at 2.45pm (0145 GMT) on Sunday and reached orbit eight minutes later.

The 17-metre-long (55ft 7in) carbon-fibre rocket is carrying three satellites into space -- one to take images of Earth for United States company Planet Labs, and two to capture weather and ship tracking data for Spire Global.

"Speechless. Just like that, @rocketlab reaches orbit and sets a new bar for launch by reaching orbit on just their 2nd test," satellite-powered data company Spire tweeted.

Rocket Lab conducted its first launch last May when the firm put a rocket into space, but it did not reach orbit.

Although New Zealand-founded, Rocket Lab lists itself as an American company with headquarters at a wholly-owned New Zealand subsidiary.

Backers include US companies Khosla Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Lockheed Martin, Promus Ventures and Data Collective.

The company says its mission is to provide "frequent launch opportunities to low Earth orbit" with a range of rocket systems and technologies "for fast and affordable payload deployment".

Rocket Lab launch services with Electron are reported to cost US$4.9 million per flight.
Spain's Rafael Nadal was taken to four gruelling sets in almost four hours before beating Argentina's Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 6-3

Spain's Rafael Nadal fought off tenacious Argentine Diego Schwartzman to win through to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open on Sunday, ensuring he remains world number one after the tournament ends.

Nadal was taken to four gruelling sets in almost four hours before winning 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 6-3 on Rod Laver Arena.

It will be his 10th Australian Open quarter-final appearance, second only to Roger Federer, and he will face Croatia's sixth seed Marin Cilic. Nadal leads 5-1 in their previous meetings.

It was the Spaniard's fourth win over the Argentine but his toughest after beating him in straight sets in the second round at the 2015 US Open.

By winning Nadal ensured that he will remain No.1 when the new rankings are released the day after the Open ends.

"Of course, I feel little bit tired, but yeah good. I was able to keep fighting until the end," he said.

"It is the first big match I played in 2018. I started later than usual so a match like this probably helps because you know that helps confidence in myself.

"That's confidence knowing that I can resist almost four hours on court playing at a good intensity."

Nadal broke in the eighth game on the way to taking the opening set, but he encountered stiff resistance in the second set.

There was six service breaks as Nadal could not shake off the tigerish Argentine, who levelled the match by winning the tiebreaker when the top seed's forehand was long.

There was a magical moment when Schwartzman ran down a drop shot and won the point with an angled volley across the net to break back at 4-4.

Nadal took control in the third set with a break in the fourth game, but he had to fight off five break points before holding serve in a titanic 13-minute second game in the final set.

He broke in the third game of the fourth set, but had to make some monumental holds of service to keep Schwartzman at bay, winning on his third match point with a return winner.

Diminutive Schwartzman, a quarter-finalist at last year's US Open, was bidding to reach the last eight for the first time in Melbourne.

He endeared the crowd with the scampering around the court and his astonishingly powerful groundstrokes for one so small in stature.
David Warner, the Test vice-captain, steps up to lead Australia in the T20 games a few weeks before the four-Test series in South Africa

David Warner will lead Australia in next month's Twenty20 international tri-series against New Zealand and England as regular captain Steve Smith is given a break ahead of the crucial Test tour to South Africa.

Opening batsman Warner, the Test vice-captain, steps up to lead Australia in the T20 games which come a few weeks before the four-Test series in South Africa.

"The South African series is a very important one and we have made no secret of our desire to improve our record away from home," chief selector Trevor Hohns said on Monday.

"As such we wanted to ensure the players had the best possible preparation and that means playing the tour match prior to the first Test."

On the decision for Warner to captain, Hohns added: "Steve Smith has had a very big summer and will benefit from a short break both physically and mentally, before he leaves for South Africa.

"David is a very capable leader and has captained in Steves absence before and done a fine job.

"We wanted to ensure the T20 side had key leadership throughout this series and we know the team is in good hands with him at the helm."

There will be no other Test players in the T20 series and Glenn Maxwell returns to Australia's side after being passed over for the current one-day internationals against England.

"We have selected a very strong batting line-up with some heavy hitters," selector Mark Waugh said.

"With some players currently injured and our frontline quicks heading to South Africa it gives a great opportunity to some of the young pace bowlers who have been selected to make their mark on the international stage."

Selected in the T20 squad for the first time are Sydney Sixers fast-bowler Ben Dwarshuis, Adelaide Strikers wicket-keeper Alex Carey and Hobart Hurricanes DArcy Short.

"Ben gives us good variety in the attack with his left-arm pace and has bowled particularly well with the new ball in the Big Bash League," Waugh said.

"Alex has impressed in every form he has played this year. He has been in great form in the BBL with both bat and gloves and stood up to the challenge when he had to take the gloves for an ill Tim Paine in the ODI team.

"DArcys selection speaks for itself, he is the leading run scorer in the BBL and has also taken valuable wickets when handed the ball.

"He is in outstanding form and we look forward to seeing what he can bring to this T20 side."

Chris Lynn has also been included in the squad and is tracking well in his return from a calf injury.

Australia play New Zealand and England from February 3-21.

Australia squad - David Warner (capt), Aaron Finch, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Ben Dwarshuis, Travis Head, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, DArcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa.
Hundreds of Tokyo residents took part in the Japanese capital's first evacuation drill for a military attack since World War II on Monday, amid ongoing tensions over North Korea's nuclear programme.

Some 250 local residents and office workers ran for cover to the sound of a loudspeaker warning that a missile launch had taken place in an amusement park in the capital.

A park employee was seen simulating a panicked civilian, shouting 'a missile was launched, a missile was launched', as participants duly evacuated to reinforced concrete buildings and a nearby subway station.

Scroll down for video

Practice: Amusement park visitors participate in an evacuation drill during a simulated emergency in the event of a ballistic missile launch in Tokyo

A few minutes later, a second message was announced via loudspeaker: 'The missile passed. The missile likely flew over the Kanto (greater Tokyo) region towards the Pacific Ocean.'

People in earthquake-prone Japan are familiar with evacuation drills simulating natural disasters and fires and annual drills are seasonal rituals seen almost everywhere in the country - from schools and workplaces to care homes.

But a drill simulating a North Korean missile attack on Tokyo is still a novel idea, although similar drills were held in other parts of Japan last year.

'I think it's better than nothing to have such a drill, but I am praying there is no missile attack from the North,' Shota Matsushima, 20, a university student who was in a train station near the drill site, said.

Tensions: The missile drill was carried out in Tokyo amid worries over North Korea

Some 250 people took part in the evacuation drill in an amusement part in Tokyo on Monday

Changing times: This was the first military attack drill carried out in Tokyo since World War II

Kana Okakuni, 19, also a student, added: 'I think it's good to take a precaution, like having drills for earthquakes.'

The drill comes as regional tensions remain high over North Korea's nuclear and missile drive, despite the hermit state's plan to send athletes to next months' Winter Games in the South, which has drawn global attention.

North Korea has singled out Japan, a key US ally in the region, for verbal attacks, threatening to 'sink' the country into the sea and to turn it into 'ashes'.

Last year, Pyongyang fired two missiles over Japan and has splashed others into the sea near the country, sparking a mix of panic and outrage.

Every time North Korea launches a missile over Japan, the nation's alert system warns residents via mobile phones and streetside loudspeaker broadcasts.

Anti: Demonstrations held against the drill saw protesters claims that carrying out missile drills 'is a way to promote war'

But many people say that such a system is useless, with too little time to evacuate and few facilities in place to survive a nuclear attack.

There have also been false alarms.

Last week, Japan's public broadcaster NHK mistakenly flashed that North Korea appeared to have launched a missile, warning people to take cover before apologising for the error only minutes later.

That came just days after a false cellphone warning of an incoming ballistic missile terrified residents in Hawaii.

The latest drill in Tokyo attracted some protests.

'I don't want to participate in such a drill and I am against it, as it is a way to promote a war,' said Ikie Kamioka, 77, a former primary school teacher who was among dozens of people who rallied in protest against the drill.

'You won't survive if a war occurs. A nuclear war would devastate everything,' she said.
Artist Jack Whitten was known for continually evolving over his five-decade career

American painter and sculptor Jack Whitten has died at the age of 78, his gallery announced on Sunday.

The black artist was known for continually evolving over his five-decade career -- from painting to sculpture and from figurative to abstract.

Born in Bessemer, Alabama on December 5, 1939, he grew up in the segregationist south of the United States, where he was an activist in the civil rights struggle, before moving to New York in 1960.

His early work evoked the racism experienced by African Americans, but it was his abstract pieces that won greater renown in the art world, particularly in his later years.

Determined to constantly push his own limits, he left the brush to work with razor blades, Afro-combs or household squeegees.

"Delta Group II," which features in the Metropolitan Museum of New York collection, is one example.

"With a career grazing the 50-year mark, Jack Whitten is still making work that looks like no one else's, which is saying something, given the flood of abstract painting in New York in the past few years," the New York Times art critic Holland Cotter observed in 2013.

The Baltimore Museum of Art has dedicated a retrospective of his work, which will run from April 22 to July 29, before heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art from September 6 to December 2.

Marc Payot, a partner and vice-president at Hauser & Wirth gallery where Whitten's work is displayed, said: "He was a remarkable man -- an artist of endless inventiveness, originality, and honesty, as well as a wonderful friend."
Pakistan's Fakhar Zaman (L) and Umar Amin (R) walk onto the field at the start of the first Twenty20 international cricket match between New Zealand and Pakistan at Westpac Stadium in Wellington on January 22, 2018

Colin Munro ensured New Zealand continued a stellar home summer on Monday when they thrashed Pakistan by seven wickets with 25 balls to spare in the opening Twenty20 match in Wellington.

Munro was left unbeaten on 49 when a wide by Hasan Ali in the 16th over gave New Zealand victory as they chased down Pakistan's 105 in the clash of the world's top two ranked Twenty20 sides.

It extended New Zealand's winning streak to 13 across all three formats in the past two months including five one-dayers against Pakistan and a series of Tests, ODIs and Twenty20s against the West Indies.

For Tim Southee, the stand-in captain after a late decision to rest Kane Williamson who has a minor injury, everything went according to plan.

"Obviously winning the toss on that wicket and then coming out and taking early wickets was the plan and we were able to do that. We bowled exceptionally well," said Southee who also paid tribute to Munro's role with the bat.

"It was a great knock from Colin. He likes to get on with it and I think he played a mature innings and was able to hammer it home towards the end."

Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed again had to defend a woeful performance by his top order batsmen, which also plagued them in the ODI series, and believed they were well short of a competitive total.

"We're not batting well enough up the order. The new ball was swinging and bouncing, we didn't keep wickets in hand. They bowled very well with the new ball," he said.

"If we had a score of 140-150 it could have been a good match."

After a wobbly start in which Martin Guptill went for two and Glenn Phillips was bowled for three, Munro and Tom Bruce (26) set up the New Zealand victory with a 49-run stand for the third wicket.

After cautiously lifting the score to 34 for two after eight overs, they took 23 off the next 12 balls to reduce the target to under six an over and they coasted from there.

Following Bruce's dismissal, Ross Taylor partnered Munro through to the end with a rapid 22 off 13 deliveries.

Munro's 43-ball innings included three fours and two sixes and he was left a frustrating one-run short of being only the third player behind Brendon McCullum and Chris Gayle to score four consecutive half centuries in Twenty20 cricket.

Pakistan were in immediate trouble after being sent into bat and were four for 22 in the sixth over as Southee led a dismantling of the Pakistan top order.

By the 15th over, Pakistan were seven for 53 and in danger of falling short of their current lowest score of 74 against Australia six years ago, when Babar Khan (41) and Hasan Ali (23) boosted the total with a 30-run partnership.

Southee finished with the best New Zealand figures of three for 13 while Seth Rance took three for 26.
Vietnamese former state oil executive Trinh Xuan Thanh (C) is led toward a courtroom for the verdict in his trial at Hanoi's People's Court

A Vietnamese former state oil executive who was allegedly kidnapped from Germany was jailed for life on Monday for embezzlement, in the highest-profile corruption trial to target the Communist country's business and political elite.

The blockbuster trial also involving 21 other officials, including an ex-politburo member, has gripped a country where the affairs of the powerful are normally kept secret.

But Vietnam's conservative leadership is waging a massive anti-communist sweep that mirrors China's crackdown on graft.

Trinh Xuan Thanh, the former head of state-run PetroVietnam Construction (PVC), was sentenced to "14 years for mismanagement and life in prison for embezzlement", according to state-run VNExpress news site.

The jury said "no-one at PVC dared use money with the wrong purposes" without Thanh's direction, according to VNExpress.

The embezzlement charges carry a maximum sentence of death, but the tariff was reduced after prosecutors recommended life instead.

Thanh faces a second separate trial later this week for embezzlement that could see him put to death.

The oilman was seeking asylum in Germany when he was plucked from a Berlin park by Vietnamese security agents last year, in a brazen Cold-War era episode which German officials called a "scandalous violation" of its sovereignty.

Hanoi insists Thanh returned to Hanoi voluntarily to turn himself in, but the incident sparked a diplomatic row, with Berlin expelling two senior Vietnamese diplomats.

Former Politburo member Dinh La Thang, who once chaired the board of PetroVietnam, was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Monday.

Former Politburo member Dinh La Thang (C), who once chaired the board of PetroVietnam, was sentenced to 13 years in the highest-profile corruption trial to target the country's business and political elite

The VNExpress report said the punishment was intended to send a warning to the public about "abuse of power and rampant violation of the law".

Twenty other officials were also sentenced on Monday, receiving punishments ranging from 22 years in prison to a suspended sentence of 30 months.

All were accused of "deliberate wrongdoing" causing losses worth $5.2 million for the state during an investment by PetroVietnam in the construction of a thermal power plant.

The trial, which was closed to the international press, was the highest-profile corruption case in years.

Critics say the corruption purge is fuelled by political infighting and is led by Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong.

Thanh made a tearful apology to the court last week, seeking forgiveness from Trong and the party in a video that went viral.

He will return to court for a fresh trial on Wednesday on embezzlement charges after he was accused of pocketing $620,000 in state funds. The charges carry the death penalty.

According to Transparency International, Vietnam ranks 113 out of 176 on its corruption index, worse than its Southeast Asian neighbours Thailand, the Philippines and Myanmar.
A South Korean guide directs tourists in Seoul's Myeongdong shopping area in May 2017: the number of Chinese visitors continues to fall

Chinese tourist numbers to South Korea continued to decline in December, figures showed Monday, even though Beijing and Seoul pledged to improve relations strained by a US missile defence system.

Seoul and Washington installed the powerful THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system in the South last year to guard against threats from nuclear-armed North Korea.

Beijing saw it as a threat to its own security and reacted furiously, imposing a string of measures on South Korean businesses and banning group tours to the South, in moves seen as economic retaliation.

The ban on tour groups hit the South Korean travel and retail industries hard, with Chinese visitors renowned for shopping trips to their neighbour.

Some of Beijing's restrictions on tours appeared to have been lifted after the two countries issued identically-worded statements in October on their mutual desire to improve relations.

But the number of Chinese visitors to the South continued to tumble in December, Korea Tourism Organisation statistics showed Monday.

A total of 332,474 Chinese travellers came to South Korea last month, down 37.9 percent from the previous year, it said.

It was only a marginal improvement on the 42.1 percent fall seen in November and 49.3 percent in October.

For 2017 as whole, South Korea had 4.2 million Chinese visitors -- down 48.3 percent on the previous year.

But non-Chinese arrivals were unchanged at 9.2 million.

China is the South's top trading partner and the diplomatic row took a major toll on many South Korean firms -- most notably retail giant Lotte Group, which provided the land to host THAAD.

Angry boycott campaigns and regulatory crackdowns by Chinese authorities decimated its business in the world's second-largest economy, and it was forced to put its supermarket unit in China up for sale.

President Moon Jae-In visited Beijing for a summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in December.
A malnourished Yemeni child receives treatment at a hospital in the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah on January 16, 2018

A Saudi-led military coalition on Monday announced $1.5 billion in new humanitarian aid for Yemen after the United Nations made what it called a record appeal for assistance for the war-ravaged country.

The coalition said it would also "increase the capacities of Yemeni ports" to receive humanitarian imports, as it faces mounting criticism for imposing a crippling blockade on the country.

The latest aid package, which follows last week's $2 billion Saudi cash injection to Yemen's central bank, comes amid an ever-escalating crisis in the country, where conflict, cholera and a looming famine have killed thousands and put millions of lives at risk.

"The coalition will coordinate $1.5 billion in new humanitarian aid funding for distribution across UN agencies and international relief organisations," the coalition said.

The new aid programme seeks to open land, sea and air routes to Yemen to boost monthly imports to 1.4 million metric tons from 1.1 million last year, the statement said.

The coalition pledged up to $40 million for the expansion of ports to accommodate additional humanitarian shipments, adding that it would set up an air bridge between Riyadh and the central Yemeni province of Marib to run aid flights with C130 cargo planes.

The coalition said it would set up 17 overland "safe-passage corridors" to facilitate access for humanitarian organisations operating inside Yemen, including in rebel-held territory.

Yemenis inspect damage at the site of a reported air strike by the Saudi-led coalition in Huthi-held Saada province on January 22, 2018

"The coalition is placing its military resources at the disposal of these broad-ranging humanitarian operations," said coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki.

"We are backing a professionally planned and detailed humanitarian mission with military power and precision to guarantee that the humanitarian aid reaches the people who need it to lift their suffering."

More than 9,200 people have been killed in Yemen since 2015, when a Saudi-led military coalition intervened to back the country's internationally-recognised government against Iran-backed Huthi rebels.

- 'Destruction of Yemen' -

At a conference in Riyadh Monday attended by the foreign ministers of coalition countries, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir lashed out at the militiamen for the "destruction of Yemen" and accusing Iran of supplying the rebels with ballistic missiles.

"Iran is not part of the problem," Maliki added. "Iran is the problem."

Iran denies it has armed the Huthis.

A ship carrying food aid docks at the Yemeni port of Hodeidah on November 26, 2017

The United Nations on Sunday made what it described as a record appeal for aid to Yemen, calling for nearly $3 billion in humanitarian relief for the crisis-plagued country.

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday deposited $2 billion in Yemen's central bank after the Yemeni prime minister made a public plea for funds to prop up the currency and help stave off hunger.

On top of war casualties, nearly 2,200 Yemenis have died of cholera amid deteriorating hygiene and sanitation conditions, the World Health Organisation says.

Over the past year, the United Nations' efforts to address what it has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis have been hampered by a crippling blockade of rebel-held ports by the Saudi-led coalition.

A series of missiles launched from Yemen targeted the capital Riyadh and several border towns, triggering a sharp Saudi response -- the closure of Yemen's ports and borders that were already under an extensive blockade.

The blockade has been partially eased under international pressure and dire predictions from aid organisations that it could trigger the worst famine the world has seen in decades.
 Updated: AFP Photo Captions Mislead on Gaza 'Smuggling Tunnels' | Main | Wheres the Coverage? Palestinian Leader Buys $50 Million Private Jet 

January 22, 2018

NBC's Andrea Mitchell Takes Heat for Inaccurate Knesset Tweet







After NBC anchor Andrea Mitchell posted an inaccurate and inflammatory comment on Twitter about the Knesset, Israels parliament, she was quickly corrected by Israeli journalists.

In her Monday morning tweet, Mitchell asserted that the 13 Israel-Arab members? of parliament were removed from the Knesset floor after a disruption, and suggested this should be seen through the lense of American racism:

The 13 Israeli-Arab members of Israel's Parliament held up signs saying "Jerusalem is the Capital of Palestine" and were forcibly removed by security as Pence started to speak. Can you imagine Capitol Police dragging members of the congressional black caucus off the House floor?  Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) January 22, 2018

Lahav Harkov, Knesset reporter for the Jerusalem Post, responded:

Hi, Im an expert on the Knesset and I was in the room during this incident. You have several points wrong here. Id be happy to explain them to you.  Lahav Harkov (@LahavHarkov) January 22, 2018

Harkov elaborated,

Wrong on several points. 1, they are not THE 13 Israeli-Arab members? - there are others. 2, it is always against the Knesset rules to hold up signs or use props and there are examples spanning decades of ppl being removed bc of it. 3, ushers, not security guards led them out https://t.co/JgIGkUFpda  Lahav Harkov (@LahavHarkov) January 22, 2018

Indeed, a page on the Knesset website lists 18 current Arab MKs: Talab Abu Arar, Saeed Alkharumi, Hamad Amar, Youssef Atauna, Joumah Azbarga, Zouheir Bahloul, Esawi Frej, Masud Ganaim, Abd Al Hakeem Haj Yahya, Akram Hasoon, Yousef Jabareen, Ayoob Kara, Ayman Odeh, Saleh Saad, Ahmad Tibi, Aida Touma-Sliman, Jamal Zahalka, and Hanin Zoabi.

Seth Franzman, a Jerusalem Post editor, offered another challenge to Mitchell's numbers:

Where did you get the number 13? The 13 members of the Joint List are not all Arab. Dov Khenin is Jewish. Isnt he still in the Knesset and a member of the Joint List? #think  Seth Frantzman (@sfrantzman) January 22, 2018

Responding to the reference to black members of congress, political analyst Omri Ceren noted that this isnt quite as unimaginable as Mitchell wanted her readers to think:

Oh for crying out loud Andrea. A member of the congressional black caucus was removed from the House floor just a few years ago just for a dress code violation, let alone for disrupting a session, which is what these clowns were doing.



So yeah I think I can imagine it happening. https://t.co/QISJv1XHYM  Omri Ceren (@omriceren) January 22, 2018

As Harkov suggested, it is certainly not unimaginable for people to be removed from the Knesset floor when violating the chambers rules. Jewish Knesset member Moshe Gafni, for example, was escorted off the floor in response to his loud protest.

Zeev Elkin was not merely a member of Knesset, but also a government minister, when he was forced from the floor  at the behest of Ahmad Tibi, an Arab MK and a deputy speaker of the Knesset.

In the U.S., Janet Nguyen, the country's first Vietnamese-American woman state legislator, was removed from the floor of the California state senate just last year.

According to the policies and guidelines of NBC News, Twitter posts "should meet the journalistic standards of NBC News." CAMERA has contacted NBC editors. We will update this space if Mitchell corrects her tweet.



Posted by GI at January 22, 2018 10:55 AM

Sorry Andrea, I once had to put my scrawny body in front of a podium where Gov Milton Shapp was speaking and demonstrators left their seats, waved signs and rushed the podium. Even that long ago, that group action, very coordinated, was a clear sign to get up there and protect the speaker. Even in Philly.

The applause started before the demonstration, was for the speaker, and not for removal of the demonstrators.

Best wishes to you and your family.

Posted by: Jeff Polaski at January 23, 2018 02:31 PM

Andrea Mitchell did not know, because she did not do any research, that a Jewish political party known as Kach was barred from having its members sit in the Knesset due to its antiArab rhetoric. In contrast, no Arab political parties, no matter how hostile to the State of Israel, have been barred from serving in the Knesset. This alone demolishes Andrea Mitchell's theme.

Posted by: Herman Goldfarb at January 23, 2018 05:00 PM

If you do not post comments that include bigotry, how can Ms. Mitchell respond at all?

Posted by: Daniel at January 25, 2018 01:41 PM

Andrea Mitchell's tweet is, sadly, typical of the kneejerk leftist response. As a journalist, however, one might expect higher standards.

Posted by: Zvi at January 26, 2018 05:36 AM

If anyone is an expert on what racism is its the folks at NBC. What she should know as a Journalist is what parliamentary procedure is apparently she is ignorant of fact. Protesters of Ryan one in a wheel chair conflicted with Ryan and began chanting they were escorted out of the building.

Does NBC actually pays Mitchell to say racist stupid things and and advocate exactly the opposite of what she claims?



Posted by: jeb at January 27, 2018 09:11 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
The death toll from an hours-long Taliban assault on a hotel now stands at 22, including a number of foreigners

At least 22 people are now known to have died when Taliban militants slaughtered guests at a luxury Kabul hotel, Afghan officials said Monday, as fears grew that the attackers may have had inside help.

Authorities warned they were still investigating how militants breached security, which was taken over by a private company three weeks ago, at the landmark Intercontinental Hotel late Saturday.

Guests cowered behind pillars and in rooms as gunmen sprayed bullets and set fire to parts of the six-storey building. Some people climbed over balconies, using bedsheets in a desperate attempt to escape.

The attack ended after more than 12 hours Sunday with all six militants killed by Afghan forces, aided by Norwegian troops.

Afghan health ministry spokesman Waheed Majroh said 22 bodies had now been taken to Kabul hospitals.

"Some of the bodies (are) burned badly and need DNA tests to be identified," he said.

Six Ukrainians were among those killed in the assault, the country's foreign ministry has confirmed.

Earlier, Afghan officials had put the toll at 18 dead, 14 of them foreigners. Authorities are known to understate death tolls in high-profile attacks.

A hotel employee told AFP that he saw two "fashionably dressed" gunmen in the hotel restaurant before the assault began.

"It was around 8.30 pm... They were sitting in the corner of the hotel, and they immediately started spraying bullets," the 20-year-old employee, who gave his name as Hasibullah, told AFP from his hospital bed.

He ran to a fifth floor room and locked himself inside, though not before seeing "many" bodies on the ground.

The gunmen went from door to door opening them "with daggers and shooting everyone". They were searching for foreigners, Hasibullah said, though Afghans were not spared. "They were saying kill the foreigners," he told AFP.

In terror he leapt from a window. "I fell on people lying in blood... it was horrific."

Knocked unconscious, he awoke in hospital with a broken leg and other wounds.

"We believe they were inside from before," he told AFP of the attackers.

On Sunday an interior ministry spokesman also suggested there was evidence some of the attackers had already been inside the building.

But it was too early to say if the militants had inside help, a second spokesman, Nasrat Rahimi told AFP, adding the investigation was ongoing.

The militants were armed with suicide vests, pistols, hand grenades and Kalashnikovs, he said.

The attack followed security warnings in recent days to avoid hotels and other locations frequented by foreigners in war-torn Kabul.

Security has been ramped up in the city, but the resurgent Taliban and Islamic State are both scaling up their assaults.
Rohingya refugees have protested against the prospect of return to Myanmar, with many describing atrocities including murder, rape and arson attacks on their homes

The repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar due to begin Tuesday will be delayed, a Bangladesh official said, citing the huge task of preparing transit centres and approving lists of returnees.

Bangladesh's Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Abul Kalam Azad did not give a revised starting date for plans by his country and Myanmar to repatriate some 750,000 refugees who fled unrest and a military crackdown in Rakhine state.

"We have not made the preparations required to send back people from tomorrow. A lot of preparation is still needed," Azad on Monday.

A "rigorous process" was required before repatriation could begin, including building transit centres and compiling a list of potential returnees for verification by Myanmar, he said.

Two sites near the border had been identified by authorities for possible transit sites where refugees would be housed before handed over to Myanmar, Azad said.

"Without completing this, we cannot send these people back all of a sudden. This work is ongoing," he said.

The repatriation process is expected to take two years.

Rights groups and the UN have said any repatriation of the Rohingya, who face desperate conditions in overcrowded camps near the countries' shared border, must be voluntary.

Refugees have protested against the prospect of return, with many describing atrocities including murder, rape and arson attacks on their homes.

Concerns have also been raised about conditions in Myanmar, where many Rohingya settlements have been burned to the ground by soldiers and Buddhist mobs.

Bangladesh has sought to assure the international community that the operation would involve the UN's refugee agency.
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Hong Kong's famous skyline was engulfed in smog Monday, with residents urged to stay indoors.

The winter months regularly bring worse air quality to Hong Kong and other parts of the region due to wind direction and weather conditions.

But as acrid air shrouded the city's skyscrapers, harbour and surrounding hills, residents said they were afraid for their health.

A boat sails in Victoria Harbour past the ICC building as a thick cloud of polluted air decreases visibility in Hong Kong on January 22. The government said pollution in Hong Kong was higher than normal and that the risk to health was 'very high'

A thick cloud of polluted air descends upon residential and commercial buildings in Hong Kong on January 22. The air quality in Hong Kong today was categorised as 'unhealthy' on the World Air Quality Index and residents were urged to stay indoors

 Slide me  Now and then: This photo combo shows (left) tourists visiting a Kowloon promenade in front of Victoria Harbour as smog engulfs the Hong Kong skyline in the background on January 22, 2018 and (right) tourists posing in front of Victoria Harbour and a clear view of the Hong Kong skyline in the background in a file photo taken on June 24, 2016

'It feels stuffy and airless. It's more difficult to breathe,' said Elsa Choi, 32.

'I'm not sure if masks could filter out (the particles). I won't go outside as much,' Choi added.

The air quality in Hong Kong Monday was categorised as 'unhealthy' on the World Air Quality Index.

Readings of damaging fine particles known as PM 2.5 hit an average concentration of 198 micrograms per cubic metre.

The World Health Organization recommends a maximum average exposure of 25 micrograms per cubic metre in a 24-hour period.The winter months regularly bring worse air quality to Hong Kong and other parts of the region due to wind direction and weather conditions

The winter months regularly bring worse air quality to Hong Kong and other parts of the region due to wind direction and weather conditions. This undated file photo shows Hong Kong financial district along Victoria Harbour on Hong Kong Island

In Beijing, where pollution has reached hazardous levels in the past, the average reading was 25, categorised as 'good'.

The government said that pollution in Hong Kong was higher than normal and that the risk to health was 'very high', as it warned residents to avoid outdoor activities.

Schools were urged to take 'appropriate measures' to safeguard students' health.

The environment bureau blamed the smog on a mix of light winds, preventing dispersion of pollutants, and sunshine which it said worsens the problem.

But campaigners said authorities should not simply look to the weather.

'We know that there is a weather factor but we also know that roadside air pollution comes from traffic,' said Patrick Fung of NGO Clean Air Network, who said there should be traffic controls on high pollution days.

Fung added that few people in the densely packed city could go about their daily routine without being close to the clogged roads.

The government said that pollution in Hong Kong was higher than normal and that the risk to health was 'very high'

A clean air plan was introduced in 2013, and the environment bureau has said roadside pollutants have dropped by up to 74 percent in the past 20 years.

But the number of days where pollution readings were categorised as a high health risk in 2017 was almost double the number in 2016, according to bureau statistics, although it was an improvement on 2014 and 2015.

Campaigners have questioned the speed at which authorities are implementing change and encouraging a drop in fossil fuel use.

In February last year the government was slammed by environmentalists, lawmakers and manufacturers for axing a tax waiver on electric cars as a way to fight congestion.

Resident Susane Yip, 40, said the smog would also put off tourists who want to capture the city's epic harbour views.

'I hope the government can devote its efforts to solving this problem,' Yip told AFP.
Turkey is seeking to root out the YPG from its western enclave of Afrin in Syria close to the Turkish border.

Turkish authorities have detained 24 people on suspicion of disseminating "terror propaganda" against Turkey's military operation inside Syria, the interior ministry said on Monday.

The suspects are being held in a nationwide crackdown on those posting social media messages deemed to be supportive of terror groups, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.

The arrests come after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged national unity over the operation, in which one Turkish soldier was killed on Monday, warning those who respond to calls for protests will have to pay a "heavy price".

Those detained are accused of making propaganda for the Syrian Kurdish Peoples' Protection Units (YPG) militia deemed a terror group by Ankara and the target of Turkey's operation.

The Dogan news agency said investigations had been opened against a total of 57 people. Reports said that arrests took place in Istanbul and the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir.

According to the agency and Human Rights Watch (HRW), 30 people were detained in Diyarbakir over their social media postings.

Among those taken into custody was writer and human rights activist Nurcan Baysal at her house late on Sunday, HRW said in a statement.

Baysal was detained in connection with her tweets calling for peace and condemning Ankara's offensive, the New York-based rights group said late on Monday quoting her lawyer.

Emma Sinclair-Webb of HRW said that "nothing in Baysal's tweets advocates violence", adding that she had long advocated for dialogue to end the decades long conflict between the Turkish state and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

"The move against people who took to Twitter shows that Turkey's government is determined to censor critical voices," Sinclair-Webb added.

- Probe into pro-Kurd MPs -

Northern Syria

Turkey views the YPG militia as "terrorists" linked to the PKK, which has fought against the Turkish state since 1984 and is designated as a terror group not just by Ankara but also its Western allies.

It is seeking to root out the YPG from its western enclave of Afrin in Syria close to the Turkish border.

Turkish prosecutors have launched an investigation into unverified photos shared on social media claimed to have been taken in Afrin, purportedly showing that the offensive inflicted civilian injuries, TRT state broadcaster reported.

Prosecutors in the eastern Van province launched an investigation into four lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) who on social media urged people to take to the streets, TRT added.

Authorities are also probing social media posts of another HDP lawmaker Alican Onlu, according to the broadcaster.

Turkish anti-riot police on Sunday blocked protests in Istanbul and in Diyarbakir against Ankara's military operation inside Syria.

Rallies had been called by the the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, whose members are facing a series of legal challenges for alleged ties with the PKK.

The rallies had been called by the HDP, whose members are facing a series of legal challenges for alleged ties with the PKK.

The Ankara governor on Monday said that while the military operation was underway, demonstrations could not take place in the capital without the governorate's permission.

Turkish authorities have in the last years strongly cracked down on social media posts deemed supportive of "terror", prompting concern from some activists that freedom of expression was being damaged.
Smoke and flames were seen coming from the burning oil tanker Sanchi at sea off the coast of eastern China earlier this month

Concerns are growing over an oil slick off China's east coast after an Iranian tanker, the Sanchi, exploded and sank a week ago following a collision at sea.

Here is a look back at the major oil spills around the world in the past five decades:

- Shipwrecks -

- Atlantic Empress and Aegean Captain, 1979: The two Greek-registered tankers collide and catch fire off Tobago in the West Indies, spilling an estimated 287,000 tonnes of crude. Thirty sailors die.

- ABT Summer, 1991: Loaded with 260,000 tonnes of crude, the Liberian-registered tanker explodes some 1,300 kilometres (900 miles) off the coast of Angola. The ship burns for three days before sinking with its cargo.

- Castillo de Bellver, 1983: The Spanish oil tanker runs aground off Saldanha Bay in South Africa, spilling 250,000 tonnes of oil.

- Amoco Cadiz, 1978: 227,000 tonnes of oil wash up on 400 kilometres of French coastline when the Liberian-registered supertanker sinks off Brittany.

- Haven, 1991: The Cypriot oil tanker sinks off Italy's Gulf of Genoa after fires destroy most of its 144,000-tonne cargo. The remainder of the oil forms a slick polluting Italy's Liguria coast and Provence in France.

- The Odyssey, 1988: The British ship carrying 132,000 tonnes of oil sinks with its 27-member crew in the Atlantic, 1,300 kilometres from the Canadian coast.

- Torrey Canyon, 1967: 121,000 tonnes of oil pollute the coast off England and France after the grounding of the Liberian-registered supertanker.

In 2002 the Prestige tanker sank off the coast of Galicia in Spain

Other oil tanker shipwrecks may have involved less oil but still caused major environmental damage. These include the Exxon Valdez in Alaska in 1989, the Sea Empress off Wales in 1996, the Erika in France in 1999 and the Prestige in Spain 2002.

- Oil rig spills -

- Gulf of Mexico, 1979: Around one million tonnes of oil gush from the Ixtoc-Uno well after an explosion on a rig operated by Mexican state oil company Pemex. Capping the leak takes nine months.

- Gulf War, 1991: Around one million tonnes is estimated to have spilled when Iraqi forces set fire to Kuwaiti oil wells. Hundreds of kilometres of coastline are polluted.

This archive image, showing two offshore oil rigs under construction in Louisiana, was taken as clean-up operations on the BP Deepwater Horizon spill were under way

- United States, 2010: The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, operated by BP in the Gulf of Mexico, leaves 11 dead and leads to the spillage of more than 600,000 tonnes of oil.

Sources: AFP, France-based accidental water pollution expert group Cedre, International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Limited (ITOPF)
Israeli scholars have pieced together and deciphered one of two previously unread manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls more than half a century since their discovery.

The 60 or more tiny fragments of parchment bearing encrypted Hebrew writing had previously been thought to come from a variety of different scrolls.

But now academics have found the pieces all fit together to make just one scroll.

The document makes reference to a unique 364-day calendar and a festival that marks the changing of the seasons celebrated by an ancient, celibate Jewish sect.

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Israeli scholars have pieced together and deciphered one of two previously unread manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls (pictured) more than half a century since their discovery, an Israeli university has said

The Dead Sea Scrolls have fascinated scholars and historians since the ancient texts were found around 70 years ago scattered within a series of caves in the West Bank.

Eshbal Ratson and Jonathan Ben-Dov from the University of Haifa's Bible studies department found the pieces all fit together after they started examining them just under a year ago.

Some of the fragments they had to decipher were smaller than 1cm (0.15 inch).

'They put it all together and said it was actually one scroll,' said Ilan Yavelberg a university spokesman.

A Haifa University statement said that Ratson and Ben-Dov were now working on deciphering the last remaining scroll.

Many experts believe the manuscripts of the Dead Sea were written by the celibate Essenes, a dissident Jewish sect that had retreated into the Judaean desert around Qumran and its caves.

The theory says the group either wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls or were caretakers of the legal, philosophical and religious documents.

The latest deciphered scroll contains references to the 364-day calendar used by the sect, as opposed to the lunar calendar used in Jewish religious practice today.

The 60 or more tiny fragments of parchment bearing encrypted Hebrew writing had previously been thought to come from a variety of different scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls have fascinated scholars and historians since the ancient texts were found around 70 years ago scattered within a series of caves in the West Bank

Visitors look at an exhibit about the Dead Sea Scrolls at the new Museum of the Bible in the US city of Washington DC on November 14, 2017. Numbering around 900, they were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in the Qumran caves above the Dead Sea

The scroll also identifies the name of a festival that celebrates the changing of the seasons.

The festivals included New Wheat, New Wine and New Oil, which are related to the Jewish festival Shavout and no longer observed in Judaism, writes BBC.

Researchers also identified a festival observed four times a year called Tekufah - which means 'period' in modern-day Hebrew and marks the transition between the seasons.

The parchment and papyrus scrolls contain Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic writing, and include several of the earliest-known texts from the Bible, including the oldest surviving copy of the Ten Commandments.

WHAT ARE THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS? Discovered between between 1946 and 1956, the Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 ancient manuscripts containing parts of what is now known as the Hebrew Bible, as well as a range of extra-biblical documents. They were first found by shepherd Muhammed Edh-Dhib, as he searched for a stray among the limestone cliffs at Khirbet Qumran on the shores of the Dead Sea in what was then British Mandate Palestine - now the West Bank. The story goes that in a cave in the dark crevice of a steep rocky hillside, Muhammed hurled a stone into the dark interior and was startled to hear the sound of breaking pots. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in a caves in the limestone cliffs at Khirbet Qumran (pictured) in the West Bank Venturing inside, the young Bedouin found a mysterious collection of large clay jars, in some of which he found old scrolls, some wrapped in linen and blackened with age. The texts are of great historical and religious significance and include the earliest known surviving copies of biblical and extra-biblical documents, as well as preserving evidence of diversity in late Second Temple Judaism. Dated to various ranges between 408BC and 318AD, they are written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Nabataean, mostly on parchment, but with some written on papyrus and bronze. The scrolls are traditionally divided into three groups. 'Biblical' manuscripts, which are copies of texts from the Hebrew Bible comprise 40 per cent of the haul. Advertisement

The scrolls are written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Nabataean, mostly on parchment, but with some written on papyrus and bronze. The scrolls were found in Qumran (pictured)

The scroll also has annotations in the margin from a scribe correcting the author's original work.

Thought to have been written between 200 BC and 100 AD, the documents inscribe some of the oldest known foundations of the Old Testament.

Despite experts citing the texts as among the biggest archaeological finds of the 20th Century, their origins and authorship have remained a mystery for decades.

Numbering around 900, they were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in the Qumran caves above the Dead Sea.

Thought to have been written between 200 BC and 100 AD, the scrolls inscribe some of the oldest known foundations of the Old Testament

The scroll identifies the name of a festival that celebrates the changing of the seasons. The festivals included New Weat, New Wine and New Oil, which are related to the Jewish festival Shavout and no longer observed in Judaism
The Turkish military has launched an assault targeting Kurdish militia in northern Syria

Russia said Monday it has invited Kurds to take part in an upcoming Syrian peace congress in Sochi despite a Turkish offensive against Kurdish militia in northern Syria.

"Kurdish representatives have been included on the list of Syrians invited to participate in the Syrian National Dialogue Congress which will take place in Sochi next week," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

Together with regime backer Iran and rebel supporter Turkey, Russia -- a key backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad -- wants to convene a peace conference with the aim of agreeing a new constitution for post-war Syria.

The peace talks have been planned for January 29 and 30.

Moscow initially hoped to convene peace talks in Sochi last November but those efforts collapsed following a lack of agreement among co-sponsors.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the time to fumed at the prospect of inviting to the conference the Syrian Kurdish group the PYD and its armed wing, the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

Without referring to Kurdish militia by name, Erdogan said in November: "We cannot consider a terrorist gang with blood on their hands a legitimate actor."

Turkey considers the YPG to be a terror group and the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has waged a bloody three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.

The Turkish military on Saturday launched a cross-border operation aiming to oust the YPG from its enclave of Afrin in northern Syria.

But Lavrov on Monday said that Syrian Kurds should play a role in the "future political process."

"This role should certainly be ensured," he told reporters, but added that all of Syria's ethnic groups should respect the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

- US 'provocation' -

Lavrov meanwhile accused Washington of stoking separatist sentiment among Syria's Kurds.

"Washington has actively encouraged and continues to encourage separatist sentiments among Kurds" while ignoring the "delicate" nature of the issue, Lavrov said.

"This is either a lack of understanding of the situation or an absolutely conscious provocation."

The US-led coalition battling the Islamic State group has announced it has begun forming a 30,000-strong security force to patrol territory captured from IS.

Separately, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov -- asked whether the Turkish offensive would complicate the Sochi congress -- declined to comment, but said that the preparations for the conference were under way.
The death toll from an hours-long Taliban assault on a hotel now stands at 22, including a number of foreigners

Taliban militants who killed at least 22 people at a luxury Kabul hotel went from room to room searching for foreigners, survivors and a security source said Monday as more details of the victims emerged.

Insurgents armed with Kalashnikovs and suicide vests attacked the landmark Intercontinental Hotel overlooking the Afghan capital late Saturday, in an assault that lasted more than 12 hours and prompted questions over how the attackers breached security.

Guests hid behind pillars and in rooms as gunmen sprayed bullets and set fire to parts of the six-storey building. Some people climbed over balconies and used bed sheets in a desperate attempt to escape.

"They were saying, 'Kill the foreigners!'," a 20-year-old hotel employee who gave his name as Hasibullah told AFP from his hospital bed.

He described hiding and listening as the gunmen went from room to room, forcing doors open "with daggers" and killing those inside.

Officials have said at least 14 foreigners were killed.

"They didn't want to kill the Afghans," a security source told AFP. "The weapons and bullets they had were for the foreigners."

Another witness claimed he had seen the militants beheading guests.

The attack ended Sunday with all six militants killed by Afghan forces, aided by Norwegian troops.

Health ministry spokesman Waheed Majroh said 22 bodies had been taken to Kabul hospitals. "Some of the bodies (are) burned badly and need DNA tests to be identified," he said.

The interior ministry gave a lower toll Monday, saying 19 people were dead. There were also conflicting accounts of the number of attackers, which the ministry had put at six.

Authorities are known to understate death tolls in high-profile attacks, and much higher figures were circulating on local media.

At least seven Ukrainians were among the dead, the country's ambassador to Tajikistan and Afghanistan Viktor Nikitiuk told Ukrainian television 112.

"All the dead were working for the airline Kam Air and living at the Intercontinental Hotel," he said.

Kam Air, an Afghan carrier, said two Venezuelan staff were also killed in the assault, bringing the airline's losses to at least nine dead -- five pilots and four crew.

One German citizen and one Kazakh citizen were also killed, their foreign ministries said.

Afghan officials told AFP that senior Afghan diplomat Abdullah Poyan died along with Mufti Ahmad Farzan, a member of the High Peace Council responsible for reconciliation efforts with militants.

- Militants already inside? -

The employee Hasibullah said he saw two "fashionably dressed" gunmen in the hotel restaurant before the assault began.

The security source confirmed investigators had seen CCTV footage showing the attackers in the restaurant prior to the assault.

"It was around 8.30 pm... They were sitting in the corner of the hotel and they immediately started spraying bullets," Hasibullah said.

Hasibullah, 20, a wounded employee of the Intercontinental Hotel, said he ran to the fifth floor room and locked himself inside, though not before seeing "many" bodies on the ground

He ran to the fifth floor and locked himself inside a room, though not before seeing "many" bodies on the ground.

But as the gunmen went from door to door he leapt from the window in terror. "I fell on people lying in blood... it was horrific."

Knocked unconscious, he awoke in hospital with a broken leg and other wounds.

Another survivor told AFP the attackers "even beheaded the guests and people inside the hotel".

Noorullah, 24, said he worked at the hotel checking its security cameras, but fled to the fourth floor as the power went off and the attack began.

Also describing the militants as wearing civilian clothes, he said they killed "dozens" of people, opening each room and "raining" bullets.

He, too, jumped from a window to escape.

Witnesses said the hotel's security staff fled the scene as the attack unfolded, though a second security source denied the claim.

- Investigation -

Authorities warned they were still investigating how militants breached hotel security, which was taken over by a private company three weeks ago.

Afghan security personnel man a checkpoint at the entrance of the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, where an attack has prompted questions over how the attackers breached security

A security source said the company involved, KBBS, has responsibility for protecting the complex only, with its 150 guards not allowed inside the hotel under a contract he said had been signed by Afghan president Ashraf Ghani.

They were also not allowed to search VIPs entering the hotel, he said.

The company's website shows it has provided security services to other embassies as well as the United Nations and the European Union.

"They are screened and they are highly trained, they are more professional than the police," the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

It was too soon to say if the militants had inside help, an interior ministry spokesman told AFP.

The attack followed security warnings in recent days to avoid hotels and other locations frequented by foreigners in war-torn Kabul.

emh-mam-ach-st/amu
The Turkish military has launched an assault against Kurdish militia in northern Syria

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday vowed that Turkey would not take any step back in its operation against Kurdish militia in Syria's Afrin region, saying the campaign had the backing of Moscow.

"We are determined. Afrin will be sorted out. We will take no step back. We spoke about this with our Russian friends. We have an agreement," Erdogan told a televised meeting in Ankara.

The Turkish military on Saturday launched operation "Olive Branch", its second major incursion into Syrian territory during the seven-year civil war.

The operation, where Turkish war planes and artillery are backing a major ground incursion launched with Ankara-backed Syrian rebels and Turkish tanks, aims to oust the People's Protection Units (YPG) militia from its enclave of Afrin.

A green light from Russia, which has a military presence in northern Syria, is seen as crucial in ensuring the operation is a success. Moscow has not confirmed the existence of such an agreement.

Erdogan confirmed that Turkey had spoken with other powers, including the United States, about the operation but admitted "we couldn't convince the US on some things." He did not give further details.

"We as Turkey have no intention to occupy anywhere. We have one single goal -- to win hearts," said Erdogan.

He expressed impatience with demands, including from some officials in Washington, to set a clear timetable for the length of the operation.

Erdogan said the operation would be over "when the target is achieved."

"How long have you been in Afghanistan? Is that over in Iraq?" he said, referring to the current US military presence in those countries which began with 2001 and 2003 invasions.

"There is no maths in such a war. How dare you ask us? We will stay as long as we need, we have no interest in staying there, we know when we will leave."
The State Department said the purpose of Rex Tillerson's visit was to reaffirm the "special relationship" between the US and Britain

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson defended the "special relationship" between Britain and the United States during a visit to London on Monday, following a series of spats since the election of Donald Trump that have strained ties.

Tillerson paid a discreet visit to the new US embassy in London after Trump cancelled plans to open it himself -- the latest in a spate of damaging rows.

The top US diplomat later met with counterpart Boris Johnson and Prime Minister Theresa May, speaking of the need to reset the relationship between the historic allies.

"We spend a lot of time talking about the world's problems... and sometimes we forget about the importance of our own relationship," Tillerson said as he met Johnson.

"We need to pay attention to that relationship... we treasure it," he added.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in Downing Street

Johnson described the relationship as "absolutely fundamental" to Britain's economy.

The pair talked about the Iranian nuclear agreement, Yemen and Turkey's assault on Kurdish militia in Syria.

"The Foreign Secretary emphasised that the Iran nuclear deal is working, and that the UK would work closely with US, European and international partners to tackle Irans disruptive behaviour in the region," a Foreign Office spokesperson said.

- 'Bad deal' -

Tillerson also met with May in her Downing Street office, where they discussed Iran.

Downing Street said in a statement the pair agreed on the need for the international community to unite in countering Iran's "destabilising regional activity," while the prime minister also reiterated the Britain's commitment to the nuclear agreement.

The US has been appealing to Britain, France and Germany to push for changes to the 2015 accord, signed by then president Barack Obama and much criticised by Trump.

"I think there is a common view among the E3 that there are some areas of the JCPOA (nuclear deal) or some areas of Iran behaviour that should be addressed," Tillerson said.

The US politician earlier bucked tradition by not holding a formal meet-and-greet during his visit to the new embassy, which the State Department said was due to the current shutdown of the US government over a budget impasse in Congress.

But even before the shutdown, the State Department had already played down Tillerson's visit to the embassy, which opened last week, due to controversy over Trump's refusal to inaugurate the new building.

Trump said he was unhappy at the cost and location of the new embassy, a futuristic cuboid building surrounded by a moat.

The US president had been due to inaugurate the building in February, but cancelled the visit, tweeting: "having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for 'peanuts,' only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!"

But his decision came after a series of rows and after it became clear the visit would be met with mass protests.

- 'Extraordinary relationship' -

Tillerson bucked tradition by not holding a formal meet-and-greet at the new embassy

Tillerson posed for photographs before being shown around the new embassy.

The new building is slightly outside central London in an area south of the River Thames which is being regenerated, unlike its predecessor, which was in a plush quarter in the heart of the British capital.

US ambassador Woody Johnson brushed off Trump's criticism of the building, telling reporters: "The embassy actually is going to really work."

When asked whether there would be a ribbon-cutting ceremony, the ambassador added: "At some point we're going to do it, but there's no urgency to that. We'll do it when the time is right."

Trump has yet to visit Britain since taking office a year ago, and has been involved in rows with the government over issues including trade and his retweeting of a video posted by a British far-right group.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan also said he "would not be welcome" in the city, suggesting there could be widespread protests.

US embassies in London

Boris Johnson wrote in The Sunday Telegraph newspaper that Trump should be welcomed to Britain because the country's ties with the US are vital for security and provide the UK's "single most extraordinary economic relationship".

Trump "is the elected president of the world's most powerful democracy" and resisting his visit to the UK risks "damaging the national interest", Johnson added.

May is due to meet again with Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos late this week, but the plans could be thrown into disarray by the US shutdown.

Tillerson's mini-tour of Europe will continue with a visit to Paris on Tuesday, where he will also be joined by Johnson.
Government forces launched an offensive against the ADF militia on January 13. But losses have been heavy

Suspected Ugandan Islamist rebels killed three civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, despite an offensive by government troops, sources said on Monday.

The deaths occurred on Sunday in the Beni region of North Kivu province, where government forces launched a campaign against the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militia on January 13.

"There was an incursion by the ADF yesterday (Sunday) in Kokola. Three people -- a motorcycle taxi driver and his two customers -- were killed before the army intervened," the administrator of Beni district, Bernard Amisi Kalonda, told AFP.

The incident was confirmed by Jonas Mbusa, a community leader.

The army's spokesman in the region, Captain Mak Hazukay, told AFP that that the ADF "incursion yesterday at Kokola was repelled. Operations are continuing." He gave no further details.

Present in DR Congo since 1995, the ADF was initially created by Muslim radicals to oppose Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's rule.

Today, they are a number of armed groups that hold swathes of territory in eastern DR Congo, battling for control of mineral resources.

Congolese authorities and the UN mission in DR Congo, MONUSCO, accuse the ADF of having killed more than 700 civilians as well as combatants in the Beni region from 2014-16.

The ADF is also accused of killing 14 UN peacekeepers in eastern DR Congo on December 7, in the biggest single loss of peacekeepers in nearly a quarter of a century.

The government last week declared it was waging "war" on the ADF and a Congolese militia, the Yakutumba, which is active in South Kivu province, several hundred kilometres (miles) to the south.

However, troop losses have been heavy. Diplomatic sources say 22 troops were killed on Friday in an ADF attack.
Israeli Arab lawmakers scuffle with security after they held signs to protest a speech by US Vice President Mike Pence in Israel's parliament on January 22, 2018 and are ushered out of the Knesset

US Vice President Mike Pence pledged Monday that his country would move its Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem "by the end" of 2019, a step fiercely opposed by Palestinians.

In the same speech from the rostrum of the Israeli parliament Pence urged the Palestinians to resume long-stalled peace talks with the Jewish state.

"Jerusalem is Israel's capital, and as such President Trump has directed the State Department to immediately begin preparations to move the United States embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem," Pence said to prolonged applause from Israeli parliamentarians.

"In the weeks ahead our administration will advance its plan to open the United States embassy in Jerusalem. And that United States embassy will open before the end of next year."

At the start of his address, Israeli Arab lawmakers, angry at a December 6 decision by US President Donald Trump to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital, tried to stage a protest from the floor of the Knesset.

Members of the Joint List coalition of Arab parties, which had pledged to boycott the Pence speech, began shouting and holding up protest signs as he started speaking but were swiftly hustled out by ushers.

Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, while the Palestinians see the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.

The US move to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital broke with decades of international consensus that the city's status should be settled as part of a two-state peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

It prompted the Palestinians to cut ties with the Trump administration, but Pence urged them to return to negotiations.

"Today we strongly urge the Palestinian leadership to return to the table," he said. "Peace can only come through dialogue."
Afghan security personnel on the hotel rooftop after the attack

Afghanistan's Kam Air has been left reeling after nine personnel including five pilots were killed in the Taliban attack on a Kabul luxury hotel where the airline housed its foreign staff.

Forty Kam Air employees were at the Intercontinental Hotel Saturday night when gunmen opened fire on guests and employees, killing at least 22 people including 14 foreigners.

The slaughter has left the company deeply shocked and struggling to maintain its flight schedule as employees try to come to terms with the loss.

"We trusted the security of the hotel, we trusted the administration, we trusted the government. But now our foreign pilots and crew members are dead and the rest (of the) survivors were so traumatised that we had to send them back to their home countries to recover," senior vice president Farid Paykar told AFP Monday.

He said seven of the nine victims were from Ukraine and two from Venezuela. Five were pilots and four were crew members.

The Taliban assault lasted for more than 12 hours until the attackers were killed by Afghan security forces. The militants targeted foreigners, multiple sources have told AFP.

Most of the airline staff survived by hiding in their rooms, Paykar said, waiting in silence as the gunmen went from door to door breaking them open with knives and killing those inside.

"Who would trust to come to Afghanistan following this incident?" said Paykar.

The state-owned 1960s hotel, not part of the global InterContinental chain, was thought to be secure and protected, he said.

But witnesses have claimed that the hotel's security guards fled the attackers and left guests to their fate. Hotel security was taken over by a private company three weeks ago.

Kam Air officials have said most flights have had to be cancelled and schedules changed.

"I don't think our operations will recover for weeks and probably months," Paykar said.

Airline CEO, Captain Samad Usman Samadi, said staff had been shocked and would take "some time" to recover.

It is also not clear where the airline will now house its foreign staff while they are in Kabul, which is one of the deadliest places in war-torn Afghanistan for civilians.

Kam Air, founded in 2003, serves nine cities in Afghanistan and several regional destinations such as New Delhi and Islamabad, Central Asia -- Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan -- as well as Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas was welcomed by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Brussels

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas on Monday urged EU member states to "swiftly" grant official recognition to the state of Palestine as he arrived to meet foreign ministers from the bloc in Brussels.

"We truly consider the European Union as a true partner and friend, and therefore we call its member states to swiftly recognise the state of Palestine and we confirm that there is no contradiction between recognition and the resumption of negotiations," Abbas told reporters.

The 82-year-old Abbas met EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini for one-on-one talks before joining the bloc's 28 foreign ministers for lunch on the sidelines of their monthly meeting, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a similar trip last month.

Abbas, who came to Brussels in search of European support amid a bitter row with Washington over US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, said the Palestinians were still committed to the stalled peace process.

"We are keen on continuing on the way of negotiations because we believe it is the only way forward to reach a negotiated solution and peace between us and Israel," Abbas said before talks with Mogherini.

"Despite the hurdles we can find on our way towards the settlement of this issue we remain committed to fighting terrorism, violence and extremism locally, regionally and internationally."

Last week Abbas denounced Trump's peace efforts as the "slap of the century" and accused Israel of ending the Oslo accords that underpin negotiations -- which have been effectively frozen since 2014.

But on Monday he said his side were still prepared to stick to past agreements.

"We are committed as well to continued compliance with treaties we signed with Israel but at the same time we call upon Israel to play its part and comply with those treaties," he said.

Mogherini said the two sides needed "to show more than ever before their engagement with the international community" to work for peace.
Insurer American International Group Inc. announces a $5.6 billion deal to acquire Validus Holdings

Leading global insurer AIG announced a $5.6 billion deal Monday to purchase Validus Holdings, expanding its portfolio of insurance services.

American International Group, Inc. will acquire all outstanding common shares of Validus, a leading provider of reinsurance, primary insurance, and asset management services, the companies announced.

AIG said in addition to those services, the deal will allow it to add "complementary capabilities in the US crop and excess and surplus (E&S) markets."

Validus shareholders will receive $68.00 per share.

"Validus is an excellent strategic fit for AIG, bringing new businesses and capabilities to our General Insurance operation," AIG chief Brian Duperreault said.

"With our global scale and the strength of our balance sheet, I am confident that Validus will thrive within AIG and strengthen our ability to deliver profitable growth for our shareholders as we strategically position AIG for the future."

The company said the deal, expected to close in mid-2018, also will help AIG deliver profitable growth.

During the 2008 global financial crisis, AIG was rescued in a government bailout because of its close links with other key financial institutions.

The government saved AIG with a controversial $182 billion bailout that was later repaid in full by the insurer. Once the world's largest insurer, AIG was teetering on the verge of collapse under tens of billions of dollars of souring, unhedged derivatives contracts in September 2008.

The US Treasury sold its final shares in December 2012.

In the wake of the announcement, S&P Global Ratings said the deal would not have an impact on AIG group's "BBB+" debt grade.

"We don't expect that AIG's acquisition of Validus will reduce the group's very strong capitalization levels," S&P said in a statement.

The ratings agency affirmed the "BBB+" ratings on Validus but revised the outlook to negative "to align it with our negative outlook on AIG."

S&P said it views Validus "as a strategically important entity within the AIG group because, among other things, it constitutes expansion into new business platforms," but even so was unlikely to upgrade the debt rating of the expanded group in the next two years.
An Air Algerie Boeing 737 lands at Geneva airport on Novembre 20

A strike by Air Algerie cabin crews on Monday grounded flights by the carrier out of the North African state's capital, the airline and a union said.

An AFP correspondent at Algiers international airport said Air Algerie flights were landing as scheduled but there were no takeoffs by the carrier.

Other carriers operating out of Houari Boumediene airport, where around 70 international and domestic departures were scheduled on Monday, did not appear affected by the industrial action.

Hundreds of passengers were left waiting in the departures terminal without information, as airport and airline officials said Air Algerie was chartering planes for flights to France.

"We've been left alone. I don't know if I should buy a new ticket or leave (the airport). I don't know anything, I'm just waiting," said one traveller, Kenza, who had been due back at work in Nice, southeast France, later Monday.

"Air Algerie was taken by surprise this morning by an illegal, surprise strike. There have been no departures from Algiers," the airline's spokeswoman Mounia Bertouche said on national radio.

She said the company was planning to take legal action.

But Karim Ourad, head of Algeria's air crews union, the SNPNCA, denied the strike was illegal and insisted the company had been informed in advance but failed to attend conciliatory meetings.

Its members were demanding the restoration of a pay rise schedule agreed in January 2017 but withdrawn a month later when new management took over.
Turkey on Saturday launched a major offensive against Kurdish militia in northern Syria

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Monday he was "concerned" about Turkey's new offensive against Kurdish militia in northern Syria, as he urged all sides to show restraint in the conflict.

Tillerson was speaking in London as Turkey intensified its assault on Kurdish militia targets in Syria, aiming to oust the People's Protection Units (YPG) which Washington relies on to fight the jihadist Islamic State group.

"The US is in Syria to defeat ISIS," he said, using another acronym to for IS, as he began a meeting with his British counterpart Boris Johnson.

"We've done that with a coalition of partners and the (Kurdish-led) Syrian Democratic Forces, so we are concerned about the Turkish incidents in northern Syria," Tillerson added.

Turkish warplanes and artillery are backing a major ground offensive launched on Saturday in the Kurdish enclave of Afrin, aiming to oust the YPG which Turkey considers a terror group.

Ankara views the militia as the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has waged a bloody three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.

The top US diplomat said he was asking "both sides to show restraint" and minimise civilian casualties.

"We recognise and fully appreciate Turkey's legitimate right to protect its own citizens from terrorist elements that may be launching attacks against Turkish citizens on Turkish soil from Syria," he said.

Tillerson said he was in talks with Ankara and the leadership of the US-led coalition in Syria and hoped to "address Turkish legitimate security concerns".

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday said Turkey remained "determined" to continue its offensive in Afrin and would "take no step back".

Britain's Johnson described the state of play as "a very very difficult situation".

"We understand that the Kurds have been instrumental in taking the fight to Daesh and everybody appreciates that," he said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

"On the other hand, Turkey does have a legitimate interest in protecting its own border," Johnson added.
A Syrian boy holds an oxygen mask over the face of an infant at a makeshift hospital following a reported gas attack on the besieged eastern Ghouta region near Damascus on January 22, 2018

At least 21 people, including children, suffered breathing difficulties Monday, a monitor said, in a suspected Syrian regime chemical attack on a besieged rebel enclave near Damascus.

United Nations inspectors have accused President Bashar al-Assad's regime of being behind multiple deadly poison gas attacks during the country's devastating seven year war.

Monday's attack targeted the city of Douma in the rebel-held region of Eastern Ghouta, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"After regime forces fired rockets into the western part of the city of Douma, white smoke spread, causing 21 cases of suffocation," it said.

An AFP correspondent at a hospital in the city saw people carrying babies wrapped in blankets, breathing through oxygen masks, some of them screaming.

Young girls and men sat on hospital beds, tears in their eyes, unable to stop coughing.

A doctor at the hospital who gave his first name as Bassil said patients were suffering "respiratory irritation, breathing difficulties, coughing and reddening of the eyes".

"We noticed that they smelled like bleach, or chlorine, and we stripped them of their clothes," he said.

Six children and six women were among those affected, the Observatory said

"Residents and medical sources talk of chlorine gas," Observatory hear Rami Abdel Rahman said, adding that his group -- which relies on a network of sources inside Syria could not confirm those reports.

On January 13, a similar attack targeted the outskirts of Douma and the Observatory reported seven cases of suffocation.

Days later, Human Rights Watch head Kenneth Roth accused the Syrian regime of using chlorine gas during the siege of Eastern Ghouta.

Besieged since 2013 by regime forces, the rebel stronghold's 400,000 inhabitants are already experiencing a crushing humanitarian crisis and severe shortages of food and medicine.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the United Nations blamed the Syrian air force for an April 2017 sarin gas attack on the opposition-held village of Khan Sheikhun which left scores dead.

The attack triggered an unprecedented American missile strike on the airbase it is believed Syrian forces used to carry out the attack.

The regime is also accused of using chlorine gas in three areas of northern Syria in 2014 and 2015.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called for efforts to punish officials responsible for chemical attacks in Syria.

Syrian state TV said Monday that rebel mortar fire had killed nine people in two neighbourhoods of Damascus.

Syria's nearly seven-year war, which began as the regime brutally crushed anti-government protests, has claimed more than 340,000 lives, forced millions to flee their homes and left the country in ruins.
Zuma's presidency has been mired in corruption scandals and tarnished by a weakening economy

South Africa's ruling party confirmed Monday that discussions were underway on President Jacob Zuma's departure from office, possibly signalling the coming end to his scandal-tainted nine-year reign.

Zuma has been under growing pressure to resign since he was replaced as head of the African National Congress (ANC) in December by his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa.

The party executive "discussed this matter... there will be interaction between officials, President Zuma and (party) president Ramaphosa," ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule told reporters.

"There are no timelines... we don't do things that way, we engage, we discuss," Magashule added, saying no final decision had been made on Zuma's departure.

Zuma's presidency has been mired in corruption scandals and tarnished by a weakening economy, with the party losing public support ahead of next year's general election.

Ramaphosa's backers are keen for him to take over as president immediately and try to revive the economy before the election, when the ANC could lose its dominance for the first time since the end of apartheid.

- 'Period of renewal'? -

Magashule told a media briefing at party headquarters in Johannesburg that the ANC was "committed to reclaiming moral legitimacy" and had "entered a new period of renewal", calling for "urgent action in fighting corruption".

"We focussed on education, land, agriculture, reviving the economy and making sure as we move forward we focus on issues of health," he said, reporting on an ANC meeting at the weekend.

The party said on Saturday that it would "act decisively" to rebuild its reputation battered by several scandals engulfing Zuma.

Ramaphosa's backers want him to take over as president immediately

Zuma's hold over the ANC was shaken when his chosen successor -- his former wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma -- lost out to Ramaphosa in the closely-fought race to be party leader.

Zuma, 75, could leave office either by resigning, through losing a motion of no-confidence in parliament or impeachment proceedings.

He could also be recalled by the ANC, forcing him to step down.

Whoever is president on February 8 will deliver the annual state of the nation address to parliament -- effectively serving as the most immediate deadline for his departure.

- Corruption cases -

"It is a delicate procedure to engineer an early retirement for President Zuma," political analyst Daniel Silke told AFP.

"Zuma and the ANC want a dignified exit... it will be fairly soon that he will exit the top job but certain guarantees, if they can be found, will need to be put in place before he does that."

Zuma faces multiple court cases for alleged corruption, including over 783 payments he received over an arms deal before he came to power

Zuma faces multiple court cases for alleged corruption, including over 783 payments he received over an arms deal before he came to power.

Silke said Zuma was a "festering wound" for the ANC, and Ramaphosa had to move rapidly to reassure international investors and rating agencies that the party was changing course.

Ramaphosa, 65, on Sunday left South Africa to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos.

He is a former trade unionist who led talks to end white-minority rule in the early 1990s and then became a multi-millionaire businessman before returning to politics.

The ANC, which has ruled since 1994 when Nelson Mandela won the first multi-racial election, recorded its worst-ever results in 2016 local polls.

Zuma's closest allies still hold senior positions in the party, and he could in theory remain president until the 2019 election that marks the end of his second and final term in office.
Visitors tour the Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum on November 11, 2017 during its official opening to the public

The Louvre Abu Dhabi said Monday it has replaced a map of the Arabian Peninsula that omitted Qatar, embroiled in a months-long diplomatic dispute with its Gulf neighbours.

The museum said the map was an "oversight" that had been rectified.

The map, one of several aiming at placing exhibits in their geographical context, was located in the children's section of the museum.

The error was pointed out on January 19 by Qatar's museums head, Al Mayassa Al-Thani, who retweeted a picture of the map showing Bahrain and the Gulf coast with blank sea in the place of Qatar.

"Although the notion of museums is a new one to Abu Dhabi, surely the @MuseeLouvre is not okay with this?" she wrote.

The following day, Emirati foreign minister Anwar Gargash said he had been "mystified" by Al-Thani's tweet, which "blew a slight oversight out of proportion".

"Culture is superior to such trifles," he added.

The Louvre Abu Dhabi was inaugurated with great pomp in November by French President Emmanuel Macron and Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.

It was marketed as "a universal museum" celebrating cultural exchange and tolerance.

The UAE and Qatar have long had sour relations, but they worsened last year when Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt in June cut all ties with Doha, including land, sea and air links.

They accused the tiny, gas-rich state of ties to Islamist extremists and being too close to Shiite Iran.

Doha rejected the accusations and accused the states of seeking to take over its foreign policy.
In 2016, Zuma was found guilty of failing to uphold the constitution by the country's highest court over taxpayer-funded upgrades to his personal home

Pressure is mounting on South Africa's President Jacob Zuma to leave office, with the ruling ANC party confirming talks are underway over his possible departure.

His authority slipped further this weekend when his party vowed to "act decisively" to rebuild its reputation in the wake of the many scandals that have dominated his nine-year rule.

Here are the ways by which Zuma could leave power before the end of his term, which finishes in 2019:

- Vote of no confidence -

Zuma's enemies have previously sought to topple him with parliamentary votes of no confidence.

Several such motions have been tabled in parliament but failed.

During the last attempt, in August, the president's opponents fell short by only 24 votes after some lawmakers from Zuma's own African National Congress party voted against him.

For such a motion to succeed a simple majority of parliamentarians would be needed -- 201 in total. The ANC has 249 seats in the national assembly.

If successful, the president and cabinet would have to resign.

The speaker of parliament would become president for a maximum 30 days.

- Impeachment -

Two-thirds of lawmakers would have to vote in favour of impeachment for it to succeed.

Grounds on which a motion of impeachment could be preented include serious breach of the constitution, incapacity of the president or serious misconduct.

In 2016, Zuma was found guilty of failing to uphold the constitution by the country's highest court over taxpayer-funded upgrades to his personal home.

After a court battle, Zuma agreed to pay back $500,000 (410,000 euros) that he had refused to repay.

In December, the Constitutional Court criticised parliament for not holding the president to account and ordered it to draft rules for removing a sitting head of state.

Parliament has begun discussing such a mechanism but it could take months for the process to be concluded.

Impeachment would deprive Zuma of the perks and benefits normally afforded to former heads of state.

The deputy president would become president.

- Resignation -

There could be two scenarios under which Zuma could resign.

He could decide to relinquish power -- likely the most dignified option.

This route is currently being considered by the ANC as it would "not embarrass the president", said Collette Schulz-Herzenberg, a political science lecturer at Stellenbosch University.

The second resignation scenario is that Zuma could be recalled by his party and pushed to resign.

If he refused to step down as head of state, the party could then trigger a parliamentary motion to get rid of him.

In 2008 when Jacob Zuma was ANC party chief, it recalled head of state Thabo Mbeki and shortened his term by eight months.

The party then ordered him to quit the presidency, because South African presidents derive their legitimacy from the largest party in parliament who elects them in turn.

The deputy president would take power and it would be up to the national assembly to pick a new president within 30 days.
Turkish troops advance near the border with Syria as part of operation "Olive Branch"

Turkey's army launched a major air and ground operation in northern Syria over the weekend in a bid to oust a US-allied Kurdish militia that it considers a terror group.

The offensive follows an announcement by a US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group that it is working to create a 30,000-strong border security force in northern Syria.

Around half of that force would be retrained fighters from the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which is mainly made up of fighters from Kurdish militia the People's Protection Units (YPG).

Here is a timeline of the main events:

- Major incursion -

On Saturday Turkey launches operation "Olive Branch" into Syria intending to oust the YPG militia from its enclave of Afrin.

War planes and artillery back a major ground incursion undertaken with Ankara-backed Syrian rebels.

Turkey considers the YPG to be a "terrorist" group as well as the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has waged a bloody three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.

A map of northwestern Syria, showing where Turkish forces have entered the country in a bid to oust a Kurdish militia

Ankara says it informed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in writing, of its offensive; this is denied by Damascus which says its air force will shoot down any Turkish warplanes entering its airspace.

Assad ally Russia urges restraint and withdraws troops from the zone in question "to prevent potential provocation".

The Kurdish militia say they will hold Russia as well as Turkey responsible for the attacks.

- 'Legitimate' concerns -

On Sunday Turkish tanks and soldiers enter the region of Afrin. Official media say that Ankara's forces have penetrated five kilometres (three miles) into Syria.

The US State Department calls on Turkey to "exercise restraint". But Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says Ankara has "legitimate" security concerns and had given Washington advance warning of the operation.

France calls for a UN Security Council meeting and calls on Turkey to end its offensive. Iran expresses concern and Syria's Assad condemns the operation.

Turkish police prevent protests against the operation in Istanbul and Diyarbakir, a Kurdish stronghold in Turkey's southeast.

- 'No step back' -

On Monday Turkish soldiers and their Syrian allies, backed by Ankara's artillery, launch a new attack on the Kurdish militia, with deadly clashes.

"We will take no step back. We spoke about this with our Russian friends. We have an agreement," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says.

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek says the operation will be short. Ankara says it aims to create a security zone 30 kilometres (18 miles) deep inside Syria.

The Kremlin says it is watching developments attentively and is in contact with Damascus and Ankara.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urges restraint on all sides. But he also says Turkey has a "legitimate right to protect its own citizens from terrorist elements that may be launching attacks against Turkish citizens on Turkish soil from Syria".

The Kurdish forces say Turkey's operation amounts to supporting IS and urge their Western allies to act.

The European Union's diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini says she is "extremely worried" by the offensive and will seek urgent talks with Turkish officials

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says at least 54 fighters, including 26 Kurdish militia members and 19 Syrian rebels, have been killed since Saturday.

It says 22 civilians have also been killed in the Turkish bombardment, while two have died in Kurdish bombing of Syrian territory of pro-Ankara rebels. Ankara denies targeting civilians.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim says that 170 targets have been destroyed and 11 villages captured by pro-Ankara forces.
Greece's campaign in Albania, in which a fascist Italian attack was repulsed against all odds, was the first Allied success against an Axis power in World War II

Greece's foreign ministry on Monday said excavation had begun in Albania in search of Greek soldiers killed fighting fascist Italy in World War II, one of the country's proudest military moments.

"A historic moment, as the first disinterment of the remains of two Greek soldiers is taking place," the ministry said in a tweet.

"Work began today, in the presence of a mixed Greek-Albanian committee, in an emotional atmosphere," it added.

The 1940-41 campaign in Albania, in which a fascist Italian attack was repulsed against all odds, is commemorated annually in Greece and was the first Allied success against an Axis power.

According to Greek state agency ANA, between 6,000 and 8,000 Greek soldiers are believed to rest in makeshift graves in southern Albania.

The Albanian defence ministry said the work was underway near the town of Dragot. According to local media, a few inhabitants gathered to protest against the excavation.

Greece has been asking for the operation for decades. The details were agreed in November, though an original agreement had been concluded in 2009.

Under the terms of the agreement, the bodies of Greek soldiers are to be identified and reburied in Greek military cemeteries in Albania's Bularat and Kelcyre, where hundreds of other Greek fallen lie.

Albania and Italy had reached a similar agreement to repatriate the remains of more than 6,000 Italian soldiers.

But Greece, which has an ethnic Greek minority living in southern Albania, and had in the past sought to annex the region, has always insisted that its fallen remain in the neighbouring state.

The treatment of the Greek minority in Albania is a recurring source of tension between the two states.
Vietnamese former state oil executive Trinh Xuan Thanh (C) is led toward a courtroom for the verdict in his trial at Hanoi's People's Court

A Vietnamese former state oil executive who was allegedly kidnapped from Germany was jailed for life on Monday for embezzlement, in the highest-profile corruption trial to target the communist country's business and political elite.

The case -- also involving 21 other officials, including a former party politburo member -- has captivated a country where the affairs of the powerful are normally kept secret and the downfall of senior politicians rarely happens in public.

Vietnam has mirrored China in its massive corruption purge, but critics say the campaign is as much about targeting political foes as it is about tackling graft in one of Southeast Asia's most corrupt nations.

The life sentence for Trinh Xuan Thanh, the former head of PetroVietnam Construction (PVC), capped a dramatic two-week trial -- closed to international media -- that included a tearful apology from the 51-year-old.

Thanh was sentenced to "14 years for mismanagement and life in prison for embezzlement", according to state-run VNExpress news site.

The jury said "no one at PVC dared use money for wrong purposes" without Thanh's direction, the report said.

The embezzlement charges carry a maximum sentence of death but prosecutors recommended life instead.

He faces a separate trial for embezzlement Wednesday that could see him put to death.

Former politburo member Dinh La Thang, who once chaired the board of PetroVietnam, was sentenced to 13 years in prison, while the remaining defendants got punishments ranging between 22 years in jail and a 30-month suspended sentence.

They are accused of causing $5.2 million in losses for the state during an investment by PetroVietnam into a thermal power plant.

Public opinion on the prison terms remained divided on social media Monday, though some were swift to decry the punishments as too light.

"These were sentences for street thieves," wrote Facebook user Huan Pham after the verdict was announced.

- China echoes -

Thanh's case has gripped the Vietnamese public since 2016 when he was spotted driving a flashy Lexus with government licence plates -- prompting corruption rumours about the official, who swiftly fled to Germany.

He was next heard of in August 2017 when German officials said he was plucked from a central Berlin park by Vietnamese security agents, in a Cold-War style episode that Germany described as a "scandalous violation" of its sovereignty.

Former Politburo member Dinh La Thang (C), who once chaired the board of PetroVietnam, was sentenced to 13 years in the highest-profile corruption trial to target the country's business and political elite

Hanoi has denied he was kidnapped, insisting he returned voluntarily to Vietnam, where he appeared on state television and confessed to his crimes in a broadcast that some suspect he may have been pressured into.

Germany said after Monday's verdict it was "too early to evaluate the trial" pending further proceedings this week and possible appeals, but "took note" of the fact that he was spared the death penalty, said foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Adebahr.

Thanh will return to court for a fresh trial on Wednesday on embezzlement charges after he was accused of pocketing $620,000 of state funds.

The charges carry the death penalty.

Thanh's German lawyer, Petra Schlagenhauf -- who was denied entry to Vietnam before the start of the trial -- called on Berlin to keep pushing for his release and return to Germany, and said the trial did not conform with the rule of law.

It was the highest-profile corruption case in the one-party state, which has long vowed to tackle graft but rarely targets senior officials.

According to Transparency International, Vietnam ranks 113th out of 176 on its corruption perception index, worse than its Southeast Asian neighbours Thailand and the Philippines.

Scores of bankers, former officials and businessmen have been jailed as part of Vietnam's purge, including a senior banker sentenced to death for fraud last year.

Critics say the corruption purge is fuelled by political infighting and is led by Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong, characterised as a conservative hardliner.

Observers say the campaign is similar to the anti-corruption purge in China, led by President Xi Jinping.

"It's a good way to keep political opponents on their toes," Vietnam expert Jonathan London told AFP, adding it echoes Xi's corruption purge of "real, perceived and potential opponents".

London said Thanh's conviction may be the "most spectacular" but he expects the anti-graft drive to continue.
Cattle theft is a major problem in Uganda -- the government says it has killed 29 cross-border raiders in the past three months

Uganda's army said Monday it had killed 29 armed cattle raiders in the porous northeastern region bordering South Sudan and Kenya, in a military operation which has entered its third month.

"There have been isolated cases of contacts and clashes between the UPDF (the Ugandan army) and the warriors. In all these contacts we have killed 29, the most recent being Friday January 19, where we killed one (raider)," army spokesman Captain Albert Arinaitwe told AFP.

Arinaitwe said most of those killed were from the Jie and Dodoth pastoral communities, but that the number may also include ethnic Turkana from neighbouring Kenya who were making increased incursions to steal cattle in Uganda.

He said 12 weapons had been recovered during the ongoing operation, and numerous arrests made.

"On December 15, more than 15 people were presented before court. Some were convicted and imprisoned depending on the offenses from three years, five and another up to 15 years because he was found with an illegal firearm and used the same gun to kill a person," he said.

Arinaitwe said Ugandan army officials had held more than nine meetings since the operation began in November with local leaders, lawmakers, and Kenyan government officials on how to tackle cross-border cattle rustling.

Pastoral communities in the region often graze their cattle across borders. Kenyan herders are allowed to do so in Uganda in the dry season provided they are not armed.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, right, shakes hands with Syrian opposition negotiator Nasr al-Hariri in Moscow

Syria's main opposition group said Monday it needed "full and clear information" from Russia before it would agree to take part in peace talks to be held in Sochi next week.

The comments came during a visit by the Syrian Negotiations Commission (SNC) to Moscow as Russia gets set to host talks in the Black Sea resort on January 30 along with Syrian regime-backer Iran and rebel-supporter Turkey.

"The SNC will not make any final decision regarding the Russian initiatives until it receives full and clear information from Russia," SNC representative Nasr al-Hariri said at the start of a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

"We want to have complete information about the participants, the agenda and the objectives" of the Sochi meetings, he said in comments translated into Russian.

"Unfortunately, for the time being, we do not have a clear picture of all that."

The SNC has said it will attend fresh UN-hosted negotiations before the Sochi talks, which dozens of rebel factions have already rejected.

Lavrov said he was looking forward to a "constructive conversation" with Hariri.

"We consider counterproductive the attempts of some foreign players to question the sincerity of the efforts we are undertaking," Lavrov said.

Numerous rounds of UN-brokered peace talks have been held in Geneva, with the last one concluding in mid-December with no notable progress towards ending the country's war.

The UN-backed talks are to resume on January 25-26, this time in Vienna.

Key players Russia, Iran and Turkey have been sponsoring parallel peace talks since the start of last year.

The Sochi meeting is part of a broader push by Moscow to start hammering out a path to a political solution to end the war and has sparked concerns that the Kremlin is looking to sideline the UN.

The Damascus government has said it would attend the Sochi talks, which are aimed at setting up a new constitution for post-war Syria.

Syria's nearly seven-year war, which began as the regime brutally crushed anti-government protests, has claimed more than 340,000 lives, forced millions to flee their homes and left the country in ruins.

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A protest in Beirut calling for an end to domestic violence in 2015

A Lebanese man fatally shot his wife in Beirut Monday, the latest in a string of murders a rights group said showed much work remained to eradicate violence against women.

A law on domestic violence was passed by Lebanon's parliament in 2014 but watchdogs said many changes were still needed.

A man shot his wife in the central Ras al-Nabaa neighbourhood of Beirut on Monday, the national news agency reported, adding that the killer was on the run.

Also on Monday, another Lebanese man was arrested after stabbing his wife in a village in the south, the same source reported. The woman survived the attack.

The latest violence brought to eight the number of deadly cases of violence against women since the start of December, according to Kafa, a watchdog advocating for gender equality in Lebanon.

A total of 17 cases were recorded last year in Lebanon, a country of around four million inhabitants, including those of women killed by their husbands but also that of a 15-year-old girl who committed suicide after a forced marriage.

In a high-profile case last month, Briton Rebecca Dykes, who worked for the UK Department for International Development at the embassy in Beirut, was killed by a taxi driver who tried to rape her.

Kafa's spokesperson Diala Haidar said recent improvements to the legal framework were failing to challenge "a society dominated by a machismo and that justifies violence against women."

"Working against this mentality and preventing the justification of violence against women is the hardest thing," she said.
A Yemeni man driving a motorcycle past a communications tower that was destroyed in Saudi-led air strikes on the city of Taez in 2017

Huthi rebel rocket fire killed nine people, including a journalist and a child, in Yemen's southwest province of Taez on Monday, a government official said.

A barrage of six rockets rained down during the opening of a new security facility in the town of Nashma, killing four soldiers and five civilians, the official told AFP.

The deputy interior minister of Yemen's internationally recognised government, as well as dozens of local residents, were in attendance, he said.

Yemen's Belqees TV confirmed the killing of its cameraman Mohammed al-Qudsi, in a statement on its website, blaming "Huthi shelling".

The rebels, in a statement carried by their Saba news agency, said they had attacked the complex with a ballistic missile, "killing dozens of mercenaries including commanders".

Taez, the provincial capital of the same name, is held by forces loyal to the government. But much of the surrounding area is in the hands of the Iran-backed insurgents and it has been a key battleground in the war.

More than 9,200 people have been killed in Yemen since March 2015, when a Saudi-led coalition intervened with the aim of pushing the Huthis from Sanaa and restoring the government to power.

The Huthis, however, have only hardened their grip on the capital after gunning down their former ally, ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Almost another 2,200 Yemenis have died of cholera and 53 of diphtheria amid deteriorating hygiene and sanitation conditions, the World Health Organisation says.

The Saudi-led coalition on Monday announced $1.5 billion in new humanitarian aid for Yemen, after the United Nations issued what it called a record appeal for assistance for the war-ravaged country.

The coalition also said it would also "increase the capacities of Yemeni ports to receive humanitarian" imports, as it faces mounting criticism for imposing a crippling blockade on the country.

The United Arab Emirates, a key member of the Saudi-led coalition, said Monday that one of its soldiers had died in Yemen. It gave no details on when or how the soldier died.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said he believed in 'an eye for an eye'

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said Monday he regretted stopping executions in his "pre-industrial" country, just days after his vow to resume death sentences alarmed rights groups.

Museveni last signed a death warrant in 1999 to execute 28 convicts, while execution under military law was last carried out in 2002.

"I saw some NGOs opposing the death sentence. In a pre-industrial society like ours removing death sentence is a recipe for chaos. We believe in the law of Moses; eye for an eye", Museveni told the annual judges conference in Kampala according to his senior press secretary, Don Wanyama.

"I have been making the mistake of not sanctioning these death sentences, I am repenting," said Museveni.

"As you are aspire for best international practices, you must be aware that societies like the United Kingdom went through the industrial revolution 200 years ago. Here in Uganda and Africa we are dealing with pre-industrial societies," Museveni told the judges.

On Friday, during the passing out of prison wardens in Kampala, Museveni said: "Criminals think they have a right to kill people and keep their heads ... I am going to revise a bit and hang a few."

According to prisons service spokesman, Frank Mbaine, over 250 convicts are on death row in Uganda.

Amnesty International said Museveni's threat to resume executions was "misguided since there is no credible evidence that the death penalty is a deterrent to crime".

The rights watchdog said that Museveni should instead lead Uganda to fully abolish the death penalty, like 19 other African countries have done.

"Uganda's refusal to carry out executions in recent years has been a credit to president Museveni, but resuming them now would destroy more than a decade of progress, not to mention buck the global trend towards abolition".

Museveni, 73, has been in power for three decades, and could potentially seek a sixth term in office in 2021 if a bill to remove presidential age limits is passed.
A file picture shows Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who will step down as the UN special envoy to Yemen next month, during a news conference at Sanaa international airport, on November 7, 2016

The UN Yemen envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed will step down as top negotiator for the war-stricken country next month, the international body announced on Monday.

A statement released by the United Nations did not name a successor for Cheikh Ahmed, who was appointed special envoy for Yemen in April 2015.

Cheikh Ahmed "does not intend to continue in his position beyond the end of his current contract ending in February 2018", the statement said.

"The special envoy remains committed to pursue through diplomacy an end to the violence and a political solution that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Yemeni people, until a successor is named."

In nearly three years as Yemen envoy, Cheikh Ahmed oversaw multiple rounds of UN-brokered negotiations between warring parties in Yemen -- all of which failed to yield a detente in the violence that has claimed more than 9,200 lives since 2015.

In May 2017, his convoy came under fire in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, which is controlled by the country's Iran-backed Huthi rebels.

The Huthis never claimed the attack and have accused Cheikh Ahmed, and the UN, of bias towards Yemen's Saudi-backed government.

In March 2015, shortly before Cheikh Ahmed's appointment, Saudi Arabia and its military allies intervened in the Yemeni government's fight against the rebels, who control the capital, much of northern Yemen and a string of Red Sea ports.

While both parties in the war stand accused of human rights violations, the Saudi-led military camp in particular has drawn criticism from the UN for civilian deaths as well as a crippling blockade on rebel-held ports and the country's international airport.

The UN has described Yemen as the world's largest humanitarian disaster, calling for $2.96 billion to combat imminent famine as well as cholera and diphtheria outbreaks in 2018.
US assistant secretary for terrorist financing Marshall Billingslea met with Lebanon's President Michel Aoun, pictured in September 2017

A senior US Treasury official met Monday in Lebanon with President Michel Aoun on a visit that comes after Washington announced a probe into Hezbollah "narcoterrorism".

The US Justice Department said on January 11 it was creating a task force targeting the powerful Lebanese Shiite movement that the United States considers a terrorist group.

Hezbollah, which is represented in the government and parliament, has been a key player in the war that has ravaged neighbouring Syria since 2011, fighting alongside regime forces against rebels and jihadists.

US assistant secretary for terrorist financing Marshall Billingslea met Aoun and Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Monday.

"Lebanon is an active participant in global efforts to fight the financing of terrorism and money laundering," Aoun said in a statement released by the presidency.

"Lebanese security services are vigilant in the pursuit of terror cells and the fight against drug trafficking," he was quoted as saying.

The US Congress adopted a law in 2015 for sanctions against banks that knowingly finance Hezbollah, an arch-rival of US ally Israel.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Friday denied his movement was engaged in drug trafficking to finance itself.

"These are unfair accusations that are not based on any fact, that are not true," he said.
France's Ambassador to the UN Francois Delattre, shown in this December 22, 2017 file photo, says the priority in Syria should remain the fight against the Islamic State group

The UN Security Council discussed Turkey's intensifying offensive against Kurdish militias and the worsening humanitarian crisis in Syria on Monday but did not condemn or demand an end to the sensitive Turkish operation.

Already scheduled to hear a report from UN aid chief Mark Lowcock on his recent visit to Syria, at France's request the Security Council also touched on the latest Turkish offensive as well as the Syrian campaign in Idlib and Eastern Ghouta.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed no stepping back to the air and ground offensive seeking to flush out the People's Protection Units (YPG) militia from its enclave of Afrin, despite concern from Ankara's allies and neighbors.

"It was of course part of the conversation," French Ambassador Francois Delattre said of Afrin after the closed-door talks at UN headquarters in New York.

"The call for restraint, I believe, was widely shared during the discussion," he added, saying that France was "attentive to the security of Turkey, its territories and its borders."

US Ambassador Nikki Haley did not attend the meeting in person, a diplomatic source said.

Turkey's operation "Olive Branch" is sensitive as Washington relied on the YPG to oust militants from the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group from their Syrian strongholds and the Kurdish militia now holds much of Syria's north.

Western capitals fear the campaign against the YPG could shift the focus away from eliminating IS after a string of successes in recent months.

"It's vital to keep the unity of the allies in what remains the number one priority, which is the fight against terrorism and against Daesh in particular," Delattre stressed, using another term for the IS militant group.

"The number one party responsible for the humanitarian tragedy in Syria is the Syrian regime," he added. "The number one tragedy happening before our eyes happens in Eastern Ghouta and Idlib."

"If things continue this way, Eastern Ghouta might be the new Aleppo in terms of humanitarian disaster," Delattre added.

Turkey considers the YPG a terror group and the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party which has waged a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.

Russia and the United States have expressed concern about the operation, which Erdogan said Turkey had discussed in advance with Russia and Moscow was in "agreement."
Intel Corp., whose CEO Brian Krzanich is seen at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, has said a patch for a computer security vulnerability has led to "unpredictable" behavior in devices

Intel on Monday called for a halt in deployment of patches for a troubling vulnerability in its computer chips because they could cause "unpredictable" problems in affected devices.

Intel posted a list of chip models that could be tripped up by the patch, meant to prevent hackers from taking advantage of so-called Meltdown and Spectre flaws to steal data.

The US chip giant recommended that computer makers, cloud service providers, system manufacturers, software venders, and end users stop deployment of current versions of the patch.

"They may introduce higher than expected reboots and other unpredictable system behavior," Intel data center group executive vice president Navin Shenoy said in an online post.

"We ask that our industry partners focus efforts on testing early versions of the updated solution so we can accelerate its release."

He expected details on when updated patches might be released to be available later this week.

In the meantime, computer users were advised to be vigilante with security practices.

"We have now identified the root cause of the reboot issue impacting Broadwell and Haswell platforms, and made good progress in developing a solution to address it," Shenoy said.

Earlier this month, Intel chief Brian Krzanich took the unusual step of addressing the security issue during a keynote ahead of the opening of the huge Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Krzanich said at the time that there was no information to suggest any loss of data from the Meltdown and Spectre flaws.

The Intel chief executive promised speedy release of patches during his most high-profile public comments since the release of research highlighting vulnerabilities affecting the chips powering most modern PCs and many mobile devices.

Researchers at Google showed how a hacker could exploit the flaw in many kinds of computer chips to get passwords, encryption codes and more, even though there have been no reports of any attacks using the vulnerability.

Some analysts have warned that the threat is unique because it is an issue affecting hardware used in many computing systems.
RIO VISTA, Texas (AP) - An official in Texas says authorities there had no reports involving the couple charged in California with shackling and starving 12 of their 13 children.

David and Louise Turpin have pleaded not guilty in Riverside County, California, to multiple counts of torture, child abuse and false imprisonment. The couple moved to California from near Fort Worth, Texas, in 2011.

Patrick Crimmins with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services said Saturday that his agency had no investigations concerning the Turpins.

Louise Anna Turpin, left, appears in court with her attorney Jeff Moore in Riverside, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. Prosecutors filed 12 counts of torture, seven counts of dependent adult abuse, six counts of child abuse and 12 counts of false imprisonment against Turpin and his wife, Louise Anna Turpin. Authorities say the abuse left the children malnourished, undersized and with cognitive impairments. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool)

A former neighbor in Rio Vista, Texas, tells the Los Angeles Times that the Turpins never socialized and rarely left their house. Ricky Vinyard says the Turpins kept lights on at all hours, blinds drawn. He says one Christmas they bought eight new children's bicycles that sat outside, unused.

David Allen Turpin, center, and Louise Anna Turpin, not seen, appear in court for their arraignment in Riverside, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. Prosecutors filed 12 counts of torture, seven counts of dependent adult abuse, six counts of child abuse and 12 counts of false imprisonment against Turpin and his wife, Louise Anna Turpin. Authorities say the abuse left the children malnourished, undersized and with cognitive impairments. (Terry Pierson/The Press-Enterprise via AP, Pool)

Trash and a fake rattle snake sculpture are seen on the front door of a home where police arrested a couple on Sunday accused of holding 13 children captive in Perris, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. The parents of 13 children and young adults have pleaded not guilty in a California court to numerous charges that they tortured and abused the siblings for years. David and Louise Turpin were each ordered held on $12 million bail after entering their pleas Thursday and were scheduled to return to court on Feb. 23. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Neighbor Liza Tozier, and her son, Avery Sanchez, 6, drop off his large "Teddy" as a gift for the children who lived on a home where police arrested a couple on Sunday accused of holding 13 children captive in Perris, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. The parents of 13 children and young adults have pleaded not guilty in a California court to numerous charges that they tortured and abused the siblings for years. David and Louise Turpin were each ordered held on $12 million bail after entering their pleas Thursday and were scheduled to return to court on Feb. 23. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Neighbor Rilee Unger, 3, plays with a toy after dropping off a couple of her own teddy bears on the porch of a home where police arrested a couple on Sunday accused of holding 13 children captive in Perris, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. The parents of 13 children and young adults have pleaded not guilty in a California court to numerous charges that they tortured and abused the siblings for years. David and Louise Turpin were each ordered held on $12 million bail after entering their pleas Thursday and were scheduled to return to court on Feb. 23. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Neighbor Avery Sanchez, 6, peeks behinds his mother, Liza Tozier after dropping off his large "Teddy" for the children who lived on a home where police arrested a couple on Sunday accused of holding 13 children captive in Perris, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. The parents of 13 children and young adults have pleaded not guilty in a California court to numerous charges that they tortured and abused the siblings for years. David and Louise Turpin were each ordered held on $12 million bail after entering their pleas Thursday and were scheduled to return to court on Feb. 23. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Louise Anna Turpin and her husband David Allen Turpin appear in court for their arraignment in Riverside, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. The parents of 13 siblings who were allegedly held in captivity in their family's Southern California home were charged Thursday with committing years of torture and abuse that left their children malnourished, undersized and with cognitive impairments. (Terry Pierson/The Press-Enterprise, Pool)

David Allen Turpin, center, and Louise Anna Turpin, not seen, appear in court for their arraignment in Riverside, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. Prosecutors filed 12 counts of torture, seven counts of dependent adult abuse, six counts of child abuse and 12 counts of false imprisonment against Turpin and his wife, Louise Anna Turpin. Authorities say the abuse left the children malnourished, undersized and with cognitive impairments. (Terry Pierson/The Press-Enterprise via AP, Pool)

David Allen Turpin appears in court for his arraignment in Riverside, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. Prosecutors filed 12 counts of torture, seven counts of dependent adult abuse, six counts of child abuse and 12 counts of false imprisonment against Turpin and his wife, Louise Anna Turpin. Authorities say the abuse left the children malnourished, undersized and with cognitive impairments. (Terry Pierson/The Press-Enterprise via AP, Pool)

Louise Anna Turpin smiles as she appears in court with her attorney Jeff Moore for an arraignment in Riverside, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. Turpin and her husband, David Allen Turpin, the parents of 13 siblings who were allegedly held in captivity in their family's Southern California home, were charged Thursday with committing years of torture and abuse that left their children malnourished, undersized and with cognitive impairments. (Terry Pierson/The Press-Enterprise, Pool)

David Allen Turpin, second from right, and his attorney David Macher, far right, appear in court for an arraignment in Riverside, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. Turpin and his wife Louise Anna Turpin, far left, the parents of 13 siblings who were allegedly held in captivity in their family's Southern California home, were charged Thursday with committing years of torture and abuse that left their children malnourished, undersized and with cognitive impairments. (Frederic J. Brown/Pool Photo via AP)

Louise Anna Turpin, far left, with attorney Jeff Moore, second from left, and her husband David Allen Turpin, listen to attorney, David Macher, as they appear in court for their arraignment in Riverside, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. The parents of 13 siblings who were allegedly held in captivity in their family's Southern California home were charged Thursday with committing years of torture and abuse that left their children malnourished, undersized and with cognitive impairments. (Frederic J. Brown/Pool Photo via AP)

David Allen Turpin, right, and Louise Anna Turpin, left, appear in court for their arraignment in Riverside, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. Prosecutors filed 12 counts of torture, seven counts of dependent adult abuse, six counts of child abuse and 12 counts of false imprisonment against Turpin and his wife, Louise Anna Turpin. Authorities say the abuse left the children malnourished, undersized and with cognitive impairments. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool)

David Allen Turpin appears in court for his arraignment in Riverside, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. Prosecutors filed 12 counts of torture, seven counts of dependent adult abuse, six counts of child abuse and 12 counts of false imprisonment against Turpin and his wife, Louise Anna Turpin. Authorities say the abuse left the children malnourished, undersized and with cognitive impairments. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool)
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Six-time champion Novak Djokovic was stunned in straight sets by Hyeon Chung only hours after Tennys Sandgren upset No. 5 Dominic Thiem at the Australian Open.

The back-to-back upsets Monday have set up a very unexpected quarterfinal: Chung, the first Korean to reach the last eight at a Grand Slam, vs. 97th-ranked Sandgren, who had never won a match at a major or beaten a top 10 player until last week.

No. 58-ranked Chung relentlessly attacked Djokovic - who is playing his first tournament since Wimbledon last July because of an injured right elbow - in the 7-6 (4), 7-5, 7-6 (3) fourth-round win.

United States' Tennys Sandgren celebrates after defeating Austria's Dominic Thiem in their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

He ripped 47 winners, including a forehand on the slide and at full stretch that put him within two points of victory, in the almost 3 1/2-hour match.

Chung credited the usually athletic Djokovic, who needed a medical timeout in the second set for a massage on his sore elbow, for the inspiration for that unlikely shot.

"When I'm young, I'm just trying to copy Novak because he's my idol," Chung said. "I can't believe this tonight. Dreams come true tonight."

The 26-year-old Sandgren, who entered the season's opening major ranked 97th, missed a match point in the fourth set but held on for a 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (7), 6-3 win over Thiem. It followed up his earlier victory over 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka.

"I don't know if this is a dream or not - all you guys are here, so maybe it's not," he said in an on-court TV interview after his 3-hour, 54-minute fourth-round win. "I'm not in my underwear, so maybe it's not a dream."

Sandgren is only the second man in 20 years to reach the quarterfinals on his debut at Melbourne Park.

He converted half of his eight break-point chances, and fended off 10 of the 12 he faced against Thiem, and hit 63 winners against 38 unforced errors in the biggest win of his life.

"Trying to keep riding the wave," said Sandgren, who was named after his great-grandfather and who comes from Tennessee.

Defending champion Roger Federer had no real difficulties in reaching the Australian Open quarterfinals for the 14th time, accounting for Marton Fucsovics 6-4, 7-6 (3), 6-2.

The 19-time major winner had never played Fucsovics but had beaten his coach - Attila Savolt - here in the second round in 2002.

Federer will renew a lengthy rivalry next against Tomas Berdych, who returned to the quarterfinals for the seventh time at Melbourne Park with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 win over Fabio Fognini.

The win over Fucsovics was Federer's first day match of the 2018 tournament, and he joked about needing sunglasses and a towel for the beach but said really the only change was to set the alarm for a different time.

Angelique Kerber, the only Grand Slam singles winner remaining in the women's draw, was up earlier, and got a serious wakeup call.

For a while it appeared Kerber's progression could unravel against No. 88 Hsieh Su-wei, a former top-ranked doubles player with a double-handed grip on both sides, until she regained momentum for a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 win. That earned Kerber a quarterfinal spot against U.S. Open finalist Madison Keys.

With a mix of slice and chips, lobs and bunts, whippy half-volleys and wristy crosscourt ground strokes off both wings, Hsieh pushed Kerber to the extremes.

"Credit to her. She played an unbelievable match," said Kerber, who won the Australian and U.S. Open titles in 2016 and is on a 13-match winning streak to start 2018. "I was feeling I was running everywhere."

Keys returned to the quarterfinals here for the first time in three years with a 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 8-seeded Caroline Garcia, and is yet to drop a set so far.

Top-seeded Simona Halep, who had to rally from triple match point down to advance through the third round, beat Naomi Osaka 6-3, 6-2.

Hsieh, contesting the fourth round in a major for the first time in a decade, certainly made the most of her time back in the spotlight.

The Taiwanese player took out one major winner - Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza - in the second round, and took the first set of Kerber.

"I like to play freestyle," Hsieh, a two-time Grand Slam doubles titlist, explaining her unusual array of shots. "Like today I go on the court, if I don't have a plan then I do whatever I can."

Austria's Dominic Thiem reacts in frustration during his fourth round match against United States' Tennys Sandgren at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Switzerland's Roger Federer celebrates after defeating Hungary's Marton Fucsovics in their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018.(AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Germany's Angelique Kerber reacts after losing a point to Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei makes a backhand return to Germany's Angelique Kerber during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

United States' Madison Keys serves to France's Caroline Garcia during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Andy Brownbill)

United States' Madison Keys walks on the court between games as she plays France's Caroline Garcia during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Monday:

1. LAWMAKERS PURSUE DEAL TO END SHUTDOWN

Senate moderates in both parties search for a solution to a partisan stalemate as they race toward a vote to reopen the federal government and stop hundreds of thousands of furloughs.

People carry signs during the Salem Womxn's March at the state Capitol in Salem, Ore., Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018. Sunday's marches capped off a weekend of global demonstrations that promised to continue building momentum for equality, justice and an end to sexual harassment. (Anna Reed/Statesman-Journal via AP)

2. WOMEN'S MARCHERS SEEK EMPOWERMENT

"For us it's all about women's rights and we're seeing them be eroded with Trump in office," says Paula Beaty, an Idaho Democratic state Rep. running for governor.

3. AFTER YEAR IN OFFICE, REALITY CONFRONTS TRUMP

The president finds that his drive to deliver quickly on campaign pledges yields to the sobering facts of governing - and the prospect of an electoral rebuke in November.

4. OVER 1 MILLION ATTEND POPE'S FINAL MASS IN PERU

The crowds give him a warm farewell that contrasts sharply with the outcry he caused in neighboring Chile by accusing sex abuse victims of slandering a bishop.

5. WHY LEGAL IMMIGRANTS AVOID HEALTH CARE

Many fear their information could be used to identify and deport relatives living in the U.S. illegally, health advocates say.

6. AFGHAN FORCES END DEADLY HOTEL SIEGE

Security forces say they kill the last of six Taliban militants to end an overnight standoff at Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel that left at least 18 people dead.

7. WHERE TOWN MANAGER PROMOTES WHITE SEPARATISM

The official in Jackman, Maine, is founder of a group that makes the case for voluntary separation of the races.

8. KIDMAN WINS SAG BEST ACTRESS AWARD

The 50-year-old "Big Little Lies" star says she's grateful because in an earlier Hollywood era she would have been considered too old for major roles.

9. WHAT GETS DOUGHNUT-EATING CHAMP ARRESTED

Bradley Hardison of Elizabeth City, N.C. faces charges of stealing from a Dunkin' Donuts.

10. PATRIOTS, EAGLES TO MEET IN SUPER BOWL

New England rallies to beat Jacksonville for AFC title, while Philly routs Minnesota in NFC.
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) - The gradual repatriation of more than 680,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees back to Myanmar from Bangladesh, scheduled to begin Tuesday, has been delayed amid widespread fears that they are being forced to return, Bangladesh said Monday. There was no immediate confirmation from Myanmar.

The refugees began pouring across the border into Bangladesh in August, fleeing waves of attacks by Myanmar security forces and Buddhist mobs.

While the two countries have signed an agreement to begin sending people home in "safety, security and dignity," the process has been chaotic and opaque, leaving international aid workers and many Rohingya afraid they would be coerced into going back to villages that they fled only months ago.

Rohingya children and refugees raise their hands and shout that they won't go back to Myanmar during a demonstration at Kutupalong near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. The gradual repatriation of more than 650,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees back to Myanmar from Bangladesh, scheduled to begin Tuesday, has been postponed amid widespread fears that refugees would be forced to return, a Bangladesh official said Monday. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Abul Kalam, Bangladesh's refugee and repatriation commissioner, said a number of issues remain unresolved.

"The main thing is that the process has to be voluntary," said Kalam, adding that paperwork for returning refugees had not yet been finalized and transit camps had yet to be built in Bangladesh. It was not immediately clear when the process would start.

Myanmar officials could not be reached for comment.

"If they send us back forcefully we will not go," Sayed Noor, who fled his village in Myanmar in August, said over the weekend, adding that Myanmar authorities "have to give us our rights and give us justice."

"They will have to return all our wealth that they have looted and hold people accountable. They will have to compensate us. We came here because we are fighting for those things," he said. "If we don't get all of this, then what was the point of coming here?"

Eventually, all the Rohingya who have fled Myanmar since August were to leave Bangladesh, according to the agreement signed late last year. Over the weekend, the U.N.'s migration agency increased the total estimate of those refugees to 688,000.

David Mathieson, a longtime human rights researcher who has spent years working on Rohingya issues, heaped scorn on the agreement ahead of the latest announcement.

"It's a fantasyland, make-believe world that both governments are in," he said in an interview in Yangon, Myanmar's main city, noting that security forces there had just forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya across the border. "Now you're expecting them to come back, as if they're in a conga line of joy after what you did to them?"

The Rohingya Muslims have long been treated as outsiders in largely Buddhist Myanmar, derided as "Bengalis" who entered illegally from Bangladesh, even though generations of Rohingya have lived in Myanmar. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering them stateless. They are denied freedom of movement and other basic rights.

Many of the people who fled earlier violence and moved into displacement camps inside Myanmar have been unable to leave those settlements for years.

Most Rohingya lived in poverty in Myanmar's Rakhine state, near the Bangladesh border. Marked by their religion and their language - most Rohingya speak a dialect of Bengali, while most of their neighbors speak Rakhine - they are easy to target.

The recent surge of violence erupted after an underground insurgent group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, attacked at least 30 security outposts in Myanmar in late August. The military and Buddhist mobs then launched retaliatory attacks on Rohingya across Rakhine in a frenzy of killings, rapes and burned villages. The U.N. has described the violence as "textbook ethnic cleansing."

The attacks, which Doctors Without Borders believes have left at least 6,700 Rohingya dead, sowed terror across Rohingya communities. Most refugees came in the first month or so after the violence began, but some continue to trickle into Bangladesh, complaining of ill-treatment by authorities.

In early January, following up on their November agreement, Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a deal to begin sending back the refugees starting Tuesday. Officials have said they expect some 1,500 refugees to go back each week, though only refugees with identity documents - which most Rohingya lack - will be allowed into Myanmar.

Bangladesh and Myanmar are both eager to have the repatriations begin. Bangladesh has grown weary of hosting Rohingya who've spilled across the border for decades. More than a million Rohingya are now believed to live in Bangladesh. Myanmar, meanwhile, wants the repatriations to lessen the international condemnation it has faced for the violence.

In Myanmar, officials have started building sprawling camps for returning refugees. Forty buildings have been finished already in the Hla Po Kaung transit camp, enough for more than 3,000 refugees, state media have reported. Eventually, the camp will have 625 buildings, enough for 30,000 refugees. In theory the returnees will stay only temporarily in the camp before going home, though many Rohingya villages were burned to the ground during the violence.

In Bangladesh, there have been almost no signs of preparations. A Bangladesh official who oversees the area where most of the camps are located said last week that "we have not finalized anything yet."

Aid workers say some refugees may want to return - perhaps the 500 or so Bengali-speaking Hindus who also fled the Rakhine state violence, and the handful of Rohingya who have managed to acquire citizenship documents.

But how many more?

Not many, experts say.

"I think that the (Myanmar) government knows very well that only a few people will go back," said Chris Lewa, the director of the human rights research group the Arakan Project. But officials want the good publicity that could come with repatriations, she said.

"When the majority of Rohingya refuse to come back, the Myanmar government will say 'See, we have done what we can for them to return, but they refuse to come back and prefer to stay in Bangladesh, which was their own country,'" she said.

Inside Rakhine, there are few signs that people want their former Rohingya neighbors to return.

"International pressure, because of human rights and humanitarianism, means we have to accept them back, even though we don't want to," Than Tun, a Buddhist leader in Sittwe, the Rakhine state capital, said in a telephone interview.

He dismissed the idea that the Rohingya had fled their homes. "We think that these Bengalis have gone back to their original land - Bangladesh."

___

AP journalists Rishabh Jain in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, and Tim Sullivan in New Delhi contributed to this report.

Rohingya children and refugees raise their hands and shout that they won't go back to Myanmar during a demonstration at Kutupalong near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. The gradual repatriation of more than 650,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees back to Myanmar from Bangladesh, scheduled to begin Tuesday, has been postponed amid widespread fears that refugees would be forced to return, a Bangladesh official said Monday. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Rohingya children and refugees raise their hands and shout that they won't go back to Myanmar during a demonstration at Kutupalong near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. The gradual repatriation of more than 650,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees back to Myanmar from Bangladesh, scheduled to begin Tuesday, has been postponed amid widespread fears that refugees would be forced to return, a Bangladesh official said Monday. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Rohingya children and refugees raise their hands and shout that they won't go back to Myanmar during a demonstration at Kutupalong near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. The gradual repatriation of more than 650,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees back to Myanmar from Bangladesh, scheduled to begin Tuesday, has been postponed amid widespread fears that refugees would be forced to return, a Bangladesh official said Monday. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

In this Friday, Jan. 19, 2018, photo, an overview of Rohingya refugees squalid camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. With the first repatriations of Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar just days away, and more than 1 million living in refugee camps in Bangladesh, international aid workers, local officials and the refugees say preparations have barely begun and most refugees would rather contend with the squalor of the camps than the dangers they could face if they return home. It's unclear if more than a handful of Rohingya will even be willing to go home. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - The Latest on Monday from the Australian Open (all times local):

10 p.m.

Six-time champion Novak Djokovic is out of the Australian Open, beaten 7-6 (4), 7-5, 7-6 (3) in the fourth round by Hyeon Chung, a 21-year-old South Korean ranked 58th.

Serbia's Novak Djokovic reacts during his fourth round match against South Korea's Chung Hyeon at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Andy Brownbill)

The point of the match came in the third-set tiebreaker when Chung hit a cross-court passing shot to put him within two points of victory. It ended minutes later when Djokovic hit a backhand wide.

Djokovic, who trailed the first set 4-1 but fought back to 5-5 before losing the tiebreaker, took a medical timeout to have his right arm massaged before the start of the second set.

He spent six months off the tour last year with a right elbow injury and said he waited until just before the tournament began to decide if he was fit enough to play.

Chung will now play another relatively unknown player in the quarterfinals - Tennys Sandgren, a 97th-ranked American who beat No. 5-seeded Dominic Thiem earlier Monday.

_____

9 p.m.

American Tennys Sandgren has upset fifth-seeded Dominic Thiem 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (7), 6-3 to book a quarterfinal spot at the Australian Open.

Sandgren, who beat 2014 Australian champion Stan Wawrinka in the second round, nearly clinched the match during the fourth-set tiebreaker, but Thiem saved a match point with a stunning down the line backhand.

In the fifth set, Thiem netted a forehand to give Sandgren, ranked 97th, the break and a 4-2 lead, and Thiem never recovered.

Sandgren will play the winner of the fourth-round match between six-time champion Novak Djokovic and Hyeon Chung being played on Rod Laver Arena.

____

6:30 p.m.

After successive first-round exits, top-seeded Simona Halep is going deep into the draw at this year's Australian Open, advancing to the quarterfinals by beating Naomi Osaka 6-3, 6-2.

Halep, who could lose her No. 1 ranking if she doesn't win the title here, extended her record of not having lost a fourth-round match on hard courts at a Grand Slam since the 2013 U.S. Open - she's 10-2 in round-of-16 matches.

She had considerably less trouble beating Osaka than her third-round match, when she needed 3 hours, 45 minutes and saved triple match point to beat Lauren Davies.

_____

5:35 p.m.

Just for something different (not), Roger Federer is through to the final eight at Melbourne Park.

The 19-time Grand Slam champion beat former top-ranked junior Marton Fucsovics 6-4 7-6 (3), 6-2 in an afternoon match at Rod Laver Arena.

Federer reached the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park for the 14th time, extending his own record. He also reached his 52nd Grand Slam quarterfinal, extending his lead over Jimmy Connors, who had 41.

Federer had never played the 80th-ranked Fucsovics before Monday. But Federer had played the 25-year-old Fucsovic's coach, Attila Savolt - he beat Savolt at the 2002 Australian Open.

Tomas Berdych, who beat Fabio Fognini in straight sets earlier Monday, will be Federer's quarterfinal opponent. Federer leads Berdych 19-6 in career meetings.

_____

3:20 p.m.

Tomas Berdych is back in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open for the seventh time after a 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 win over Fabio Fognini.

Berdych has been this far at Melbourne Park for seven of the last eight years. The only time he's failed to reach at least the quarters was last year when he lost in the third round to Roger Federer.

The 19-seeded Czech veteran could play Federer again in the next round if Federer wins his fourth-round match against Marton Fucsovics later Monday.

Berdych is 6-19 against Federer and hasn't beaten the Swiss star since 2013.

_____

3:15 p.m.

Angelique Kerber extended her winning streak to 13 matches with a frustration-filled 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory over Hsieh Su-wei, advancing the 2016 champion to the Australian Open quarterfinals.

Kerber overcame Hsieh's array of chip and drop shots off the Taiwanese player's unorthodox two-handed grip. At times, Kerber was frustrated with the shot selection by Hsieh, who had beaten Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza in the second round.

Hsieh saved two match points on her serve in the seventh game of the third set, forcing Kerber to serve out the match in the next game. She clinched the match with a forehand to the open court.

Kerber will play American Madison Keys in the quarterfinals.

_____

12:20 p.m.

U.S. Open finalist Madison Keys has advanced to the Australian Open quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-2 win over eighth-seeded Caroline Garcia of France.

Keys, who didn't play at Melbourne Park last year because of off-season wrist surgery, is the only American woman left in the draw. The only American man, Tennys Sandgren, plays Dominic Thiem later Monday.

The 17th-seeded Keys should move back into the top 15 on the WTA rankings with her win Monday.

In the quarterfinals, Keys will play the winner of the later fourth-round match between 2016 Australian champion Angelique Kerber and Hsieh Su-wei.

_____

11:15 a.m.

Six-time champion Novak Djokovic, 2017 winner Roger Federer and 2016 champion Angelique Kerber will look to book quarterfinal spots on Day 8 of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park.

Federer has an afternoon match Monday on Rod Laver Arena against former top-ranked junior Marton Fucsovics, while Djokovic plays a fourth-round night match against Hyeon Chung. Kerber takes on Hsieh Su-wei.

Djokovic and Federer could meet in the semifinals.

Under mostly sunny skies, 2017 U.S. Open finalist Madison Keys opened play at Rod Laver Arena against eighth-seeded Caroline Garcia.

The forecast high temperature was about 26 Celsius (79 Fahrenheit).

_____

More AP coverage: www.apnews.com/tag/AustralianOpen

South Korea's Chung Hyeon hits a forehand return to Serbia's Novak Djokovic during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

South Korea's Chung Hyeon, left, hits a forehand return to Serbia's Novak Djokovic during their fourth round match on Rod Laver Arena at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

United States' Tennys Sandgren reacts during his fourth round match against Austria's Dominic Thiem at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Austria's Dominic Thiem reacts during fourth round match against United States' Tennys Sandgren at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Romania's Simona Halep makes a forehand return to Japan's Naomi Osaka during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Japan's Naomi Osaka makes a forehand return to Romania's Simona Halep during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Switzerland's Roger Federer makes a forehand return to Hungary's Marton Fucsovics during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic reacts after defeating Italy's Fabio Fognini during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Germany's Angelique Kerber makes a backhand return to Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei makes a backhand return to Germany's Angelique Kerber during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

United States' Madison Keys makes a forehand return to France's Caroline Garcia during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - A former oil executive was sentenced to life in prison and a former high-ranking Vietnamese government official received a lengthy prison term Monday at the end of a major corruption trial.

The 22 defendants in the case were mostly current or former executives at PetroVietnam and were convicted of mismanagement, embezzlement or both in their tenures at the state energy giant.

Former PetroVietnam chairman Dinh La Thang, the first Politburo member to be jailed in decades, was sentenced to 13 years in jail by the People's Court in the capital Hanoi. He was accused of deliberate economic mismanagement that cost the state millions.

Trinh Xuan Thanh, center, is led to a court room by police in Hanoi, Vietnam, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. The former oil executive was sentenced to life in prison on charges of embezzlement and mismanagement at the end of the two-weeks trial that also involves 21 others including former Politburo Dinh La Thang. Germany accused Vietnam of kidnapping Thanh from a Berlin park in July, the charge Vietnam denied saying Thanh turned himself in to police voluntarily. (Doan Tan/ Vietnam News Agency via AP)

Trinh Xuan Thanh, an ex-chairman of PetroVietnam's construction arm, was given life imprisonment for embezzlement. Thanh was also convicted of economic management. Germany accused Vietnam agents of snatching him from a Berlin park last year, a charge Vietnam denied saying Thanh turned himself in to police voluntarily. The incident strained relations between the two countries.

Three other former chairmen of PetroVietnam were sentenced to 9 years in jail each for economic mismanagement. Punishment for the other defendants ranged from 22 years in prison to suspended sentences.

Tuoi Tre newspaper quoted a judge as saying the prosecutions were "well-founded."

The Communist Party under the watch of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong is waging an unprecedented crackdown on corruption in Vietnam, with PetroVietnam and the country's banking sector at the center.

Foreign press were not allowed to attend the two-week trial, though more than 100 Vietnamese had gathered outside the courthouse as the sentences were announced.

Thang was convicted of "deliberately violating state economic management regulations, causing serious consequences" by choosing PetroVietnam's Construction Joint Stock Co., or PVC, to build a thermo power plant without a proper bidding and appraisal process.

Thang was accused of ordering an advance payment of $67 million to PVC, which did not use the funds for the proper purpose, causing losses of $5.5 million to the state.

A retired government official, speaking outside the court, said the sentences were tough enough.

"I think the sentences handed down were fair. It is necessary for the country to fight against corruption," the retiree, Hoang Dinh Thanh, 70, said.

Some in the crowd waved as the convicted were driven by in prison vehicles.

Some expressed sympathy for Thang for his good deeds for the country.

"I understand those who committed wrongdoings must be punished," said Hoang Thi Ha, 42-year-old shop owner. "But Mr. Thang has done many good things for the country. I'd hoped he would have got leniency for that merit. His jail sentence is a bit harsh," she added.

Jonathan London, a lecturer at the Leiden University in the Netherlands and a Vietnam expert, said further reforms and commitments by the communist authorities are needed to root out corruption.

He said while these jail sentences may be dramatic, history in other countries suggests in the longer term that corruption is not best fought by punishment "but precisely the kinds of institutional reforms and levels of commitment to transparency that he Vietnamese public opinion has been calling for, but which Vietnamese leaders have been unfortunately unwilling to embrace."

Thang is accused of economic management in another case for his role in PetroVietnam's buying shares worth $36 million in Ocean commercial joint bank. PetroVietnam lost all the investment when the State Bank of Vietnam bought the bank for nothing. He is expected to stand trial in the coming months.

Thang was once a rising political star but was dismissed from the all-powerful Politburo in May and was subsequently fired as Communist Party secretary of the southern commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City. He was arrested on Dec. 8.

In the meantime, Thanh is scheduled to be put on trial on Wednesday accused of embezzling $622,000 from a property development project.

Another trial involving 46 defendants, including many former bankers, is currently taking place in Ho Chi Minh City.

Trinh Xuan Thanh, center, listens to the verdict in Hanoi, Vietnam, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. The former oil executive was sentenced to life in prison on charges of embezzlement and mismanagement at the end of the two-weeks trial that also involves 21 others including former Politburo Dinh La Thang. Germany accused Vietnam of kidnapping Thanh from a Berlin park in July, the charge Vietnam denied saying Thanh turned himself in to police voluntarily. (Doan Tan/ Vietnam News Agency via AP)
Father of Nanotechnology:Richard Errett Smalley

Personal life [ edit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Smalley

Smalley was married four times, to Judith Grace Sampieri (1968-1978), Mary L. Chapieski (1980-1994), JoNell M. Chauvin (1997-1998) and Deborah Sheffield (2005), and had two sons, Chad Richard Smalley (born June 8, 1969) and Preston Reed Smalley (born August 8, 1997).[2][31]

In 1999, Smalley was diagnosed with cancer. Smalley died of leukemia,[32] variously reported as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma[33] and chronic lymphocytic leukemia,[2] on October 28, 2005, at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, at the age of 62.[2][34]

Upon Smalley's death, the US Senate passed a resolution to honor Smalley, crediting him as the "Father of Nanotechnology."[35]

Christianity during final years [ edit ]

Smalley, who had taken classes in religion as well as science at Hope College, rediscovered his Christian foundation in later life, particularly during his final years while battling cancer.[36] During the final year of his life, Smalley wrote: "Although I suspect I will never fully understand, I now think the answer is very simple: it's true. God did create the universe about 13.7 billion years ago, and of necessity has involved Himself with His creation ever since."[36]

At the Tuskegee University's 79th Annual Scholarship Convocation/Parents' Recognition Program he was quoted making the following statement regarding the subject of evolution while urging his audience to take seriously their role as the higher species on this planet. "'Genesis' was right, and there was a creation, and that Creator is still involved... We are the only species that can destroy the Earth or take care of it and nurture all that live on this very special planet. I'm urging you to look on these things. For whatever reason, this planet was built specifically for us. Working on this planet is an absolute moral code. ... Let's go out and do what we were put on Earth to do."[37] Old Earth creationist and astronomer Hugh Ross spoke at Smalley's funeral, November 2, 2005.[38]

Publications [ edit ]

Honors [ edit ]

Fellowships [ edit ]

Awards and prizes [ edit ]
Shakil Afridi has languished in jail for years - since 2011, when the Pakistani doctor used a vaccination scam in an attempt to identify Osama bin Laden's home, aiding U.S. Navy Seals who tracked and killed the al-Qaida leader.

Americans might wonder how Pakistan could imprison a man who helped track down the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. Pakistanis are apt to ask a different question: how could the United States betray its trust and cheapen its sovereignty with a secret nighttime raid that shamed the military and its intelligence agencies?

'The Shakil Afridi saga is the perfect metaphor for U.S-Pakistan relations' - a growing tangle of mistrust and miscommunication that threatens to jeopardize key efforts against terrorism, said Michael Kugelman, Asia program deputy director at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.

Shakil Afridi, a doctor who helped the CIA track down Osama bin Laden, has languished in a Pakistani prison for seven years

Afridi set up a fake hepatitis vaccination program to gain entrance to the compound (pictured) and collect DNA from the people living there before the May 2011 raid that ended in Bin Laden's assassination

The U.S. believes its financial support entitles it to Pakistan's backing in its efforts to defeat the Taliban - as a candidate, Donald Trump pledged to free Afridi, telling Fox News in April 2016 he would get him out of prison in 'two minutes. ... Because we give a lot of aid to Pakistan.' But Pakistan is resentful of what it sees as U.S. interference in its affairs.

Mohammed Amir Rana, director of the independent Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies in Islamabad, said the trust deficit between the two countries is an old story that won't be rewritten until Pakistan and the U.S. revise their expectations of each other, recognize their divergent security concerns and plot an Afghan war strategy, other than the current one which is to both kill and talk to the Taliban.

'Shakil Afridi (is) part of the larger puzzle,' he said.

Afridi hasn't seen his lawyer since 2012 and his wife and children are his only visitors. For two years his file 'disappeared,' delaying a court appeal that still hasn't proceeded. The courts now say a prosecutor is unavailable, his lawyer, Qamar Nadeem Afridi, told The Associated Press.

'Everyone is afraid to even talk about him, to mention his name,' and not without reason, said Nadeem, who is also Afridi's cousin.

In this photograph taken on April 19, 2016, Jamil Afridi, the elder brother of jailed Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi, shows a family group photo with his brother Shakil (third from left)

In Nadeem's office, the wind whistles through a clumsily covered window shattered by a bullet. On another window, clear tape covers a second bullet hole, both from a shooting incident several years ago in which no suspects have been named. Another of Afridi's lawyers was gunned down outside his Peshawar home and a Peshawar jail deputy superintendent, who had advocated on Afridi's behalf, was shot and killed, said Nadeem.

Afridi used a fake hepatitis vaccination program to try to get DNA samples from bin Laden's family as a means of pinpointing his location. But he has not been charged in connection with the bin Laden operation.

He was accused under tribal law alleging he aided and facilitated militants in the nearby Khyber tribal region, said Nadeem. Even the Taliban scoffed at the charge that was filed to make use of Pakistan's antiquated tribal system, which allows closed courts, does not require the defendant to be present in court, and limits the number of appeals, he said.

If charged with treason - which Pakistani authorities say he committed - Afridi would have the right to public hearings and numerous appeals all the way to the Supreme Court, where the details of the bin Laden raid could be laid bare, something neither the civilian nor military establishments want, his lawyer said.

In this January 7, 2018 photo, Pakistani boys play cricket on the remains of Osama bin Laden's home in Abbottabad, Pakistan

Tensions have grown between Pakistan and the U.S. since Trump's New Year's Day tweet in which he accused Pakistan of taking $33billion in aid and giving only 'deceit and lies' in return while harboring Afghan insurgents who attack American soldiers in neighboring Afghanistan. Days later, the U.S. suspended military aid to Pakistan, which could amount to $2billion.

Infuriated by Trump's tweet, Pakistan accused Washington of making it a scapegoat for its failure to bring peace to Afghanistan.

The Wilson Center's Kugelman advocated a 'scaled-down relationship' between the two countries. He said both sides need to agree to disagree on some issues and instead focus on those areas where they can agree to cooperate against terror groups that both regard as threats, including the Islamic State group and al-Qaida.

Pakistan and the Taliban sanctuaries it provides are a big part of the insurgents' success in Afghanistan, but it's only one of many factors, Kugelman said.

In this Jan. 4, 2018 photo, Qamar Nadeem Afridi, a lawyer and cousin of Dr. Shakil Afridi, speaks to The Associated Press, in Peshawar, Pakistan on January 4

Mohammed Amir Rana (pictured January 8), director of the independent Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies in Islamabad, said the trust deficit between the two countries is an old story that won't be rewritten until Pakistan and the U.S. revise their expectations of each other

'It's foolish to suggest that if the Pakistani sanctuaries were eliminated, the insurgency would magically go away and the U.S. would be able to prevail in Afghanistan,' he said. 'The Taliban has persevered because the U.S. still struggles to fight wars against non-state actors, and because the Afghan government has remained a weak and corrupt entity that has failed to convince a critical mass of Afghans that it's a better alternative to the Taliban.'

Afridi spends his days alone, isolated from a general prison population filled with militants who have vowed to kill him for his role in locating bin Laden, said Nadeem. Still, Nadeem said authorities are treating Afridi well and he is in good health, according to those who have seen him.

There was a no indication whether U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells brought Afridi's case up in recent meetings in Pakistan. But in a statement, the U.S. State Department told the AP that Afridi has not been forgotten.

'We believe Dr. Afridi has been unjustly imprisoned and have clearly communicated our position to Pakistan on Dr. Afridi's case, both in public and in private,' it said.

In the past, Pakistan has compared Afridi's dilemma with demands for the release of Afia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman who is in U.S. custody convicted of trying to kill an American soldier in Afghanistan.

'To America, she (Siddiqui) is a terrorist,' said Kugelman. 'To Pakistan, she is a wrongfully imprisoned innocent.'
WASHINGTON (AP) - A half-century after the Tet Offensive punctured American hopes of victory in Vietnam, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is visiting the former enemy in search of a different kind of win: incremental progress as partners in a part of the world the Pentagon has identified as vital for the United States to compete with China and Russia.

Mattis, a retired general who entered the Marine Corps during Vietnam but did not serve there, arrived in Indonesia on Monday where he'll spend two days before visiting Hanoi for talks with senior government and military leaders.

By coincidence, Mattis will be in Vietnam just days before the 50th anniversary of the communist offensive on Jan. 30-31, 1968, when North Vietnam attacked an array of key objectives in the South, including the city of Hue, a former imperial capital and cultural icon on the Perfume River. At the time, Mattis was a senior at Columbia High School in Richland, Washington. The following year he joined the Marine Corps Reserves.

FILE - In this Oct. 30, 2017, file photo, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, testifies during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on "The Authorizations for the Use of Military Force: Administration Perspective" on Capitol Hill in Washington. A half century after the Tet Offensive punctured American hopes for victory in Vietnam, Mattis is visiting the former enemy to promote closer ties. Mattis will be in Vietnam just days before the 50th anniversary of the Communist offensive on Jan. 30-31, 1968, in which North Vietnam attacked an array of key objectives in the South, including the city of Hue. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

The Tet Offensive gave the North an important boost, even though it ultimately was a military failure. It collapsed an air of confidence among U.S. leaders that they would soon win a favorable peace agreement. Looking ahead to 1968, the top U.S. commander in Vietnam at the time, Gen. William Westmoreland, famously declared in a speech in Washington in November 1967 that the war was about to enter a phase "when the end begins to come into view."

The fighting dragged on for seven more years, fueling U.S. street protests and convulsing American politics, before the North prevailed and the last Americans evacuated in 1975.

The former enemies have gradually set aside their wartime differences, in part out of shared concern about China's growing military power and more assertive position in the South China Sea. The Trump administration sees Vietnam as a partner in opposing China's assertion of territorial claims in the South China Sea, including the Spratlys, an island chain where Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Brunei also have claims.

Mattis said he didn't expect the war to come up in his talks in Vietnam.

"That largely has been made a matter of the past," he said aboard his flight to Asia.

Despite the passage of time, the legacy of the U.S. war is never far from the surface.

The countries didn't normalize relations until 1995. It took another two decades before Washington fully lifted a ban on selling deadly weapons to Vietnam. The Vietnamese have largely embraced the new partnership as they've sought to diversify diplomatic and security relations in the region, fearing Chinese primacy. Vietnam fought a border war with China in 1979, and bitterness runs deep.

The current crop of top U.S. generals is too young to have served in Vietnam. The last chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to have been a Vietnam veteran was Adm. Mike Mullen, who served aboard a Navy destroyer in 1969 that provided fire support for American and South Vietnamese ground forces near Da Nang. The only secretary of defense to have fought in Vietnam was Chuck Hagel, wounded in 1968. He served as Pentagon chief from 2013-2015.

But the war isn't a relic of history at the Pentagon. An obscure office, the Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency, still directs efforts to find and identify remains of Americans killed in Vietnam. Decades of searches still haven't accounted for more than 1,200 people. An additional 350 are missing in Laos, Cambodia and China, the Pentagon says. Mattis may visit POW-MIA accounting representatives during his visit.

Mattis has shown interest in some of the unfinished business of Vietnam, too. Last month, he approved giving a Medal of Honor to a Marine for valorous actions in a counter-offensive to retake Hue. A Marine gunnery sergeant at the time, John Canley of Oxnard, California, had been awarded the Navy Cross for heroic action, including rescuing wounded Marines from Jan. 31 to Feb. 6, 1968.

Hue and the Tet Offensive remain a powerful symbol of the war for Americans of that generation; an Associated Press photograph by Eddie Adams of a Vietnamese officer executing a Viet Cong suspect on a street in Saigon on the second day of the Tet Offensive was a rallying cry for U.S. war protesters and is still an iconic symbol of the conflict.

Mattis is the latest in a string of Pentagon chiefs who've visited Vietnam to expand security ties and address China's growing military power.

Ash Carter made the last visit in June 2015, marking two decades of relations and announcing the Pentagon would assign a peacekeeping expert to the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi to help the Vietnamese Defense Ministry prepare for its first deployment on a U.N. peacekeeping mission. Leon Panetta and his Vietnamese counterpart exchanged personal items from soldiers lost in the war three years earlier.

Mattis has never been to Vietnam. During the war, he attended what was then known as Central Washington State College, graduating in 1972, and earned his commission as a second lieutenant through the Reserve Officer's Training Corps. He rose in the ranks through 41 years on active duty, capping his career as the four-star commander of U.S. Central Command. He had been retired three years when President Donald Trump picked him to lead the Pentagon.
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) - In Davos this week, participants can experience "a day in the life of a refugee." Or hear about ways to uphold the Paris climate accord and promote free trade. Or rub elbows with any number of leaders of African countries.

Enter Donald Trump.

The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is meant - pretentiously perhaps - to be a place for the world's decision-makers to put their power to good use. The theme this year is "Creating a Shared Future in Fractured World," an ambition not likely to turn up on the U.S. president's Twitter feed.

An armed Swiss police officer stands guard on the roof of a hotel near the congress center where the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum take place in Davos, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. The meeting brings together entrepreneurs, scientists, chief executives and political leaders from Jan. 23 to 26. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Instead, Trump will bring his zero-sum message of "America First," and will speak last among the parade of world leaders - from places like India, France and Canada - who are gathering from Tuesday to Friday in the Swiss snows.

As with most things Trump, there are stark contrasts between how attendees view his visit. Some are happy and hope for dialogue. Others unabashedly say they wish he would stay away and accuse him of a lack of compassion and vision for the world that are out of place in Davos.

"I find it quite sad he's coming to the WEF, but I imagine nothing can be done about it," said Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard, a longtime disciple of the Dalai Lama.

The U.S. government shutdown cast some doubt on whether Trump might actually make the trip later in the week - the wider U.S. delegation's departure on Monday was delayed due to the shutdown.

While Trump's visit may seem incongruous or unwelcome in Davos, he will be sticking to one key aspect of the WEF's ambition in starting the annual forum 47 years ago: Business. An array of Cabinet officials is due to tag along, suggesting the U.S. is preparing a big economic and diplomatic push.

Some have suggested it's ironic that Trump, a self-styled populist despite his penchant for the penthouse, is attending the elite event. Others speculated he could have felt a need to regain the Davos spotlight for the United States a year after Chinese President Xi Jinping stole the show by casting China as a champion of free trade and stability.

An administration official said Trump is expected to tout the booming U.S. economy and measures like his recent tax overhaul, while again criticizing trade practices that he sees as unfair toward the U.S. The official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity to discuss internal plans, said Trump made the decision to go because he thinks he has a positive economic message.

With Wall Street surging, Trump has some cheerleaders on the economic front, even if they hope he'll be more accommodating.

"I think it's really good that he's going," said Bill Thomas, chairman of business services KPMG International. "The American economy is dependent on global engagement, and I think he's in Davos because he knows that."

Some wonder whether Trump can win over the Davos set, or whether they might succeed in turning his ear - and give him a chance to reboot his administration's image abroad.

"Corporate America, in terms of economic policies, is very pleased with the way the administration is going," said Andy Baldwin, a managing partner for financial services firm EY. But he acknowledged that Trump controversies elsewhere had "overshadowed some of the policies."

The hosts were also upbeat.

"It's good to have the president here, if the snow conditions and the situation in Washington allow us," WEF founder Klaus Schwab said in an interview Monday, alluding to the government shutdown. The White House has said it's monitoring the situation day to day, and Schwab said: "At the moment we cannot make a comment on that (Trump's attendance)."

Outside of business, though - whether among human rights advocates, environmentalists, peaceniks or free-trade proponents - Trump is shunned.

"Despite its formal name, Davos is about more than economics," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, in an e-mail. "So while Trump undoubtedly intends to trumpet U.S. economic progress, many Davos participants will question his racist, misogynistic, and xenophobic rhetoric and policies."

"Unless he plans an unexpected apology and reversal, he will face a far colder reception than he probably anticipates," he said.

Parts of the jet-set have it in for Trump. Elton John, whose song title "Rocket Man" Trump used to deride North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, will be in Davos, as will actress Cate Blanchett, who shaped chewing gum into a phallus on late-night TV to mock Trump just days after he took office. So will several African leaders whose countries Trump allegedly dismissed with a vulgarity this month.

Small protests have started, and another was expected in Zurich on Tuesday. But Davos authorities rejected a request by left-wing groups to hold a demonstration in the village on Thursday, the day before Trump's speech, insisting that space was too tight because of heavy snowfall.

A Swiss anti-Trump petition has garnered more than 16,000 supporters online, calling on him to stay away.

Some might see a snub in French President Emmanuel Macron's decision to not stick around to see Trump even though the White House initially had announced a face-to-face meeting in Davos.

In his speech Wednesday, Macron is expected to offer a "lucid" diagnosis about globalization, and raise environmental concerns, an adviser said. Macron's speech could shape up as a counter narrative, and though he wasn't expected to mention Trump by name "you can read between the lines," the adviser said, on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

Trump has, in a way, already been on hand in Davos. During last year's event, which coincided with his inauguration, many attendees gawked at TV screens as Trump declared "America First" from the Capitol steps.

When he arrives this year, discretion may be the order of the day: Zurich airport, the closest big hub, has announced a lockdown on press access for the arrival of Air Force One.

Swiss police are deploying more than 4,300 troops in the region for security, which officials say is on a par with previous years. But this being only the second visit by a serving U.S. president, after Bill Clinton in 2000, has also meant enhanced security measures.

Switzerland's Young Socialists party was revving up for the Tuesday protest in Zurich.

Tamara Funiciello, the group's president, also took aim at Swiss authorities for refusing to allow the Davos demonstration, which the Young Socialists were helping to organize.

"It's scandalous!" she said, insisting that the authorities could have made space if they really wanted to. "It's a lack of democracy, and is their way of hiding behind the global elites ... They need stronger spines."

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Catherine Lucey in Washington, Angela Charlton in Paris, and Pan Pylas and Masha Macpherson in Davos, Switzerland, contributed to this report.

Two persons walk behind the logo of the World Economic Forum at the meeting's conference center in Davos, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018. The meeting brings together entrepreneurs, scientists, chief executives and political leaders from Jan. 23 to 26. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

A security person guards the road at the registration center of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018. The meeting brings together entrepreneurs, scientists, chief executives and political leaders from Jan. 23 to 26. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

The letters Davos are covered with snow at a hotel roof near the congress center where the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum takes place in Davos, Switzerland, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. The meeting brings together entrepreneurs, scientists, chief executives and political leaders from Jan. 23 to 26. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Followed by a television team and assistants Klaus Schwab, center, founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, walks through the meeting's conference center in Davos, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018. The meeting brings together entrepreneurs, scientists, chief executives and political leaders from Jan. 23 to 26. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

People walk in the snow in front of the Davos Congress Centre two days prior to the 48th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018. The meeting brings together entrepreneurs, scientists, chief executive and political leaders in Davos from Jan. 23 to 26. (Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP)

Workers are busy with preparations for the 48th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018. The meeting brings together entrepreneurs, scientists, chief executives and political leaders from Jan. 23 to 26. (Gian Ehrenzeller/Keystone via AP)

Security guards walk over a road near the conference center where the World Economic Forum, WEF, takes place in Davos, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018. The meeting brings together entrepreneurs, scientists, chief executives and political leaders from Jan. 23 to 26. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Logos of the 48th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, are displayed at a press conference room in Davos, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018. The meeting brings together entrepreneurs, scientists, chief executives and political leaders from Jan. 23 to 26. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

The town sign stands in the snow at the entrance to Davos, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018. The 48th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, takes place in the city and brings together entrepreneurs, scientists, chief executives and political leaders from Jan. 23 to 26. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
BRUSSELS (AP) - France is welcoming U.S. President Donald Trump's decision not to pull out of the agreement limiting Iran's nuclear ambitions despite his demands to change the key international pact.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Monday that "we have observed with interest that President Trump has not broken the agreement, even if, on the other hand, he has made a certain number of demands that at times seem like ultimatums."

Le Drian underlined France's support for the agreement, saying it is an "essential element in the fight against proliferation" of nuclear weapons. The European Union has previously said it cannot be renegotiated.

France Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian arrives for an EU foreign ministers meeting at the EU Council in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

The 2015 nuclear deal with world powers saw Iran accept curbs on its nuclear program in exchange for lifting international sanctions.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - The Latest on fugitive Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont (all times local):

1:45 p.m.

A Spanish judge has rejected a petition from the country's prosecutor to ask Danish authorities to arrest ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont.

Ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, left, arrives in Copenhagen on Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. The fugitive former leader of Catalonia has arrived in Denmark, despite threats from Spain to seek his immediate arrest there. Puigdemont is being investigated by Spain over a unilateral declaration of independence by Catalonia's parliament on Oct. 27. (Tariq Mikkel Khan/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

Puigdemont arrived Monday in Copenhagen from Brussels to speak at the University of Copenhagen. He was to meet Danish lawmakers on Tuesday.

The trip is Puigdemont's first outside Belgium since he fled there to avoid a Spanish probe for his role in an illegal- and unsuccessful- secession bid for Catalonia in October.

Supreme Court Judge Pablo Llarena says in his decision that Puigdemont wants to be arrested overseas so he can blame on Spain his absence from a meeting of the Catalan parliament later this month in which he is the candidate to be sworn in as the region's president.

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12:15 p.m.

Spain's foreign minister says that "for the moment" ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont is free to move in Europe outside of Spain, adding that his arrest was a matter for judges to decide.

Puigdemont flew Monday to Copenhagen from Belgium, where he has been since fleeing a Spanish investigation into the Catalan parliament's secession declaration last year.

Spain's prosecutors promptly asked a judge to issue a warrant for his arrest but the judge has yet to decide.

Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis said in Brussels that "Mr. Puigdemont is subject to a process in Spain. Outside, for the moment, his movements are free within the European Union, but we'll see."

Spanish courts initially sought Puigdemont's extradition from Belgium but canceled that petition amid concerns that Belgium might send him back but restrict the crimes with which he could be charged.

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11:50 a.m.

The speaker of Catalonia's parliament has proposed former regional leader Carles Puigdemont as candidate to form a government, despite his status as a fugitive from Spanish justice.

Puigdemont arrived in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, on Monday to talk at a university there and meet Danish lawmakers. It is his first trip outside of Belgium since he left Spain dodging a judicial investigation into an illegal - and unsuccessful - independence declaration in late October.

Spain's state prosecutor is seeking his arrest in Denmark. A Spanish judge is yet to rule on the European warrant.

Catalan Parliament Speaker Roger Torrent says that Puigdemont is the only candidate with enough backing to attempt a government following regional elections last month.

Torrent says he has written asking Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to meet and talk about the "abnormal situation" in Catalonia.

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10:10 a.m.

Spain's state prosecutor has set in motion the process to arrest Catalonia's former leader in Denmark, where he has arrived to attend a debate.

Ousted Catalan president Carles Puigdemont is scheduled to speak Monday at the University of Copenhagen and meet Danish lawmakers on Tuesday.

The trip is Puigdemont's first outside Belgium since he fled there to avoid a Spanish probe for his role in an illegal- and unsuccessful- secession bid for Catalonia in October.

The prosecutor's office says it has asked the Supreme Court to approve a European warrant for his arrest. It's unclear if Judge Pablo Llarena will grant it. In December, Llarena withdrew a similar order, concerned that Brussels would send Puigdemont back to Spain but restrict the crimes with which he could be charged.

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9:15 a.m.

The fugitive former leader of Catalonia has arrived in Denmark, despite threats from Spain to seek his immediate arrest there.

On Sunday, Spain's state prosecutor's office said it will reissue a European arrest warrant for Carles Puigdemont if he travels from Belgium to Denmark.

Spain issued a warrant for Puigdemont's arrest in November, but withdrew it after a month amid fears that Brussels would send him back but restrict the crimes he could be tried for.

Puigdemont is being investigated by Spain over a unilateral declaration of independence by Catalonia's parliament on Oct. 27.

He is slated to take part in a debate at the University of Copenhagen Monday, and Tuesday he has been invited to the Danish Parliament by a Faeroese lawmaker, but leading members of the government and opposition have declined to meet him.

Ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, left, arrives in Copenhagen on Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. The fugitive former leader of Catalonia has arrived in Denmark, despite threats from Spain to seek his immediate arrest there. Puigdemont is being investigated by Spain over a unilateral declaration of independence by Catalonia's parliament on Oct. 27. (Tariq Mikkel Khan/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

Ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, center, arrives in Copenhagen on Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. The fugitive former leader of Catalonia has arrived in Denmark, despite threats from Spain to seek his immediate arrest there. Puigdemont is being investigated by Spain over a unilateral declaration of independence by Catalonia's parliament on Oct. 27. (Tariq Mikkel Khan/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

Ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, left, arrives in Copenhagen on Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. The fugitive former leader of Catalonia has arrived in Denmark, despite threats from Spain to seek his immediate arrest there. Puigdemont is being investigated by Spain over a unilateral declaration of independence by Catalonia's parliament on Oct. 27. (Tariq Mikkel Khan/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

Ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, center, arrives in Copenhagen on Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. The fugitive former leader of Catalonia has arrived in Denmark, despite threats from Spain to seek his immediate arrest there. Puigdemont is being investigated by Spain over a unilateral declaration of independence by Catalonia's parliament on Oct. 27. (Tariq Mikkel Khan/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
LONDON (AP) - Britain's army chief is to warn Monday that the country's ability to withstand attack and respond to threats is being eroded by a lack of investment in the military, increasing pressure on the government to boost defense spending.

Gen. Nick Carter said in excerpts of a speech released in advance that Britain has been left exposed to adversaries such as Russia, which already boast capabilities Britain would struggle to match.

"The threats we face are not thousands of miles away but are now on Europe's doorstep," Carter is to say in a speech at the Royal United Services Institute. "We have seen how cyber warfare can be both waged on the battlefield and to disrupt normal people's lives."

Carter joins the head of the air force, Air Chief Marshal Stuart Peach, in warning that Russia is an increasing threat. Prime Minister Theresa May said last year that Russia had "mounted a sustained campaign of cyber espionage and disruption" against other countries.

Carter's comments seem intended to pressure Treasury chief Philip Hammond to refrain from further cuts to defense spending, which has been hit hard by government-ordered austerity following the 2008 financial crisis.

Some reports have suggested the government is considering combining elite units of paratroopers and the Royal Marines as part of plan to reduce the number of military personnel by 14,000. That would represent a 10 percent reduction from the current staffing level of 137,000.

Meanwhile, some lawmakers have called for the government to increase defense spending to 3 percent of gross domestic product, from the current 2 percent.

Carter said that without action now, Britain will be constrained in its ability to respond to respond to hostile powers.

"The time to address these threats is now," he said. "We cannot afford to sit back."
BERLIN (AP) - Berlin's city museums authority says it has restituted 11 works that were part of prominent art owner Margarete Oppenheim's collection and were auctioned off under Nazi rule in 1936.

The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation said Monday the works were found in two museums' collections. Of the 11 pieces returned, the foundation bought back five - two works from the Danube School and three 18th-century porcelain pieces.

Margarete Oppenheim, the wife of chemist and industrialist Franz Oppenheim, had one of Germany's largest and most valuable art collections.

She and her heirs were of Jewish descent. The heritage foundation said it can safely be assumed that the auction, the year after Oppenheim's death, was not held at a time of her executors' choosing and the sale can be classified as resulting from persecution.
BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq has signed a deal with a U.S. company to tap natural gas in one of its southern oil fields, a step toward exploiting a natural resource that has been neglected for decades.

Iraq has long flared much of its natural gas, a byproduct of pumping crude oil, because of a lack of infrastructure. But the Memorandum of Understanding signed Monday would allow Orion Gas Processors to capture and process up to 150 million cubic feet per day of associated gas from the Nahr Bin Omar field.

Oil Minister Jabar Ali al-Luaib described the agreement as an "important step" to "end the wasting of resources."

The field has a current daily output of more than 40,000 barrels of oil and 25 million cubic feet of gas.
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) - The prime ministers of the Czech Republic and Bulgaria are calling for swift reform of the European Union's asylum system.

Czech Premier Andrej Babis and Bulgarian counterpart Boyko Borissov agreed that a reasonable compromise on migrant issues has to be found in the EU.

Babis told a news conference Monday in Bulgaria's capital that "the mandatory redistribution of migrants is unacceptable and divisive."

Bulgaria Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, right, welcomes Czech Republic Prime Minister Andrej Babis prior to their meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)

He said that the issue of migrant quotas should be resolved in a way acceptable for all EU member states.

Borissov, whose country took up the rotating presidency of the European Council at the beginning of the year, insisted that asylum-seekers should enter the EU only through official border checkpoints. He also proposed safe areas for asylum-seekers to be set up outside the EU.
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) - The founder of the World Economic Forum says he hopes President Donald Trump's planned visit to Davos this week will "provide him even better with a global perspective," and says critics of the U.S. leader should hear him out.

Klaus Schwab couldn't confirm whether Trump will actually attend the WEF event in the Alpine snows on Friday, as scheduled, because of the U.S. government shutdown. The White House has previously said that Trump would detail his "America First" stance - which doesn't always square with the Davos globalist mindset - and that it was assessing day by day whether the government shutdown might derail his trip.

More than 60 heads of state and government, plus hundreds of business leaders, academics, civil society advocates and celebrities are meeting in Davos from Tuesday to Friday, an event featuring roughly 400 debates and panels on topics like action on the environment, the outlook for Africa, and ways that refugees can contribute to their host countries.

Klaus Schwab, founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, speaks during an interview by the Associated Press on the eve of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. The meeting brings together entrepreneurs, scientists, chief executives and political leaders from Jan. 23 to 26. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

In an interview with The Associated Press, Schwab said that now that economic fortunes worldwide are rising and the financial crisis is fading, business has to take a major role in solving social problems.

"What we need is 'qualitative easing' to make the lives of those who have been left out better, and to include them into the economic development process," said Schwab, who was a professor in business economics before focusing on the WEF.

As for Trump, Schwab said the emphasis should not be on him as a person.

"Let's not forget he is the democratically elected president of the most powerful nation in the world," Schwab said. "Without the cooperation, without the positive approach of the United States, we will not make very much progress in finding solutions. So his participation is very important."

Some participants and protesters want Trump to stay away, or even apologize for his remarks that they perceive as racist, sexist or xenophobic.

"My message to those people would be: It is the spirit of Davos to listen to people, to interact, to show respect," he said. "And we should not look at, let's say, being influenced by our emotions. We should see what his message will be, and then we can form our own proper opinion."

As for Trump himself: Could he come away with a changed mind?

"I think what's important is that whoever is the leader of a country does not have just a national perspective, but an international perspective, a global perspective," Schwab said. "And the presence of the president of the United States here, Donald Trump, will hopefully provide him even better with a global perspective."

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Theodora Tongas in Davos contributed to this report.

Klaus Schwab, founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, poses for a photo during an interview by the Associated Press on the eve of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. The meeting brings together entrepreneurs, scientists, chief executives and political leaders from Jan. 23 to 26. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
PARIS (AP) - French President Emmanuel Macron promoted his government's changes to French tax and labor laws Monday in front of 140 world business leaders in a bid to convince them to invest and hire in France.

At the same time, the 40-year-old Macron, elected last May, hopes to persuade the French themselves of the merits of his economic policies.

Macron visited a Toyota plant in northern France before heading to the evening business event at the chateau of Versailles, in the presence of 15 French government ministers.

French President Emmanuel Macron visits Toyota's automobile manufacturing plant, in Onnaing, northern France, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (Pascal Rossignol/Pool Photo via AP)

Several companies seized the occasion to announce investments plans in the country.

German-based SAP software company announced a 2 billion-euro ($ 2.4 billion) investment plan over the next five years, focusing on research and development and supporting startups.

Japan's Toyota unveiled a 300 million euros plan ($367 million) to enlarge its Onnaing car factory, creating 800 new jobs by 2020.

"We kind of forgot this, but the French are very innovative. We must re-awaken this," Macron told employees during the visit to the factory.

Facebook will invest 10 million euros ($12 million) in its French artificial intelligence center by 2022.

Google will open a new research center in artificial intelligence in Paris in coming weeks. The internet company also confirmed the expansion of its Paris headquarters this year, the number of employees increasing from 700 to 1,000. Google wouldn't reveal the amount of the investment.

Other smaller announcements concern four food production plants and a research center in wireless technologies.

Macron's office said CEOs or top executives from Google, Facebook, Coca-Cola, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, Samsung and Alibaba were among those attending the meeting.

Business leaders are stopping in France en route to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where Macron will give a speech.

Macron, a centrist who was elected on a pro-European, pro-business platform, argues his economic policies will make France stronger to face globalization.

His labor market measures, perceived by many as weakening France's hard-won worker protection rights, prompted a series of street protests last year. They are expected to start producing effects in the coming months.

Macron promised to subsequently cut taxes on business revenue by 2022.

During the business event, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe also announced temporary tax cuts for employees sent to France by a non-French employer. In addition, France will set up specialized commercial courts in Paris to allow for the hearing of international law cases, he said.

State statistics agency Insee last month raised its 2017 growth estimate for France to 1.9 percent, the highest in a decade.

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Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

French President Emmanuel Macron waves as he visits Toyota's automobile manufacturing plant with Director Luciano Biondo, left, in Onnaing, northern France, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (Pascal Rossignol/Pool Photo via AP)

An employee uses a mobile phone to make of picture of French President Emmanuel Macron as he visits Toyota's automobile manufacturing plant in Onnaing, northern France, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (Pascal Rossignol/Pool Photo via AP)

French President Emmanuel Macron greets workers as he visits Toyota's automobile manufacturing plant in Onnaing, northern France, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (Pascal Rossignol/Pool Photo via AP)

French President Emmanuel Macron, 3rd left, visits Toyota's automobile manufacturing plant with Director Luciano Biondo, 2nd left, in Onnaing, northern France, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (Pascal Rossignol/Pool Photo via AP)

France's President Emmanuel Macron, right, attends a meeting with Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg, during the "Choose France" summit, at the Chateau de Versailles, outside Paris, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. Macron is hosting 140 world business leaders in a bid to convince them to invest and hire in France - and to persuade the French themselves of the merits of his economic policies. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, Pool)

France's President Emmanuel Macron, left, attends a meeting with Google CEO Sundar Pichai, right, during the "Choose France" summit, at the Chateau de Versailles, outside Paris, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. Macron is hosting 140 world business leaders in a bid to convince them to invest and hire in France - and to persuade the French themselves of the merits of his economic policies. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, Pool)

France's President Emmanuel Macron, left, attends a meeting with Google CEO Sundar Pichai, center, during the "Choose France" summit, at the Chateau de Versailles, outside Paris, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. Macron is hosting 140 world business leaders in a bid to convince them to invest and hire in France - and to persuade the French themselves of the merits of his economic policies. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, Pool)
NEW YORK (AP) - Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is calling for the removal of Xerox CEO Jeffrey Jacobson as the copier company reportedly seeks a deal with camera company Fujifilm.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the two companies are in talks for a potential deal. Icahn, along with shareholder Darwin Deason, said Monday they don't trust Jacobson to lead the potential negotiations.

"He is neither qualified nor capable of successfully running this company, let alone negotiating a major strategic transaction that will do more than save his own job," Icahn and Darwin wrote in a letter to Xerox's board of directors.

The investors, who hold a combined 15 percent stake in Xerox, are looking to put four new members on the company's board.

Xerox was not immediately available for comment.
SANAA, Yemen (AP) - Yemeni security officials say Houthi rebels fired Katyusha rockets on a military parade near the central city of Taiz on Monday, killing at least seven people, including a local journalist, in an apparent assassination attempt on the interior minister and his deputy.

The officials said three civilians and four soldiers were killed, while a Yemeni correspondent for satellite broadcaster Russia Today was wounded. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to brief reporters.

Yemen's war pits a Saudi-led coalition allied with the internationally recognized government against Shiite Houthi rebels, who are allied with Iran and control much of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa.

Overnight and into the morning, coalition airstrikes around the Houthi stronghold of Saada in the north killed at least seven people, including five children, the pro-Houthi Masirah channel reported.

The war has been locked in a bloody stalemate for most of the last three years. It has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced 2 million.
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) - Pope Francis apologized for insisting that victims of pedophile priests show "proof" to be believed, saying he realized it was a "slap in the face" to victims that he never intended.

But he doubled down on defending a Chilean bishop accused by victims of covering up for the country's most notorious pedophile priest, and he repeated that anyone who makes such accusations without providing evidence is guilty of slander.

Francis issued the partial mea culpa in an airborne press conference late Sunday as he returned home from Chile and Peru, where the clergy abuse scandal and his own comments plunged the Chilean church into renewed crisis and revived questions about whether Francis "gets it" about abuse.

Pope Francis touches his forehead as he talks with journalists during his flight from Lima, Peru, to Rome, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Francis insisted that to date no one had provided him with evidence that Bishop Juan Barros was complicit in keeping quiet about the perversions of the Rev. Fernando Karadima, the charismatic Chilean priest who was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2011 for molesting and fondling minors in his Santiago parish.

Flying home from the most contested trip of his papacy, Francis said Barros would remain bishop of Osorno, Chile as long as there's no evidence implicating him in the cover-up.

"I can't condemn him because I don't have evidence," Francis said. "But I'm also convinced that he's innocent."

Karadima was removed from ministry and sentenced by the Vatican in 2011 to a lifetime of penance and prayer based on the testimony of his victims, who said they were all molested by him in the swank parish he headed in the El Bosque area of Santiago. A Chilean judge also found the victims to be credible, saying that while she had to drop criminal charges against Karadima because too much time had passed, proof of his crimes wasn't lacking.

The victims testified before Chilean prosecutors, and have said publicly for years that Barros, one of Karadima's proteges, witnessed the abuse and did nothing to stop it.

Barros denies the accusations.

"The best thing is for those who believe this to bring the evidence forward," Francis said. "In this moment I don't think it's this way, because I don't have it, but I have an open heart to receive them."

Juan Carlos Cruz, the most vocal of the accusers against Karadima and Barros who testified in court about the cover-up, responded with a statement to The Associated Press: "If he wanted evidence, why didn't he reach out to us when we were willing to reaffirm the testimony that not only us, but so many witnesses, have been providing for more than 15 years?" he said.

Francis, though, repeated again that anyone who makes an accusation without providing evidence is guilty of slander.

"Someone who accuses insistently without evidence, this is calumny," he said. "If I say 'you stole something, you stole something,' I'm slandering you because I don't have evidence."

He acknowledged that he misspoke when he said he needed to see "proof" to believe the accusations, saying it was a legal term that he didn't intend. He corrected himself and used the term "evidence" instead, which he said could include testimony.

"Here I have to apologize because the word 'proof' hurt them. It hurt a lot of abused people," he said. "I know how much they suffer. And to hear that the pope told them to their face that they need to bring a letter with proof? It's a slap in the face."

The Barros scandal dominated Francis' Jan. 15-21 trip to Chile and Peru, and led to a remarkable church-state public rebuke of the pope.

Cardinal Sean O'Malley, Francis' top adviser on abuse, issued a public criticism saying Francis' words were a "source of great pain for survivors" and that such expressions had the effect of making them feel abandoned and left to "discredited exile." The Chilean government spokeswoman, Paula Narvaez, said there was an "ethical imperative to respect victims of sexual abuse, believe them and support them."

Francis insisted that he did respect victims and apologized for his "unhappy" choice of words when he was asked by a Chilean reporter Jan. 18 about his 2015 decision to appoint Barros to Osorno over the objections of Chilean bishops.

Francis replied: "The day they bring me proof against Bishop Barros, I'll speak. There is not one shred of proof against him. It's all calumny. Is that clear?"

The comments sparked an outcry among Chileans and roiled abuse survivors and their advocates.

The spokesman for a group of Osorno Catholics opposed to Barros, Juan Carlos Claret, said the pope still didn't get it.

"It's incredible that the pope doesn't understand that the problem wasn't the word 'proof' or 'evidence,' which is the same thing, but that he accused victims of slander - victims who were found to be right by both Vatican and Chilean justice," he told the AP.

He said Cruz had testified in 2010 that Barros was present during the abuse.

In the press conference, Francis also explained a letter reported last week by the AP that showed the Vatican was prepared to ask Barros and two other Karadima-trained bishops to resign and take a year sabbatical in 2014 to try to contain the fallout from the scandal surrounding the priest. Francis admitted that he put a stop to the plan, saying that if he accepted the resignations without evidence or "moral certainty" that Barros had done anything wrong, "I would be committing a crime of bad judgment."

Francis said Barros actually did offer to resign - twice - but that he rejected it.

"I said 'no, this isn't how we roll," adding that sending Barros and the other bishops on sabbatical would have been seen as an admission of guilt.

The 2015 appointment outraged Chileans and badly divided the Osorno diocese, where hundreds of lay Catholics and many priests have refused to accept Barros.

Marie Collins, who resigned in frustration from Francis' sex abuse advisory commission last year, in part over the Barros affair, said she couldn't bring herself to comment.

"Why comment?," she tweeted. "It's a pointless waste of effort." Collins has become a leading critic of Francis' abuse record, especially his decision to allow the commission to lapse last month.

Francis said Sunday a new membership roster had been put to him earlier this month and was being reviewed. He denied that the lapse of the committee showed it wasn't a priority for him.

Francis was also asked about the sex scandal in neighboring Peru regarding the lay movement Sodalitium Christianae Vitae. He revealed that its founder, Luis Figari, is appealing his Vatican sentence on charges of physical, sexual and psychological abuse, and economic mismanagement. The Vatican high court is expected to hand down its sentence in two months, he said.

"What I know is that the thing is unfavorable to the founder," Francis said.

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AP writer Eva Vergara contributed from Santiago, Chile.

Pope Francis, flanked by father Mauricio Rueda, delegate for the organization of the papal journeys, right, and Greg Burke, spokesman of the Vatican, talks with journalists during his flight from Lima, Peru, to Rome, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Osornos Bishop Juan Barros smiles as he leaves the altar after Mass was celebrated by Pope Francis on Lobito Beach in Iquique, Chile, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. Many Chileans are furious over Francis' 2015 decision to appoint Barros, a bishop close to the Rev. Fernando Karadima, who the Vatican found guilty in 2011 of abusing dozens of minors over decades. Barros has always denied he knew what Karadima was doing when he was the priest's protege, a position that many Chileans have a hard time believing. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
WASHINGTON (AP) - As Congress appeared ready to reopen the government Monday on the third day of a shutdown, some federal workers said they are frustrated over a political battle that put their jobs on hold and left them in limbo.

The shutdown effectively cleaved the federal workforce in half Monday as hundreds of thousands of workers were sent home while others who were declared essential stayed on the job.

J. David Cox, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 700,000 federal and D.C. government workers, said his members are exasperated that the inability of Congress and President Donald Trump to negotiate a budget led to the shutdown.

The dome of the Capitol Building is visible at left of a closure sign that is posted outside of the Library of Congress during a government shutdown in Washington, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

"We can't be the ball for the ping-pong game," Cox said Monday, after Senate Democrats dropped their objections to a temporary funding bill in return for assurances from Republicans leaders that they will soon take up immigration and other hot-button issues.

Before the government can reopen, the Senate must vote on final passage, the House must approve and Trump must sign the measure.

"There's still a lot of confusion. There's still not a done deal. There's apprehension that this could still fall apart," Cox said.

Felicia Sharp, a lab tech with the Defense Department at Fort Belvoir in northern Virginia who also serves as a local president for the American Federation of Government Employees, said some workers reacted to the furloughs with anger, some with worry and others were happy to have a day off, not unlike a school student learning of a snow day.

"I'm on the shelf," Rusty Payne, a furloughed spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration, told The Associated Press.

The partisan stalemate over the budget forced scores of federal government agencies and outposts to close their doors over the weekend. But many government functions - especially those involving national security - are considered essential and were not affected.

Payne and other DEA employees had been told to report to work, where they would learn their status. Payne drove to work Monday in business casual attire, a rare concession to comfort.

At the State Department headquarters, workers were streaming out mid-morning clutching white slips of paper: furlough notices being handed out throughout the day. Workers were told to show up as usual and wait to be told whether they would be sent home. All U.S. embassies and consulates overseas were remaining open, the State Department said, though some services could be reduced.

Furloughed employees were uncertain how long the partial lock-out will last and when they will be paid for the days they missed. The federal Office of Professional Management advised workers to refer to their home agency for guidance on reporting for duty.

Trump administration officials said they intend to minimize the effect of the shutdown, even though it's estimated that almost half of the 2 million civilian federal workers will be barred from doing their jobs as the shutdown extended into Monday.

The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents about 150,000 federal workers, said many more government employees are being exempted from furloughs than were excused during the 16-day shutdown in 2013. Republicans, who controlled the House, said the Obama administration had "weaponized" the shutdown in an effort to get an upper hand during budget deliberations.

The Internal Revenue Service is preparing for the start of the tax filing season and nearly 44 percent of 35,000 of the agency's more than 80,000 employees were to report to work during the shutdown. The agency's shutdown plan shows that most of those workers are assigned to the agency's wage and investment division, which helps American taxpayers understand and comply with U.S. tax laws.

For offices directly involved in national security and military operations, it was mostly business as usual. Troops remained at their posts and the FBI, the Coast Guard and much more stayed up and running.

The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, both closed since the government shutdown, were set to reopen for visitors Monday. New York state will pick up the tab for the federal workers who operate them, according to the state's Democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo.

But in Philadelphia, crowds of tourists were told Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed, and the Liberty Bell were closed. The shuttered icons were some of the easiest-to-spot effects of the partial government closure.

Unions leaders said workers were struggling with the uncertainty that comes with not knowing when or if they will get paid.

Paychecks for the pay period that began Sunday may be affected by the shutdown, according to guidance the National Federation of Federal Employees sent to its members. Congress must approve back pay for those who work during the shutdown and also for furloughed employees.

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Associated Press writers Sarah Rankin and Denise Lavoie in Richmond, Virginia, and Josh Lederman in Washington contributed to this report.

A Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island tour boat passes by the Statue of Liberty after dropping passengers off there, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018, in New York, after resuming service early Monday during the government shutdown. The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island opened for visitors Monday, with New York state picking up the tab for the federal workers. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
HONG KONG (AP) - A Hong Kong-based bookseller who was secretly detained in China has been taken away by Chinese authorities again after being released into house arrest last October, his daughter said Monday.

Angela Gui told Radio Sweden, the English-language service of national broadcaster Sveriges Radio, that her father, Gui Minhai, was on a train with two Swedish diplomats when a group of police officers seized him.

Gui, a Chinese-born Swedish national, ran a Hong Kong publishing company specializing in gossipy tales about high-level Chinese politics when he disappeared from his Thai holiday home about two years ago. He was believed to have been spirited away by Chinese security agents to mainland China, where he later turned up in police custody.

FILE - In this June 18, 2016, file photo, freed Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee stands next to a placard with picture of missing bookseller Gui Minhai, in front of his book store in Hong Kong as the protesters are marching to the Chinese central government's liaison office. Gui, who was secretly detained in China has been taken away by Chinese authorities again after being released into house arrest last October, his daughter said Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

Four employees were also held, but they were released within months while Gui was not freed until October. Even then, his daughter told the station, he was put into a "police-managed flat" in the city of Ningbo, near Shanghai, and remained under surveillance.

The case reinforced rising fears that Beijing was eroding rule of law in Hong Kong, a semiautonomous Chinese city that is promised civil liberties like freedom of speech until 2047. The books the group sold at their Causeway Bay Bookshop were popular with visitors from mainland China, where such titles were banned.

Angela Gui said her father was traveling to Beijing to see a Swedish doctor after he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a neurological disease that he developed while in custody.

He had arranged the visit with the Swedish Embassy and had been on the train for about five hours when 10 police officers got on at a stop outside of Beijing.

They "said they were from the police and just grabbed him and just took him away," she said.

"It's quite clear that he has been abducted again and that he's held somewhere in a secret location," she said, adding that she was worried because of his health condition.

Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom later told Sveriges Radio that the Nordic country will summon the Chinese ambassador over Gui's detention.

"The Swedish government has a thorough knowledge of what has happened," Wallstrom said, adding that the Swedish foreign ministry is working on the issue "around the clock."

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Radio Sweden: http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2054&artikel=6867297

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Associated Press writer Jari Tanner in Helsinki contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump's trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is likely a go.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday that if "all things go as expected" with reopening the government, the delegation will travel Tuesday and the president will go later in the week.

A delegation of Cabinet members was scheduled to leave Monday, but the group was delayed amid the federal government shutdown. But reopening was in sight later in the day after Senate Democrats dropped their objections to a temporary funding bill.

Trump planned to take his "America First" message to the gathering of global political and business elites that is rarely attended by sitting presidents.

Earlier Monday, when asked if Trump would attend if the government was still shut down, Sanders said: "I don't know that that's very likely. I wouldn't imagine it is. Our priority is making sure that the government reopened and we start having the conversations that need to take place over the next couple of weeks."

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had said he would cancel his trip to Davos if the government was still shut down.
U.S. authorities issued an emergency order Monday requiring additional screening of cargo on flights departing for the United States from five Mideast countries, citing a threat of terrorism.

The Transportation Security Administration order is aimed at preventing terrorist attacks in response to 'persistent threats to aviation,' TSA said in a statement.

The countries falling under this order are Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates.

The countries were chosen because of 'demonstrated intent by terrorists groups to attack aviation from them,' the statement said.

The Transportation Security Administration ordered additional screening of cargo on flights departing for the United States from five Mideast countries

TSA said the order is to prevent terrorist attacks in response to 'persistent threats to aviation'

TSA said most of the requirements of the emergency order are already being carried out voluntarily by airlines in some countries, but didn't identify the countries.

Airlines that TSA said are affected by the order are EgyptAir, Royal Jordanian, Saudia, Qatar Airways, Emirates and Etihad, although EgyptAir no longer accepts cargo shipments on flights to the U.S. at the request of American authorities.

Under the requirements of the order, airlines are supposed to provide certain information on the shipments 'at the earliest practical point' before loading the cargo to U.S. customs officials.

The shipment information is then compared to information the U.S. has on terror threats.

Airlines that TSA said are affected by the order are EgyptAir, Royal Jordanian and Saudia

Also included under the order are Emirates and Etihad, although EgyptAir no longer accepts cargo shipments on flights to the US

Qatar Airways is also one of the airlines named under the order that was announced Monday

Abu Dhabi-based Etihad said in a statement to The Associated Press that it was 'fully compliant with all regulatory security requirements across its operations.' It declined to elaborate on its security procedures.

Abu Dhabi International Airport already has a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility that allows passengers to clear screening they'd otherwise have to go through when landing in America.

That means passengers can walk right out of the airport on arrival.

Dubai-based Emirates, Qatar Airways and Saudia did not respond to requests for comment.

Gulf and Mideast airlines already were stung by President Donald Trump's travel bans, as well as last year's since-lifted ban on laptops in airplane cabins.

U.S. carriers have accused also Gulf-based airlines owned by governments of having unfair advantages in the market, something they've firmly denied.
DALLAS (AP) - Solar energy is booming in the United States, but companies riding the wave fear that President Donald Trump could undercut them this week if he decides to impose new tariffs on imported solar panels.

Businesses that install solar-power systems are benefiting from a glut of cheaper panels made overseas, mostly in Asia. That has made solar power more competitive with electricity generated from coal and natural gas.

A green-technology research firm estimates that tariffs could cost up to 88,000 U.S. jobs related to installing solar-power systems.

FILE- This April 20, 2011, file photo shows some of the 30,000 solar panels that make up the Public Service Company of New Mexico's new 2-megawatt photovoltaic array in Albuquerque, N.M. Some in the U.S. solar-power industry are hoping a decision this week by President Donald Trump doesn't bring on an eclipse. Companies that install solar-power systems for homeowners and utilities are bracing for Trump's call on whether to slap tariffs on imported panels. The solar business in the U.S. has boomed in recent years, driven by falling prices for panels, thanks in part to cheap imports. That has made solar power more competitive with electricity generated from coal and natural gas. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan,File)

On the other side are two U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies that argue the domestic manufacturing of solar cells and modules has been decimated by a flood of imports, mostly from Chinese companies with operations throughout Asia.

Imports of silicon photovoltaic cells, the building blocks of solar panels, soared nearly 500 percent between 2012 and 2016, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission.

The four members of the commission - two Republicans and two Democrats - unanimously ruled in October that import are hurting American manufacturers, although they differed on exactly how the U.S. should respond. Trump has until Friday to act on the agency's recommendations for tariffs of up to 35 percent.

Trump has wide leeway - he can reject the recommendations, accept them, or go beyond them and impose tougher tariffs. Congress has no authority to review or veto his action. Countries harmed by his decision could appeal to the World Trade Organization.

The trade case grew out of a complaint by Suniva Inc., a Georgia-based subsidiary of a Chinese company, which declared bankruptcy last April. Suniva was joined by SolarWorld Americas, the U.S. subsidiary of a German company. Suniva wants higher tariffs than those recommended by the trade commission.

The U.S. Commerce Department imposed stiff anti-dumping duties on imported panels made from Chinese solar cells in 2012 and 2015. Tim Brightbill, SolarWorld Americas' lawyer, said Chinese companies have gotten around those sanctions by assembling panels from cells produced in other Asian countries such as Malaysia and Vietnam. That makes the current trade case even more important, he said.

"It is a global case. It addresses the global import surge," Brightbill said. "We need the strongest possible remedies from President Trump to maintain solar manufacturing here in the United States."

A consultant for SolarWorld said tariffs on imports could create up to 45,000 U.S. jobs, assuming that domestic capacity grows, and installation jobs would also increase. But U.S. manufacturing of solar cells employed only about 1,300 people at its recent peak in 2012, according to the trade commission.

While U.S. solar-cell manufacturing has shriveled, installations - from home rooftops to utility-scale operations - have boomed. Installations have soared more than tenfold since 2010, with the biggest jump coming in 2016, after prices for solar panels collapsed. In 2016, solar was the largest source of new U.S. electricity-generating capacity.

The Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group for U.S. installers, says tariffs would drive up the cost of installing solar-power systems, leading to a drop in demand.

"We are selling energy that can be created by wind, by natural gas, by hydro, by coal, by nukes. When you raise the price of what we are selling, we can't compete," said Abigail Ross Hopper, the group's president.

Jim Petersen, CEO of PetersenDean, a California company that installs solar rooftop panels mostly for residential customers, once favored tariffs on imported panels, which he found to be of inferior quality. He has changed his mind.

Petersen said tariffs could stunt his business by raising the cost of a job, which ranges from $6,000 to $60,000 or more. He said he might be forced to lay off up to 25 percent of his 3,200 installers.

"This is bad for American jobs, bad for the consumer," he said.

In the New Mexico desert, Albuquerque-based Affordable Solar is working on a $45 million solar farm to help power a massive new data center for Facebook. The company's president, Kevin Bassalleck, said tariffs would hurt homegrown companies that make racks, tracking systems and electronics that are part of a power system. He said jobs at those companies are hard to outsource.

"If you ever set foot in a solar module assembly factory, most of what you see are robots. There are very few people," he said. "But if go out on to any one of our project sites like the Facebook project, you would see a small army of people working and installing things."

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat and advocate for renewable energy, said tariffs won't revive U.S. solar manufacturing.

"The jobs that have been lost because of cheaper solar cells have already been lost," Heinrich said in an interview. "These tariffs are then going to take the very rapidly growing, successful, good jobs that we have built in manufacturing of the other equipment, in installing, and reduce those jobs to a fraction of what they should be."

Many people on both sides of the debate expect Trump to impose sanctions.

Brightbill, the lawyer for SolarWorld Americas, sounded confident.

"This administration's focus is on U.S. manufacturing and U.S. jobs and getting tough on China for the trade deficit," he said, "so we think the administration's goals are very well-aligned with saving U.S. solar manufacturing."

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Montoya Bryan reported from Albuquerque.
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has given six more states the thumbs-up on their plans to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act: Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Montana, and New Hampshire.



These approvals bring the grand total of approved state ESSA plans to 33, plus Puerto Ricos and the District of Columbias. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia submitted plans last spring, and all but one of those statesColoradohave been approved. Another 34 states turned in plans last fall, and so far, 18 have been approved.

So what do the approved plans look like? Below are some highlights of the states draft applications.

Georgia: The state is expecting its schools to make annual improvements of 3 percent on state tests each year, for the next 15 years. And the Peach State is considering closure of achievement gaps in rating schools. Georgia also has a myriad of indicators of school quality and student success. For its elementary and middle schools it is looking at literacy, attendance, and scores on advanced courses. For its high schools, it is considering accelerated coursework and the share of students completing a world language, fine arts, or career and technical education, and college-readiness. Attendance will be considered for all schools.

Hawaii: The state will shift all of its Title IV money for a well-rounded curriculum into Title II instead. Title II pays for professional development. It is considering chronic absenteeism as its indicator of school quality or student success. In a feedback letter sent in December, the feds told Hawaii it needed to make sure its student achievement goals expected progress from all groups of students and that its accountability system complied with ESSAs requirements.

Indiana : The Hoosier State plans to consider chronic absenteeism and college- and career-readiness. It is working on eventually including a school climate indicator. The state will continue using an A through F grading system to rate its schools. In its feedback letter, sent in December, the feds told Indiana that it was unclear if it was complying with ESSAs rules for weighting indicators.

Kansas: ESSA requires all states to help schools that fall in the bottom 5 percent of performers, schools that have really low graduation rates, and schools where particular groups of studentslike English language learnersare falling behind. But Kansas wants to add a third category of schools needing universal support and improvement. Kansas was given a long list of things to work on its December feedback letter. For instance, the state was told it needed to spell out interim goals for student achievement, not say they were to be determined. And it was unclear to the department if Kansas accountability system used the same metrics statewide. Kansas also said it to wait until 2019 to start reporting English-language learners progress towards proficiency in English, which the department said isnt kosher under ESSA.

Montana : Montana wants to reduce the number of students who are not proficient on state tests by four percentage points each year. It will consider STEM, attendance, and factors aimed at improving school climate, reducing behavioral issues, and increasing engagement alongside test scores in rating its elementary schools. For high schools, it will be considering college- and career-readiness, attendance, and an indicator that incorporates school climate, reducing behavioral issues, and increasing engagement. In its feedback letter to Montana, the feds told the state that it needs to better explain how it decided to look at the performance of only white and Native American student subgroups. In its application, Montana told the feds that these were the only subgroups with substantial populations. But Montana didnt detail how it arrived at that conclusion, or what substantial means.

New Hampshire : New Hampshire is planning to use a dashboard, which looks at a host of factors in describing school performance. It also wants to continue its push on competency-based education through a pilot program that has allowed a cadre of districts to use performance tasks for accountability purposes in lieu of the state test in certain grades. New Hampshire eventually wants to take these tests statewide. New Hampshire was dinged in its feedback letter for the way it plans to take test participation into account in rating schools.

Want to learn more about the Every Student Succeeds Act? Heres some useful information:

Video: ESSA Explained in 3 Minutes

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) - Ecuador's president is lashing out at WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange even as he contends his government is working behind the scenes to help him out of the Ecuadorean embassy in London.

Lenin Moreno said in a televised interview Sunday that Assange had become "more than a nuisance" after he violated terms of his asylum by interfering in other countries' political affairs.

Ecuador granted citizenship to Assange this month in an unsuccessful attempt to provide him diplomatic immunity so he could evade arrest in Britain. Moreno said other countries and "important personalities" he didn't name are working to mediate a solution.

FILE - In this Aug. 10, 2017 file photo, Ecuador' President Lenin Moreno speaks during a military ceremony on Independence Day in Quito, Ecuador. Ecuador's president lashed out at WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Jan. 21, 2018 even as he contends his government is working behind the scenes to help him out of the Ecuadorean embassy in London. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa, File)

Assange in 2012 sought refuge in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden over sex-related claims. Sweden dropped the case but Assange still faces arrest in Britain for jumping bail.
JERUSALEM (AP) - The Latest on Vice President Mike Pence's interview with The Associated Press (all times local):

12:02 p.m.

Vice President Mike Pence says reports that an adult film star had an alleged affair with President Donald Trump are "baseless allegations."

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence stands after signing the guest book in Israel's parliament in Jerusalem, Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, Pool)

Pence spoke to The Associated Press during a visit to Jerusalem on Monday. He said he was "not going to comment on the latest baseless allegations against the president."

The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump's personal lawyer brokered a payment to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels in October 2016 to prohibit her from publicly discussing the alleged affair before the presidential election.

Daniels' real name is Stephanie Clifford. Trump's attorney, Michael Cohen, has denied there was any relationship. He gave the Journal a statement from "Stormy Daniels" denying receiving "hush money."

The AP reported that a tabloid magazine held back from publishing her 2011 account of the alleged affair after Cohen threatened to sue.

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12 p.m.

Vice President Mike Pence is defending President Donald Trump on the president's disparaging comments about immigrants from Africa and Haiti.

Pence tells The Associated Press in an interview in Jerusalem that he "knows the president's heart." He says Trump is determined to implement a merit-based system that encourages immigration by those who will "contribute to a growing American economy and thriving communities" and one that does not take into account the immigrants' "race or creed."

Pence made the comments during an interview Monday while on a four-day tour of the Middle East.

He was responding to reports that Trump last week in a private meeting made vulgar and disparaging remarks about immigration from countries in Africa and Haiti and said the U.S. should welcome more immigration from countries like Norway.
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) - Palestinian Christians say U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's brand of evangelical Christianity, with its fervent embrace of modern-day Israel as fulfilment of biblical prophecy, lacks their faith's compassion and justice, including for those who have endured half a century of Israeli occupation.

Pence was in Jerusalem on Monday, expressing his full-throated support for Israel in a speech to parliament filled with biblical references. During an exuberant welcome, Pence and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rejoiced in the Trump administration's decision last month to recognize contested Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The dramatic policy shift is seen as a betrayal by the Palestinians, who claim Jerusalem's Israeli-annexed eastern sector as a capital and now reject U.S. mediation in any future efforts to resolve their long-running conflict with Israel. The Jerusalem pivot also upset some of Washington's Arab allies, particularly Jordan, where King Abdullah II laid out his disagreement with U.S. policy to the visiting Pence in unusually pointed remarks Sunday.

FILE - In this Dec. 7, 2017 file photo, a Palestinian defaces a painting on the separation barrier of U.S. President Donald Trump, with a warning that Vice President Mike Pence is not welcome, in Bethlehem, West Bank. Palestinian Christians say Pence's brand of evangelical Christianity, with its fervent embrace of modern-day Israel as fulfilment of biblical prophecy, lacks their faith's compassion and justice, including for those who have endured half a century of Israeli occupation. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi, File)

The Jerusalem declaration and a subsequent Trump decision to curb aid to Palestinian refugees - both aligned with the Netanyahu government's agenda - had been top priorities for Pence.

The vice president - by his own definition "a Christian, a conservative, a Republican, in that order" - has cited his religious beliefs as the source of his unwavering support of Israel.

He has been embraced by so-called Christian Zionists who believe the establishment of the state of Israel is proof of God keeping his promises and a step toward the second coming of Christ.

In a 2017 speech to Christians United for Israel, or CUFI, an influential organization run by Texas pastor John Hagee, Pence signaled similar views, saying that "though Israel was built by human hands, it is impossible not to sense that just beneath its history lies the hand of heaven."

Critics say Jewish supporters of Christian Zionists and their pro-Israel fundraising juggernaut conveniently overlook violent end-time prophecies that are espoused by some and are based on the belief that only those who embrace Jesus will be saved.

David Parsons, a spokesman for Christian Zionism's International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, said it's a big tent movement with different views on end-time prophecy.

In his CUFI speech, Pence stuck to what the vice president portrayed as biblically mandated support for Israel.

Pence has "very solid evangelical credentials," Parsons said. "We consider him to be ... in our camp."

Palestinian Christians, many with deep roots in the Holy Land, consider Christian Zionist views as a negation of the teachings of Jesus on justice and compassion for all of humanity. They argue that such streams of evangelical Christianity have used religion to whitewash Israel's harsh policies during its half-century-old rule over millions of Palestinians.

"For me, it's a sick ideology," said Munib Younan, the recently retired bishop of the small Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land and former president of the Lutheran World Federation, an umbrella for churches with millions of believers.

"When I say Jesus is love, they want my Jesus to be a political Jesus," Younan, 67, a Jerusalem-born Palestinian, said in a recent interview at his West Bank church.

Younan said he supports a just solution to the conflict with Israel, including the establishment of a Palestinian state in the lands Israel captured in 1967 - east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. Jerusalem should be shared by Christians, Muslims and Jews, he said, adding that a peace deal would enhance Israel's security.

Pence on Monday portrayed the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital as the "only true foundation for a just and lasting peace," but omitted any mention of Palestinian claims to the city. He also gave less than full support to a two-state solution, once a pillar of U.S, Mideast policy, saying President Donald Trump is in favor "if both sides agree."

In biblical Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, Mayor Anton Salman said Pence's comments contradict his declared aim of helping Christians in the Middle East.

"He would need to change his thoughts and behavior ... and recognize the rights of Arab Palestinian Christians who are the people of this land, to support their rights to have their independence, their freedom and east Jerusalem as our capital," said Salman, a Roman Catholic.

Christians make up a small minority of the overwhelmingly Muslim Palestinian population in the West Bank, but relations between the two religious groups are typically cordial and tolerant - unlike in conflict-battered Iraq and Syria, where Islamic State extremists have persecuted Christians. In Gaza, dominated by the Islamic militant group Hamas, a tiny Christian community has been targeted from time to time by zealots.

"We are the authentic Christians and we live with our brothers, the Muslims, without any problem," said Bethlehem Christian Nadia Hazboun, 55, standing outside a souvenir shop in Manger Square, where the pealing of church bells often blends with the Muslim call to prayer. On Saturday, a towering Christmas tree decorated with large red balls was still up in the square, near the entrance to the Church of the Nativity, the basilica built over Jesus' traditional birth grotto.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become a hot button issue for U.S. Christians, pitting Christian Zionists again those calling for an end to Israel's occupation or expressing support for a Palestinian-led campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions as a means of pressuring Israel.

Rebecca Littlejohn, a Disciples of Christ pastor from La Mesa, California, contemplated the debate while sipping hot lemon in a coffee shop off Manger Square, at the end of a Holy Land study tour during which her group met Israelis and Palestinians.

Littlejohn said her denomination works with Palestinian Christians and that she belongs to a grass-roots group engaged in peace efforts.

She said that while Disciples of Christ emphasizes Christian unity, "I find very little, from what I know of it, in Mike Pence's religion that looks like Christianity to me."

"But am I going to say, he is not welcome at the table?" she said. "No, I'm not going to say that because it's not up to me."

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Associated Press writer Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - Iowa Republican governor candidate Ron Corbett is receiving $185,000 in compensation from a conservative think tank that doesn't disclose its donors and that, according to its treasurer, has "basically suspended" operations.

The organization, Engage Iowa, stopped holding public events, raising money or issuing research papers last June when Corbett launched his primary campaign against Gov. Kim Reynolds. But Corbett told The Associated Press that serving as the organization's president remains his day job and that he continues to research Iowa education, environment and economic policy in that capacity. He compared himself to candidates who work as lawyers or farmers.

"I shouldn't be expected to give up my day-time job," he said. "We haven't been dormant but I have stopped (soliciting funds and giving speeches) because I didn't want people to be confused on what hat I was wearing."

FILE - In this Sept. 27, 2017, file photo, Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett speaks during a news conference in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. A new tax filing shows that Corbett, a candidate for Iowa governor, is continuing to receive a $185,000 compensation package from a think tank that doesn't release its donors and has suspended its public activities during his campaign, The Associated Press has learned. Corbett is challenging Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds in the GOP primary in June. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

Corbett, 57, is one of three board members of the group. The others are Gordon Epping, who is its treasurer, and John Smith, the influential owner of Cedar Rapids trucking company CRST International, where Corbett used to work as an executive.

Epping said the group "basically suspended" its operations last June but decided to continue to pay Corbett. "It's our right to do that," he said.

Some Democrats and Republicans say the arrangement is potentially troubling. They say voters don't know who is funding Corbett's compensation, which began in mid-2015 and includes a $150,000 salary and $35,000 in health and retirement benefits annually, according to its most recent tax filing. That is more than the $130,000 he'd earn as governor and about five times what he earned as mayor of Cedar Rapids, a part-time job that he left last month.

After eight years as the popular mayor of Iowa's second largest city and previously serving as Iowa House Speaker, Corbett is challenging Reynolds in the June 5 primary. Corbett has far less money in his campaign than Reynolds but is a polished speaker and policy wonk. While the clear underdog, some party officials believe he could give Reynolds a serious challenge.

Reynolds' campaign declined comment about Corbett's think tank. But one Republican critic called on Engage Iowa to reveal its donors' names, saying voters should know whether they have ties to Corbett's campaign or prior dealings as mayor.

"Engage Iowa looks and acts like a campaign for governor but masquerades as a tax-deductible nonprofit," said political consultant Nick Ryan, a Reynolds supporter and himself a pioneer in the world of shadowy political groups.

The top donor to Corbett's campaign is Dyan Smith, the wife of Engage Iowa's unpaid vice president John Smith, with a $100,000 donation, according to a disclosure report filed Friday.

Corbett said he has been careful to separate the policy group from his campaign to protect its tax-exempt status, and that's why he's suspended fundraising for Engage Iowa and holding public events. He said he expects the group to continue operating as a conservative policy shop regardless of the election's outcome.

Corbett said Engage Iowa is following IRS rules that do not require the disclosure of donors by groups that don't engage in political advocacy or lobbying. He founded the group in 2015 and made dozens of speeches promoting ideas for improving public education, addressing the state's poor water quality, and reforming tax policy. Corbett said the work has had "great impact" on the public agenda, while critics note it also raised his statewide political profile.

Corbett and Epping are the only two paid employees for Engage Iowa.

Engage Iowa told the IRS the process for setting Corbett's salary didn't include any independent review or data comparing its compensation to similar groups. Epping said the board set Corbett's salary at $150,000 because "that's what he's worth."

Engage Iowa's tax filing, which shows information about its fundraising and spending, was due last May covering calendar year 2016. But the group requested and received an extension to file until Nov. 15. The AP sought a copy for public inspection from Epping, who mailed the document this month as required by IRS rules.

The document shows Engage Iowa raised $1.1 million during its first two years of operation and spent $940,000. After Corbett's compensation, Engage Iowa's largest expense has been $120,000 annual payments to G & S Resources, a corporation owned by former Iowa Republican governor candidate and aide Doug Gross and longtime GOP activist Richard Schwarm.

Corbett said the two have long experience in public policy in Iowa, and helped get it formed and shape the research agenda. He said their $10,000 monthly payments stopped last year.
BEND, Ore. (AP) - A man accused of killing a woman during his shift as a campus safety officer at an Oregon community college has pleaded guilty to aggravated murder.

Edwin Lara entered the plea Monday in the city of Bend. He was set to be sentenced at a hearing expected to end in the afternoon.

Authorities said Lara killed 23-year-old Kaylee Sawyer in Bend in July 2016 and later kidnapped a woman in the state capital of Salem. They drove to California, where he was accused of shooting and wounding a man and carjacking a vehicle with a family inside.

Sawyer's mother, Juli Walden VanCleave, posted on Facebook earlier this month that Lara agreed to a plea deal that would send him to prison for life, avoiding a possible death sentence.

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This story has been corrected to show that Lara's first name is Edwin, not Edward.
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - Revised numbers show North Dakota's oil industry failed to meet the state's natural gas flaring goals in October.

The Mineral Resources Department's latest figures show the industry flared slightly more than 16 percent of natural gas produced in October. The agency's preliminary numbers reported flaring 15 percent, the Bismarck Tribune reported .

North Dakota's Industrial Commission limits companies from flaring more than 15 percent in order to reduce the wasteful burning off of excess gas. Regulators can restrict oil production from companies that don't meet the 85 percent gas capture target. But the policy also includes many exceptions, which makes enforcing these restrictions uncommon.

Through October, 11 companies flared more than 15 percent, though none were ordered to cap their oil production. Alison Ritter, spokeswoman for the Department of Mineral Resources, said no restrictions were necessary because each oil producer had met one of the exceptions in the policy.

Preliminary figures released this week show that natural gas flaring declined to 282 million cubic feet per day in November. The industry met the state's target in November by flaring 14 percent overall.

Flaring from the state's Bakken and Three Forks wells represent the majority of production and determine gas capture policy. The gas capture goals will become more aggressive later this year, reaching 88 percent in November.

Director of Mineral Resources Lynn Helms said reaching that target will require serious investment in natural gas gathering and processing, including more infrastructure.

Justin Kringstad, director of the North Dakota Pipeline Authority, said that natural gas production in North Dakota is expected to pass processing plants' capacity soon.

Two companies have recently applied with the Public Service Commission to expand natural gas processing plants in the state.

Helms and Kringstad plan to meet with the board of directors at the North Dakota Petroleum Council next week to discuss necessary infrastructure.

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Information from: Bismarck Tribune, http://www.bismarcktribune.com
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland (all times local):

2:55 p.m.

President Donald Trump's trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, appears to be on.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday that if "all things go as expected" with reopening the government, the delegation will travel Tuesday and the president will go later in the week.

A delegation of Cabinet members was scheduled to leave Monday, but it was delayed amid the federal government shutdown. Senate Democrats dropped their objections to a temporary funding bill later in the day.

Trump plans to bring his "America First" message to the gathering of global political and business elites. The event is rarely attended by sitting presidents.

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10:50 a.m.

The White House says a delegation of Cabinet members is delaying their departure for this year's World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, amid the federal government shutdown.

Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday that they will determine what to do "as the day goes on and as we see how the next couple of hours go."

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (mih-NOO'-shin) is leading the delegation of Cabinet members and top aides and was scheduled to leave Monday. President Donald Trump was planning to leave later in the week.

Asked if Trump would attend if the government is still shut down, Sanders said: "I don't know that that's very likely. I wouldn't imagine it is."
PHOENIX (AP) - A volunteer for an organization that tries to prevent immigrants from dying in the Arizona desert was arrested several hours after the group released videos showing Border Patrol agents kicking over water bottles left for those crossing into the U.S. illegally.

Scott Daniel Warren, 35, with the group No More Deaths, faces a federal charge of harboring two people in the country illegally. His arrest last week came after Border Patrol agents conducted surveillance on a building where two immigrants were given food, water, beds and clean clothes, according to federal court records.

Group volunteer Caitlin Deighan stopped short of calling the arrest retaliation but said it looks suspicious to have charged Warren so close to the release of the videos.

"We see it as an escalation and criminalization of aid workers," Deighan said Monday.

The Border Patrol didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment. A phone message left for William Walker, an attorney for Warren, wasn't immediately returned.

No More Deaths last week gave news organizations videos taken between 2010 and 2017, mostly by cameras at its desert camp. In one clip, a Border Patrol agent kicked over five water jugs meant to supply immigrants. In another, an agent pours gallons of water on the ground.

In 2005, two group volunteers were arrested after they drove three immigrants from a desert location to a Tucson church to get medical attention from a doctor and nurse. The indictment was eventually dismissed by a federal judge.

No More Deaths is a coalition of religious organizations, human rights advocates and individuals who provide food, water and medical assistance to immigrants crossing the Arizona desert from Mexico.

Immigrants who sneak into the United States through that terrain face many dangers, including walking for several days in the scorching heat.

Thousands have died crossing the border since the mid-1990s, when heightened enforcement in San Diego and El Paso, Texas, pushed traffic into Arizona's deserts. In recent years, south Texas has become the busiest corridor for illegal crossings and also the most deadly.

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Follow Jacques Billeaud at www.twitter.com/jacquesbilleaud . His work can be found at https://www.apnews.com/search/jacques%20billeaud .
Senators broke a logjam on Monday by clearing the way for a final vote on a bill to restore funding to the federal government until Feb. 8 and end a partial shutdown that began just after midnight Friday. The continuing resolution will allow the U.S. Department of Education, where about nine in 10 employees were furloughed as of Monday morning, to reopen at full capacity.

However, the underlying issues behind the shutdown, specifically the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program for those brought to the country illegally as minors, havent been resolved. In order to earn Democratic support for the continuing resolution, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said it is his intention to hold a vote on a bill that addresses DACA, border security, and other issues by Feb. 8. So thousands of students and teachers who have DACA protections will have to wait at least a little longer to learn their fate.

Late last week, Democrats in the Senate refused to vote for the continuing resolution because it did not include a deal to enshrine DACA into federal law in some fashion, leading to the shutdown at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday. But enough Democrats agreed to a vote on the resolution Monday to put the government back on track to reopen.

The partial government shutdown had a minimal impact on the Education Department and schools , especially since the shutdown covered only the previous weekend and into Monday.

The continuing resolution does include a six-year extension for the Childrens Health Insurance Program . Federal authorization for CHIP expired Sept. 30, and Democratic lawmakers had pressed for Republicans to agree to extend the program.

House lawmakers passed the three-week continuing resolution last week. However, it remains unclear if President Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan will go along with McConnells stated purpose of holding a vote on an immigration package that covers DACA.

Congress still does not have a final spending deal in place for fiscal 2018. The Trump administration is supposed to issue its fiscal 2019 spending proposal early next month.

Photo: Demonstrators rally in support of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) during a rally outside of the Capitol on Jan. 21 in Washington. (Jose Luis Magana/AP)

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - A South Carolina sheriff's deputy who was killed last week in an ambush was known for walking around with a scowl most of the time.

Despite his tough look, York County Det. Mike Doty had a passion for helping people, including addicts and teens who wanted to become police officers one day.

Thousands of people turned out for Doty's funeral Monday at Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was killed Jan. 16 in an ambush by a domestic violence suspect who was hiding in the woods. Three other officers were wounded. They attended Doty's funeral in wheelchairs in front of the front row, right by his American flag-draped coffin.

A York County Sheriff's Honor Guard salutes the casket of Det. Mike Doty during funeral services at Calvary Church in Charlotte, N.C., on Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. Doty died Jan.17 after being shot in the line of duty on Jan. 16. (David T. Foster III/The Charlotte Observer via AP)

Doty's twin brother, Chris, is a York County deputy, too. They were hired together 12 years ago. York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson said Chris Doty wanted him to make an important point about his brother.

"Despite the fact Mike walks around with a scowl on his face 90 percent of the time, he is a really happy guy," Tolson said.

The sheriff said Mike Doty started his department's program to provide deputies with drugs to revive people who had overdosed on opioids because he was passionate about helping addicts. He mentored teens who wanted to be officers through the Explorers program, again doling out tough love.

"If you were Mike's friend, he would tell you the truth, no matter how hard it was. He would hurt your feelings, but later on, you'd go - he's right," Tolson said.

Doty and other SWAT team members were called to the woods last week near York, South Carolina, to look for Christian McCall. He had fled into the woods after his wife called 911 to say he was beating her, authorities said.

McCall first shot York County Sgt. Randy Clinton as he and his police dog were closing in, investigators said.

A few hours later, McCall ambushed Doty, York County Sgt. Buddy Brown and York City Police Sgt. Kyle Cummings - all SWAT team members, the sheriff said last week.

McCall, 47, was also shot. His condition has not been released. Prosecutors said they plan to charge him with murder in Doty's death, attempted murder in the other shootings and a number of other charges.

York County officers filled the rows just behind Doty's coffin. SWAT team members in their camouflage uniforms were in front. In the further back were nearly a dozen rows of York County deputies in their gray uniform shirts and black neckties. Doty's body would later head down the interstate into South Carolina with a police escort for a burial in Rock Hill.

Doty wanted to save, protect and help everyone he could, Carolinas Cornerstone Church Senior Pastor Barry Yates said.

"If you needed him, he ran to help you," Yates said.

Members of the York County Sheriff's SWAT team console each other during funeral services for Det. Mike Doty at Calvary Church in Charlotte N.C., on Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. Doty died Jan.17 after being shot in the line of duty on Jan. 16. (David T. Foster III/The Charlotte Observer via AP)

The procession enters the sanctuary at Calvary Church for the funeral of York County Sheriff's Det. Mike Doty on Monday, Jan. 22, 2018 in Charlotte, N.C. Doty died Jan.17 after being shot in the line of duty on Jan. 16. (David T. Foster III/The Charlotte Observer via AP)

Chris Doty pauses while speaking of his twin brother, York County Sheriff's Det. Mike Doty, during funeral services at Calvary Church in Charlotte on Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. Michael Doty died Jan.17 after being shot in the line of duty on Jan. 16. (David T. Foster III/The Charlotte Observer via AP)

The casket of York County Sheriff's Det. Mike Doty is wheeled by members of the York County Sheriff's during funeral services at Calvary Church in Charlotte, N.C., on Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. Doty died Jan.17 after being shot in the line of duty on Jan. 16. (David T. Foster III/The Charlotte Observer via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) - A device that heats tobacco without burning it reduces some of the harmful chemicals in traditional cigarettes, but government scientists say it's unclear if that translates into lower rates of disease for smokers who switch.

U.S. regulators published a mixed review Monday of the closely watched cigarette alternative from Philip Morris International. The company hopes to market the electronic device as the first "reduced-risk" tobacco product ever sanctioned by the U.S. government.

Philip Morris' penlike device, called iQOS (EYE-kose), is already sold in more than 30 countries, including Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom. But Philip Morris and its U.S. partner, Altria, need the permission of the Food and Drug Administration to sell it in the U.S.

This undated image provided by Philip Morris in January 2018 shows the company's iQOS product. The device heats tobacco sticks but stops short of burning them, an approach that Philip Morris says reduces exposure to tar and other toxic byproducts of burning cigarettes. This is different from e-cigarettes, which don't use tobacco at all but instead vaporize liquid usually containing nicotine. (Philip Morris via AP)

iQOS heats strips of Marlboro-branded tobacco but stops short of burning them, producing a tobacco vapor that includes nicotine. This is different from e-cigarettes, which don't use tobacco at all but instead vaporize liquid usually containing nicotine. Nicotine is what makes cigarettes addictive.

Philip Morris believes its product is closer to the taste and experience of traditional cigarettes, making it more attractive to smokers and reducing their contact with tar and other toxic byproducts of burning cigarettes.

Company scientists will present their studies and marketing plan to a panel of FDA advisers this week. The panel's recommendation, expected Thursday, is non-binding: the FDA will make the ultimate decision on the device later this year.

A greenlight from FDA would mark a major milestone in efforts by both the industry and government to provide less harmful tobacco products to smokers who can't or won't quit cigarettes. Despite decades of tax hikes, smoking bans and campaigns, about 15 percent of U.S. adults smoke.

The FDA review paints a mixed picture of the potential benefits of the iQOS "heat-not-burn" approach.

Levels of certain harmful chemicals were between 55 and 99 percent lower in the vapor produced by iQOS than in cigarette smoke. But animal and laboratory studies submitted by the company also suggested the chemicals could still be toxic and contribute to precancerous growths. A company study in mice could help clarify the cancer risk, but the FDA said the results would not be available until later this year.

Under a 2009 law, the FDA gained authority to regulate a number of aspects of the tobacco industry. The same law allows the agency to scientifically review and permit sales of new products shown to be less dangerous than what's currently available. But the FDA has not yet allowed any company to advertise a "reduced-risk" tobacco product.

To meet FDA requirements, a company must show that the product will improve the health of individual users and the overall population. Additionally, the product should not appeal to non-smokers or interfere with smokers looking to quit.

The FDA review said some non-smokers, including young people, would likely experiment with iQOS. Reviewers also questioned if smokers would completely switch to iQOS from cigarettes. In company studies, less than 20 percent of U.S. users switched completely to iQOS over six weeks.

Philip Morris and other global tobacco companies are diversifying their products beyond traditional cigarettes, making investments in e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products and chewable tobacco pouches, among other alternatives. While cigarettes remain enormously profitable the global market continues to contract amid worldwide campaigns to discourage smoking.

The FDA itself has signaled its intention to begin pushing U.S. consumers away from traditional cigarettes toward alternative products. As part of the effort, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb wants to drastically cut nicotine levels in traditional cigarettes to help smokers quit.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A man convicted of stabbing another man to death near a popular Philadelphia park because of a comment about the killer's New Jersey Devils hat has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Forty-two-year-old Steven Simminger was convicted of murder for the 2016 killing of 24-year-old Colin McGovern in Rittenhouse Square.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports Judge J. Scott O'Keefe on Monday added a consecutive 2 1/2- to 5-year term on a weapons count. The judge says the defendant "went out looking for trouble that night" and had shown no remorse.

Defense attorney Gina Capuano argued her client stabbed the victim out of fear and mental health issues. She has vowed an appeal of the conviction and sentence.

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Information from: The Philadelphia Inquirer, http://www.inquirer.com
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - The U.S. Embassy in the Haitian capital closed Monday as demonstrators gathered outside to protest President Donald Trump.

More than a 1,000 people marched toward the embassy. They were prevented from reaching the gates by barricades set up by Haitian police. Officers in helmets and carrying shields eventually fired several rounds of tear gas after some protesters threw rocks at them outside the heavily fortified compound.

Many Haitians were angered over reported disparaging remarks about Haiti by Trump and his administration's decision to end a program that gave temporary legal residency to about 60,000 Haitians in the United States.

The embassy said it would be closed for the afternoon and directed employees in a statement to keep away during the protest. It was expected to reopen Tuesday.
JACKMAN, Maine (AP) - Officials in a rural Maine community are reaching out for help regarding what to do about their town manager, who has publicly espoused white separatist views.

Jackman Town Manager Tom Kawczynski (kuh-ZIN'-skee) operates a website that promotes racial segregation. Many social media users are calling for him to quit or be fired.

Maine Municipal Association spokesman Eric Conrad said Monday that Jackman town officials have been in touch with the association for guidance about how to respond. He says the association has provided help, but declined to elaborate about specifics.

Officials are set to meet with Kawczynski on Tuesday morning about his future as the top administrator in the small town. Kawczynski has said his views on race don't interfere with his work but that he expects to be fired.
Gunmen stormed the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, killing at least five people, including a foreigner.

A 12-hour gunbattle with security forces that continued into Sunday morning as frantic guests tried to escape from fourth and fifth-floor windows.

Six other people, including three from the security forces, were reported wounded and more than 150 people, including 41 foreigners, have been rescued from the hotel, said Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish.

Afghan security personnel stand guard as black smoke rises from the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul (AP/Rahmat Gul)

The bodies of three attackers were recovered as security forces continued to clear the landmark building, he said.

For the time being we can only confirm that one foreigner was among those who were killed in the attack, he added.

The security forces are going room-by-room to make sure that there are no more attackers in the building, Mr Danish said.

The Intercontinental Hotel is located on a hilltop in the Bagh-e Bala area of the capital and is heavily guarded because it hosts both Afghan and foreign guests as well as official conferences.

Last nights attack unfolded almost six years after Taliban insurgents launched a similar assault.

The property is not part of the InterContinental chain of worldwide hotels.

The Interior Ministry said a private firm assumed responsibility for securing the hotel around three weeks ago.

The ministry says it is investigating how the attackers managed to enter the building.

Afghan security officials confirmed that 34 provincial officials were gathered at the hotel to participate in a conference organised by the Telecommunication Ministry.

No one has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which started around 9 pm (4pm GMT) Saturday.

As the fighting raged, a fire broke out. Live TV footage showed people trying to escape through windows on the upper stories.

Captain Tom Gresback, spokesman for NATO-led forces, said in a statement that Afghan forces were leading the response efforts. He said that according to initial reports, no foreign troops were hurt in the attack.

Afghan forces have struggled to combat the Taliban since the US and NATO formally concluded their combat mission at the end of 2014.

They have also had to contend with a growing Islamic State affiliate that has carried out a number of massive attacks in recent years.
Oscar winner Natalie Portman has told how an environment of sexual terrorism as a teenager led to her covering up her body and inhibiting her expression and her work.

The actress, 36, joined other Hollywood stars on stage in Downtown Los Angeles to share their experiences during one of the many Womens Marches being held across the country on the anniversary of Donald Trumps inauguration as US president.

She recalled her coming of age as she filmed her first big project, 1994s Leon: The Professional.

Flanked by Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria and actress Constance Wu, she recounted her experience.

She said: I turned 12 on the set of my first film The Professional, in which I played a young girl who befriends a hit man and hopes to avenge the murder of her family.

Eva Longoria speaks as she is joined by Natalie Portman and Constance Wu at a Womens March in Los Angeles (Jae C Hong/AP)

The character is simultaneously discovering and developing her womanhood, her voice and her desire.

At that moment in my life, I too was discovering my own womanhood, my own desire and my own voice.

I was so excited at 13 when the film was released and my work and my art would have a human response.

I excitedly opened my first fan mail to read a rape fantasy that a man had written me.

The Star Wars actress went on to say that a local radio station had started a countdown to her 18th birthday, adding: Euphemistically the date that I would be legal to sleep with.

She continued: Movie reviewers talked about my budding breasts in reviews. I understood very quickly, even as a 13-year-old, that if I were to express myself sexually I would feel unsafe and that men would feel entitled to discuss and objectify my body to my great discomfort.

The actress said she quickly adjusted her behaviour.

She explained: I rejected any role that even had a kissing scene, and talked about that choice deliberately in interviews. I emphasised how bookish I was, and how serious I was and I cultivated an elegant way of dressing.

I built a reputation for basically being prudish, conservative, nerdy, serious in an attempt to feel my body was safe and that my voice would be listened to.

She ended her speech saying that, aged 13, the message from our culture was clear.

I felt the need to cover my body and to inhibit my expression and my work in order to send my own message to the world that Im someone worthy of safety and respect, she explained.

The response to my expression, from small comments about my body to more threatening deliberate statements, served to control my behaviour through an environment of sexual terrorism.
Gunmen have stormed the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, killing at least five people, including a foreigner, and setting off a gun battle with security forces that lasted well over 12 hours.

Six other people, including three security forces, were reported wounded and more than 150 people, including 41 foreigners, have been rescued from the hotel, said Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish.

The bodies of three attackers were recovered as security forces continued to clear the landmark building, he said.

Afghan security personnel stand guard (Rahmat Gul/AP)

A series of explosions occurred at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, #Afghanistan. A heightened police presence throughout the city is expected. Contact the US Embassy if you are aware of any US citizens at the hotel. Follow @TravelGov for updates. https://t.co/i5lEE8uslP pic.twitter.com/GSMxrgxWyf  Ned Price (@StateDeptSpox) January 20, 2018

For the time being we can only confirm that one foreigner was among those who were killed in the attack, he added.

The security forces are going room-by-room to make sure that there are no more attackers in the building, Danish said.

The Intercontinental Hotel is located on a hilltop in the Bagh-e Bala area of the capital and is heavily guarded because it hosts both Afghan and foreign guests as well as official conferences.

Staurday nights attack unfolded almost six years after Taliban insurgents launched a similar assault. The property is not part of the InterContinental chain of worldwide hotels.

The Interior Ministry said a private firm assumed responsibility for securing the hotel around three weeks ago. The ministry says it is investigating how the attackers managed to enter the building.

Afghan security officials confirmed that 34 provincial officials were gathered at the hotel to participate in a conference organised by the Telecommunication Ministry.

No one has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which started at around 9pm local time. As the fighting raged, a fire broke out. Firefighters are still battling the blaze. Live TV footage showed people trying to escape through windows on the upper stories.

Capt Tom Gresback, spokesman for Nato-led forces, said in a statement that Afghan forces were leading the response efforts. He said that according to initial reports, no foreign troops were hurt in the attack.

Pakistan condemns the terrorist attack on a hotel in Kabul. Terrorism is not acceptable.  Spokesperson  MoFA (@ForeignOfficePk) January 20, 2018

Neighbouring Pakistan condemned the brutal terrorist attack and called for greater cooperation against militants. Afghanistan and Pakistan routinely accuse each other of failing to combat extremists along their long and porous border.

In the northern Balkh province, insurgents burst into a home where several members of a local pro-government militia were gathered late on Saturday, leading them outside and killing 18 of them, said Gen Abdul Razeq Qaderi, the deputy provincial police chief.

Among those killed was a tribal leader who served as the local police commander, he said.

In the western Farah province, a roadside bomb killed a deputy provincial police chief and wounded four other police early on Sunday, according to Gen Mahruf Folad, the provincial police chief.

The Taliban claimed both attacks.

In the western Herat province, a roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying 13 civilians, killing all but one of them, said Abdul Ahad Walizada, a spokesman for the provincial police chief.

No one immediately claimed the attack, but Walizada blamed Taliban insurgents, who often plant roadside bombs to target Afghan security forces.
An assault on the Intercontinental Hotel in the Afghan capital Kabul has ended after more than 12 hours  with all the attackers killed by security forces, officials say.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which began late on Saturday, saying five gunmen armed with suicide vests targeted foreigners and Afghan officials.

Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said the last attacker was killed on Sunday afternoon, more than 12 hours after the attack began.

Black smoke rises from the Intercontinental Hotel after an attack in Kabul (Rahmat Gul/AP)

A series of explosions occurred at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, #Afghanistan. A heightened police presence throughout the city is expected. Contact the US Embassy if you are aware of any US citizens at the hotel. Follow @TravelGov for updates. https://t.co/i5lEE8uslP pic.twitter.com/GSMxrgxWyf  Ned Price (@StateDeptSpox) January 20, 2018

He said the attack killed six people, including a foreigner and a telecommunications official from the western Farah province who was attending a conference.

Six others, including three security forces, were wounded in the attack on the heavily guarded luxury hotel popular with foreigners and Afghan officials.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the insurgents initially planned to attack the hotel on Thursday night, but postponed the assault because there was a wedding under way and they wanted to avoid civilian casualties.

The attack unfolded almost six years after Taliban insurgents launched a similar assault on the property, which is not part of the InterContinental chain of worldwide hotels.

The Interior Ministry said a private firm assumed responsibility for securing the hotel around three weeks ago. The ministry says it is investigating how the attackers managed to enter the building.

Afghan security officials confirmed that 34 provincial officials were gathered at the hotel to participate in a conference organised by the Telecommunication Ministry.

A fire broke out at the hotel as the fighting raged, and the sound of explosions could be heard throughout the standoff. Live TV footage showed people trying to escape through windows on the upper stories.

Captain Tom Gresback, spokesman for Nato-led forces, said in a statement that Afghan forces were leading the response efforts. He said that according to initial reports, no foreign troops were hurt in the attack.

Neighbouring Pakistan condemned the brutal terrorist attack and called for greater cooperation against militants. Afghanistan and Pakistan routinely accuse each other of failing to combat extremists along their long and porous border.

Pakistan condemns the terrrorist attack at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul pic.twitter.com/rQk4VtLROM  Dr Mohammad Faisal (@DrMFaisal) January 21, 2018

Afghan forces have struggled to combat the Taliban since the US and Nato formally concluded their combat mission at the end of 2014. They have also had to contend with a growing Islamic State affiliate that has carried out a number of massive attacks in recent years.

In the northern Balkh province, insurgents burst into a home where several members of a local pro-government militia were gathered late on Saturday, leading them outside and killing 18 of them, said Gen. Abdul Razeq Qaderi, the deputy provincial police chief. Among those killed was a tribal leader who served as the local police commander, he said.

In the western Farah province, a roadside bomb killed a deputy provincial police chief and wounded four other police early on Sunday, according to Gen. Mahruf Folad, the provincial police chief.

The Taliban claimed both attacks.

In the western Herat province, a roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying 13 civilians, killing all but one of them, said Abdul Ahad Walizada, a spokesman for the provincial police chief. No one immediately claimed the attack, but Walizada blamed Taliban insurgents, who often plant roadside bombs to target Afghan security forces.
The founder of drinks brand Innocent has launched a scathing attack on the Brexit-backing Wetherspoon boss, accusing him of selling Britains economy out for cheap Chardonnay.

Richard Reed told the Press Association that Tim Martin, chairman of the pubs chain, has helped to junk the UK economy.

As part of a stark warning on the impact that leaving the EU is having on business investment, he said: Brexit is unhelpful, no-one I know is saying its a good thing.

That guy from Wetherspoon (Mr Martin) is talking about it means he can buy cheap Chardonnay from the New World, but I dont think thats a reason to junk a countrys economy.

Its just not going to help anything, its not a good idea to anyone who uses logic, facts and reason.

Innocent drinks co-founder Richard Reed (PA)

As well as the collapse in the pound following the Brexit vote, the British economy has slowed considerably and is now being outpaced by the eurozone.

Undeterred, the Wetherspoon boss has been an outspoken proponent of Britains divorce from the European Union, issuing countless stock exchange announcements extolling the virtues of Brexit.

He wants Britain to crash out of the EU without a deal and fall back on to World Trade Organisation rules, allowing the country to follow free trade champions like New Zealand, Australia.

Richard is being melodramatic, Mr Martin said in response.

Wetherspoon will benefit from leaving the EU, but so will everyone else in the country.

History shows that democracy and prosperity are closely aligned, and the EU is becoming more undemocratic.

Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin has been accused of helping junk the economy (PA)

But Mr Reed  who now runs investment firm JamJar with fellow Innocent co-founders  also warned that British firms are losing out on critical investment because of Brexit.

Ive seen three businesses that have had money pulled because of Brexit.

At JamJar, we are looking at businesses that are focused on the EU, you have to.

Do you want to be targeting a market of 60 million people or 500 million? The answer is 500 million.

JamJar invests in high-growth firms such as Graze and Deliveroo.

Mr Reed, also a member of pro-single market group Open Britain, sold Innocent to Coca-Cola in 2013 alongside co-founders Adam Balon and Jon Wright for a reported 320 million.

He was speaking as part of his role as ambassador for the Plusnet Pioneers campaign, a programme aimed at helping start-up business owners as they build and grow their companies.

The businessman offers his personal advice on securing funding to help SMEs get investment.

We need Plusnet Pioneers more than ever in Brexit Britain, Mr Reed added.
The school choice advocacy world this week will crank up its nationwide public-relations/public awareness campaign meant to bring positive attention to the full range of educational choice. Supporters of choicemany of them sporting neon-yellow scarveswill rally in more than 50 cities this week as part of the 8th annual National School Choice Week.

Organizers project that an estimated 6.7 million people are expected to participate this year in more than 32,000 events from open houses at schools to pep rallies at statehousesthats more than double the number of events that took place just two years ago.

National School Choice Week organizers encourage lots of groupscharter and private schools, homeschooling families, and local chambers of commerce among themto host events and flood social media with photos and videos. National organizers provide support on event planning and kits full of swag, including those aforementioned scarves.

And, for the truly committed, organizers even choreograph an annual dance for participants to learn.

The aim of National School Choice Week is to highlight and advocate for school choice in all its flavors: traditional public schools, private schools, charter schools, magnet schools, religious schools, online schools, and home-based schools.

As part of that goal, almost all of the major school choice advocacy groups have partnered this year to host a national video contest that will award $25,000 to the students with the most compelling school choice success stories. Winners were announced today .

And this year marks the first time that a sitting U.S. Secretary of Education spoke at the annual National School Choice Week rally on Capitol Hill in Washington. In her remarks at the rally last week, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos urged participants, which included children from local private and charter schools, to advocate for school choice.

I hope you will go out from here and you will tell your story and you will encourage others who havent yet joined us to do so because for every student here there are dozens more who havent been able to make these choices, said DeVos.

Related stories:

Photo: U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, greets students, parents and educators at a National School Choice rally on Jan. 18 in Washington. Maria Danilova/AP
TV personality Donna Air has said Prince Harrys fiancee, Meghan Markle, seems very nice after meeting her last year at Pippa Middletons wedding.

Air, 38, who is currently competing on ITVs Dancing On Ice, has had an on-off relationship James Middleton, the brother of the Duchess of Cambridge, for a few years.

Donna Air in this weeks Hello!

Kate Middletons younger sister Pippa, wed James Matthews in May last year at a ceremony held at St Marks church in the Berkshire village of Englefield.

Air told Hello!: She (Meghan) seems very nice. Everyone loves a royal wedding!

Prince Harry and Ms Markle, 36, will marry at Windsor Castle in May this year.

Talking about her current stint on the ice, Air told Hello!: Its been lovely to have the support of everyone. Its quite funny because you think, Oh I dont want anyone there  its distracting. I just want to skate and get it done. But having people there  my closest  on the first skate was really helpful.

She said she had agreed to do the show to set a good example for her 14-year-old daughter, Freya.

Donna Air and Mark Hanretty during the press launch for the upcoming series of Dancing On Ice at the Natural History Museum Ice Rink in London.

She said: Life is about experiences, and if you get the chance to do something you should grab it. The reason you dont do things, quite often, is fear. I want to teach her to be brave. Its okay to fail. What its not okay to do is not try, and to be scared you have to lead by example.

The former Byker Grove star also said she is embracing her age and that getting older is liberating.

The joy of getting older is that you get to a point where you dont care. It would be a bit strange at my age if I was dominated by what people think. Its liberating, getting older, she told Hello!

Read the full interview in this weeks Hello!
The Scottish Government says it will set out its position on Brexit during a ministerial visit to Brussels.

External Affairs Secretary Fiona Hyslop is to meet MEPs and EU ambassadors in the Belgian city on Monday and Tuesday, where she will say that membership of the European single market and customs union would mitigate the damaging effects of Brexit.

The visit comes a week after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said keeping the UK within the single market is the only option that makes sense if Brexit is to go ahead  as she published a new report which claimed leaving the EU without a deal could wipe 12.7 billion a year from Scotlands economy.

The Scottish Governments External Affairs Secretary will discuss Brexit (Jane Barlow/PA)

Ms Hyslop said: We have been clear that leaving the EU will be damaging to our economy and our report published last week highlighted the stark effects Brexit will have on Scotland.

Membership of both the European single market and customs union is essential to minimise the impact on both Scotland and the UKs economy.

In addition to the continued economic benefits of being part of the single market and customs union, it will also allow us to continue to collaborate on a range of policies including security, law enforcement and energy markets.

Meanwhile, Holyroods Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Relations Committee is in Dublin on Monday and Tuesday to hear about a range of issues relating to Ireland and Northern Ireland that are linked to Brexit.

The committee will meet with the British Irish Chamber of Commerce and learn more about how Brexit could affect key sectors of the Irish economy and trade, a spokeswoman said.

Claire Baker MSP, deputy convener of the committee, said: Ireland is closely connected with Northern Ireland, Scotland and the rest of the UK through cultural, economic and trading links, not to mention the people that live and travel freely in these countries.

We want to learn more about the anticipated effects of EU withdrawal and how these might be mitigated to preserve the close and growing collaboration between us.
Schools should do more to teach children about the dangers of sharing sexual content online, a think tank report has recommended.

The scale of the problem means police and other law enforcement agencies should focus on those carrying out the abuse and making images rather than low-level offenders, the report suggested.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology could also play a key role in tackling the problem of child sexual abuse images (CSAI), the paper by cross-party think tank Demos said.

In its report, which drew on evidence from experts, including industry watchdog the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), Demos highlighted the growing problem of youngsters sexting  producing their own illegal material.

One-fifth of reported images in 2015 were self-generated, around 16% of young people aged 11-16 have reported sending sexual images in the UK and one in six people reported to the police for indecent images are minors, according to research referenced in the report.

The Demos report said the issues should be part of the personal, social, health and economic (PHSE) curriculum in schools.

The pitfalls of sharing content online, including sexual content, should form part of the syllabus, the report said.

As the amount of self-produced illegal content continues to increase, stopping this at its source is the only sensible response.

Education is needed to support potential victims and perpetrators of sextortion and peer-on-peer abuse, a growing problem. 

Childrens charity NSPCC has estimated that up to 590,000 men in the UK may have viewed CSAI and the Demos report said the scale of the problem meant police should target sophisticated offenders at the top of the criminal pyramid  abusers and those who made the images.

This is not being soft on paedophiles, but rather a sensible way of targeting limited resources, the report said.

Law enforcement agencies should tackle offenders at the top of the online child abuse pyramid, Demos report suggests.

The use of AI and deep learning has great potential in spotting CSAI before it can be shared and identifying victims, but the pace of technological change meant it requires continued investment.

According to the IWF, less than 0.1% of identified CSAI content is hosted in the UK, down from 18% in 1996.

Some 60% of the material it identified was from Europe and 37% from North America.

IWF chairman Andrew Puddephatt will tell a meeting in Westminster that the UK is a world leader in the fight against CSAI.

The model of independent self-regulation, which has been pioneered in the UK by the IWF, is working, he said.

There is always a debate about how far governments should intervene in the oversight and regulation of the internet but the fight against child sexual abuse imagery shows how much can be achieved when the industry works together with everyday internet users.

A separate paper, produced by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) found that perpetrators of online-facilitated abuse are generally male, white, young, educated, intelligent, employed and with less prior criminal history than contact offenders.

The report, drawn up for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual abuse, found that victims of online abuse were likely to be vulnerable teenagers and many police feel unprepared to investigate such cases.

Jeffrey DeMarco, research director at NatCen, said parents had a key role to play in preventing potential abuse.

What really stands out is that, by creating an open dialogue with their child, parents can help to prevent them turning to strangers online for reassurance, he said.

As new technology and platforms become the norm, everyone involved with safeguarding children, from parents to police to internet service providers, needs to ensure their knowledge is up-to-date and relevant to the contemporary online landscape.
Nine in 10 people think they can spot a fraudulent message.

But it seems we may be overconfident in our skills. New research has found only one in ten people can score full marks on a quiz that tests their scam-spotting abilities.

The quiz provides a series of eight texts and emails, and asks users to mark them as genuine or part of a scam - and you can take it for yourself.

Scroll down for video

A UK campaign, backed by the government, offers advice to help people protect themselves from financial fraud with the help of a quick online test. Only nine per cent of people scored full marks on the test

HOW TO SPOT FRAUDULENT MESSAGES The Take Five campaign has provided some tips and advice to help spot fraudulent messages. A genuine bank or organisation will never contact you out of the blue to ask for your PIN, full password or to move money to another account. Only give out your personal or financial details to use a service that you have given your consent to, that you trust and that you are expecting to be contacted by. Never automatically click on a link in an unexpected email or text. If you're approached with a request for personal information, do not provide it. Instead, contact the company directly using a known email or phone number. Advertisement

The quiz is part of the 'Take Five to Spot Fraud Week'.

The UK government-backed campaign is trying to raise awareness of the risks posed by an increasing number of cyber-crimes using fake messages.

The mantra of the campaign is 'My Money? My info? I don't think so!' and it hopes to reinforce this in the minds of the public.

The online test provides several different scenarios to the user and asks them if it is fraudulent or not.

One text, allegedly from a bank, asks the recipient to transfer money to a 'safe' account.

This is something which banks would never ask their customers to do.

In another scenario, an email asks the recipient to click on a link, also something which consumers are also warned by the campaign not to do.

The email contains grammatical errors which is another warning sign that it is fraudulent.

Despite eighty per cent believing they could spot fraudulent messages, the test - backed by the UK government - has found that most people are susceptible to making a mistake at last once

Figures from trade association UK Finance show 366.4 million ($509.3 million) was lost to financial fraud in the first half of 2017  with a further 101.2 million ($140.6 million) lost through authorised bank transfer scams.

Katy Worobec, managing director of economic crime at UK Finance, said: 'Criminals are using very sophisticated methods, so it's more important than ever that people are aware of how to protect themselves from fraud.

Cyber-crime is on the rise and scams are often using fraudulent messages posing as a bank or other trusted source to get private information from people. This week is the 'Take Five to Stop Fraud Week'

'During Take Five to Stop Fraud Week we want to spread the message that you should always question any calls, texts or emails asking for your details out of the blue.

'Stop and think before you give away any information, no matter how legitimate the person sounds  and remember  it's My Money? My Info? I don't think so.

Scammers will often try and pressure you into giving your password or PIN  #TakeFive and dont be tricked into giving a fraudster access to your personal or financial details! pic.twitter.com/UG6yUcRXcR  Take Five (@TakeFive) January 17, 2018

'If you are unsure, then hang up and don't reply and contact the organisation directly on a number you trust.'

Take Five, the company responsible for the initiative and the quiz, said: 'Many people may already know the dos and don'ts of financial fraud  that no one should ever contact them out of the blue to ask for their PIN or full password.

'The trouble is, in the heat of the moment, it's easy to forget this.'
Britains ability to pre-empt or respond to threats risks being eroded if the UK does not keep up with its enemies, the head of the British Army will warn.

General Sir Nick Carter is also expected to highlight how Russia, in building an increasingly aggressive and expeditionary force, already boasts capabilities the UK would struggle to match.

During a speech at the the Royal United Services Institute he will point to Syria, where General Carter will say the Kremlin has repeatedly and publicly demonstrated its long-range strike capability.

(PA Graphics)

And that Britain must also look closely at how countries are now being more creative in the ways in which they exploit the seams between peace and war.

Our ability to pre-empt or respond to threats will be eroded if we dont keep up with our adversaries, the chief of the general staff is expected to say on Monday.

State-based competition is now being employed in more novel and increasingly integrated ways and we must be ready to deal with them.

The threats we face are not thousands of miles away but are now on Europes doorstep  we have seen how cyber warfare can be both waged on the battlefield and to disrupt normal peoples lives  we in  the UK are not immune from that.

Tonight from 1700 you can watch a lecture by @ArmyCGS, Chief of the General Staff of the @BritishArmy. Watch Dynamic Security Threats and the British Army live online here: https://t.co/eldSOYRYig  RUSI (@RUSI_org) January 22, 2018

Mirroring Kremlin concerns made by others, General Carter will also highlight how last year Russia undertook simulated attacks across Northern Europe  from Kaliningrad to Lithuania.

Last month the chief of the defence staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach also addressed the threat of Russia, and said the UKs military has prioritised the protection of undersea cables from the Kremlin, because if they are cut or disrupted there would be an immediate and potentially catastrophic hit to the economy.

And using her address at the Lord Mayors Banquet in London, Prime Minister Theresa May also said last year that Russia had mounted a sustained campaign of cyber espionage and disruption against other countries.

During his speech General Carter will stress that Britain must take notice of what is going on around us or that the ability by the UK to take action will be massively constrained.

General Carter will highlight how last year Russia undertook simulated attacks across Northern Europe (Peter Byrne/PA)

Speed of decision making, speed of deployment and modern capability are essential if we wish to provide realistic deterrence, he will add.

The time to address these threats is now  we cannot afford to sit back.

General Carters comments come during a period of widespread speculation about possible cuts to personnel and equipment amid major pressure on the defence budget.

There have been calls to increase defence spending to 3% of GDP from some MPs, and reports there are plans to cut the armed forces strength by more than 14,000, as well as the combination of elite units of paratroopers and Royal Marines to save cash.

But, in the Commons during Defence Questions last week, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said hard work is taking place across Government to give the right resources to the armed forces.

(PA Graphics)

Speculation about defence cuts has mounted in recent months since the launch of a review led by the Prime Ministers national security adviser Mark Sedwill.

The review is examining all aspects of national security capabilities, fuelling concerns it will prioritise measures to counter cyber attacks and terrorism rather than major defence projects.

Last week in the Commons Mr Williamson would not comment on speculation that the defence element of the ongoing strategic defence and security review would be separated from it.
Ashley Judd, Mira Sorvino and Anthony Rapp were among the stars hailed at the Screen Actors Guild Awards for breaking the silence surrounding sexual harassment in Hollywood.

Rosanna Arquette, who was one of the actresses to allege she was harassed by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, was applauded on stage at the ceremony as she presented an award, accompanied by Marisa Tomei.

The Oscar winner told Arquette: You are one of the silence breakers and we all owe you a debt of gratitude.

The pair also paid tribute to other accusers, including Asia Argento, Judd and Sorvino, who also made allegations against Weinstein; Anthony Rapp, who alleged he was harassed by Kevin Spacey; and Olivia Munn, who made allegations against Brett Ratner.

Gabrielle Carteris, the actress and president of SAG-AFTRA, the actors union that votes for the awards, also praised the Me Too movement.

SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris (Vince Bucci/Invision/AP)

Speaking from the stage during the ceremony, she said: Truth is power and women are stepping into this power. We are in the midst of a massive cultural shift.

We are, with brave voices, saying me too and advocates know time is up. We are making a difference. You are making a difference.

Its amazing, change is coming. And we are the agents of that change. Men and women are the agents of that change. We can and we must create an environment where discrimination, harassment and abuse are no longer tolerated.

Make no mistake this is not a moment in time, this is a movement. And our strength, our strength comes in our unity.

Arquette and Tomei presented the outstanding performance by a female actor in a TV movie or limited series to Nicole Kidman for playing a domestic violence victim in Big Little Lies.

Get you a friend that cheers you on the way @RWitherspoon cheers on Nicole Kidman  #sagawards pic.twitter.com/FdtGfpMO4b  SAG Awards (@SAGawards) January 22, 2018

After embracing her co-stars and fellow nominees Reese Withrspoon and Laura Dern, the actress, who said she had been working until 1am and was battling flu, said: How wonderful it is that our careers can go beyond 40 years old.

Twenty years ago we were pretty washed up by this stage in our lives.

Nicole Kidman receives the Actor for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a TV Movie or Limited Series! #sagawards  pic.twitter.com/Mxwk9Ihn2D  SAG Awards (@SAGawards) January 22, 2018

That is not the case now, we have proven that we are potent and powerful and viable.

I just beg that the industry stays behind us because our stories are finally being told.

Kidman, 50, continued: We have proven we can do this, we can continue to do this but only with support and that money and passion.

Her co-star Alexander Skarsgard won the outstanding performance by a male actor prize for playing her abusive husband.

Alexander Skarsgard takes home the Actor for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries! #sagawards  pic.twitter.com/40OJLZfEtK  SAG Awards (@SAGawards) January 22, 2018

Sam Rockwell scored the male actor in a supporting role prize for his role as a racist police officer in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, while Allison Janney won the female supporting actor prize for I, Tonya.

Sam Rockwell takes home the Actor for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role! #sagawards  pic.twitter.com/UhSyRs4r5z  SAG Awards (@SAGawards) January 22, 2018

Political satire Veep was given the ensemble comedy prize, while star Julia Louis-Dreyfus was named best female actor in a comedy series.

William H Macy won the actor in a comedy series gong for Shameless.
Hollywood stars Margot Robbie, Nicole Kidman, Halle Berry and Allison Williams chose shimmering, sequinned gowns for the Screen Actors Guild awards after a Golden Globes ceremony dominated by black.

Kidman, who won a gong for her role as a domestic violence victim in Big Little Lies, opted for an Armani bronze sequinned gown with a large shoulder embellishment.

Robbie, who was nominated in the leading actress category for her performance as disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding in I, Tonya, chose a beaded cream gown with feathered detail around the waist.

Margot Robbie (Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Her co-star Allison Janney, who won the best supporting actress prize for playing Hardings mother, selected a metallic silver gown with a high neck, long sleeves and dramatic shoulders.

Allison Janney (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Halle Berry, who served as a presenter, opted for a bronze sequinned gown with a dark train by Pamella Roland.

Other stars who opted for sequins included Get Out star Allison Williams, who wore a white and silver Ralph & Russo dress with a tiered, fringed skirt.

British star Millie Bobby Brown, who was nominated for her role as Eleven in Stranger Things, chose a pale pink knee-length sequinned dress with a long train and teamed it with white Converse trainers.

Susan Sarandon, nominated for her performance as Bette Davis in Feud: Bette and Joan, chose a navy blue, sequinned, off-the-shoulder dress teamed with statement sunglasses.

She arrived at the ceremony with her Thelma and Louise co-star Geena Davis, who opted for a black strapless gown.

Susan Sarandon, left, and Geena Davis (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

There was also plenty of colour on the red carpet as The Good Place star Kristen Bell, who served as the first-ever host of the show, opted for a dark pink strapless gown to make her entrance.

Kristen Bell (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Reese Witherspoon, who was also nominated for Big Little Lies, opted for an off-the-shoulder green dress by Zac Posen.

Holly Hunter, who was nominated in the supporting actress category at the ceremony for her role in comedy The Big Sick, chose a gold gown with deep pockets.

Holly Hunter (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Alison Brie, who was nominated in the leading actress in a TV comedy category for her Netflix series GLOW, appeared to be inspired by her female wrestler character as she opted for a red asymmetric gown with a thigh-high split and purple lightning bolt detail as she arrived with husband Dave Franco.

Dave Franco, left, and Alison Brie (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

This Is Us star Chrissy Metz, who was nominated as part of the best ensemble in a drama series category, also opted for a bold colour.

The actress chose a blue floor-length gown with flower embellishments on one shoulder and across the front.

Chrissy Metz (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

It was the same shade of cobalt blue chosen by her co-stars Susan Kelechi Watson and Mandy Moore.

Chrissy Metz, from left, Alexandra Breckenridge, Mandy Moore, and Susan Kelechi Watson (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

This Is Us won the gong for best ensemble in a TV drama at the ceremony.
US vice president Mike Pence said it was an honour to be in Israels capital, Jerusalem as he met the countrys prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mr Netanyahu told Mr Pence it was the first time a visiting dignitary could utter those three words along with him, and he thanked Mr Pence for President Donald Trumps historic recognition of Jerusalem.

The Israeli leader also lauded the American-Israeli alliance, which he said has never been stronger.

Mike Pence and Benjamin Netanyahu with a guard of honour in Jerusalem (Ariel Schalit/AP)

The brief exchange was part of an exceptionally warm welcome for Mr Pence in Israel, which has praised the Trump administrations decision last month to recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital.

The decision, though, has infuriated the Palestinians, with whom Mr Pence is not meeting, and upset Americas Arab allies as well.

My friend, @VP Mike Pence, welcome to Jerusalem  the capital of Israel. pic.twitter.com/kJS6NPzRpo  Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) January 22, 2018

Mr Pence placed his right hand over his heart as an honour guard greeted him with the American national anthem.

White House Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt, US ambassador David Friedman and the Israeli ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer, joined the ceremony and Mr Pence chatted briefly with Israeli soldiers before beginning his meeting with Mr Netanyahu.

Mr Pence said he was grateful to be representing Mr Trump and that his decision to designate Jerusalem as the Israeli capital would create an opportunity to move on in good faith negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The vice president said he was hopeful we are at the dawn of a new era of renewed discussions to achieve a peaceful resolution to a decades-long conflict.

Prior to his arrival, Mr Pence visited Egypt and Jordan, where he was warned by King Abdullah II that he had to rebuild trust and confidence after the Jerusalem move.

Mr Pence is set to deliver a speech to the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, later in the day.
A young Irish man who died in Ecuador in a kayaking accident has been described as an absolute gentleman.

Alex McGourty, 19, from Sligo was fulfilling his dreams kayaking in the country when he died after getting into difficulty in the river Abanico.

A second Irish man, David Higgins, who had been kayaking with Mr McGourty and a group of three others, has been reported missing.

Tributes followed the death of a young man in a kayaking accident (Chris Radburn/PA)

Sligo Kayak Club, of which Mr McGourty was a trainee instructor, said the young man died while fulfilling his dreams, kayaking in Ecuador.

In a post on Facebook the club said they believe the whole team had been caught by a flash flood.

The club added: It is with profound sadness we announce the passing of club member and trainee-instructor Alex McGourty. Alex tragically died while fulfilling his dreams, kayaking in Ecuador.

The club would like to extend our deepest and heartfelt sympathies to Alexs parents Frankie and Eilish, his family and his friends. Alex will be greatly missed by all in Sligo Kayak Club.

He was one of the finest young men we had the honour of knowing and paddling with.

The club also said their prayers go out to Mr Higgins and his family.

He is currently missing as well as two Ecuadorians. Their empty kayaks have been found. One member of the expedition has been found alive.

We believe the whole team was caught by a flash flood in a very remote part of Ecuador, they added.

Our sympathies to the family of Alex McGourty who has died tragically following his dreams in South America. We are deeply saddened by this news.



Alex was an absolute gentleman and a massive credit to his parents. pic.twitter.com/8ZUu0cOPKP  Call of the Wild (@callofthewild1) January 21, 2018

Call Of The Wild activity store, of which Mr McGourty was an ambassador, Tweeted of their sadness at the news of his death.

Our sympathies to the family of Alex McGourty who has died tragically following his dreams in South America. We are deeply saddened by this news.

Alex was an absolute gentleman and a massive credit to his parents, the store said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs in Ireland said it was aware of both cases and that consular assistance was being provided.

Mr McGourty is a past pupil of Summer Hill College in Sligo.

In 2016 he received a one-year scholarship to the World Class Kayak Academy in Washington.
This week we are hearing from a partnership between the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (@MASchoolsK12 ) and the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data on Education Research (CALDER, @caldercenter ) at the American Institutes for Research (AIR, @Education_AIR ). This post is by James Cowan, Dan Goldhaber (@CEDR_US ), and Roddy Theobald from CALDER.

Todays post is written from the researcher perspective. Stay tuned: Thursday we will share the practitioners perspective on this research.

Teacher quality is the mantra of the day, and with good reason. In Figure 1 below, we show that repeated exposure to more effective teachers (defined here as a teacher who is more effective than 60% of other teachers) can have a profound effect on the learning trajectories of children. Given this, it makes good sense that policymakers interested in closing well-documented achievement gaps should pay attention to inequities in the distribution of teacher quality across districts, schools, and classrooms.

SOURCE: Cowan, J., Goldhaber, D., & Theobald, R. (2017). Teacher equity gaps in Massachusetts. //www.doe.mass.edu/research/reports/2017/10teacher-equity.pdf .

Concerns about equity in teacher assignments have been fueled, in part, by academic research from states like Florida , North Carolina , and Washington that document substantial teacher equity gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students. These findings are echoed in the recent policy brief we prepared for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) that examines student assignments to teachers for K-12 students and illustrates that low income students are systematically exposed to less experienced and less effective (as measured by performance evaluations and value added) teachers than their peers. For instance, low income students in Massachusetts are more than twice as likely as non low income students to have teachers earning the lowest two ratings on their teacher evaluations. Given the importance of teacher quality (illustrated in Figure 1), this inequity has important implications for the educational opportunities of disadvantaged students in Massachusetts.

But our work with Massachusetts differs from the various academic publications documenting teacher distribution in key ways. Thats because we work with Massachusetts within a research-practice partnership context, having formed a long-term partnership with ESEs Office of Planning and Research. This means thatdifferent from academic researchthe work was driven by a clear interest in this topic from ESE and findings are being used to help find solutions (more on this in their blog post to follow on Thursday). It also means that the development and dissemination of this policy brief differed substantially from how academic research is often carried out. Indeed, we can say this first-hand, having recently published an academic paper on the exact same topic (using data from North Carolina and Washington) in American Educational Research Journal (AERJ). For this brief, we worked with ESE to identify possible policy solutions that had backing in empirical research and would most resonate with their audience of district leaders. And the brief had a built-in dissemination channel through the states reporting on teacher equity.

The goals of the two types of work also differ. When we prepare academic research, our goal is often to produce results that are sufficiently novel, robust, and generalizable that they contribute to the larger body of knowledge in a given area. In the case of our academic research in North Carolina and Washington, we were fortunate to receive expert reviews from three external reviewers at AERJ that pushed us to ensure that our results were robust to different models and assumptions. For example, we were asked to estimate value added in a number of different ways (e.g., controlling for classmate characteristics, controlling for multiple years of prior performance, etc.) to ensure that our results reflected true differences in teacher effectiveness and were not driven by the way we were estimating teacher effectiveness. These specification checks all pointed to the same conclusioni.e., that disadvantaged students consistently had less effective teachers in both statesand thus strengthened the generalizability of the resulting academic paper.

In partnership research, on the other hand, our goal is produce results that are useful to the partnering organization. This does not mean that this policy brief did not get the kind of careful statistical attention and robustness checks that went into the AERJ paper, but the various econometric models are not nearly so well-documented in the research brief. Instead, we sought to ensure that the partnership work with ESE met their needs through regular back-and-forth throughout the research process that led to subtle but important changes in the questions, analysis, and framing of results. For example, the convention in academic work is to display results in terms of standard deviations of student performance, but in response to feedback from our partners in ESE, we re-framed these results in the policy brief to focus on weeks of student learning (e.g., see Figure 1) because they believed this would be more interpretable to policymakers and practitioners in the state.

As researchers we generally seek out opportunities to contribute to public debates through novel empirical evidence. But the partnership work served as an important reminder to us that research does not need to be novel to be useful. In this case, while the policy brief largely replicates existing findings, this type of evidence is vital to our partners in ESE because they want to ensure that their policy decisions are informed by research that is specific to the Massachusetts context. Partnership work represents a different type of contribution, but it may be a type that is every bit as (or perhaps more) likely to affect the lives of the students that we hope to help through research.
An 11-month-old boy at the centre of a High Court life-support treatment fight is profoundly disabled and will not improve, a doctor has told a judge.

Specialists at Kings College Hospital in London say giving further intensive care treatment to Isaiah Haastrup is futile, burdensome and not in his best interests.

Isaiahs mother, Takesha Thomas, and father Lanre Haastrup, who are both 36 and from London, want treatment to continue.

Isaiah Haastrup with his aunt Dahlia Thomas (Irwin Mitchell/PA)

Mr Justice MacDonald is overseeing a trial in the Family Division of the High Court in London.

A specialist treating Isaiah said the little boy had suffered catastrophic brain damage due to being deprived of oxygen at birth.

He told the judge that Isaiah was in a low level of consciousness, did not respond to stimulation and could not move independently.

I have seen no significant change in Isaiahs condition, the specialist added. It is my opinion he will not improve.

The specialist said Isaiah was profoundly disabled.

He said the little boy could not breath independently and that evidence suggested that he was experiencing pain.

Barrister Fiona Paterson, who is representing Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust at hearings, has told Mr Justice MacDonald that Isaiah was born at Kings College Hospital on February 18 2017.

She said he was ventilator-dependent and being cared for in a paediatric intensive care unit.

Doctors did not think there were any further investigations or forms of treatment which would benefit him.

She said nobody could understand the pain and suffering Isaiahs parents had endured.

But she said overwhelming medical evidence showed that stopping treatment was in Isaiahs best interests.

Mr Justice MacDonald is hearing evidence at a private trial.

He says the case can be reported but has ruled that medics involved in Isaiahs care cannot be identified.

The hearing continues.
Police have launched a week-long crackdown on uninsured drivers across Scotland.

Officers will be working with the Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB) to identify people behind the wheel who do not have correct coverage.

Operation Drive Insured Scotland, which runs between Monday and Sunday, will see police use the companys database to look up policies and potentially seize vehicles if the terms are not up to standard.

The operation will run between Monday and Sunday (Joe Giddens/PA)

Chief Superintendent Stewart Carle, head of road policing, said: Officers will be using the latest intelligence to target potential uninsured drivers and hotspots, and by doing this we hope to minimise the inconvenience caused to the general public while maximising the effectiveness of the operation.

Ultimately, the honest motorist is penalised by having to pay higher premiums as a result of claims arising from uninsured losses.

We are committed to achieving the Scottish Governments 2020 casualty reduction targets.

MIB states that more than 29,000 people are injured every year by uninsured drivers, and so Police Scotland will continue to target uninsured drivers, as they present an unnecessary risk to other road users.

We're advising drivers to check they have valid car insurance - @polscotrpu's #OpDriveInsured week of action starts today!  Police Scotland (@policescotland) January 22, 2018

MIBs database shows Scotlands worst offending postcodes to be FK14, EH25 and EH28.

Throughout the week, officers will use the MIB Police Helpline to confirm the insurance status of a vehicle while standing at the roadside with the driver.

If none is identified, or if police have concerns about the validity of the policy, the vehicle can be seized.

Where the vehicle is being used outside of insurance terms, MIB shares this information with the insurer so they can address the matter with the policyholder.

Paul Bennett, MIBs national police liaison officer, said: Police Scotland are extremely pro-active about tackling uninsured driving. In the last three years alone they have seized nearly 23,000 uninsured vehicles.

A simple check of your policy before taking to the road can mean you avoid having that unnecessary encounter with a police officer.
The exiled former leader of the Maldives has said this years presidential election could be the last chance to extricate his country from increasing Chinese influence, which he described as a land grab in the guise of investments in island development.

Mohamed Nasheed told reporters in Sri Lankas capital Colombo that current President Yameen Abdul Gayoom has opened the doors to Chinese investment without any regard for procedure or transparency.

A large emerging power is busy buying up the Maldives, Mr Nasheed said on Monday, explaining that he was referring to China.

China is buying up our lands, buying up our key infrastructure and effectively buying up our sovereignty, he said.

Mohamed Nasheed hopes he will be allowed to run in the election (Eranga Jayawardena/AP)

China considers Maldives to be a key cog in the Indian Ocean in its One Belt One Road project along ancient trade routes through the Indian Ocean and Central Asia.

The initiative is Chinese president Xi Jinpings signature project and envisages building ports, railways and roads to expand trade in a vast arc of countries across Asia, Africa and Europe.

Mr Nasheed is disqualified from contesting the presidency this year due to a prison sentence. He is now living in exile in Britain after going there for medical treatment while in prison.

Mr Nasheed said he is awaiting a decision from the UN Human Rights Committee, which he hopes will ask the Maldivian government to allow him to run in the election. His trial on terrorism charges and 13-year prison sentence in 2015 drew widespread international criticism for an alleged lack of due process.

The UN working group on arbitrary detention said Mr Nasheeds sentencing was unlawful.

Mr Nasheed became the archipelago states first democratically elected president 10 years ago, ending a 30-year autocratic rule. However, he resigned in 2012 after public protests for ordering the arrest of a senior judge.

He lost the 2013 presidential election to Mr Gayoom.

Maldives democratic gains have largely diminished under Mr Gayooms presidency, with all of his potential election opponents either jailed or in exile. Mr Nasheed says the opposition parties are in discussion to field a common candidate if he is unable to run.

President Yameen wants a coronation; not an election. We wont let that happen, he said.

There was no immediate comment from the Maldives government.
Novak Djokovic suffered a recurrence of his elbow problems and was beaten in the fourth round of the Australian Open by an inspired Chung Hyeon.

The 21-year-old Korean showed Djokovic-like powers of defence and a steely nerve at the big moments to take advantage of his opponents troubles and win 7-6 (7/4) 7-5 7-6 (7/3).

Djokovic arrived at Melbourne Park unsure of how his body and his game would hold up having not played since Wimbledon because of the elbow issue.

South Koreas Chung Hyeon stunned Novak Djokovic to reach his first grand slam quarter-final (Andy Brownbill/AP)

"When I was young I just tried to copy Novak (Djokovic) because he was my idol."



- Hyeon #Chung #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/zeyAjA6Rx0  #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 22, 2018

It was a mixed bag over the first three rounds, with his remodelled service action at times vulnerable, but there had been no clue his elbow had been a problem until he called for the trainer after losing the opening set 7-4 to Chung on a tie-break.

Djokovic had fought back from a horrible start, in which he served four consecutive double faults and lost the first four games, to make it 6-6 but then played a wild tie-break.

The pain and frustration was evident as Djokovic then lost the opening three games of the second set, swiping angrily at the ball and making no effort to chase down several shots.

Welcome to the big time Hyeon #Chung! 



Our six-time champion Novak #Djokovic bows out of the #AusOpen d by the world No.58 in straight sets 7-6(4) 7-5 7-6(3) after 3hrs 21mins. pic.twitter.com/lETvt3JPJC  #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 22, 2018

All of which was to take nothing away from 21-year-old Chung, who is enjoying his best run at a slam and knocked out fellow young star Alexander Zverev in the last round.

The Korean won the inaugural Next Gen Finals in Zverevs absence in November and, if he can continue this form, could be challenging for the biggest titles very soon, perhaps even this fortnight.

He will certainly be favourite in the next round against American Tennys Sandgren, an even more unlikely quarter-finalist following his upset of Dominic Thiem.

To his credit, Djokovic refocused and fought back to level at 4-4 in the second only for Chung to force a set point and take it after a memorable rally where he repelled everything the six-time champion could throw at him before Djokovic netted.

The Serbian at times looked like the old Djokovic but too often, and especially at big moments, he threw in uncharacteristic errors that betrayed turmoil in his mind. He fought back from 3-1 down in the third set and should have broken for 4-3 only to miss a volley with the whole court open.

Chung, meanwhile, looked completely nerveless on the biggest stage of his career and held firm to force another tie-break.

A quiet character, he was whipping up the crowd after winning another superb point with a forehand pass to lead 5-3 and when Djokovic drove a backhand wide on the Chungs first match point, the upset was complete.
The speaker of Catalonias parliament has proposed former regional leader Carles Puigdemont as candidate to form a government, despite his status as a fugitive from Spanish justice.

Mr Puigdemont arrived in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, on Monday to talk at a university there and meet Danish politicians.

It is his first trip outside Belgium since he left Spain dodging a judicial investigation into an illegal, and unsuccessful, independence declaration in late October.

Spains state prosecutor is seeking his arrest in Denmark. A Spanish judge is yet to rule on the European warrant.

Roger Torrent speaking to the media in Barcelona (Manu Fernandez/AP)

Catalan parliament speaker Roger Torrent said Mr Puigdemont is the only candidate with enough backing to attempt a government following regional elections last month.

Mr Torrent said he has asked Spains prime minister Mariano Rajoy to meet and talk about the abnormal situation in Catalonia.

Spains foreign minister has said for the moment Mr Puigdemont is free to move in Europe outside of Spain, adding his arrest was a matter for judges to decide.

Madrids foreign minister Alfonso Dastis said in Brussels that Mr Puigdemont is subject to a process in Spain. Outside, for the moment, his movements are free within the European Union, but well see.
A Spanish judge has rejected a prosecutors request for Denmark to detain fugitive Catalan ex-leader Carles Puigdemont.

The decision came as politicians in Catalonia proposed former regional leader Mr Puigdemont as candidate to form a government, despite his status as a fugitive from Spanish justice.

Mr Puigdemont arrived in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, on Monday to talk at a university there and meet Danish politicians. It marks his first trip outside Belgium since he left Spain dodging a judicial investigation into an illegal, and unsuccessful, independence declaration in late October.
A man accused of carrying out the Finsbury Park attack decided to take matters into his own hands after growing angry at a rise in terrorism and the Rotherham child exploitation scandal, a court has heard.

Darren Osborne, 48, allegedly mowed down Makram Ali, 51, and nine other people on a crowded pavement with a heavy Luton box van near two mosques in north London shortly after 12.15am on June 19 last year.

The area was busy with worshippers attending Ramadan night prayers at the time, the jury at Woolwich Crown Court was told.

File court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Darren Osborne

Opening the trial on Monday, prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC told the court: The prosecution say that the evidence establishes that the defendant was trying to kill as many of the group as possible.

In the event, he killed one person, a 51-year-old man called Makram Ali, and in addition he injured many others, some of them seriously.

He added: To seek to kill someone merely because of their religion is a terrible thing.

And what makes this act particularly horrific is that the group he drove into had gathered in the street in order to help Makram Ali, the deceased, who had collapsed as he walked along Seven Sisters Road a couple of minutes before the defendant carried out his attack.

Makram Ali

Osborne, of Glyn Rhosyn, in Cardiff, is charged with the murder of Mr Ali and attempted murder of persons at the junction of Seven Sisters Road and Whadcoat Street, London, which he denies.

The defendant had driven from Cardiff to London the previous day originally intending to drive the van into people taking part in the Al Quds Day march, but began looking for another target when this did not prove viable, the court heard.

A handwritten note was found in the cab of the van within hours of the attack, which complained about terrorists on the streets and the Rotherham child exploitation scandal, Mr Rees said.

The note, which branded Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn a terrorist sympathiser and attacked London Mayor Sadiq Khan, included the comments: This is happening up and down our green and pleasant land.

Ferral inbred, raping Muslim men, hunting in packs, preying on our children.

It added: Get back to the desert you raping inbred bastards and climb back onto your camels.

Mr Rees told the jury: The underlying theme seems to be that the defendant felt that insufficient was being said or done to counter terrorism and the grooming gangs comprising predominantly Muslim males.

Against that background, the defendant decided to take matters into his own hands. He planned to make a public statement by killing Muslims, knowing that his handwritten note would be recovered by the authorities.

He added: Although there is no terrorist offence for you to consider in this case, the prosecution say that the note and the comments he made after his detention establish that this act of extreme violence was, indeed, an act of terrorism.

That was the motivation behind it, designed to influence government and intimidate the Muslim community, and done for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, ideological or racial cause.
US vice president Mike Pence has strongly urged the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table.

In a speech to the Israeli parliament, Mr Pence said on Monday that peace can only come through dialogue.

The Palestinians have angrily protested against the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital and say the US cannot be trusted as a mediator. They have said they will reject any peace plan the Trump administration presents.

Mr Pence told Israels parliament, the Knesset, that Israel can be confident the US will never compromise Israels security.

Mr Pence also said the United States will open its embassy in Jerusalem next year, ahead of schedule.

My friend, @VP Mike Pence, welcome to Jerusalem  the capital of Israel. pic.twitter.com/kJS6NPzRpo  Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) January 22, 2018

He defended the controversial decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital, which has been condemned by the Palestinians and their Arab allies.

Mr Pence said the administration will advance its plan in the coming weeks and the embassy will open by the end of 2019. Previous estimates had been the move would take three or four years.

Arab politicians were thrown out for heckling Mr Pence at the start of his speech.

The main Arab party in the Israeli parliament had warned it would boycott Mr Pence

The Knesset, which is accustomed to such high-profile visits, had added a new layer of security, and besides the speaker and other dignitaries, politicians did not have direct access to Pence.

Mr Pence earlier said it was an honour to be in Israels capital, Jerusalem as he met the countrys prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mr Netanyahu told Mr Pence it was the first time a visiting dignitary could utter those three words along with him, and he thanked Mr Pence for President Donald Trumps historic recognition of Jerusalem.

The Israeli leader also lauded the American-Israeli alliance, which he said has never been stronger.

The brief exchange was part of an exceptionally warm welcome for Mr Pence in Israel, which has praised the Trump administrations decision last month to recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital.

Palestinian protesters vent their anger at Mike Pences visit (Majdi Mohammed/AP)

The decision, though, has infuriated the Palestinians, with whom Mr Pence is not meeting, and upset Americas Arab allies as well.

Mr Pence placed his right hand over his heart as an honour guard greeted him with the American national anthem.

White House Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt, US ambassador David Friedman and the Israeli ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer, joined the ceremony and Mr Pence chatted briefly with Israeli soldiers before beginning his meeting with Mr Netanyahu.

Mr Pence said he was grateful to be representing Mr Trump and that his decision to designate Jerusalem as the Israeli capital would create an opportunity to move on in good faith negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The vice president said he was hopeful we are at the dawn of a new era of renewed discussions to achieve a peaceful resolution to a decades-long conflict.
Felix xQc Lengyel, a tank player for the Dallas Fuel Overwatch League team, has been banned for the remainder of the first stage of competition after making homophobic remarks on his personal Twitch stream.

The Overwatch League itself announced a four-game punishment and a $2,000 fine but the organisation to which xQc is contracted, Dallas Fuel, imposed its own sanctions, thus extending the suspension for the remainder of the first stage.

The youngster has been reprimanded after launching a foul-mouthed tirade towards Houston Outlaws tank Austin Muma Wilmot on his personal Twitch stream following a league loss to the Outlaws.

The Overwatch League announced a four-game punishment and a $2,000 fine for Felix Lengyel

Muma is one of the Leagues only openly gay players and the Overwatch League has continued to come down hard on those that breach the code of conduct.

Before our match begins, we would like to issue this statement regarding @overwatchleague's decision to suspend @xQc. #burnblue pic.twitter.com/26ffHaPPEz  Dallas Fuel (@DallasFuel) January 20, 2018

The Fuel released a statement in which it vowed to continue to work with Lengyel to help him improve as a player who is reflective of the principles of the Dallas Fuel organisation, his team-mates, and of the Overwatch League.

It added no-one wants to see Felix succeed more than we do. It is our hope that he can return to the team with the passion, competitiveness and focus that it takes to play in the Overwatch League. The suspension means Lengyel will return to league play at the end of February at the earliest.

The Dallas Fuel is currently propping up the league table having failed to win a single match of its first four. The only other team yet to have recorded a victory is the Shanghai Dragons, which also boasts an undesirable 0-4 record after the first two weeks of the inaugural season.

The Overwatch League is, to date, esports largest franchise league. Investors paid as much as $20,000,000 for a spot in Blizzards new league and as such players and teams are required to operate under a strict code of conduct. It is of no real surprise that both the Overwatch League and Dallas Fuel sanctioned xQc accordingly.
Authorities in Davos, Switzerland, have rejected a request by left-wing groups to stage a protest during the World Economic Forum, saying heavy snowfall means there is not enough space.

Davos officials said in a statement on Monday that the extremely tight space situation due to the enormous amount of new snow doesnt allow for a rally in the coming days.

Members of Switzerlands Social Democratic Party and Green Party had requested permission to stage a protest on Thursday.

The Alpine resorts inability to cope with the mid-winter glut of snow means that protesters will not get to stage their demonstration on the day US President Donald Trump is due to arrive at the meeting of top political and economic leaders on Friday.

A Swiss police officer on duty at Davos (Markus Schreiber/AP)

The Swiss military is stationing 4,377 troops in and around Davos, Switzerland, to provide security for this years meetings at the World Economic Forum, which is set to be headlined by Mr Trump.

General Aldo Schellenberg said the number was not changed following the announcement that Mr Trump would be the first serving US president to attend in nearly 20 years. He also said the security detail is similar to that provided in the past few years.

Around 93% of the military on display are conscripts. The Swiss air force is providing 2,580 troops, while 1,600 are infantry and 187 are from the military police.

In light of the heavy snow that is falling around Davos, military and police officials are not sure how many people are preparing to protest against Mr Trumps visit.

There is some uncertainty about Mr Trumps attendance, however, in light of the US government shutdown in Washington.

The founder of the World Economic Forum said he hopes Mr Trumps planned visit to a gathering of world decision-makers and elites in Davos later this week will provide him even better with a global perspective.

Delegates arriving at Davos (Markus Schreiber/AP)

Klaus Schwab said: Its good to have the president here, if the snow conditions and the situation in Washington allow us.

The White House has said Mr Trump plans to detail his America First policy in Davos. More than 60 heads of state and government, plus hundreds of business leaders, academics, policy advocates and celebrities are expected for the Tuesday-Friday meeting.
A Spanish judge has refused to ask Danish authorities to arrest ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, who is in Copenhagen to attend a university debate and meet politicians.

Supreme Court Judge Pablo Llarena rejected the countrys prosecutors petition to issue a European arrest warrant, saying Mr Puigdemont was seeking to provoke his arrest overseas.

Mr Puigdemonts trip came nearly three months after he fled to Belgium, dodging a Spanish investigation after the Catalan parliaments secession declaration on Oct. 27.

Shortly after his arrival in Denmark, Catalonias parliamentary speaker proposed him as candidate to form a new government, despite his status as a fugitive.

Mr Llarena said on Monday, with the trip to Denmark and the risk of arrest that that brought, Mr Puigdemont was seeking to blame on Spain his absence from the Catalan parliament vote where a new regional leader needs to be elected.

Facing the legal impossibility to be elected without being present at the Parliament, provoking his arrest overseas seeks to equip him with a justification that his absence is not a free decision as a fugitive, but the consequence of a situation that has been imposed on him, wrote the judge in his decision rejecting the prosecutors request to re-activate a European arrest warrant for Mr Puigdemont.

Roger Torrent speaking to the media in Barcelona (Manu Fernandez/AP)

Spanish courts initially sought Mr Puigdemonts extradition from Belgium but cancelled that petition amid concerns Belgium might send him back but restrict the crimes with which he could be charged.

The push for independence by the Catalan government, while Mr Puigdemont was regional president, triggered Spains most serious political crisis in decades. Spain ousted Mr Puigdemonts Cabinet, dissolved the regional parliament and called the December regional elections as part of special powers invoked following the independence declaration.

He and his 13 former Cabinet members face possible charges of rebellion, sedition and embezzlement, which carry jail sentences of up to 30 years under Spanish law.

Despite Mr Puigdemonts legal situation, Catalan parliamentary speaker Roger Torrent said on Monday that the former president was the only candidate with enough backing to attempt a new government following the election last month.

Arribat a #Kbenhavn. A les 14h participo al debat "Catalonia and Europe at a crossroads for democracy" a la @uni_copenhaguen. Ho podreu seguir en directe a https://t.co/eHsgSGp5r4 pic.twitter.com/AdQ8I0dgsI  Carles Puigdemont (@KRLS) January 22, 2018

Mr Torrent said he has written to Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy to request a meeting to talk about the abnormal situation in Catalonia.

But a government official close to Mr Rajoy said the central government had no intention of discussing judicial affairs with the Catalan speaker.

Spanish foreign minister Alfonso Dastis had said the issue of how to proceed with Mr Puigdemont was for judges, and not the government, to decide.

Mr Puigdemont is subject to a process in Spain. Outside, for the moment, his movements are free within the European Union, but well see, Mr Dastis said in Brussels.
Princess Eugenies engagement ring contains the rarest of all sapphires  and is perhaps a tribute to her mother.

Eugenie, who is to wed long-term boyfriend Jack Brooksbank, showed off the ring at Buckingham Palace in official photographs marking their forthcoming wedding.

Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank in the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace (Jonathan Brady/PA)

Her ring  an oval padparadscha sapphire surrounded by diamonds, set on a gold band  is strikingly similar in shape and design to Sarah, Duchess of Yorks engagement ring.

But while the duchesss central stone was a red ruby, Eugenies is a pink sapphire.

Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, wearing her ruby and diamond ring, on the day of their engagement announcement in 1986 (PA)

Recognisable by its pinkish-orange colour, the padparadscha is the rarest of all sapphires and usually comes from Sri Lanka.

According to the Natural Sapphire Company: Nothing brings to mind blooming flowers like padparadscha sapphires.

Named after the colour of a Lotus blossom, the pinkish orange glow of these stones are hypnotising.

Eugenie is close to her mother. The duchess split from the Duke of York in 1992 and they divorced in 1996, but remained good friends, prompting speculation they might one day remarry.

In 1986, Andrew gave Sarah Ferguson, as she was then known, the ring when he proposed, and chose the Burmese ruby to match her red hair.
A serious organised crime gang involved in drugs, firearm trafficking and torture have given jail terms of up to nearly 16 years.

Judge Lord Beckett said police had uncovered sophisticated, serious, and organised crime involving an arsenal of deadly weapons.

The High Court in Glasgow heard the gang imported huge quantities of class A drugs, acting as wholesalers to other dealers.



Prosecutors previously told how the group was at the top of the chain for drugs transactions in the UK but defence lawyers said the powers behind this were not in the dock.

Lord Beckett praised the `ingenuity and courage of officers who carried out months of surveillance (John Linton/PA)

Nine men pleaded guilty earlier to charges involving serious criminal activity, including firearms, drug dealing and violence, spanning 2013 to 2017.

The court heard the gang would package and hide substantial amounts of cash for taking to senior group members, who were involved in firearms trafficking to enforce their operations and were connected to the assault of a drug dealer and shots being fired at an Edinburgh home.

Lord Beckett said: Theres no doubt the police uncovered the workings of sophisticated, serious and organised crime.

He praised the ingenuity and courage of officers who carried out months of surveillance and found the gang would use vehicles and a network of industrial premises let under false names and addresses.

Following the sentencing today, Monday 22 January 2018, at the High Court in Glasgow of nine men accused of being involved in Serious Organised Crime, we hear from Detective Chief Superintendent Gerry McLean, head of Organised Crime and Counter Terrorism. pic.twitter.com/or6UCiRt74  Police Scotland (@policescotland) January 22, 2018

The court heard officers seized more than 1,000 items including encrypted mobile phones, counter-surveillance equipment, automatic pistols, machine guns and a grenade and around 1.6 million in cash.

David Sell, 50, was given the longest sentence of 15 years and eight months after admitting being involved in the abduction, although his lawyer stressed his limited involvement in the incident.

The court heard how the victim agreed to a drug deal but later found himself in debt to the group and fled to England where he was traced, seriously assaulted, chained up, put in a van and driven back to Scotland.

There he was punched, kicked, whipped with a chain, hit with a sledgehammer, sprayed with bleach and shot three times in the knees before being found by members of the public after being pushed down a hill.

Lord Beckett said while Sell was not physically involved in the worst acts of violence he facilitated brutal and merciless torture.

He jailed Anthony Woods, 44, for 11 years and one month, Francis Mulligan, 41, to eight years and 324 days, and Michael Bowman, 30, for seven years, saying they were involved in organising vehicles and premises for organised crime on a grand scale  with the former two also possessing an arsenal of deadly weapons.

They were responsible for bringing fear and misery to communities across Scotland and we welcome the fact that they have been brought to justice and will no longer to able to continue their criminal activities."  Police Scotland (@policescotland) January 22, 2018

Mulligans lawyer, Donald Findlay QC, told the court: Those who were the powers behind this, and the organisers and those who would principally benefit are not here, a position echoed by Woods lawyer.

Gerard Docherty, 42, who shots a home in the Ratho area of Edinburgh with a submachine gun, was said by his lawyer to be totally out of his depth, was jailed for 10 years and six months.

Former soldier Martyn Fitzsimmons, 37, was out on licence for a 12 year sentence in England for procuring explosives and weapons on the day he was found in possession of a semi-automatic weapon, ammunition and 36,000 and was sentenced to 10 years and six months.

Barry ONeil, 37, was jailed for seven years and four months for his involvement in drug trafficking while Mark Richardson, 30, who has two previous High Court convictions for drugs, was sentenced to eight years and nine months.

Steven McArdle, 33, who had a semi-automatic weapon, was jailed for seven years and 100 days.
Bordeaux and their new manager Gus Poyet have ruled out winger Malcom leaving the club in January.

The 20-year-old Brazilian is a reported target for north London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham but Les Girondins, who appointed former Brighton and Sunderland manager Poyet on Saturday to succeed Jocelyn Gourvennec, are standing firm.

Poyet revealed as he was unveiled to the media on Monday that the future of Malcom was a key topic during his interview for the job.

Gus Poyet wanted assurances over Malcom before talking terms with Bordeaux (Owen Humphreys/PA)

I asked straight away if Malcom would be staying or not, he told LEquipe.

They said yes. I said OK, now we can continue the discussion.

Club president Stephane Martin reiterated that stance on Monday.

Malcom, it has been said and said again, he will not be leaving, he said.

He has said he wants to play in the Premier League one day. That is normal  what player wouldnt want to play in England?

There is no problem with Malcom.

Poyets arrival has been met with scepticism by sections of the clubs fanbase but he is looking forward to winning them over.

I am very happy, its a big club, he said.

I saw the (1-0 win) against Nantes, not an easy match. Eric (Bedouet, interim manager) did an exceptional job. I hope there will be more wins.

I have watched a lot of games on video but I will learn a lot about the players, starting today.

We have a big match on Sunday (against Lyon). The best way to win the supporters over is to win matches.
Belfasts St Patricks Day festival should become a three-day weekend event to rival some of the worlds largest cities, a report from Feile an Phobail said.

The West Belfast community organisation criticised what it called a lack of ambition in the current offering, and said Irish talent like Snow Patrol or Ash should replace X Factor concert performances.

A new Irish Food and Drink Festival at St Georges Market would run alongside as Belfast learns from cities like New York, Dublin and Birmingham, the review published by Belfast City Council said.

People enjoy the St Patricks day parade through Belfast city centre

The Feile report said: The research would suggest that Belfast currently lacks ambition with its St Patricks Day celebrations, and through partnership work, and increased investment, Belfast could go on to rival some of the largest cities in the world with a new, ambitious and an economically-driven St Patricks Day Festival.

The report was prepared by the group which organises the annual Feile an Phobail event in west Belfast.

It highlighted the numbers of visitors attending St Patricks Day parades in Dublin and New York and the amount of public investment in those events.

The review said the economic benefits from Belfasts parade, concert and associated festivities were beyond doubt, as the city fills with visitors every year.

But it suggested expanding the celebrations to encourage the night time economy and produce more extended or overnight stays in the city.

Performers take part in the annual St Patricks Day parade in Belfast

It called for greater emphasis on music and dance, St Patricks Day-themed tours and more performance art alongside concerts and parades.

The report added: There is a feeling, however, that more can be done to make the experience authentic, especially the concert at Customs House Square.

There is a preference for current Irish bands such as Picture This, Snow Patrol, etc  this type of act would be more authentic than the X Factor performers that come across to perform.

The parade could possibly be themed and participants could be challenged to come up with their interpretation of that theme on an annual basis.

Last year unionist and Sinn Fein councillors clashed over proposals to develop St Patricks Day celebrations in Belfast.

The Progressive Unionist Partys John Kyle said often the event was a cold house for unionists.
The speaker of Catalonias parliament has proposed former regional leader Carles Puigdemont as candidate to form a government, despite his status as a fugitive from Spanish justice.

Mr Puigdemont arrived in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, on Monday to talk at a university there and meet Danish politicians.

It is his first trip outside Belgium since he left Spain dodging a judicial investigation into an illegal, and unsuccessful, independence declaration in late October.

Roger Torrent, speaker of Catalan Parliament attends a press conference at the Catalonia Parliament in Barcelona (Manu Fernandez/AP)

Spains state prosecutor is seeking his arrest in Denmark. A Spanish judge is yet to rule on the European warrant.

Catalan parliament speaker Roger Torrent said that Mr Puigdemont is the only candidate with enough backing to attempt a government following regional elections last month.

Mr Torrent said he has asked Spains prime minister Mariano Rajoy to meet and talk about the abnormal situation in Catalonia.
Efforts to tackle Dublins bloody gangland feud will be hampered by cuts to Garda resources, the government has been warned.

Fianna Fails Jim OCallaghan said any reduction in resources will benefit, and possibly even aid the activity of feuding crime gangs.

His comments come amid concern of a further escalation of violence following the shooting of Derek Hutch in the city on Saturday.

Gardai are continuing their hunt for the gunman behind Saturdays attack (Niall Carson/PA)

The 27-year-old father is believed to be the 14th victim of the ongoing Hutch-Kinahan feud.

Latest Dublin shooting highlights need to maintain Garda resources to take on gangland crime  @OCallaghanJim https://t.co/NGbW54pGs0 pic.twitter.com/kXIfuPLIpQ  Fianna Fail (@fiannafailparty) January 22, 2018

Garda resources and overtime must be maintained in order to keep tackling this feud, the Dublin Bay South TD said.

He added: The gardai have done an excellent job to date in curtailing the vicious violence of the Kinahan Hutch feud. The main reason for this has been the increased Garda presence on the ground over recent months.

However, Mr OCallaghan warned that Garda overtime cuts and a 30% reduction in high-visibility, armed Garda patrols will significantly reduce the ability of gardai to continue their fight against organised crime.

Government needs step up and recognise the fact that any Garda success in de-escalating this gangland feud is dependent upon sufficient resources being allocated to the gardai.

It is clear that any reduction in these resources will solely benefit, and possibly even aid the activity of the organised criminals who continue to inflict such terror in communities across our capital, he said.

Gardai are continuing their hunt for the gunman behind Saturdays attack.

Mr Hutch, a nephew of Gerard The Monk Hutch, was shot several times as he sat in a car at Bridgeview halting site in Ronanstown, west Dublin.

Gardai are investigating if Mr Hutch and two associates were in the area to throw a parcel of drugs over a wall at Wheatfield Prison in an organised drugs drop.

It has been reported that Mr Hutchs brother Nathan Hutch is currently an inmate at the prison.
A world-renowned female harpist has denied sexually abusing a schoolboy and told a trial that the boy sexually assaulted her while she was in the shower.



Danielle Perrett, 59, is on trial alongside her ex-fiance Richard Barton-Wood, 68, accused of sexually abusing a boy in his early teens in the 1980s.

The schoolboy, now an adult, claims Perrett took his virginity and performed a sex act on him in the shower the following morning, and that Barton-Wood indecently assaulted him on sailing trips and camping trips.

They both deny all charges.

Danielle Perrett and Richard Barton-Wood deny all charges (Clara Molden/PA)

Perrett, giving her evidence at Ipswich Crown Court, said Barton-Wood seemed to have a kind of uncle-nephew relationship with the boy, who had been a pupil at a school where he was a substitute teacher in Suffolk, but she never liked him.



She said she was horrified when Barton-Wood turned up at her flat in London with the boy.



He wasnt invited by me, I wasnt expecting him, I didnt like him, she said.



She said she was angry with Barton-Wood for bringing the boy, but reluctantly let them stay the night as it was late.



She described claims that she undressed in front of the boy in the bedroom as complete lies, and said she got changed in the shower.



Jurors were shown a full-length nightie with long sleeves and a high neck that Perrett, who was raised in a Christian household, said she wore that night.



She said nothing sexual happened that night.



She said that the following morning while she was in the shower, the boy forced himself into the shower.



He was naked but he had a condom on his penis, she said.



Asked if she said anything, she replied: I was frozen in terror and he grabbed my wrists and pushed his penis against my pubic bone.



She said Barton-Wood did not see what happened.



Sallie Bennett-Jenkins, for Perrett, asked her if the incident affected her relationship with Barton-Wood.



She replied yes, and, when asked how, said: I ended it.



In questioning, she later said: I was angry that (Barton-Wood) brought him but he couldnt have had any idea what was going to happen.



She said that the boy contacted her years later as an adult, and she felt it was menacing.



He said seeing as youre doing very nicely for yourself and youve got a very nice place here and seeing as I have nothing and seeing as I came to London to your gargantuan flat and seeing as I slept in your enormous bed, what do you think?



She added: Theres no truth in any of (these allegations) and Ive had to listen to lie upon lie.



Perrett, of Bridge Street, Alpheton, Suffolk, denies six counts of indecent assault.

Barton-Wood, of Church Street, Wymondham, Norfolk, denies seven counts of indecent assault and, one count of attempted indecent assault.



The trial continues.
Scotland Yard has suspended forcible searches of suspects mouths.

The force took the step after investigators probing the death of a young man warned officers were being given conflicting advice nationally about searching individuals suspected of placing drugs or other packages in their mouths.

Rashan Charles, 20, died in July last year after he was pursued into a shop and detained by police in Hackney, east London.

The death sparked violent clashes in the area.

We have published an update on the Rashan Charles investigation which includes details on learning identified, @cpsuk charging decision and findings from the pathologist. Our investigation is ongoing ahead of this year's inquest into Rashan's death.https://t.co/24nBvhTVFA  Independent Office for Police Conduct (@policeconduct) January 22, 2018

In an update published on Monday, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said its ongoing investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mr Charless death has identified conflicting available advice given to police nationally about searching people suspected of placing drugs or other packages in their mouths.

Some advice stated it was never appropriate to use force to search someone who may have something in their mouth due to the risk of choking  while other guidance said it may be appropriate in certain circumstances.

In September the IOPC asked the National Police Chiefs Council and the College of Policing to review their guidance urgently.

Subsequently the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has suspended searching mouths by force due to the associated risks, the watchdog added.

Rashan Charles died after being chased by police and apprehended in a shop (Jonathan Brady/PA)

Final post-mortem examination results indicate Mr Charles died of a sudden cardiac arrest brought on by a blocked upper airway.

This was, in the pathologists view, most likely caused by him attempting to swallow a plastic package that subsequent forensic testing showed contained a mixture of caffeine and paracetamol, the IOPC said.

The pathologist identified no other significant injuries to the head, neck or torso of Mr Charles that would suggest prolonged or excessive restraint in the lead up to his death.

IOPC Regional Director Jonathan Green said: It is vital we establish all of the circumstances surrounding Rashans death and our comprehensive investigation continues in advance of his inquest to be held later this year.

Last week the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) confirmed no action will be taken against an officer involved in the restraint.

Mr Charless family said they do not understand the CPSs decision.
Former Garda commissioner Noirin OSullivan has insisted that she did not seek to challenge the integrity of a whistleblower during a private inquiry into his allegations of bad policing.

On day one of her evidence to the Disclosures Tribunal, the retired police chief said she did not instruct lawyers to launch a personal attack on Sergeant Maurice McCabe at the OHiggins Commission in 2015.

Mrs OSullivan said it was about getting to the truth, and not targeting the man.

Former Garda commissioner Noirin OSullivan arrives to give evidence at the Disclosures Tribunal in Dublin Castle

I want to emphasise  I have never ever considered Sergeant Maurice McCabe to be malicious, she said.

I would have absolutely no reason to challenge or impugn his integrity in any way.

This was never ever about the man.

This was about the allegations made and testing the validity and veracity of the allegations.

The Disclosures Tribunal at Dublin Castle is investigating whether unjustified grounds were used in an attempt to discredit Mr McCabe at the private OHiggins Commission in 2015.

That inquiry examined the sergeants claims of wrongdoing among gardai in Cavan-Monaghan.

Mrs OSullivan was pressed on why lawyers acting for her told Judge Kevin OHiggins that their instructions in May 2015 were to challenge Sergeant McCabes integrity and motivation for making complaints about malpractice and corruption in the region where he worked.

When the question was first put to her at the tribunal, the former police chief said: In terms of Sergeant McCabes integrity, no.

Disclosures Tribunal chairman, Judge Peter Charleton, highlighted transcripts from the OHiggins Commission that showed Judge Kevin OHiggins was first to use the word integrity during a legal row in one of the private hearings over how Sergeant McCabe was being treated.

Mrs OSullivan also told the hearing that she was never aware of any attempt to undermine Mr McCabe.

If that was the case I would have said absolutely not, she said.

Mrs OSullivan, who retired last September, said there was never any suggestion that Sergeant McCabe had a bad motive for making his complaints.

The tribunal heard that she initially sought an adjournment of the OHiggins Commission when the issue of her instructions to lawyers first arose on a Friday evening on May 15 2015.

Mrs OSullivan had been told by her liaison officer at the inquiry, Chief Superintendent Fergus Healy, that she may be required to appear in person to clarify instructions to lawyers.

I would very much have welcomed the opportunity to go down to the (OHiggins) commission  we may not be here now  it would have cleared up all the matters on the day in question, the former commission told the Disclosures Tribunal.

Mrs OSullivan said she had a number of other major issues to deal with on that day.

A major security operation had taken place on the same day which led to three anti-terror arrests and a number seizures in connection with a suspected plot to coincide with the Prince of Wales visit to Ireland the following week.

Mrs OSullivan said she would have taken the opportunity to fulsomely and wholeheartedly deal with the issue of instructions when they were first raised or on the day that she was there to give evidence.

Earlier, she told the tribunal that she viewed the OHiggins Commission as a chance to get to the truth.

I was setting the tone from the top, Mrs OSullivan said.

The former Garda boss said it was her imperative that any whistleblower who spoke up would be supported.

Part of the Disclosure Tribunals terms of reference is considering whether a false and unfounded child sex abuse allegation made against Sgt McCabe in 2006 was used against him.

It is also investigating whether Mrs OSullivans lawyers advised that Sgt McCabes motivation should be challenged at the private inquiry despite public support for whistleblowers.

The hearing resumes on Tuesday.
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Alexis Sanchez is close to completing his move from Manchester United to Arsenal, Press Association Sport understands.

The deal, which will see Henrikh Mkhitaryan move the opposite way from Old Trafford to the Emirates Stadium, is set to be announced by the clubs in the coming hours.

It is believed most of the formalities have now been finalised with the renewal of work permits one of the last issues to be resolved before the transfers of both players are completed.

Footage of Sanchez, 29, outside the Home Office building in Liverpool emerged online on Monday afternoon. The Chile forward would have travelled there to update his work permit with details of his new employer. Mkhitaryan visited the same office.

Reports suggest Sanchez will earn close to 500,000 per week at Old Trafford, including bonuses and image rights.

United moved for the forward earlier this month when it became clear he wanted to leave Arsenal during the current transfer window rather than wait until he came out of contract in the summer.

Jose Mourinhos Manchester United were prepared to pay more than Manchester City for Sanchez (Richard Sellars/Empics)

Prior to that he had been expected to join Manchester City, who had a deal worth up to 60million accepted for Sanchez last August but could not complete a deal on transfer deadline day.

City considered bidding again in January but pulled out last week due to the rising costs involved. The Premier League leaders did not want to pay a fee of more than 20million while United were not only willing to meet Arsenals 35million asking price, but offer much higher wages.

The fee has since been cancelled out by Uniteds willingness to trade Mkhitaryan, who is valued at the same price, in a straight-swap deal.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan had a spell out of favour at Old Trafford (Martin Rickett/PA)

Sanchez has scored 80 goals in 166 appearances since joining Arsenal from Barcelona in 2014.

Mkhitaryan, 29, has played 63 times for United after arriving from Borussia Dortmund in 2016, scoring 13 goals, although he has recently struggled for game time under Jose Mourinho.

Speaking on Saturday, United boss Mourinho said the deal was so close while Arsenal counterpart Arsene Wenger claimed in the next 48 hours it will be decided one way or the other.
A senior Conservative MP has warned that the party must be bolder if it is to fight off the challenge from Jeremy Corbyns Labour at the next election.

Sir Nicholas Soames is the latest Tory backbencher to voice unease about the style of Theresa Mays administration, after former minister Nick Boles warned of timidity and lack of ambition.

The veteran Mid-Sussex MP, a former defence minister and grandson of Sir Winston Churchill, who has represented the Tories in the House of Commons since 1983, used Twitter to warn that the partys offer to voters was dull, dull, dull.

Sir Nicholas Soames MP (Andrew Matthews/PA)

In one of the extended hashtags which have become his social media trademark, Sir Nicholas asked: Wheres the bold and brave? So far, its dull, dull, dull.

It really wont be enough to get people to vote against The Corbini, warned Sir Nicholas.

They must have really sound reasons to vote Conservative.

We really need to get on with this. #wherestheboldandbravesofaritsdulldulldull.

It really wont be enough to get people to vote against The Corbini they must have really sound reasons to vote Conservative.We really need to get on with this#wherestheboldandbravesofaritsdulldulldull  Nicholas Soames (@NSoames) January 22, 2018

Sir Nicholass comments came just days after Mr Boles warned the Prime Minister it was time to raise your game and claimed her Government constantly disappoints.

The Grantham and Stamford MP tweeted at the weekend: There is a timidity and lack of ambition about Mrs Mays Government which means it constantly disappoints. Time to raise your game, Prime Minister. #worboys #HousingCrisis #NHSfunding #etcetc

There is a timidity and lack of ambition about Mrs May's Government which means it constantly disappoints. Time to raise your game, Prime Minister. #worboys #HousingCrisis #NHSfunding #etcetc  Nick Boles (@NickBoles) January 19, 2018

Asked about the concerns expressed by Mr Boles and Sir Nicholas, Mrs Mays official spokesman said: If you look at action taken by the Government in recent months, you can see it is getting on with the job of building a stronger economy and a fairer society that works for everyone.

He cited cuts in stamp duty for first-time buyers, the launch of a 25-year environment plan and an industrial strategy, plans for an energy price cap, the recently published race disparity audit and the injection of money into health, social care and schools.

Of course, we know there is more to do and the Prime Minister is committed to getting on and delivering.
So Princess Eugenie is getting married?

Heres nine facts about the forthcoming royal wedding:

1. It will all look very familiar

Prince Harrys getting married in St Georges Chapel in May, with the Queens granddaughter Eugenie choosing the same venue for her autumn wedding to long-term boyfriend Jack Brooksbank.

The wedding will take place in the Autumn of 2018 at St George's Chapel in Windsor, with further details to be announced in due course. pic.twitter.com/3oL6F6hoYG  The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) January 22, 2018

But whereas Harry and Meghan Markles nuptials will be televised and attract thousands of media and well-wishers to Windsor, Eugenies should be more low key.

2. The date has yet to be set

Eugenies father the Duke of York gave some insight into the difficult logistics of planning a royal wedding.

We cant fix a date yet, weve got to look at everyones diaries. Its a bit more complicated than that, Andrew revealed.

The Duke of York says there is more planning to do before a wedding date is set (Anna Gowthorpe/PA)

3. There might be lots of tequila at the reception

Eugenies fiance Jack Brooksbank is the UK brand ambassador for Casamigos Tequila.

The ultra premium award-winning spirit was co-founded by actor George Clooney.

4. Harrys ex will be on the guest list

Harrys ex Cressida Bonas is likely to be among the guests.

The prince will be expected to be there too  with new wife Meghan Markle.

Eugenie is close friends with Cressida, and originally introduced her to Harry.

Prince Harrys ex girlfriend Cressida Bonas, who is friends with Eugenie (Ian West/PA)

The Princess is also friends with Ellie Goulding, Sir Richard Bransons daughter Holly, model Cara Delevingne, and presenter Natalie Pinkham.

Eugenies older sister Princess Beatrice is the favourite to be one of the bridesmaids or even the maid of honour.

5. Well get to see Fergie with the Duke of Edinburgh

Eugenies mother, Sarah, Duchess of York paved the way for her exit from the royals in 1992 after the paparazzi snapped her topless having her toes sucked by her financial advisor.

Sarah  whose maiden name was Ferguson  was staying at Balmoral when the images were published, and the Windsors came across them in the morning newspapers at the breakfast table.

Sarah Ferguson on the Buckingham Palace balcony with the Queen, Prince Andrew and the Duke of Edinburgh in 1986 (PA)

Her relationship with her in-laws, particularly the Duke of Edinburgh, was left in tatters.

In recent years, the Duchess has been to Balmoral for short breaks with the Queen, Andrew, and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie  but is only thought to have stayed when Philip was away.

She was not invited to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridges wedding.

Sarah, who also wed at Westminster Abbey, later admitted: It was so difficult. Because I wanted to be there with my girls  and to be getting them dressed and to go as a family.

And it was also hard because the last bride up that aisle was me.

6. Expect more sentimental tweets from the Duchess

The Duchess has exuberantly welcomed the news of her daughters engagement.

In a series of tweets, she branded the news Total joy!!, adding: We love Jack and I am so excited to have a son, a brother and a best friend.

She said: Eugenie is one of the finest people I know and so together it will be pure harmony.

7. The cost

The taxpayer will foot the bill for police presence at Eugenies wedding, just like Harrys.

With the Queen and other senior royals attending the big day, security will be tight as the monarch and her family gather for the celebration.

8. Eugenie can still stay a Princess

Eugenie  currently eighth in line to the throne  can stay a Princess and retain her HRH title after her wedding when she marries plain Mr Brooksbank.

She would become HRH The Princess Eugenie, Mrs Jack Brooksbank.

She could, however, choose to relinquish her royal style and title on marriage, but this is thought unlikely.

Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank in the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace in London after they announced their engagement (Jonathan Brady/PA)

9. But will Jack become an Earl?

The Queen could even offer Mr Brooksbank an Earldom ahead of his wedding day, which would mean Eugenie would become a Countess.

In 2016, Andrew said there was no truth in rumours of a rift between him and the Prince of Wales over his daughters participation as members of the royal family, and insisted he had not asked for any future son-in-laws to be made Earls.
Naomi Watts and Lily Cole have paid tribute to late Brokeback Mountain actor Heath Ledger on the 10th anniversary of his death.

The Australian actor died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs in January 2008. He was 28.

Watts, who once dated Ledger, posted a picture of the late star on Instagram, saying she would never forget his gentle spirit.

Heath Ledger (PA)

She wrote: Thinking about this beautiful soul today. 10 years ago he left this world.

He was a true original. Heart always on his sleeve, with the most powerful charisma, strength, humor and talent.

I will never forget his gentle spirit. #heathledger? @wattsupphoto.

Cole appeared in Ledgers last film, The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus.

She said on Instagram: I cant believe its ten years since the world lost this most beautiful spirit.

Heath was so funny, so kind, free minded and creative, playful, so generous and a hundred other positives.

I feel lucky to have known him, and join the list of so many who miss him.
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The deal of the window so far was finally announced at 6pm as Alexis Sanchez and Henrikh Mkhitaryan traded places.

Chile forward Sanchez spent three-and-a-half years with Arsenal, where Mkhitaryan will hope to revive his career after a frustrating 18-month spell at Old Trafford.

United boss Jose Mourinho said: Alexis is one of the best attacking players in the world and he will complete our very young and talented group of attacking players.

He will bring his ambition, drive and personality, qualities that make a Manchester United player and a player that makes the team stronger and the supporters proud of their club dimension and prestige.

Arsenal said Mkhitaryan had signed a long-term contract.

Arsene Wenger added: Henrikh is a very complete player. He creates chances, he defends well, he can absorb distances and hes very committed as well. I must say hes a player who has all the attributes.

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Arsenal are reportedly ready to pull out all the stops to sign Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and club bosses have flown to Germany for talks with Borussia Dortmund.

The Gunners are keen to replace Sanchez with a star recruit, so could be willing to pay more than the 52million splurged on Alexandre Lacazette last summer.

Dortmund are said to have suggested a swap involving Olivier Giroud, however a straight cash deal is still being pursued.

At the weekend the Bundesliga club confirmed Arsenal had made an approach for the Gabon international, who has been left out of the squad for his sides last two league games.

Aubameyang is under contract at Signal Iduna Park until 2021.

He was the Bundesligas top goalscorer last season as he finished the campaign with 31 goals and has hit 13 in 15 games so far this term.

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Arsenal and Tottenham target Malcom will not be leaving Bordeaux this month, according to the French clubs new manager Gus Poyet.

Poyet revealed as he was unveiled to the media on Monday that the future of the 20-year-old Brazilian winger was a key topic during his interview for the job.

I asked straight away if Malcom would be staying or not, he told LEquipe.

They said yes. I said OK, now we can continue the discussion.

Retrouvez la presentation de Gustavo #Poyet a la presse en integralite https://t.co/CDd0GhT1Gk  FC Girondins de Bordeaux (@girondins) January 22, 2018

Club president Stephane Martin reiterated that stance.

Malcom, it has been said and said again, he will not be leaving, he said.

He has said he wants to play in the Premier League one day. That is normal  what player wouldnt want to play in England?

There is no problem with Malcom.

Picture

Andy Carroll and Peter Crouch have both been linked with a move to Chelsea but perhaps the oddest rumour of them all is an interest in Burnley striker Ashley Barnes.

Antonio Conte is determined to add more power to his frontline this month and Barnes has been mentioned as a candidate to provide competition for Alvaro Morata and Michy Batshuayi.

Could Ashley Barnes be set for a shock move to Chelsea? (Martin Rickett/PA)

The clubs are yet to arrive at a figure, although super agent Pini Zahavi is said to be involved in securing a deal for the 28-year-old former Torquay and Brighton player.

Barnes has scored four goals in 26 appearances for the Clarets this season.
Three members of the USA Gymnastics board of directors have resigned in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal within the organisation.

Former Team USA doctor Larry Nassar was last year jailed for 60 years for possessing child sex abuse images on his computer, and he has also admitted assaulting female gymnasts, for which he is awaiting sentence.

On Monday, USA Gymnastics announced that chairman Paul Parilla, vice chairman Jay Binder and treasurer Bitsy Kelley had tendered their resignations from the board of directors effective from January 21.

Three members of USA Gymnastics board of directors have resigned (Danny Lawson/PA)

We support their decisions to resign at this time. We believe this step will allow us to more effectively move forward in implementing change within our organization. - Kerry Perry, president and CEO.  USA Gymnastics (@USAGym) January 22, 2018

USA Gymnastics president and CEO Kerry Perry said: USA Gymnastics thanks Paul Parilla, Jay Binder and Bitsy Kelley for their many years of service to this organisation. We support their decisions to resign at this time. We believe this step will allow us to more effectively move forward in implementing change within our organisation.

As the board identifies its next chair and fills the vacant board positions, we remain focused on working every day to ensure that our culture, policies and actions reflect our commitment to those we serve.

Last week, four-time Olympic champion Simone Biles said she had been abused by Nassar. Former US Olympians Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney have also accused Nassar of sexual abuse.

The 54-year-old Nassar was involved with Americas world-beating gymnastics programme from the 1980s until July 2015, when the sports national governing body sacked him. More than 130 women have filed civil lawsuits against him alleging abuse.

In announcing the resignation of the three directors, USA Gymnastics restated its commitment to athlete safety, and outlining the steps taken to promote athlete safety, health and well-being and prevent future abuse by adopting and vigorously enforcing the USA Gymnastics safe sport policy.

US Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun welcomed the resignations in a statement which said: Since October of last year, we have been engaged in discussions with leadership of USA Gymnastics about the primary recommendation of the Daniels Report  changing the culture of USA Gymnastics.

Those discussions accelerated over the holidays and today you have seen three board resignations. New board leadership is necessary because the current leaders have been focused on establishing that they did nothing wrong. USA Gymnastics needs to focus on supporting the brave survivors.

The Olympic family failed these athletes and we must continue to take every step necessary to ensure this never happens again.
The head of the British Army has paved the way for a potential U-turn on the decision to pull back troops from Germany owing to the growing threat of Russian aggression.

General Sir Nick Carter highlighted how the Kremlin, in building an increasingly aggressive and expeditionary force, already boasts capabilities the UK would struggle to match.

And that Britain needs to prepare to fight the war we might have to fight as he said hostilities from Moscow could be initiated sooner than expected.

Under the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review, all British troops in Germany were earmarked for recall back to the UK, with the final units set to leave the county in 2019 and the bases there closed.

(PA Graphics)

But Gen Carter said when it comes to threats, it is important to recognise that readiness is about speed of recognition, speed of decision-making and speed of assembly.

He said the Army is testing the ability to deploy over land by using road and rail, but that it is also important to stress the need for a forward mounting base.

Therefore we are actively examining the retention of our infrastructure in Germany, where we store our vehicles in Ayrshire Barracks in Rheindahlen, and our training facilities in Sennelager, as well as our heavy equipment transporters that are based there, and our stockpiling and ammunition storage, he revealed.

To a packed room at the Royal United Services Institute in London for his speech on Monday, Gen Carter also showed a Russian military propaganda video that detailed their vast equipment and ammunition.

He said we have to accept the three-minute video is information warfare at its best and that it showed the Kremlin has an eye watering quantity of capability.

It wont start with little green men - it will start with something we dont expect - @ArmyCGS @BritishArmy #DynamicSecurity  RUSI (@RUSI_org) January 22, 2018

Gen Carter said not in any way does he want to suggest that Russia would go to war in the traditional sense, but that Moscow could initiate hostilities sooner than we expect.

I dont think it will start with little green men, it will start with something we dont expect. We should not take what we have seen so far as a template for the future, he added.

Gen Carter also stressed how the UK needs to prepare ourselves to fight the war we might have to fight.

I think it is an important point, because in being prepared to fight the war we might have to fight, there is a sporting chance that we will prevent it from happening, he added.

And I think the 100th anniversary of World War One gives us the great chance to actually think about what the war might look like.

The 58-year-old highlighted how Russia has used the conflict in Syria to develop an expeditionary capability, giving their officers high-end war fighting experience they had not been able to garner in Ukraine.

And that as an ally of Bashar al-Assad, Moscow used the war to combat-test their long range strike missiles and over 150 new weapons and items of

equipment.

During his speech Gen Carter stressed that Britain must take notice of what is going on around us or that the ability by the UK to take action will be massively constrained.

He said: I believe our ability to pre-empt or respond to these threats will be eroded if we dont match up to them now.

They represent a clear and present danger  they are not thousands of miles away they are now on Europes doorstep and the character of warfare is making it much harder for us to recognise true intentions and thus distinguish between what is peace and what is war.

Gen Carters comments come during a period of widespread speculation about possible cuts to personnel and equipment amid major pressure on the UKs defence budget.

There have been calls to increase defence spending to 3% of GDP from some MPs, and reports there are plans to cut the armed forces strength by more than 14,000, as well as the combination of elite units of paratroopers and Royal Marines to save cash.

(PA Graphics)

Speculation about defence cuts has mounted in recent months since the launch of a review led by the Prime Ministers national security adviser Mark Sedwill.

The review is examining all aspects of national security capabilities, fuelling concerns it will prioritise measures to counter cyber attacks and terrorism rather than major defence projects.

Gen Carter said that contrary to speculation no decisions have yet been made.

During a question and answer section of the event he confirmed the defence strand of the review will run on for longer.

How long it takes, I dont know, but I think that you will hear quite soon how it will be handled, he added.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has said Facebook should pay fees to trusted news producers for their content.

Facebook said last week that it would boost news sources users rank as most trustworthy, while shrinking the percentage of news posts overall in users news feeds.

Mr Murdoch, whose companies own the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, the New York Post and other media properties, said publishers are enhancing the value and integrity of Facebook through their news and content but are not being adequately rewarded for those services.

Rupert Murdoch

He has previously criticised Google for the theft of news stories without payment.

The news industry has struggled as print advertising erodes.

Facebook and Google dominate the online market, together taking nearly half of global digital ad revenue, according to eMarketer.
Sam Underhill has modified his tackle technique as he hopes his new brain-over-brawn approach will help extend his career.

Underhill is set to start as Englands openside in the NatWest 6 Nations clash with Italy on Sunday week after missing almost two months because of the concussion he sustained against Australia last autumn.

It was his second episode of head trauma this season, resulting in an extended period of enforced rest during which he analysed his defensive technique, knowing that on both occasions he had been knocked out while making a tackle.

Sam Underhill is choosing brains over brawn (Adam Davy/PA)

Stopping power and speed returning to his feet are the 21-year-olds greatest assets, but now he must be more judicious in his use of force.

You cant let it play on your mind when youre on the pitch, instead the biggest consideration for me has been how I prepare for contact, said Underhill, speaking to promote Baths clash with Leicester at Twickenham on April 7.

Its a game of numbers. If you have a lot more contacts where your head is in a vulnerable position and theyre bigger contacts, then youre more likely at some point to get it wrong.

The biggest thing is to look at your tackle technique to make sure youre in as comfortable a position as you can.

You have to tackle efficiently because theres no point trying to smash big guys all the time  its not the most efficient way to do it.

Being a big hitter, just because youre good at one type of tackle doesnt mean youre a good defender. Having better situational awareness will mean Im more effective.

You still want add an element of physicality to it, but its about being more comfortable with other forms of tackle. Not every tackle has to be a big hit.

Underhill, an economics and politics student at Bath University who is two matches into his comeback, looks to club team-mate and veteran South Africa flanker Francois Louw for inspiration.

Its been a hard adjustment for me to make, but its a more sustainable approach, Underhill said.

If you watch Francois Louw for example, he can put in big hits but is also a very smart defender. His consistency shows that having variety in your arsenal is more sustainable.

Its an intelligent thing whereas a big hit is more of an emotional thing, which is hard to sustain over a season.

Its hard to always be the most aggressive player out there. But you can be a smart player consistently.

* See Bath Rugby take on Leicester Tigers at Twickenham for The Clash, on Saturday 7th April. Tickets start from 5 for juniors, 15 for adults, available at www.bathrugby.com/theclash
Pop star Katy Perry has presented Minnie Mouse with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Hollywood make-believe was in full force when the Disney character was given the honour on Monday, 40 years after her cartoon-counterpart Mickey.

The Los Angeles ceremony was held 90 years after the pairs debut appearance in Steamboat Willie.

Heidi Klum was also at hand to celebrate (Richard Shotwell/AP)

Perry paid tribute to her dear friend Minnie, and added: Today, a brief 40 years after Mickey got his star, Im delighted to honour Minnie and her magic with hers.

Mickey was there to celebrate and pose for photos with his cartoon partner, as was model Heidi Klum.

Minnie thanked fans lining Hollywood Boulevard, many adorned in polka dots and mouse ears, and added: This really is the best day ever.

Minnie with her star (Richard Shotwell/AP)

The Walt Disney Company chief executive Robert Iger celebrated the mouse as a fashionista who brings joy to many.

Youre an icon, an inspiration and the best leading lady in the business and after 90 years in showbiz its certainly about time you got your star, he said.

Minnies star, the 2,627th, adds her to a list of cartoon characters with the honour, including Winnie-the-Pooh, Donald Duck and Kermit the Frog.
Posted 1/21/18

Citizens Memorial Hospital will host a free Lunch and Learn seminar about peripheral artery disease from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2, in the CMH Community Rooms, 1500 N. Oakland in Bolivar. 
The Archbishop of Canterbury has refused to declare the late Bishop Bell innocent of sexually abusing a young girl in the 1950s despite calls from his supporters to clear his name.

A review published in December criticised the church for rushing to believe the alleged victims allegations without serious investigation or inquiry.

It emerged that the original investigation had failed to seek out witnesses who had known or worked with Bishop Bell during his time as Bishop of Chichester between 1929 and 1958.

Claims made by a woman known only as Carol of abuse by Bishop Bell when she was aged between five and eight in the 1950s led the church to issue an apology and pay more than 15,000 in compensation in 2013.

The review, led by Lord Carlile of Berriew, found that the Church had rushed to judgment.

But on Monday, Justin Welby refused to deem Bishop Bell innocent despite the failings of the original investigation.

He said: Our history over the last 70 years has revealed that the church covered up, ignored or denied the reality of abuse on major occasions. I need only refer to the issues relating to Peter Ball to show an example.

He said that the Diocese of Chichester had been given legal advice based on the civil standard of proof, the balance of probability, and not on the criminal standard of proof, which is beyond reasonable doubt.

He continued: As in the case of Peter Ball, and others, it is often suggested that what is being alleged could not have been true, because the person writing knew the alleged abuser and is absolutely certain that it was impossible for them to have done what is alleged.

As with Peter Ball this sometimes turns out to be untrue, not through their own fault or deceit but because abuse is often kept very secret.

The experience of discovering feet of clay in more than one person I held in profound respect has been personally tragic.

But as I said strongly in my original statement the complaint about Bishop Bell does not diminish the importance of his great achievements and he is one of the great Anglican heroes of the 20th century.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has refused to retract a statement about Bishop Bell saying "No human being is entirely good or bad" (PA)

Bishop Bell was famous for helping to rescue Jewish children transported out of Germany during the Second World War and criticising the blanket bombing of German civilians.

Following the publication of the review, the archbishop said: No human being is entirely good or bad. Bishop Bell was in many ways a hero. He is also accused of great wickedness, he said.

Good acts do not diminish evil ones, nor do evil ones make it right to forget the good. Whatever is thought about the accusations, the whole person and whole life should be kept in mind.

In a letter published in the Telegraph on January 18, Professors Sir Ian Kershaw, Charmian Brinson, Andrew Chandler, John Charmley, Michael J Hughes, Jeremy Noakes and Keith Robbins called for the archbishop to retract his comments.

They wrote: The statement of Dec 15 2017 seems to us both irresponsible and dangerous.

We therefore urge you, in all sincerity, to repudiate what you have said before more damage is done and thus to restore the esteem in which the high, historic office to which you have been called has been held.

They added: The allegation is not only wholly uncorroborated but is contradicted by all the considerable, and available, circumstantial material which any historian would consider credible.
Police have growing concerns for a 12-year-old boy who failed to show up at school.

Liam Jack Bonthron was last seen on Clarence Drive, Glasgow, at around 8.50am on Monday.

Police Scotland said he has never been missing before and had a 100% attendance record at school.

Police Scotland are searching for missing 12-year-old Liam Jack Bonthron (Jane Barlow/PA)

He is white, around 5ft 6in with a slim build and short brown hair. When last seen he was wearing dark blue Levi jeans, a light blue and white checked shirt, blue Nike Air Max trainers and a bright blue wolfskin jacket. He was also carrying a black and white Vans rucksack.

Concerns were raised with police when he did not show up at school.

Officers have been speaking to his friends and family as well as checking CCTV from the area.

Sergeant Paula Convery said: Liam is a boy who has always had 100% attendance at school and has never went missing before, therefore we have growing concerns for him and his safety.

His family and friends are incredibly worried for him and tell us that this is out of character. It is vital that we trace him.

If anyone has any information or has seen a boy matching the description then we encourage you to come forward and contact us.

We would also urge Liam to come forward himself and contact Police or friends and family to let us know you are okay.
Britain is heading for a Norway-style relationship with the European Union during a post-Brexit transition period, influential MEPs have said.

In comments which could raise concerns among Tory Brexiteers, members of the European Parliaments Brexit steering group said Theresa May must strike a deal that resembles the Scandinavian countrys single market membership to get the implementation period she desires.

Belgian MEP Philippe Lamberts told The Independent: During the transition period, the UK will be a member in all but name, but it will no longer sit at the two tables where decisions are made; parliament and council.

It has to be a Norwegian-style deal, it cannot be anything else and this has been agreed in principle.

He added: I heard no one disputing this from the UKs side.

Elmar Brok, who also sits on the group, said: We are on the way to making the official proposal, it will outline that it should be like a Norway deal.

This is the position of all three institutions (of the EU).

A deal based on Norways membership of the European Economic Area (EEA) would entail continued free movement of people and payments to Brussels.

The Prime Minister has already agreed in principle to pay between 35 billion and 39 billion in a Brexit divorce bill and acknowledged in her Florence speech in September that during the transition people will continue to be able to come and live and work in the UK, although they will need to register with the authorities.

But Jacob Rees-Mogg, the new chairman of the influential European Research Group of around 100 Tory MPs, has demanded that Mrs May ends free movement and takes Britain out of the single market the moment the UK formally quits on March 29 next year.

Meanwhile, there was dismay that the City of London has been kept in the dark about the Governments plans to get a Brexit deal for financial services, seen by many as crucial for the economy.

Senior EU figures have warned that the UK may not be able to get the deal it wants on financial services (Victoria Jones/PA)

Commons Treasury Committee chair Nicky Morgan said: The failure to publish a position paper on financial services sends all the wrong signals.

Financial services will be one of the most challenging elements of the Brexit negotiations. A paper articulating a clear sense of direction, and a desired end-state, could have boosted confidence that the Government is up to the task.

Some level of clarity has been provided for numerous sectors. Financial services firms will be seriously concerned at the chronic state of uncertainty.

Catherine McGuinness, policy chair at the City of London Corporation, told the FT: It has always been our expectation there would be a position paper. When so many other sectors and issues have been given this clarity, the City is left in the dark.

Elsewhere, former chancellor Lord Lawson of Blaby said civil servants would try and frustrate Brexit because the idea that any bureaucrat could be in favour of radical change is a nonsense.

Former chancellor Lord Lawson (Gareth Fuller/PA)

He told BBC Newsnight: The officials will do their best to frustrate this process because it goes against the grain so fundamentally. But they equally realise their constitutional duty to accept the leadership of the politicians, of the elected government.

But Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood said the civil service was supporting the Government in delivering the mandate it has from the Brexit referendum.

He told the programme: The civil service is putting enormous effort and many of its very best people into making a success of the project. It is being tested on a daily basis and I am very proud of what we have  so far  delivered. Morale is at record-levels, proving once again that the civil service is at its very best when under pressure.
Britains Daily Mail, Newsweek and German business magazine Manager Magazin reported the Germanys Deutsche Bank had evidence of suspicious transactions related to Jared Kushners -President Trumps son-in-law- family accounts and was prepared to hand it over to Russia Probe Special Counsel Mueller.



Newsweek quoted German business magazine Manager Magazin reporting in its print edition on Friday that Board Chairman of the banking giant Deutsche Bank, Paul Achleitner, had called for an internal investigation and found troubling results.



The report said ... Deutsche Banka major lender to President Donald Trump and his son-in-law and senior White House advisor Kushner, according to Mother Jonesprovided the results to the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, which is Germanys bank regulatory agency and referred to as BaFin.



The bank gave Kushner Companies a $285million loan last year, and has extended a line of credit valued at up to $25million to Kushner and his mother, the New York Times reported before Christmas. Deutsche Bank has also loaned entities associated with the Trump Organization around $300 million, according to reports published in the Mail on Sunday.



Earlier this month, former Trump advisor Steve Bannon predicted Mueller would go after Kushner (Compiled by Daily Mirror)
Sri Lankas plans to nurture small and medium-sized enterprises, as part of its longer-term bid to achieve upper-middle-income status, will be explored in a report due out in the coming months by the global research and consultancy firm Oxford Business Group (OBG).



The Report: Sri Lanka 2018 will shine a spotlight on efforts under way to encourage innovation among entrepreneurs with a view to increasing exports, especially international sales of higher-value goods, and boosting competitiveness.



New trade agreements will be a key focus, together with the reinstatement of the generalised scheme of preferences GSP Plus benefits and their impact on exports.

The publication will also include detailed coverage of Sri Lankas drive to attract investors for its project pipeline, which includes infrastructural development, and plans for the transport and mining sectors.



In addition, OBG will chart the raft of reforms implemented to-date and analyse their effectiveness, while considering what the country could do next to increase investor confidence and ensure new growth is inclusive.



The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce has signed a third memorandum of understanding (MoU) with OBG for its forthcoming publication. Under the MoU, the chamber will assist in the research for The Report: Sri Lanka 2018.



Rajendra Theagarajah, the Chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce said he looked forward to teaming up once again with OBG to highlight the new opportunities emerging from Sri Lankas economic expansion. Commenting after the signing, OBGs Country Director in Sri Lanka Andrea Tsiachtsiri agreed that Sri Lankas efforts to open up to the global investment community were yielding results.



The Report: Sri Lanka 2018 will be a vital guide to the many facets of the country, including its macroeconomics, infrastructure, banking and other sectoral developments. The publication will also contain contributions from leading representatives, including President Maithripala Sirisena. It will be available in print and online.
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The National Chamber of Exporters of Sri Lanka (NCE) conducted the 23rd Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the chamber at Galadari Hotel recently. Ramal Jasinghe was re-elected as President of the NCE for 2018, for a second term, in terms of the constitution of the chamber.



Following the election of the other office bearers at the Business Segment of the AGM, the Ceremonial Segment was held, at which Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya was the chief guest. The guest of honour at this segment, which was attended by the member exporters of the chamber as well as special invitees, was S. S. A. Business Solutions (Pvt.) Ltd Founder Chairman N.C. Narayanan, who delivered the keynote address.



The speaker in his address commended the NCE for the services rendered to Sri Lankan exporters to complement the efforts of the government and state institutions to develop exports as a priority to achieve the economic development targets of the country.



He made particular mention of the Annual Export Awards conducted by the chamber to recognize and reward the achievements of Sri Lankan exporters in the International market place and the quarterly Sri Lanka Exporter Magazine published by the chamber containing valuable export-related information for the benefit of exporters and to promote Sri Lankan export products and services in the international market place.



He particularly commended the programme of the NCE to link the producers of agriculture-related export products in the north and east in the country with the established exporters in the south and introducing them to prospective overseas buyers, since the producers in these provinces faced difficulties in marketing their products. The speaker also commended the services of the Export Development Board (EDB) to promote Sri Lankan exports and the complementary role of the chamber to support the services of state institutions such as the EDB.



S. S. A. Business Solutions (Pvt.) Ltd and the NCE entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to provide professional services to Sri Lankan exporters to develop exports. In his keynote address, Narayanan analysed the achievements of the Sri Lankan export sector and the declining trend of Sri Lankan exports in the preceding years, as well as the efforts that are needed to diversify and expand Sri Lankan exports of products and services. For this purpose in terms of the MoU, S. S. A. Business Solutions (Pvt.) Ltd will jointly conduct with the NCE specialized training programmes and workshops to facilitate pragmatic leadership in export enterprises and also to provide professional solutions to issues faced by Sri Lankan export enterprises.



Earlier in his brief address, Jasinghe, while appreciating his appointment for a second year as President, referred to the 11-point programme, which he presented on being elected President for the year 2017, based on the strategic plan developed by the chamber with professional inputs from the multinational audit firm Ernst & Young and the achievements of the chamber related to this 11-point programme.



He particularly referred to the contributions made by the chamber for the development of the national trade policy, inputs provided to facilitate the negotiations of the proposed Free Trade and Economic Partnership Agreements with India, China and Singapore, the Branding of Sri Lanka exercise in collaboration with the relevant stakeholders, submission of export-related proposals for the annual budget of the government, professional training courses conducted by the National Institute of Exports (NIOE), a subsidiary of the chamber, assessment of fiscal and taxation measures in the new Inland Revenue Act and dissemination of related information to exporters, etc.



The highlight of the agenda related to this segment of the AGM was the presentation of certificates to successful diploma and certificate level students related to the professional training programmes conducted by the NIOE. The certificates in respect of successful diploma students in international trade management of the NIOE were presented by the speaker. The NIOE conducts recognized professional courses related to international trade to foster professionalism in the field of exports to develop the skills of those who are engaged in the field of exports as entrepreneurs or employees in export enterprises, as well as students who aspire to enter the field of exports.



The secretary general of the chamber in his introductory remarks prior to the presentation of certificates, referred to the uphill task faced by the NIOE over the years to develop as a successful organisation to conduct professional courses in international trade management and related subjects and the achievements of the NIOE in training participants of courses. He particularly referred to the achievements of the NIOE in commencing the conduct of online training courses to facilitate cross-border trading transactions, in collaboration with the International Trade Centre (ITC) in Geneva. Fifty students have already registered for these online courses and some have already successfully completed the training.



Further, the NIOE has also entered into collaborations with the multinational audit firm KPMG and the Institute of Certified Management Accountants (CMA) to conduct training courses on specialized export-related subjects.



Another highlight of the AGM was the presentation of the EU GSP + Business Guide for Sri Lankan Exporters prepared within the framework of the EU-Sri Lanka Trade-Related Assistance Project with the technical support of the International Trade Centre in Geneva in collaboration with the Government of Sri Lanka. This business guide was presented to the speaker and other officials by EU Sri Lanka Trade Related Assistance Project Sri Lanka Office Head Dr. Dayaratne Silva. It is particularly beneficial to Sri Lankan SMEs. It being published in English, Sinhala and Tamil provides practical business information to Sri Lankan SMEs on the EU preferential market access conditions in respect of specific product sectors, which are of importance to Sri Lanka.



The agenda of the AGM concluded with the presentation by the chamber president to the secretary general, the operations manual of the chamber compiled by the Earnst & Young as the strategic partner of the chamber. At the conclusion of the AGM, the participants and invitees were entertained to fellowship.
Norochcholai power plant engineers in a petition point out health hazard of coal

CEB engineers continue to bat for coal power plants despite lower externality costs of LNG

Power regulator, in line with govt.s mission, has not included any coal power plants in its long-term generation plan

Due to non-processing of LNG tenders by CEB, SL sits on the brink of a power crisis





By Chandeepa Wettasinghe

Striking a heavy blow to the aspirations of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) engineers to include coal in Sri Lankas future power generation mix, their peers working at the Norochcholai coal power plant have in a petition noted that fly ash from the plant is becoming an unbearable health hazard for the power plants employees and nearby villages.



If the current situation of the plant is exposed to third parties, the availability of the plant and the future of the energy sector will be at a great risk, said the petition, signed by 69 executive-level engineers addressed to CEB General Manager A.K. Samarasinghe.



Although the petition shows concerns for the future of the energy sector, the latest Long-Term Lease Cost Generation Expansion Plan (LTLCGEP) of the CEB, which was approved by the regulating authority, the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), had not included any coal power plants in the plan, due to the externality costs of coal such as those being highlighted in the petition.



The petition indicates that after conducting testing on the fly ash, it was revealed that heavy metals such as arsenic and selenium, which cause serious health issues, are present in excessive quantities than allowed for by law and the employees at the power plant are now suffering from serious lung issues and dermatological conditions.



The power plant is not equipped with sufficient systems to control the fly ash and coal dust and the residuals are spreading to the nearby villages during windy seasons, the petition said.



Most importantly, it is unethical to maintain the plant working conditions at such a damaging level for the lives of both our subordinates and the nearby villagers. The feeling of guilt, of the issues we couldve easily prevented using modern technology  yet we failed to do  will remain in our conscience even after we leave the plant, it added.



Recently, industry expert, RMA Energy Managing Director Dr. Tilak Siyambalapitiya said that the Norochcholai power plant was a Chinese product built at a Japanese price.



The facility, which is prone to breakdowns, currently contributes to around 40 percent of Sri Lankas total electricity supply.



Construction of coal power plants has been facing heavy resistance from activists. In 2016, the Supreme Court ordered the government to halt the construction of the coal power plant in Sampur, financed by India, on environmental and health grounds.



Calls for help from the Norochcholai petitioners to mitigate the damage being caused come at a time when the CEB engineers trade unions are threatening strikes and are refusing to sit on tender committees for the power plants LTLCGEP, since no coal power plants were included in the plan.



Last year, the PUCSL chose the CEBs no-coal scenario for the LTLCGEP, which places the bulk of Sri Lankas future energy generation on the more environmentally friendly liquid natural gas (LNG), after numerous experts in a public consultation revealed that the CEB had abused statistics to favour coal over LNG unlike the prevailing market conditions.



After accounting for the externality costs, LNG is much cheaper than coal, the PUCSL had found, saving US $ 1.13 billion via the approved LTLCGEP, compared to the coal-heavy option. Yet, even last week, the CEB sought to contend the numbers present in the final plan approved by the PUCSL.



However, due to the LNG tenders not being processed by the CEB, the country is sitting on the brink of a major power crisis and the PUCSL had said that over Rs.50.8 billion in losses would be incurred due to cost escalations and sourcing emergency thermal power due to the tender delays.

Controversy has also spawned in the tendering of coal raw material for Norochcholai with allegations of massive corruption and fraud, with the Supreme Court in one instance unsuccessfully requesting a tender be recalled. One firm has constantly won the coal tenders.



On the political front, Power and Energy Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya has taken the side of the CEB, putting pressure on the independent regulator.



However, the government policy has been to move towards more renewable energy and the PUCSL had said that the approved LTLCGEP would allow the country to move towards 60 percent renewable energy in the long-term, unlike the past power generation mixes, which have resulted in occasional power crises.
The National Joint Committee strongly objects to the Fnance Ministers decision in reducing the price of beer by introduction of new taxation scheme for this alcoholic beverage. This decision has already increased the beer consumption especially among the youth of our nation within the past one month.



This decision of the Minister of Finance expressed in the budget speech, totally contradicts government policy as envisaged in the Presidential Task Force for Alcohol and Drug Prevention which functions directly under President Sirisena. Furthermore, the Finance Ministers intentions are totally against the principles of the National Alcohol and Tobacco Authority NATA and the Yahapalana Governments pledge to curtail alcohol consumption in Sri Lanka.



Adding fuel to fire is the bombshell from the Minister of Labour and Trade Union Relations who agreed with the Finance Minister and further requested for reduction in the price of very special gal arrack as well! This was suggested as a relief measure to provide solace to the manual working class! When these short-sighted and dangerous policies are implemented, Sri Lanka will enter the Guinness Book of world records as the first nation to actively promote the consumption of alcohol among its citizens!



Reduction in the price of beer will only result in increase in production and consumption of the product. It will not reduce consumption of hard liquor and illicit brew or kassippu, as people from different ages and social strata consume these different brews.



This is amply proved by the previous governments failed excise policy. In 1996 the Finance Minister in his budget proposals reduced the price of beer considerably. This was introduced as a measure to cut down consumption of hard liquor such as whisky, arrack and reduce the production of illicit brew, kassippu.



Therefore, the excise policy of the government of 1996 proved to be a total failure and sadly encouraged young boys to drink more beer of higher concentration due to the low cost. The total consumption of beer was 126 million litres in 2015.



The magnitude of the problem is reflected in the rising incidence of hospital admissions due to alcohol related diseases; rising incidence of road traffic accidents, violence and homicide; rising incidence of sexual abuse and violence against women and children and the deterioration of moral and spiritual values seen all round in our society today.



If the government is sincere in its efforts to reduce the burden of illicit alcohol in Sri Lanka, the remedy is certainly not legislation to reduce the price of beer or gal arrack. The government must activate the Excise Department to work more efficiently, carry out intensive raids and destroy the kassippu industry as much as possible. Unscrupulous politicians, police officers and excise officers who are on the payroll of kassippu mudalalies must be severely dealt with.



If the Finance Minister really wishes to reduce the burden of alcohol dependence in Sri Lanka, we suggest that the same taxation on beer should be maintained while the taxation on all varieties of hard liquor should be increased. This will certainly save our countrymen from the scourge of alcohol dependence.
REUTERS: The Sri Lankan rupee closed slightly weaker yesterday as dollar demand from importers and banks surpassed mild selling of the US currency by exporters, dealers said.



The spot rupee ended at 154.00/10 per dollar, compared with Fridays close of 153.90/154.00.



The demand (for dollars) from smaller banks was there today. The sellers were not willing to come down and sell, said a currency dealer.



The rupee might witness volatility with the governments heavy debt repayment this year, said dealers.

Sri Lanka raised US $ 470.6 million on Thursday via development bonds, the Central Bank said, as the government faces unprecedented debt repayment this year.

President Maithripala Sirisenas administration must repay an estimated Rs.1.97 trillion in 2018 - a record high - including US $ 2.9 billion of foreign loans and a total of US $ 5.36 billion of interest.



Foreign investors had sold Rs.3.2 billion worth of government securities this year up to January 10, the Central Bank data showed.



The currency fell 2.5 percent last year and 3.9 percent in 2016.



The Central Bank, while announcing its key economic policies for the year on January 3, said it has allowed more flexibility in determining the exchange rate based on the present market conditions.



It added intervention policies will be adopted consistent with a flexible exchange rate regime and supportive of improving foreign exchange market functionality and maintaining a competitive exchange rate will be an important objective.
Posted 1/21/18

January really is a great time to set some New Years goals in an attempt to better oneself in one way or another. The hectic holiday season has ended, and people now can settle back into their 
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong arrived in Sri Lanka a short while ago on a three-day official visit at the invitation of President Maithripala Sirisena.

Prime Minister Lee arrived with a delegation of 35 members. He was welcomed by Minister Sagala Ratnayake at the Bandaranaike International Airport, Katunayake.

During the visit of Singaporean Premier, the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Sri Lanka and Singapore will be signed following bilateral talks.

This is the first time in 13 years that a Singaporean Prime Minister undertakes an official visit to Sri Lanka. (T.K.G. Kapila)

Pix by Pradeep Pathirana
The Colombo edition of the Global Research Brief of Standard Chartered will be held tomorrow. The event will feature an expert panel of economists and strategists from across the world covering a range of global and local topics including a global economic outlook, Europe outlook and Sri Lanka outlook for 2018. This event forms a part of a series of Global Research Briefing events held across the Standard Chartered footprint in 2018.



Standard Chartered Sri Lanka CEO Jim McCabe commented, We are proud to be hosting the latest edition of the Global Research Brief for the third consecutive year in Sri Lanka. The Global Research Briefings are a great opportunity for our clients to gain insights on globally significant themes, those that impact economies, markets and client.



This annual event follows the launch of the Global Researchs flagship publication Global Focus. The publication elucidates that the Year of the Dog, despite promising continued global growth of nearly 4 percent, is no time for complacency.



The speakers include the following global and local experts:



Standard Chartered Chief Economist David Mann. Mann is based in Singapore and oversees macroeconomic views for the Global Research Team. He was previously Chief Economist for Asia. Mann joined the Bank in London in 2000 and was a founding member of the Standard Chartered FX Strategy team in 2002, moving to Hong Kong as a senior FX Strategist in 2005. He was previously based in New York, responsible for covering the US economy, managing the Latin America team and providing clients with the banks views on Asia in the US time zone. In 2001 he was awarded the Rybczynski Young Economist Prize for work on the Malaysian Ringgit Barometer. David appears regularly in the media. He holds a BSc in economics from the University of Warwick and an MSc in finance from the University of London (Birkbeck College).



Standard Chartered Chief Economist Europe Sarah Hewin. Hewin leads research on European economies, including Western and emerging Europe. She has many years of experience covering G7 and emerging-market macroeconomic, investment and country-risk issues. She frequently broadcasts on TV for the BBC, Sky, CNBC and Bloomberg and on radio for the BBC and Bloomberg. She is based in London. Before joining the bank in 2008, Hewin was a senior economist at American Express Bank based in London, New York and Hong Kong, where she was responsible for delivering economics and investment advice on Europe, the US and Asia. Previously, she worked at Lloyds Bank and at the European Commission in Brussels. She read economics at Girton College, Cambridge, specialising in

international economics.



Standard Chartered Macro Strategist Mayank Mishra. Mishra is a global Macro Strategist based in Singapore. He joined the bank in 2013 as an Equity Research analyst in Hong Kong and was responsible for covering regional banks. He previously held roles in quantitative research at Lehman Brothers/Nomura and Goldman Sachs. Mishra holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and a Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.

Standard Chartered Economist South Asia Saurav Anand. Anand is responsible for macroeconomic coverage of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, as well as some aspects of India. He joined Standard Chartered in 2009 in Mumbai as an Equity Research Analyst and was primarily responsible for covering the Indian telecom, media and oil and gas sectors. Anand holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and an engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He also holds FRM certification (GARP  USA) and has cleared CFA Level II.



Trade Competitiveness and Innovation Programme Director Anushka Wijesinghe. Wijesinghe is an economist with a track record of research and advisory work across Asia. He has published in national and international publications, focusing on innovation, private sector development and international economics. He recently took up a position at the Development Strategies and International Trade Ministry as National Programme Director for Trade, Competitiveness and Innovation. Until recently he was Chief Economist of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and Head of its Economic Intelligence Unit. He has been an Asia Development Fellow at the Korea Development Institute. Wijesinghe holds a Masters in Economics and Development from the University of Leeds Business School, UK and BSc (Hons.) in Economics from the University College London, UK.
One of Sri Lankas frontline joss stick producing companies,Thai Sumeda Enterprises under the trade name of Lanka Sumeda has introduced its latest mosquito repellent joss stick to the local market.

Lanka Sumeda is manufactured using natural herbs such as Citronella, Lemongrass and Cinnamon and will come in the form of joss sticks to the hand of the consumers that imparts the fragrance of Citronella.



Lanka Sumeda which is a high quality product that does not consist of any artificial chemical is an ideal solution to counter the dengue menace that is a great treat to society, the company said.

Thai Sumeda which has built a huge reputation for over three decades for introducing high quality joss sticks with a good finish to the market is also renowned for using the required amounts of natural material in its manufacturing process that makes its joss sticks not hazardous to health and even suitable for the use in places with small children. The specialty of Lanka Sumeda joss sticks is that it keeps burning for over 90 minutes.



The health friendly smooth mosquito repellent joss sticks introduced to the local market by Thai Sumeda could be termed as a revolutionary product that brings about a remarkable change in the joss stick industry in Sri Lanka. Although there are many mosquito repellents in the Sri Lankan market, it could be hazardous to the health of humans causing various ailments due to various chemicals used in its production. However due to the safety of health been assured in Sumeda joss sticks, it is possible to repel mosquitoes sans facing any health hazards, said the owner of Sumeda Enterprise, Sumeda Elpitiya. The company also plans to introduce an incense of citronella mix that will be capable to repel mosquitoes that stay any ware around.



The Thai Sumeda company who managed to introduced a standard and quality finish to joss sticks at a time there was no standard set on them way back in 1990, today has managed to enter overseas markets successfully.



Lanka Sumeda joss sticks are now exported to America, England, Canada, Europe and many African countries. Sumeda joss sticks which are produced using proud Sri Lankan labourenable to retain the countrys money within the Sri Lanka as it is a 100 percent local product. Thai Sumeda has introduced over 24 products to the market including joss sticks, incense and joss sticks that burn for 4,12, 36 hours, also joss sticks imparting the aroma of screw pine and vicks imparting camphor (neptali) aroma.
DPA, 21st JANUARY, 2018-Turkish ground forces have crossed the Syrian border into the Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported Sunday.



The Turkish army was reportedly accompanied by Ankara-allied Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters.

Turkey launched its Olive Branch military operation with an air campaign on Saturday after eight days of cross-border artillery shelling by Turkish soldiers.



Afrin is controlled by US-backed Kurdish militias that Turkey describes as terrorists.
Turkey opened a new front in Syrias nearly seven-year-old war on Saturday, launching airstrikes against a U.S.-backed Kurdish militia (YPG) in Afrin province that raise the prospect of a further strain on relations between Ankara and Washington.



The operation, dubbed Operation Olive Branch by Ankara, pits Turkey against Kurdish fighters allied to the United States at a time when ties between Turkey and Washington appear dangerously close to a breaking point. Earlier Saturday, the Turkish military said it hit shelters and hideouts used by the YPG and other Kurdish fighters, saying Kurdish militants had fired on Turkish positions inside Turkey. But the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces -which YPG spearheads- accused Turkey of using cross-border shelling as a false pretext to launch its offensive in Syria.



The YPGs growing strength across large parts of northern Syria has alarmed Ankara, which fears the creation of an independent Kurdish state on its southern border.



The YPG said the strikes killed six civilians and three fighters. One of the fighters belonged to the YPG and two were from its all-female affiliate, YPG spokesman Birusk Hasaka said. The attacks also wounded 13 civilians, he said.



The strikes on the Syrian-Kurdish YPG militia hit some 108 targets, the Turkish military said. On land, the Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army rebels were also helping the operation in Afrin, a senior Turkish official said. -

- REUTERS
The Maskeliya Police had requested the Commissioner General of Archaeology to conduct an archeological survey into a second set of footprints found on a rock located in a tea estate that lies in close proximity to the Sri Paada mountain range.This discovery comes in the wake of another set of footprints a a location nearby.

Police OIC Tyronne Ratnayake had put in this request.

A group of estate workers had come across the foot prints which were said to be embedded about three inches into a rock boulder. They were said to be performing Poojas (rituals) there after putting up a makeshift shed over the prints in order to protect them and pouring saffron water over them in a show of reverence. The toes can clearly be seen in this footprint.

The footprints have become all the more mysterious as according to the villagers no one approaches this rock which is situated in an area above the Moussakele Reservoir.(Ranjith Rajapaksa)
We dont tolerate corruption and frauds

We wont hesitate to take action against party members if found guilty

Unlike other Govts. we first probed allegations against us

Will expedite investigations into frauds during former rule

Will take final decision on Unity Govt. after elections

PMs name never tainted with corruption allegation

Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, in an interview with the Dailymirror , said that the United National Party (UNP) doesnt stand for corruption. He said that the party will penalize those responsible for the Central Bank bond transaction. Following are excerpts of the interview done with minister Kariyawasam.

QHow is your partys election campaign progressing?



We started our campaign from Kandy. We intend to have a series of meetings and rallies which will be attended by Party Leader Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and other Cabinet Ministers. We hope we can register a handsome victory this time. The present Government will last for another two and a half years. People want to get their development work done through the party in power. Only the party in power can pump in money to the local authorities for the development of access roads, bridges, culverts etc. Normally, the Local Government Elections are a clean sweep for the ruling party. It has happened right throughout history. People know it.

On the other hand, we have planned to obtain foreign expertise for matters such as garbage management. Though the UNP is party to the Government, it did not have control over the local authorities and the Provincial Councils. As such, development took place at snails pace. Once we secure power at these two tiers of governance, we can accelerate our development drive.



QMembers are elected for a period of four years at this election. A National Election is due next year. Then, how can you say the Local Government bodies will remain totally under the present Government?



We will have to go for a National Election after two years. There is no doubt that we will win that election. We can do a whole lot of work during these two years. We are confident that we can win most of the local bodies. At the last parliamentary elections, the UNP got the single largest majority. That was when the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) contested undivided. Today, it is split. So, this election is clearly advantageous to us. It is simple arithmetic.



QSome UNP MPs articulate every time that a UNP Government will be formed after this election breaking ranks with Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). You are a key Minister. What is your view?



We can consider after the elections whether to proceed with the national Unity Government or not. We only want to deliver a lot to the country in terms of development. We want people to benefit. We can choose the best path for it after this election. If it is possible, we will try to forge ahead with the national unity government. We have to do it after contacting President Maithripala Sirisena.



QHow feasible is it for the two parties to stay together in the context of President Sirisena being so harsh on the UNP?



There is no serious issue. Its acceptable in the event of a National Government. As long as the two leaders maintain a mutual understanding, it is not a serious issue. This is a novel experience. The two parties, that were hostile to each other right throughout, have got together for governance for the first time. We have to iron out issues and move ahead.



QThe UNP MPs insist on their own Government. They say party men could not be looked after well because of the Unity Government. Do you have the same view?



It is reasonable for some UNP MPs to feel so. There are some members who were opposed to us, but joined the Government later. When such members make harsh criticism against us, our MPs feel let down under their own Government. We try to achieve what is best for the country. When considering the mannerism of their criticism, even people of this country feel the same. There is a clear contradiction between what they say now and what they did at that time. We only took the lead in electing President Sirisena to office. We want to sort out issues if there are any.



QAre you trying to say that the Unity Government should remain till 2020?



Actually, wed like to move ahead with the Unity Government with there being a mutual understanding between the President and the Prime Minister. However, we will have a meeting as a party after the elections and take a decision.



QThere are serious allegations regarding the frauds in the controversial bond transaction. How has it affected your party?



There is no problem. The Commission has not made any allegation against the Prime Minister. He is not been made an accused in the case. As a governing party, we took appropriate action after the bond scam was reported. We appointed a committee. The matter was referred to the COPE. The Presidential Commission was appointed. That was done after deliberation between the President and the Prime Minister. For the first time, the Prime Minister went before the Commission and testified.



The Commission found that Perpetual Treasuries Ltd, as a primary dealer involved in bond trading, made undue profit of Rs.11 billion. As the Subject Minister, the Prime Minister had taken steps to freeze the companys financial assets. There is no loss to the state because this money can be recovered from them.



A cabal of fraudsters is now trying to cling to the bond scam as a means to resurrect themselves from their political mess. We will not leave room for them to raise their heads again. In fact, we can recover the monies lost due to the bond scam from the frozen assets of PTL. The very same Commission stated that major frauds causing an enormous loss to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) had taken place during the former rule. We can recover the Rs.11 billion loss from the assets of PTL. We have to investigate the fraud of Rs.4000 billion. People know everything.

We are confident that we can win most of the local bodies. At the last parliamentary elections, the UNP got the single largest majority.



QActually, there are allegations against the former Government. Despite being in power for the past three years, the Government has been unable to establish itself with the much needed evidence to prove these allegations. But, the allegations against the present Government are now proven. What is your response?



As a responsible Government, we probed the allegation made against us. Normally, in the past, the successive Governments swept under carpet the allegations made against them. We are an exception in that sense. We probed the allegations against us. However, we will speed up investigations into the cases against fraudsters of the past Government. Some cases have got stuck at the Attorney Generals Department. We have to speed up action. We can hear court cases on an ad hoc basis. It takes time. Once we work out a mechanism to expedite the hearing of these cases, we can see what will happen to those who cry hoarse today.



QYou have a different mandate. You were elected to office with the promise to root out corruption and fraud. What did you feel when you heard about the bond scam under the very same Government that vowed to eliminate corruption?



We still hold that position. We cannot take total responsibility for what officials were involved in. For example, I fully trust that the Commissioner General of Examinations discharges his duties well. If there is a complaint, I seek a report from him. It is fully trusted by me. I cannot go and examine the allegations on my own. We are opposed to corruption and fraud. We assigned the COPE Chairmanship to JVP MP Sunil Handunnetti. The Prime Ministers political career, spanning over 40 years, is not tainted with corruption allegations. There is no need for him to indulge in corruption in his 41st year in politics.



These are baseless allegations made by some individuals whose names have been tainted with corruption and frauds during the previous rule.



QHowever, the UNP MPs tried to cover up the bond scam right from the beginning. One MP even published a book to say that no scam has taken place. What is your view?



If anyone has done anything wrong, we will not protect him. The party is going to appoint a committee to probe this matter. If anyone is found guilty, the party will take action. We will not forgive anyone. Had we wanted, we could have formed our own Government. We did not opt for it, though.
All these gossip sites should be removed

We all know that women have always faced institutional, political, and socio-cultural gender barriers

Many women, especially old women, are deprived of financial reimbursements

Banning women from buying alcohol and being employed in bars is a prudent and an impressive decision by the President.

there are dos for women and at the same time there are also limits and dont s

All the party members respect our female candidates and give us the due status

Actress Ruwanthi Mangala who has thrown her hat into the ring with regard to the forthcoming Local Government Elections, spoke about her political ambitions and other important matters in an interview with the Daily Mirror. Mangala is contesting for the Kaduwela Electorate under the Sri Lanka Podujana Party (SLPP) ticket.



QWhat are your comments on increasing the quota for female candidates at the elections?



Its a really good move. More opportunities should be given to women in Sri Lanka. We cant depend on men every single day. As our population remains the highest in the country, equal windows should be opened for us to showcase our talents and make a living. More rural women will contest the local elections this time. I believe that the participation of women in Sri Lankan politics should be increased so that we will be able to stand for our rights, especially for those women who are less-privileged.



QWhat is your opinion on the contribution by women to the economy of the country?



We all know that women have always faced institutional, political, and socio-cultural gender barriers. Women represent 52 percent of Sri Lankas population, but their representation is only about 5 percent in parliament. However, women at present arent willing to remain at home and do household work just like the women who lived during our grand parents days. They need to come out and break the stereotypes. I know of many women in my electorate who are engaged in some type of self-employment. They are no longer fond of expecting every little thing they need in their lives to be provided by their husbands.



QIf you get elected, what plans do you have?



I will do my best to solve problems pertaining to women in Sri Lanka. Once I obtain political power, I will look into their problems and do what is required. Women in my area will be provided with self-employment opportunities, financial support and other encouragement so that they can start their own livelihoods. I hope to provide them with a sound training in whatever field they hope to work in. Many women, especially old women, are deprived of financial reimbursements. I want to make sure that they get what they deserve.



QWhat is your view on the Presidents decision to reimpose the ban which prevents women from buying alcohol and finding employment in bars?



Banning women from buying alcohol and being employed in bars is a prudent and an impressive decision by the President. Already many Sri Lankan families are suffering due to men being addicted to alcohol. If the mother of the house starts drinking, poor children will have no favour at all. Many problems will arise if women are allowed this liberty. When women work in bars, they tend to be victims of sexual harassment. As males from all walks of life frequent bars, women will be pushed to choose wrong paths. I know there are many so-called womens organizations that are fighting against the ban. But, we have to understand that there are dos for women and at the same time there are also limits and dont s.



QThe party you are contesting from was in trouble recently when actress Madusha Ramasinghe alleged that a party official demanded a sexual bribe from her in order to ensure she be given nomination. Not a single woman was there to voice against the incident.



Since I joined the party, I have never faced that kind of experience. All the party members respect our female candidates and give us the due status. I heard that the woman you are talking about got rejected from every party in their attempts to receive nominations. I really dont know about her mental situation at that time. However, we feel secure and respected within our party.



QWhat do you think about the media reporting on artistes in Sri Lanka?



It is very pathetic. Let me tell you about the recent mudslinging campaign carried out in social media against my husband Namal Udugama and me. People in Sri Lanka started bashing us without knowing the real story. They were misled by a particular politician who shamelessly used the incident to gain attention. How can some outsider talk about an incident which happened six years ago? The person who donated his kidney to my husband is too innocent and too desperate. As he was in a dire need for money, the particular politician used money and manipulated the donor in order to get his personal agenda fulfilled. Our whole family went through a very hard time. This kind of campaigns should be stopped. We were not the first victims and wont be the last. People using social media are destroying artistes personal lives without mercy. All these gossip sites should be removed. If our Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna wins, I will push the heads of the party to take necessary legal actions against such bogus websites and pages. Administrators of those sites are just working for money, forgetting human virtues.
Elections in this country are acrimonious. And it does not take an astrologer to predict that the unity government would never be the same if the current trend of mutual recrimination continues. As if recent verbal barbs directed against each other by the lower-rungs of the two main constituent parties of the government are not good enough, President Maithripala Sirisena himself has joined the fray.



He told an election rally early this week that the economy would no longer be under the UNP and be handled by a national economic council headed by the president himself after the local government elections. That council though was actually set up in July this year by the President who in a cabinet note proposed that it be functioned as an advisory body on economic policy in the country in order to further strengthen policy coherence in the present consensus government, harness the existing talent of this country for national development and to meet the need for such a national body under the head of the Government in the Presidential Secretariat. The National Economic Council will be a professionally-managed, high-level, national advisory institution reporting directly to the President of Sri Lanka. This body will consist of various divisions in charge of key economic areas related to development plans and priorities of the Government. The NEC will make recommendations to the Cabinet of Ministers on economic policy, he said in the note.

He told an election rally early this week that the economy would no longer be under the UNP and be handled by a national economic council headed by the president himself after the local government elections



Its first meeting was held on September 12th at the Presidential Secretariat presided over by the President himself. The president will have to invent the time travel to do it again.



In the election rally in Kegalle, the President said: During the past three years, I allowed the UNP to manage the economy. Still people are faced with economic hardships. From this year, I will take the economic management under me to grant people relief, he said.



The President is faced with the same dilemma akin to the one confronted by Angela Merkel, the German Chancellors former constituent partners, Social Democrats, whose party leadership understands quite well that an alliance with Ms Markel is the national imperative, but the partys grassroots want to part ways.



The president knows well that the continuation of the current status of the unity government, and economic sanity achieved so far are the best possible way out of the current pressing problems  and to forward his promise of democratic reforms. But, the types of people who fill up those election rallies want to see the blood. Politicians have to live up to their expectations.

That they acted against an earlier understanding between the UNP and the SLFP to avoid mud-slinging at each other may not necessarily be because party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was lacking control. Perhaps they acted with his connivance



Though one cannot be blamed for playing to the gallery in Sri Lankan politics, overdoing it could do national harm. The UNP kicked off the whole affair of mutual recrimination. Not happy that the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the bond scam has called the scam a scam, and also aggrieved that the President choose to make the commission report public, some of the UNP MPs went on a cheap political offensive against the president.



That they acted against an earlier understanding between the UNP and the SLFP to avoid mud-slinging at each other may not necessarily be because party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was lacking control. Perhaps they acted with his connivance. Last week, in an ill-advised and below-the-belt attack, UNP MP S.M. Marikkar demeaned the president in a political rally in Colombo. He said, The president had let down former president Mahinda Rajapaksa after partaking in a hopper meal with him... The President accused us of being thieves. We call him the pickpocket President. We are asking him not to back-stab the UNP like what he did to Mahinda Rajapaksa. He called us pickpocket karayas. Yes we are pick pocket karayas, but the President should not forget that we pick-pocketed him out of former president Mahinda Rajapaksas pocket. He should not forget that it was the UNP which made him the President. He is a pickpocket President. (Mr. Marikkar later claimed he was misquoted by the media)

The President has since shifted gears; he stormed out of a Cabinet meeting and his remarks in election stages are becoming less conciliatory towards the UNP



The President has since shifted gears; he stormed out of a Cabinet meeting and his remarks in election stages are becoming less conciliatory towards the UNP. If the decline continues, other members will join the fray and it would soon become an all-out dog fight. Rancor of the election campaign will outlast the election, and threaten the future of the UNP-SLFP cohabitation. Media tend to predict the collapse of the unity government. That would be news and news sells the papers. Public also like sound-bites and gossip. Sri Lankan voters themselves have rarely voted for growth and prosperity. Sri Lankas social and political structures which enable a higher rate of political mobilization in a system of lower social and economic achievement, tend to promote more confrontation than cooperation. Set against that backdrop, the three years of the unity government itself is an achievement. Political stability and a sound pro-growth economic policy matters to the country more than most other earthly premises. Crashing that prospect down, knowingly or unknowingly by playing to the gallery is shame.



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Posted 1/21/18

Every Tuesday at noon, you have the opportunity to eat a delicious lunch prepared by the cooks at the Fair Grove Senior Center, held in the Fair Grove United Methodist Church fellowship hall. On the 
Posted 1/21/18

Missouri Department of Transportation will close portions of Route M near Charity beginning Jan. 22. Rescheduled from Jan. 8, crews will replace deteriorating drain pipes underneath the 
Where would some of us be without eyeglasses? I began wearing them regularly in my mid-20s. Since Im near-sighted, my glasses are necessary for seeing more distant objects.

Unlike many people my age, I dont need to extend my arms to read a newspaper or a book. But for things farther away, like a movie screen, road signs, or even recognizing people in a large room, my eyeglasses are indispensable.



Historians say vision aid devices date back to the Greeks and Romans. After all, didnt Julius Caesar once tell Brutus, Im keeping an eye out for you? (Didnt work out too well.) But apparently the first real eyeglasses were invented in Northern Italy, near Pisa, around 1290. That might have been when the builder of the famous tower put on some glasses and realized, Man, my towers leaning! Oh, well.



Our pastor recently told a story about his father, who received his first pair of eyeglasses after immigrating to the United States. The dad didnt know how bad his uncorrected sight until returning to Switzerland. For the first time, he could clearly see the spectacular vistas of the majestic Alps and the rolling hills that had been a part of his childhood.



Having poor sight physically isnt the only visual limitation hampering some people. They also have a need for spiritual eyeglasses, for which theres only one accurate prescription. As author, academician and one-time atheist C.S. Lewis wrote, "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen  not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.



Faith in Jesus Christ provided him with 20:20 eyesight into the spiritual realm. With that vision Lewis wrote such thoughtful classics as Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Problem of Pain, and the acclaimed Chronicles of Narnia fantasy series.



Just as we cant simply choose to see more clearly with our physical eyes, but must use the spectacles prescribed for us, the Scriptures tell us the ability to perceive spiritual truth isnt a matter of personal choice either. The apostle Paul wrote, The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:4).



Speaking of our spiritual enemy, Jesus said, "He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn  and I would heal them" (John 12:40).



So how can we acquire spiritual vision-correctors? We find an example in the story of the blind man who received sight from Jesus. As people marveled as this once-sightless man suddenly staring at everything around him with opened eyes, he admitted that although he didnt fully understand what had happened, One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!" (John 9:25).



Its the same for each of us. At one time, we were blinded to spiritual understanding. But when God through His Spirit opens our eyes, we cant help but see. As Steve Brown of Key Life Network likes to say, Once youve seen the truth, you cant un-see the truth.



What are the benefits of receiving the spiritual vision only God can provide? For starters, we begin to see Him for who He truly is: I lift up my eyes to the mountains  where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth (Psalm 121:1-2).



We find ourselves able to better comprehend what He has revealed in the Scriptures: Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law (Psalm 199:18). Truth that once seemed so obscure becomes obvious.



And in the process, we discover weve also gained the ability to see things the way God sees them: As Jesus told His followers, Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest (John 4:35). We begin to perceive things  and people  around us from the Lords point of view.



A question I must ask myself daily is, how well are my spiritual eyeglasses working? Am I even bothering to use them?



----
The Morning Pointe Foundation and Parkridge Health System announced the Caregiver Cafe series to explore the psychological impact of caregiving, as well as healthy ways to cope while caring for someone who is living with memory loss and aging.

Experts from Parkridge Medical Center and Parkridge Valley Hospital will lead the four-part series which begins in January and continues through October.

On Jan. 23, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., Dr. Tamunosaki Lawson, M.D., psychiatrist, and Amy Whipple, associate chief nursing officer at Parkridge Valley Hospital, will begin the first Caregiver Cafe on the topic Compassion Fatigue. Future discussions will take place on the following dates (speakers and times to be announced):

 April 17  Guilt and Grief: The Silent Burdens of Caregiving

 July 24  Now What? How do Stroke, COPD, Vascular Dementia and Cardiovascular Disease Change Behaviors?

 October 23  Dementia, Delirium and Depression  How to Know the Difference and Minimize Behaviors

We sincerely thank Parkridge for the opportunity to connect healthcare experts as our 2018 Aging and Dementia Friendly Partner, said Lori Hoeger, director of the Morning Pointe Foundation. It is a privilege to be a resource for professional and family caregivers as we navigate the changing phases of dementia care for loved ones.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, informal and unpaid caregivers often experience higher levels of anxiety, depression and compromised immune function, while reporting worsened physical health. The aim of the Caregiver Cafe series is to promote improved physical and psychological health for family caregivers.

Parkridge Valley is excited to participate in the Morning Pointe Foundations educational series, which focuses on behavioral health and the psychology behind caregiving, said Melissa Arkin, CEO of Parkridge Valley Hospital. Our team of psychiatrists, therapists, nurses and other medical disciplines look forward to sharing their knowledge through this partnership, as we continue to be a resource in our community.

The Caregiver Cafe is open to the public and takes place at The Lantern at Morning Pointe Alzheimers Center of Excellence, Chattanooga, at 7620 Shallowford Road.
"Forward" is an ecumenical group which offers mutual support for those who have lost a spouse. First-Centenary United Methodist Church in downtown Chattanooga will host a new small group, seven sessions in all, beginning Saturday, Feb. 10 from 10 a.m.-11:30 a.m., in the church parlor.

These groups offer space for the newly and sometimes not so newly bereaved to share experiences and begin to find ways to step "Forward" into the future.

To join this group, contact Cindy Ruff at 423-756-2021. There is no charge.






For the 11th time, a Jazz Vespers service will be held on Sunday, Jan. 28, at St. Timothys Episcopal Church.

The service features vocals by Kathy Tugman with the David Walters Trio playing secular tunes that take on a different meaning in the context of a winters vespers service. Sue Ann Reinisch will join in, playing flute on Sentimentale from Claude Bollings Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano, and accompanying Kathy as she sings her original vesper tune for the lighting of the vesper candle.

The service begins at 5 p.m. and will last one hour. There will be no homily or communion. There is no admission charge, but a love offering will be accepted and, as in the past, applied exclusively to support jazz vesper services.

This unique program is an hour of wonderful music, played in a contemplative service.

St. Timothys is at 630 Mississippi Ave., on Signal Mountain. Coming up the mountain, turn left just before the stop light and then take the first left, which is Mississippi Avenue.


China is willing to further deepen the comprehensive strategic partnership with Chile, and enhance cooperation with Latin America within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Sunday in Chile's capital, Santiago.

During a meeting with Chile's president-elect Sebastian Pinera, Wang spoke highly of Pinera's stand on China -- taking relations with China as a top priority of the country's foreign policy, believing that the China-Chile comprehensive strategic partnership will achieve a higher level.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with Chile's president-elect Sebastian Pinera in Chile's capital, Santiago, January 21, 2018. [Photo: fmprc.gov.cn]

On bilateral relations, Wang said, the two sides need to further enhance political mutual trust and continue mutual support on core interests concerned issues.

Taking the signing of a deal on upgrading bilateral free trade agreement as an opportunity, Wang said, the two countries need to increase economic and trade exchanges and expand cooperation in investment, innovation and other fields.

On regional level, Wang said both sides should promote joint building of the Belt and Road, and back the China-CELAC (the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) Forum to yield new achievements.

On international affairs, the two sides need to adhere to multilateralism and jointly address climate change and other global challenges, the Chinese foreign minister said.

China will fully support Chile in hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in 2019, and support free trade and oppose protectionism to promote the building of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, Wang said.

Pinera said he has closely followed the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and is optimistic about the prospect of China's development.

Chile will firmly pursue the one-China policy, actively support the Belt and Road Initiative, the president-elect said, saying his country is willing to increase communication and coordination in international and regional hot spots, and continuously enhance the partnership between the two countries.
New Delhi: HPCL may acquire Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) in a cash and share- swap deal to become India's third-largest oil refiner, a top official said.

Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), India's biggest oil and gas producer, last week announced acquisition of HPCL for Rs 36,915 crore. After this takeover, ONGC has two refining subsidiaries - HPCL and MRPL.

"If MRPL comes to HPCL, we can bring lot of synergy," HPCL Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Kumar Surana told PTI.

For one, HPCL (Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd) sells more petroleum product than it produces and bringing MRPL's 15 million tonne a year refinery under the fold would help bridge the shortfall.

Also, there can be synergies in crude oil procurement as well as in optimising refinery set-up, he said. ONGC plans to maintain HPCL as an independent listed company under whom all its downstream units can be consolidated.

"MRPL is not a new company for us. It was in fact an HPCL company before ONGC in 2003 acquired joint venture parter A V Birla Group. We will hold close to 17 per cent stake in MRPL and so we know the company well," he said.

The merger "may be a good thing to do in the interest of the (ONGC) group," he said.

On Sunday, ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Shashi Shanker said his company will also consider merging MRPL with HPCL at a later date. The Boards of the two companies have to consider the proposal and take a decision on it, he said.

While ONGC holds 71.63 per cent stake in MRPL, HPCL has 16.96 per cent. Surana said discussions on the merger have not started but they should start soon. The merger can be through "share-swap plus cash," he said.

HPCL can acquire MRPL either by buying out ONGC's shares, which at today's trading price is worth just over Rs 16,000 crore. The other option is share-swap, wherein ONGC will get more shares in HPCL in lieu of it giving up its control in MRPL, the official said.

A third option and more preferable is a combination of the two, he said. After ONGC completed acquisition of the government's 51.11 per cent shares, HPCL will become a subsidiary.

The transaction allows the government to monetise its HPCL ownership without losing ultimate control of the company.

"We will continue to remain a central public sector enterprise (CPSE)," Surana said. HPCL will add 23.8 million tonne of annual oil refining capacity to ONGC's portfolio. This together with 15 million tonne refinery of MRPL will create India's second-biggest state-owned oil refiner after Indian Oil Corp (IOC).

Overall, it will become the third biggest refiner behind IOC and Reliance Industries. MRPL will be the third refinery of HPCL, which already has units at Mumbai and Visakhapatnam.
Excessive reliance by economists and policymakers on the GDP as the primary metric of national economic performance is part of the problem, the WEF said.

New Delhi: Hours before PM Narendra Modi showcases India before the global investors community at Davos, Switzerland, the nation was ranked at 62nd place among the emerging economies on an Inclusive Development Index, a World Economic Forum (WEF) report said. India ranks much below Chinas 26th position and even Pakistans 47th. India had been ranked 60th among 79 developing economies last year.

Norway remains the worlds most inclusive advanced economy, while Lithuania again tops the list of emerging economies, the WEF said.

Mr Modi, who is the first Indian Prime Minister in over 20 years to attend the WEF annual event, will meet over 120 CEOs of top multinational corporations at Davos. The PM will deliver the keynote speech at the WEFs plenary session on Tuesday.

Of the three pillars that make up the index, India ranks 72nd for inclusion, 66th for growth and development and 44th for inter-generational equity. The neighbouring countries ranked above India include Sri Lanka (40), Bangladesh (34) and Nepal (22).

India tagged advancing among emerging nations

Hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi showcases India before the global investors community at Davos, Switzerland, the nation was ranked at 62nd place among the emerging economies on an Inclusive Development Index, a World Economic Forum (WEF) report said. India ranks much below Chinas 26th position and even Pakistans 47th.

India had been ranked 60th among 79 developing economies last year.

Norway remains the worlds most inclusive advanced economy, while Lithuania again tops the list of emerging economies, the World Economic Forum said while releasing the annual index.

Mr Modi, who is the first Indian Prime Minister in over 20 years to attend the WEF annual event, will meet over 120 CEOs of top multinational corporations at Davos. The PM will deliver the keynote speech at the WEFs plenary session on Tuesday.

Of the three pillars that make up the index, India ranks 72nd for inclusion, 66th for growth and development and 44th for inter-generational equity. The neighbouring countries ranked above India include Sri Lanka (40), Bangladesh (34) and Nepal (22).

The countries ranked better than India also include Mali, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Ghana, Ukraine, Serbia, Philippines, Indonesia, Iran, Macedonia, Mexico, Thailand and Malaysia.

Although China ranks first among emerging economies in GDP per capita growth (6.8 per cent) and labour productivity growth (6.7 per cent) since 2012, its overall score is brought down by lacklustre performance on inclusion, the WEF said. The index takes into account the living standards, environmental sustainability and protection of future generations from further indebtedness, the WEF said.

It urged the leaders to urgently move to a new model of inclusive growth and development, saying reliance on GDP as a measure of economic achievement is fuelling short-termism and inequality.

The index, which measures progress of 103 economies on three individual pillars has been divided into two parts. The first part covers 29 advanced economies and the second 74 emerging economies.

The index has also classified the countries into five sub-categories in terms of the five-year trend of their overall Inclusive Development Growth score  receding, slowly receding, stable, slowly advancing and advancing. Despite its low overall score, India is among the 10 emerging economies with advancing trend.
In its Budget wish list, SBI said that the tax exemption limit enjoyed by salaried class should be increased to Rs 3 lakh from Rs 2.5 lakh.

Mumbai: The State Bank of Indias (SBI) economic research wing has called for increasing the various income-tax exemptions limits in the forthcoming Budget to spur consumption and boost growth.

In its Budget wish list, SBI said that the tax exemption limit enjoyed by salaried class should be increased to Rs 3 lakh from Rs 2.5 lakh. It has also proposed increasing the amount of deductions allowed under Section 80CC by Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh besides continuing with the additional deduction of Rs 50,000 permitted under Section 80CCD for the National Pension Scheme (NPS).

The government have periodically increased the income tax slabs from Rs 22,000 in 1990-91 to Rs 2.5 lakh in 2014-15. Due to the 7th pay commission, the personal disposable income has increased, so we believe there is a need to raise the exemption limit to Rs 3 lakh. Due to such increase in limit, around 75 lakh taxpayers will be exempted from income tax, said SBIs chief economic advisor Soumya Kanti Ghosh and author of the report.

It has also requested the government to consider increasing the exemption limit of interest payments for housing loan to Rs 2.5 lakh from the current limit of Rs 2 lakh that would benefit around 75 lakh home loan buyers across the country.

Additionally, SBI also wants the government to incentivise savings through bank deposits by bringing down the lock in period for tax savings term deposits to 3 years from the current 5 years.

The overall impact of such concessions will result in revenue foregone of around Rs 28,500 crore. We however believe, the Budget will ultimately be a balance between pragmatism and fiscal consolidation, SBI said in its report.

The report also said that State Bank of Indias expectations regarding the forthcoming Budget are based upon principle of inclusive growth and meeting the medium and long term objectives set by the government.

As per our reading of the things, Budget should give priority to agriculture, MSME, infrastructure and affordable housing, it said.

Agriculture reforms should aim at re-examination of legally created structures whose provisions are restrictive and create barriers to free trade, it said.

The Centre in conjunction with states should emulate the price support schemes like in MP and Haryana say Bhavantar Krishi Yojana for major crops (including vegetables).

This scheme will help farmers in situations (when wholesale price of the crop is less than the MSP) and the cost of which is only 10 per cent of farm loan waiver programme as per our estimates. Provision of A2 milk in Mid-day meals for children will create adequate additional income for 16 million farmer per year," the report said.
Mumbai: Actor-Producer of Bhojpuri films Neetu Chandra hits out at Sidharth Malhotra on social media saying that he should be ashamed for making such derogatory statements against Bhojpuri language.

Neetu tweeted, "So disappointed @S1dharM someone who is so fortunate to work with best. Who despite being an outsider has made a name for himself, for you to use your words so loosely to disrespect Bhojpuri on national Television. Shocked! How on earth does speaking Bhojpuri gives you a latrine feeling. Shame on you."

So disappointed @S1dharthM some1who is so fortunate 2 work wd d best. Who despite being an outsider has made a name 4 himself,4 U 2 use ur words so loosely.2 disrespect #Bhojpuri on national TV. SHOCKED! How on earth does speaking in #Bhojpuri gives u a latrine feeling.Shame on U pic.twitter.com/dQqarHZRqM  Neetu N Chandra (@Neetu_Chandra) January 22, 2018

Neetu Chandra also put a clip of Sidharth Malhotra at the Big Boss house where Sidharth Malhotra is seen commenting on Bhojpuri language and saying that when he speaks in Bhojpuri he feels as if he is in washroom. In the tweet, Neetu Chandra has said that she is shocked to see how someone could degrade one of the oldest languages of India. She made her feelings amply clear in her tweet.

Post this incident, Sidharth apologized to the actress and people in general for hurting their sentiments. He tweeted:

I recently tried speaking a new language while I was on a TV show. In the process if I inadvertently hurt anyone's feelings or sentiments, I apologise and assure you that no disrespect was meant in any way.  Sidharth Malhotra (@S1dharthM) January 22, 2018

Sidharth will next be seen in Neeraj Pandey's 'Aiyaary', also starring Manoj Bajpayee, Pooja Chopra and Rakul Preet Singh. The movie releases on February 9th.
New Delhi: Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh on Monday moved the Supreme Court seeking recall of its January 18 order by which controversial Bollywood movie 'Padmaavat' was allowed to be released in theatres across India on January 25.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud agreed to hear on Tuesday the interim applications of both the states seeking modification of the apex court order allowing exhibition of the movie.

The states claimed that section 6 of the Cinematograph Act empowers them to stop exhibition of any controversial movie on the grounds of possible violation of law and order.

Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Viacom 18 the producers of the Deepika Padukone-starrer, opposed urgent hearing on any such interim applications.

The court, however, agreed to hear the applications on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court had on January 25 paved the way for the nationwide release of 'Padmaavat' by staying the ban on its screening in Gujarat and Rajasthan.

The apex court also restrained other states from issuing any such notification or order banning the screening of the movie.

The film, starring Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh in lead roles, is based on the saga of historic battle of 13th century between Maharaja Ratan Singh and his army of Mewar and Sultan Alauddin Khilji of Delhi.

Haryana and Madhya Pradesh governments have not issued any formal order but had stated that they would not allow the exhibition of the film.

Maintaining that states were under constitutional obligation to maintain law and order, the apex court had said that this duty also includes providing police protection to persons who are involved in the film, its exhibition and the audience watching it.
Mumbai: Manoj Bajpayee who is going to seen in a pivotal role in Tiger Shroff-Disha Patani's 'Baaghi 2', has already cleared that he will not do any dance number in the film. "I will not be shaking a leg in the film," he said in the interview with Midday.

"It has been great to see the skills of Tiger Shroff. Watching him jump and kick as he pulls off some remarkable stunts is mesmerising. But I will not shake a leg with him. I think anybody will be an idiot to attempt [to do so]," he added.

The 'Raajneeti' actor further praised Shroff for being "scarily focused on the job at hand."

While talking about his role in the film, The actor specifically mentioned that he is not playing a villain in 'Baaghi 2'. "I play a significant role, but reports of me playing the negative character are not correct. It is Prateik Babbar who plays the anti-hero."

Directed by Ahmed Khan, Baaghi 2 is slated to release on 30 March 2018.
The source went on to add that if Obama was invited it could look like a snub to Trump, and His Royal Highness would not wish to cause a diplomatic row.' (Photo: AP)

It seems that Barack Obama is not being invited to one of the most anticipated weddings of the year.

The royal wedding between Princess Dianas youngest and Meghan Markle was branded a diplomatic timebomb if Barack Obama was invited, but not Donald Trump.

According to a story published in MailOnline, a source said that Prince Harry, who counts Obama as a friend, won't ask the former Democrat US President to his nuptials at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on May 19.

The person said that President Trump will not be invited because the wedding will be for friends and family only. The source went on to add that if Obama was invited it could look like a snub to Trump, and His Royal Highness would not wish to cause a diplomatic row.'

Courtiers say such an invitation could further antagonise Republican President Trump who, as the Mail disclosed, cancelled a proposed visit to London next month to open the new 750 million U.S. embassy.
The captains, who are now stationed together at Fort Bliss in Texas, were married in front of 150 family members and friends, 34 of whom were military officers. (Facebook Screengrab/ Vincent Franchino)

According to a New York Time article, two Apache helicopter pilots Daniel Hall, 30, and Vincent Franchino, 26, were married at the New York school's Cadet Chapel on Saturday, January 13.

The captains, who are now stationed together at Fort Bliss in Texas, were married in front of 150 family members and friends, 34 of whom were military officers.

Both of them sported their blue army uniforms and received a saber-arch salute as they left the chapel.

Their reception was held at Skylands Manor in New Jersey.

Franchino and Hall met in August 2009, back when the former was a freshman (or 'plebe' in the school's parlance) and the latter was a senior (or 'firstie').

Later in 2010, they chose each other for a mentorship program - Franchino as mentee and Hall as mentor. It was at this point that their feelings for each other developed.

However, because of the Bill Clinton-effected 1993 policy of 'don't ask, don't tell,' which barred homosexual servicemen and servicewomen from being 'out' in the military, they could not show their feelings.

But when 'don't ask, don't tell' was repealed under Barack Obama in 2011, they came out in public with their relationship.

They weathered multiple challenges and at one point, when Hall was deployed along with his Boeing AH-64 Apache to South Korea, they called their relationship off temporarily.

But they got back together and may now hope to live happily ever after.
The police said that Ganesh was attacked by unidentified miscreants and they suspect it was due to some financial dispute.

BENGALURU: A 48-year-old real estate agent and a car dealer was brutally hacked to death at his residence in Panchasheela Layout in Vijayanagar police station limits.

The deceased has been identified as Ganesh, a native of Shivamogga, who was residing with his wife and a son in a rented house in Panchsheela Layout.

According to police, on Thursday night, Ganeshs wife and son Abhishek left for Shivamogga and Ganesh was supposed to join them the next day after finishing a land deal.

When Ganesh did not reach Shivamogga on Saturday, Uma kept calling him on his mobile phone, but did not get any response. A worried Uma then headed for Bengaluru along with her son to check on Ganesh.

Upon reaching the house on Saturday night, Uma found the main door of the house closed from outside, but not locked. When she entered the house, she found Ganesh dead.

Uma then informed the Vijayanagar police, who rushed to the spot and shifted the body to a hospital for post-mortem.

The police said that Ganesh was attacked by unidentified miscreants and they suspect it was due to some financial dispute. The police have registered the case and begun investigation.
Visakhapatnam: The BJP appears to be rattled by the agitations being conducted by various groups demanding Special Category Status to the state. Party leaders are asking youngsters not to fall into the Opposition parties trap to use the SCS issue to advance their political agenda. Some youth in Vizag had taken up a fast-unto-death as part of the protest, but their efforts were foiled by the local police.

BJP state coordinator Purighalla Raghuram said that the Central led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was giving the needs of AP the highest priority, and there was no need for SCS or for the youth to agitate. He said the Centre would soon announce a separate railway zone for AP with Vizag as its headquarters. Our Prime Ministers motto is very clear. He wants the overall development of Andhra Pradesh and the country, generation of employment for the youth, development of entrepreneurship among the rural youth through mudra bank loans, and better road, rail and port connectivity for AP, which will lead to more investments and industries, which will eventually generate employment, he said.

He added that AP would benefit from a few more thousand crores, rather than the SCS. Raghuram said that at least 40 towns, including Bheemavaram in West Godavari and Proddutur in Kadapa, would be pumped with crores of rupees by the Centre under the AMRUT scheme, for their overall development.

Youngsters need not worry about their future at all. With the kind of economic development the BJP government has envisioned for the state, there will be many jobs in the coming years. Everything cant be done overnight, it takes time. Earlier it used to take years for an institution to be up and running after the foundation stone was laid; but now, new premier institutions sanctioned by the Centre are already functional, he said.
There was a pan-India look out for Abdul Subhan Qureshi, also known as Kasim, for the last few years. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: After a decade-long manhunt for the most wanted terrorist accused in 2008 Gujarat serial blasts, Delhi police Special Cell, on Monday, arrested Abdul Subhan Qureshi from the national capital.

Often referred to as 'India's Bin Laden', Qureshi a software engineer-turned-bomb-maker was arrested after a brief exchange of fire from Ghazipur in Delhi, police said.

The police also called Qureshis arrest as a breakthrough just before Republic Day celebrations on Friday.

"We have found pistols and documents on Qureshi; he was trying to revive the SIMI and the Indian Mujahideen," said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Special Cell, Pramod Kushwaha.

Qureshi went to Nepal with fake documents and was living there for many years. He also went to Saudi Arabia between 2013 and 2015 and returned to India to revive the terror network, said police.

Police had been looking out for Abdul Subhan Qureshi, also known as 'Tauqeer', across the country for the past few years.

Qureshi is closely linked to the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India or SIMI.

Qureshi has been accused of plotting the blasts in Ahmedabad and Surat on July 26, 2008 that killed 56 people and injured over 200 others.

As many as 21 bombs were planted in tiffin carriers and motorcycles in busy markets, bus stations and even hospitals where the injured were being treated.

Qureshi's name was first announced as a suspect by the Gujarat police in connection with an email sent to TV channels using the WiFi network of a US national.

Qureshi has been on the most-wanted list of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for allegedly planning the blast in Bangalore in 2014, the serial blasts in Delhi in 2010 and the local train bombings in Mumbai in 2006.

46-year-old Qureshi, also referred to as a 'techie-bomber', studied in Mumbai and reportedly worked in top Indian IT companies in Bengaluru and Hyderabad before being recruited by SIMI in 1998.
A Rajput group, has threatened to stage a peaceful protest outside the cinema halls if the film Padmavaat is released in the state.

Hyderabad: The Shri Rajput Karni Sena, a Rajput group, has threatened to stage a peaceful protest outside the cinema halls if the film Padmavaat is released in the state. It has demanded that the state government ban the film to uphold Rajputana sentiments because it depicts the history of the Rajputs inaccurately. The Supreme Court, it may be recalled, has ordered the film to be viewed in all states since it has been cleared by the Censor Board.

Thakur Ranveer Singh, president of the Rajput Karni Sena, Telangana, said he has written to the state government about banning the film. About 15 lakh Rajputs live in the city and we urge people not to visit the theatres. We advise the managements not to screen the film and bear losses as people would not turn up to watch the movie, he said.

The government should understand our sentiments and ban the film, said Thakur Vikas Singh, member of something called the Veer Kshatriya Rajput Sena, which together with the Akhil Bhartiya Rajput Samithi has also raised the same demand. We are determined to stall the screening of the movie but in a peaceful manner. There will no violence as damaging public property or private property is against our principles, said Thakur Vikas Singh.

The movie is being screened in over a dozen small theatres and multiplexes across the city on January 25. Though some BJP ruled states had declared their intent of banning the film, the Telangana government has so far remained silent on it.

Police gearing up for security at theatres

Civil clothes police officers are likely to be deployed in theatres to prevent any trouble during the screening of the film Padmavaat.

There is a fairly large Rajput community in the state, but according to sources in the police, members are not supporting a violent response to the screening of the film. Intelligence agencies say some persons might try to create trouble for political gains. If the movie is released, protection to theatres will be provided, said a senior police officer.

Police personnel both uniformed and in civvies will be deployed inside and outside theatres screening the film and theatre managements will also increase security, he added. Hyderabad Police Commissioner V.V. Srinivasa Rao reiterated that the police will provide protection to theatres if the government allows the release.
The Supreme Court also restrained all high courts from entertaining any petition relating to Loya's death. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday asked Maharashtra, Bombay High Court to transfer all the documents including two petitions relating to the alleged mysterious death of special CBI judge BH Loya.

The apex court termed as "serious" the issues raised in pleas; and said "we must look into all documents with utmost seriousness."

SC said, As of today, it was a natural death; Do not cast aspersions, adding that it will examine documents on February 2.

The top court also restrained all high courts from entertaining any petition relating to Loya's death.

The top court also asked all parties to catalogue documents in Loya's matter, which have not been filed so far and submit them.

The court also asked lawyers not to cast aspersions on BJP president Amit Shah, who is not a politician before it.

The Maharashtra government told the Supreme Court that a careful and prudent investigation was conducted after the media reports and four judicial officers assured there was no foul play involved. The three-judge bench recorded statements saying Justice Loya died of cardiac arrest.

Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra got angry when a senior woman lawyer inferred that the Supreme Court is going to gag media. The CJI asked the lawyer to retract and apologise.

At the time of his death on December 1, 2014, Justice BH Loya (48) was hearing the case of the alleged fake encounter of inter-state "gangster" Sohrabuddin Sheikh in which BJP president Amit Shah was an accused along with several others.

Amit Shah was discharged from the case with a new judge ruling that there was no evidence to merit his trial.

Two months ago, judge Loya's relatives said his death was unnatural. His sister Anuradha Biyani also claimed that he was offered a huge bribe to rule in favour of the BJP chief Amit Shah.

Speaking to the Caravan magazine, Anuradha Biyani claimed there was blood on his clothes. Another relative alleged that Judge Loya was offered a huge bribe. But the police and a judge who was with Judge Loya during his last hours, rubbished the family's claims.

Petitions asking for an investigation have been filed by activist Tehseen Poonawala and a journalist from Maharashtra, BS Lone.

On January 14, Judge Loya's son Anuj Loya told the media that the family has no suspicions now and his father's death was being politicised. "There was some suspicion before due to emotional turmoil, but now it is clear," Anuj said.

The Loya case was one of those which was indicated by the four senior most apex court judges -- justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph -- at their press conference where they had questioned the manner in which sensitive cases were being allocated.
Kerala by Governor P Sathasivam also omitted the reference about the 'plotting' by some communal outfits in triggering riots in the southern state. (Photo: File)

Thiruvananthapuram: The policy address of the LDF government in Kerala by Governor P Sathasivam on Monday at the start of the Assembly session saw him skipping portions critical of the BJP government at the centre.

In the printed copy of his address, prepared by the state government and distributed to legislators and media, there was a reference to the alleged tendency of the central government to "roughshod" the traditions of cooperative federalism by bypassing the state government.

However, this portion was not read out by the Governor during his speech.

"We are also perturbed by the tendency of the central government to roughshod the best traditions of co-operative federalism by bypassing the State Government and directly dealing with the district authorities and local bodies," the text said.

The Governor also omitted the reference about the "plotting" by some communal outfits in triggering riots in the southern state.

"Kerala has once again been identified as first in the country in maintenance of law and order and top the country in the ranking of quality of life. There has not been any instance of communal riot in our state despite the plotting by certain communal outfits," the copy of the speech said.

When contacted, the Chief Minister's Office told PTI that they were not keen on making any comment on this issue.

"We usually do not make any comment on the Governor's policy address," the official sources said.

In his speech, Sathasivam referred to campaigns by some "communal outfits" on the law and order situation of the state on both social and conventional media, in the past year.

"Despite being a state with some of the best law and order indices in the country, a month long campaign was carried out across India, on certain flimsy grounds by some communal outfits," he said.

However, people of the state en masse responded to this campaign featuring the hash tags, the Governor said.

During the past one year, there had been "slanderous" attacks on the secular traditions of Kerala, doubts thrown on its social sector achievements and vilification of the law and order situation from various quarters, he said.

In October 2017, the BJP had taken out the much-hyped 'Janaraksha yatra' against the alleged 'red terror'.

BJP National President Amit Shah, who participated in the yatra, had alleged that Kerala, under the CPI(M)-led LDF government, had become a fertile ground for 'jihadi terror'.

He had also alleged that whenever the LDF government came to power, attacks against saffron party cadres increased in the state.

Countering the BJP charges, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had alleged that the Janaraksha yatra had propagated "lies and false messages".
In a bid to get the Mahadayi river dispute resolved, pro-Kannada organisations and farmers have called for two bandhs in Karnataka over the next two weeks. (Photo: File | ANI)

Hubballi (Bengaluru): In a bid to get the Mahadayi river dispute resolved, pro-Kannada organisations and farmers have called for two bandhs in Karnataka over the next two weeks.

While the state-wide bandh will be observed on January 25, the second bandh will be organised in Bengaluru on February 4.

The Bengaluru bandh will coincide with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the city to attend the state BJP's Parivarthana rally.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to attend the state BJP Parivarthana rally in Bengaluru and the intent to hold the rally on February 4 is to pressure on Narendra Modi to intervene in the river dispute.

Vatal Nagaraj, leader of Kannada Chalavali Vatal Paksha (KCVP), a pro-Kannada outfit, had said that about 2,000 Kannada outfits had backed the bandh call.

However, according to a report in The Times of India, Vatal Nagaraj faced the angst of Mahadayi and Kannada activists for not taking them into confidence when he gave a call for a Karnataka bandh on January 25.

Vatal, who wished to express his solidarity with the farmers of North Karnataka, was in Hubballi to brief the media about the proposed bandh to mark their protest against the delay in solving the Mahadayi crisis. However, midway into the conference, members of the Kalasa-Banduri Samanvaya Samiti, Hubballi, and Kannada activists barged into the hall and created a ruckus.

Meanwhile, Kannada activists Amrut Ijari, Mahesh Pattar, Shekaraiah Hiremath and several others expressed anger and questioned Nagaraj: "Did you take our consent before giving a bandh call on January 25? We will not support it. Our intention of calling a bandh on January 27 was to pressure PM Modi to intervene in the Mahadayi issue, as he was to visit the state on January 28. Frequent bandhs are causing a lot of inconvenience to the public, who are now upset."

The Kannada organisations have also decided to show black flag to Modi when he visits Karnataka on January 28 for the concluding ceremony of BJP's Nava Karnataka Parivarthana Yatra, a state-wide programme against the Congress government.

Karnataka has locked horns with Goa over the Mahadayi river sharing issue to supply water for Hubballi and Dharwad towns for drinking water through Kalasa-Banduri canal.

On January 11, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said he would go by the decision taken by the Mahadayi river water sharing tribunal. Earlier, he had written to state BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa lending his support to resolve the Mahadayi river water sharing issue.

Karnataka is seeking release of 7.56 tmcft water by Goa from the Mahadayi river for the Kalasa-Banduri Nala project, being undertaken to improve the drinking water supply to Hubballi-Dharwad and districts of Belagavi and Gadag in the northern region.

The Kalasa-Banduri Nala (diversion) project involves building barrages across Kalasa and Banduri, tributaries of Mahadayi River, to divert 7.56 tmcft to the Malaprabha river which supplies drinking water needs of the region.

On 27 December 2017, a bandh was declared in five North Karnataka districts over the same issue following a call by farmer groups.
Marina beach will see a makeover at a cost of Rs 8.60 crore, whereas, Elliots beach will get Rs 5.97 crore makeover, a Chennai Corporation official said.

Chennai: Chennais twin beaches Marina and Elliots are all set to get a massive makeover at a cost of Rs 14.60 crore under central government ambitious Swadesh Darshan Scheme, which eyes tourism development in the country.

The Greater Chennai Corporation had floated two separate tenders for the upgrade and upkeep of Marina beach and Elliots beach.

Marina beach will see a makeover at a cost of Rs 8.60 crore, whereas, Elliots beach will get Rs 5.97 crore makeover, a Chennai Corporation official said.

Under Swadesh Darshan Scheme, the union government has allotted `100 crore for developing infrastructures related to tourism in Tamil Nadu, of which nearly half the amount will be spent on state beaches.

The development works at Marina and Elliots beaches include construction of watchtower, new toilets and introducing bay watch with life boats and other life-saving equipment. The work also involves maintaining of beach surface clean, in addition to renovating Schmidt Memorial on Elliots beach apart from other beautification works.

In addition to the beach renovation and rejuvenation under Swadesh Darshan Scheme, the civic body also has a separate proposal for developing a new park near Marina beach at a cost of Rs 19 crore.

Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC) has agreed to give funds to build a new park. The proposal also includes renovation of facilities that were damaged during Jallikattu riot. Once the government sanctions the proposal, the project will be commenced, another civic body official said. The tender quotations would be opened on January 29. The works will start soon after the work orders are issued, the official added.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday indicated that the upcoming Budget will not be a populist one and said its a myth that the common man expects freebies and sops from the government.

In a TV interview on Sunday, he also pledged that his government will stay on the course of the reforms agenda that has pulled out India from being among the fragile five economies of the world to being a 'bright spot'.

Mr Modi stoutly defended his economic policies, saying demonetisation was a very big success story and that he was open to changes in the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) to plug loopholes and make it a more efficient one-nation-one- tax system.
For someone who clearly knows nothing about Brooklyn, New York magazines Andrew Sullivan sure likes to throw shade at New York Citys largest borough. Or, perhaps we should say Brooklyn, as the place Sullivan inveighs against does not exist other than as a figment of his imagination.

In a curious, rambling screed against contemporary feminism published Friday, Sullivan referred to Brooklyn three times. Nothing in his blog post actually had anything to do with the borough or any of its 2.6 million inhabitants. Rather, Sullivan uses Brooklyn as a metonym for a particularly aggressive brand of millennial political correctness on all matters of gender identity. He blames that phantom ideology for inciting a backlash that has made most Americans skeptical that sexism even exists and helped to elect Donald Trump. Its a crude and inaccurate political variation on the medias grating habit of saying Brooklyn, when they really mean only Brooklyns gentrified northwestern quadrant. Here are the quotes:

 If most men are told that what they are deep down is, in fact, problematic if not toxic, they are going to get defensive, and with good reason. And they are going to react. So, by the way, are the countless women who do not see this kind of masculinity as toxic, who want men to be different, who are, in fact, deeply attracted to the core aggression of the human male, and contemptuous of the latest orthodoxy from Brooklyn.

 Two-thirds of Independents now suspect the sincerity of most claims of sexism. Congrats, Brooklyn.

 Democrats and liberals are going to have to decide if they want to problematize half the voting population. They are going to have to figure out who they really side with: Brooklyn or much of America?

Sullivans image of Brooklyn is so at odds with reality that it suggests he has probably barely set foot in the place hes so quick to malign. Sullivan apparently thinks Brooklyn is all young, highly-educated and on the far left edge of social and cultural politics. Here are some facts about Brooklyn, courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau, that might surprise Sullivan and even some of his readers and colleagues at New York:

 With a median household income of $50,640, Brooklyn is New Yorks second-poorest borough after the Bronx. It is less affluent than the country as a whole.

 Brooklyns 20.6 percent of residents living in poverty is significantly higher than the national rate.

 Brooklyn is only 36 percent non-Hispanic white.

 Of Brooklynites ages 25 and older, only 34 percent have bachelors degrees or higher.

 A language other than English is spoken in 46 percent of Brooklyn households.

By almost any measure, Brooklyn is less elite than Sullivans own hometown Washington, D.C., which has a higher median household income ($72,935), higher percentage of residents with college degrees (55 percent) and lower poverty rate (18.6 percent). Brooklyn is much more representative of the United States than D.C. is  more working-class and more ethnically diverse.

Brooklyn is even more conservative than D.C. Sullivans snarky handwringing notwithstanding, actual Brooklyn contains plenty of cultural conservatives who might share his antipathy for the left wing of contemporary academic feminism: the Hasidim and other ultra-Orthodox Jews in Midwood, Borough Park and south Williamsburg, Sephardim in Gravesend, Italian-Americans in Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights, Russian-Americans in Brighton Beach and Irish-American cops and fireman everywhere from Windsor Terrace to Mill Basin. And plenty more of Brooklyns Democratic-leaning constituencies  Latinos and Asian-Americans in Sunset Park and Kensington, African-Americans and Caribbean-Americans in Brownsville, East New York, Canarsie and East Flatbush  may have a range of views on social issues. Does Sullivan not know, or merely not care, that all these people live in Brooklyn?

In an unrelated item within the same post, Sullivan squeezes in yet another caricature of Brooklyns politics. Pathetically celebrating The New York Times publication of a guide to spending a weekend in Sullivans beloved D.C.  for someone who so despises New York, Sullivan desperately craves New Yorks approval  he enthuses that the capital city has greater political diversity. Theres also a wider variety of views in D.C., in part because the city has to sustain a lot of Republicans as well as Democrats, Sullivan writes. So it doesnt have quite the stifling left-liberal bubble of Manhattan, or the oppressive feel of the Peoples Republic of Woke across the river in Brooklyn.

One wonders what terrible oppression happened to Sullivan the one time he went to Williamsburg, but he should know better than to make factual claims that can be easily disproved. Brooklyn, like New York City as a whole, had a much higher share of Republican voters in the 2016 presidential election (18 percent and 19 percent, respectively) than D.C. (4.1 percent).

Even the politics of Brooklyn-inhabiting educated millennial readers  typical New York magazine readers, one might say  are not necessarily what Sullivan portrays. Sullivan dismisses Brooklyn as in thrall to identity-obsessed, easily-offended Woke politics, but many white-collar liberal Brooklynites are more focused on issues like economic justice  and they are as eager as Sullivan to win back working-class white voters.

Whats especially rich about Sullivans hackish misrepresentation of Brooklyn is that on the very same item about D.C. he complains that the author of the Times piece falsely maligns Washington as having recently shaken off the starchy, insular appearance of a white male fiefdom, noting that D.C. was for a long time majority African-American.

He is right to complain: The Times used a broad image of D.C.  held by outsiders and based solely on its most affluent, socially elite and transient residents  and treated it as the actual embodiment of the place. And that is precisely what Sullivan did to Brooklyn. A magazine called New York ought to know its own city better.
More than 130 Indian CEOs are present along with over 2,000 business leaders and 70 heads of states and governments at the WEF summit. (Photo: AFP)

Davos: As the world leaders await to hear Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for India's engagement with the world, Indian CEOs on Monday made a strong pitch for a statesman like position for the country to counter the protectionism and domestic rhetoric expected to be presented by countries like the US.

Eminent banker Uday Kotak, a Davos veteran who has been attending the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in this Swiss ski resort town for years, said India needs to understand the subtle difference between sales and marketing, and present the India story accordingly while positioning itself in the role of a statesman.

Spicejet CEO Ajay Singh, who has himself steered a major turnaround in a sector like aviation, said India has a great story to tell at Davos and there can be no one better than Prime Minister Modi to tell this story.

Top banker Chanda Kochhar of ICICI Bank, who has also been regular here, said the Indian economy is seeing broad-based improvement across several sectors and is on track for a robust growth that can be tapped by one and all.

A number of Indian CEOs present at Davos said the global community is waiting to hear from Prime Minister Modi and his speech is generating even more interest because the US president is also likely to come later at this summit with his America First pitch and how he has lowered the corporate tax rates and made the American corporations bring back jobs and profits from abroad to the US.

Modi will deliver the keynote speech at the plenary session of the WEF on Tuesday.

Before his departure from India, Modi had said that he will share his vision for India's future engagements with international community in Davos, and will seek "serious attention" of world leaders on existing and emerging challenges to the contemporary global systems.

"The existing and emerging challenges to the contemporary international system and global governance architecture deserve serious attention of leaders, governments, policy makers, corporates and civil societies around the world," he tweeted.

"I look forward to my first visit to the World Economic Forum at Davos, at the invitation of Indias good friend and Founder of the WEF, Professor Klaus Schwab," he said, while describing the theme of the forum, 'Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World' as "both thoughtful and apt".

The comments assume significance as several leaders are expected to talk about various risks facing the world, including those from economic protectionism and differences between various world powers. The Summit is also being attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Theresa May, among other leaders.

Spicejet's Singh said Modi has a great story to tell about significant reforms undertaken in India and even a greater story about 1.4 billion Indians, a young population and a massive market for the world.

"When we saw Chinese premier Xi Jinping here last year (2017), there was a lot of focus on China and its natural that there would be a lot of focus on India this time," Singh said.

He further added that he and all other Indian CEOs are already seeing overflowing meeting requests and there is certainly a lot of interest in India this time.

In the largest ever Indian presence in the 48 year history of the WEF summit in this Swiss ski resort town, more than 130 Indian CEOs are present along with over 2,000 business leaders and 70 heads of states and governments. Besides, several other leaders from politics, business, academia, art, culture and civil society are also present at the event which opens on Monday and will close on Friday.

Pitching for a nuanced message here at the WEF to present India as an open economy that cares for the interest of domestic as well as global audience, Kotak said that "we need to position ourselves at this forum as a statesman and not just a salesman".

He also said it is a very big opportunity for India to demonstrate the new India we are building.

Kochhar said that Indian economy is seeing broad-based improvement across all sectors and should clock 7 per cent growth in the second half of the current fiscal.

She also said reforms have fast tracked the process of digitisation and formalisation of the Indian economy and the country is on track to again attain the fastest growth rate in the world.
Bhansali productions had on January 20 written to the Shree Rajput Karni Sena and Rajput Sabha, Jaipur, inviting them to watch the film assuring that it showcased the honour and valour of Rajputs.

Jaipur/Bhopal/Mumbai: Protests against Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Padmaavat' rocked several states including Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh on Monday even as the Karni Sena indicated willingness to watch the film ahead of its scheduled release on January 25.

In Rajasthan, protesters in Rajsamand and Barmer blocked highways while a youth in Bhilwara climbed a mobile phone network tower to express opposition.

Towns like Indore, Ujjain and Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh witnessed road blockades while in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur, the home turf of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, people waving saffron flags burnt an effigy of Bollywood director Bhansali right in front of a cinema hall.

As the lavishly mounted period drama continued to face stiff opposition, states like Haryana and Maharashtra promised security to theatres that would screen it.

On the other hand, the Rajasthan government invited the Mewar royal family and the Karni Sena, to become party to its petition in the Supreme Court against an earlier ruling that lifted the ban on the movie in the state.

Even as the row simmered on, the Shree Rajput Karni Sena said it was ready to watch the period drama as offered by Bhansali productions in a bid to end the deadlock.

Karni Sena has been the most vociferous of the fringe groups opposing the movie alleging historical facts were distorted.

"We are ready to watch the film. We never said that we will not watch the film. The filmmaker assured us one year ago that he will go for a special screening and now he has written for the screening and we are ready for it," Sena leader Lokendra Singh Kalvi said.

Bhansali productions had on January 20 written to the Shree Rajput Karni Sena and Rajput Sabha, Jaipur, inviting them to watch the film assuring that it showcased the honour and valour of Rajputs.

Despite expressing willingness to watch the movie, the Karni Sena continued its stiff opposition, as Kalvi met Chief Minister Adityanath in Lucknow and pressed for a ban on 'Padmaavat'.

"People will impose 'janta curfew' in cinema halls in Uttar Pradesh if the movie is screened," Kalvi said after his 20-minute meeting with Adityanath. He listed objections on nearly 40 different counts with regard to the movie.

Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria, meanwhile, said that the state government's petition in the Supreme Court would be strengthened if Karni Sena and the Mewar royal family became party to it.

"We are equally affected as are the people. We have exercised all the rights we have within the framework of law and constitution so that peoples' sentiment and law and order issues can be addressed," Kataria said.

Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have moved the Supreme Court seeking recall of its January 18 order by which 'Padmaavat' was allowed to be released across India on January 25.

The Haryana government took a different stance saying it will implement the Supreme Court order that allows the screening of the movie.

"It's good if some theater owners do not want to screen the film, but those who want to, they will be provided full security," Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said.

The Mumbai police also promised security to the theatres that would show the controversial film.

The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) too joined other right wing groups demanding that the film should not be allowed to be screened.

"Hindu organisations should hit the streets to lodge a strong protest against the film in a democratic manner. The issue is not concerned only with Rajputs but all Hindu castes that sacrificed lives in Jauhar," VHP international working president Praveen Togadia said.

He said the VHP, Bajrang Dal and other organisations should not let the film release in the country.

Talking to reporters at the Jaipur International Airport, Togadia demanded that the Centre bring an ordinance to ban the film's release as it did in the 'Jallikattu' case.

Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Haryana had banned "Padmaavat" amid fierce protests by fringe groups, who alleged the film distorted history.

The Supreme Court had set aside the notifications issued by Rajasthan and Gujarat against the release of the film.

Producers of the film, Viacom18, had moved the Supreme Court challenging the ban on its screening by the four states.

The film, starring Deepika Padukone as Rani Padmavati and Ranveer Singh as Allaudin Khilji, will hit the screens on January 25, after months of stiff opposition from right-wing groups.
Tirupati: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams employees are a stressed lot as they are being burdened with additional work. The work pressure is high for everyone, right from class four employees to the senior most officials in TTD. The reason behind the work pressure is something as simple as a delay in the recruitments.

Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams senior employees welfare association conveyed their problems to the Chief Minister recently and requested that the government conduct a recruitment drive as soon as possible, to reduce the workload on existing officials.

The last recruitments took place in the year 2010. From then onwards, recruitments were completely stopped and the administration is allegedly depending only on contract employees to favour contractors.

The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams has more than 8,000 permanent employees at present. The number has drastically reduced when compared to the statistics of the year 2010. As many as 300  500 employees have retired from TTD from the year 2010 and there has been no recruitment dive that was conducted to fill up all those gaps.

Even the Nayi Brahmins who work at the Kalyana Katta for the purpose of tonsuring peoples heads are being paid for each piece of work. According to the officials, permanent employees in these categories have reduced to a meagre 200.

The Rayalaseema region is completely backward and TTD is surely one of the main hubs for jobs for economically backward families. There are many demands from organisations like Rayalaseema Porata Samithi and so on to offer jobs to the locals. Many organisations have also held protested in front of the TTD administrative building asking them to conduct new recruitments.

A senior official from Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams on condition of anonymity said, The Chief Minister has responded in a positive manner for the request. Every employee in Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams is facing severe stress. This includes everyone from attenders to senior level officials of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams. There are more than 7,000 rooms in Tirumala and one attender looks after as many as 150 rooms. How can he alone take care of the pilgrims. Senior officials are also being given additional administrative jobs.

Speaking to this correspondent, district convenor, Rayalaseema Porata Samithi Naveen Kumar Reddy said, There are nearly as many as 10,000 employees who have been outsourced from other firms and contractors. They is no guarantee that they will not be fired from their jobs. Officials are working in tandem with the contractor and they are not even paid minimum salaries. If officials are not keen on conducting recruitments, then why cant they regularise the outsourcing staff atleast.
Vijayawada: Likhita, a Class IX student of Head Kingston School, committed suicide on Monday. Her parents had gone to Chennai for work. Likhita was alone at home. Her mothers elder sister, who resides nearby, was taking care of her.

Likhita had not been going to school for the last three days. The relative had seen her talking on her mobile and had told her that she would inform her mother of her using the mobile too much.

On Saturday night, around 10 pm, the relative called Likhita but did not get any response. On Sunday morning, Likhithas mother arrived and knocked on the door there was no response. They broke open the door and found the girl hanging from the fan.

Inspector Two-Town Durga Rao told DC that in the preliminary examinations, it seems that the girl got scared that her mother would be informed that she had not been going to school for three days and was talking over mobile phone. The police said that they were collecting the call list, to identify whom she had talked to. We have also recovered a paper on which she wrote with sketch pen I MISS YOU.

The relatives of the family said that the girl was not under any pressure regarding her studies and did not have any other issues.

The post-mortem was done and the report will come within two days. After receiving the post-mortem report and call details, further investigation will be done, the inspector said.
Work is on in full swing for the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Sation near the Metro station at Musi river in the city. (Photo: DC)

Hyderabad: Investments from South Korea and Japan for the second phase of Hyderabad Metro Rail are expected only after the project report is submitted with all details, performance of the first phase and also government policy.

While the project received appreciation from investors and bankers of South Korea and Japan, the actual works would begin only much later. Hyderabad Metro Rail managing director N.V.S. Reddy said, Our first round of deliberations and also the pitch note for the investments have shown encouraging results. We are optimistic that these countries are showing interest. But it would take time to materialise.

Presently, only a preliminary feasibility report has have been prepared on Phase 2 as the government is keen that the Metro Rail project must connect the Shamshabad airport. The TS government is looking for investors outside India to avail of the latest technology. There had also been talks for mono rail. Mr Reddy said, Other means of public transport like mono rail are only going to complement Metro Rail. The only objective is to strengthen public transport and get private vehicles off the road.
New Delhi: Just days after the Asean Summit ends in the capital, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to embark on a three-nation West Asian tour of the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Palestine in the second week of February.

Modi, who is currently in Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF), is also expected to showcase the strengths and opportunities of the Indian economy for global investors, in the UAE where, according to reports in the UAE media, he is expected to attend the World Government Summit in Dubai from February 11 to 13.

But it is Modis visit to Palestine, likely on February 10, that will perhaps be the most eagerly-awaited leg of his three-nation visit as it will come soon after the visit to India of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. The forthcoming visit to Palestine is also the latest indicator of Indias desire to balance its ties with both Israel and Palestine.

It may be recalled that last January, India and the UAE on Wednesday signed 14 pacts in key areas like defence, security, trade and energy.
Hyderabad: More than a month after the announcement, the TS government is yet to issue orders making Telugu compulsory from Classes I to XII in all educational institutions. It is instead drafting a law for this purposes.

An official said that the government was working on a Bill to make Telugu compulsory instead of issuing an order which could be challenged in courts. An official of education department said that the Bill for this would be introduced in the ensuing Assembly Session.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao announced at the recent World Telugu Conference and earlier too that the government would make Telugu compulsory in all educational institutions from the next academic year.

The government earlier felt that issuing orders would be enough for implementing the programme. There are previous government orders making Telugu compulsory in educational institutions. A senior official said most educational institutions were not implementing the orders.

The official said that the state has Marathi, Tamil and Kannada schools, apart from those affiliated to the CBSE and ICSC. The government thought that unless it brought an Act, it would not be possible to implement this in all government and private educational institutions.

At present, the draft Bill was under scrutiny of the law department. Once the department cleared it, the government was expected to introduce the Bill in the Assembly. An official of education department looking after this issue said, The state government wants to implement the making of Telugu language compulsory very strictly in all educational institutions. For this the government is bringing an Act.

He said all educational institutions, including CBSE, ICSC, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada and Urdu medium schools, would have to teach Telugu and there would be no exemption. The committee appointed by the state government on this issue suggested bringing the new Act and as issuing of a GO would not be enough.

If a GO was issued, some could go to court against that and get exemption, said an officer of law department.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear on Tuesday petitions filed by the States of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh seeking review of the order revoking ban and allowing the release of Hindi film Padmaavat on January 25

A three-judge bench comprising the Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud directed listing of the petitions on a mention made by counsel for urgent hearing.

Opposing the order allowing screening of the movie in theatres across the country, the two states claimed that section 6 of the Cinematograph Act empowers them to stop exhibition of any controversial movie on the grounds of possible violation of law and order. It was pointed out that the Central Board of Film Certification while granting the certificate did not go into the aspect of law and order as the board was not concerned about it. They said allowing the exhibition of the film would result in serious consequences in the two States and there would be loss of lives and property.

Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Viacom 18 the producers of the Deepika Padukone-starrer, opposed urgent hearing on any such interim applications. The court, however, agreed to hear the applications on Tuesday.
Chennai: The recent steep bus fare hike has sparked statewide protests among students too, with many of them taking to the streets on Monday, shouting slogans and blockading transport offices.

The Student Federation of India (SFI) and other outfits demanded that the fares be reduced. Around 300 students of Government College of Fine Arts in Chennai formed a human chain urging the government to roll back the fare hike.

Bus fare could have been increased gradually like other states instead of the sudden steep hike. Though concession passes are available for students, even the price of that would be increased, leaving train travel as the only affordable option, said one of the agitators.

Protests and road rokos took place in several colleges in the state, including government colleges at Coimbatore, Villupuram, Cuddalore, Nagapattinam and Thiruvallur among other places.

At Tiruvannamalai, around 3,000 women protested in front of a government college shouting slogans and the students did not attend classes. In Villupuram, the agitated public did not allow the buses to come out of depots, rendering it the worst affected area because of the protests.
The report said that government spent Rs 9 crore on awareness generation programmes, but the field report has a different tale to convey.

Chennai: The Chief Ministers Comprehensive Health Insurance scheme (CMCHIS) that provides free treatment to families whose annual income is less than Rs 72,000, has found more takers but the overall awareness remains low as per the recent process evaluation report of the scheme.

The overall claims (by both men and women beneficiaries) under the CMCHIS surged by 38.2 per cent in the last four years. However, overall awareness among the newly enrolled households regarding eligibility for the scheme is low, because 61 per cent of households had reported that they were not aware of the eligibility conditions.

The report said that government spent Rs 9 crore on awareness generation programmes, but the field report has a different tale to convey.

Out of the total 771 hospitals empanelled under the scheme, 616 are private hospitals, but only 12 per cent the eligible population is aware that they could get treatment under the scheme in both empanelled public and private hospitals. Awareness about post-hospitalisation benefits for selected procedures was as low as 7 per cent.

The state has around 56 per cent of the total state population covered under the scheme, where almost three-fourths were continuing from the earlier health insurance scheme sponsored by the Tamil Nadu government, 26 per cent were newly enrolled.

Only 34 per cent of the cardholders (both the newly enrolled in CMCHIS and the earlier ones continuing from the pre-CMCHI scheme) were aware of the eligibility criteria for family members who could be covered under the scheme.

While 60 per cent of the eligible people were unaware that only selected disease conditions were covered under the scheme, 70 per cent did not know that they could get treatment under the scheme in only empanelled public and private hospitals.

However, the total claims that have increased from 255,673 in 2012-13 to 353,525 in 2015-16, rate of increase in claims by males is greater than that by females.

As a result, the share of female beneficiaries to the total has fallen to 34.6 per cent. The share of government hospitals in the claims under this insurance scheme had increased from 35.7 per cent in 2012-13 to 41.9 per cent in 2015-16, with the rest going to private hospitals.

Government spends Rs 750 crore annually towards the premium for insurance, which is nearly 9 per cent of the total health sector budget, said Dr Umakant Dash, Head, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras.
On this day in 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide, a monumental step forward in enabling people to decide when and how they want to build their families and plan their futures. Today, 45 years later, the right to self-determination guaranteed by Roe v. Wade is at risk of being overturned more than ever. Thats why, right now, we must do everything in our power to protect and secure abortion access in New York.

Our state has a proud history of trailblazing when it comes to sexual and reproductive rights. In fact, New York State legalized abortion three years before Roe was decided.

But weve failed to keep up with the times. New York state law currently provides weaker abortion protections than are guaranteed by the Supreme Court, which means that if the Court overturns Roe, New Yorkers could immediately lose critical protections.

As a result of New Yorks outdated law, some abortion providers still refuse to provide abortions later in pregnancy because, while medically necessary to preserve the pregnant womans health (and thus protected under Roe), New York law states that abortion is only justifiable when performed within 24 weeks or to preserve the womans life. Not only is the state statute more narrowly drawn than the Roe standard, but because abortion remains a part of New Yorks penal law, some of these abortion providers fear criminal prosecution. This has forced New York women to travel to states as far as Colorado to access the abortion care they should be able to get at home.

Attorney General Schneiderman  by issuing an important legal opinion in 2016  has done everything within his power to protect abortion access and reassure abortion providers that New Yorks outdated statutes cannot be used to prosecute providers who perform abortions that are permissible under Roe.

But with the fate of Roe hanging in the balance of a rapidly changing Supreme Court, we must act now to codify Roes protections into New York state law.

Planned Parenthood of New York City has pledged to never stop providing care  no matter what. However, New Yorkers deserve the peace of mind that only an updated state abortion statute can provide.

It is crucial to pass legislation protecting these rights so that those protections remain in place here, regardless of what happens at the federal level.

Under the Trump administration, we are just one Supreme Court appointment away from Roe v. Wade being overturned, and the disappearance of access to safe, legal abortion nationwide.

Restrictions to abortion access and the criminalization of providers and patients are mounting across the country. We are seeing hundreds of restrictions being introduced and passed in state after state. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is holding immigrants hostage in an attempt to block their constitutional right to obtain an abortion. This past week, HHS took unprecedented steps to block access to care for women, LGBTQ people and other marginalized people by setting up an office designed to ensure that individuals can be denied access to basic health care and information based on their providerss personal beliefs.

Fortunately, Schneiderman is leading a coalition of state attorneys general to fight back against the Trump administrations dangerous, anti-choice maneuvers.

But as Trump and others attempt to gut Roes protections, we must fill in the gaps and close the loopholes so that New Yorkers  and anyone who needs to access an abortion in New York  is protected.

New York has long been a leader on this front, but it is high time to enshrine these fundamental rights in our public health law. The governors recently proposed executive budget included language that would remove abortion from the penal code, and put it in the health code where it belongs. We must fight to ensure that provision is passed in Albany this year.

As the birthplace of so many important progressive movements, New York has an opportunity and an obligation to stand up for reproductive health access and uphold the legacy of Roe v. Wade. New Yorkers cannot afford to wait.
Guntur: Mangalagiri is fast turning into the new destination for youngsters of the digital generation with the starting of IT, software, research, development and training centres. IT companies namely Make My Clinic India Pvt Ltd, Excellar Info services, Phycare IT park, Picxy.com, DFI India Pvt Ltd, Script Bees IT Pvt Ltd, Adwait Algoritm, Charvikent, Sttwica, Sunset LLC, BVG, Suvi, Digital Lynch, Crazytoonz, Bluebyte IT solutions, Skonda IT Services, Tech Seven, Waivewave and others have been started in the Mangalagiri, the ancient jaggery town that is famous for the Panakala Lakshminarasimha Swamy Temple on the hilltop.

The AP government has decided to develop Andhra Valley at Mangalagiri along the lines of the USAs Silicon Valley. The digital generation of AP state is used to Ameerpet of Hyderabad for software and IT training and skill development but now with Mangalagiri turning into the new destination for training, skill development and employment, all eyes are trained here.

The Phycare was the first IT firm to function from Mangalagiri. Later PI Data Center and other IT firms joined. On January 17, the minister for IT and panchayat raj Mr N. Lokesh started 16 IT firms at Mangalagiri. Techie Mr D. Chandra said that majority youth and students of the Krishna, Guntur and coastal districts used to go Hyderabad and Bengaluru for employment. He recalled that training and placement in java, SAP, DotNet, testing tools, networking to mobile applications were all offered in Ameerpet of Hyderabad so it became a favourite destination of the AP youth to fulfil their dream of getting a software job.

He said that the decision of the AP government about promoting IT in Mangalagiri is a good decision as the young aspirants will upgrade skills and would get trained in their area of specialisation. He said this IT hub at Mangalagiri will help those students and aspirants who are unwilling to go to Hyderabad and Bengaluru for training. The government should now take necessary measures for employment creation.

An IT company head said that IT is the future as all work is linked to computer and mobile programmings including release and close of water supply to farmlands and these IT firms will hone the skills of the aspirants turning them as techies.
Chennai: Congress and MDMK on Sunday lent their support to the DMKs statewide agitation protesting against the steep hike in bus fares across the board on January 27.

In separate statements, Tamil Nadu Congress chief Su. Thirunavukarasar and MDMK general secretary Vaiko strongly opposed the state governments move to increase bus fares and demanded an immediate rollback.

DMK Working President M.K. Stalin had on Saturday, while voicing his protest, announced that his party would hold demonstrations across the state on January 27 on the issue of bus fare hike and also sought the support of coalition partners. Thirunavukarasar said the increase in bus fare announced by the state government is very steep and almost 60 percent increase over the fares prevailing earlier and demanded its rollback.

Passengers who paid Rs 235 from Chennai to Tiruchy earlier are now being forced to pay Rs 372. Fares to Tirunelveli and Nagercoil from Chennai too have been increased steeply to Rs 695 and Rs 778, the former union minister said in the statement.

Responding to Stalins call, the Congress has decided to attend the protest, Thirunavukarasar said, I urge Congress cadre across districts to participate in large numbers in the protest against the bus fare hike called by the DMK, he said. In his statement, Vaiko said the state governments argument that the hike was necessitated due to the increase in diesel prices cannot be accepted since the price of crude oil has seen 52 percent dip since 2011 when the bus fares were hiked for the last time.

Tamil Nadu Government increased bus fares by 60 percent in 2011 and now it has increased fares for the second time. People will have to suffer more since the bus fare hike would result in an increase in prices of essential commodities. The MDMK will participate in the protest called by DMK, Vaiko said.

Angry demos against bus fare hike in state

The steep hike in bus fares by the Transport department on Friday has provoked anger among the public and Sunday saw many such protest demonstrations in several parts of the State.

With daily wage workers being the worst affected due to the move, they staged a road-roko near Dindigul asking the government to bring down the fares. Chengam in Tiruvannamalai, Thanjavur and Tiruvallur districts also witnessed protests on Sunday.

The daily wage workers who did not carry money, according to the revised slab held similar protests in Chennai on Saturday. The passengers of a bus bound from Kannagi Nagar to Broadway Bus Terminus had to get down as the verbal brawl turned into a protest.

Opposition parties, including CPI (M), PMK and DMK also announced protests at all district headquarters on January 22, 25 and 27 respectively.

However, Transport Minister, M.R. Vijayabhaskar addressing the media said there was no chance of bringing down the fares. With government transport corporations struggling to overcome losses and finding it difficult to even pay dues to its employees, Tamil Nadu Government on Friday announced a steep hike in government and private bus fares ranging from 20 percent to 55 percent.
The 57-31 CPI(M) central committee vote in Kolkata on Sunday against an alliance with the Congress goes beyond the personality clash between party general secretary Sitaram Yechury and former general secretary Prakash Karat, though it is that as well. It needs to be noted as well that the CPI(M), for all its antiquated Stalinist trappings, provides an arena for a clash of ideas and even personalities, which is fought openly and even fairly. Neither the right-wing BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah nor Rahul Gandhis left-central Congress, with his loyalist aides, allow for a free debate and vote within party forums. The two big national parties are actually more like Stalinists when it comes to inner-party deliberations.

It is the writ of Modi-Shah in the BJP and that of Rahul Gandhi in the Congress than runs. So it is the CPI(M), a much smaller national party, which is keeping the flag of inner-party democracy, for all its fragility, flying high. At a purely pragmatic level, the CPI(M) faces the dilemma that it has no option but to fight the Congress in the states where it has dominance  Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura. The situation is quite clear in Kerala, where the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) confront each other. The BJP, despite its desperate and valiant efforts, is not be able to find a foothold in the state. In West Bengal, the CPI(M)s rival is Mamata Banerjee and her All-India Trinamul Congress (AITMC), and it is the Congress which is in a dilemma whether to go with Mamata Banerjee or with the Marxists. In Tripura, the Congress has so far been the main rival to the CPI(M), but it seems that the Congress is fading away and the BJP is emerging as the power to beckon with in this border state, and Chief Minister Manik Sarkar seems to have sensed this.

The Congress is then left with no political space in Tripura. The CPI(M) can well dispense with the Congress here. It is also difficult in a certain sense for the CPI(M) cadres to fight with the Congress in these three states, and then cooperate with it at the national level. So, perhaps the Prakash Karat camp has a point  that there has to be a clear break with the Congress for the CPI(M) to hold its own. At the ideological level too, the CPI(M) with its antiquated anti-capitalist stance  many leaders in the CPI(M) and in the Communist Party of India (CPI) vehemently dislike the label of anti-market  is at loggerheads with the Congress on economic liberalisation. The Congress has been trying to ride the two horses of populist socialism and unbridled capitalism simultaneously. The BJP is practising its own brand of socialism along with its patronage of capitalists. The Karat camp may be right to argue that there is not much of a difference between the economic policies of the Congress and the BJP, and therefore it is right and necessary for the CPI(M) to see the two of them as ideological enemies.

What makes it difficult for the Marxists is the Congress unqualified professing of secularism despite its pragmatic use of soft Hindutva and the BJPs largely intolerant Hindutva, taking on Taliban-like features. The Karat faction would not want to give any grace marks to the Congress for its theoretical commitment to secularism, and it would want to fight the simple battle between good and evil and deem the Congress as part of the camp of evil. There has been much talk about forming a broad national, popular front against the BJPs unapologetic and undisguised Hindutva politics, which the CPI(M) has no hesitation in terming as fascist, a label that is not really quaint as it seemed in the 1950s and 1960s because the BJP has assumed a mammoth shape in the last quarter century and more. If secularism is the main plank, then the CPI(M) will have to join the parties that are opposed to the BJP. It is a different question whether the anti-BJP parties can defeat the BJP on the issue of secularism alone. Rahul Gandhis Gujarat Assembly poll strategy showed that the BJP is vulnerable on non-secular issues like economic performance, and that the secular card is what boosts the BJPs electoral prospects.

The CPI(M)s bid to fight the BJP on the issue of economic liberalisation will be counter-productive as well, as it has found much to its discomfiture even in Kerala and West Bengal. What is proving to be difficult for the CPI(M) is the fact that it has not yet clarified to itself and to others its view of a post-Communist, post-socialist world. The Marxists in India have not come to terms with the market economy while the Chinese Communists have done a good job of it, describing the market economy as socialism with Chinese characteristics. The CPI(M) has been hesitant, even timid, in facing up to the capitalist resurgence of the last 40 years, and with no prospect of socialist renaissance. The party is fast getting calcified and fossilised at the thought level, and it is left to engage in political pragmatics and nothing more. At the deeper intellectual level, both Sitaram Yechury and Prakash Karat are on the same page of antiquated Marxism, whatever the variations and differences in their respective polemical interpretations. Perhaps it is unfair to expect the two CPI(M) leaders who are engaged in holding the party together as best as they can to rethink Marxism. They need intellectual help from outside, but Indias leftist intellectuals are in a stupor and therefore can be of very little help.
Once again, things are falling apart (or should one say falling into place?). On the expected lines, in a manner that has almost become the hallmark of Chinas international behaviour. This includes needless defiance, avoidable stubbornness, unnecessary obstinacy and mimicking of the archaic 19th century gunboat diplomacy of the British and other Western imperial powers that ruined the economy of the Orient and other Third World countries which had mineral and mining wealth bestowed by nature. What makes China, the inheritor of a glorious ancient civilisation, behave the way it consistently does these days? There are no straight answers available to the outside world  except perhaps to a few strategic policy decisionmakers in the top echelons of the Chinese political hierarchy. From the overall behaviour pattern of contemporary Chinese in the global arena, one can suggest a few thoughts based on facts and figures derived from open source material.

First, its now clear China wants to play a dominant role as a prelude to becoming, as it hopes, the sole superpower, playing the primary role of friend, philosopher and guide to most nations, if not all. Why? Because, it says, for far too long China has been the (sole) sick man of the Far East  suppressed by the West despite being the most populous nation with the fourth largest land mass (959,7000 sq km) after Russia, Canada and the United States. Further, the psyche of the Chinese leadership evolved and concretised after the Second World War. China saw a tiny nation, Japan, growing into a superpower from 1895 and remaining so till 1945, with a huge swathe of land of conquered Asian nations (supplying raw material), develop an invincible navy, an aggressive leadership and overlording it (over China) for close to two decades.

Moreover, in the faraway Occident, emerged another Japan-like power in the 1930s  Germany. With little access to the sea, a few overseas colonies (compared to the British or French), following the 1919 Versailles Treaty, a shattered Germany rose from the ashes to become a superpower which could simultaneously take on the whole of Europe, so much so that even the mighty United States became wary of its prowess, preferring to remain in splendid isolation as long as possible. All these superpowers were, however, like pygmies before the Chinese as hardly any could boast of a 5,000-year-old civilisation of high quality philosophy, commerce, economics, administration and knowledge. Yet, while China remained down; Berlin and Tokyo rose again, thanks to the diligence of its people, coupled with foreign funds. So what did China do? It undertook an arduous and long-term internal reconstruction (for nearly 30 years) before opening up to the external world in the beginning of the 21st century. Unfortunately, the benign China of ancient tradition and civilisation turned into the belittling China, thereby implying that whoever came in the way of Chinas plan of action, thoughts and belief on terrain, topography, geography, mountains, oceans, rivers, hills or the likes of any immovable asset which Beijing had once read in the book of history, mythology, epic or novel as belonging to Beijing, would be belittled.

Seen in this background, the latest claim by Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang that Doklam construction is legitimate simply falls in line. In one stroke, China has conceded that Doklam construction is taking place and that it will go on uninterrupted, despite its proximity to Indias Chickens Neck, and its legitimate concerns. Why then do some Indians criticise Army Chief Gen. Bipin Rawat when he pointed this out in a matter-of-fact way? Was the Army Chief wrong? One certainly doesnt think so. Diplomats are a privileged lot; they speak from the high table, but the general has to report the reality from the hot terrain. Therefore, there cannot be any disconnect between the defence terrain and diplomatic-table as the aims and objectives of both are the same.

But I think the real reason behind such behaviour by the Chinese is its basic potential (internal) nightmare  food and water. Chinas population is 1.4 billion, and feeding this vast number first and foremost duty of the Chinese State, as no nation can aspire to be a superpower with imported foodstuff. Hence, agricultural land and water (for both drinking and irrigation) are sine qua non. Unfortunately, for China, here comes the real problem vis-a-vis India  sustained, impressive industrial and economic growth notwithstanding. While India has the fourth most fertile land, with 53.7 per cent of the total land area (after Bangladeshs 61.11 per cent, Moldovas 56.22 per cent and Ukraines 56.01 per cent), China, despite being the largest agricultural output nation, has just 15 per cent land which is cultivable. Add to this the massive urbanisation, resulting in a substantial loss of agricultural land, posing a threat to its future food security.

To make matters worse, it now transpires that water too constitutes a serious internal problem which could disrupt Chinas ambitious planning  both internal and external. In fact, earlier too, water was a major problem, something that led Mao Zedong to quip in 1952: The countrys south has lots of water. The north has less, if it were possible, it could borrow a little. Thus was opened on November 15, 2013 Chinas central water route between Zhengzhou-Shijiazhuang and Beijing, followed by the eastern water route between Shanghai and Tianjin on December 12, 2014. As China is in the process of developing western water route, its focus is now focused on the Himalayas  the ultimate inexhaustible source of water from where originate the mega rivers of South Asia. From the Brahmaputra in the east to the Sindhu (Indus) in the west stands the water reservoir, an area where also falls the Sino-Indian frontier  still a matter of dispute as control of its high watershed points are of supreme importance for food, agriculture and water for the two largest demographies of the world.

Chinas inflexible attitude and unbending posture on Arunachal Pradesh, Doklam, Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal, Ladakh, Karakoram Pass, Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir and the route along Sindhu (Indus) river ending at Gwadar (including the BRI, OBOR, CPEC) constitute the pre-emptive action of the possible internal imbroglio of Beijing, on its external affairs chessboard. The Chinese plan emanates from the basics  first, agriculture, arable land, food and water; second, seafood, fuel, gas from the ocean; third, indigenous industrial production; fourth consumer markets like India; fifth, land connectivity of the vast Euro-Asia landmass to avoid the turbulent sea; and sixth, technology from West. Doklam and the Sino-Indian frontier are irritants and eyesores to Chinese leaders. Its a festering issue that cant be wished away anytime soon.
Scientists on January 15 announced the discovery of a crow-sized, bird-like dinosaur with colourful feathers from northeastern China that lived 161 million years ago during the Jurassic Period.

Theres not a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Theres an iridescent dinosaur. Scientists on January 15 announced the discovery of a crow-sized, bird-like dinosaur with colourful feathers from northeastern China that lived 161 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. They named it Caihong, the Mandarin word for rainbow. Microscopic structures in the exquisitely preserved, nearly complete fossil unearthed in Hebei Province indicated that it boasted iridescent feathers, particularly on its head, neck and chest, with colours that shimmered and shifted in the light, like those of hummingbirds.

The discovery suggests a more colourful Jurassic World than we previously imagined, said evolutionary biologist Chad Eliason of the Field Museum in Chicago, one of the researchers in the study published in the journal Nature Communications. Using powerful microscopes, the scientists detected within the feathers the remnants of organelles called melanosomes responsible for pigmentation. Their shape determines the colour. Caihongs feathers had pancake-shaped melanosomes similar to those of hummingbirds with iridescent feathers.

Much of its body had dark feathers, but ribbon-like iridescent feathers covered its head and neck. While it possessed many bird-like characteristics, the researchers doubted it could actually get airborne. Its plumage could have attracted mates while also providing insulation. Caihong was a two-legged predator with a Velociraptor-like skull and sharp teeth, probably hunting small mammals and lizards. It had crests above its eyes that looked like bony eyebrows.

Many dinosaurs possessed feathers. Birds evolved from small feathered dinosaurs near the end of the Jurassic Period. Caihong had fuzzy feathers and pennaceous ones, those that look like writing quills. It is the earliest-known creature with asymmetrical feathers, a trait used by birds to steer when flying. Caihongs were on its tail, suggesting tail feathers, not arm feathers, were first utilized for aerodynamic locomotion.

It is extremely similar to some early birds such as Archaeopteryx, said palaeontologist Xing Xu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, referring to the earliest-known bird, which lived 150 million years ago. Its forelimbs were configured like wings. To be honest, I am not sure what function the feathers have, and I dont think that you can completely exclude the possibility that the feathers helped the animal to get in the air.

Asked what someone might say upon seeing Caihong, University of Texas palaeontologist Julia Clarke said, Wow! And if they are anything like me, they might want one as a pet. Not suitable for children.

The dinosaurs full scientific name, Caihong juji, means rainbow with a big crest.

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Microsofts official distributors in Russia have imposed restrictions on sales of Microsoft software to more than 200 Russian companies following new US sanctions, according to notifications circulated by the distributors. The restrictions by the US seem to have become tougher from November 28 and things seem to be getting tighter.

The new measures cut the duration of loans that can be offered to Russian financial firms subject to sanctions to 14 days from 30 days and to 60 days from 90 days for Russian energy companies on a US sanctions list.

The earlier restrictions had primarily affected Western banks lending to Russian firms but with such short financing periods, swathes of companies supplying goods and services to Russian clients fear they could fall foul of the rules too.

Some Western firms have been advised by lawyers that the U.S. Treasury Department could, in theory, take the view this constituted financing in violation of the sanctions, according to several people involved in the discussions.

One of the two Microsoft distributors, a Russian company called Merlion, said in its notification to partners that all sanctioned buyers of Microsoft licenses must pay within tight deadlines, or even pay upfront in some cases.

Microsoft has reportedly commented on same and said, Microsoft has a strong commitment to complying with legal requirements and has robust processes around the world to help ensure that our partners are in compliance as well.

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Hanoi: A Vietnamese former state oil executive who was allegedly kidnapped from Germany was on Monday jailed for life for embezzlement, in the highest-profile corruption trial to target the Communist countrys business and political elite.

The blockbuster trial involving 21 other officials, including an ex-politburo member, has gripped a country where the affairs of the powerful are normally kept secret. But Vietnams conservative leadership is waging a massive anti-communist sweep that mirrors Chinas crackdown on graft.

Trinh Xuan Thanh, the former head of state-run Petro Vietnam Construction was sentenced to 14 years for mismanagement and life in prison for embezzlement, according to state-run VNExpress news site.

The jury said no-one at PVC dared use money with the wrong purposes without Thanhs direction, according to VNExpress.
The five CCTV cameras installed by the BBMP around Bellandur Lake to discourage garbage dumping has clearly failed, according to officials and locals.



No cameras had been installed on the Iblur side - at the defence-owned land - where the lake began smoldering on Friday. "The cameras were meant to act as deterrents," said Sandeep Sudarshan, resident of Embassy Pristine apartments in Varthur.

"But the dumping continues unabated, if the fire and methane stench are any evidence," Sudarshan added.

Lakshman, chairman, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, agreed that the cameras had failed to deter people from piling garbage. Spot inspection revealed mounds of garbage in and around the lake.

A senior BDA official, seeking anonymity, admitted there are financial constraints in maintaining the cameras and security guards. "The BDA is short-staffed. We have decided to ask the KSPCB and the central government to protect the lake," he said.

'Don't blame govt'

He also accused the locals of backing out of the citizen watch group set up to monitor the lake. "They promised, but did not act on it," regretted the official. "If only they had kept vigil, the fire wouldn't have started. It is always easy to blame the government, but the sewage swirling in the lake is there for the past 30 years. Citizens should also be accountable."

Lakshman said cameras were not installed in the defence land at Iblur since it is forbidden. "They should allow cameras and help us now," he said.

Despite strident claims by the BBMP that the cameras are working, a sceptical Mayor R Sampath Raj has sought a detailed report with footage from the joint commissioner of Mahadevapura. "I've asked joint commissioner Vasanthi to submit the report by Monday," Raj said, vowing to examine the footage.

The mayor has called a meeting of his officials to discuss the latest fire on the lake. "I've also learnt that someone sought permission from the defence to cut grass. It's quite possible that those who ventured into the defence land had set off the fire, either accidentally or by design. This is why defence personnel came to the rescue immediately," he added.
The HAL police have transferred a rape complaint lodged by a software engineer against her colleague to Madikeri police station. According to the complaint lodged on December 23, 2017, the woman had alleged that her colleague, Dinesh, raped her at a homestay in Madikeri.



She had stated that they were in love for the past one year and had been on a trip to Murudeshwar, Madikeri and various places in December. They stayed at a homestay in Madikeri when Dinesh gave her juice spiked with sleeping pills and raped her.

She alleged that Dinesh threatened to make public the video of the act which he had recorded. Since the incident happened in Madikeri, the HAL police transferred the case there. Dinesh is absconding, HAL police said.
One year ago, Port Washington resident Robin Sigman was looking for a way to become a part of the fledgling resistance movement against incoming President Donald Trump.

Like millions of other people, she feared what his campaign promises would mean in action for immigrants, women, LGBT people and American democracy more generally. The 2016 election appeared to be an extraordinary moment that required her to act. So she turned to a local organization in order to channel this energy into action. And in that way Sigman confronted a federal immigration crackdown and the Trump administration more broadly through the hours she volunteered at organizations like Long Island Together, a Nassau County group that offers free legal clinics for immigrants.

Stepping out from her daily routine was of the essence even when it just involved a little time babysitting for clients or helping out around the office, according to Sigman.

"I try to put myself in places where Im a little uncomfortable I want to know about all of the different areas that Trump is affecting (other people) that maybe arent part of my world, she said in an interview one year later.

By then she was on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan as more than 100,000 people participated in New York Citys 2018 Womens March. At the march this past Saturday, she carried a sign in support of Planned Parenthood, one of many nonprofits that made their presence known through this latest demonstration of a newly-emboldened national womens movement  much of it directed against the president.

Nonprofits have been a beneficiary of the political awakening of women such as Sigman who have inserted themselves into a nationwide surge in volunteerism, powered a spike in donations to nonprofit groups like the NYCLU, and led to a growing progressive wave at the local political level in Westchester County, where groups like Indivisible Westchester helped Democrats pick up three seats during a recent county legislature election.

"That was amazing because I dont think we imagined that people would have so much passion for local elections, said Gaby Bordwin, a member of sister groups Indivisible Rivertowns.

Grassroots groups like this have measured success through the ballot box and the organization it requires, whether through social media campaigns or community meetings that drew hundreds more people than anticipated, she added. As the groups near their one-year anniversary, they count thousands of members between them, said Borden.

People are looking for a place to help, she said. "It was they who came to us more than we needed to find them.

The biggest nonprofit of them all on Jan. 20 was the New York City march itself, organized by the Womens March Alliance. The group incorporated independently from the group that organized last years main march in Washington, a group that has gotten some publicity for its efforts to control the Womens March brand.

But the high-level disputes were not on the minds of those who spoke to NYN Media one year after Donald Trumps inauguration. Turnout had been high, just like the year before and when asked what they did day to day as part of the resistance to the administration, participants said that their success depended on how well individual outrage can be channeled into organized efforts. Much of the march consisted of the collective mass of groups as large as Planned Parenthood, or as seemingly uninvolved in womens issues per se as Gays Against Guns.

But one by one, all of this energy would one day culminate in the one act that ultimately mattered, the most direct way to ensure their greatest shared goal of a Trump-free White House would materialize.

Nonprofit efforts to protect womens rights, highlight immigration issues and mobilize street protests lead to one all-important moment, according to Sigman.

When people have access to voting and can get to the polls and cast their vote, thats what its all about, she said.
The state government has decided to double the Rs 50-lakh limit prescribed for the quota in government projects for contractors of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The decision comes ahead of the Assembly polls.

At present, the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement Act provides for reservation in tender works for the Scheduled Castes at 17.15% and the Scheduled Tribes at 6.95% in all works costing less than Rs 50 lakh. The limit will be increased to Rs one crore by amending the legislation.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced the decision here on Sunday.

He was speaking after inaugurating 'Valmiki Bhavan' in Bengaluru constructed by the Karnataka Nayaka Community Welfare Association.

Reservation

Siddaramaiah said he was in favour of the demand from the Valmiki community that they be provided reservation in education and employment in proportion to their population.

The chief minister said as many as 15 seats were reserved for STs in the state and the Congress had won 11 of them in the 2013 Assembly polls.

"Our tally this time will increase," he said and added that the programmes of the state government had been accepted by the community.
Health Minister Ramesh Kumar on Sunday said that the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments (KPME) Act would come into effect on February 10.



"Including the chief minister, everybody should go to government hospitals for treatment. They should be admitted to private hospitals only if government hospitals lack expertise in certain facilities. The government will reimburse expenses only if guidelines are followed," Kumar said after inaugurating a PHC at Muduvadi village in Kolar taluk.

"I pushed the Act as I wanted to help the poor. Those who are opposed to the Act will appreciate it after 10 years seeing its impact," the minister said.
The state BJP has sought an explanation from Congress state president G Parameshwara whether his party still considers the option of having an electoral understanding with the Socialist Democratic Party of India (SDPI) for the Assembly polls.



In a statement on Sunday, BJP state general secretary Shobha Karandlaje said the party was making the demand after the Kerala police arrested four SDPI workers in the murder of a Akhila Bharathiya Vidyarthi Parishat activist in Kannur, Kerala.

The BJP has been maintaining that the Congress in the state has entered into a secret understanding with SDPI (the political arm of the Popular Front of India) for electoral gains. In return, the Congress has withdrawn cases against SDPI/PFI activists, the party has charged. The BJP has held SDPI and PFI responsible for the killing of Hindu/RSS workers.

Shobha said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had arrested five workers of PFI in the murder of RSS activist Rudresh in Bengaluru and four PFI functionaries in the murder of Sharath Madivala, another RSS worker in Mangaluru.

Yet, the Congress was going soft on the two organisations, Shobha said. With the involvement of SDPI in the Kannur murder case coming to light, the BJP's charges against the two organisations stood vindicated.

'The BJP demands an explanation from Parameshwara about his party's proposal to have an electoral alliance with the SDPI. The people have every right know where the Congress party stands on this," she said.
The federation of pro-Kannada organisations has decided to call for a Karnataka bandh on January 25, and Bengaluru bandh on February 4 (or the day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Bengaluru), demanding that Modi resolve the Mahadayi river issue.



A decision in this regard was taken at a meeting of various pro-Kannada organisations and Kalasa-Banduri agitation committee here on Sunday.

At a press conference, it was announced that the rest of Karnataka would be shut from 6 am to 6 pm on January 25, in solidarity with the Kalasa-Banduri agitators, who are on a protest for the past 915 days, seeking water from Mahaday river to three parched districts of Gadag, Dharwad and Bagalkot.
Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh today moved the Supreme Court seeking recall of its January 18 order by which controversial Bollywood movie "Padmaavat' was allowed to be released in theatres across India on January 25.



A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud agreed to hear tomorrow the interim applications of both the states seeking modification of the apex court order allowing exhibition of the movie.



The states claimed that section 6 of the Cinematograph Act empowers them to stop exhibition of any controversial movie on the grounds of possible violation of law and order. Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Viacom 18 the producers of the Deepika Padukone-starrer, opposed urgent hearing on any such interim applications. The court, however, agreed to hear the applications tomorrow.



The Supreme Court had on January 25 paved the way for the nationwide release of 'Padmaavat' by staying the ban on its screening in Gujarat and Rajasthan.



The apex court also restrained other states from issuing any such notification or order banning the screening of the movie.



The film, starring Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh in lead roles, is based on the saga of historic battle of 13th century between Maharaja Ratan Singh and his army of Mewar and Sultan Alauddin Khilji of Delhi.



Haryana and Madhya Pradesh governments have not issued any formal order but had stated that they would not allow the exhibition of the film.



Maintaining that states were under constitutional obligation to maintain law and order, the apex court had said that this duty also includes providing police protection to persons who are involved in the film, its exhibition and the audience watching it.
The Gujarat government on Monday told the Supreme Court that the victim in a rape case involving self-styled preacher Asaram Bapu will be examined from January 29.



The top court adjourned the hearing on the bail plea of Asaram by nine weeks and said it will taken it up after the victim is examined by the trial court.

A bench of Justices N V Ramana and A M Sapre which was initially inclined to dismiss the bail petition said the petitioner can easily approach after the victim is examined.

The court had on January 15 sought to know the status of trial in a rape case involving Asaram and asked the Gujarat government to file a progress report on it.

Asaram's counsel had then told the court that in the Gujarat case, of 92 witnesses, 22 material witnesses have been examined, 14 of them are dropped and rest need to be examine.

On August 28, the apex court had expressed anguish over the tardy pace of progress in the rape case and had asked the state government to file the report.

On April 12 last year, the apex court had asked the Gujarat trial court to expedite the recording of evidence of prosecution witnesses in a sexual assault case lodged by two Surat-based sisters against Asaram.

Earlier, the top court had refused to grant bail to Asaram on various grounds in the two sexual assault cases lodged in Rajasthan and Gujarat.

The two Surat-based sisters had lodged separate complaints against Asaram and his son Narayan Sai, accusing them of rape and illegal confinement among other charges.

The elder sister, in her complaint against Asaram, had accused him of repeated sexual assaults between 2001 and 2006 when she was staying at his ashram near Ahmedabad.

In the case in Rajasthan, a teenage girl had accused him of sexual assault at his ashram in Manai village near Jodhpur.

The girl, who belonged to Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh, was a student living in the ashram.

The apex court had on November 18 last year sought the response of the Centre and five states on a plea seeking a CBI probe into the murder of children and attacks on several witnesses in the Asaram rape cases.

Asaram was arrested by Jodhpur Police on August 31, 2013, and has been in jail since then.
A motorcycle bomb exploded in a market in Thailand's southern Yala province on Monday, killing three people and wounding 22, a spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) said, the first such attack in the region in months.



The mostly Muslim provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala in Thailand's far south are home to a long-running insurgency by ethnic Malay Muslims fighting for autonomy in which more than 6,000 people have been killed since 2004.

"The criminals put a bomb in a motorcycle and placed it next to a market cart. The force of the explosion caused three people to lose their lives," said ISOC spokesman Pramote Prom-in. The ISOC is a government security force that operates in the region.

No group claimed immediate responsibility for the attack on Monday, which took place at a morning market.

Police said the motorcycle was placed near a stall selling pork, which is strictly forbidden for Muslims under Islamic Law.

It was not immediately clear whether the bomb was placed at the pork stall in a deliberate attempt to target Thai Buddhists.

The stall's female owner and a male customer were among the three people killed, the police said.

The bomb blew off chunks of the market's corrugated tin roof and wrecked nearby stalls.

The southern provinces have seen hundreds of attacks since 2004, many of them deadly, but there had been fewer violent incidents of late.

Analysts who monitor the conflict say violence from the insurgency fell to a historic low in 2017 despite the fact that talks aimed at bringing peace gained little traction.

Thailand's military government has tried to revive talks with rebel groups initiated by the previous civilian government, but they have gone almost nowhere.

Resistance to Buddhist rule from Bangkok has existed for decades in the predominantly Muslim southern provinces, waning briefly in the 1990s before resurfacing violently in 2004.
Hundreds of Tokyo residents scrambled for cover Monday in the Japanese capital's first evacuation drill for a military attack since World War II, amid ongoing tensions over North Korea's nuclear programme.



A loudspeaker blared out a terrifying warning at the drill, held in a Tokyo amusement park, "We have information that a missile launch has occurred. Please evacuate calmly inside a building or underground."

A park employee ran around, shouting "a missile was launched, a missile was launched" as some 250 local residents and office workers duly evacuated to reinforced concrete buildings and a nearby subway station.

A few minutes later, a second message was announced via loudspeaker, "The missile passed. The missile likely flew over the Kanto (greater Tokyo) region towards the Pacific Ocean."

People in earthquake-prone Japan are familiar with evacuation drills simulating natural disasters and fires and annual drills are seasonal rituals seen almost everywhere in the country - from schools and workplaces to care homes.

But a drill simulating a North Korean missile attack on Tokyo is still a novel idea, although similar drills were held in other parts of Japan last year.

"I think it's better than nothing to have such a drill, but I am praying there is no missile attack from the North," said Shota Matsushima (20) a university student, who was in a train station near the drill site.

The drill comes as regional tensions remain high over North Korea's nuclear and missile drive, despite the hermit state's plan to send athletes to next months' Winter Games in the South, which has drawn global attention.

North Korea has singled out Japan, a key US ally in the region, for verbal attacks, threatening to "sink" the country into the sea and to turn it into "ashes".

Last year, Pyongyang fired two missiles over Japan and has splashed others into the sea near the country, sparking a mix of panic and outrage.

Every time North Korea launches a missile over Japan, the nation's alert system warns residents via mobile phones and streetside loudspeaker broadcasts.

But many people say that such a system is useless, with too little time to evacuate and few facilities in place to survive a nuclear attack.

There have also been false alarms.

Last week, Japan's public broadcaster 'NHK' mistakenly flashed that North Korea appeared to have launched a missile, warning people to take cover before apologising for the error only minutes later.

That came just days after a false cellphone warning of an incoming ballistic missile terrified residents in Hawaii.

The latest drill in Tokyo attracted some protests.

"I don't want to participate in such a drill and I am against it, as it is a way to promote a war," said Ikie Kamioka, 77, a former primary school teacher who was among dozens of people who rallied in protest against the drill.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 17)  The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) warned Tuesday of a possible power shortage if the commission fails to act on pending electricity supply deals because of a leadership vacuum.

ERC Chairman Agnes Devanadera said the agency cannot act on what are called power supply agreements (PSA). A PSA is a deal between the supplier or power producer and the distributor such as Meralco to meet consumer demand for a certain period under a pre-agreed cost.

"It was confirmed by logical conclusion that if ERC is not able to issue these authorities and approvals, mahihinto 'yung [it will stop the] supply so we call it brownout, blackout or on rotation basis so merong [there is an] effect," Devanadera said during a Senate energy committee hearing on Tuesday.

Committee chair Sherwin Gatchalian said pending PSAs will cover around three percent of the country's power requirement, a substantial amount that may result in a possible shortage if the deals are not made on time.

"Dapat ngayon pa lang let's expect the worst at magplano na tayo," Gatchalian said.

[Translation: We should be planning now and expect the worst.]

Energy Undersecretary Felix Fuentebella said they are doing everything to avoid a power shortage.

"There may be possible delays but we will come out with engagement with the ERC and the stakeholders, and try to come up with a solution (on) how to avoid that," Fuentebella said.

Last December, the Office of the Ombudsman suspended four ERC commissioners for a year over alleged anomalous deals, leaving Devanadera to manage operations. The four are Gloria Victoria Yap-Taruc, Alfredo Non, Josefina Patricia Magpale-Asirit and Geronimo Sta. Ana. But even before they finish serving the suspension, Taruc and Non will retire in July this year, while Asirit and Sta. Ana will retire in 2020.

The appointment of new ERC commissioners is pending at the Office of the President.

Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said they will take steps to cushion the effect of a lack of commissioners.

"The suspension may cause further delays in power projects which require approval from a collegial commission. However, we will see to it that this will not have any significant impact in the short and medium term," Cusi said in a statement.

The need to approve PSAs this early comes with urgency as demand is expected to spike with the onset of summer

Looming impact on electric bills

But even as the public braces for a possible power shortage in the wake of higher demand, senators said consumers should prepare for higher electric bills as coal, which is a main input to power generation, will be morecostly under the tax reform law.

"Ang pinakadelikado dito ang pagpasok ng March and this is according to PEMC (Philippine Electricity Market Corporation), dahil tumataas 'yung demand ng kuryente. In my estimate, tumataas ng almost 20 to 30 percent ang demand ng kuryente dahil mainit," Gatchalian said.

[Translation: What's alarming here is when March comes, electricity demand increases according to the PEMC. In my estimate, the increase reaches 20 to percent because of the hot weather.]

The ERC said it estimates the February billing statement will reflect an average increase of seven centavos per kilowatt hour.

"For our initial simulations yung generation charge will be affected by around 1 centavo per kilowatt hour. On the transmission charge naman it will be around 6 centavos per kilowatt hour. But we have to clarify that our simulations are using only Manila Electric Company franchise area," ERC Spokesperson Floresinda Digal said.

The Senate energy committee will hold a special hearing on Thursday to discuss the impact of the tax reform law on power and fuel.
The Supreme Court today transferred to itself two petitions, pending at the Bombay High Court and its Nagpur bench, relating to the alleged mysterious death of special CBI judge B H Loya in 2014.



A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra also asked the parties to catalogue all documents relating to Loya's death which have not been filed so far, and submit them for its perusal on February 2, the next date of hearing.



Terming the issues raised in two petitions pending before it as "serious", the bench said, "We must look into all documents with utmost seriousness".



The bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, restrained all the High Courts in the country from entertaining any petition relating to Loya's death.



The bench got irked when senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for a Bombay lawyers body which had filed a PIL in the high court there, took the name of BJP president Amit Shah during the hearing alleging that everything has been done to protect him (Shah).



"As of today, it is a natural death. Then, do not cast aspersions," the bench said while considering the strong opposition of senior advocate Harish Salve, the counsel for Maharashtra government in the case.



During the hearing, CJI Misra got angry when senior advocate Indira Jaising inferred a possible future order that the apex court may gag the media in the case.



"This is not fair to me. This you cannot do," the CJI responded and asked Jaising to retract and apologise forthwith. The woman lawyer retracted her statement and tendered an apology.



Earlier, a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra had recused itself from hearing two petitions, filed by Congress leader Tehseen Poonawalla and a Maharashtra journalist B S Lone on the issue from hearing and had said that let the matter be posted before "an appropritate bench".



In pursuance of that order these two matters were listed today before the bench headed by the CJI.



The Loya case was one of those which was indicated by the four senior most apex court judges -- justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph -- at their press conference where they had questioned the manner in which sensitive cases were being allocated.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi today arrived here on way to Davos to attend the World Economic Forum meeting where he would share his vision for India's future engagements with the international community.



He will shortly leave for Davos.



Modi, who will deliver the opening plenary address at the WEF summit tomorrow, had said yesterday that he is also looking forward to separate bilateral meetings with Swiss President Alain Berset and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven in Davos.



Modi will host a dinner for global CEOs today.



Tomorrow, he will interact with global business community members, besides delivering his keynote address.



The prime minister had said in his departure statement yesterday that India's engagement with the outside world in the recent years has become "truly and effectively multi- dimensional covering the political, economic, people to people, security and other spheres".



"At Davos, I look forward to sharing my vision for India's future engagement with the international community," he had said.
For more than 12 hours Akash Raj was holed up inside Room No 420 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul.



When he felt someone was trying to break in, he "really thought the bad guys are in" but thankfully that was not the case.

Raj flew into Kabul from Dubai on Saturday afternoon to take up his assignment with the Afghan-based Kam Air.

He had no inkling about what lay in store for him over the next few hours.

He was the lone Indian in the hotel when terrorists stormed in firing indiscriminately and lobbed grenades at around 8. 30 pm (local time).

For the next 11-12 hours, he stared at inevitable death.

Raj, who hails from Kochi and is presently the chief commercial officer of Kam Air, moved to Kabul on Saturday after the airline closed its Dubai office where he was working for the past two-and-half years.

"Reliving those moments are terrible. Death was near. I heard that 10 of my colleagues lost life in the attack. It was really traumatic," Raj told DH over the phone from Dubai, where he returned on Sunday after he was rescued by Afghan Special Forces.

There was no electricity and Raj was freezing in the sub-zero temperature.

"Luckily I had a power bank which kept my phone running. It allowed me to be in touch with cousins and family. They gave me the strength to hold it together. Otherwise, I would have died from anxiety and trauma," he said.

It all started, soon after one of his colleagues left his room.

"I heard some explosion-like sound. The rooms are sound-proof and I couldn't make out what was happening. Then I started getting messages asking me to be careful," he recalled.

"Initially I did not take it seriously. But then it got louder and louder. Later I heard that the terrorists opened doors and threw grenades inside. Immediately, I blocked my doors with whatever I had," Raj said.

By then the terrorists had reached the first floor and as they went on with indiscriminate firing, Special Forces scrambled to take on them.

The militants managed to get up to the third floor but the forces managed to secure the fourth floor and prevent the terrorist's further movement.

How the forces found him:

Raj had a spine-chilling moment to narrate when he first heard some sounds of someone using an axe to break the door open.

"I really thought the bad guys are here. I was sitting on the bed preparing to face whatever it is. Then I saw men in uniform and they asked me to get ready. They took me downstairs and handed over to the NATO forces, who took me to the UN camp," he says.

He had to wait for six more hours in the camp.

Later, his company sent him a car and took him to the airport from where he traveled to Dubai and was reunited with his family.

Raj said his family wants him to quit but he has not yet decided. "Let me give myself a few days," he said.
Members of the Karni Sena on Monday blocked some roads here to oppose the release of the controversial film "Padmaavat".



The Karni Sena, an organisation of the Rajput community, here staged blockades by burning tyres on roads connecting Ujjain to Nagda, Dewas to Maksi and Agar to Kota.

The Sanjay Leela Bansali-directed period drama is scheduled to release on January 25.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Sachin Atulkar said that the administration has urged the protesters not to take the law into their hands.

"We have cleared the road after receiving a memorandum from the protesters," he said.

There were also reports that protesters had pelted vehicles with stones on the Agar-Kota road. The SP, however, denied any incidents of violence.

"There were small road blockades. We will take stern legal action if protesters disrupt law and order," he said.

The Supreme Court had last week paved the way for the nationwide release of "Padmaavat", by staying the ban on its screening in Gujarat and Rajasthan.

However, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh on Monday moved the apex court seeking a recall of its January 18 order by which the controversial film was allowed to be released in theatres across India.

The film, starring Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh, is based on the saga of the 13th Century battle between Maharaja Ratan Singh of Mewar and Sultan Alauddin Khilji of Delhi.
For border dwellers of Jammu and Kashmir, the trauma of seeing their loved ones die in front of their eyes is more than the fear of getting caught in the crossfire.



The border residents continue to live on the edge, 'hoping against hope' to safeguard themselves and their families from the mortar bombs fired by Pakistani troopers along the International Border (IB).

Jeet Raj of Sia Khurd border hamlet says the injuries on his body would heal, but the 'wounds to his heart' would accompany him to his grave.

He lost his wife, Bachno Devi, to cross-border mortar shelling on January 19. He and his son were injured in the incident.

"The wounds of my body caused due to splinter injuries will heal with time. But the pain of losing my wife will never leave me," Raj said as his eyes welled up.

"We were heading to our agricultural field when the shelling started. As we rushed back, a shell exploded in the compound of my house. My wife was hit and she died in front of my eyes," he said.

Raj said he rushed his injured son to the hospital, still grieving the loss of his wife.

"How long should the border dwellers remain sitting ducks and lose our family members to the Pakistani guns," he asked.

Yesterday, a civilian was killed and two persons were injured in the Pakistani shelling along the IB in Kanachak belt of Jammu district, raising the death toll in the ceasefire violations since Thursday last to 12 and injuries to over 60.

Over 300 educational institutes have been closed for next three days along IB and LoC in Jammu region in the wake of increased tension along the Indo-Pak border.

Krishen Lal of Korotona hamlet is yet to come to terms with the death of his 25-year-old son in the cross-border firing.

"It is a curse for a father to see his son die so young. I lost my son Sahil to the cross-border shelling. He was an obedient child and used to help me in the fields," says an emotional Lal, who is undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College.

"We bear the brunt of ceasefire violations. How long will our kith and kin keep getting killed? I want the government to find a solution to end it once for all," he says.

Another heart-wrenching tale is that of the family of 17-year-old Ghara Singh of Kapoorpur border hamlet in RS Pura sector. Singh died on Saturday after being caught in the crossfire.

As the family prepares for the marriage of his eldest sister, Singh's death has left a large void.

"Pakistani shelling killed my son. This wound to my heart will never heal. I have lost my support," says Singh's father.

"Ghara was looking forward to his sister's wedding. He was busy arranging the event, but fate snatched him away from us," the father says as he struggles to complete his sentence.

The bustling settlement of Arnia and a chain of border hamlets along the Indo-Pak border wear an empty look, with over 40,000 villagers abandoning their homes to escape heavy shelling by Pakistani forces.

Arnia town, with a population of 18,000, resembles a ghost town with only a few people left each in its adjoining hamlets to take care of animals and guard homes.

Farming, schooling, cattle rearing and everything else on which border dwellers survive has come to a halt due to the shelling episodes.

Deputy Commissioner Jammu, Kumar Rajeev Ranjan said 58 villages in Arnia and Suchetgarh sectors of Jammu district were affected due to shelling by Pakistan.

"Over 36,000 border population have migrated from their homes," he said, adding 131 animals have been killed, 93 injured besides damage caused to 74 buildings and houses.

While most of the migrated border people are living with their relatives, over 1,000 are camped in boarding and lodging places set up by the state government in schools and panchayat Garh.

Over 5,000 cattle and bovines have been shifted from various border hamlets to safer places like Chakroi farm, Ranjan said.

In Samba and Ramgarh sectors of Samba district, over 5,000 people have migrated besides over 3,000 from Hiranagar sector of Kathua district, the officer added.
Aiming to gain power after a gap of almost one-and-a-half decade, the Congress in Madhya Pradesh has started preparations for the year-end Assembly polls and indicated it was open to joining hands with "like- minded" parties to oust the ruling BJP.



To begin with, the party is focusing on identifying possible candidates on "difficult" seats by March-end, but remained non-committal on projecting a chief ministerial candidate ahead of the crucial polls likely by December.

"(Generally) decision on seats is taken at the last moment. I will discuss the matter with senior leaders of the state.

"However, I am thinking of identifying candidates on difficult seats - the seats the party has not won for the last three-four elections.

"I will indicate such persons in advance - my aim is by March-end - so that they get sufficient time to prepare for the polls," said Deepak Babaria, Congress general secretary in-charge of Madhya Pradesh .

He was asked about the party, in the past, waiting almost till the last day of filing nominations to finalise candidates on various seats.

The Congress is out of power in Madhya Pradesh, which has a 230-member Assembly, since 2003.

Asked about projecting a chief ministerial face in Madhya Pradesh as happened in Punjab, where the move paid rich dividends to the party, Babaria said, "Whatever is needed we will do. But we will not open our cards outside.

"If we decide on any face we will definitely let people know about it. What we are thinking or not thinking (on the issue) we will not let anyone know."

A section in the party has been demanding projection of a chief ministerial nominee in the state, where the BJP has won the last three Assembly elections.

Congress chief whip in the Lok Sabha and senior leader Jyotiraditya Scindia has openly demanded that the party project a face for the top post.

Babaria said there was no confusion in the party over the issue of chief ministerial candidate and claimed the BJP was trying to mislead people over the matter.

"It is a conspiracy of the BJP...they are trying to spread confusion on the issue. A senior state minister called our former MLA after a meeting to know what all had happened in the meet addressed by me. Why are they more interested in knowing affairs of the other party"

"In Gujarat also they tried to confuse people on the issue but after former Union minister Shankarsinh Vaghela's exit from the Congress, things improved there," he said.

"They also got news reports published on the issue in two Delhi newspapers. It is their conspiracy and we are not confused. We will not reveal the party's strategy," he added.

Asked about the party's success the recently held local body elections, he credited it to the hard work put in by Congress workers. The Congress leader also said the BJP is losing ground in the state.

"The BJP is losing ground in the state and that was clearly visible when Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had to campaign for these polls.

"It (the local body poll result) has reflected the people's mood for the year-end elections," Babaria said.

Asked if like Gujarat, community leaders such as Hardik Patel and Jignesh Mevani would be roped in for campaigning in Madhya Pradesh, Babaria said they are popular leaders and command influence in their respective communities.

"Wherever needed, we will take their and also other like-minded people's help in elections."

"The party will consider having a truck with like-minded parties," Babaria said.

He was asked whether the Congress will tie-up for the polls with outfits like the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) which have influence in certain areas bordering Uttar Pradesh.

"I will not take anybody's name. But we have an open mind (on alliance). We will take help of like-minded people. So far, no discussion has taken place with the party high command on the matter," Babaria said.
India is beefing up security of its diplomatic missions in Afghanistan to pre-empt any attack by terror organisations based in Pakistan.



In view of the attack on Hotel Intercontinental in Kabul as well as the recent spurt in terror strikes in Afghanistan, New Delhi is reviewing security at the Embassy of India in the capital as well as consulates at Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif and Jalalabad in the war-torn country.

New Delhi is likely to send its officials from security agencies to Kabul to meet their counterparts in the Afghan government and discuss ways to step up security at India's diplomatic and consular missions, sources told the DH.

At least 18 people were killed in the terror attack on Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul on Saturday and Sunday.

Officials of the Afghan government were quoted in media reports saying that the Haqqani Network carried out the terror attack.

The Haqqani Network is a terror organisation, which is based in Pakistan but carries out attacks in Afghanistan.

It was involved in several terror attacks on Indian and American diplomatic missions in Afghanistan in the past few years.

The US and India have since long been accusing Pakistan, its army and its spy agency - Inter-Services Intelligence - of using the Haqqani Network and other terror organisations to carry out attacks in Afghanistan in its pursuit of strategic depth in its western neighbourhood.

On January 15, a rocket landed in the premises of Embassy of India in Kabul. Though no one was injured, the rocket caused minor damage to a structure on the rear side of the embassy compound.

Sources said security agencies in New Delhi and Kabul are in touch to beef up security at Indian establishments in Afghanistan.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's body language and expressions resemble the character Duryodhana in the Indian epic Mahabharatha, remarked BJP General Secretary C T Ravi.



"The Congress government in the state is definitely a 'Kaurava' government and Siddaramaiah is 'Duryodhana', its head," Ravi quipped.

He was speaking at the BJP's special district meeting here on Monday.

"The CM has said that the upcoming Assembly poll in the state is Kurukshetra war wherein Congress is the Pandava side and BJP is the Kaurava side. But the Congress government is tainted with corruption, murders, rapes and communal clashes. How can it be the Pandava side?" he questioned.

"Lord Krishna is on the side that is Pandava. You have no mind to see Udupi Sri Krishna. You behave like enemies of Krishna. How can you be Pandavas?" Ravi asked Siddaramaiah.

"Sri Krishna is a protector of cows. The state is protecting beef eaters. People who publicly eat beef are in your midst. During the time of the Pandavas, there was peace and plenty," he said.

"If Siddaramaiah's mindset changes then he will safe. He is courting danger if he tries to plays vote bank politics," Ravi added.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 22)  A former health secretary denied he met with officials of dengue vaccine maker Sanofi Pasteur in China, at a time when the government was considering using Dengvaxia for the immunization program.

Ex-Health Secretary Enrique Ona, during the resumption of the Senate hearing on the dengue vaccine Monday, said he was taken aback when the former President said they were together in a meeting with Sanofi executives.

"That is a complete surprise to me. I looked over my passport because there was insinuation I was with the President in Beijing. I was not there," Ona said, adding Aquino's recollection was "inaccurate."

In the December 14 Senate probe, then-President Aquino said he met with Sanofi Senior Vice President in Asia Region Jean-Luc Lowinski at the Philippine Embassy in Beijing on November 9, 2014.

Aquino and former Health Secretary Janette Garin face a mass murder and plunder complaint at the Office of the Ombudsman.

Senate Blue Ribbon chair Richard Gordon reiterated he finds the entire process -- from procurement to roll out of the anti-dengue program -- "rushed."

"Ang coincidence napakalakas. Two months after that meeting, may application na ang Sanofi.[The coincidence is evident. Two months after that meeting, Sanofi already filed an application.] By May, Secretary Garin was already off to Paris, talking with Sanofi," he said, referring to Ona's successor Garin.

Related: TIMELINE: The Dengvaxia controversy

Dengvaxia was administered to over 800,000 Filipino students in a school-based government immunization program, worth P3.5 billion, in April 2016.

Sanofi later announced the vaccine had potential severe dengue risks among those who had not contracted the disease before immunization. The ensuing panic prompted the Department of Health (DOH) to suspend its program.

Ona blames Garin

During the dengue vaccine hearing, Ona pinned the blame on Garin.

Ona, who was Aquino's health secretary from June 2010 to December 19, 2014, said he was asked to take a leave weeks before his resignation.

"The leadership that took over when I left DOH is solely responsible for what is now a health nightmare from the dengue vaccine," he said.

Ona belives the nationwide immunization program should not have been rolled out.

"If I was (the) Secretary of Health, I would not implement it in that extent....It should not have been implemented the way it was done, targetting almost a million children," he said.

Garin said the procurement and implementation of the mass vaccination was not done in haste.

"We did our decision based on the data available at the time," she said.

The Public Attorneys' Office (PAO) has revealed the pattern in the death of vaccinated children showed a "strong link" to Dengavaxia.

Related: PAO forensic consultant suspects 'strong link' between Dengvaxia, seven deaths

PAO Forensic Laboratory Director Dr. Erwin Erfe said all suffered from enlargement of organs and severe bleeding in the brain, lungs, liver, kidneys, spleen, and intestines.

The next Senate hearing on the Dengvaxia mess will be held on February 6.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has given up its direct control over maintenance of reserve funds of the schools affiliated to it.



So far, the reserve funds were kept in a joint bank account opened in the name of the manager of the schools and the board's secretary.

The CBSE recently amended this provision and made it mandatory for all schools to open a joint bank account in the name of the principal and any of the members of the school management body for maintenance of the reserve funds.

The board has also removed a mandatory provision in its affiliation bye-laws, which stipulated that the reserve fund "shall" be maintained in the joint names of the manager of the school and a director-level officer of the state education department, in case of the schools which receive grant-in-aid from the state governments concerned.

It, however, has left it open for the state governments to decide and frame rules for maintenance of the reserve fund of the schools receiving grant-in-aid.

"Reserve Fund shall be maintained in the joint name of the principal of the school and managing trustee/ member of the society/trust/company etc running the school concerned in a scheduled bank," the revised affiliation rules of the board states.

In case of the institutions (schools) receiving grant-in-aid or in case the school education act of the state/Union Territory, the reserve fund "shall be maintained as prescribed in the rules and conditions of the concerned state", it also stipulates.

Though the board has not specified reasons for bringing in changes in the rules, sources said that this is basically aimed at making the school management completely accountable towards the maintenance of such funds.

A mandatory reserve fund is created by the schools at the time of seeking an affiliation with the CBSE.

"The interest accruing out of the deposit of reserve fund made by the institution at the time of affiliation/extension of affiliation be not withdrawn by the management under any circumstances what so ever," the board's affiliation bye-laws stipulate.

Last, year, over 2,000 schools drew ire from the board for not furnishing details of their reserve funds among various other things like figures of enrolment, teachers and their qualification.

Over 19,000 schools are affiliated to the CBSE.
The Shree Rajput Karni Sena, a group opposing film 'Padmaavat', said today it was ready to watch the Bollywood period drama as offered by Bhansali productions to end the deadlock on the issue.



The film, slated to be released on January 25, has been facing protests by Karni Sena and other fringe groups over allegations that historical facts were distorted in the flick.

"We are ready to watch the film. We never said that we will not watch the film. The filmmaker had assured us one year ago that he will go for a special screening and now he has written for the screening and we are ready for that," Sena leader Lokendra Singh Kalvi, who was in Uttar Pradesh, told PTI over the phone.

Bhansali production had on January 20 written a letter to Shree Rajput Karni Sena and Rajput Sabha, Jaipur, inviting them to watch the film and assured that the film showcased the honour and valour of the Rajput community.
As he sets to revive the organisation, Congress president Rahul Gandhi has decided to have regular interactions with party workers and leaders at the AICC office here.



Rahul will meet party leaders and delegations from states at the AICC headquarters every Tuesday and Friday whenever he is in the national capital.



"It is an encouraging step that he will spend time in the Congress office," Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters when asked to comment on Rahul's meetings.



A senior Congress leader said Gandhi would also meet party workers at a 'janata darbar' every Saturday.



After she took over as Congress President in 1998, Sonia Gandhi preferred meeting party leaders and workers at her official 10, Janpath residence adjacent to the AICC Headquarters.



Rahul Gandhi has been holding regular meetings with party leaders at his 12, Tughlaq Lane residence.



However, his presence at the party office may force AICC office bearers to remain present at the headquarters. Only a handful of Congress leaders such as Motilal Vora, Janardan Dwivedi, B K Hariprasad, C P Joshi and R P N Singh are regularly seen at the AICC headquarters.



Meanwhile, the Congress President continued his Twitter jibes at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.



"He claims he is a common man, but embraces only the privileged. Modiji, what is your compulsion... it's important that farmers, labourers and jawans are also hugged," Gandhi said.



Gandhi's remarks came after Modi defended his trademark hugging of world leaders in a TV interview, saying he was unaware of laid down protocols as he is a common man.
Rajput outfits on Monday staged demonstrations in several parts of Uttar Pradesh, vandalised theaters at some places and warned them against the screening of Padmaavat, which is set to release on Thursday.



According to the police sources here, members of the outfits broke window panes of a theater in Hapur, where Padmaavat was scheduled to be screened.

Besides, the outfits also staged demonstrations at Allahabad, Baghpat, Sultanpur, Gorakhpur and some other places.

The president of Karni Sena, a Rajput outfit which is spearheading the protests against the film, Yogendra Singh Kalvi on Monday met UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and sought a ban on the film.

Sources here said that there was no move to stop the screening of the film in the state in view of the Supreme Court order in this regard.

UP government has assured cinema hall owners that they will be provided adequate security in case they screen the film.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be on a week-long visit to India from February 17 to 23 on an invitation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Monday.



The visit of Canadian Prime Minister is aimed at further strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries in key areas of mutual interest including trade and investment, energy, science and innovation, higher education, infrastructure development, skill development and space, the ministry said in a press release issued on Monday. "Cooperation in security and counter-terrorism, as well as the exchange of views on global and regional issues of mutual interest, will also form important components of the visit," it added.

Modi had visited Canada in April 2015. Stephen Harper's in November 2012 was the last visit of a Canadian Prime Minister to India.

"Canada greatly values its strong relationship with India. This visit reflects the high level of priority that Prime Minister Trudeau places on this strategic partnership. Prime Minister Trudeau's visit builds on visits by 11 Cabinet Ministers of the Trudeau government in the past 18 months," High Commissioner of Canada to India, Nadir Patel, said.

A press release issued by High Commission of Canada to India said that Trudeau would engage with youth, and visit several landmarks, including the Taj Mahal, Sri Harmandir Sahib (also known as the Golden Temple), the Jama Masjid, and Swaminarayan Akshardham temple.
Within days of Yogi Adityanath government's move to withdraw Muzaffarnagar riot cases against several prominent BJP leaders, the powerful 'khaps' (community panchayats) on Monday demanded withdrawal of riot cases against hundreds of Jat youths also.



At a meeting in Muzaffarnagar's adjoining Shamli district, the 'khap' leaders from several Jat sub-communities, said that hundreds of Jat youths had been ''falsely'' implicated in riot cases and as a result their future looked bleak.

The leaders warned that they would launch agitation if the government withdrew cases against the BJP leaders and failed to withdraw riot cases against the Jat youths.

''The move to withdraw cases against BJP leaders is reflective of its double speak....it had assured us that innocent youths would not be harassed....we will be forced to take to streets if our demand is not conceded,'' said Naresh Tikait, leader of the 'Baliyan Khap', who attended the meeting.

Mahapanchayat

Tikait said that the community leaders would soon convene a 'mahapanchayat' to discuss the matter and formulate their future strategy in this regard.

The state government had recently written to the district magistrate of Muzaffarnagar seeking information about the possibility of withdrawal of the 13 cases pertaining to the 2013 communal riots against senior BJP leaders, including former union minister Sanjeev Baliyan and UP minister Suresh Rana.

The cases were currently pending in the district court in Muzaffarnagar.

At least 60 people had been killed and thousands others displaced in communal clashes between Jats and Muslims in Muzaffarnagar in 2013.
The Coast Guard headquarters, Karnataka, has rescued 10 fishermen from the IFB sea shell (IND - KL - 04 MM -1372) 100-km west of Malpe, belonging to Kannur district of Kerala.



The boat had been in distress since January 20 due to flooding in the machinery compartment and multiple machineries failure onboard. The Indian Coast Guard Remote Operating Centre (ROS), Mangaluru, received the distress call from the fishing boat at 6.30 pm on January 20.

The ICGS Samar in the area was diverted for rendering assistance. At 9.20 pm on January 21, ICGS Samar located the fishing boat about 100-km west of Malpe, carried out night boarding operations and undertook repairs to stop the ingress of water into the boat. The crew was provided with necessary assistance and fishing boat taken under tow by the ship. The ICGS Samar handed over the boat along with the 10 crew to the deputy director of fisheries, off old Mangaluru port on Monday.

On completion of rescue operation, DIG S S Dasila, Coast Guard Commander, Karnataka, brought out the issue of negligence on the part of the owners of fishing boats by not keeping track of boats that venture into sea in terms of safety and security of crew. The matter is being taken up with state and district administrations to ensure the owners become more responsible and ensure safety and security of crew on board the boats that go into the sea for fishing. The Commander further stated that towing of fishing boats is not, per se, the role of ICG, however in this instance, it was undertaken on a humanitarian ground.

Awareness week

Coast Guard Karnataka is observing 'Coastal Security Awareness Week' as a part of celebrations in the run-up to 41st Indian Coast Guard Day on February 1. Various activities are planned by Coast Guard which include brainstorming sessions, with stakeholders of coastal security mechanism in the state of Karnataka, working out on Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as already promulgated to all stakeholders, special Community Interaction Programmes (CIPs) for fisher folk and awareness campaigns on coastal security for local populace and the whole fishing community.

In this process today, 40 personnel of Coastal Security Police were embarked onboard Coast Guard Ships Kasturba Gandhi, Savitribai Phule and hovercraft H-198 based at Mangaluru. All trainees were practically exposed to on-job training at sea from dawn to dusk. They were trained on boarding operations, checking of documents, Search And Rescue (SAR) procedures and operation of life saving equipment.
Leader of Opposition in Legislative Assembly Jagadish Shettar has asked Mahadayi agitators to protest against the Congress Party, saying that 'Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had not even tried to convince Goa Congress leaders for talks to resolve Mahadayi dispute out-of-the-tribunal, though the BJP convinced Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.'

The previous all-party meeting had decided to convince both ruling and opposition parties in Goa by the respective parties here, but Mr Siddaramaiah has not done that, and has now called another meeting on January 27, he charged.

Speaking to media persons here on Monday, Mr Shettar alleged that Congress is playing cheap politics in Mahadayi issue, by repeatedly seeking the prime minister's intervention, and it wants to keep the dispute alive.

"We will attend the all-party meeting, and will remind Mr Siddaramaiah about the decision taken in the previous meeting. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked to create a consensus among both ruling and opposition in concerned States, to prevent the failure of efforts to hold talks over the issue," he said.

'Govt-sponsored bandhs'

Mr Siddaramaiah is directly supporting bandh demanding the prime minister's intervention in Mahadayi dispute, and it shows that Karnataka bandh on January 25 and Bengaluru bandh on February 4 are government-sponsored. It is a conspiracy by Mr Siddaramaiah, as he is afraid of Mr Modi's visit to Bengaluru to attend the BJP's Parivartana Yatra valedictory, Mr Shettar charged.

Two years back, Mr Siddaramaiah himself had said that the dispute is before the tribunal and there was no need for the prime minister's intervention. Now, he is seeking prime minister's intervention. Why he did not take a delegation to New Delhi when Manmohan Singh was the prime minister, he asked.

'Rahul should speak'

"BJP took the initiative to start Kalasa canal work. UPA government was responsible for the formation of Mahadayi tribunal, as it informed the Supreme Court that the dispute cannot be resolved through talks, and Sonia Gandhi stated that diversion of Mahadayi water to Karnataka would not be allowed. Now, AICC President Rahul Gandhi should make his stand on Mahadayi issue clear, before visiting the State, failing which we would stage protests and give call for bandh," Mr Shettar noted.

Instead of taking steps to strengthen the legal battle by presenting a strong argument before the tribunal, Water Resources Minister M B Patil is merely blaming the BJP, he lamented.

'Scam in sand import'

Leader of Opposition in Legislative Assembly Jagadish Shettar charged that the government's move to import sand from Malaysia and sell it in bags here is a big scam, as it involved corruption.

This government has not made proper arrangements to distribute sand available in the State, while there is a scam in importing it. I will reveal the details shortly, he added.

MP Pralhad Joshi, MLCs Pradeep Shettar, S V Sankanur, former ministers Basavaraj Bommai, C C Patil, and others were present.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 22)  The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) assured travelers on Monday that body cameras and 1,500 additional closed  circuit television sets (CCTVs) are among new security measures that will be put in place in the wake of a theft gone viral.

"As part of the mandate of the secretary, we were asked to buy... body cams, and we are also mandating the service provider and the guards manning these areas to have their own body cams," MIAA General Manager Ed Monreal told CNN Philippines' The Source.

Supervisors overseeing personnel on the ground are expected to wear body cameras that MIAA will initially purchase.

MIAA is also eyeing 1,500 additional CCTVs with clearer resolution and facial recognition, he added.

The CCTVs are expected to be bid out by the end of the month. The new measures should be in place by February.

Monreal said there are up to 700 CCTVs spread out in all four terminals of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

The security measures will add to guidelines issued by Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade on Friday. Other instructions from Tugade include banning pockets on uniforms, loose shoes, cell phone use, and jewelry use for personnel while at work.

Overseas worker Jovenil Dela Cruz posted a video of his damaged and empty baggage, which had gone missing after his flight home via Clark Airport. The theft resulted in the firing of six personnel from MIASCOR, the ground service provider in most of the country's major airports.

Related: Duterte wants termination of contract with airport service provider MIASCOR

MIASCOR's contract was not renewed. It was given 60 days to turn over operations, which will also be the grace period for affected airlines to look for other providers.

This development will have an impact on 14 out of 35 airlines operating in NAIA: Malaysian Airlines, Asiana Airlines, Air Hong Kong, Federal Express, United Airlines, Jetstar Asia, Jetstar Japan, Saudia, Kuwait Airways, Turkish Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, Jeju Air, Qantas, and Cebu Pacific.

MIASCOR has since appealed the decision. Monreal said the fate of the service provider is up to the President.

Related: Airport service provider urges Duterte to reconsider contract termination

Appeal to passengers

Monreal appealed to passengers to avoid putting valuable items in their baggage when traveling. He also encouraged them to pay an excess valuation charge, as a safety net in case valuables get lost.

"If they do, please declare it to the airlines. There is a certain amount that they have to pay... para kung anuman ang mawala, ay parang insured ang kanilang bagahe [so if it gets lost, it will be like the items are insured]," said Monreal.

He also asked passengers to make sure they report grievances to airlines first. The MIAA steps in to call the attention of the airlines and help passengers follow up on their concerns.

"Kapag may [If there are] issues about the bags... the airline is the one accountable. It's a contract of care between the airline and passenger," said Monreal.
The call given by Kannada organisations for a Karnataka bandh on January 25 and Bengaluru bandh on February 4 for early resolution of the Mahadayi row has triggered a bitter political battle between the ruling Congress and the principal Opposition BJP.

While the Congress on Monday called upon people to support the bandh call, the BJP charged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of hatching a conspiracy to scuttle the party's pre-election rallies on January 25 and February 4 to be addressed by BJP national president Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi respectively by "sponsoring" bandh calls on the two days.

The Congress said it supported the call for bandh demanding Modi's intervention to resolve the Mahadayi river water sharing dispute.

"Everybody must support the bandh call given by farmer groups and pro-Kannada organisations seeking Modi's intervention," Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee working president Dinesh Gundu Rao told reporters in Bengaluru.

Senior BJP leader R Ashoka said, "We never knew that Siddaramaiah can stoop to such low level" and added that the party will go ahead with the conventions and there was no question of postponing them.

Ashoka said the BJP could give the Congress a taste of its own medicine and give a state-wide bandh call when its chief Rahul Gandhi tours the state from February 10.

Rao rubbished the BJP's charge that Siddaramaiah was conspiring to scuttle the saffron party's pre-election rallies on January 25 and February 4 to be addressed by Shah and Modi respectively.

"The chief minister said the bandh should be advanced to January 25 because January 26 is Republic Day. It's not that we knew Shah and Modi were coming. We have to put up a united fight in the Mahadayi issue. It is true that the Centre has not stood by the people of Karnataka." the Congress leader said.

Speaking to reporters in Mysuru, BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa said, "the BJP fully supports the protests over the issue of sharing of Mahadayi water. But, bandh is not necessary in the Mysuru region. Bandh should be called only in the affected areas. However, the scheduled programmes of the BJP will not be stopped at any cost."

In Hubballi, Leader of the Opposition in Legislative Assembly Jagadish Shettar said, "Siddaramaiah is afraid of Modi's visit to the state, and he is the brain behind the bandh call with an ill-intention to disturb the BJP's Parivarthana Yatra rally in Bengaluru."

Shettar said Rahul should make his stand clear on the Mahadayi issue before coming to the state, as the Congress itself is responsible for taking the dispute to the Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal. Otherwise, the BJP will stage protest and give a call for bandh when Rahul visits the state, he added.
Arrangements for the 20-day Mahamastakabhisheka at Shravanabelagola scheduled to start from February 7, would be completed by the month end, officials said.

The ceremonies of anointing the 57-foot monolithic statue of Bahubali, atop Vindhyagiri hill, will culminate on February 26.

The work on the platform using German technology to facilitate the seers and munis to perform the Mahamastakabhisheka, the 12 satellite towns to accommodate devotees and laying and repair of roads are in the final stages.

Seer Charukeerthi Bhataraka Swami said the Panchakalyana ceremonies will start on February 7. "The abhisheka (anointment) atop the hill will begin on February 17. At least 35 lakh devotees are expected to take part in the event over 20 days," he said.

District in-charge Minister A Manju said Rs 175 crore, released by the state government, has been used to provide facilities to the devotees, while Rs 89 crore is spent on roads. "To help devotees, 200 additional buses and 23 trains will ply from various places. Three lifts will be provided to the platform around the statue. Arrangements have been made to provide drinking water to eight lakh people. As lakhs of people are expected to descend from across the globe, 400 doctors will be deputed for 20 days," he said.

"During the last Mahamastakabhisheka in 2006, the Union government had released Rs 90 crore. The the state government had released Rs 30 crore. However, this time, the Centre has not responded though the state has written to it three times seeking funds. But the Centre has earned

Rs 18 crore by way of GST on the expenses being made for the arrangements for the Mahamastakabhisheka," he said.

"The state government has earmarked Rs 20 crore for the construction of a Prakrit University on 35 acres of land and the tender process is under way. According to UGC norms, facilities like hostels and libraries will be provided," he said.

The seer expressed satisfaction over the arrangements. "Already, 175 munis have arrived at Shravanabelagola by foot and 100 more are expected. From February 17, abhisheka of 108 kalashas will begin and from February 18 to 25, abhisheka from 1,008 kalashas will be held. Last year, with the money earned by auctioning the kalashas, the Bahubali Hospital is being constructed. This time, the funds will be used for education and health services," he said.

Mahotsava special officer

B N Varaprasad Reddy said the rituals and ceremonies from Vindhyagiri will be broadcast live on TV and also on the web. "Devotees will be ferried from the satellite towns to the hill by 60 shuttle buses," he added.
The state BJP will launch a massive outreach programme to connect with farmers ahead of Assembly polls.

The party has identified around 3,500 areas where farmers committed suicide in the past four years during the Congress regime and plans to hold conventions at these places over the next few weeks.

The conventions will be held soon after the completion of the party's Nava Karnataka Nirmana Parivarthana Yatra on February 4. The BJP has already decided that "failure" of state government to rescue distressed farmers will be one of its main plank in the coming Assembly elections. The farmers' initiative will be taken up by the party's Kisan Morcha.

Morcha vice president Basavaraj Ingin said the conventions will create awareness among farmers that committing suicide is not a solution for their woes. On the political plank, it will also take on the state government for not allowing the BJP-led NDA government's agricultural schemes like soil health card and crop insurance scheme reach the beneficiaries.

Local leaders will address the farmers and at some places there are plans to even invite state and national leaders to the conventions, Ingin said.

Another brief given to the morcha is to tell the farmers that they are being "misled" by the state government on the crop loan waiver scheme. In June this year, Karnataka government announced crop loan waiver

up to Rs 50,000 per farmer costing Rs 8,165 crore to the state exchequer.

The government stated that the move will help 22.27 lakh farmers who availed of loans from cooperative institutions. The Congress leaders have been blaming the BJP for not reciprocating the measure by pressuring the Centre to waive crop loans borrowed from nationalised banks. "In Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh the state governments waived the crop loans availed from national banks and bore the burden," he said.
The ruling Congress has started feeling the heat of discontentment over the selection of candidates for the coming Assembly elections in the state.



Congress leader from C V Raman Nagar (SC Reserve) constituency in Bengaluru P Ramesh, who is aspiring to contest the coming Assembly elections, on Monday openly expressed his displeasure over Chief Minister Siddaramaiah projecting his close confidant and Public Works Minister H C Mahadevappa as the party candidate from the constituency.

"People of the constituency want a local leader who knows about their problems to represent them. So, they will not support any outsider in the coming elections," he warned on seeking his reaction to reports that Mahadevappa will be the Congress candidate from C V Raman Nagar constituency.

Mahadevappa, who currently represents T Narsipur (SC Reserve) constituency in Mysuru district, is planning to shift to C V Raman Nagar in Bengaluru. The minister wants his son Sunil Bose to contest from T Narsipur, which is considered a safer Assembly seat for him to make an electoral debut. Siddaramaiah is said to have promised Mahadevappa that he will get him the party ticket for

C V Raman Nagar, which is presently represented by S Raghu of the BJP.

Ramesh, who lost the 2013 Assembly elections from

C V Raman Nagar by around 8,000 votes to Raghu, kept himself away from Chief Minister's Navakarnataka Nirmana Yatra convention that was organised in the constituency on Sunday. "Chief ministers come and go. But, the party is important. I am a sincere party worker and I am confident that the party will not betray me," he stated.

He also accused Siddaramaiah of misusing the tax-payers' money for organising Navakarnataka Nirmana Yatra. "It (Yatra) was neither the government function nor the party function. It was waste of tax-payers' money. So, I did not attend the event," he added.
The National Green Tribunal on Monday pulled up the Karnataka government for the massive fire that raged in Bellandur Lake last weekend.



A bench headed by Justice U D Salvi asked what steps the government had taken to protect the Bengaluru lake, where at least three fires had broken out earlier.

Taking a serious view of the January 19 fire, the tribunal directed state officials, including the additional secretary of urban development, to appear before it on January 24.

"Why no action has been taken since 2015 when the tribunal started examining suo motu the matter pertaining to the lake?" the bench said.

Advocate Ram Prasad, appearing for petitioner Kupendra Reddy, contended the state had submitted four reports - listing steps it intended to take - but had done little on the ground.

Advocate Devraj Ashok, representing the state government, said the fire was a result of miscreants burning dry leaves and grass. He said the government would submit details after conducting a proper inquiry. He sought time till January 29, the next date of hearing, to file a report on what had caused the fire.

Senior advocate Sajan Poovayya, appearing for NGO Namma Bengaluru Foundation, said firefighters and about 5,000 army personnel had been called in to douse the fire. The government has failed to protect the lake, he told the court.

A fire that broke out on Friday at 9.30 am continued into Saturday. Black smoke was billowing from the lake for hours after the flames were extinguished on Saturday.

The blaze in the highly polluted water body gave anxious moments to hundreds of residents living nearby.

The fire spread towards the Iblur firing range of the army.

A report attributed the fire to a methane burst caused by accumulation of chemicals and pollutants in the lake. The BDA said grass harvesters could have accidentally started the fire.
A 24-year-old architecture student died after a speeding BBMP garbage truck struck her scooter and ran her over on the busy Race Course Road in Central Bengaluru on Monday.



B N Sahithya, of Rajajinagar, was on the way to an architecture firm on Cunningham Road when the garbage truck rear-ended her Honda Activa near Raceview Hotel, close to Maurya Circle, around

11.20 am.

She fell off the scooter and screamed for help, but the garbage truck didn't stop. It dragged the scooter for almost 200 metres until the two-wheeler slammed into the road divider and screeched to a halt.

The student was wearing a helmet but it was of little help.

Passersby rushed her to a hospital but she died on the way. The truck driver just drove off.

The accident has been caught on CCTV camera.

A senior police officer quoted an eyewitness as saying that the truck was driven in a rash manner and appeared to be heading towards the old High Grounds police station.

Police traced the driver's address and went to his house but didn't find him there.

The officer said the suspect was possibly drunk at the wheel.

Sahithya was a final-year student at a college near Hesaraghatta Road.

Her father Nagaraj runs a printing press. She was interning at the firm on Cunningham Road.
The railways' ambitious plan to develop Cantonment and Yeshwantpur stations on a world-class model has been dropped with tenders for the two projects being cancelled after several postponements of the bidding dates.



To give a facelift to stations across the country through public-private-partnership, the ministry of railways then headed by Suresh Prabhu announced the 'Station Redevelopment Plan' in February 2017.

Accordingly, tenders were called to develop Yeshwantpur and Cantonment stations with the last date for bidding set for June 1, 2017.

However, the project got a lukewarm response from private players.

"We had offered 20 acres of land at Yeshwantpur and nearly four acres at Cantonment on a 45-year lease in return for developing the station. But potential developers were not satisfied with the lease period and were wary of maintaining the station for 15 years under revenue-sharing model," a senior railway official said.

When contacted, South Western Railway (SWR) Chief Public Relations Officer E Vijaya confirmed that the tenders floated by the SWR have been cancelled as the redevelopment works have been entrusted to Indian Railway Station Development Corporation Limited (IRSDC).

"The tenders were postponed to encourage better participation, to give bidders time to study the documents and come up with world-class designs," she said.

Another official said that the tenders were cancelled as officials at the ministry as well as the railway board wanted to make changes in the criteria to make the project attractive after Piyush Goel took over the ministry. The IRSDC has announced a design competition for Gwalior, Nagpur and Baiyappanahalli stations, with a vision to "encourage private-partnership for the redevelopment of stations".

However, there is no mention of the Cantonment and Yeshwantpur stations in the list.

"The competition for three ended on January 3. Cantonment and Yeshwantpur may be added to the list later. We are expecting an announcement soon. There is a plan to increase the lease period of vacant land from 45 to 99 years to make the project commercially appealing," another official said.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 22)  House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said the House of Representatives will revise the Constitution whether or not the Senate participates in the process.

On Monday, Alvarez said there is no need to convene Congress into a Constituent Assembly because such is not required under the Constitution.

He added what is stated in the Constitution is "any amendment or revision of this Constitution may be proposed by the Congress upon a vote of three fourths of all its members."

Alvarez said the number of House members is enough to comply with the three-fourths requirement - hence, they can already propose amendments or revisions in the Constitution even without the 23 senators.

"Nag-uumpisa na kami. Gagawa kami ng proposal to the people to revise the Constitution," said the House Speaker.

RELATED: Expert, lawmakers: Ideal scenario on Cha-cha is to meet jointly, vote separately

He added, "Tuluy-tuloy kami dyan. Pagkatapos pupunta kami sa mga bayan bayan, sa mga probinsya. Ipapaliwanag namin yan. Didinggin namin ang taongbayan magsalita. At pag natapos na namin yan, ready na kami sa proposal. We will submit it for the approval of the people through a plebiscite or referendum."

[Translation: We will go ahead with it. Afterwards, we will do to different towns in the provinces. We will explain what it is. We will listen to what people have to say. And then we will be ready with the proposal. We will submit it for the approval of the people through a plebiscite or referendum.]

Alvarez admitted the House might not be able to finish revising the Constitution in time for a possible plebiscite in May, simultaneous with the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.

He explained they still need to conduct a massive information drive so the public would understand the proposed changes in the Constitution.

If the House fails to meet this deadline, Alvarez said a new target date for the plebiscite is May 2019, simultaneous with the 2019 mid-term elections.

When asked about the constitutionality of the House amending the Constitution without the Senate's participation, Alvarez was confident that they were not violating it.

He insisted the Constitution does not require a Constituent Assembly for charter change. What it requires, Alvarez said, is a vote of three-fourths of all its members.

The House Speaker has also scrapped the no election scenario which he earlier floated.

READ: Some lawmakers support no election for 2019

He gave his assurance that regardless of when the new Constitution is ratified, mid-term elections will take place in 2019 following the current Constitution.

Alvarez also said that elections will happen in 2022  and this will be governed by the new Constitution.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today met Swiss President Alain Berset here and discussed ways to deepen bilateral ties on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual summit.

"On reaching Davos, held talks with the President of the Swiss Confederation, Mr @alain_berset. We reviewed the scope of our bilateral cooperation and discussed ways to deepen it even further," Modi said in a tweet.

Berset said the discussions marked the meeting of the biggest and the oldest democracies in the world.

Thanking Modi, the Swiss President said he would continue to strengthen "our relations" with India.

"First engagement in snowing #Davos, PM @narendramodi met with Swiss President @alain_berset. Two leaders had productive discussions on steps to further deepen our bilateral cooperation built upon our shared values of democracy and diversity. #IndiaMeansBusiness," an external affairs ministry spokesperson said in a tweet.

Sources said the two leaders are also believed to have discussed the progress on automatic exchange of tax information. A legislation in this regard was passed by the Swiss Parliament, following which banks and financial institutions have begun collecting data for the first exchange that is to begin from next year.

Negotiations on EFTA (European Free Trade Association) trade pact and the bilateral investment protection agreement were also discussed, among various business and trade matters, they added.

Modi, who arrived at the ski-resort today, would be delivering the keynote address at the summit's plenary session tomorrow.
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ANCHORAGE (AP)  An Alaska Native group is speaking out against a shamanism retreat as an event it says commercializes and exploits the spiritual healing practices of indigenous people.

The Juneau-based Sealaska Heritage Institute voiced its opposition to the pricey June retreat in a letter emailed Friday to the event sponsor, Dance of the Deer Foundation. The event  billed as the 24th in Alaska  is scheduled at an undisclosed lodge outside Juneau.





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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 22)  The police arrested a 64-year-old Iraqi national linked to the militant group Hamas for overstaying in the Philippines.

Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Ronald Bato dela Rosa, in a press briefing Monday, said Taha Mohamed Al-Jabouri served as a consultant of Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas in Damascus, Syria who helped improve its missile technology program in Syria.

Hamas is a designated terrorist group by Israel, United States, European Union, and United Kingdom.

Al-Jabouri was arrested in Barangay Malabanias, Angeles on Sunday after police got information from the local barangay intelligence network.

Police said the 64-year-old's 90-day visa was only valid from August 10 to November 10, 2017.

Dela Rosa said the Iraqi national claimed he flew to the Philippines for business meetings related to his consultancy job in metallurgy and explosives.

His reason for overstaying or the threat that he posed to the country has not yet been established, Dela Rosa said.

"Right now, we haven't established yet the threat that he posed to the Philippines, but considering the time of his entry into the Philippines, at the height of the Marawi siege and the ASEAN ongoing, that raised the alarm by the Iraqi Embassy to alert the security forces," Dela Rosa said.

The five-month crisis in Marawi started on May 23, after government forces clashed with terrorist group Maute.

The country also hosted the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in 2017, which included various activities and meetings attended by state leaders for the whole year.

The police are coordinating with the Iraqi Embassy to immediately deport Al-Jabouri, the PNP chief added.

CNN Philippines correspondent Rex Remitio contributed to this report.
Sydney-based startup LoyaltyX is seeking to reinvent the way consumers engage with loyalty programs while simultaneously contributing to the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency, according to co-founder and CEO Philip Shelper.

Supported by a $15,000 TechVoucher grant from the NSW Governments Boosting Business Innovation Program, LoyaltyX recently completed a six-week trial of its solution in partnership with the UNSW School of Computer Science and Engineering. As part of the trial, a cohort of 170 university staff and students were rewarded with the cryptocurrency Ether whenever they shopped at participating on-campus retailers. For each purchase, a participant earned a digital stamp, with ten stamps converting to $10 worth of Ether.

Ether is a floating currency, and over the course of the trial participants saw their Ether balance increase in value by 30 per cent, Shelper said. Those that chose to keep their Ether rather than cash it in have seen a gain of over 450%. Cryptocurrencies could provide the first major advancement in loyalty program design since frequent flyer programs were launched in the early 80s.

Shelper spoke to Dynamic Business about the problems LoyaltyX addresses, his ambitions for the startup, which he co-founded with Andrew Lowe, the support provided by the NSW Government and addressing misinformation and uncertainty around cryptocurrencies.

DB: What sparked the idea for LoyaltyX?

Shelper: I worked for Qantas Frequent Flyer for four years from 2008, before leaving to launch my own loyalty management consultancy, Loyalty & Reward Co, which focuses on designing loyalty programs for big companies such as Optus, HOYTS, Dan Murphys, HCF, El AL Airlines and Sportsbet.

Having spent years researching loyalty programs, I realised most of the innovation in the loyalty space is focused on doing the same thing slightly better. In the 1700s, merchants in the US provided customers with copper tokens, which they could redeem for a reward. This was replaced in the 1800s by tickets, and then by stamps. Stamps dominated as the main loyalty currency until the 1980s, when frequent flyers programs introduced miles and points.

LoyaltyX was created to focus on true, industry-changing innovation, hence the name, which is short for Loyalty Exploration. We believe cryptocurrencies have the potential to unseat miles and points and become the new dominant loyalty currency of our times.

DB: Who are you targeting with your solution?

Shelper: Were currently in advanced negotiations with a number of retail chains in the UK, where weve landed seed funding from two significant investors, with plans to run an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) mid-year, then launch a full coalition program before Christmas. Were starting with mid-level retailers (50-200 stores) and will work our way up from there.

From a consumer perspective, our research indicates the program will appeal to young and old alike. We also believe loyalty programs will play a critical role in mainstreaming cryptocurrency adoption in two ways. Firstly, members only have to go through a simple, familiar registration process to start earning, with no need to create a cryptocurrency wallet. Secondly, members can enter cryptocurrency ownership without having to invest any of their own money, which de-risks their participation.

DB: How does membership reward consumers?

Shelper: Our solution has two elements in this respect

The first is the blockchain loyalty component, where members earn a cryptocurrency instead of loyalty points when transacting with a coalition of retailers. They can then redeem with the same retailers, or trade via a digital exchange for another cryptocurrency.

The second is the blockchain marketing component, where members have control of their personal data and are able to exchange it with their favourite brands and be rewarded with cryptocurrency. Our members wont be bombarded constantly with marketing emails they dont wish to receive, but be able to choose whom they hear from, and allow the brands to use their personal data and tailor the offer specific to them as an individual.

Suffice to say, were reinventing loyalty and marketing simultaneously.

DB: What problem does your startup address?

Shelper: Were harnessing cryptocurrency to solve three key problems inherent in points programs:

Points and miles are restricted to specific product ranges whereas cryptocurrencies can be spent anywhere.

Points and miles expire (a feature designed to boost the profits of major programs) whereas cryptocurrencies dont.

Points and miles have been observed to decrease in value to reduce the liability of large loyalty programs whereas cryptocurrencies have the potential to increase in value as their popularity rises.

Cryptocurrencies are a community play meaning the more retailers and members involved in the program, the greater the demand for the cryptocurrency, and the more it increases in value, benefitting everyone.

In essence, cryptocurrencies have the potential to deliver greater value to members than points, which is the primary driver of engagement with a loyalty program. Members join a program because they believe theyll gain value from doing so, and they continue to engage with a program because they perceive they are gaining value. The more value, the more engagement. The more engagement, the more profitable the member is to the retailer.

DB: How did the TechVoucher grant assist you?

Shelper: The TechVoucher grant was instrumental in providing us with the funding required to run the trial. It was used to invest in equipment, UNSW resources, promotion of the program and completion of the research paper. While many governments around the world are doing their best to disrupt the rapid evolution of cryptocurrency usage, it is exciting to see the NSW Government investing in world-first cryptocurrency research. Only by conducting good-quality research will we truly understand the potential of this new technical innovation.

DB: What ambitions do you have for LoyaltyX

Shelper: LoyaltyX aims to be a company that facilitates mass market cryptocurrency adoption. By making it easy for people to earn cryptocurrency in a de-risked way, consumers will be provided with their own opportunity to determine whether it is for them or not.

At present theres a great deal of uncertainty, mis-information and polarised opinions about cryptocurrencies. We believe providing mass consumers with a crypto-balance and allowing them use it in everyday transactions is the best way to facilitate education and acceptance.
Small businesses contacted the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) nearly 5000 times in the second half of 2017, up from 3700 in the preceding six months, according to a new report.

The ACCCs latest Small business in focus report, covering July to December 2017, shows small businesses made 2365 enquiries to the Commission along with 2590 reports during the six-month period, with the main issues reported being alleged misleading conduct/false representations by other businesses (1057) and consumer guarantees (464).

Acting Chair Dr Michael Schaper told Dynamic Business that an increase in the number of small businesses contacting the ACCC is consistent with a broader trend of more people contacting the Commission overall. He indicated that Christmas trade would have contributed to an uptick in enquiries amongst small businesses, such as questions around consumer guarantees, but also cited increasing awareness of key issues relating to their rights and responsibilities under consumer law, including the ban on excessive credit card surcharging as well as new protections against unfair contract terms. He added, Certainly, the publicity around court action weve taken against the likes of Servcorp and JJ Richards & Sons may have contributed to small businesses reporting allegations of unfair contracts to the ACCC.

Schaper noted that nearly two thirds of the call received from small businesses were made by micro-sized businesses with up to 4 staff, which he described as being more vulnerable than businesses. He said a surprisingly big number of small businesses who contacted the ACCC had been operating for at least ten years, which accounted for 1 in 3 calls.

My take on that is that as people spend more time in business and as they become more aware of their rights as well as their overall trading environment, they become more comfortable in exercising their rights and raising issues, he said. When businesses are just starting up, theyre generally far too concerned with just the nuts and bolts of getting a business of the ground, finding people marketing it, getting customers and so forth  once they get a bit more established, they tend to become more comfortable raising things with regulators like ourselves.

Given the significant number of small businesses reporting misleading conduct or false representations by another business (where one starts and the other begins can come rather technical), Schaper had the following advice for small and micro businesses to avoid drawn-out business disputes: When youre doing business with another business, its good practice to get it in writing, where at all possible, so youve got a paper trail. This will mean that if you come to us with a complaint, theres something we can look at and follow and it doesnt become a he said, she said scenario, which are hard to untangle.

Asked about how many of the issues reported to the ACCC during 2017, Schaper said this information was not included in the report.

The reason is that some issues have a long trail and the businesses that make the initial report dont always reach out to us to advise us of the outcome, he said. To be honest, we dont have the people to be able to follow-up every matter. We do, however, refer to the state and federal small business a significant number of issues that either dont fall within the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 or would be better suited to mediation rather than law enforcement. We report, on average, 2000 matters a year to the various small business ministers, so around a quarter of all calls received last year.

Schaper encouraged small businesses to learn more about their right and responsibilities, noting that the ACCCs recently updated Small Business & the Competition and Consumer Act publication is a comprehensive guide to the law for small businesses: It provides essential information on pricing, unfair contract terms, treating customers fairly, selling safe products and resolving disputes.

Related: One in two small businesses relying on new protections against unfair contract terms, ACCC has improved tens of thousands of contracts for SMES since November 2016, Federal Court finds waste management giants contracts with small businesses were unfair and Excessive payment surcharge ban now in effect; consumer advocate encourages no surcharges.
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This article has been updated to include statements from PHIVOLCS director Renato Solidum and updates on flights to the Bicol region.

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 22)  Authorities on Monday raised the alert level over Mayon to below a notch of the highest warning of a dangerous eruption.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) declared alert level 4 which warns of an imminent hazardous eruption  possibly within days. Level 5 means a hazardous eruption is taking place.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council-Operations Center also raised a red alert status over the restless volcano.

PHIVOLCS reported "increased seismic unrest, lava fountaining, and summit explosions" in the area. The danger zone has been extended to eight kilometers from the previous seven.

PHIVOLCS director Renato Solidum warned of two possible scenarios in a press conference on Monday: continuous lava eruptions, or a more dangerous pyroclastic flow.

A pyroclastic flow is a mix of hot lava blocks, pumice, ash, and volcanic gas that moves at high speed down a volcano, according to the United States Geological Survey.

Solidum said this eruption was a possible "smaller version [of the] 2001 eruption," which had pyroclastic flow.

He also observed the plumes of smoke were mostly white, and could be attributed to water being mixed with the lava.

Solidum recounted that Mayon only had lava explosions in 2006 and 2009. A 2014 eruption also spewed out limited deposits. To date, the largest eruption has been in 1984, with the danger zone stretching to 11 kilometers.

He estimated that a possible pyroclastic flow would reach up to three kilometers in this eruption.

"The public is reminded to observe the danger zone  not to panic, but in essence just be ready. Prepare either gas masks, handkerchiefs or clothes to prevent inhalation of fine ash," said Solidum.

Albay Governor Al Francis Bichara first made the announcement on Facebook, calling the activity an eruption. Photos he posted showed clouds of ash rising from the volcano.

In a phone call with CNN Philippines, Bichara said there was zero visibility in the municipalities of Guinobatan and Camalig, as well as the city of Ligao in Albay.

The governor advised residents to stay at home and be alert.

"Everyone is advised to wear their facemasks and to stay indoors," Bichara added in another social media update.

Bichara also announced on Facebook guidelines on class suspensions for January 23.

He said classes in Legazpi, Daraga, Camalig, Guinobatan, Ligao, Oas, and Polangui were suspended until further notice.

However, class suspensions in the following areas were left up to the discretion of their respective mayors:

Rapu-Rapu

Manito

Jovellar

Pio Duran

Tiwi

Malilipot

Tabaco

Bacacay

Libon

Malinao

Sto. Domingo

"This kind of eruption is not over yet. Just like what we experienced a long time ago, it might extend up to a month," said Bichara. "Maybe tomorrow, there will no eruption, and the following day there will be [one]."

Legazpi airport temporarily closed

Legazpi airport temporarily closed airport operations effective 2:21 p.m. on Monday, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines Director General Jim Sydiongco announced.

PHIVOLCS also advised civil aviation authorities to make sure pilots avoid flying close to the summit, as the ash is hazardous to aircraft.

Local airline Cebu Pacific also advised the cancellation of flights bound for Legazpi and Naga City.

The affected travels include Flights DG 6204 (Cebu to Legazpi), DG 6205 (Legazpi to Cebu), 5J 327 (Manila to Legazpi), 5J 328 (Legazpi to Manila), DG 6117 (Manila to Naga), and DG 6118 (Naga to Manila).

Passengers flying to and from the two cities on Tuesday, January 23, are strongly advised to wait for further announcements, Cebu Pacific added.

PHIVOLCS seeks long term solutions

Solidum said that residents should start settling more than six kilometers away from Mayon, so they will not have to evacuate frequently during volcanic activity.

"Ang long term dapat na gagawin sa mga kababayan natin, walang nakatira sa permanent danger zone," he said.

[Translation: The long term solution our countrymen can adapt is, no one lives in the permanent danger zone.]

Activity from the restless volcano drove thousands of residents to evacuate last week. The new development at Mayon comes after Legazpi residents were allowed to return to their homes on Thursday.

Related: Legazpi residents allowed to go home amid Mayon Volcano unrest

This is a developing story. Refresh the page for more updates.
(CNN)  In the final moments leading up to Friday's midnight deadline, Senate Republicans and Democrats were unable to agree on a stopgap funding measure to continue government services.

So what happens next? Here's a rundown of what will happen if the government remains shut down.

Furloughs

Thousands of federal employees will be placed on furlough  meaning they won't report to work Monday.

Whoever works for agencies and departments that are considered non-essential, including agencies that pay out small business loans and process passport requests, will cease to work effective immediately until Congress is able to agree on a bill for the federal budget.

The employees in these departments would be placed on "furlough." In previous shutdowns, everyone who stayed home was paid retroactively after an agreement was reached in Washington.

At the peak of the 2013 government shutdown, about 850,000 employees were furloughed per day, according to the Office of Management and Budget.

White House

The White House said Friday that 1,056 members of the Executive Office of the President would be furloughed, and 659, considered essential, would continue to report to work.

Furloughed staff will still be expected to report to duty on Monday, the White House said in a contingency plan posted to its website Friday.

But they can stay for no longer than four hours to engage in "shutdown activities" like setting out-of-office messages or explaining how to carry out functions to colleagues who are not furloughed.

Military

The military is considered essential and will still report for duty. However, the troops  including those in combat  will potentially not be paid during a shutdown.

If the shutdown goes on for weeks, about 1.3 million active-duty military will be expected to work potentially without pay. The military is currently paid through February 1.

In addition, many civilian Department of Defense employees will not be working during the shutdown, including instructors at military academies and maintenance contractors.

Special counsel

Special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation team will continue to operate, a Justice Department spokesperson told CNN.

"All employees with the Special Counsel's Office are considered exempt and would continue their operations in the case of a lapse in appropriations," the spokesperson said.

National parks and gun permits

If you had plans for a vacation to visit any national parks, zoos or museums, some of those may be closed.

The popular panda cameras at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington will be turned off, according to a statement from the Smithsonian Institution.

Visitors will still be able to visit the National Zoo, as well as Smithsonian museums, over the weekend. But the zoo and the museums would be closed beginning Monday.

The shutdown will also affect the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, meaning if you wanted a gun permit, you'll have to wait until the shutdown is over.

TSA, air traffic control and mail services

Essential services, such as Social Security, air traffic control and the Transportation Security Administration, will continue to be funded even if some employees of those agencies are not.

The US Postal Service won't stop serving residents  you'll still get your mail.

DC city services

In 2013, the shutdown especially affected residents of Washington.

But this time around, Mayor Muriel Bowser vowed that services in the city will continue, unlike last time.

"Washington, DC, is open," Bowser said in a statement published Friday. "DC government will continue to provide services to our residents, the services they expect and deserve, uninterrupted."

National Mall

Bowser also said the city plans to help the federal government maintain the National Mall.

"I've called on my agencies, where we are able, to step in for the federal government," she said during the news conference. "The National Mall is operated by the National Park Service, and there are many other National Service Park properties throughout Washington, DC ... we will step in and ensure litter and trash are picked up along the National Mall to keep nation's front yard clean of debris."
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Beef import from India will impact local industries, Bangladesh association claims



Leaders of Bangladesh's Dhaka Metropolitan Beef Traders' Association have urged the government to cease a move to import beef from India, claiming that the decision would make the local leather, dairy and beef industries redundant, the Dhaka Tribune reported.

In a recent press conference, the officials also demanded an end to extortion in cattle markets and the suspension of the chief estate officer of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC).

"The government is providing loan of Tk200 crore for dairy farming which is encouraging the farmers a lot. But the decision of beef import will affect the dairy farmers and dairy related industries," Rabiul Alam, acting secretary general of the association, said.

He furthermore alleged that extortion, apparently with the help of a DNCC official, has become a common occurrence in the Gabtoli cattle market where, for each cattle, an additional Tk5,000 to Tk10,000 (US$60.33 to US$120.66) is being charged although the government's fixed rate is only Tk100 (US$1.21).

By eliminating extortion, beef prices can be eased, Alam said, adding that "beef price will decrease by Tk100 to Tk150 (US$1.21 to US$1.81) per kg if extortion is prevented in the bordering areas."

In Dhaka city, each kilogramme of beef is now available at Tk480 to Tk500 (US$5.79 to US$6.03).

- Dhaka Tribune






Slowdown in pork demand, production, imports in Russia



Pork demand in Russia is waning and, coincidentally, production is also slowing down and likewise imports .



While consumer demand was generally strong in 2017, it was reported to be slowing in the second half of the year. Per capita growth in poultry meat consumption is outpacing pork, aided by the expansion of fast food chain restaurants.



From the 6% in 2016, growth in pork consumption slowed down to only 3% in 2017. This year only a 1% expansion is anticipated, reaching 3.32 million tonnes.



According to the UK Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), production growth is also expected to be as slow as last year when output grew only 3% to 2.96 million tonnes from 2016, slightly lower than anticipated. This year production expected to be at only 3 million tonnes.



ASF threat



African swine fever (ASF), which continued to spread throughout Russia in 2017 and which will likely continue to do so in 2018, may be constraining pork production growth, along with market saturation, AHDB Pork said.



Russia also currently implements a "temporary" ban on pig meat imports from Brazil, which supplies 90% of its imported pork. "If this ban were to remain in place, could domestic pork producers scale up to compensate?" AHDB Pork asks.



Nonetheless, AHDB adds, a reduction in imported supplies would help mitigate the increasing saturation on the Russian pork market. With export opportunities limited, domestic demand is key to supporting the Russian pork industry, it said.



Furthermore, AHDB Pork said the removal of Russia's current primary supplier of pork imports could tighten supplies, support prices and enable further expansion, a view shared by an official at Russia's Ministry of Agriculture.



"This could then help Russia achieve its goal of self-sufficiency in most agricultural products by 2024; for pork this figure is currently around 90%", AHDB Pork said.



It added, "Ultimately however, it remains to be seen whether Russia will try to cope with further restricted pork imports for long, and whether the industry can expand to accommodate, given its serious problems with disease".
Turkey defies US and launches Syria attack: Financial Times

Financial Times made a striking analysis into Operation Olive Branch

Turkey had started the operation on Saturday at 5 p.m. in Afrin. President Erdogan had said on Saturday that the assault would destroy the terror corridor along its border formed by members of the Kurdish YPG militia, which Turkey views as a big threat.

Operation Olive Branch had widespread media coverage. Article published by Financial Times said that Turkey was defiying US by starting operation in Syria.

The opening of new fronts in the Syrian civil war is likely to aggravate Turkeys relations with the US, which backs Kurdish militia in Syria, and risks complicating a tangled situation on the ground. Ankara considers the YPG an extension of the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK), which has waged a more than three-decade insurgency against Turkey. However, in northeastern Syria Washington has armed and trained a YPG-led force as its main partner in the fight against Isis in Syria. reported Financial Times.

It was mentioned that the tension between Turkey and US started because of an announcement that the US-led coalition against Isis was planning to train a 30,000-strong border force in Syrias north-east headed by the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The 24th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards show opened with Allison Janney, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Millie Bobby Brown reflecting on their childhood and how they became actors.

Women took centerstage at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles with Kristen Bell as the show's first-ever host and a lineup of all-female presenters.

The evening proved that #MeToo and Time's Up movements will remain a central focus throughout Hollywood's awards season.

"I'm not the first female host. I'm the first host. The fact that a female was chosen to be the first one means my genitals become irrelevant," Bell said.

The Winners

Saturday Night Live's Maya Rudolph presented the first award of the evening for Best Male Actor in a Comedy Series. William H. Macy took home the award for the third time for his role in Shameless.

Julia Louis Dreyfus received the award Best Female Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in Veep. Dreyfus's co-stars accepted the award in her honor. According to Today, Dreyfus might have been home recovering from breast cancer treatment.

Dreyfus also celebrated another win when the cast of Veep took home the award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.

Allison Janney received the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actress in a Supporting Role for her role as LaVona Golden in I, Tonya.

As for the males, Sam Rockwell received the award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Big Little Lies actor Alexander Skarsgard received the award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie. Nicole Kidman took the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actress in the same category. Kidman is a ten-time nominee, but this was her first time receiving a SAG award.

Claire Foy received the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series for Netflix's The Crown.

The This is Us cast were the winners of the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

Gary Oldman took home the award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role in Darkest Hour.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri landed the award for the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actress in a Leading Role. Frances McDormand took home the award.

Biggest Moments

Rita Moreno presented Morgan Freeman with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Freeman is the 54th recipient at the 2018 SAG Awards. The moment was cherished between Moreno and Freeman as they are longtime friends and Electric Company colleagues.

While on stage, Freeman stated that having the opportunity to receive the award was beyond an honor and a place in history.

Sterling K. Brown also had another monumental moment in his career. Brown is the first ever African-American actor to receive the award for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series for This Is Us.

While on stage Brown thanked his co-stars and joked about how happy he was that they aren't anything like the family from Get Out. Brown went on to say how grateful he was to be able to work with his wife, Ryan Michelle Bathe.

"You're the best scene partner a brother's ever had," Brown said.
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The fake Trump is racist issue By Paul Driessen

By now, nearly the entire world has heard reports that President Trump referred to the origins of some immigrants as sh**hole countries. Democrats and their media allies spent an entire week castigating the president, calling him racist for using the salty language of Truman, Kennedy, Johnson and Hillary Clinton. Their faux outrage served to distract people from the ways Mr. Trumps energy, deregulation and tax reform policies have rocketed the stock market to record highs a record number of times, created over two million jobs, slashed black and Hispanic unemployment, and increased US wealth by some $8 trillion since his inauguration. Pounding on this bad-word Fake News story also muddied discussions about immigration, which Dems hope will bring big electoral gains in November. As former Obama aide Jennifer Palmieri recently put it, illegal immigrants are a critical component of the Democratic Partys future electoral success. Mr. Obama himself waded in, saying Trump supporters and other Fox News viewers live on a different planet than people who watch mainstream media. In this era of hyper-partisan news coverage and political views, hes absolutely right. You might call that other planet the Real World, inhabited by hard-working blue collar folks  and struggling families overseas. Which brings us to the real issue. The naughty-word firestorm also distracts people from the Democrats own racial history and animus. The Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln ended slavery and championed civil rights in the 1960s, while the Democrats were the party of slavery, the KKK, segregation, and policies that even today condemn too many minority children to failed schools, fatherless homes and crime-ridden cities. Especially under President Obama, their unending war on fossil fuels hampered economic development and job creation, and brought poor, minority, middle class and blue collar family living standards down a couple notches. Far worse is what the modern Democratic Party and its allies in the media, radical environmentalist movement and global government agencies are doing to the worlds most impoverished, malnourished, diseased, energy-deprived, politically powerless families. They do it in the name of environmental protection, sustainable development or preventing dangerous manmade climate change. But the policies are callous, unjust, dehumanizing, eco-imperialistic and often lethal. Some would even call them racist. In 2009, President Obama told Africans they should refrain from using dirty fossil fuels and focus instead on their bountiful wind, solar, geothermal and biofuel energy. In 2013, he told another African audience that global warming constitutes the biggest challenge we have environmentally, greater than all other environmental calamities like dirty water, dirty air. If everybody is raising living standards to the point where everybody has got a car and everybody has got air conditioning, and everybody has got a big house, he continued, the planet will boil over. He then announced his Power Africa initiative for a sustainable Africa  which emphasized wind, solar, biofuel and geothermal power  but didnt even mention fossil fuels. His Overseas Private Investment Corporation refused to support construction of a gas-fired power plant in Ghana that would provide clean and affordable electricity to that power-deprived nation  using natural gas that companies were flaring (burning and wasting) in Ghanaian oil fields. His administration ignored South Africas request for a World Bank loan to continue building its state-of-the-art, coal-fired Medupi power plant. Europes former colonialist powers had the same attitudes toward their former colonies. Thankfully, both projects eventually got the necessary funding and were completed. Continued energy poverty condemns the worlds poor to real poverty and the diseases, malnutrition and desperation that go with that absence of modern energy, said Ugandan Steven Lyazi, who died recently in a tragic accident on a horrid African road that is also a product of pervasive poverty. These problems are due to dysfunctional government and incompetent, corrupt leaders, but also to callous, imperialistic people in rich countries who use exaggerated or imaginary environmental concerns and fake disasters to limit how much poor countries may use fossil fuels (or nuclear power) to develop their economies. The principal and unchanged interest of poor countries continues to be development and a better quality of life for [their] people, says Pakistani academic Adil Najam: health, nutrition, jobs, education and life spans. Their principal fear is that the industrialized world is using environmental issues as an excuse to pull up the development ladder behind it. The greatest threat to the alleviation of the structural poverty of the Third World is the continuing campaign by Western governments, egged on by some climate scientists and green activists, to curb greenhouse emissions, primarily the CO2 from burning fossil fuels, writes economist Deepak Lal. (He also wrote the foreword to the India edition of my book, Eco-Imperialism: Green power - Black death.) The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health now claims the Third World is suffering millions of deaths annually from industrial pollution. This is false, says Professor Mikko Paunio. Most of the deaths the commission attributes to industrial air pollution are actually caused by burning wood and dung. Most deaths from diarrhea are no longer caused by polluted water, as it claims, but from poor hygiene because the worlds poor still do not have enough water for proper bathing, cleaning and hygiene. For the developing world, says Paunio, adequate water supply has completely fallen off the agenda. Instead, environmental health for poorer countries has come to mean only provision of some clean drinking water and latrines. But the copious supplies of clean water that allow hygienic conditions  and therefore public health  are no longer seen as a priority for the worlds poorest. Thats largely because abundant clean water requires abundant, reliable, affordable electricity  which requires large centralized coal, natural gas, nuclear or hydroelectric generators  which Greens oppose. As to renewable energy, ultra-green Germanys millions of solar panels received just ten hours of (weak) sunshine during the entire 31 days of December 2017! Try running a country or water system on that. The same radical groups that battle energy also oppose DDT and insecticides to control malaria and other insect-borne diseases. They condemn and obstruct GMO food  even crops created to replace staples that are being decimated by disease, and even Golden Rice, the genetically engineered miracle grain that could end childhood Vitamin A Deficiency and the blindness and slow death that accompany it. The undeniable result of all these campaigns is that the worlds most destitute people are kept where they are, or allowed to improve their lives only a little, at the margins, to the extent possible with inadequate renewable energy, clean water, bed nets and subsistence farming. That these impacts fall most heavily on the worlds non-white families underscores the racial injustice of so many environmentalist policies. Like their ancient forebears, todays superstitious Gaia worshipers sacrifice people to prevent droughts, global warming and climate change. They protect impoverished families from computer-generated climate disasters decades from now  by shortening their lives today. The lesson is simple. Poor countries should not do what rich countries are doing now that they are rich. They should do what rich countries did to become rich  using the best modern technologies available. China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam and other countries are doing exactly that. They are tired of being told not to develop, because it might hurt the climate or wouldnt be sustainable. Theyre building hydroelectric dams and coal- and gas-fired power plants at a rapid pace  often with the aid of Chinese loans, expertise and technology, because western nations have abdicated their responsibilities. So yes, there is another planet besides the one where Mr. Obama and his likeminded friends reside. Its a world where people are tired of kowtowing to ruling elites who live in luxury while telling commoners they must roll back their living standards, or never aspire to conditions much better than they have now. But in a few more years or decades, todays poor countries will reach economic parity with rich nations  and even surge ahead of those that sacrifice their industries and commoners on the Earth goddess altar. Paul Driessen is senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow and Congress of Racial Equality, and author of books and articles on energy, environment and human rights issues. Home
Frigid cold is why we need dependable energy By Tom Harris

Recent record-setting low temperatures have underscored the creature comfort and often life-saving importance of abundant, reliable, affordable energy. They also reminded us how appropriate it was that Americas 2017 National Security Strategy (NSS) emphasizes energy security  and was released on December 18, three days before this extra chilly winter officially began. This first Trump Administration NSS identifies four vital national interests. Two of them  promoting American prosperity and advancing American influence  require that the United States take advantage of our wealth in domestic resources. However, America is no longer taking full advantage of one of its most important of its domestic resources: its vast coal reserves, the largest of any nation on Earth. Testifying November 28 in Charleston, West Virginia, at the Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) public hearing on repealing the Clean Power Plan, Robert E. Murray, president and CEO of Murray Energy Corp., summarized the bleak state of affairs. Prior to the election of President Obama, Murray noted, 52% of Americas electricity was generated from coal, and this rate was much higher in the Midwest. That percentage of coal generation declined under the Obama Administration to 30%. Under the Obama Administration, and its so-called Clean Power Plan, over 400 coal-fired generating plants totaling over 100,000 megawatts of capacity were closed, with no proven environmental benefit whatsoever. Much of this was driven by Obamas determination to be seen as contributing to arresting climate change, to quote from his 2015 NSS, by mandating severe reductions of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from power plants. Unbelievably, this NSS listed climate change ahead of major energy market disruptions in its list of top strategic risks to our interests. That made no sense. Climate is, and always will be, variable. There is nothing we can do to stop it. And many scientists do not support the hypothesis that our CO2 emissions will cause dangerous climate change. Regardless, recent climate change has been unremarkable. It is certainly not unprecedented, and it clearly does not constitute a national security threat by comparison to a lack of affordable, reliable energy to power the nation and its military, and export to world markets. President Donald Trump was right to make only passing reference to climate change in the 2017 NSS. Even in the unlikely event that CO2 emissions were or became a problem, developing countries are the source of most of the worlds emissions, and China alone currently emits about twice as much the USA. Those nations are not about to follow Obamas lead. They understand that they must continue building coal-fired power plants at an aggressive pace, to meet their growing electricity needs. Even the New York Times admitted that As Beijing joins climate fight, Chinese companies build coal plants (July 1, 2017). Chinese corporations are building or planning to build more than 700 new coal plants at home and around the world, some in countries that today burn little or no coal, according to tallies compiled by Urgewald, an environmental group based in Berlin. Overall, 1,600 coal plants are planned or under construction in 62 countries, according to Urgewalds tally, which uses data from the Global Coal Plant Tracker portal. The new plants would expand the worlds coal-fired power capacity by 43 percent. Similarly, Indias heavy reliance on coal will continue even in 2047, according to the June 16, 2017 report Energizing India, by the National Institute for Transforming India (NTTI) and Institute of Energy Economics, Japan (IEEJ). Coal is forecast to rise from its 2012 46% of Indias total energy mix to 50% in 2047 in the business as usual scenario. Even in an ambitious scenario in which renewables supply 12% of Indias primary energy (in 2012 it was 3%), coal still accounts for 42% of Indias energy mix. The authors of the NTTI/IEEJ report state, India would like to use its abundant coal reserves as it provides a cheap source of energy and ensures energy security as well. Simply put, coal is essential if the rest of Indias population is to gain access to electricity and rise up out of abject poverty. Even today, some 240 million Indians (nearly seven times the population of Canada!) still do not have electricity. India and these analysts are right, of course. So it is a welcome development that Trump is promoting a resurgence of the American coal industry. Obamas dedication to the climate scare contributed significantly to coals tragic decline in America. Besides the impact of his Clean Power Plan, a rule that will hopefully be withdrawn very soon, coal has been hammered as a result of a 2015 EPA rule that limits plant-fertilizing carbon dioxide emissions from new coal-fired power stations. The result is that the U.S. can no longer build modern, clean, efficient coal plants to replace older stations, as is happening in China, India and even Europe. Heres why: The 2015 EPA rule, titled Standards of Performance for Greenhouse Gas Emissions From New, Modified, and Reconstructed Stationary Sources: Electric Generating Units, limits CO2 emissions on new coal-fired stations to 1,400 pounds per megawatt-hour of electricity generated. When releasing the new standard, the EPA asserted that it is the performance achievable by a [supercritical pulverized coal] unit capturing about 20 percent of its carbon pollution. This is irrational. CO2 is no more pollution than is water vapour, the major greenhouse gas in Earths atmosphere. By calling the gas carbon, the Obama EPA deliberately and falsely encouraged the public to think of it as something dirty, like graphite and soot, which really are carbon. Calling CO2 by its proper name, carbon dioxide, would have helped people remember that it is an invisible, odourless gas that we exhale and is essential to plant photosynthesis. Mr. Obama apparently did not want people to remember that. Moreover, the technology of CO2 capture on a full-scale power plant is still a technological fantasy. So in reality, the EPA was actually banning even the most modern, most efficient, least polluting, supercritical coal-fired stations  because even their CO2 emissions are at least 20% above the arbitrary EPA limit. Speaking at the November 9, 2017 America First Energy Conference in Houston, Texas, keynote speaker Joe Leimkuhler, vice president of drilling for Louisiana-based LLOG Exploration, showed that America has 22.1% of the worlds proven coal reserves, more than any other country, and enough to last for 381 years at current consumption rates. So it is a tragedy that America can no longer build modern coal-fired power stations to replace its aging fleet. Clearly, the rule limiting CO2 emissions from new coal-fired power stations must be cancelled as soon as possible. The climate scare has also impeded coals development in the USA by restricting its export. In particular, Asia would be a huge market for inexpensive American coal if sufficient U.S. export facilities were available. But, again, thanks largely to the climate scare contributing to the blocking of construction of coal export terminals, America exports only about as much coal as does Poland. To ensure energy security, especially when demand soars during bitterly cold spells and heat waves, and to restore Americas advantages in the world and build upon our countrys great strengths (quoting from the NSS fact sheets), the U.S. must expand its fleet of coal-fired power stations and build coal export facilities as quickly as possible. To make that possible, the Trump administration must do everything in its power to thoroughly debunk the climate alarm that has so crippled coals development. Tom Harris is executive director of the Ottawa, Canada-based International Climate Science Coalition. He writes from Ontario, a province that seriously damaged its economy by banning all coal-fired power generation. Home
Pay as you go amnesty By Michael R. Shannon

The current controversy involving granting amnesty to approximately 800,000 Delayed Accountability for Contemptuous Aliens (DACA) is nowhere near the end of demands to appease mass lawbreakers. The people who naively think that after the DACA surge is legalized the country can get back to normal are the real dreamers. Unchaining those demonstrators from the furniture in Congressional offices and TV studios only makes room for the next shift of disgruntled illegals to take their place. The DACA surrender is just the beginning. The cultural Marxists in charge of the media, academia, commerce and government are, for the most part, convinced blanket amnesty for illegals is the way to go and the sooner the better. Its those pesky and unenlightened citizens whore the problem. Telling the truth, that amnesty for illegals rewards lawbreaking and creates incentives for following waves of illegals expecting the same giveaway, produces a negative response. (The term immigration reform is also misleading. There is nothing wrong  excepting the anchor baby interpretation and Ted The Liar of the Senate Kennedys chain migration law  with our current immigration statutes. Whats missing is enforcement. Real immigration reform would be vigorous enforcement of the laws we have now.) Thats why descriptions of the problem use touchyfeely, focusgroup language to hide the facts. Which brings us to another reform proposal. The Immigrant Tax Inquiry Group has a Five + Five plan that is supposed to Enable Unauthorized Immigrants to Generate More Tax Revenue. Any reform that relies on misleading adjectives makes me suspicious. Whats an unauthorized immigrant? Is it someone who innocently wandered into an area thats off limits, like the employee breakroom at Costco? Or is it someone who intentionally crossed the border into a nation where he had no right to be? And why would immigrants need a Tax Inquiry Group in the first place? Legal immigrants are covered by the same tax laws as the rest of us. The questions answer themselves. So, misleading adjectives aside, how does the program work? Does Five + Five = immigration pacification? The program is a payasyougo amnesty described as a tax thats split equally between employee and employer. The attraction for Juan is he doesnt have to flee routine traffic stops anymore. The attraction for his employer is Juan is paying half the tax. And there, I suspect, is the real motive for Five + Five and the reason ITIG doesnt list its donors. Its a guest worker program that outsources the cost to taxpayers and while the benefits go to the employers. ITIG was unintentionally candid, The small tax is reasonable, as employers have traditionally paid unauthorized workers 25 percent less than others, and these workers do jobs others are unwilling to do. The employer still receives a 20 percent wage advantage over other legal workers, including those whose country of origin is the U.S." For the first time in history serfs pay for the privilege of bringing their wage scale north! Employers do even better. They can now legally discriminate against citizens in favor of cheap foreign workers. Its a winwin, unless youre a citizen who would be willing to do US jobs for US wages. After agreeing to pay the tax the illegal is granted a REALcard. This lets Juan be a member of Uncle Sams Club. He can work in the US legally, qualify for Medicaid, take English language classes, enjoy continuing education, apply for a visa, apply for a drivers license and other benefits. And just like a Sams Club card, the whole family can share his membership for one low price! The REALcard is good for ten years or until Democrats take control of Congress and grant mass amnesty to these secondclass citizens. ITIG claims the program will generate $210 billion in new tax revenue over ten years, but I have my doubts. Lets say Juan is making $40,000 a year and has two anchor babies. Five percent of the gross is $2,000, but that is much less than the $5,616 he qualifies for when he can legally claim the Child Tax Credit. And thats just one of many questions the plan generates that unfortunately will remain unanswered. After initially insisting I interview ITIG Founder Mark Jason, the interview was canceled after it became evident I wasnt an open borders cheerleader. Possibly Jason thinks Five + Five is an equitable solution that is fair to everyone. I dont. Rewarding lawbreakers only encourages other lawbreakers. The fact illegals havent been caught doesnt give them a claim on our compassion. As far as Im concerned, a sincerely held believe that in the end is bad for the country is no improvement over an outright malign belief that actively seeks do to harm to the country. Michael R. Shannon is a public relations and advertising consultant with corporate, government and political experience around the globe. He is a dynamic and entertaining keynote speaker. He can be reached at mandate.mmpr (at) gmail.com. He is also the author of Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!). Home
Regionalism and nationalism in Canada  a reassessment (Part Three) By Mark Wegierski

Toronto, while being the capital of the province of Ontario, is not the political capital of Canada. Around the time of Confederation, Ottawa was deliberately chosen to be -- in a pattern seen in the case of such instances as Washington D.C., Canberra, and Brasilia -- the political capital of Canada. Ottawa lies on the border between Ontario and Quebec, in the heart of Central Canada. Much of the so-called political nationality of Canadian identity (such as it remains today) focusses on the magnificent buildings and interiors on Parliament Hill, which could be seen as very sacred political spaces. However, most of Ottawa could be characterized by its fairly architecturally drab administrative buildings that extend out in all directions beyond Parliament Hill. The political capital could be typified more as a town of civil-service mandarins and bureaucrats  the so-called permanent government  rather than elected Members of Parliament.

Manning When Western Canadian politicians such as Preston Manning referred to Ottawa it was with a considerable degree of disdain. What Preston Manning probably was objecting to most, was the notion that the federal government was owned by the Liberal Party (who increasingly called themselves the natural governing party of Canada). Ottawa was the nexus of the vast federal bureaucracy, that believed itself to be bringing progress to the benighted corners of the country, and most especially to the highly recalcitrant province of Alberta. The Liberal Party of Jean Chretien between 1993 to 2003 was, it could be argued, extremely Ontario-centric. Indeed, in the federal elections of 1993, 1997, and 2000, Ontario delivered virtually 100% of its seats to the Liberal Party. It could have been considerably embittering to Preston Manning that the Reform Party had been permanently tagged with the regional party label  and that no conciliatory gestures or professions of moderation could persuade a considerable percentage of the Ontario electorate to vote for the Reform Party. Indeed, a considerable percentage of the Ontario electorate was easily persuaded by Liberal stereotypes about the Reform Party  considering Preston Manning scary or creepy. In an attempt at re-branding Preston Manning initiated the United Alternative movement, which led to the creation of the Canadian Alliance (whose full official name was the Canadian Reform-Conservative Alliance). Stockwell Day, the former Treasurer of Alberta, defeated Preston Manning for the leadership of the newly-formed Canadian Alliance. However, in the November 2000 federal election, Stockwell Day -- while ostensibly far more telegenic than Manning  was written off as a Christian fundamentalist extremist by most Ontario voters. Western Canadians (and especially Albertans) had been traumatized in the early 1980s by Trudeaus National Energy Program (NEP) which they saw as a naked power-grab at Albertas oil wealth. Trudeau's NEP, geared to Central Canadian interests, had prevented the development of Western Canadian oil reserves at a time when it was fortuitous to do so, because of the booming oil market. Their full development had been delayed for decades. Spokespersons for Western Canadian regionalist tendencies had often complained that there are no constitutional mechanisms (like the Senate in the United States, to which every U.S. state elects the same number of Senators), to prevent the less populous regions (i.e., the West and the Atlantic region), from being dominated and ruled in the interests of Central Canada. It is also interesting that Australia, which is also a Commonwealth country with a federal system, has developed comparable tensions between the central government in Canberra, and the regions. Coincidentally, there had been a grab for the resources of Western Australia, which had been scotched by the different constitutional structures of Australia. It is somewhat amusing that one of the cities in Western Australia  and a hotbed of resistance to Canberra  is called Kalgoorlie. Later, Pauline Hansons One Nation movement had obtained most of its electoral support from Queensland (in the north-east). In November 1987, simmering Western Canadian alienation resulted in a bringing together of various Western Canadian political activists, in the founding assembly of what was to become the Reform Party. They were led by Preston Manning, who was the son of former, long time Alberta Premier Ernest C. Manning. One of the Reform Party's main planks was the so-called "Triple-E Senate" -- elected, equal, and effective. (By "equal" was meant that each province or region would have the same number of seats in the Senate.) The Canadian Senate is currently made up of persons appointed by the Prime Minister of the day, with some degree of consultation with the provinces. While it is considered a house of "sober, second thought", its powers are residual, and much of its authority has been undermined by the blatant partisanship of most of the appointments. There is now a mandatory retirement age of 75 for Canadian Senators. Stephen Harper made headlines when he appointed a so-called elected Senator from Alberta. Since provinces have a consultative role in the selection of Senators, they can stage an informal selection process including a province-wide vote on a short-list of candidates, to choose which person they want to represent them in the Senate. However, such procedures are not, strictly-speaking, legally binding on the Prime Minister. The length of Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretiens years in office from 1993 to 2003 meant that he was able to appoint a huge number of Senators. The callousness with which Mulroney treated Atlantic, and especially Western Canada, showed both basic ignorance, and a narrow, self-serving, parochial vision, rather than one of truly national unity and purpose. One especially remembers the awarding of the huge federal aircraft maintenance contract to Quebec firm Bombardier, rather than the Winnipeg firm whose tender was apparently markedly superior. The effect of Mulroneys government was often to play up and exacerbate existing economic and power disparities. However, his attempts to gain Western Canadian favour by the quick cancellation of the NEP, by some major industrial strategy-type government support programs, as well as, especially, by the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, allowed him to hold on to much of Western Canadian support in the 1988 federal election. However, when the Reform Party became more firmly established, by the time of the 1993 federal election, they swept most of Western Canada, especially Alberta. It could be argued that perhaps some cultural issues being raised by the Reform Party (such as its mildly expressed ideas for some tempering of multiculturalism and high immigration policies), possessed far greater salience for many in Western Canada, than the putative, purely economic benefits being offered by the federal P.C.s. To be continued. Mark Wegierski is a Canadian writer and historical researcher. Home
Replacing the mainstream media By Rachel Alexander

We complain about how biased the so-called mainstream media is but what do we do about it? CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC and CBS dominate TV news. The New York Times and The Washington Post dominate print media. Everywhere you turn you cant escape their presence. CNN is carried in far more markets than Fox News. President Trump complained about having CNN but not Fox News when traveling in hotels overseas. Google News artificially elevates The New York Times and The Washington Post on its homepage and in search results. A Pew survey just came out that revealed Americans trust our media even less than the Russians trust their media. Trump has drawn attention to the constant biased errors in mainstream reporting, referring to them as fake news. Almost every week theres another story about false reporting, with a biased media organization forced to issue a retraction. Were at a crossroads, where the mainstream media has lost so much credibility it may never recover to its former lofty status. Since the Fourth Estate is so powerful, the best way to combat it is from multiple angles. First of all, stop sharing articles on social media from left-leaning publications. More than two-thirds of American adults get news from social media. Forty-five percent get news from Facebook. Eleven percent get news from Twitter. If you find a news article you want to share, look and see if Fox News, Townhall, or another site on the right has also written on the topic. And start sharing multiple sites and authors on the right, not just the most well-known ones. We need to get people used to seeing a full spectrum of sites on the right to choose from; have them become household names. You may not enjoy Twitter, but there are a lot of articles shared there now. Learn how to use Tweetdeck or another application with it in order to understand and make use of it. Stop watching left-leaning network and cable news. Cable news is rapidly losing subscribers as people switch to streaming. Fox News has shows available to watch over streaming TV, including live over YouTube, which can be watched on TV with a PlayStation. There are conservative news stations that are generally online-only like NewsMaxTV. The Sinclair Broadcast Group partners with local TV stations to provide conservative leaning content. Find out which station in your area hosts their content and stick to that station if youre going to watch a local TV station. There will need to be some larger steps taken by wealthy conservatives on the right. Sites competitive with Google, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter will have to emerge. Right now there are a few minor competitors but none that are large enough to be effective. With the increasing censorship of conservatives on the big tech media sites, it is becoming even more imperative that alternatives emerge. Its going to take a concerted effort, but arent a few extra steps worth it to stop yelling at the news? There are already some signs it is happening. The rise of fake news exposed the fact that conservatives on Facebook are far more likely to share articles from conservative sites than liberal ones. Conservative Facebook groups are powerful and for the most part have escaped Facebook censorship. The left-leaning media is helping to do itself in. The New York Times and The Washington Post only provide a few free articles before putting up a paywall. They have not adjusted to the reality of internet advertising and so are losing readers. While the Drudge Report still frequently links to those sites, sending over generous amounts of traffic, the average American - and especially the average conservative - doesnt subscribe so theyre not reading and sharing. It can work. Once Trump started praising Fox & Friends regularly, the show shot up in TV rankings. It is the number one cable news morning show. GQ calls it the most powerful show on TV. But Trump cant do it all. If every red-blooded American just says enough and replaces the dishonest media with alternate sources, we can greatly diminish one of the most powerful left-wing influences in society. Rachel Alexander and her brother Andrew are co-Editors of Intellectual Conservative. She has been published in the American Spectator, Townhall.com, Fox News, NewsMax, Accuracy in Media, The Americano, ParcBench, and other publications. Home
2018-01-22

Maeci

"In my recent visit to Tunisia I held excellent meetings with President Essebsi, Prime Minister Chahed and Minister Jhinaoui. I firmly believe that if we want the young Tunisian democracy to remain stable, we must work together to reduce the impact of international creditors on the country's economy. Tunisia needs more room to make its economy grow, to increase trade and investments with the EU and the whole of the North-African region. Today, I will attend the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, and I will ask my European colleagues to increase support to Tunisia in this phase," said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Angelino Alfano, in his opening remarks to the Dialogue 5+5 meeting in Algiers.
2018-01-22

Maeci

We have come to a crucial point in the history of the Mediterranean: either it returns to being a place where cultures, civilisation, trade and investment come together, or it can be torn apart by an eruption of clashes, terror, despair and social instability. The international community must do everything in its power to make the first option true and prevent the second scenario from happening. By bringing peace, security and sustainable development to a region that connects Europe, Asia and Africa, we would obtain great benefits for everyone. For us and for future generations, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Angelino Alfano, in his opening remarks to the Dialogue 5+5 conference in Algiers.
2018-01-22

Maeci

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Angelino Alfano, will be in Brussels to attend a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council. Libya, Israel and Palestine are among the issues on the meeting's agenda. A working lunch is also scheduled with the Prime Minister of the National Palestinian Authority, Mahmud Abbas.
Italy is going to deploy up to 470 troops in Niger to combat migration and the trafficking of people toward Europe. At the end of 2017, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said he would increase military presence in North Africa, requiring parliament to reconvene to give its consent, despite having already closed ahead of the 4 March parliamentary election.

Silvio Berlusconis Forza Italia  or Go Italy!  Party, which is in opposition, supported the resolution while the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement did not support it, saying that the deployment would prevent the winner of the election from setting their own foreign policy goals. Italy is planning to spend 1.5 billion euros on 31 missions in 21 countries. Only a portion of the funding was approved in the budget for this year and more money will need to be designated by the end of September.

Italys focus on Africa comes as Italy is seeking to stop migrants from reaching its shores. More than 600,000 people have entered the country in the past four years. The Niger mission was announced at the end of last year as Italy joined the United States and France, which already have military presence in the country. Prime Minister Gentiloni said the mission would guarantee stability in the area and fight illegal trafficking of migrants. There are also more military deployments in Libya and Tunisia. Some 400 soldiers are expected to work in Libya, up from 370, and Rome is going to send 60 troops to Tunisia as well to improve border control and help fight against terrorism.
Sarkozy and Merkel : June 2009 solution to May 2005 "NO" ?



- Will French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angie Merkel live up from June 2009 to their obvious Historic European mission to revitalize, and re-launch the "European Dream", after the series of 3 "NO" since May 2005 in France, the Netherlands and Ireland, by renewing, and changing the EU with fresh stimulus, big horizons, and values attractive for EU Citizens ?

Whatever views anyone might have, it's a Fact that, recently, EU's political spectrum didn't produce other more charismatic and popular EU leaders than Merkel and Sarkozy, starting from September 2005 and May 2007, respectively.

This trend was confirmed, in one way or another, both during the German EU presidency in 2007 (shared by Merkel with the SPD), and mainly during the French EU Presidency in 2008, (with Sarkozy "free" to move).



The positive 2009 EU Polls are a natural consequence :



- Both with 72% Sarkozy and Merkel are considered by EU Citizens to be "the most Influential" leaders in Europe, by far.



- They are the only EU political leaders to attract a Majority of "Positive" views by EU Citizens, (Merkel over 60%, Sarkozy over 50%, particularly in the continent).



- 60% of EU Citizens find the 2008 French EU Presidency "Good", (and the satisfaction grows up to 67,5% in continental Europe).



The Poll was made by "OpinionWay" in big EU countries as Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, (with the only exception of France), from 26 to 28 May 2009.





But the most important is that both Franco-German leaders seem willing to, at last, really start serious business on EU's indispensable renovation and Renaissance from 2009 : Year of crucial EU and German Elections.



Therefore, this time, the joint European move by Sarkozy and Merkel, which just published a common Franco-German Manifesto, aims to stimulate aspirations and action not only in their respective countries, but also in many other EU "partners", as they say.



Both on EU economy, social values and scientifico-technologic research, as well as on Turkey's controversial EU bid, obviously incompatible with a popular Political Europe, whose Citizens can find a collective Identity and popular Values, they have already started to magnetize various growing voices accross the European landscape :



"Today, more than ever, it' time for action", they stress from the outset.



Facing "an unprecedented Global financial and economic Crisis", "Europeans must get resolutely involved if they want for the World which is being built to meet their Values of Liberty, Solidarity and Justice".



"That's what we want" and "propose to our Partners" :



* "A strong Europe, able to protect us" :



- "We refuse a Bureaucratic EU, which mecanically applies burdensome rules and is afraid of change. We want a European Union which listens what Citizens have to say, which innovates, stimulates".



- "We want a strong and united EU in the World, while also respecting its Member States' Diversity", which "brings Courageous Replies to the Questions of our Times, ensuring our Prosperity :



This implies to "favor Research and Innovation", "Economic Coordination", to "develop real Policies on Immigrationn, Energy, Defence, and modernise common policies, particularly Agriculture".



* "EU must bring immediate replies to the Global Crisis".



- "Lawless liberalism failed". "The Model we want is that of a Responsible Market Economy, which favors Enterpreneurs and Workers, above Speculators ; Long-term Investment, over immediate profiits".



- "We appeal upon the EU to take, from June, the first decisions to ensure a real European Regulation of Financial Markets, based on coordination and cooperation". "On speculative funds, on fiscal heavens, CEO's and financial operators' earnings, EU must give the example".



- "We call to change the rules of accounts, which are important for our Economy's revival : The competent normative authorities must take action". "The issue of a sufficient Credit offer is of central importance for our Economy". "We don't accept that, during this Financial Crisis, the European Banks' capacity to lend money might be unjustly reduced by Capital's requirements and accountant's rules



* "During the German and French Presidencies, EU has resoclutely prepared itself for the fight against Global Warming... EU is the 1st and only area in the World to have adopted a package of ambitious and legally binding rules to comply with International Aims"



- "We have now to convince our Friends and Partners, to get involved, in order to atteint, next December at Copenhagen, a Global Agreement worthy of whay is at stake. Our closer ally, the US, but also other big industrial countries, must commit themselves with the same force as the Europeans".



"Green Growth is a Chance ... and an opportunity to create jobs turned towards the Future. Europe must be a leader".



- But, at the same time, we must ensure that our companies remain competitive in the World. The ambitious European involvements on Climat must not lead into a position where EU industry might become a Victim of Unfair Competition. Climat protection and Competitvity must go together. If our International partners refuse to associate themselves to our efforts, we are determined to take measures to protect European Industry"



* "Europe must be more ambitious for its Industry" : "It must favor the emergence of strong European enterprises at a Global level".



- "As long as an International mechanism" to "monitor Public Aids at WTO level, and hinder 3rd Countries to give abusive subsidies to their enterprises, provoking unfair competition", is "not yet set up, we must consider Transitory European Solutions".



* "The current Public Debt is too heavy... We must head anew towards sound public finance, as soon as we'd have passed the crucial stage in this crisis".

-------------------------------------------------



* Last, but not least : "Europe must play a top-level role in the World"



- "For that purpose, it needs efficient Institutions. That's why we need Lisbon Treaty". "The 27 Member States decided, last December (2008) that the Treaty should enter into force before the end of this year (2009)". To obtain that, June EU Council must agree "on the Guarantees for Ireland".



- But, "to be able to act, EU needs Borders. An Enlargment without Limits is not possible", Sarkozy and Merkel stressed in an obvious reference to Turkey, etc.



- "In order to be strong, Europe must assume its Values and its Identity". "Human Rights .. are at the basis of our commitment for a Peaceful Development accross the World".



- "For that purpose, we shall strengthen our common Defence and Security policy".

----------------------



* "We are ready to contribute to activate the EU towards the realisation of these aims, with our EU Partners".



"In order to succeed", Europe "needs the active involvment of all, starting by Citizens themselves. That's why the June 7 rendez-vous is important", and "we are calling all Europeans to vote".



"We are convinced that, if Europe wants, Europe can", they conclude.

-----------------------



Precisely : - What can better forge "Europe's Will" than a "European Consciousness" emerging from political, democratic struggles to face Global Challenges, and open big New Horizons, including by crystal-clear Public Debates, with active EU Citizens' involvement, before the most important EU Decisions affecting People's lives ?



Precisely what "EuroFora"s project warns since 1997-2007, and unprecedented Majority Abstentions, since 1999-2004, added to 3 "NO" to EU Referenda in 2005 and 2007, proved meanwhile..



Let's hope that the Time wasted by some scandalous anti-European and anti-Democratic obstacles of the Past, will stimulate faster, simplified but substantial and persistent, efficient action.-




Written by ACM





*Strasbourg/CoE/+Brussels/EPP Summit/Angelo Marcopolo/- The sudden Big Row about CoE Assembly's President, Pedro Agramunt, (a ChristianDemocrat/EPP from Spain), Hotly Denounced by several Critics for a Hasty Trip to Syria, where he met President Assad, with the Help of Russian MEPs, accused to have Ommitted to previously Warn PACE's Bureau, etc., while, possibly, rushing to seize any opportunity to help Peace through Dialogue, (See also Infra, on Agramunt's initial Explanations), has now Reached Proportions withOut Any Precedent in History, on which the Presidents of the ChristianDemocrat/EPP, Socialist and Left Group of MEPs, Axel Fischer, Michele Nicoletti, and Tiny Cox, respectively, briefly but Topically spoke with "Eurofora":



------------------------



To put it in a nutshell :



President Agramunt, (after Initially providing a first Explanation to Critics, Earlier this week in Strasbourg), he did Not Participate, this Time, to an Exceptional Meeting of PACE's Bureau, due to Focus on againg Criticizing him, and, apparently, Left from CoE's Building, probably even from Strasbourg. According to PACE's Rules, there isn't any Legal means to Oblige him to do otherwise, Neither to eventually Resign.



A PACE's Bureau Majority published a Critical Note against its President, Agramunt, calling to Strip him from many of his prerogatives, (f.ex. to Speak on Behalf of the Assembly, etc), and Elected its Senior Member, British Conservative MEP Sir Roger Gale in order to represent them, according to a Press Statement that he has just Read to Strasbourg's Journalists, including "Eurofora".

----------------------





Lithuanian ChristianDemocrat/EPP MEP Egidijus Vareikis, observed that there were several Absents, as well as Critical MEPs who didn't understand why Agramunt would have, necessarily, to Resign, and noted the Fact that, according to PACE's Rules, a simple Majority inside the Bureau could Not Destitute an Elected PACE President.



Center-Right French MEP Ponzo di Bongo expressed his Anger for, curiously, Not being Informed at all, about what really happened, by the out-going Chair of his National Delegation, MEP ... from the Socialist Party, (who appeared in a Hurry to immediately Phone somewhere).



After an apparently Unconclusive meeting (with Many Absentees, as "Eurofora" witnessed on the spot) of PACE's Biggest Political Group : That of ChristianDemocrats/EPP, (Agramunt's Political Family), its President, German CDU MEP Axel Fischer, anounced to "Eurofora" and other Journalists present in Strasbourg, his intention to Travel to Brussels in order to Speak about that Agramunt issue with the President of the European ChristianDemocrat/EPP Party (which Federates together All National Center-Right ChristianDemocrats/EPP parties in all European Countries), the Experienced Joseph Daul.



Daul, speaking to "Eurofora", Afterwards in Brussels, at the Conclusion of an EPP Summit of Heads of State/Government, while locacious on various Other Topical Issues, on the Contrary, prefered Not to make yet Any Public Statement on Agramunt's case, but Told us that he, indeed, just Met with Fischer and they spoke about that matter. His momentaneous Silence might, perhaps, be due also to the Fact that, Exceptionally, the Spanish Prime Minister Rajoy wasn't present at that EPP Summit, while Daul himself, even if he was an Experienced former Chairman of EPP Group in EU Parliament, and Long-Time MEP of Strasbourg (CoE's Headquarters' City), nevertheless, had not a frequent opportunity to deal with CoE Assembly's Internal Affairs as such, (two Points obviously pleading for a Careful Approach of such a Delicate and UnPrecedented Issue).



Meanwhile, while already in Strasbourg, "Eurofora" had also a brief but Topical encounter with the President of the Socialist Group in CoE's Assembly, Italian MEP Michele Nicoletti, (who had just met also with Other Strasbourg's Journalists earlier, but obliged to decline for several others, from various CoE Member Countries, for exceptional reasons Independent of his free will).



Nicoletti told us, in substance, that his Group was among those who believed that Agramunt should Resign, but claimed that, in fact, this would be UnRelated to the existence or absence of a Political Will for Good Relations with Russia and for a Peace Deal in Syria, that his National Government in Italy, (including EU's High Representative for External Action, Federica Mongerini : originating from the Same Political Family as his own), reportedly supported. Indeed, Nicoletti prefered to Focus on matters of General Principle, particulalry as far as CoE Assembly's working methods are concerned, Criticizein mainly an alleged Lack of previous Warning of PACE's Bureau by Agramunt about his imminent Meeting with the Syrian President Assad, escorted by a Russian Delegation.



Agramunt, (who had been, in fact, Accompagnied also by some Other PACE's Top MEPs, including, f.ex., the President of the Liberal Group, etc), had already presented his Excuses, for not being able to meet, Previously, with PACE's Bureau, and stressed, earlier this week in Strasbourg, that he visited Syria as part of a National Team from Spain, (where he is Senator), and had informed his Foreign Ministry. He did not felt personally responsible for any eventual exploitation that others might have done of his participation to that trip, while he was deeply Committed to the Need to Help Find a Peaceful Solution to the Syrian Conflict, through Political Dialogue, as a matter of General Principle. But, despite having briefly met him Earlier this week in Strasbourg, at a entirely Different occasion, "Eurofora" (and several Other Strasbourg's Journalists) had Not any opportunity to Timely and clearly know what, in fact, was PACE President Agramunt's real and full Version for what happened nowadays, the Criticism and Measures take by a Majority in PACE's Bureau.



President Nicoletti, (who is also Expected, according to a usual Agreement between the Biggest PACE's Political Parties, to eventually take over PACE's Presidency since Next Year, from January 2018 : A Possibility the he did Not Deny, while also Avoiding to Confirm Now Explicitly, with a kind Smile), however told "Eurofora" that he "Understood" the personal Sorrow of Pedro Agramunt, (who due to Conclude his Mandate as PACE's President, normally, towards the End of this Year), and, at any case, would not have any objection for that Job to be, eventually, entrusted, in the MeanTime, to anOther Member of the ChristianDemocrat/EPP Group. But he Firmly Excluded any eventual Compromise that might imply for Agramunt to Stay Longer in PACE's Presidency now, as things stand.

------------------------------





+ A priori, even more Surprizing appeared the Strong Criticism of Left Group's President, Tiny Cox from the Netherlands, who is, however, a frequent Ally to Russia's attempts to Explain its Position during PACE's various Debates, as well as traditionally against Militarist Interventions and Wars, but favorable, in Principle, to any attempts to find Peaceful Solutions to Conflicts : Indeed, speaking to "Eurofora", Cox Strongly Denounced mainly the (uncontested) Fact that Agramunt should Not have given any Impression (even Involuntary) to eventually Represent Officially CoE's Assembly in such a Controversial Top Political Meeting withOut Previously Informing PACE's Bureau, and Lacking its Previous Agreement.



[NDLR : UPDATE = New French President Emmanuel Macron's subsequent Statements in Brussels, about Accepting Syrian President Assad's role in a Desirable Peace Deal for the Future, were Not yet Known neither to Nicoletti, nor to Fischer or to Cox, when we spoke with them at the CoE in Strasbourg]



In the MeanTime, "Eurofora" confirmed, in parallel, that an Exceptionally Important PACE's Draft Report on the most "Explosive" BioEthical Issue Nowadays, about Interventions on the Genome of Human Beings, (which, notoriously, can have Crucial Consequencies on all Humanity's Future), is Still on the Pipeline for a possible Public Debate and Vote of a Resolution by a PACE's Plenary, apparently Before the End of this Year (2017).



Curiously, that "Hot" Report's preparation has been entrusted to a Socialist MEP from Belgium, whose Previous Drafts, on Various Other BioEthical Issues, had notoriously provoked Exceptional UpHeavals and Strong Reactions by Critics in the Recent Past, (Resulting, f.ex., in Referrals Back to Committee, and/or Votes of many Amendments radically Changing her Initial Draft, etc). And, usually, it was mainly (even if Not Only) the ChristianDemocrat/EPP Group of MEPs (i.e. Agramunt's Political Family) which freqently intervened in order to Rectify various eventually Dangerous Shortcomings, by such Controversial Drafts, inside CoE's Assembly.



In such Contexts, normally, the successive Presidents of PACE's ChristianDemocrat/EPP Groups in CoE's History, (f.ex., among others, also Luc Van Der Brande, Lucca Volonte, Pedro Agramunt, etc), used to play an Important (even if Discreet) Role in the Way that such "Hot" BioEthical Issues were Dealt with, already several Times in the Past, until recently.



But, now, one among the Various Consequences of that UnPrecedented Row against Agramunt, (current PACE's President, and former ChristianDemocrat/EPP Group's President previously), is that it obviously may put such a Mechanism in Jeopardy : Only the forthcoming Future will tell...





(../..)

----------------------------------------

***

(NDLR : Partly UPDATED on 29 April 2017)
Thank you both for your replies. I bought a bathroom heater from an online supplier last April but didn't start to use it until the weather turned colder towards the end of October. It ran for less than an hour before packing up. The supplier took six weeks to say that it was nothing to do with them and to contact the manufacturer. I have been trying to contact them since before Christmas but they do not even acknowledge the emails or web contact forms. I'm struggling to know what to do next other than try a charge back with my credit card company.
Julia Child is often credited with introducing Americans to the glories of French cuisine. Diana Kennedy wrote nine cookbooks extolling the wonders of Mexican food. And Marcella Hazan revealed that theres more to Italian than simply spaghetti and meatballs.

Fozia Akhtar Ali likely will never rise to those levels of influence, but she did her small part to elevate the cuisine from her homeland of Pakistan during a recent Saturday cooking class.

The class was the latest in a monthly series called Celebrating the International Flavors of San Antonio held at the Raindrop Turkish House on Vance Jackson Road. Open to anyone interested in out-of-the-mainstream cuisines, they are a spinoff of the Turkish cooking classes regularly held at Raindrop House.

In addition to the food types, what sets the classes apart from most is that the instructors are decidedly not professional chefs. In fact, most are impressively accomplished in other, nonculinary fields.

In real life, for example, Fozia Ali is a family physician and an associate professor at U.T. Health. Past chefs Tera Bounds and Marina Lang, who together taught a Brazilian cooking class, are, respectively, a veterinarian with a doctorate in comparative pathology and a physical therapist.

More Information Upcoming cooking classes Russian When: 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Feb. 3 Instructor: Svitlana Kroll, principal scientist, Southwest Research Institute. Menu: Vinegret (winter beet salad), borscht (vegetable soup), buckwheat kasha, beef stroganoff, Geese Feet (cottage cheese cookies) Azerbaijani When: 10 a.m.-1p.m. March 3 Instructor: Sevil Goral, a former hairdresser and cooking instructor at Raindrop Turkish House Menu: Still to be decided Romanian When: 10 a.m.-1 p.m. April 14 Instructor: Rodica Varna, a real estate agent, and Cristina Ilies, from St. John Cassian Romanian Orthodox Mission. Menu: Ciulama de pui (creamed chicken paprikash), varza calita (stuffed cabbage), chicken salad, cheese pie The Raindrop Turkish House is at 4337 Vance Jackson. For more information about the international cuisine cooking classes, call 210-861-5211 or email sanantonio@turkishhouse.org. See More Collapse

Minda Reeve is president and founder of the 30-year-old organization Philippine Women of America. And Svitlana Kroll, scheduled to teach a Russian cooking class in February, is a principal scientist at the Southwest Research Institute.

Ive never taught cooking before, said Ali, who wore a traditional Pakistani outfit called a shalwar kameez, accessorized with a dupatta, or scarf, to her class. My mother was a good cook, and I would watch her. But for me growing up, everything was about my studies and getting good grades.

She did note a similarity between cooking and practicing medicine, though.

Hand-eye coordination is very important when youre doing both, she said with a laugh.

Alis menu consisted of traditional Pakistani dishes, including punjabi yakhni pilau (chicken and basmati rice), shahi daal (a vegetarian dish made with lentils, cilantro and cumin), a yogurt-based green chutney dipping sauce and sheer khurma (vermicelli pudding) for dessert.

At first, the class was fairly quiet as the 18 attendees  all but one of them women  watched and listened intently while Ali, with assistance from Sumeyra Tek, the Raindrop Houses outreach and event coordinator, discussed the background of the dishes, their place in Pakistani culture and how theyre cooked.

She told them that if you travel 200 miles in any direction in Pakistan, youll almost certainly find an almost completely different cuisine. While many of the same spices are used throughout the region, the amounts vary based on local preference. While people in the Punjab region of eastern Pakistan prefer their food less spicy, they like it hot in the Sindh province to the south.

Once Ali started actually cooking and she asked for volunteers to come up and help her chop, mix or otherwise prepare the ingredients, things became much more interactive. The heady aromas of cardamom, ginger, cumin and other spices began wafting through the room, the noise level rose, laughter zinged and everyone was up and out of their seats helping, watching or just chatting.

It always gets like this; like a kindergarten classroom, said Michelle Newman, a volunteer at the center who conceived the idea of the cooking school to teach often-overlooked cuisines.

A sometime-freelance contributor to the Express-News, Newman is an avid traveler who enjoys doing hands-on cooking with locals she meets.

In addition to setting up the classes and acting as the unofficial proctor to keep the din manageable and the proceedings moving along, Newman also makes videos of the dishes being made, posting them online at youtube.com/culturevulture18.

Past classes have focused on the cuisines of Brazil, the Philippines and Ukraine. Upcoming classes will feature dishes from Russia and Azerbaijan.

Tuition for each three-hour Saturday class costs $16 and includes a lunch where participants enjoy the food theyve just learned to make.

The Pakistani class was the third in the series for retired social worker JoAnn Elmo.

I come because I enjoy cooking international dishes, and it inspires me to try spices Ive never used before, she said. I started using dill after taking the Ukrainian cooking class with (UPS store owner) Anna Stamp, and its like its opened up a whole new world for me.

While most everyone seems to be enjoying themselves during the cooking portion of the class, the best part comes once the food has been plated into serving dishes. Thats when lunch is served.

As they gather in the Raindrop House dining room to enjoy the exotic repast, the attendees discuss the food, get to know one another better and, perhaps, encourage each other to try their hand at Pakistani cuisine on their own.

Thats what I love about this, the way it brings people together, said Newman. Food really does help cross those cultural boundaries that keep us apart.

And, it must be said, it tastes good, too.

rmarini@express-news.net | Twitter: @RichardMarini
Erika Prosper Nirenberg is a passionate woman. As director of customer oversight at H-E-B, she manages the customer experience, ensuring that shoppers have a seat at the table when major business and community initiatives are launched.

She also is the chair-elect of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. And as Mayor Ron Nirenbergs wife, shes the citys First Lady, using her voice to promote literacy and the arts.

Prosper Nirenberg admits shes very busy, and relies on her many bags to keep her organized. She said she thinks of them, too, as works of art.

Her collection of cross-body bags, tote bags, special-occasion bags, book bags and her top 12 bags, one for each month of the year, are stored in a bedroom closet she shares with her husband. Mayor Nirenberg jokes about her assortment, asking why she needs so many bags and teasing that he would like extra space for clothing.

Her response: Why so many white shirts? All teasing aside, we made a promise to one another nine years ago when (he) entered the political arena, to respect each others space at home and at work and we do.

Among Prosper Nirenbergs tips for those who also enjoy swapping bags out regularly: Clean them once a month with leather wipes or a soft wet cloth for fabric. Only buy bags you love.

Regardless of the month, Prosper Nirenbergs bags always contain her essentials, usually divided into two compartments:

The first compartment includes a wallet and keys, a case for her glasses, a small but necessary Royal Delf notebook and a Piet Mondarin inspired pen she bought at the Amsterdam airport, a business card holder, Concha and Xingona stickers she purchased from local artist Broseph to give away when she sees rad people doing rad things, H-E-Buddy bucks to help moms when she sees a child crying in a store and copy of her sons immunization records.

The second compartment holds an extra battery for her phone, a pen and pencil case, a handmade fan from Santorini because it is always hot here, a Vera Bradley vitamin case and two massive pouches to store chargers, chords, earbuds, loyalty cards, lots of lipstick and other personal care stuff.

Treasures, such as a photo of her son Jonah when he was a baby, toddler and now as a fourth grader.

Three love notes: A birthday note to Nirenberg 10 years ago telling him what he means to Prosper Nirenberg; a handwritten love note Nirenberg gave her on their anniversary four years ago; a note she gave Nirenberg before their wedding. These treasures keep me grounded and show our commitment to one another and the importance of family, she said.

Other must-haves: prescription sunglasses, eye glasses, Evas Red LOreal lipstick.

Prosper Nirenberg also has a collection of book bags because she carries lots of books. As a mom, I am always reading with our son, she said. As First Lady, Prosper Nirenberg said she looks forward to supporting the Mayors Book Club.

Reading is a necessary partnership between a child, a family and a community, she said. If we read together we will succeed together.
When the Texas Education Agency first appointed a conservator to oversee the South San Antonio Independent School District nearly two years ago, the district was in disarray.

A state special accreditation investigation had identified issues with South Sans financial management of its 2010 bond program, and another audit determined the district had mismanaged federal funds. Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra, who had fired the districts business manager when he took over in and pushed a broad housecleaning agenda, repeatedly butted heads with board members and at one point was on the verge of resignation.

But nearly two years after the state assigned Judy Castleberry to oversee the district, she concluded that her job was done and recommended last month that the TEA end the arrangement. The agency agreed, notifying district officials about the decision on Wednesday.

Im encouraged by the board. I think theyre working with the administration very well, Castleberry said. Theyre collaborating and cooperating and its really a give and take. Theyve restored the integrity to the financial management system, put internal controls in place and have strong leadership in that area. Theyre in good shape right now.

During the first few months Castleberry was assigned to the district, she witnessed trustees regularly making derogatory comments about each other and gathering in a parking lot after school board meetings, in violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act, she told the TEA in monthly reports. For a time, a subset of trustees actively fought Castleberrys recommendations, filing responses to her reports, threatening lawsuits and accusing her of overstepping her authority.

Her departure comes weeks before the board is set to appoint new members to replace two trustees who resigned late last year. Castleberry said the districts current stability outweighs any concerns about how the new trustees might change the boards dynamic. South San, she said, has tremendous potential.

Of the four school districts in Bexar County that have undergone state scrutiny or interventions in recent years, South San is the first to right the ship. Last May, the TEA installed a board of managers at Southside ISD, a year after a state-appointed board was sworn in at Edgewood ISD. In August, the agency launched a special accreditation investigation of Harlandale ISD.

The state sidelined Edgewoods elected trustees after they failed for months to fill a vacant board seat, paralyzed by a 3-3 deadlock that also prevented them from hiring key personnel. In September, the TEA removed and replaced one of its own appointees, Amanda Gonzalez, whose outspokenness prompted accusations that the state agency didnt want trustees who made waves.

The Southside ISD board had three different interim superintendents in less than a year before hiring Superintendent Mark Eads in 2016. The TEA replaced the board last year after its investigators found noncompliance with contract procurement laws and trustee micromanagement. Eads, who was already working to clean up financial mismanagement, was kept on.

The TEA probe of Harlandale ISD is still open. It was launched following complaints of questionable payments made to Terracon Consultants in 2015 and allegations of nepotism within the school districts administration and of a conflict of interest between Superintendent Reynaldo Madrigal and a district vendor.

The TEA did not replace South Sans board. Saavedra and Castleberry said the turning point for the district came after the November 2016 elections, which ushered in three new trustees and a new board president. In January 2017, the new board voluntarily attended a two-day workshop on the Lone Star Governance model, a new initiative created by the TEA to provide more support to school districts.

As part of the training, trustees participated in exercises focusing on five core areas: accountability, advocacy, structure, unity and vision. The goal is to help school boards improve operations so they can better prioritize student outcomes, said TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson. The TEA cited South Sans adoption of the governance model as its main reason to remove the districts conservator.

Saavedra said he has noticed a significant improvement in professionalism among trustees since the training, a major shift for a board that had been notorious for shouting matches and infighting.

This is simply a different board, a more responsible board, a board thats much more willing to work with each other and respect each other, Saavedra said, adding that the training would resume after the two new trustees are appointed next month.

The district still faces substantial difficulties. For years it has grappled with declining enrollment at the elementary and intermediate levels, and the subsequent loss in state aid.

Over the past four years, the district has lost about 1,000 students, Saavedra said, a reality that prompted last years decision to shutter three schools  Athens Elementary, Kazen Middle School and the districts alternative school.

Still, the resulting cost savings could not prevent an anticipated budget shortfall as enrollment continued to fall this academic year. South San has been working to make up the gap through hiring freezes and other measures.

In an attempt to attract students and stave off competition from new charter schools in the area, this fall South San plans to unveil open-enrollment academies at its three remaining middle schools. Each academy will specialize in a different subject area  STEM at Dwight Middle School, fine arts at Shepard Middle School and health science at Zamora Middle School.

Additionally, district officials continue to mull the possibility of asking voters to approve a bond referendum, a tax ratification election or possibly both, to fund renovations to the districts aging facilities. Saavedra said the removal of the conservator will likely inspire more community support for those campaigns, which could happen in the next year.

The TEA saw a clear emphasis our board has placed on working together and collaboratively with the Superintendent, operating under a model that will produce positive results for many years down the line, board president Angelina Osteguin said in prepared statement released by the districts public information office.

Dysfunction at South San predates Castleberrys time with the district by decades. During the 1980s, its accreditation status changed nine times and the state assigned three conservators or monitors to oversee it. A pair of state investigations in the early 2000s into trustee misbehavior yielded no action.

The contrast with that troubled past is why the current situation is promising, said City Councilman Rey Saldana. A South San ISD product himself, Saldana was an early outside voice of concern about the districts rotating cast of superintendents  four in less than three years  and had asked the TEA for a conservator as early as 2013.

Saavedra, who had led Houston ISD, the states largest, was hired out of retirement in March 2014. His first day on the job, he fired the districts longtime director of finance. His relationship with trustees was outwardly cordial at first, then grew increasingly tense.

Theres no question in my mind that the district needed to receive some guidance, Saavedra said. Dr. Castleberry was able to do that in a very professional way. Not everyone agreed with her decisions.

With the conservators exit, South San is finally breaking through to some light at the end of this tunnel, Saldana said. He said the stamp of approval from an impartial third party might help repair negative perceptions of the district and attract competent leadership. Saavedras contract expires next year, and its unclear if he will remain.

I dont think we revert back into the Dark Ages, Saldana said, because the South San community is more engaged today.
Stephen Willefords suit was at the tailors and his wife Pam went shopping for a dress Thursday in preparation for a big event: President Donald Trumps State of the Union speech on Jan. 30.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, invited Willeford, who shot at and helped chase gunman Devin Kelley in the Sutherland Springs massacre last November, to sit in the Capitol gallery as Cuellars guest.

Im excited, Willeford said. Weve never been to D.C.

A lover of airplanes, he said hes hoping to get a chance to check out the Smithsonians National Air and Space Museum.

But what Willeford is most looking forward to is just having my wife with me in D.C. My wife is the love of my life.

Theyve been together 28 years, he said, and met at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio.

She was beautiful. She drove a jeep and had more camping gear than I did, he said.

They both love camping and going on long motorcycle rides together.

Willeford has largely ducked the limelight, though he was hailed as a hero for running to the First Baptist Church during the Nov. 5 mass shooting in time to fire shots that wounded Kelley, who had exited the sanctuary after killing 26 people and wounding 20 others.

Willeford then joined another pursuer, Johnnie Langendorff, in a highway chase that ended when Kelley crashed his vehicle and shot himself.

Willeford said the chance to go to Washington is exciting, but its sad that this had to happen at all.

Silvia Foster-Frau is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of her stories here. | sfosterfrau@express-news.net | @SilviaElenaFF
AUSTIN  Land Commissioner George P. Bush briefly appeared to break ranks with Gov. Greg Abbott on whether a special session is needed to dip into the rainy day fund and address the big needs lingering from Hurricane Harvey.

But Bush quickly backtracked, saying in a statement that he obviously misspoke in a discussion with the editorial board of The Eagle in Bryan-College Station.

The Eagle reported Sunday that Bush talked about recovery efforts for Hurricane Harvey and that he stated, The Legislature needs to take a deep look at the Rainy Day Fund. We need a special session, and the governor needs to call it.

Abbott, however, months ago said a special session wont be needed, even though lawmakers dont convene in regular session until January 2019.

The state has been allocating money for the disaster, and lawmakers can vote for a supplemental spending measure in 2019, including. potentially taking money from the multibillion-dollar rainy day fund.

We wont need a special session for this. We have smartly provided a lot of resources at my disposal to be able to address the needs between now and the time the next session will begin and we have smartly kept a lot of money in our rainy day fund that we will be able to tap into as needed going forward, Abbott said months ago.

Bush, who is heading housing recovery efforts, put himself back in line with his fellow Republican in a Monday statement.

I clearly misspoke. I agree that calling a special session is not necessary. I will continue to work under Gov. Abbotts leadership as we help Texans throughout the hurricane recovery process, Bush said.

pfikac@express-news.net | Twitter: @pfikac
16: For every 1,000 Hispanic babies born in the Bexar County ZIP code 78203 between 2011 and 2014, 16 died. The 2015 infant mortality rate in Bexar County was 6.5 deaths per 1,000 births, which is second in the state only to Dallas County, where the infant mortality rate is 7. The 78203 ZIP code is one of two in San Antonio where the infant mortality rate is much higher than the state rate.

2.8 million: The Permian Basin this month will pump 2.8 million barrels of crude oil per day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, while the Eagle Ford pumps 1.2 million. The process of making an oil well in Texas has grown more intense since the start of the shale boom and in that process, shale wells are using twice as much water as they did a few years ago.
Changes to Vulcan Materials plan for a concrete batching plant in Kendall County havent extinguished project opposition, which is being led by a citizen group called the Boerne to Bergheim Coalition for Clean Environment.

The company is seeking a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality permit to produce up to 6,000 cubic yards of concrete daily, operating up to 24 hours every day using sand, rock and cement trucked to its site off Texas 46 about 8 miles east of Boerne.

It announced Thursday that it had enhanced elements of the project in a release that said, in part, Boerne Ready Mix will respect neighbors, support well-managed growth, protect air and water resources.

It also sent Dear Neighbor letters about the changes to about 700 nearby residents, many of whom have registered their concerns about the plant with the TCEQ and asked the agency to order a contested case hearing on the permit application.

But members of the opposition group, formerly known as the Pleasant Valley Neighborhood Coalition, are not assuaged by the Vulcan revisions that include repositioning the plant on its 34-acre site to provide additional screening and buffer areas.

It also added to its design an outdoor education area, walking trails and a zone designated as a wildlife and butterfly habitat.

Those are just cosmetic changes and dont affect the issues at hand, said Amber Clowney, a spokesperson for the coalition that has retained attorney Charles Irvine of Houston. We are prepared to fight this as long as we need to.

Opponents suspect one reason Vulcan moved the plant about 500 feet to the southwest was to reposition it further from Pleasant Valley Drive, where a handful of homes were within 440 yards of its original site.

A Texas statute says the only people who can be granted a contested case hearing on a batch plant application are those who reside within 440 yards, said Irvine, who said details of the revision havent yet been provided by Vulcan.

The TCEQ is expected to hold a public meeting in Kendall County on the project in coming months in response to a request by state Rep. Kyle Biedermann, R-Fredericksburg.

Biedermann said Friday that he seeks such meetings any time they are requested by constituents.

The public meeting was likewise sought by Kendall County Commissioners in a resolution they adopted Nov. 13.

It also requested the permit application be the subject of a contested case hearing, a trial-like proceeding conducted by the State Office of Administrative Hearings, which would then make a recommendation to the TCEQ on the permit.

The county is concerned about potential air, ground water, and noise pollution,Commissioner Richard Elkins said Friday, as well as access issues to and from the plant site to Texas 46.

Regarding Vulcans modifications to its plan announced Thursday, Elkins said, Its all smoke and mirrors.

All they did was move it to try to get some of the residences within 440 yards outside that zone, but that moved it closer to the school, said Elkins, referring to Hill Country Montessori School on Stonewall Drive.

The campus is about a half-mile from the plant under the revised plan, said Vulcan Spokesman Scott Burnham, adding, This is about making a good facility plan even better by being responsive to neighbors and the community, listening to their feedback and addressing their concerns.

County commissioners also have hired an Austin attorney to represent them concerning the permit application, which is slated for discussion in executive session during their meeting on Monday.

The attorney, Patricia Erlinger Carls, urged the TCEQ in a Nov. 30 letter to reject the application on technical grounds, alleging it was defective.

Burnham called those issues moot since Vulcan notified the TCEQ on Thursday that it is withdrawing the original application and will file a new one.

Kendall County Assistant Criminal District Attorney Bill Ballard said the county also has requested party status in the permit proceedings.

If granted, he said Friday, We would have to declare whether we oppose or support the plant and, if they hold a contested case hearing, we would have to put on a case to support our position.

While commissioners have yet to take any formal position on it, County Judge Darrel Lux on Friday said, My personal position is its a terrible location for a batch plant.
The crumbling, sepia-toned 1939 photograph of Olivia Sanchez is stunning in many ways.

Taken in San Antonio during Mexican Independence Day festivities, the image shows a young activist riding atop a car in a downtown procession. Shes standing next to a Native American Voters League flag, an advocacy group led by descendants of San Antonios first residents.

The image is proof of five generations of one San Antonio familys activism. Its also the oldest photo in a valuable archive looking for a home where it can be preserved for educators, researchers, publishers and filmmakers of the future.

The collection primarily contains photos of Chicano movement activism, including social justice marches and farmworkers protests of the 1960s and 70s. It belongs to Ramon Vasquez y Sanchez, Olivia Sanchezs equally driven son.

Vasquez y Sanchez, 77, was a leader in the Raza Unida Party, the Chicano movement and the Bilingual Bicultural Coalition on Mass Media. He co-founded Centro Cultural Aztlan, where he organized the citys early Dia de los Muertos exhibitions.

His archive, more than 100 mostly 4- by 6-inch black-and-white photos, many taken by him, was rescued from his garage several years ago by his son, another San Antonio activist, Ramon Vasquez, 53, executive director of the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nations nonprofit agency American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions.

Together, they share in the familys more than 150 years of political activism.

Vasquez y Sanchez has suffered several strokes and has had trouble remembering the names of people in the photos but can recall the issues that drove them.

They protested police shootings of unarmed Mexican-American suspects and called for decent wages and working conditions for farmworkers. They helped organize Chicano students protesting inadequate educational opportunity in poorly funded school districts. They learned to run campaigns.

Some photos show activists involved in the Mexican American Youth Organization, a precursor to the Raza Unida Party, which got some of the first Mexican-American candidates elected to local governments but failed in statewide races.

Many became members of the citys Latino political class and subsequently birthed, sometimes literally, new generations of political leaders.

Where the archive will land is unknown, but Vasquez y Sanchez already has donated documents and newspapers from the movement to Our Lady of the Lake University, he said.

His photos are of people and events that students might read about in Mexican American Studies coursework. Vasquez y Sanchez is glad he turned his camera on activists he sees as most important  the women, including Rosie Castro, Irma Mireles and Yolanda Santos. They were in control of almost everything, he said.

Except perhaps the spotlight.

Then there are the images of Brown Berets, who earned an unfair reputation as the paramilitary group that guarded demonstrations. In places throughout the Southwest, some of them might have been armed. But in San Antonio, Vasquez y Sanchez photographed them as a hip young vanguard in protests and marches.

Not enough people talk about the Brown Berets, he said.

His camera captured a banner referring to Medina County Sheriff Frank Hayes, who went to prison for the 1975 shooting death of a Mexican-American suspect. The case, which involved Hayes enlisting his wife and daughter to bury the body, triggered a federal investigation.

Among the more than 100 images are lighter moments, like one of Jesse Guzman and Rosie Castro, parents of U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro and former Housing Secretary and Mayor Julian Castro.

Vasquez and his father are sharing photos on Facebook in hopes of identifying people and capturing stories left untold. They hope to enlist volunteers for a book project before the archive is donated.

Vasquez y Sanchez cant help but be partial to that extraordinary picture of his mother. Though she only completed eighth grade, she became a precinct chair and worked on a Henry B. Gonzalez campaign. The photo was taken after she and others fought to keep Fiestas Patrias at San Pedro Creek. The Mexican Consulate moved it to Municipal Auditorium despite the local outcry, he said.

She taught me la politica, he said, and remains lucid at 97. Its interesting to sit down with her now, he adds, smiling. She doesnt like Trump.
WASHINGTON  When President Donald Trump mused last year about protecting immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children, calling them these incredible kids, aides implored him privately to stop talking about them so sympathetically.

When he batted around the idea of granting them citizenship over a Chinese dinner at the White House last year with Democratic leaders, Trumps advisers quickly drew up a list of hard-line demands to send to Capitol Hill that they said must be included in any such plan.

And twice over the past two weeks, Trump has privately told lawmakers he is eager to strike a deal to extend legal status to the so-called Dreamers, only to have his chief of staff, John F. Kelly, and senior policy adviser, Stephen Miller, make clear afterward that such a compromise was not really in the offing  unless it also included a host of stiffer immigration restrictions.

As the government shutdown continued for its second day on Sunday, one thing was clear to both sides of the negotiations to end it: The president was either unwilling or unable to articulate the immigration policy he wanted, much less understand the nuances of what it would involve.

Both sides have reason to be confused. Each time Trump has edged toward compromise with Democrats, he has appeared to be reined in by his own staff, which shares the hawkish immigration stance that fueled his campaign. And Republican leaders, bruised by past experience with a president who has rarely offered them consistent cover on a politically challenging issue, are loath to guess at his intentions.

The result has been a paralysis not only at the White House but on Capitol Hill, complicating the chances for an ultimate resolution of how to protect hundreds of thousands of young unauthorized immigrants, the problem underlying the shutdown. And it has raised questions not only about Trumps grasp of the issue that animated his campaign and energizes his core supporters, but his leadership.

Theres a real sense that theres a disconnect between the president and his staff on immigration issues, and people on all sides are seeking to exploit that disconnect, said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist who advised Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, one of Trumps rivals, in his 2016 bid for the White House. This is what happens when you have a president who is not clear and consistent on what he will accept: It emboldens all parties to take positions that they wont compromise.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., suggested that Trump was in the thrall of extremists on his staff pulling him back from more moderate instincts on immigration.

His heart is right on this issue; I think hes got a good understanding of what will sell, and every time we have a proposal, it is only yanked back by staff members, Graham told reporters on Capitol Hill on Sunday. As long as Stephen Miller is in charge of negotiating immigration, we are going nowhere. Hes been an outlier for years.

Miller, 32, has been the ideological architect behind much of Trumps immigration agenda and a tart-tongued and unapologetic true believer in the presidents America First approach to the issue. A former aide to Attorney General Jeff Sessions when he was in the Senate, he cut his teeth on Capitol Hill as a lonely gladiator against bipartisan efforts to overhaul the immigration system and provide a pathway to citizenship for roughly 11 million unauthorized immigrants.

The White House had a quick retort for Graham, a onetime opponent of Trump who in recent months seemed to be growing close to the president.

As long as Sen. Graham chooses to support legislation that sides with people in this country illegally and unlawfully instead of our own American citizens, were going nowhere, said Hogan Gidley, a White House spokesman. Hes been an outlier for years.

The intraparty spat unfolded while Trump spent the weekend at the White House out of sight and off the airwaves, unusually disengaged, except for some phone calls, for a president who enjoys the limelight.

His only comment on the situation came on Twitter on Sunday morning, when he vented his frustration as the shutdown threatened to bleed into the workweek, complicating his plans for a trip on Wednesday to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and the runup to his first State of the Union address on Jan. 30.

If stalemate continues, Republicans should go to 51 percent (Nuclear Option) and vote on real, long term budget, no C.R.s! Trump said on Twitter, using the abbreviation for a continuing resolution, legislation to temporarily extend government funding.

He was referring to filibuster rules in the Senate, which effectively require a three-fifths vote, or 60 senators, to advance major legislation, rather than a simple majority. Republicans have 51 seats.

And he took a tone far different from the one he used this month in pitching a bill of love to address immigration, posting on Twitter that, The Dems just want illegal immigrants to pour into our nation unchecked.

Underscoring that hard-line position, his campaign released a TV advertisement featuring an immigrant who killed two police officers, and saying Democrats who refused to support a government funding measure without progress toward an immigration deal were complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants.

Those who know the president best argue that leaving the legislative haggling to his staff is merely the style of an executive used to delegating the small stuff to his underlings.

The misconception is that the president does not know what he does not know. In my experience, the reality is that the president knows what he does not know and does not think he needs to know it, said Sam Nunberg, a former campaign adviser. Hes a CEO. The tiny details are for his staff.

But Trump is also a showman who is intensely focused on pleasing the audience in front of him at the moment, a habit that some confidants believe has led to misunderstandings about what the president is actually willing to accept in any deal. He often leaves people with the impression that he agrees with them, stressing whatever position is convenient at the time.

Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that presses for less immigration, said Trump had maintained his tough line on the issue despite occasionally talking about a compromise.

He seems to make commitments that he is not going to keep, Krikorian said. His inclinations are hawkish on immigration, but he seems to like to be agreeable to people and nod his head when hes at a meeting and people are saying things, and try to make a deal.

Krikorian said that he did not subscribe to the Svengali theory of the White House that cast Miller as a puppet master on immigration, but that it often fell to him and Kelly to explain the nuances of certain terms or proposals to a president unfamiliar with them. The chief of staff alluded to that dynamic in a closed-door meeting with Democratic lawmakers last week and later in an interview with Fox News, enraging Trump.

Immigration advocates hold a darker view.

The president should trust his instincts and cut a deal, said Kevin Appleby, the senior director of international migration policy at the Center for Migration Studies. He is president and should not be the puppet of a few immigration restrictionist staffers, including his chief of staff. The perception is that they have total control over him, to the detriment of the nation.

Kelly, a retired four-star general who headed the U.S. Southern Command and was Trumps first homeland security secretary, has emphasized interior enforcement while Trump has indicated that is not as high a priority for him.

On Sunday, Kelly fielded most of the calls from Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. and the Senate majority leader; and the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin. The president was urged for a second day to step back from the fray, and for a second day he vented to aides that he wanted to do more to get involved.

Yet when Trump has become engaged, he has sometimes created problems for himself and his party.

Trump has demonstrated confusion over time about the details of immigration policy, including during a televised meeting in the Cabinet Room this month with lawmakers of both parties.

When Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she wanted a clean DACA bill, Trump quickly agreed, only to have Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the House majority leader, pipe up to explain that meant accepting a stand-alone bill to legalize a group of unauthorized immigrants brought to the United States as children, without any security measures or other conditions the president had cited as priorities.

During a closed portion of that meeting, Trump snapped at staff members for handing out a sheet of paper he had not seen before that included an elaborate plan for border security.

The president looked at it and said: Who did this? This is way too much. I didnt approve this, Graham said on Sunday.

At that same session, he added, Trump had talked about a request of $18 billion for border security, and said he could build a wall for less.

So what does the White House staff do a couple days later? They pitch a proposal for $33 billion, Graham said. Thats just not credible.
The nation mourned the death of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, in the days following his death Jan. 22, 1973, remembering the Texan for his work on civil rights, health and education. But San Antonians also remembered Johnsons ties to the Alamo City that were woven through his long career in politics.

Johnson, born 60 miles northwest of San Antonio in Stonewall in 1908, had retired to his ranch on the Pedernales River near Johnson City, where he died of a coronary thrombosis at age 64.

The ties that bound the late president and San Antonio were as close, as strong, and as inextricably interwoven as the links of a chain, forged in the fires of time, politics, friendship and background, said a story at the top of the front page of the San Antonio Express Jan. 23, 1973. While the president was not a native son of San Antonio, his credentials were such as to establish him as a strong first cousin.

In September 1961, while campaigning in San Antonio for the election of Henry B. Gonzalez, Johnson stressed his ties to the city.

More Information Reaction to Johnson's death in 1973 "If one word could describe Lyndon Johnson, it would be compassion," said Texas Gov. Dolph Briscoe. "He was a great leader, a great president, a great legislative tactician. But most of all, he was a man who cared for the people. And his legacy to the people is written large in the laws of our nation. His programs broke more shackles, educated more children, cared for more of our sick and did more to improve the quality of life than any other president in our history." Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) said, "No president ever cared more deeply for the people, or worked harder for them." "Lyndon Johnson was a superb leader in the Congress and the presidency," said Sen. John Tower a Republican who took Johnson's seat when he became vice president. "Confronted by the critical and fast-moving events of his day, he always did what he conceived to serve the greatest good for the greatest number. It remains for history to judge his performance, but I believe that judgment will be overwhelmingly favorable." History professor Henry Steel Commager of Amherst College said Johnson was a "giant in domestic areas. Had he confined himself to domestic issues, he would have been second only to Franklin D. Roosevelt. But he was totally uninformed on foreign policy," Commager added. He "took bad advice and fell back on the Texan attitude that whatever we can do, we can't lose." See More Collapse

When he is elected I will work to see that my adopted city of San Antonio continues to grow and prosper, to remain stable and progress, Johnson said.

In November 1965, he reaffirmed his love for the Alamo City at a rally at Las Palmas Shopping Center that drew 35,000.

This is part of my home, he said. You are part of my people. You have never deserted me throughout my long career in public life, and that has been for 34 years - and I hope that it will always be said that I never deserted you.

Johnson and Claudia Alta Lady Bird Taylor were married in San Antonios St. Marks Episcopal Church Nov. 17, 1934. The tailors that made his first suit, as well as his ranch clothes, swimming trunks and pajamas, lived in San Antonio. He was a teacher and Congressional aide before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1937 as a Democrat. In 1948, he was elected to the U.S. Senate.

In the early 1960s, he was grand marshal of the Fiesta Flambeau Parade, where ambassadors from 30 nations accompanied the then-vice president, giving the parade an international flair.

He accompanied President John F. Kennedy to San Antonio the day before Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. They spent two hours and 25 minutes in S.A. riding through town, shaking a lot of hands, met by people lining the downtown streets eight deep to see the president and vice president.

In April 1966, Johnson came to San Antonio to sign a bill extending the Medicare signup period before 2,000 people at the Victoria Plaza Golden Age Center.

If I am ever to be remembered by any of you here, I want to be remembered as one who spent his whole life trying to get people more to eat and more to wear, to live longer, to have medicine and have attention, nursing hospitals and doctors care when they need it, and to have their children have a chance to go to school and carry out really what the Declaration of Independence says, All men are created equal, he declared.

On Sept. 30, 1967, in an address to state legislators in Villita Assembly Hall, Johnson touched on the increasing crescendo of protests against U.S. policy in Vietnam and unveiled his San Antonio Formula for Peace that called for the cessation of the bombing of North Vietnam if talks could take place promptly with reasonable hope that they could be productive and if the Communist would not take advantage of the U.S. actions to reinforce their forces with men or supplies.

He celebrated Independence Day in 1968 by joining tens of thousands of San Antonians at HemisFair, the greatest Fourth of July celebration in the citys 250-year history. More than 40 visiting diplomats, most of them from South and Central America, were on hand as the president explained what the day was all about.

Johnsons trips to San Antonio were numerous, and not always noticed. As late as Dec. 18, 1969, a surprised reporter looked up to find himself eyeball-to-eyeball with the former preisdent in the Frost Bank Building. Lady Bird was in San Antonio to do a little Christmas shopping and Johnson was visiting with Tom Frost Jr., the Alfred Negleys and Henry Cattos.
GREENWICH  Greenwich resident Harry Arora is trumpeting fundraising numbers that make him the early Republican frontrunner as he launches a campaign against U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4th, for Congress.

Arora has never run for office before but is looking to defeat Himes as he seeks a fifth term in November. The Greenwich Republican, who is a partner at a hedge fund, is the first declared challenger for the seat. If he wins the partys nomination, it will set up a Greenwich vs. Greenwich contest as Himes also is a town resident.

The Arora campaign was officially launched on Dec. 27. In its first five days, it raised $606,528 from more than 70 donors. That number includes $500,000 from Aroras personal funds.

He is showing his commitment to this race, said Jason Perillo, Aroras campaign spokesman. He is stepping up and putting his own money in it because he believes in what he is doing. That matters.

J.R. Romano, chairman of the Connecticut Republican Party, said on Monday he thinks Arora is going to be the person to face off with Himes, particularly after the initial fundraising numbers. The are no other declared candidates or signals of interest within the party as of yet, he said.

Because Arora works in the investment industry, he will have the ability to raise money to match what the Himes campaign will be be able to do, campaign officials said.

Fundraising is reported quarterly and Perillo said the next filing will be within the first 10 days of April. He said the first three weeks of January have continued the trajectory shown in December.

In a press release about the fundraising numbers, Arora pledged to propose policies over the next few months on issues including Connecticuts economy, health care, transportation and what he said were stagnating Connecticut property values.

More for you News Greenwich investment firm head to challenge Himes in 2018

The citizens of this district and this state want solutions to these problems and these citizens are offering me tremendous support, Arora said. We will raise both the quality and intensity of the dialogue in the coming months. We will question, suggest and respectfully debate. This campaign is not just about sound-bites. This campaign is about substance.

Arora, is a partner and co-founder at Northlander, a hedge fund focused on European energy with its local office in town.

In the press release, Arora tied Himes to fellow Democrat Gov. Dannel Malloys policies, saying Himes should have spoken out against every economy killing tax increase.

A first-generation American, Arora has made economic issues a centerpiece so far of his campaign.

I think Harry is a great candidate with a great story to tell, Romano said. Im so proud of our gubernatorial and congressional candidate. We have a very diverse group of candidates and I am very happy with that.

Romano added he believed it is going to be a fun year for Republicans in Connecticut.

Democrats were quick to disagree.

In spite of the Republicans empty threats and rhetoric, we are proud that Congressman Himes is fighting in Washington D.C. for common sense firearm reform and better infrastructure funding and is committed to working across the aisle to help prepare the American workforce for a 21st century economy, Michael Mandell, senior adviser to the Connecticut Democratic Party, said Monday. Jim Himes demonstrates the type of leadership that Connecticut residents in the Fourth Congressional District need and deserve in Congress.

The Fourth District had once been a solidly Republican seat, represented for decades by Republicans Stewart McKinney and Christopher Shays, but Himes has been hard for Republicans to topple after he first beat Shays in 2008.

In 2016, Himes beat Republican John Shaban with more than 59 percent of the vote in the Fourth District.

Congressman Himes is extremely focused on finding a path to reopen the government, protect Americans from cruel deportation, secure health care for poor children and advance the priorities of his constituents, Himes campaign spokesman Patrick Malone said Monday. That's where all his energy is directed now.

kborsuk@greenwichtime.com
Angry with President Donald Trumps administration and inspired to participate in local, state, and federal politics, thousands of women, and men, marched Saturday on the Capitol in Hartford.

Womens marches nationwide, including one in New York that drew an estimated 200,000 people, according to police there, commemorated the one-year anniversary of Trumps inauguration  and the birth of a resistance movement.

We were told to forget our truths. We were told to be silent, said Cindy Boynton, a Milford author, professor and first-time political candidate for state representative, addressing a Hartford crowd that police estimated at 10,000.

Embracing the spirit of the Me Too movement that declares women will no longer remain silent about sexual violence, Boynton said, Without gender equality, there is no justice.

Hartford marchers chanted This is what democracy looks like, Love not hate, make America Great, and Womens Rights are human right and human rights are womens rights, on their way to the Capitol to hear a series of speakers.

Fairfield resident Nancy Lefkowitz said God was on the side of the resistance in providing such a nice day, with sunshine and temperatures reaching nearly 50 degrees.

In New York, Connecticut groups converged on the West Side, joining hundreds of thousands of marchers in a crowd that appeared to be at least 80 percent women.

At the 72nd Street subway entrance on Broadway, two Westport-based contingents  the Unitarian Church and DefenDemocracy  happened upon each other, and celebrated the day as the march began. That was one small, symbolic reflection of the entire movement  coming together to focus on the elections.

The idea is that unification has to happen and is happening, said Darcy Hicks, who founded DefenDemocracy after last years inaugural protest marches.

Last years march was about the power of women and womens voices being heard, said Laura Totten, holding a DefenDemocracy banner with Hicks and Jeanne Bowles, a Westport teacher. This year, its about the vote.

And with that, the chanting began, and the pink mass moved toward Midtown Manhattan.

Focus on local politics

Many of the Hartford marchers said they were inspired to political engagement in the year since Trumps inauguration, and to even run for office.

The movement has evolved in a year, and theres huge recognition that local politics and local participation is so necessary, which is why were here in Hartford, said Lucy Tancridi, a Redding resident and member of the resistance group Indivisible Connecticut 4 (ICT4).

Many said a renewed interest in local politics informed their decisions to March Saturday in Hartford.

The first year, I went to D.C.; this year Im going to Hartford, Stamford resident Miriam Matos said.

Frustration with the Trump administration motivated many.

Im marching to promote human rights, DACA, Planned Parenthood and pretty much everything thats happened in the last 100 days I want to undo, Lauren Bove, a Fairfield resident said, adding, Trump did one thing: He got us motivated.

Gubernatorial candidate and Greenwich resident Dita Bhargava said the shock of Trumps election inspired her candidacy.

This was not the time to lean back, and absolutely the time to lean it, she said. I felt a sense of duty to step forward with my economic plan as a women in a (candidate) field of men.

Bhargava said she hopes to enact more expansive paid family leave and other family-friendly policies, if elected.

Sights set on the election

State Rep. Christin McCarthy Vahey, D-Fairfield, said that with less than 25 percent of the state Legislature made up of women, we need more women at the table.

We need humanity back in our government and I think women can help with that, Fairfield resident Karen Wackerman said.

Many women said theyre focused on electing women in the 2018 mid-term elections. As Weston resident Debra Marrone said, the weight of the resistance will build and show up at the polls.

For some, the march brought back the feeling of activism from another era.

We cut our teeth in the Vietnam War and are marching again, said Westport resident Cynthia McDonald.

Although many in the New York crowd said the goal this year is progress in elections, speakers at the corner of Central Park mostly told stories about inclusion and exclusion  as lesbians, Muslims, Jews, Mexicans and people from other groups.

The more diverse their stories are, the more opportunities there are for the crowd to really empathize and connect and vote, Hicks said.

In Hartford, the sense of a regression in womens equality and social justice, coupled with a renewed commitment to political participation, was palpable.

I just felt something has gone terribly wrong with womens voices. We turned our backs somewhere along the way, Margarita Garces-Shapiro, a Weston resident and former employee of U.S. Rep. Jim Himes congressional office, said at the Hartford march.

Im here to start the second year of the resistance and make sure autocracy doesnt happen in Washington, said Mark Einsenberg, a Bridgeport resident and ICT4 member. Im marching against the march towards tyranny.

Emphasis on inclusion

(Democracy) only function we make it function, said state Rep. William Tong, D-Stamford, whos exploring a run for state attorney general.

Were only strong when we all have a voice, columnist, author, and activist Susan Campbell said in her speech.

Echoing Campbells call for inclusion, McCarthy Vahey said she wanted marchers to be aware that many women who have to work on Saturdays to feed their kids did not have the same privilege to join in.

Many women said the community of marchers brought them joy and hope.

To stand up here and see the physical representation of the spirit and energy of the movement is reassuring for the days we loathe in this country, said Jacqueline Kozin, a New Haven resident and one of the march organizers.

Closing her speech on a positive note, Boynton said, We have the power to change the way the world sees women and we have the power to change the world itself.
NEW CANAAN  The guardrails along the Merritt Parkway are made of steel-backed timber rather than galvanized steel to blend into the landscape of the historic limited access parkway, which is designated a National Scenic Byway and is also listed in the National Register of Historic Places, according to the Connecticut Department of Transportation website.

Almost a century ago logs processed at the Buttery Barn and Mill along the Silvermine River in New Canaan were converted into guardrails for the Merritt Parkway when it was under construction through Norwalk and New Canaan in the late 1930s. According to published documents from the Historic American Buildings Survey, that was the last major job undertaken by the mill. Shortly thereafter it was irreparably damaged by the great flood of 1955, although it limped along until it finally closed in the 1950s.

The Buttery Barn still stands and is part of the property at 207 Mill Road that is currently on the market. The nearly two-thirds of an acre property, comprising two parcels in the Silvermine section of town, includes the vintage barn, an updated antique colonial stone and clapboard house, and a guest cottage. The barn, which has a walnut roof, sits along the river across the street from the main house and is still utilitarian, although the owners also use it for entertaining. It has a fire pit and a screened casual dining area. One of the former stalls with a trough is set up as a beverage bar. Inside, there is a workshop and workbench area.

According to published documentation provided by the listing agent the Buttery Mill was reputed to be the oldest mill in continuous operation in the United States, running for almost 250 years. The mill was built in 1688 and was used by the community to cut wood, and grind corn and grain. The existing barn is not the original but the 19th century restored structure was a hit with artists and photographers who often captured it in their respective mediums.

The house is also visually appealing. It sits up on a hill and has a turret and a welcoming covered porch that goes the length of the 4,792-square-foot house, which was built in 1860 but has received many recent improvement including new mechanicals, roof, and kitchen upgrades and structural repair of the barn. A bluestone patio is located on one side of the house by the turret. At the other end there is another patio accessed from a door in the family room. Another door leads to the front porch.

In the family room there is fireplace with a decorative mantel, and four skylights. The formal living has a wall of built-in cabinetry and shelving. In addition to the formal dining room, which has paneling on the lower walls, there is casual seating at the breakfast bar in the kitchen as well as a breakfast nook with a rounded wall of windows. Features in the kitchen include Carrara marble counters, white ceramic subway tile backsplash, a Viking Professional six-burner range with a grill, Liebherr refrigerator, and three large picture windows.

Because of its vintage this house has a number of interesting nooks and crannies including a recessed desk area.

On the second floor the master bedroom suite has a dressing room and a sitting area with views of the river. The sitting area has a tall, octagonal ceiling and the master bath has a two-story cathedral ceiling with two skylights, a soaking tub, and shower. There are two more bedrooms on the second floor and in the finished attic there is a room that could be used as a bedroom if necessary. It can also be a playroom.

More Information ABOUT THIS HOUSE STYLE: Updated Antique Colonial ADDRESS: 207 Mill Road PRICE: $1,495,000 ROOMS: 8 FEATURES: 0.63-acre level and sloping property, river views, walk to water, historic vintage barn, guest cottage, covered front porch, bluestone patio and a crushed stone patio, one fireplace, proximity to the Fowler Preserve and Silvermine Market, close to the Silvermine Art Center, convenient to the centers of three towns, detached two-car garage, zoned central air conditioning, attic, full partially finished basement, stone walls, three/four bedrooms in the main house, two full and one half baths in the main house SCHOOLS: East Elementary, Saxe Middle, New Canaan High School ASSESSMENT: $819,420 MILL RATE: 16.16 mills TAXES: $13,659 See More Collapse

A bluestone path lined in Belgium block on the side of the house is attractively landscaped and leads to stairs behind the house where the cottage is located. The cottage has a large wood deck and inside it has a living room with a fireplace and skylights. The kitchen has stone counters. There is also a bedroom, a second bedroom or office with track lighting, and a screened porch. The full bath has white ceramic subway tile on the walls and a skylight.

This property is a commuters dream. It is close to the centers of three towns - New Canaan, Norwalk, and Wilton, and it has easy access to main traveling arteries.

For more information or to make an appointment to see the house contact Anne H Krieger at William Pitt Sothebys International Realty at 203-984-9188 or akrieger@williampitt.com.
When it comes to corn, whats normal and whats not? From ugly ducklings to comb overs to barbell ears, Extension Cropping Systems Specialist Roger Elmore has seen a lot of abnormalities in corn over the years. Hell discuss some of the more interesting examples and their causes at the Nebraska Crop Management Conference January 24-25 in Kearney. The conference features in-depth presentations addressing today's crop production challenges, university and grower research, and new technologies to aid in production and management.

Figure 1. (left) Some unusual plant responses are due to genetics. Figure 2. Others are a result of management practices. Roger Elmore will discuss corn ear and plant abnormalities and their causes during one of 27 presentations at the Nebraska Crop Management Conference Jan. 24-25 in Kearney.

Figure 3. (left) Environmental effects, such as wind, coupled with genetics resulted in greensnap in this field. Figure 4. In some cases abnormalities can be caused by a combination of factors: genetic, management, and the environment.

During almost 40 years as an Extension agronomist, Elmore has visited 100s of grower and university fields to sleuth out the causes of unusual plant and ear formations (Figures 1-4), sometimes finding the causes in something that happened weeks before the effects were noticeable. Some abnormalities were caused by genetics, some were the result of management practices, and some were due to the environment. Still others continue to be a puzzle and likely were caused by a variety of factors, he said.

In providing listeners with tips and tools for identifying and addressing some of these problems, Elmore also explains the differences between corn growth and corn development and why its important to differentiate them.

These terms are often confused, yet, knowing the difference is vital for good diagnostics, Elmore said.

Nebraska Crop Management Conference Topics

Other conference speakers will address the challenges of disease, insect, and weed management, particularly with the latest RUP-dicamba products. Guest speaker Kevin Bradley, a professor at the University of Missouri, has studied dicamba reports across states and will speak on "The dicamba dilemma. Where do we go from here?" Nebraska Extension Weed Scientist Stevan Knezevic will address "The rise of multiple-resistance in Nebraska's weeds and effects of dicamba micro-rates on sensitive crops."

Other speakers will address improving irrigation efficiency, soybean nitrogen demand, and tools and management strategies for selecting cover crops and using long-term cover crops for grazing. Pesticide application training will also be available at the conference.

Extension Educator Brian Krienke will present research on the feasibility of sensor-based nitrogen fertigation management in corn. Fertigation offers a unique opportunity to apply nitrogen when the plant needs it most, but when should it be applied and at what rate to achieve optimal efficiency? Krienke reviews university research with crop growth models, sensors, and using field assessments and N applications.

Richard Koelsch, professor in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering, will explore the next steps in using Field to Market tools in Nebraska. Can measures of environmental performance in cropping systems have value for improving efficiency of cropping systems, reducing high cost inputs, and improving consumer perceptions of the stewardship ethics of farmers? By comparing performance factors of their farm and other farms, can Nebraska farmers identify opportunities for improvement? Learn more about this innovative program supported by the Nebraska Corn Board and Nebraska Extension.
THE previous winner of the Australian beef industrys young ambassador award is encouraging other industry youth to nominate for the 2018 Rabobank Young Beef Ambassadorship.

The new representative will take-up a three year tenure as the beef industry youth representative across Australia, with the winner announced at Beef Australia 2018 in May at Rockhampton, Queensland.

Current Rabobank Young Beef Ambassador, Jason Schulz, received the award at Beef 2015.

He has represented youth in the beef industry from his base in South Australia and is well-known as a Limousin stud cattle breeder in southern Australia.

South Australia is generally sheep and grain dominated, but the cattle industry is continually growing across the State and its great for the whole beef industry, Mr Schulz said.

He said the buoyant cattle prices over the past two years had helped boost optimism both within South Australias cattle industry and the entire beef sector across the nation.

It has been a real honour to represent young people in our beef industry and the ambassadorship has really helped improve my networking with important people in Australias beef industry, he said.

Ive learnt a lot from all the people and networking opportunities offered to me as Rabobanks Young Beef Ambassador over the past three years.

I believe theres many talented young people in our beef industry and the future looks very bright for beef.

The Rabobank Young Beef Ambassador is open to nominees aged between 21 and 35 years old.

These nominees must show potential to be a significant leader and contributor to the beef industry, while demonstrating commitment and vision for the future of Australias beef industry.

The prestigious awards will be announced at the curtain-raising Beef 2018 dinner.

Supporting the young beef ambassador award since 2009, Rabobank Australia national manager of country banking, Todd Charteris, said investing in the next generation was key to ensuring the future viability of our beef industry.

p More information: Go to mla.com.au
LOOKING for more weight and profit from your calves?

Beef producers are encouraged to attend the seventh annual WA Charolais Bull Sale to be held at the Brunswick showgrounds sale complex on Thursday, February 1, 2018.

Commencing at 1pm the sale will host the largest offering of Charolais bulls available at a one sale venue in WA this year.

A total of 41 quality bulls will be on offer from six leading WA Charolais studs.

Studs offering bulls in the sale are the Yost familys Liberty stud, Toodyay, the Ellis familys Kooyong stud, Coolup, the Thompson familys Venturon stud, Boyup Brook, Downunder stud, Wooroloo, under the estate of the late Lesley Millner, Taliska Securities Pty Ltd, Bellevue stud, Bellevue and the Corker familys Wundam Glen stud, Boyup Brook.

Along with the renowned quality bulls presented by the studs, intending purchasers can bid with further confidence knowing all bulls on offer at the sale comply with the Charolais Society of Australia Code of Quality.

The Charolais breed was the first European breed to enter Australia, by way of semen imports from the UK and live animals from New Zealand in 1969, and continues to offer the commercial industry a pathway to profit.

Charolais Society of Australia WA Region chairperson Andrew Thompson, Venturon Charolais stud, Boyup Brook, welcomed all buyers on behalf of all the sale vendors to the seventh annual Charolais Society of Western Australia regions bull sale.

Mr Thompson said the advantage of a Charolais sire over a range of commercial females was well documented in WA.

Charolais growth genetics offer commercial producers the ability to add extra weight at weaning to their calf drop and increasing profitability at no extra labour or input costs, Mr Thompson said.

With processors offering good prices for older bulls, now more than ever is a great opportunity to sell off older bulls and purchase young sires offering a pathway to profit.

The outlook for the beef industry is strong and performance-recorded sires like the sires on offer in this sale, provide producers with the best opportunity to make their beef enterprise return the maximum profitability.

Charolais breeders believe passionately in the societys motto Cross into Profit and focus on producing bulls that offer real performance to commercial breeders.

It is well documented about the extra weight gain achievable with Charolais genetics and the vendors recommend this years excellent offering to all prospective buyers.

Mr Thompson said the offering of 41 top quality young bulls from the six different vendors was the largest offering of Charolais sires in WA at auction this year and would give purchasers an opportunity to select sires that best suited their breeding objective at the one venue.

All bulls in the sale are semen-tested and BVDV tested negative and have passed inspection by Elders and Landmark agents.

The discerning commercial cattle producer can be assured that there will be a consistent quality of bulls throughout the sale and all are encouraged to attend if they want to cross into profit found in using a Charolais sire.
The AICD course is a five-day comprehensive program that has been designed to focus on areas of business management and skills development that are specific to cattle producers.

Geoff Birchnell, a beef producer from Tamworth, New South Wales, said the course opened our minds to the responsibility that we, as producers, have in nurturing Australian agriculture into big business.

Whether a family farm or a corporate agricultural investment, the same governance principles, regulatory environment and social expectations apply, Mr Birchnell said.

He recommends the course to all producers as he believes the skills, knowledge and contacts gained through completing the course placed producers at the forefront of opportunities in the Australian beef industry.

Mr Birchnell said agriculture was cyclical in nature and inherently had a higher risk profile than most other industries, which required a greater level of governance.

The beef industry is also rapidly evolving and it is critical that we have skilled people to navigate the path forward, he said.

The AICD course is one way we can develop peoples skill.

The course is administered by the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and participants will undertake assessment to achieve official recognition as a Graduate of the course.

Applications close midnight, January 31, 2018.

For more information contact the Cattle Council Office on 02 6269 5600.
WA Charolais breeders seen in Canada at a World event, Harris (left), Andrew and Anne Thompson and David Ellis.

THE Charolais Society of Australia Ltd is excited to announce that it will host the 2020 World Charolais Congress here in Australia.

Last held in Australia in 1992, the Congress promises to be a superb showcase of Australian Charolais.

The World Congress is held every two years around the globe with Sweden hosting the event this year.

The Charolais Congresses are well attended and offer a great opportunity to network with likeminded breeders from around the world.

It is staggering how a breed developed in one valley of France has adapted so well to the vast environments the Charolais breed now thrives in globally.

Breed development manager Colin Rex said the World Congress would be a great opportunity to feature the progress of the development of the Australian Charolais type to the world.

The World Congress coincides with the 50th anniversary of Charolais being introduced into Australia and breeders are looking forward to showing their counterparts from around the world the reason Charolais have become the dominant European breed here in Australia, Mr Rex said.

Recent weaner sales have again highlighted that producers are rewarded for weight and the ability of a Charolais sire to add performance to British breed dams is well documented.

A strong attribute of the Australian Charolais is the ability to not only add weight for age and muscle but also contribute their do-ability to finish within specifications.

These important attributes allow commercial breeders to maintain their cow size at a level their property can support and add punch to their calves with the Charolais sire.

The calves can then be marketed as either weaners or utilise their growth potential and be taken on to heavier weights.

It is this versatility of the Charolais breed that offers so much potential to commercial producers.
The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you, we are excited to offer 4 weeks FREE Digital & Print access to all subscribers new and returning alike.

We are dedicated to continuing providing reliable, high quality journalism. This is possible with the trust and support of our subscribers in the community we are proud to serve.
The FCPA guidance that became part of the U.S. Attorneys Manual in November creates a presumption of declination if companies do four things  voluntarily self-disclose, fully cooperate, properly remediate, and disgorge their profits. But theres an important exception.

The guidance says a company will receive a declination absent aggravating circumstances involving the seriousness of the offense or the nature of the offender. Our emphasis.

If there are aggravating circumstances, the guidance says, there could be a criminal resolution instead of a declination. So what are those aggravating circumstances?

In the guidance, the DOJ provides this short and non-exclusive list:

The first aggravating circumstance is involvement by executive management of the company in the misconduct.

So question number one is, whos part of the executive management of the company? Organizations are more decentralized than they were 50 or even 25 years ago. Todays managers are spread around the globe. Some are sent by the home office. Many others are now local employees hired for management positions or promoted into them. Most companies with major operations in China, for example, have both types of executive managers there.

The next question is, what does the DOJ mean by executive managements involvement in the misconduct? Helping conceive of, plan execute, or cover up a bribery scheme is clearly involvement in the misconduct. But what about a more passive and subtle role  hiring an agent with a questionable record, or hiring a clean agent but not putting a lot of controls on him or her? What about hiring staff who later commit bribery? Is executive management in the field responsible for hiring decisions, and the extent of vetting for new employees?

Theres a wide range of executive behavior that wouldnt leave any fingerprints. But could the DOJ say that remote behavior was still involvement in the misconduct?

The second aggravating circumstance in the guidance is whether a significant profit to the company [came] from the misconduct.

How will the DOJ measure profit and decide if its significant? In some industries, a profit of 5 percent looks good. In other industries, profits of 50 percent are the aim. If a company achieves its industry norm, is that significant profit? What about profit below the industry norm? Does any successful contract thats tainted by misconduct put the presumption of declination at risk or out of reach?

The third aggravating circumstance is the pervasiveness of the misconduct within the company.

A rogue employee or agent, we know, wouldnt be pervasive misconduct. But most corporate bribery involves more than a single miscreant. How many does it take to make the misconduct pervasive? Is it five employees, is it eight, is it ten or more? And does it matter if the company is small or big? If ten cheating employees is pervasive misconduct for a small company, would ten cheating employees in a giant company be counted and weighed the same way?



The fourth aggravating circumstance is criminal recidivism.

This one is more objective and fact based. If the company was busted before for FCPA violations, then its a recidivist and shouldnt look for a presumption of declination (or a 50 percent fine reduction).

___

Thats the list of aggravating circumstances from the DOJ that now appears in the U.S. Attorneys Manual. But the DOJ doesnt stop there.

The guidance adds this: Aggravating circumstances that may warrant a criminal resolution include, but are not limited to . . .  the four items just discussed. Our emphasis.

That non-exclusivity means prosecutors can still assert other aggravating circumstances as a reason to deny declinations.

For example, will all industries be judged the same? Should pharmas be held to a higher standard than others? What about casino operators? Investment banks? Oil and gas firms? Does being in an industry facing special compliance challenges automatically create the potential for an aggravating circumstance?

Can choosing to do business in a high-risk country be an aggravating circumstance? What about dealing with an overseas government agency that was implicated in graft a year ago, or five or ten years ago?

Can relying on remote training instead of in-person training because of budget concerns be an aggravating circumstance?

And so on.

Were not saying the feds have any intention of creating additional aggravating circumstances as a reason to disqualify companies from the presumption of declination under the new guidance. But its true that the aggravating circumstances described in the guidance might not be the only ones.

____

Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog.
The last few years have seen a decided trend toward nationalist and populist legislation and policies. Cross-border insolvency jurisprudence has not escaped this trend. Recent cases rejecting extraterritorial application of bankruptcy laws and limiting the remedies available to foreign liquidators seem to reflect an extension of this trend to insolvency jurisprudence, though this debate is not a new one.

While it is true that multinational transactions are more common in the 21st Century, a function of economic globalization and unprecedented cross-border commerce, jurists and legislators have long struggled with how to resolve legal conflicts and divergent jurisprudence in an area of law fundamentally premised on the application of a uniform legal standard. But the inherent purpose of bankruptcy law, which is to facilitate a mechanism for pari passu treatment of creditors, makes it the perfect vehicle for the evolution of a universalist standard of law.

For many years, the rights of trustees and liquidators ended at the border  an unsatisfactory solution that could have wildly unfair results, as illustrated, in the century-old case of Galbraith v. Grimshaw. Galbraith involved a Scottish bankruptcy trustee who sought to rely in England on provisions of Scottish insolvency law that retrospectively avoided attachments over property belonging to the estate. The House of Lords held that the relevant provisions of Scottish insolvency law had no effect in England, while at the same time holding that the relevant provisions of English law (which had the same effect as Scottish law) were applicable only to English proceedings. This territorialist approach has obvious shortcomings in the liquidation of a multi-national company (which, as Galbraith illustrates, was nothing new even in 1910).

This seems all the more unpalatable in a world where creditors and debtors routinely enter into commercial transactions in which cross-border transactions are not only foreseeable, but form the raison detre of the commercial relationship. In such a context, is it really fair to treat creditors who could be subject to avoidance and recovery actions differently based on the happenstance of their locus in a different jurisdiction? Adherents of universalism, which rejects the territorialist approach, believe that the answer to this question is no.

Lord Hoffman, in the English case of Cambridge Gas v. Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Navigator Holdings plc, eloquently described the principle of universalism in its pure form as follows:

[B]ankruptcy proceedings should have universal application. There should be a single bankruptcy proceeding in which all creditors are entitled and required to prove. No one should have an advantage because he happens to live in a jurisdiction where more of the assets or fewer of the creditors are situated

But the application of this principle is not as simple as it seems. Public policy concerns over treatment of domestic creditors and fundamental differences between legal systems render virtually impossible a pure implementation of universalism. As articulated by Prof. Jay Westbook:

Universality in its ultimate realization would provide a single forum applying a single legal regime to all aspects of a debtors affairs on a worldwide basis it is hard to imagine the realization of that ideal short of establishment of a supranational institution with that responsibility, so even the most optimistic proponent of universality cannot expect its complete fulfillment in the foreseeable future.

Jay L. Westbrook, Choice of Avoidance Law in Global Insolvencies, 17 Brook. J. Intl L. 499. 514-515 (1991).

Consistent with Prof. Westbrooks view, universalism has enjoyed a modified or limited implementation in many jurisdictions. The net result has been an unending legislative effort to navigate the perils of territorialism, while nevertheless preserving the authority of local courts to ensure that the application of foreign insolvency provisions accords with domestic legal regimes and does not unfairly treat local creditors. Recent cases have challenged judges and practitioners alike to test the limits of universalist principles, particularly where juxtaposed against the legitimate expectations of business peoples that their domestic norms will apply to their business dealings.

While legal scholars continue to debate this trend, I take the perspective of an adherent to universalist principles, arguing that bankruptcy law folds well into the evolution of a universalist standard of law.

_____

Gonzalo Zeballos, pictured above, is a partner with Baker & Hostetler LLP based in New York. He focuses on international litigation and cross-border asset recovery. He can be contacted here.
Job Title: Senior Corporate Counsel

Employer: Alamo Group Management

Location: Seguin, Texas USA

Description: Under the general supervision of the Vice-President & General Counsel, the Senior Corporate Counsel will provide general legal support to all Alamo Group business units and activities. Among other responsibilities, the attorney will be responsible for the management of all Alamo Group disputes and litigation matters, the development and execution of various corporate compliance objectives, and the provision of general legal counseling to internal business clients on various legal matters which may cover topics such as commercial law, contracts, intellectual property, dealer protection laws, product safety, anti-corruption, export controls, anti-trust regulation, and mergers and acquisitions. . . . Continue Reading




So far, my fiction has taken readers to Kenya (Burning Embers), to Venice and Tuscany, Italy (The Echoes of Love), and to Andalucia, Spain (Indiscretion, Masquerade and Legacy). In each of these novels, the setting is essential to the mood and the themes; its not just a backdrop that could be substituted for some other place, but an integral part of the story. So it is with my new novel, Aphrodites Tears, set in the Greek islands.

Hannah Fielding

Greece has been on my must write list for many years, because it is one of my favourite corners of the globe. I first fell in love with Greece through meeting Greek people. I grew up in Alexandria, Egypt, at a time when it was a very cosmopolitan place, and many of my parents friends and my school friends were Greek. They were wonderfully warm and loyal people.

Of course, during my childhood I also became intrigued with Greece through the many stories of this land I was told  legends full of wit and wisdom, with a god or goddess for everything, from love to war to wine-making. I was so enthralled that my father gave me a book, a compilation of the best stories. I remember it as well-thumbed, with a cracking spine, and falling open on certain stories I loved: Persephone and Hades, King Midas and the golden touch, Theseus and the Minotaur  although the Minotaur illustration would frighten me. My governess read this book over and over to me, as did my parents, and I lived the stories in my imagination.

Then, in my early twenties it was time to spread my wings, and I travelled across Europe and spent time on the Greek mainland and the islands. I explored the Acropolis of Athens; I ate mezedes in little cafes; I went to festivals that were a whirl of dance and song. I met many Greek people, and was taken by their joie de vivre, their hospitality, their sentimentality.

I was so enchanted by Greece, and swept away by the romance of it all, that when I married my husband I not only had a Greek designer make my wedding dress but I honeymooned on the island of Santorini, where, like Oriel and Damian in my novel, I saw the most spectacular sunsets.

In the years since, I continued to visit the Greek islands, and to read the stories of Greek mythology, which really are more dramatic and romantic and complicated than any soap opera! Eventually, I had a head full of legends and of beautiful sights and experiences from Greece, and it was the most natural thing in the world to put pen to paper.

Aphrodites Tears, then, is the book I just had to write set in Greece, steeped with the history and traditions of this beautiful and fascinating country. I hope readers will enjoy visiting Greece through my story, and will fall in love with it as I did.

Aphrodites Tears by Hannah Fielding is published 23rd January 7.99 and available on Amazon.
Naomi Watts has paid tribute to her late ex-boyfriend Heath Ledger on the 10th anniversary of his passing.

Naomi Watts

The 'Brokeback Mountain' star passed away on January 22 2008 after suffering from cardiac arrest brought on by prescription drug intoxication at the age of 28, and his former partner Naomi - who dated the actor from 2002 to 2004 - has remembered him in a touching social media post.

Posting a professional snap of Heath - who went on to date Michelle Williams, with whom he had a daughter named Matilda, now 12 - Naomi wrote: "Thinking about this beautiful soul today. 10 years ago he left this world. He was a true original. Heart always on his sleeve, with the most powerful charisma, strength, humor and talent. I will never forget his gentle spirit. (sic)"

It comes after Michelle Williams' long time best friend Busy Phillips posted videos on her own Instagram account where she broke down in tears in her car whilst listening to MGMT's hit single 'Time To Pretend', as it reminds her of the 'Dark Knight' star.

She said in the videos: "I was just driving and I was thinking about my friends Heath who died 10 years ago and this song came on, 'Time to Pretend'. It came out after he passed away and I remember when it came out, because [I thought] it made me think of him. I just thought he would have liked this song. And for some reason, every time I hear this song ... it's weird."

Previously, Michelle insisted it "won't ever be right" for her to raise Matilda - who was just two at the time of Heath's passing - without her father.

She said: "In all honesty, for pretty much everything else, I feel like I'm a believer in not fighting circumstances, accepting where you are and where you've been.

"In pretty much all senses but one, I would be able to go totally down that line of thinking were it not for Matilda not have her dad.

"You know, that's just that something doesn't ... I mean, it just won't ever be right."
By Oliver Eaton, ProHealth Clinic

Oliver Eaton

Sciatica is defined as pain in either one or both legs with possible tingling, numbness or weakness caused by the pinching of the sciatic nerve along its pathways.

There are a variety of symptoms associated with sciatica:

Pain that is constant in only one side of the buttock or back of the leg

Pain that is worse when sitting

Numbness, tingling, burning or weakness in the buttocks or legs

The symptoms can be constant or develop when moving

A sharp pain that may make it difficult to stand up or walk

Sharp shooting pain that travels down the leg in a line, often into the foot and toes.

Lumbar herniated disc

Herniated discs occur when the gel-like material inside the disc pushes against the outer coating, causing it to bulge. This bulge can then push against the nerve that runs alongside it.

Degenerative disc disease

Discs, alongside cartilage in the body dont have a blood supply. This means a discs ability to repair and regenerate isnt as efficient as a muscles ability, for example. As we age, the volume of fluid in the disc lessens, weakening the structure, leaving it vulnerable to bulging out against a nerve.

Lumbar spinal stenosis

Stenosis occurs when the space between the spinal joints is narrowed. You have nerves that travel next to this space, and they can often become irritated as the space between the joints lessens.

Piriformis syndrome

One of the most common causes of sciatica is when the sciatic nerve becomes pinched by the piriformis muscle. The muscle itself is one of the deep buttock muscles and in 30% of the population the nerve runs directly through it, leaving these individuals more vulnerable to it pinching.

Sacroiliac joint dysfunction

When the sacroiliac joint is irritated it can irritate the lowest lumbar nerve as it runs alongside the joint, causing debilitating sciatic type pain as the joint is moved with minor movements such as walking.

Pregnancy

The weight of the baby can cause many of the muscles that surround the sciatic nerve to tighten up around it, causing symptoms of sciatica. Also, during the third trimester of pregnancy a hormone called relaxin is released. This hormone relaxes the ligaments in the pelvis to allow for the baby to travel through easily during labour. The relaxing of these ligaments can often cause the pelvis to misalign, which can pinch some of the nerves that run through that area.

Muscle strain

If any of the muscles along the pathway of the sciatic nerve suffer a strain and it isnt treated properly, then it can cause scar tissue to form over that strain. This scar tissue can potentially put pressure on the sciatic nerve.

Natural Sciatica Treatments

Heat/ice

Heat and ice can help for both acute and chronic cases of sciatica. If the sciatica is a result of an acute injury, straining a muscle for example, then you can use a procedure called contrast bathing. This involves placing ice or a cold compress over the area for 10 minutes and then immediately after placing heat over the area for 10 minutes. This can be repeated twice an hour if needed.

Osteopathy

Osteopathy is a system of alternative medicine that helps both to identify and address the root cause of an individuals sciatica. Several orthopaedic tests will be used to find out where the sciatic nerve is being pinched and then a combination of massage, stretching and gentle manipulation is used to take the pressure off the nerve.

Acupuncture

If the cause of an individuals sciatica is the result of tension in the leg and muscles tightening up around the nerve, then acupuncture can be effective at helping reduce this tension. Hair-thin needles (which are usually not felt) are inserted into the affected muscles.

Massage therapy

Again, if an individuals sciatica is caused by tight muscles around the sciatica nerve then massage therapy can be an effective way of releasing those muscles, creating an environment for the sciatic nerve to operate without any irritation.

Osteopathy, Acupuncture and Massage have all been approved by the NICE Guidelines (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence). Both NHS and private doctors in the UK use these guidelines to inform them of appropriate treatments.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Oliver Eaton is a qualified and registered osteopath, Medical Acupuncturist and Musculoskeletal Injection Therapist. He specialises in the treatment of sciatica, arthritis and headaches/migraines with patients travelling from across the UK and Europe for treatment.

Much of Oliver's specialties were learnt through personal experience; suffering from a series of chronic conditions from which he made a full recovery using alternative medicine approaches. This sparked his passion for specialising in the treatment of patients with chronic pain. As one of the leading practitioners in his field on Harley Street, he has built his reputation on achieving results with patients who had previously had no success elsewhere.

Oliver uses the latest diagnostic approaches to help identify the root causes of an individuals sciatica. Once identified, he is able to use osteopathy or acupuncture to both help to resolve the symptoms and prevent them from returning, without the use of medication.

Website: www.prohealthclinic.co.uk

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ihealthinjury/
Rupert Everett has always been drawn to the fall of Oscar Wilde.

Rupert Everett

The 58-year-old actor stars as the iconic Irish author in the new movie 'The Happy Prince', which details the fall of the 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' author, and he's admitted to being more interested in that aspect of Wilde's life rather than his "glorious side".

Everett - who also write and directs the film - told The Hollywood Reporter: "Because it's always been the side of his life that fascinated me the most.

"I was always less interested in the glorious side of his life and the success. I was always much more drawn to the fall of Oscar Wilde.

"I always found it a very romantic and tragic story. It's one of the great stories of the end of the 19th Century.

"I think it shows the tragedy of Wilde, his fall through pride. And his foolishness. That's extremely human.

"And touching. And fascinating. I suppose another thing is that I find some of the [film] portraits of Wilde to be sanitised and I wanted a more warts-and-all portrait of him."

Wilde was arrested at the peak of his fame and sentenced to two years' hard labour for "sodomy and gross indecency", and he subsequently went into a self-imposed exile of bitter poverty in Italy and France.

Everett also suggest that Wilde was the "beginning of the gay movement" and said his persecution gives him "a lot of strength" to see where the world has come.

The British star - who revealed he was gay in 1989 - said: "Wilde is the beginning of the gay movement. Homosexuality wasn't really something that was spoken about, it wasn't really a word until after Oscar Wilde's death.

"And the Oscar Wilde-ers. The LGBT movement very much starts with Wilde. I think it's incredibly pertinent and I think it can only give everybody, anyway it gives me, a lot of strength to see where we've come to compared to what happened to him."
Kimberley Garner has been left with concussion after she was thrown through the windscreen of a car in a horror smash in Los Angeles over the weekend.

Kimberley Garner

The former 'Made in Chelsea' star has admitted she feels lucky to be alive after she was involved in an accident while travelling around the Southern California city.

Alongside a photograph of her in a hospital gown strapped up to machines, she said: "In a car accident in Los Angeles. Was thrown through the car, feeling lucky to be ok, in bed with concussion. (sic)"

The 27-year-old beauty didn't go into detail about the accident or whether she was driving when the incident took place, but she appears to be on the mend now.

Kimberley jetted across the pond last year in a bid to focus on her modelling career but she hasn't had much luck as shortly after she moved over there, her home was broken into and she was forced to hide in her wardrobe for 20 minutes.

She admitted at the time that she was scared stiff when she caught sight of a "large hooded man with his face covered" breaking into the rented accommodation, and she swiftly decided to seek solitude with her friend in the closet because there was "no lock" on her bedroom door and believed it was the safest place for the pair of them.

Alongside a picture of a blank white space, which was shared on her Instagram account, she wrote: "Tonight. Was just going to bed in our newly rented house. When we saw a large hooded man with his face covered at the door at midnight, with a van outside. Just me and a girlfriend were alone in the house, which was big and up in the hills in Beverley hills totally isolated. We had no lock on our bedroom door. So were very silent and climbed inside the wardrobe in the dark. We were in there for 20 minutes as we heard him try every door around the house, and listened as he broke one. Staying very still as we heard him in every room around the house. (sic)."

Kimberley called the police after the scary incident and, although the culprit was caught, he was allegedly released without any charge.
HON PM BAINIMARAMA AT THE GRAND OPENING OF TAPPOO CITY IN LAUTOKA





The Chairman and CEO of Tappoo Limited and the rest of the Tappoo family;Distinguished Guests;Ladies and Gentlemen.Bula vinaka and a very good evening to you all.This grand opening has certainly been a long time coming. When this new Tappoo City opened last year, my Government was in the midst of our preparations to assume global leadership on two great challenges facing the planet, so I hope you can forgive that weve had to move this celebration into 2018.Last year was certainly a landmark year for Fiji, as we led the world as co-chair of the first-ever UN Conference on Oceans and as President of the UN negotiations on climate change, COP23. Together, alongside the nations of the world, we made great progress securing a brighter future for every Fijian, every Pacific Islander and citizens from every vulnerable nation on earth  and Id like to thank Kantil for his kind words, along with the many thousands of Fijians who supported us and prayed for our success on the global stage.Of course, here at home we continued to bring unprecedented development into the lives of the Fijian people, supported by eight straight years of economic growth. And among that slate of development was this brand new, 30 million dollar Tappoo City project.Our management of the Fijian economy hasnt only brought us growth, it has put more money back in the pockets of ordinary people. Last year, we raised our income tax threshold, giving thousands of hard-working people more spending power, and Im sure our retailers have noticed a big spike in consumer spending as a result. That has given Fijian families access to more goods and services and pumped money back into our economy, growing businesses, creating new market opportunities and creating and sustaining employment. All making for big wins for shoppers, shopkeepers, our youth, our women and our entire Fijian economy.Ladies and gentlemen, I suppose one good thing about delaying this official opening ceremony is that I dont need to predict how wonderful this development is going to be for Lautoka, because weve been able to see that good for ourselves since these doors opened last year.Home to 25 restaurants, stores and other outlets, it has become the centrepiece of commerce in our Sugar City, a place where Fijians can shop, grab a meal and spend time with their friends and families.This development is proof positive that our journey forward as a nation isnt only happening in Suva, or down the coast in Nadi. It is happening right here, and this project is very much part of building Lautoka into a premier city in Fiji, and the whole of the Pacific.I remember back in October of last year when we held our national Constitution Day ceremony in the West for the very first time. Fijians from all across Viti Levu were right here in Lautoka, filling your streets with energy, festivities and celebration. And Im sure every business owner and shopkeeper in Lautoka remembers that weekend fondly as well.We held those celebrations in Lautoka because we are committed to making this city a centre of our national life, a Fijian hub of activity, prosperity and development. Of course, that work isnt only about national celebrations, it is about attracting investment, creating jobs and making Lautoka  and our entire Western Division  a better place to live, work and  quite simply  enjoy life.All throughout the West weve delivered development; new roads and bridges, water, electricity and telecommunications infrastructure, and a state-of-the-art airport in Nadi. Weve widened the reach of Government services to make life more convenient, and weve created an economic environment that is building businesses, attracting investment and making life better for every Fijian who calls our Western Division home.Development of that scale cannot take place in a stagnant economy. It can only take place when a nation is growing and on the move, as Fiji has been the past decade. It can only take place when our partners in the private sector share our vision and belief for what is possible. And it can only take place when we focus on the big picture, and carry out an agenda that brings long-term success and prosperity.Our economy is booming, our unemployment is the lowest weve seen in 30 years, and  on the back of an education revolution  we are fielding the most talented workforce in Fijian history. And Im very glad to note that we have over 300 Fijians employed right here in Tappoo City, Lautoka.My fellow Fijians, the Fiji we know today wasnt built by talk, smiles and false promises  which is all that those in the Opposition have to offer  it has been built by my Governments commitment to deliver real development that is making real differences in the lives of the Fijian people.That work has made it a very exciting time to be a Fijian, and an equally exciting time to invest in Fiji. And Id like to again thank the Tappoo Group for making this major investment in Fiji, on behalf of the many Fijians who are working here and in the surrounding businesses, and all those who now look to this new shopping centre as a fixture of the Lautoka cityscape.I was very pleased to award the Tappoo Group of Companies with our highest accolade  the Supreme Award  at the International Business Awards last year. That recognition was well-deserved, as the Tappoo Group, year after year, has done extremely well by Fiji and the Fijian people.Youve invested directly in the potential of Fijians all around the country, youve held steady confidence in our economic ability and achievement, and youve been an unrivalled partner in progress to my Government in building a new and better Fiji, and making life better for the Fijian people. So to the Tappoo Group, Id like to extend a very gracious Vinaka Vakalevu.When we first broke ground on the construction of this project, Fiji was headed into our first genuinely democratic elections. Four years on, Lautoka has seen new and improved infrastructure, higher paying jobs and bigger and better opportunities for its residents. And again, the next four years hold tremendous promise for Lautoka. Again, our game plan for Fiji will carry this city to new levels of success, development and achievement.Im very glad to officially open Tappoo City, Lautoka. I know it will see many more years as a landmark of this city and as a centre of commerce and community. Thank you again to the Tappoo Group, and to all of the hard-working Fijians who made this development a reality.Vinaka vakalevu. Thank you.
HON PM BAINIMARAMA AT THE HANDING OVER OF SCHOOL FURNITURE AND EQUIPMENT TO CMF COLLEGE IN NASINU





Attorney General and Minister for Education,Permanent Secretary for Education,CMF School Board Chairman Reverend Emosi Toroca, Senior Pastors for CMF,School Principal Maika Benaca,Students, parents, teachers and the community of Tacirua EastBula vinaka and a very good morning to you all!Im delighted to be here today as we officially handover this new school equipment to the deserving students of the Christian Mission Fellowship College.Im very pleased to say that weve had a very successful start to Term 1 for students around the country.We have delivered free milk, Weet Bix, and government purchased textbooks to every school in the first week. So far, weve also registered over 63,000 students in the e-ticketing system, making travel to school easier and more convenient for our students, and giving them greater familiarity with technology at a very young age. Those who have not yet registered, please do so.My fellow Fijians, the future of our nation will be defined by our work to expand access to high quality education. As your Prime Minister, there is nothing that brings me more pride than what weve achieved in widening the reach of the Fijian education system and levelling the academic playing field for young Fijians. Because it is you, our young people, who are the future of Fiji.Under my leadership, weve taken the burden off of parents by making education free for the first time in Fijian history. My Government introduced free textbooks and subsidised bus fares, unshackling thousands of Fijian children from financial restraints. Weve done this for every student in Fiji, no matter who they are, no matter where they live, no matter their religion, and certainly no matter who their parents, pastors or community members may support in our elections.Our work in education is far bigger than politics. It is about building a better Fiji long after all of us gone. It is about raising a new generation of talented, ambitious and motivated young people who will carry this nation to even greater heights in the years ahead. That is our mission. That is the ultimate aim of my Government.This year, we are also continuing the massive rebuild from Cyclone Winston, reconstructing and refortifying schools across the country to a far higher standard of resilience. The rebuild has made great progress, it is taking time because we arent doing what is easy, or politically expedient, by pursuing quick fixes. We are doing what is necessary, by building strong schools worthy of our children, and those who come after them. Because storms like Winston are only going to become worse in the years ahead, and it is our duty to prepare our nation for that reality.We are fulfilling that duty to the Fijian people, especially for you, our young Fijians. But it is unfortunate that some media organisations in Fiji dont share our commitment, and are instead only interested in brewing up false drama, all at the expense of our students. Only a few days ago, theyve reported on students schooling in tents, when in reality they are in brand new school buildings. Theyve reported on children travelling in inner tubes to school, when in reality they are now travelling by boat. But gimmicky reporting wont distract my Government. We are committed to staying the course. We are committed to our students, their parents and our teachers. We are committed to Fiji.Thats why Im glad to be here doing what matters most to me: making a difference for young Fijians by delivering brand new chairs, desks, tables and computers for your students to use in the classroomassistance worth a total of nearly 130,000 dollars.Here at the CMF College you are in the process of constructing a new campus to serve your students, and Id like to recognise your school management for their work and financial commitment to helping young Fijians attain high quality education. My Government shares that commitment, and we are ready to do everything possible to support Fijian students today and in their journey beyond into higher education.To our parents here today, I ask that you take advantage of what my Government has done for the Fijian education system. Weve massively expanded access to scholarships and our affordable loan scheme, TELS, and made better suited to the needs of young Fijians. You should encourage your children to go on to higher education and fulfil their great potential as students and, one day, as the next generation of leaders in Fijian society. That is what we want for our young people.Id also like to speak to our students: when you do complete your journey in education, my Government is committed to making sure you find high-paying jobs in a modern and dynamic economy.For eight years weve grown the Fijian economy, attracting new investment and welcoming new and better jobs for the Fijian people. Our unemployment rates stands at the lowest point in 30 years. And we are investing in the future, building new roads, ports, bridges and expanding access to essential services, bringing real developments that are making real differences in the lives of ordinary people.Weve executed a game plan for Fiji that has carried us to success. Weve taken a big picture approach, considering what is best for Fiji today and in the years ahead. That work  that vision for our nation  must continue to shape our future. As the leaders of tomorrow, you must pick up the ball, and run with it. Making every year an even better year to be a Fijian.I also ask that you honour this investment being made in your education. Use these materials well, and care for them, as they are invaluable tools to better equip you to take full advantage of your time at CMF College. Apply yourselves, listen to your parents and your teachers to learn, and I know that you will achieve great things.Vinaka vakalevu. Thank you.
HONG KONG, January 22, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Infosys (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in consulting, technology and next-generation services, today announced a strategic partnership with the A.S. Watson Group (ASW), the world's largest international health and beauty retailer, to accelerate ASW's digital transformation initiatives. Infosys has been appointed as an Official Technology Partner by the A.S. Watson Group to provide technology services across Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. This collaboration is part of ASW's Technology Partnership Program, which is aimed at developing strategic partnerships to support the company's long term goals.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/610722/Infosys_Logo.jpg )



The partnership is aligned with ASW's customer strategy, DARE - to be Different, Anywhere, build Relationships and offer unique Experiences. Infosys' solutions, services and technologies will accelerate ASW's next-generation digital marketing platform, build robust AI and Machine Learning frameworks for ASW's customer centric analytics, optimize operational efficiencies, improve scalability and reusability across business units.

Malian Ngai, Group Chief Operating Officer of A.S. Watson Group, explained why the company introduced the partnership approach, "We believe every technology partner whom we have chosen to work with is more than just a vendor. Traditional client-vendor relationships are short-term, lack transparency and continuity. The Partnership Program is designed to transform the short term contractual relationship to a longer term strategic relationship to create a win-win for both parties. The appointment of our first batch of worldwide Tech Partners shows our determination to accelerate our digital transformation, enabling the A.S. Watson Group to build on our solid retail foundation to fuel further growth through a smarter and more efficient organization. Our purpose of putting customer first and putting a smile on their faces continues. We recognize that our customers are changing rapidly and technology has become an ever more critical ingredient to deliver our purpose."

Ravi Kumar S, President and Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Infosys, said, "It is imperative that companies embrace digital technologies if they want to stay relevant and it is inevitable especially in the highly competitive and dynamic retail industry. We are pleased to partner with the A.S. Watson Group in their digital transformation journey. We will leverage our vast experience in the retail industry, our deep understanding of global markets as well as our extensive digital capabilities to help the A.S. Watson Group achieve its objectives."

About A.S. Watson Group

Established in Hong Kong in 1841, A.S. Watson Group is the world's largest international health and beauty retailer with over 13,700 stores in 24 markets. Each year, over three billion customers and members shop with our 13 retail brands, both in stores and online.

For the fiscal year 2016, A.S. Watson Group recorded revenue of HKD151.5 billion. We have over 130,000 employees worldwide.

A.S. Watson Group is also a member of the world-renowned multinational conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings Limited, which has five core businesses - ports and related services, retail, infrastructure, energy and telecommunications in over 50 countries.

Please visit http://www.aswatson.com for more in-depth information about A.S. Watson Group and its brands. You may also stay in touch with us via our digital presence (E-commerce, social media, mobile app & more); more details are at http://www.aswatson.com/our-customers/digitalasw/.

About Infosys

Infosys is a global leader in technology services and consulting. We enable clients in 45 countries to create and execute strategies for their digital transformation. From engineering to application development, knowledge management and business process management, we help our clients find the right problems to solve, and to solve those effectively.Our team of 200,000+ innovators, across the globe is differentiated by the imagination, knowledge and experience across industries and technologies that we bring to every project we undertake.

Visit http://www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise thrive in the digital age.

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this press release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements regarding our future business expectations intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017. These filings are available athttp://www.sec.gov Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. In addition, please note that any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of the date of this press release. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company unless it is required by law.
DGAP-Ad-hoc: Steinhoff International Holdings N.V. / Key word(s): Corporate Action Steinhoff International Holdings N.V.: Launch of placing of shares in PSG Group Limited 22-Jan-2018 / 07:01 CET/CEST Disclosure of an inside information acc. to Article 17 MAR, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. *NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, AUSTRALIA OR JAPAN OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH THE DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE WOULD BE UNLAWFUL* *Steinhoff - Launch of placing of shares in PSG Group Limited* Steinhoff International Holdings N.V. (the "Company" and with its subsidiaries, the "Group") Stellenbosch, 22 January 2018 - Today, the Company has decided to launch an accelerated bookbuild in order to place approximately 29.5 million ordinary shares in PSG Group Limited with qualifying institutional investors (the "Placing Shares") (the "Placing"), subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions including the pricing of the Placing Shares being acceptable to the Company. If acceptable pricing is not achieved, in the sole discretion of the Company, the Placing will not go ahead. The Placing is to be carried out by PSG Capital Proprietary Limited and The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited (the "Joint Bookrunners"). The Placing will commence with immediate effect and the Company reserves the right to close it at any time. Pricing and allocations will be announced as soon as practicable following the closing of the book. Shareholders and other investors in the Company are advised to exercise caution when dealing in the securities of the Group. *Disclaimer* This announcement (the "Announcement") is restricted and is not for release, publication or distribution, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States of America, Australia, Canada, Japan or any other jurisdiction in which such release, publication or distribution would be unlawful. This Announcement is for information purposes only, does not purport to be full or complete, is subject to change and shall not constitute or form part of an offer or solicitation of an offer to purchase or sell securities in the United States of America or any other jurisdiction nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of securities laws of such jurisdictions. No reliance may be placed for any purpose on the information contained in this Announcement or its accuracy or completeness. The distribution of this Announcement and the offering for sale of the Placing Shares in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law. The Placing Shares may not be offered to the public in any jurisdiction in circumstances which would require the preparation or registration of any prospectus or offering document relating to the shares in such jurisdiction. No action has been taken by the Company or either Joint Bookrunner or any of their respective affiliates that would permit an offering of such securities or possession or distribution of this Announcement or any other offering or publicity material relating to such shares in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required. Persons into whose possession this Announcement comes are required by the Company and the Joint Bookrunners to inform themselves about, and to observe, such restrictions. The Placing Shares have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and may not be offered or sold, directly or indirectly, in the United States of America, absent registration or an exemption from, or transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act. There will be no public offer of the Placing Shares in the United States of America or in any other jurisdiction. Neither this Announcement nor the Placing constitutes or is intended to constitute an offer to the public in South Africa in terms of the South African Companies Act 71 of 2008 (as amended) ("the South African Companies Act"). In South Africa this Announcement is only directed at, and any investment or investment activity to which this Announcement relates is available only to, and will be engaged in only with, persons in South Africa who (i) fall within the categories of persons set out in section 96(1)(a) of the South African Companies Act or (ii) who are persons who subscribe, as principal, for Placing Shares at a minimum placing price of R1 000 000, as envisaged in section 96(1)(b) of the South African Companies Act. In member states of the European Economic Area ("EEA") which have implemented the Prospectus Directive (each, a "Relevant Member State"), this Announcement and any offer if made subsequently is directed exclusively at persons who are qualified investors within the meaning of the Prospectus Directive ("Qualified Investors"). For these purposes, the expression Prospectus Directive means Directive 2003/71/EC (and amendments thereto, including Directive 2010/73/EU, to the extent implemented in a Relevant Member State), and includes any relevant implementing measure in the Relevant Member State. In the United Kingdom this Announcement is only being distributed to, and is only directed at, and any investment or investment activity to which this Announcement relates is available only to, and will be engaged in only with, Qualified Investors who are (i) investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the UK Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order"); or (ii) high net worth entities falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order, or (iii) other persons to whom it may otherwise be lawfully communicated (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). Persons who are not relevant persons should not take any action on the basis of this Announcement and should not act or rely on it. This Announcement has been issued by and is the sole responsibility of the Company. No representation or warranty, express or implied, is or will be made as to, or in relation to, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by the Joint Bookrunners or by any of their respective affiliates or any of its or their respective directors, employees, advisers or agents as to, or in relation to, the accuracy or completeness of this Announcement or any other written or oral information made available to or publicly available to any interested party or their advisers, and any liability therefore is expressly disclaimed. This Announcement does not purport to identify or suggest the risks (direct or indirect) which may be associated with an investment in the Placing Shares. Any investment decision to acquire Placing Shares pursuant to the Placing must be made solely on the basis of publicly available information. Any such information has not been independently verified by the Joint Bookrunners. Each of the Joint Bookrunners are acting for the Company, and no one else, in connection with the Placing and will not be responsible to anyone other than the Company for providing the protections afforded to the respective clients of the Joint Bookrunners, nor for providing advice to any other person in relation to the Placing or any other matter referred to herein. In connection with the sale of the Placing Shares, any of the Joint Bookrunners and any of their respective affiliates acting as an investor for their own account may acquire a portion of the Placing Shares as a principal position and in that capacity may retain, purchase or sell for their own account such Placing Shares. In addition they may enter into financing arrangements and swaps with investors in connection with which they may from time to time acquire, hold or dispose of Placing Shares. They do not intend to disclose the extent of any such investment or transactions otherwise than in accordance with any legal or regulatory obligation to do so. Nothing in this Announcement should be viewed, or construed, as "advice", as that term is used in the South African Financial Markets Act, 2012, and/or Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, 2002, by any of the Joint Bookrunners. The Placing Shares to be sold pursuant to the Placing are not admitted to trading on any stock exchange other than the JSE. The information contained in this announcement is subject to change without notice and, except as required by applicable law, the Company does not assume any responsibility or obligation to update publicly or review any of the forward-looking statements contained herein. 22-Jan-2018 CET/CEST The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Archive at www.dgap.de Language: English Company: Steinhoff International Holdings N.V. Herengracht 466 1017 CA Amsterdam Netherlands Phone: +27218080700 Fax: +27218080800 E-mail: investors@steinhoffinternational.com Internet: www.steinhoffinternational.com ISIN: NL0011375019 WKN: A14XB9 Indices: MDAX Listed: Regulated Market in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Regulated Unofficial Market in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Hanover, Munich, Stuttgart, Tradegate Exchange End of Announcement DGAP News Service 647083 22-Jan-2018 CET/CEST

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 22, 2018 01:01 ET (06:01 GMT)
Murgitroyd, the intellectual property specialist, has announced two new senior appointments in its Glasgow office.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180122005838/en/

New Trade Mark Director, Anne Bashir (Photo: Business Wire)

The firm, founded in Glasgow in 1975 by entrepreneur Ian Murgitroyd, and now with global bases in the UK, USA, Germany, France, Italy, Ireland and Finland, has announced the promotions of senior trade mark attorneys Anne Bashir and Eleanor Coates to the position of Director, Trade Marks.

Anne Bashir

Anne Bashir joined Murgitroyd as a trade mark attorney in 2006 from Glasgow-based firm Fitzpatricks (which Murgitroyd subsequently acquired), and prior to that, served in an in-house role with both International Computers Limited and ICI.

Anne, a qualified UK and European trade mark attorney, has a wide range of experience in the trade mark field, acting for businesses of all sizes and from multiple sectors. She has particular expertise in licensing matters and in due diligence relating to mergers, acquisitions and disposals. She works for prominent clients in the high-tech, water treatment and fashion sectors.

Anne commented on her appointment: "I'm delighted to take the next step in my career with Murgitroyd, and would like to thank all those in my team for the support they provide day in, day out, that help me do the best job I can. I'm looking forward to the challenges and opportunities ahead."

Murgitroyd's Practice Head for Trade Marks, Mark Hickey, said: "We are lucky to have Anne on our team she is a hugely experienced attorney with excellent relationship-building skills that her colleagues and clients appreciate."

Eleanor Coates

Eleanor Coates, like Anne Bashir, joined Murgitroyd's trade mark team in 2006 from Fitzpatricks, having gained prior experience with London attorney firms D Young and Rouse, and before this, with the UK Patent Office (now UKIPO).

Eleanor is a qualified UK and European trade mark attorney with a wide and varied client portfolio spanning multiple industries and client types. She has experience across all areas of trade mark practice, including acting for clients in several high-profile infringement matters. She represents a number of prominent clients in the beverage, banking and transport industries.

Eleanor commented on her appointment: "It's been a great 12 years at Murgitroyd, and I'm pleased to be able to progress in this way. I enjoy being stretched and challenged, so this is the ideal next step for me. I would like to thank those around me who have helped me reach this stage in my career".

Mark Hickey commented: "Eleanor is a hugely versatile attorney, well-liked and respected by colleagues and clients and we are very fortunate to have her on our team. Her thoughtful and diligent attitude to client matters is of particular note."

Murgitroyd's CEO, Ed Murgitroyd, further commented on the two appointments:

"Our trade mark team continues to go from strength to strength, in terms of the portfolio it manages and the continuous improvement and streamlining of our service to clients.

"These appointments demonstrate the role that Anne and Eleanor have played in our success up until now, and the confidence I have in their abilities to help steer our future direction. I thank them for their hard work and commitment to our business, and welcome them wholeheartedly to our management team".

Notes to Editors

Murgitroyd (murgitroyd.com) is a global firm of intellectual property attorneys with offices in the UK, USA, Germany, France, Ireland and Finland. The firm specialises in helping businesses protect and maximise return on their intellectual property assets.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180122005838/en/

Contacts:

Murgitroyd

Fiona McKenzie

European Marketing Manager

T. +44 141 307 8400

E. fiona.mckenzie@murgitroyd.com
The biopharmaceutical company MOLOGEN AG (ISIN DE0006637200; Frankfurt Stock Exchange Prime Standard: MGN) presented data on its lead compound, the TLR9 agonist and immune surveillance reactivator lefitolimod, at the Annual 2018 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium (ASCO GI) in San Francisco (18 20 January 2018). Monotherapy with lefitolimod resulted in a beneficial modulation of the tumor microenvironment (TME) associated with a reduced tumor growth in a murine model of colorectal cancer. The beneficial lefitolimod-induced modulation of the TME strongly supports its potential as cancer immunotherapeutic agent. Hence, in addition to its potential in monotherapy, lefitolimod may also be an ideal partner for immuno-oncology combination approaches, i.e. with checkpoint inhibitors.

"Beneficial modulation of the TME, in other words making immunologically "cold" tumors "hot", is a crucial requirement for the response to immunotherapeutic approaches. The presented data clearly support the mode-of-action of lefitolimod in our late-stage IMPALA study with single-agent lefitolimod in colorectal cancer. In addition they provide an excellent rationale for combining lefitolimod with checkpoint inhibitors. We know that checkpoint inhibitors need help to fully unfold their enormous potential and we believe that our TLR9 agonist lefitolimod will play a major role also in this context", said Dr Matthias Baumann, CMO of MOLOGEN AG.

Beneficial lefitolimod-induced modulation of the TME

After intratumoral injection of lefitolimod an increased infiltration of T cells (CD3+ T cells, especially CD8+ T cells) into the tumor was observed. Furthermore, also an increase of activated CD8+ T cells with cytolytic ("cell destruction capability") potential was determined. In addition, the injection of lefitolimod had a positive impact regarding so-called tumor-associated macrophages immune cells that interact with tumor cells to influence the initiation, growth and metastasis of tumors. Lefitolimod led to an increase of anti-tumor M1-type macrophages within the tumor, accompanied with a decrease of pro-tumorigenic M2-type macrophages.

Importantly, this beneficial TME modulation from an immunosuppressed ("cold") towards a more immunoreactive ("hot") stage translated into a reduction of tumor growth in the mice.

Lefitolimod as a partner for immuno-oncological combination therapies

The lefitolimod-induced pathway provides the rationale for combining lefitolimod with checkpoint inhibitors. Response rates to checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy vary between different tumor entities and depend on the nature of the TME. "Hot" tumors with a T cell infiltrated TME show better responses. Therefore modulation of the TME is a crucial requirement for the response to immunotherapeutic approaches.

First combination data of lefitolimod with checkpoint inhibitors have been presented at the ASCO GI 2017. The data showed that lefitolimod can significantly improve the anti-tumor effect of checkpoint inhibitors, particularly anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 antibodies, and thus prolong survival in murine tumor models.

For more information on ASCO GI please visit the website:

https://gicasym.org/

MOLOGEN AG

MOLOGEN AG is a biopharmaceutical company and considered a pioneer in the field of immunotherapy on account of its unique active agents and technologies. Alongside a focus on immuno-oncology, MOLOGEN develops immunotherapies for the treatment of infectious diseases.

The immunotherapy lefitolimod (MGN1703) is the company's lead product and is regarded as the best-in-class TLR9 agonist. Treatment with lefitolimod triggers a broad and strong activation of the immune system. On account of this action mechanism, lefitolimod is an immune surveillance reactivator (ISR) and could potentially be used in various indications. The ISR lefitolimod is currently being developed within the framework of a pivotal study for first line maintenance therapy for colorectal cancer. Key data of the phase II IMPULSE study in small cell lung cancer have been announced in April 2017. Detailed analyses of IMPULSE data and data from the extension phase of the TEACH study in HIV, published in August, are currently being conducted. In addition, lefitolimod is currently being investigated in a phase I combination study with the checkpoint inhibitor ipilimumab (Yervoy) in various cancer indications. Along with various checkpoint inhibitors, lefitolimod, which is being investigated as part of a phase III clinical trial currently, is one of the few near-to-market product candidates in the field of immuno-oncology.

MOLOGEN's pipeline focus is on new innovative immunotherapies to treat diseases for which there is a great medical demand in particular.

www.mologen.com

Disclaimer

Certain statements in this communication contain formulations or terms referring to the future or future developments, as well as negations of such formulations or terms, or similar terminology. These are described as forward-looking statements. In addition, all information in this communication regarding planned or future results of business segments, financial indicators, developments of the financial situation or other financial or statistical data contains such forward-looking statements. The company cautions prospective investors not to rely on such forward-looking statements as certain prognoses of actual future events and developments. The company is neither responsible nor liable for these forward-looking statements. It is not responsible for updating such information, which only represents the state of affairs on the day of publication.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180122005848/en/

Contacts:

MOLOGEN AG

Claudia Nickolaus

Head of Investor Relations Corporate Communications

Tel: +49 30 84 17 88 38

Fax: +49 30 84 17 88 50

investor@mologen.com
CEE: Russia Threat of further US sanctions downplayed by market participants While the recovery has been weak, several factors support macroeconomic stability. In August 2017, US President Trump signed the "Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act" that instructed the US Treasury department to prepare reports for submission to congress. With respect to sanctions against the Russian Federation, the treasury was asked to report on potential effects of expanding sanctions to include sovereign debt. Furthermore, the report is on sanctions against "parastatal entities" and "senior political figures and oligarchs". The report from the Treasury department is expected by February to be published and submitted to congressional...

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
NEW YORK, Jan. 22, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --BNY Mellon has announced plans to address the increasingly complex and capital-constrained FX market by launching a prime brokerage service for its institutional clients.



The service will launch in early 2018 and allow participants to more efficiently trade, finance and margin their FX through BNY Mellon, a highly-rated counterparty that oversees more than $33.3 trillion* of assets under custody.

The initiative will add a new FX prime broker into the market, allowing clients to access a significant new source of FX liquidity while helping streamline and reduce operational expenses, including legal and onboarding costs, as well as generating substantial capital and netting gains.

Clients will be able to transact an extensive suite of FX products while also enjoying access to pre- and post-trade services and BNY Mellon's market-leading collateral, funding and liquidity capabilities.

The introduction of the new service comes at a time when some clients are experiencing challenges in sourcing liquidity or are facing increased funding costs in a constrained market.

"We're launching a traditional prime brokerage service with a twist. By leveraging BNY Mellon's leadership in collateral management, funding and liquidity, clients will benefit from a fully-integrated and complete FX service," said Jason Vitale, Chief Operating Officer, Foreign Exchange & Head of Client Execution Services at BNY Mellon Markets.



"FXPB is just one of a number of new services BNY Mellon Markets is introducing that will enable our clients to more efficiently access global currency markets."

"BNY Mellon's new service benefits from the combination of a highly-rated counterparty with the capacity of a market-leading custodial bank. It opens up access to multiple new sources of liquidity for new and existing clients. FXPB is the ideal tool for those looking to balance the challenges of the uncleared margin regime with the need to deliver better execution on behalf of their clients," said Michael Cooper, head of FXPB at BNY Mellon in London.

*as of December 31 2017

BNY Mellon is a global investments company dedicated to helping its clients manage and service their financial assets throughout the investment lifecycle. Whether providing financial services for institutions, corporations or individual investors, BNY Mellon delivers informed investment management and investment services in 35 countries and more than 100 markets. As of Dec. 31, 2017, BNY Mellon had $33.3 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration, and $1.9 trillion in assets under management. BNY Mellon can act as a single point of contact for clients looking to create, trade, hold, manage, service, distribute or restructure investments. BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK). Additional information is available on www.bnymellon.com. Follow us on Twitter @BNYMellon or visit our newsroom at www.bnymellon.com/newsroom for the latest company news.

Contact:

Peter Madigan

Office: +1 212-815-2308

Mobile: +1 917-628-1204

peter.madigan@bnymellon.com

Patrick Sutton

Office: +1 646-558-6226

Mobile: +1 609-489-1781

patrick@paragonpr.com
The global spray adhesives market is expected to grow at a CAGR of close to 6% from 2018-2022, according to a new market research report by Technavio.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180122006142/en/

Technavio has published a new market research report on the global spray adhesives market 2018-2022 under their chemicals and materials library. (Graphic: Business Wire)

Global spray adhesives market segmentation by technology and application

Technavio's report on the global spray adhesives market analyses the business dimensions and presents a comprehensive breakdown in terms of market segmentation by application, including construction, packaging, furniture, automotive, and textile and leather. As of 2017, close to 28% of the market share came from construction.

Based on technology, the global spray adhesives market is segmented into water-borne adhesive, solvent-borne adhesive, and hotmelt. As projected in 2017, more than 42% of the market share originated from water-borne adhesive. Water-borne adhesives use water as a carrier medium to disperse the resin because of which they can be considered as low VOC adhesives. They are produced using synthetic polymers such as polyvinyl alcohol, cellulose ethers, and methylcellulose. It is also produced using natural polymers derived from vegetable sources such as dextrins and starches.

"The increase in regulations regarding the VOC content in adhesives is expected to foster the demand for water-borne adhesives due to its low VOC content. High level of R&D activities is facilitated for water-borne adhesives and is projected to widen the scope of growth for the market during the forecast period," says a senior analyst at Technavio foradditives, adhesives, and sealants research.

Save more with Technavio. Buy 2 reports and get the third for free View Technavio's latest discounts and promotions

Global spray adhesives market: geographical segmentation

The global spray adhesives market is segmented into four regions including APAC, North America, Europe, and ROW. In 2017, APAC dominated the market by occupying a market share of more than 41%. North America contributed to more than 25% of the market share, and Europe occupied approximately 23% of the market share.

Looking for more information on this market? Request a free sample report

Technavio's sample reports are free of charge and contain multiple sections of the report including the market size and forecast, drivers, challenges, trends, and more.

Other topics covered in the report:

Market drivers:

Rising investment in infrastructure development

Growth of the processed food industry

Market challenges:

Increasing concerns regarding wood logging

Stringent regulations and policies

Market trends:

Increased use of adhesives in medical devices

Increased use of 3D vision in adhesive applications

Get a sample copy of the global spray adhesives market report free of cost

Access Technavio's continuously growing additives, adhesives, and sealants research library and find expert analysis on hundreds of markets.

About Technavio

Technaviois a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions.

With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 10,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at media@technavio.com

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180122006142/en/

Contacts:

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

www.technavio.com
Advance Medical, a leading global provider of telehealth services, today announced a minority investment from Summit Partners. The funding will be used to support Advance Medical's continued growth and international expansion.

Founded in 1999, Advance Medical is a worldwide leader in telemedicine and expert medical opinion services, employing more than 800 dedicated health professionals worldwide, including over 400 medical doctors and nurses, who collaborate with a network of more than 50,000 leading experts around the world to improve patient care. Advance Medical's life-changing benefit programs cover more than 35 million people in over 125 countries through partnerships with large employers, leading insurers, and other groups.

"Advance Medical was founded with a mission to improve patient access to leading medical experts regardless of distance or borders," said Marc Subirats, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Advance Medical. "Our platform allows us to deliver the highest quality medical advice and support to improve patient outcomes. We are excited to partner with Summit in our next stage of growth as we continue to expand our platform and global network."

Carlos Nueno, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Advance Medical added, "Summit has significant experience partnering with high growth companies in both healthcare and technology and offers tremendous resources focused on accelerating expansion. We look forward to collaborating with the Summit team to build on the momentum we have achieved and to further establish our position as a global leader in the telehealth market."

"With a best-in-class clinical platform, Advance Medical efficiently delivers high-quality remote care and expertise to patients across more than 125 countries in over 20 languages," said Thomas Tarnowski, a Managing Director with Summit Partners. "We are proud to partner with the Advance Medical team. They have built a truly global business that aims to effectively leverage technology to improve patient outcomes while lowering healthcare costs. We are delighted to work with the team to help further expand the company's services throughout the world."

About Advance Medical

Advance Medical is one of the largest, physician-based telemedicine providers, offering employers and insurers the ability to provide top-quality, concierge-level medical advice and support to patients around the globe via offices in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and South America. Founded in 1999, Advance Medical has emerged as the global leader in expert medical opinions because of its programs executed exclusively by board-certified physicians doctors who speak by phone or video consultation with every patient, no matter what the issue or concern and for as much time as necessary, to provide best-in-class medical expertise. For more information, visit www.advance-medical.net.

About Summit Partners

Founded in 1984, Summit Partners is a global alternative investment firm that is currently managing more than $14 billion in capital dedicated to growth equity, fixed income and public equity opportunities. Summit invests across growth sectors of the economy and has invested in more than 460 companies in healthcare life sciences, technology and other growth industries. These companies have completed more than 140 public equity offerings, and more than 180 have been acquired through strategic mergers and sales. Notable healthcare & life sciences investments include DentalPro, HealthSun Health Plans, HealthCare Partners, Independent Vetcare, MDVIP, Modernizing Medicine, Nighthawk Radiology and Wellcentive. Summit maintains offices in North America and Europe, and invests in companies around the world. For more information, visit www.summitpartners.com or on Twitter at @SummitPartners.

In the United States of America, Summit Partners operates as an SEC-registered investment advisor. In the United Kingdom, this document is issued by Summit Partners LLP, a firm authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Summit Partners LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with registered number OC388179 and its registered office is at 11-12 St. James's Square, London, SW1Y 4LB, UK. This document is intended solely to provide information regarding Summit Partners' potential financing capabilities for prospective portfolio companies.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180122006434/en/

Contacts:

Summit Partners

Meg Devine, +1 617-824-1047

mdevine@summitpartners.com
A bipartisan group of negotiators has reached across the aisle to finalise an agreement to reopen the US federal government almost 60 hours after it first shut down. On Monday afternoon, the Senate passed a short-term spending bill after voting to end debates by a vote of 81-18, with the measure sent to the President for his signature shortly thereafter, laying the groundwork for the government's reopening by Monday evening. The bill was set to fund the government until 8 February and ...

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - January 22, 2018) - GoldQuest Mining Corp. (TSX VENTURE: GQC) (FRANKFURT: M1W) (BERLIN: M1W) ("GoldQuest" or the "Company") is pleased to report that in a press conference today in Santo Domingo that Minister Isa Conde, the Minister of Energy and Mines ("MEM") of the Dominican Republic, has completed his review of GoldQuest's Exploitation Permit Application for the Company's 100% owned Romero Project, approved the Application, and sent it to the President of the Republic for ratification. The Minister expressed his full support for the project to go ahead. Exploitation Permits in the Dominican Republic are for 75 years, with a Tax Stability Agreement that freezes the tax treatment for the project for a minimum of 25 years protected under the current Mining Law.

Highlights of the statement, titled "Application for Approval of the Resolution for the Mining Exploitation of ROMERO," include:

The MEM has evaluated this application and verified that this project has complied with the legal, economic and technical conditions, and is satisfactory in the national interest. This is a highly important project for the Dominican Republic, based on the profitability of the mining activity and the social welfare of the local communities and their development.

The granting of the exploitation concession is conditional on carrying out an Environmental Impact Study, and subsequently obtaining an Environmental License issued by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MIMARENA).

The State Participation for any economic benefits will be forty percent (40%), taking into account the Royalty, Income Tax and Municipal Contributions, and a Voluntary Contribution that the company has committed to pay to the State, if warranted, under a formula.

The minister expects the Executive Power (Office of the President) to issue its approval and authorization for the granting of the Mining Exploitation Concession.

"We would like to thank Minister Isa Conde for giving his full support to the outstanding Romero gold/copper project," commented Bill Fisher, GoldQuest's CEO, "We have reached agreement with the Ministry as to the details of sharing the project's benefits in a Win- Win formula under the existing law, where the Project's Net Present Value and Internal Rate of Return remain aligned with previous guidance. The Company is well funded with over $20 million in treasury and, once we receive the formal Exploitation License, we will rapidly advance towards a production decision at Romero, with the first items being the Full Feasibility Study, outlining project financing, and the Environmental Impact Study, coupled with an accelerated exploration program."

The information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by William Fisher, P. Geo., CEO and Executive Chairman of GoldQuest and a Qualified Person for the technical information in this press release under NI 43-101 standards.

About GoldQuest

GoldQuest is a Canadian based mineral exploration and development company with projects in the Dominican Republic. GoldQuest is traded on the TSX-V under the symbol GQC and in Frankfurt/Berlin with symbol M1W. 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.

GoldQuest Corp

Bill Fisher

Executive Chairman and CEO - Toronto

+1-647-271-4505

BFisher@GoldQuestCorp.com



Red Cloud KS

Chad Williams/Sebastian de Kloet

Investor Relations

1-877-919-5979

CWilliams@redcloudKS.com
Markham, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - January 22, 2018) - MBMI Resources Inc. (TSXV: MBR.H) (the "Company" or "MBMI") is pleased to announce that further to its press release dated January 9, 2018 announcing the revocation of the Cease Trade Orders imposed on the Company by the securities regulators, the TSX Venture Exchange has completed its reinstatement review of the Company and advised that the common shares of the Company are scheduled to be reinstated for trading on the NEX board of the TSX Venture Exchange at the opening of the market on Tuesday, January 23, 2018.

About MBMI Resources Inc.

MBMI Resources Inc. (the "Company") is a Canadian-based mining company which operates 7 nickel mineral projects in the Philippines, which include the Alpha Project, Bethlehem Project and Northern Rio Tuba Project located in Palawan Philippines (collectively, the "Palawan Properties"), and the Borongan-Maydolong Project, Gen. Mcarthur-Llorente Project, Balangiga-Giporlos Project and Homohon Island Project in Samar, Philippines (collectively, the "Samar Properties").

The Company's Palawan Properties have been subject to a dispute (the "FTAA Dispute") which led to a decision by the Office of the President of the Philippines on April 19, 2011 (the "OP Decision") that cancelled a Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement (the "FTAA") granted in April 2010 for the Palawan Properties. The FTAA, if reinstated, would allow large-scale exploration, development and utilization of minerals on the Palawan Properties.

Through a series of transactions from September 2012 to March 2014 involving the sale of the company's ownership in the operating companies (the "Operating Company") that own and control the Palawan Properties and their respective holding companies, the Company's ownership in the Palawan Properties have been sold to DMCI Mining Corporation, a Philippines based mining company (the "Purchaser") for an aggregate purchase price of US$25.2 million (the "Sale Transactions"). The closing of Sale Transactions is subject to a number of closing conditions which include, among other things, the reinstatement of the cancelled FTAA.

As a result of the Sale Transactions and the FTAA Dispute, the Company has suspended its exploration and development operations in all of its properties to focus its efforts and resources on the reinstatement of the cancelled FTAA in order to conclude the Sale Transactions.

On December 9, 2015, the First Division of the Philippine Supreme Court issued a favourable decision (the "SC Decision") declaring null and void the decision of the Philippine Court of Appeals which affirmed the OP Decision without prejudice to any other appropriate remedy the parties may take against each other. It is important to note, however, that while the SC Decision is the final court decision with respect the FTAA Dispute, it is not a direct ruling with respect to the re-instatement of FTAA that would allow the Company to meet the closing conditions of the Sale Transactions. Therefore, following the SC Decision, the Operating Companies have commenced work on the documentation required to re-engage the Office of the President regarding the reversal of the OP Decision and reinstatement of the FTAA pursuant to the SC Decision. Since there is no assurance that the Office of the President of Philippines will reinstate the FTAA, the Company, the Operating Companies and the Purchaser are concurrently evaluating other recourses including, but not limited to, binding arbitration proceedings in accordance with the dispute resolution mechanism set out in the FTAA as sanctioned by the SC Decision.

Disclosure regarding forward-looking statements

This press release contains projections and forward-looking information that involve various risks and uncertainties regarding future events. Such forward-looking information can include without limitation statements based on current expectations involving a number of risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance of the Company. These risks and uncertainties could cause actual results and the Company's plans and objectives to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. These and all subsequent written and oral forward-looking information are based on estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are made and expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice.

For more information, please contact:

Joseph Chan, Interim CEO

Phone: (416) 299-9203

Email: mbmi@mail.com

Neither the 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 Press release.
Cargo, a NYC-based in-car commerce platform for the rideshare economy, raised $5.5m in seed preferred financing.

Backers included eighteen94 capital, Kellogg Companys venture capital fund, Techstars Ventures, Fontinalis Partners, Detroit Venture Partners, Rosecliff Ventures, RiverPark Ventures, and Chaifetz Group.

The company, which has raised $7.3m in total funding, intends to use the capital to expand beyond test markets New York, Chicago and Boston.

Led by Cargo CEO and Founder Jeff Cripe, Cargo provides a hardware and software-enabled in-car commerce platform that lets drivers earn additional income by distributing snacks, electronics, beauty, and personal care items to passengers. Drivers can earn up from commissions, referrals, and performance bonuses, while increasing their ratings.

Since launching in June, 19,000 drivers have signed up for Cargo across 50 states, 23 countries, and six continents. Progressive global CPG companies like Kellogg Company and Mars Wrigley Confectionery as well as new brands like RXBAR, Leaders Cosmetics USA, Blowfish for Hangovers, and Pure Growth Organic use Cargo as a marketing and distribution channel to reach millennial passengers.

FinSMEs

22/01/2018
Oval Money, a London, UK-based startup that is building an automated saving and crowd investing marketplace app, raised 594,900 from approx. 650 investors.

The round, which exceeded its crowdfunding target of 500k, on Thursday, 18 January, remains open to the public untile Monday, 29 January. Have a look at the Crowdcube campaign here.

The company intends to use the funds to develop a multi-sided marketplace for savings and investments products, creating an end-to-end savings solution for its users.

Co-founded in Italy by Benedetta Arese Lucini, former CEO of Uber Italy, Claudio Bedino and Edoardo Benedetto, co-founders of do-it-yourself crowdfunding platform Starteed.com, and Simone Marzola, expert in machine learning and artificial intelligence, Oval Money provides an iOS and Android app that allows users to set money aside through Steps, commands based on their behaviour that draw money from a linked current account into a digital wallet. Furthermore, the company offers an integration with Facebook, enabling users to save each time they use the social media platform.

Launched on iOS in April and on Android in November 2017, the app has attracted more than 46,000 users across the U.K. and Italy.

The company has already raised 1.2M in funding from Gruppo Intesa SanPaolo, b-ventures, an incubator from Japans NTT Docomo, and Bertoldi Group Family Office.

FinSMEs

22/01/2018
Tower Arch Capital, LP, a Salt Lake City, UT-based lower-middle market private equity firm, announced three promotions.

In details, Aubrey Burnett has been promoted from Vice President to Principal, Thomas Feveryear from Controller to Chief Financial Officer and Kathy Mickelson from Executive Assistant to Office Manager.

Mr. Burnett joined Tower Arch in 2016 as a Vice President. Prior to joining Tower Arch Capital, he was a Vice President at HIG Capital in San Francisco and also worked at Charlesbank Capital Partners in Boston.

Mr. Thomas Feveryear joined Tower Arch in 2013 as a Controller. Prior to Tower Arch, he was the Controller at Peterson Partners and was responsible for the accounting and financial reporting of several private equity and venture capital funds.

Ms. Kathy Mickelson joined Tower Arch in 2014 as an Executive Assistant. Prior to joining Tower Arch, she was a personal assistant to the CFO of TCS, Inc. Mickelson began her career working as an office manager and licensed insurance agent, specializing in both personal insurance lines and commercial policies. She is also active in the community where she manages the financial operations for a local nonprofit.

Tower Arch Capital is a lower-middle market private equity fund with $272 million in capital commitments. They create value in a range of industries and works with companies across the United States. Target investments include control positions in entrepreneur and family-owned businesses with revenue between $20 million and $150 million or EBITDA between $5 million and $25 million.

FinSMEs

22/01/2018
More than 800 students will be undertaking further studies this year in Vanuatu and abroad under the Vanuatu Government scholarship scheme
Petrol price surged to Rs 71.56 per litre in Delhi on 18 January which was highest hike since August 2014.

Petrol price in Mumbai surged to Rs 80.10 per litre on Monday followed by Kolkata which saw second highest rate of petrol among metro cities. In Kolkata, price of petrol rose to Rs 74.94 on Monday. In Delhi, after the daily revision, the fuel costs lesser than what it takes to purchase the fuel in three other metro cities. Since last year, the oil companies are changing petrol and diesel prices everyday after the new dynamic system of fuel prices was introduced. Earlier, the prices of petrol and diesel changed fortnightly every month.

The increase in petrol prices noted in all the four metro cities was not much compared to earlier rises. According to the Indian Oil website, the price of petrol in Mumbai on Sunday was Rs 79.95 and that in Delhi was Rs 72.08 per litre. In Kolkata, petrol cost Rs 74.79 on Sunday and in Chennai the price was 74.75 on the same day.

The news of rise in petrol price comes at a time when the government has already indicated it will work towards bringing petroleum products under the purview of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). As of now, the petroleum products are kept out of the ambit of the news indirect tax regime mainly due to the opposition from the states which had in the past raised the issue of revenue loss due to implementation of the GST.

Similarly, the rise in petrol price in the national capital region on Monday was in the range of Rs 72 to Rs 74. In Faridabad, petrol costs Rs73 while in Gurgaon it has been priced at Rs 72.77, in Noida Rs 73.98 and in Ghaziabad Rs 73.87, according to the IOC website.

On 18 January, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan had told the PTI that his ministry was remaining non-committal on cutting excise duty on petrol and diesel, which have touched record highs, saying merely that the government is keeping a close watch on the situation.

Petrol price surged to Rs 71.56 per litre in Delhi on 18 January which was highest level since August 2014. At that time, it was also reported that the price of petrol was touching highest in Mumbai as compared to other metro or major cities. Diesel prices soared to their highest level of Rs 62.25 per litre in Delhi. It was being sold at Rs 66.30 in Mumbai, where the local sales tax or VAT rates are higher, the PTI report had said back then.

At an industry event, replying to reporters' questions on rising fuel prices, Pradhan had back then said the Centre had in October cut excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 2 per litre. Some states had followed it by reducing VAT. "Some others are yet to do that. I would urge states to reduce taxes," he said.
Stating that taxes on luxury vehicles in India are among the highest in the world, JLR India President and Managing Director Rohit Suri said this has restricted volumes growth thereby preventing companies from assembling more models here

New Delhi: The government must not impose high taxes on big SUVs and cars just because they are luxury vehicles, instead a reasonable way must be considered to help expand the market and contribute more in employment creation, according to a Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) India top official.

Stating that taxes on luxury vehicles in India are among the highest in the world, JLR India President and Managing Director Rohit Suri said this has restricted volumes growth thereby preventing companies from assembling more models here.

"After the cess increase, tax on SUVs have gone up from 43 percent to 50 percent. This is one of the highest in the world. This kind of a very high taxation does not allow the market to expand. I am hoping that the government will look through this," Suri told PTI.

Last year in September, the government had hiked cess by 5 percent on large cars and 7 percent on SUVs, taking the total incidence of taxation to pre-GST levels.

Insisting that the auto industry was not asking to bring down taxes on luxury vehicles to "zero or equivalent to some low level utility vehicles", he said, "It should be reasonable. It can't be very high because it is a luxury car".

Suri said the luxury vehicles segment can play a bigger role in the country's overall economic development and employment generation.

"Luxury car is driven by a customer who can afford it obviously, but there are thousands of people who are behind that car," he said.

He said JLR India has increased local assembly from one product in 2011 with Freelander to six products now.

"It has gone to six products because we want to make in India but only if there is a business case and it works. The issue is can we have a threshold volume in the market? That depends on primarily taxation," Suri said.

While local assembly adds more jobs, market expansion and addition of new dealerships also create further employment opportunities down the chain.

"Any new dealership generates an employment potential of 50 people. This will all depend on if the market is allowed to grow," he said.

With high taxation, Suri said, "If it is not allowed to grow, one would not be able to generate more employment, we will not be able to localise easily as it will be difficult as there will not be threshold volume."

Suri also said customs duty is also extremely high and it doesn't allow more cars to be sold in India. While the basic duty is 100 percent, by the time an imported vehicle is driven out of the port, it all adds up to 180 percent.

"What the government can do is to look at it at a reasonable level," he said, adding the luxury vehicle makers were not asking for duty similar to local manufacturing but at a rate that would help in bringing new technologies through new products.
The main event in Davos will be the keynote speech of Modi at the plenary session on January 23.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday left for Davos in Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum.

"Showcasing India's resilient economy and India's attractiveness as a destination of doing business!

"PM Narendra Modi emplanes for Davos to participate in the World Economic Forum," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet.

#Delhi: PM Narendra Modi leaves for Davos, Switzerland to take part in #WorldEconomicForum pic.twitter.com/IkBPy92WhH  ANI (@ANI) January 22, 2018

Modi will be the first Prime Minister from India to participate in the forum meeting in two decades after the then Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda in 1997.

The main event in Davos will be the keynote speech of Modi at the plenary session on 23 January.

On Tuesday, Modi will also interact with 120 members of the International Business Council, which is a part of the WEF.

He will also interact with CEOs of Indian companies separately.

Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will also leave for Davos, Switzerland on Monday to attend the World Economic Forum annual meeting, according to the Canadian Prime Minister's Office.

During the four-day meeting,Trudeau will meet other world leaders, global business leaders, and representatives of civil society, said the Prime Minister's Office on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Under the theme, Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World, this year's Forum will encourage leaders from all sectors to explore bold ideas and exciting opportunities for collaboration and co-operation with a view to improving global governance and building more sustainable economies that work for everyone.

The Canadian Prime Minister will be joined in Davos by Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Bains, Minister of Finance Bill Morneau, Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland, and Minister of Status of Women Maryam Monsef, each of whom will have their own program of meetings during the meeting, said the office.

The World Economic Forum, established in 1971 as a not-for-profit foundation, is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation and committed to improving the state of the world,

The forum engages the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.
With India hosting the welcome reception for the first time at the Davos 2018, the five-day World Economic Forum summit will kick-off with desi cuisine and yoga on 23 Januray

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has left for Davos, Switzerland today to take part in the World Economic Forum (WEF), a four-day global summit which will see over 3,000 top business leaders, international political leaders, economists, and journalists coming together on a single platform.

#Delhi: PM Narendra Modi leaves for Davos, Switzerland to take part in #WorldEconomicForum pic.twitter.com/IkBPy92WhH  ANI (@ANI) January 22, 2018

Modi is the first India prime minister in 20 years to visit the global summit. The last time an Indian prime minister attended the event was in 1997 when HD Deve Gowda was at the helm.

The global summit is an important platform for India to not only publicise itself as a destination for investment but also to assert its role in geopolitics in Asia the world, and the global fight against climate change. Modi said that he is going to Davos to tell the world about "India's policies, growth potential and the success story of 125 crore Indians".

The fact that Modi is going to be joined by a team of Union ministers including Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, railway minister Piyush Goyal, and several top Indian officials, makes the global economic summit an even more important event.

Here's all you need to know about the Davos summit which will take place between 23-26 January.

What's World Economic Forum?

The World Economic Forum, a non-profit organisation headquartered in Geneva. The WEF Annual Meeting (also known as Davos summit and WEF summit) is an annual gathering of top business leaders, international political leaders, economists, and journalists organised by WEF. This is the 48th edition of the WEF summit.

Established in 1971, WEF describes itself as an international organisation for public-private cooperation which engages the "foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas" to improve the state of the world.

WEF also hosts several regional meetings in different locations across Africa, East Asia, and Latin America, as well as two recurring events in the United Arab Emirates and China.

What to expect at the summit?

The summit focuses on a different theme every year, with this year's being "creating a shared future in a fractured world". Keeping the theme in mind, the WEF annual gathering will explore the root causes of, and pragmatic solutions for, the manifold political, economic and social fractures facing global society through over 400 sessions and workshops. Of them, 160 sessions will see live webcasts. Art and culture is going to be one of the prominent focus areas at the summit.

The plenary session will be moderated by Professor Klaus Schwa, founder and executive chairman of WEF.

With India hosting the welcome reception for the first time at the Davos summit, the five-day summit will kick-off with desi cuisine and yoga.

The summit will also have several India-focused discussions including "India's role in the world" and how it's using big data in policymaking.

Who's attending?

The 2018 Davos summit expects attendance of over 3,000 participants from 110 countries including CEOs, heads of state and government, entrepreneurs, artists and civil society members, labour unions, media representatives and cultural leaders.

Though most heads of states and governments usually attend the meeting, the guest list is usually kept private until the last minute. And from what we know so far, apart from Modi, US president Donald Trump will be attending the summit. Trump is the first sitting US president after Bill Clinton to attend the summit. French president Emmanuel Macron is also expected to attend the summit.

According to Fortune.com, the summit is going to have an all-female co-chair and will include International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, Norways Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in Belgium; Fabiola Gianotti, director general of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva; Isabelle Kocher, CEO of ENGIE Group; and Chetna Sinha, founder and president of Mann Deshi Mahila Bank and Mann Deshi Foundation in India.

According to an Economic Times Now report, Indian presence is really high this time with "over 100 CEOs including Mukesh Ambani, Chanda Kochhar, and Uday Kotak, as well asBollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and filmmaker Karan Johar expected to participate". Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan is also expected to attend the summit.

Ambani is likely to be accompanied by wife Neeta and Akash and Isha.

"The registered Indian participants also include CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee, as also Gautam Adani, Swami Agnivesh, Rahul Bajaj, Sanjiv Bajaj, N Chandrasekaran, Sajjan Jindal, Anand Mahindra, Lakshmi Mittal and son Aditya, Sunil Mittal and son Kavin, Nandan Nilekani, Indra Nooyi, Azim Premji, Ajay Piramal, Ajay Singh, Naresh Goyal and Tulsi Tant," the report added.

China's Belt Road initiative is also expected to be a key theme in the various discussion and sessions at the summit. Pakistan prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi along with a number of his cabinet colleagues, as well as Pakistan People's Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will also be attending.
ONGC's HPCL acquisition would create India's first integrated oil company.

New Delhi: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has increased its first ever debt-raising plans by 40 percent to as much as Rs 35,000 crore to fund its Rs 36,915-crore acquisition of Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL).

The acquisition would create India's first integrated oil company. This would be ONGC's biggest acquisition and second buyout this fiscal after its Rs 7,738 crore acquisition of 80 percent stake in Gujarat State Petroleum Corp's KG basin gas block.

ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Shashi Shanker said the two deals would not affect the company's overseas acquisition plans as "with a consolidated balance sheet (of ONGC and HPCL), we would be better equipped to take higher risks and eye better assets".

The company had on Saturday announced buying of government's 51.11 percent stake in India's third largest state-owned oil refiner and marketing company for Rs 473.97 per share in an all-cash deal that is to be closed before the month-end.

Refusing to divulge details of how the deal would be funded, he said the company's board has approved raising of the borrowing limit from Rs 25,000 crore to Rs 35,000 crore.

This will be the company's first-ever debt.

"We will use our (Rs 12,000-13,000 crore) cash first and then the liquid assets and debt will be last," Shanker told reporters. "This order can change, because we won't sell the liquid assets in distress. Also, we have offers for over Rs 50,000 crore debt at very competitive rates, both foreign currency and local."

ONGC holds 13.77 percent stake in Indian Oil Corp (IOC), which at Friday's closing price is worth Rs 25,790 crore. It also holds 4.86 percent stake in GAIL India Ltd, which is worth over Rs 3,854 crore.

Shanker said the company paid less than the acquisition price recommended by the company's valuation adviser, EY. He, however, refused to share details. ONGC is paying 14 percent higher than Friday's closing price of HPCL and over 10 percent of the 60-day weighted average of the HPCL scrip.

Sources said while the government was seeking as much as Rs 69,000 crore for selling controlling stake in HPCL, EY had put HPCL's valuation at Rs 475 a share plus a premium for getting the controlling stake. The outside advise the company took from Citi put the price at Rs 500 per share.

The stake sale will help the government cross its sell-off target for the first time and would help stick to the fiscal deficit target of 3.2 percent of GDP.

The government had set a target of Rs 72,500 crore from disinvestment proceeds this fiscal. Before the ONGC-HPCL deal, it had collected Rs 54,337.60 crore.

Shanker said the company will also consider merging its oil refining subsidiary Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) with HPCL at a later date.

While ONGC holds 71.63 percent stake in MRPL, HPCL has 16.96 per cent. He said HPCL markets around 35.2 million tonnes of

petroleum products while it has an oil refining capacity of 17-18 million tonnes, excluding 11.2 million tonnes joint venture Bhatinda refinery.

MRPL's 15 million tonnes refining capacity is a easy fit as HPCL would be able to source fuel from group firm, he said adding the two companies can do joint sourcing of crude oil at competitive rates.

Acquisition of HPCL would make ONGC the nation's third biggest refiner after IOC and Reliance Industries Ltd. On the transaction being exempt from the requirement to make an open offer to minority shareholders of HPCL, he said the deal will create immense value and would be beneficial to investors who say invested in the company in the long-term.

Based on Friday's closing price of Rs 416.55, HPCL has a market capitalisation of about Rs 63,475 crore. At this price, the government's 51.11 percent stake is worth Rs 32,442 crore.

He said the company's bid for HPCL was accepted by the government yesterday and it has signed a share purchase agreement (SPA). Through this acquisition, ONGC will become India's first vertically integrated 'oil major' company, having presence across the entire value chain. The integrated entity will have advantage of having enhanced capacity to bear higher risks and take higher investment decisions.

In this process, ONGC has acquired significant mid-stream and downstream capacity and will attain economies of scale at various levels of operations. With a turnover of Rs 2,13,489 crore and profit of Rs 6,502 crore during 2016-17, HPCL ranks at 384th position in Fortune Global 500 and 48th place in Platts 250 Global Energy Companies.

ONGC is the largest producer of crude oil and natural gas in India, contributing around 70 percent of domestic production.
Davos is a good opportunity for Narendra Modi to make a statement of his economic vision for the country and the Asian region

Why did Prime Minister Narendra Modi decide to attend the Davos World Economic Forum (WEF) this year? This isnt business as usual. In fact, the last time an Indian prime minister attended the Davos summit was in 1997 when H D Deve Gowda had participated. Typically, India sends its finance minister accompanied by top bureaucrats with power point presentations to outline countrys economic policy vision. This year Narendra Modi, unsurprisingly, wanted to deviate from the trend. The PM is leading Indias largest-ever delegation (129) and the fourth largest among all countries to Davos.

The prime minister will land in the Swiss Alps town later in the day, accompanied by some of his Cabinet colleagues and ace bureaucrats, to mark the beginning of a long day that will include his address at the opening plenary of the summit and other meetings with entrepreneurs and country heads. Modi wants to sell the India story to the world, as he has been doing ever since his historic win in Parliamentary elections in the summer of 2014. As the former Gujarat chief minister has often proved, he has always been the biggest crowd-puller and smartest salesman India has seen in a long time. Modi has a way of presenting his side whether at home country or abroad that even his biggest political rivals cant match with.

Now back to the original question -- why Davos this time? Look closer and one can see two clear reasons, one political and other economic or foreign policy-related. The economic reason first: There isnt a more opportune time for Modi to address the international forum to showcase the reform progress he has achieved back home in the last one-and-a-half years.

No matter what his critics say about the ultimate outcome of his economic moves, Modis policies have caught international attention. In all likelihood, Modi will showcase his twin moves  demonetisation and progress on crackdown on the parallel economy and roll out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Both the one-off moves, though highly disruptive and painful for stakeholders of the economy in the short-term, have also won praise for Modi for being a PM who would not hesitate to take bold policy steps and experiment to challenge archaic norms.

At Davos, Modi will likely remind the world about his reform intent and progress made so far. Besides noteban and GST, Modi can also showcase his work on other areas including rural electrification, cleanliness drive and the success of his subsidy rationalisation and financial inclusion programmes built on the Aadhaar-mobile-bank account linked model. Modi also has in his kitty a few other points including a series of FDI (foreign direct investment) reforms aiming for more foreign participation and reforms in the banking sector and structural changes in the monetary policy regime.

On the whole, Modi is landing in Davos with a bag full of his economic achievements. Probably this is one reason why he chose to go this time. Then there are political and foreign policy reasons, too. Ahead of a series of state elections back home and Union Budget on 1 February, Davos is a good opportunity for Modi to make a statement of his economic vision for the country and the Asian region besides giving a sense about his approach to foreign investors for two critical election years. Modi has always used his foreign speeches to project Indias case for a leadership role among the developing nations. This time as well there will be a narrative of Indias emerging status among world economies, particularly in the Asian region.

India certainly looks a much better investment destination for global investors than many of its Asian peers thanks to the huge untapped potential and the reform intent shown by the Modi government. But the pain points in the economy will be questioned as well. These include Indias fragile manufacturing sector recovery, number of new jobs created versus new jobs promised by the government in the beginning, governments ability to rein in fiscal deficit figures amidst the demand for critical public spending push, delay in the privatisation drive mainly in the government-dominated banking sector, lack of private investments and farmer distress spreading across India triggering a series of farm loan waivers. These are all tough questions for Modi to deal with before the international press. Normally, beyond headline making general statements, political rhetoric and photo ops, nothing really comes out of international business summits. But this time Davos will be different because Narendra Modi is in town.
Narendra Modi is all set to be the first Indian prime minister in 20 years to attend the annual World Economic Forum summit at Davos.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to be the first Indian head of government in 20 years to attend the annual World Economic Forum summit at Davos, which begins on Monday. Modi will be addressing the opening plenary of the summit, while the keynote address will be given by US president Donald Trump on 26 January.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) will be hosting a welcome reception for world leaders, where it will showcase business opportunities in India in addition to country's heritage and cuisine. India will also be hosting a yoga session to highlight the country's soft power on the global stage, The Times of India reported.

The prime minister will be accompanied by six Union ministers, including Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu, Dharmendra Pradhan, MJ Akbar and Jitendra Singh.

Besides, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, over 100 CEOs will also accompany Modi. This will take Indian delegation's total to 129  the fourth highest after the US (780), the UK (266) and Switzerland (233 people). China will have 118 participants.

Ahead of the meeting, Modi, in a series of tweets with the hashtag #Indiameansbusiness, announced his agenda for the five-day global event.

I look forward to my first visit to the World Economic Forum at Davos, at the invitation of Indias good friend and Founder of the WEF, Prof Klaus Schwab. The theme of the Forum, Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World is both thoughtful and apt. @wef #IndiaMeansBusiness  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 21, 2018

The existing and emerging challenges to the contemporary international system and global governance architecture deserve serious attention of leaders, governments, policy makers, corporates and civil societies around the world. @wef #IndiaMeansBusiness  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 21, 2018

In recent years, Indias engagement with the outside world has become truly and effectively multi-dimensional covering the political, economic, people to people, security and other spheres. @wef #IndiaMeansBusiness  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 21, 2018

At Davos, I look forward to sharing my vision for Indias future engagement with the international community. @wef #IndiaMeansBusiness  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 21, 2018

Apart from the events for the @wef, I look forward to my separate bilateral meetings with the President of the Swiss Confederation H. E. Mr. @alain_berset and Prime Minister of Sweden H. E. Mr. Stefan Lofven. @SwedishPM #IndiaMeansBusiness  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 21, 2018

I am confident that these bilateral meetings would be fruitful and give a boost to our relations with these countries and further strengthen economic engagement. #IndiaMeansBusiness  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 21, 2018

Theme of Davos 2018

The theme of the meeting, spread over 400 sessions, would be 'Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World', while the meeting would also see the largest ever proportion of women leaders (21 percent) including all co-chairs being women this time including social entrepreneur Chetna Sinha from India and IMF's Christine Lagarde, the WEF said.

Announcing the official programme in Geneva on Tuesday, the WEF had said the summit will see the largest ever engagement of global leaders this year where the key talking points would include international security, environment and the global economy.

Women participants would account for 12 percent of total Indian presence, compared to 27 per cent from the US, 24 percent from the UK, 22 percent from Germany, 20 per cent from Switzerland, 19 percent for China and 18 percent for France.

The WEF said its 48th Annual Meeting will focus on finding ways to reaffirm international cooperation on crucial shared interests, such as international security, the environment and the global economy.

The meeting comes at a time when geostrategic competition among states is generally seen to be on the rise.

Alongside international cooperation, an additional priority of the meeting will be to overcome divisions within countries, said the WEF which describes itself as an international public-private organisation focussed on improving the state of the world.

The WEF also said divisions have often been caused by breakdowns in the social contract as a result of failure to protect societies from the transformational impacts of a succession of shocks, from globalisation to the proliferation of social media and the birth of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

"Collectively, these shocks have caused a loss of trust in institutions and damaged the relationship between business and society," it added.

"Our world has become fractured by increasing competition between nations and deep divides within societies. Yet the sheer scale of the challenges our world faces makes concerted, collaborative and integrated action more essential than ever," WEF's Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab said.

He further said the summit aims to overcome these fault lines by reasserting shared interests among nations and securing multistakeholder commitment to renewing social contracts through inclusive growth.

World leaders to gather at Davos

At least, 38 heads of major international organisations such as the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank, as also nearly 2,000 CEOs will also be present at the five-day World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2018.

This year a record number of leaders from G7 economies will participate, including Paolo Gentiloni, Prime Minister of Italy; Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission; Emmanuel Macron, President of France; Theresa May, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; and Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, in addition to President Trump.

Other leaders from the G20 countries would include Liu He, Member of Political Bureau and General Director of CPC Central Committee of the People's Republic of China; Argentina president Mauricio Macri, South Africa deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa and Brazil president Michel Temer. From the host country, Alain Berset, President of the Swiss Confederation, will also participate.

Overall, the summit will have over 340 top political leaders with 10 heads of state/government from Africa, nine from West Asia and North Africa and six from Latin America.

These include Ethiopia prime minister Hailemariam Dessalegn, Zimbabwe president Emmerson Mnangagwa, Nigeria vice-president Yemi Osinbajo, Lebanon President Saad Al Hariri, Jordan king Abdullah II Bin Al Hussein, Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Columbia president Juan Manuel Santos.

The summit will also be attended by 40 arts and culture leaders, including Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, Hollywood actress Cate Blanchett and musician Elton John.

With inputs from PTI
Pitching for 2018 to be made 'the year for women to thrive', the two leaders said 'time is up for discrimination and abuse against women' in the paper published by the World Economic Forum

New Delhi: Raising women's participation in the labour force to the same level as men can boost India's GDP by 27 percent, IMF Chief Christine Lagarde and Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg have said in a joint paper.

Pitching for 2018 to be made "the year for women to thrive", the two leaders said "time is up for discrimination and abuse against women" in the paper published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) ahead of the Geneva-based organisation's annual summit in Swiss ski resort town Davos.

Lagarde and Solberg are among the all-women co-chairs of the annual confab this year, beginning today. Indian social entrepreneur Chetna Sinha is also among the co-chairs for the annual summit that will be attended by 70 heads of government from across the world, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump.

Women would account for 21 percent of the overall participation at the meeting to be attended by over 3,000 world leaders including from politics, business, art and culture, academia and civil society.

"The need for greater respect and opportunities for women is becoming an ever more prominent feature of the public conversation," Lagarde and Solberg said while asserting that the challenge of female empowerment is firmly on the agenda at the WEF Summit this year.

They said giving women and girls the opportunity to succeed is not only the right thing to do but can also transform societies and economies.

"The economic facts speak for themselves: raising women's labour force participation to that of men can boost GDP, for example, by as much as 9 percent in Japan and 27 percent in India," the two leaders wrote.

Quoting IMF research for listing myriad macroeconomic benefits, they said reducing gender gaps in employment as well as in education can help economies diversify their exports while appointing more women onto banking supervision boards can challenge cosy group-think, thereby supporting greater bank stability and financial sector resilience.

Besides, tackling gender inequality can reduce income inequality, which, in turn, can drive more sustainable growth.

"This is a challenge for any country; a task from which every country would benefit. It is a universal mission," they said.

Lagarde and Solberg said some of the barriers holding women back are universal too and almost 90 percent of countries have one or more gender-based legal restrictions.

In some countries, for example, women have limited property rights, while in others, husbands have the right to prevent their wives from working. Besides legal obstacles, there are barriers related to combining work and family life, education, access to finance, and pressures from society, they added.

As per the paper, helping women stay active in the workplace while raising a family is key.

Noting that leaders from around the world are meeting in Davos at a time of global economic recovery, Lagarde and Solberg said it is the time when governments must do all they can to sustain this momentum and lay the foundations for long-term growth.

"Helping women make the most of their potential is a key part of this equation...The time has come for women to thrive," they said.
As India readies to celebrate its 69th Republic Day on 26 January, this five-part series will examine how India's Constitution came to be, how it has been contested over the years and what potential challenges lie ahead.

Editors Note: As India readies to celebrate its 69th Republic Day on 26 January, this five-part series will examine how India's Constitution came to be, how it has been contested over the years and what potential challenges lie ahead.

***

The Constitution of India is the longest written Constitution of any nation in the world and it is the document based on which the current Indian state is established, constituted and governed. But, what is the meaning of having a constitution and why was it the task of most urgent concern for India's leaders after its independence to draft and adopt one?

On 15 August 1947, India became free from over two centuries of British Rule. Lord Louis Mountbatten, the Earl of Burma ceased being Viceroy of India and took office as India's first Governor General. He was independent India's first head of state, a representative of Independent India's King, His Majesty George VI, the King of India.

(Note: After 15 August 1947, George VI was an Indian King, even though he was also the King of the United Kingdom, India was a separate entity and had her own King, just like Queen Elizabeth II is also the Queen of Australia, Canada and New Zealand today)

It was not as though India needed a constitutional document at that point of time, India did have a governing document, it was known as the Government of India Act, 1935. The Act had been suitably modified by Orders in Council passed by virtue of the Indian Independence Act, 1947 to work as a temporary constitution of India.

Absolute power though, was vested in her legislature, the Constituent Assembly of India. A national assembly, tasked with not just the task of drafting India's constitution but also acting as her first Parliament. It met at the Central Hall of Parliament and it was here that power was transferred from the British Crown to an independent India. One that was free to determine her down destiny, make her own laws and if she liked, over throw her own King. Something she would do three years later on 26 January 1950 when she became a Republic with the commencement of the Constitution of India.

The idea of a Constituent Assembly for India was first proposed by Indian philosopher MN Roy. He was a Communist at the time, though in later life he would call himself a Radical Humanist. Roy had his disagreements with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, but was someone who was amenable to Jawaharlal Nehru. Roy believed in human freedom. He, unlike the entire Congress leadership at the time and Subhash Chandra Bose, believed that India should capture power by the means of using a Constituent Assembly. For this to happen, she had to support the British in her war against the Axis powers of Germany and Japan  something that the Congress was unwilling to do and Bose was actively fighting against.

Accordingly, to Roy, the fascists posed a threat to democracy everywhere and only if their threat was sufficiently countered could there be a space for a free and democratic India. Towards the end of World War II, he even drafted a Constitution of Free India in 1944 and published it in his weekly Independent India.

The rationale for a Constituent Assembly was one that was unique among other stories of independence worldwide. In fact, many countries that would gain independence around the time and after, would avoid that route. Malaysia's independence constitution was drafted by a Commission as was the first constitution of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The modern constitutions of Australia and Canada, too, were drafted in a manner that did not involve an assembly. The logic for an assembly would seem quite odd at that time, given that independence could have come with a constitution. The British Parliament could have enacted a Constitution for India along with the Indian Independence Act and things could have functioned from day one. Should India have wished to declare a republic later one, it could have done so via an amendment. After all, this is exactly what Ireland and South Africa did.

But the curious case of India and her Constituent Assembly had a lot more to do with poorna swaraj (complete independence) than just swaraj (self-rule). While the solution described above may have been fine for the latter, the former though would require a more complex enacting formula. When the Cabinet Mission arrived in 1946, one of the things on its mind was how to go about creating this formula.

The unfortunate bickering between the All-India Muslim League and the Indian National Congress, led to neither side making enough concessions. This made Partition inevitable. But one of the outcomes of the Cabinet Mission Plan, was the formation of the Constituent Assembly of India, one that was to be formed at the earliest to take control of India's constitutional affairs.



It's members, like the delegates to the US Continental Congress, will go down in history as India's founding fathers. Not because they wrote our Constitution, but because they declared our Independence. On 13 December 1946, Nehru moved a resolution in the Assembly, he called this the "Objectives Resolution" and this resolution was adopted on 22 January 1947. Clause one of the resolution read:

"This Constituent Assembly declares its firm and solemn resolve to proclaim India as an Independent Sovereign Republic and to draw up for her future governance a Constitution"

This declared India and the Assembly a sovereign body, a body which was not an instrument of or under the control of the British Parliament, but a body that claimed sovereignty in its own right. On 15 August 1947, when the British relinquished power over India, the Assembly took over as being the only other sovereign body in India. In fact, the wording of the Indian Independence Act, 1947 does not create the assembly, but only recognises it as India's first Legislature.

So it happened, this Assembly that first met on 9 December 1946 at the Central Hall of Sansad Bhavan in Delhi, would be the body that would lead India on her road to Republic.

Click here to read Part II  The long walk to the Republic: Constituent Assembly wasn't elected by the people, but worked like a model Parliament

Click here to read Part III  How the Republic was born: BR Ambedkar-led Drafting Committee replaced the British monarch with the Constitution

Click here to read Part IV  India's road to Republic: When judiciary had to draw the line which shaped the Constitution

Click here to read Part V  68 years of India's Constitution: Repeated amendments have meant document today is fundamentally different from the one enacted
The Aam Aadmi Party will hold a day-long bandh on 23 January in Delhi to protest against the ongoing sealing drive by the BJP-ruled civic bodies and the Centre's move to allow 100 per cent FDI in retail

The Aam Aadmi Party will hold a day-long bandh on Tuesday in Delhi to protest the ongoing sealing drive by the BJP-ruled civic bodies and the Centre's move to allow 100 percent FDI in retail. AAP also announced that its Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs, along with other stakeholders, will take part in a march to the Parliament on 29 January over these issues.

Speaking to reporters after the party's Delhi state conference, senior AAP leader Gopal Rai said the BJP-ruled civic bodies were trying to snatch employment opportunities from people in the name of sealing business establishments.

"A large sum of money was collected under conversion and parking charges. The traders have neither received anything in return nor do they have any information about the money collected," Rai said, demanding that the centre stop levying these charges until the information is made public.

"Our party cadres in all 70 constituencies will join traders unions to raise their voice against these issues on 23 January," he said.

Industry body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) also said on Saturday that traders would observe a 'Delhi trade bandh' to lodge their protests against ongoing sealing of business establishments in the city.

CAIT, in a statement, said the sealing is being conducted by "sidelining fundamental provisions" of MCD Act, 1957 "under the guise of the order of the Supreme Court" and demanded an investigation as to "why the traders are being deprived of such provisions". "The decision was taken at a meeting held on Saturday... which was attended by trade leaders of about 400 leading trade associations from all over Delhi," the traders' body said.

Shutters of the shops will remain closed in all markets and no commercial activity will take place, CAIT added.

Rai slammed the Congress government for initiating 49 percent FDI in retail which was followed by the BJP who spiked it up to 100 percent.

Asked about the Bawana fire incident, Rai said only an investigation would reveal who was responsible for it.

"MCD issues licences in some cases and Delhi government also issues licences. Only the investigation will reveal who is responsible for the incident."

"A detailed probe by labour department has also been initiated," he added.

With inputs from agencies
Peter the Roman said: I wouldnt have gone willingly to go fight a pointless war. Youre a coward for going along with the system. Click to expand...

At 18 we did not know just how fucked up it was.... I still remember the day I ended up volunteering for duty in RSVN ...I was in the Navy and could have went to school to be a machinist mate, or an engineman or a radioman, I told the Chief I wanted to learn to run a bulldozer....He said, "I can get you that school tomorrow, but you're goin" to Vietnam"...I still remember thinking "I proved I could avoid it, but, could I live with myself if I did"....To this day I know I made the right decision, even though as I got older, I spent much time studying the war, and will totally agree....We should have supported Ho Chi Minh after WWII.......coward??...No.....
When Pakistani shells started landing in Bera village in Jammu, residents, comprising mostly of elderly, women and children, escaped in droves. A few male members stayed back to watch over the houses and livestock in the village located along the International Border in Jammu but they lived under constant threat of life.

Bera, Jammu: When Pakistani shells started landing in Bera village in Jammu, residents, comprising mostly of elderly, women and children, escaped in droves. A few male members stayed back to watch over the houses and livestock in the village located along the International Border in Jammu but they lived under constant threat of life. Vijay Singh was one of them.

On Sunday evening, Singh sat on the veranda of his single-storeyed house in the village in RS Pura sector, at least forty kilometer from Jammu city. He looked terrified and visibly tired. A day earlier, when the thud of shells landing in the village grew louder, a neighbour's son came running into his home, begging Singh to leave. He refused. Shutting behind himself the door of a small temple attached to the house, he folded his hands, lowered his head and started praying before the "abode of deities." "I prayed for my safety and the safety of my family and our house," he said.

But that was not to be.

Suddenly there was a loud bang, 35-year-old Singh told Firstpost late on Sunday evening. "Initially, I was terrorised by the thought of a shell landing inside the house. Smoke and dust clouded the view through the window into the main compound where my nine buffaloes were tied up. A shell bore through the roof of the temple and dropped on the floor."

Singh was just few feet away from his death but a miracle happened. The shell did not explode. "I looked back and saw it on the floor and my first reaction was to run. I have never seen death so close. It is a miracle that I am alive."

When Firstpost visited his house on Sunday evening, the unexploded shell lay inside the prayer room where it had dropped. No one from the state government, or the police and even the army visited him or came to inquire about the exploded shell, since the firing which started last week, Singh told Firstpost.

On Saturday four people were killed across the International Board, including two army officers and three BSF soldiers, taking the total toll to 10. The figure is almost equal to the number of deaths in 2017 in such cross-border firings. According to army sources, such intensity and higher range mortars are being used for the first time in three years by Pakistani side, prompting the authorities to relocate more than 20,000 people, from villages located within a 3-km distance of the international border, to safer areas. The state government has shut nearly 500 schools falling within 5 km of both the international border and LoC across Jammu region to avoid civilian casualties.

While the Firstpost team interviewed residents of the village and they relayed horrifying accounts of life under seige in these border areas (which led majority population to migrate), firing and shelling resumed after a brief lull. This was around 9 pm on Sunday. Two shells exploded, sparking chaos in the village. Residents who had stayed back, ran with their livestock towards safer areas, avoiding the light so that the soldiers from across the border dont target them. When it became quiet, they moved back.

Despite the unsafe living situation, many still refused to leave their homes. Gursimran Singh, a retired headmaster says he will prefer to die in his home than moving to a shelter home. Sixty-five-year-old Singh told Firstpost there is no way he is going to abandon the home he built with his "sweat and blood". He had suggested his family to stay back as well but they refused.

As soldiers along the border exchange fire, it feels remarkably courageous to walk for few minutes in complete darkness in these villages, but not for headmaster Singh. "Since 1962 I have seen this. There have been worse times. When it is very bad, I stay inside the bunker throughout the night. But when death comes calling, it can make any excuse, Singh told Firstpost in his house in Bera village on Sunday night.

In recent years the firing along this sector has increased. Earlier it used to happen in Kashmir, now most of it happens in Jammu, he added.

The state government is gearing up for the worst. Bali Bhagat Minister for Health and Medical Education told Firstpost all sanctioned leave of doctors and paramedical staff in the five border districts of Jammu region has been cancelled. "We have kept every medical emergency facility ready for the people who get injured. Apart from that we have also advised people to come to the plains and stay in the rehabilitation centers till things improve," he said.

A flag meeting between the BSF and Pakistan Rangers is scheduled to be held at Octroi outpost in RS Pura. But since the firing is ongoing, it is not clear if the meeting will be held at all. There is a lot of bloodshed at our border. The country is moving on the path of development, but the opposite is happening in Jammu and Kashmir. I am appealing to the prime minister and Pakistan to not make Jammu and Kashmir a battleground," chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said at a function in Baramulla on Sunday.

On Sunday evening Ajit Singh, another resident of Bera, stood outside his house looking towards the fence from where a mortar shall was fired a day earlier towards his house and its shrapnels left his wife injured, who was sleeping inside, and is being treated for grave wounds. All the window glasses of house were broken in pieces, shrapnels have made their mark, not just on the wall but his mind too.

"This is our life," he said, "and it has been like this for decades but running away from it is no solution."
Living with the constant fear of Pakistani shelling, displaced border dwellers are scared of returning to their homes and are demanding early sanction of the 'promised' piece of land in safer zones and construction of bunkers

RS Pura (Jammu): Living with the constant fear of Pakistani shelling, displaced border dwellers are scared of returning to their homes and are demanding early sanction of the "promised" piece of land in safer zones and construction of bunkers.

The demands were made by people putting up at three relief camps set up by the state government here for border dwellers who have been bearing the brunt of heavy Pakistani shelling.

12 persons, including five security personnel, have been killed and over 50 others injured in the unprovoked and indiscriminate firing by Pakistan in the five districts of Jammu, Kathua and Samba along the IB and LoC since Thursday.

Last month, the Centre gave a sanction for construction of 14,460 underground bunkers at a cost of Rs 415.73 crore for the safety of people living along the LoC and the IB in Jammu division.

The BJP had promised five marlas (1,361.25 sq ft) of land for border villagers during the election campaigning in the state ahead of forming a government with the PDP in 2015.

However, last year, the government informed the state legislative assembly that it had decided to construct bunkers in border districts instead of allotting five marlas of land to each family as shifting of the population to another place would not be in the interest of the state or nation.

What we are getting is only hollow promises and unabated firing from Pakistan over the last four years. The government needs to act and provide us with the promised five marlas of land away from the firing zone for our safety, Sudesh Kumari, a resident of Beghwara Choga, told PTI.

Kumari is among 150 border residents camping at the Indian Training Institute (ITI) complex in this sector after one of her relatives lost his life in the Pakistani shelling along the International Border in Bhera village on Saturday.

Hamara jeena haraam ho gaya hai (Our life has become a hell), she said as nearly three dozen women gathered to condole the demise of her brother-in-law Ghar Singh in the Pakistani shelling second the view.

Singh was among six persons killed in RS Pura and Arnia sectors, while 32 others were injured.The dead included a BSF jawan.

Suneeta said, We are living a life of uncertainty with no future. During firing, we are even unable to help our children to move to safety, she said, adding the lurking threat of Pakistani shelling is taking a toll on our mental health.

Making a passionate appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 75-year-old Krishna Devi from Abdullian said, With folded hands, we want to say that we are not even safe in our homes as shells pierce the roof and walls and we should be helped on humanitarian grounds.

Her grandson Pankaj Kumar said they are afraid to go back to their homes.

The firing was intense (over the past week) and we fear it might continue till Republic Day, he said.

Kumari said they had a narrow escape while fleeing the village as a mortar shell missed them and landed on a tree.

Had the shell not landed on the tree, it would have hit the vehicle we were travelling in from the village to the rehabilitation camp, she said.

Kanta Devi, a resident of Kapurpur and putting up at government boys higher secondary school, said, The truth is bitter  the government is not doing enough for our safety and security while the firing from across the border had increased manifold over the years.

What we are going through, we pray nobody else should face such a situation, she said.

Kastoori Lal said many VVIPs including deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh and Relief and Rehabilitation minister Javaid Mustafa Mir visited the camp since Saturday and extended condolences to families who lost their dear ones in the Pakistani firing and assured all possible help.

How long we will stay in the camps? We want the government to fulfil our demand of allotment of land at safer places and early construction of bunkers, he said.

He said there is no alternative to peace.

"We want the peaceful atmosphere to return by strictly implementing the 2003 ceasefire agreement between the two countries as innocent people are getting killed and displaced on either side.

Health Minister Bali Bhagat said India has taken many initiatives to normalise relations with Pakistan but the neighbouring country needs to understand the futility of violence and reciprocate positively.

Not only the people of Jammu and Kashmir but the entire country wants good neighbourly relations between India and Pakistan, he said.

However, he said it is unfortunate that the firing from across the border is going on, killing innocent persons and resulting in the displacement of people.

The government was doing its best to provide relief to border residents displaced by the Pakistani firing.

We have already issued a high alert all along the 449 km stretch from Kathua to Poonch-Rajouri, comprising both IB and LoC. We have deployed 197 ambulances and identified 25 health institutions which are very close to villages affected by the firing, he said.

He said despite tasting defeat at the hands of India many times, Pakistan continues its mischief.

"I am of the opinion that the central government is going to take a strong measure in coming days...from former Prime Minister AB Vajpayee to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we extended the hand of friendship keeping in mind the doctrine that friends can be changed but not neighbours.

"When we are getting shells from Pakistan, we are compelled to direct that if they fire one shell, respond it by 10 shells, he said.

The minister said the world understands that India is a powerful country and its army has the capability to cross the border and hit terrorist targets and return without the knowledge of their counterparts.
Three days after they went on a strike to protest against a rule to compulsorily install speed governors, tourist taxi operators in Goa today withdrew the protest on an assurance from the state government.

Panaji: Three days after they went on a strike to protest against a rule to compulsorily install speed governors, tourist taxi operators in Goa on Sunday withdrew the protest on an assurance from the state government. BJP legislator Michael Lobo brokered peace between the agitators and the state government.

According to the North Goa Tourist Taxi Owners Association, a delegation of taxi owners, led by Lobo, met Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar this afternoon and secured the assurance that fitness certificates would be issued for taxis by 24 January, without installing speed governors.

The tourist taxi operators have been on a strike since Friday to protest the government's rule making it mandatory for their vehicles to have speed governors.

The BJP-led government had refused to exempt the tourist taxi operators from the rule citing a Supreme Court order.

The government had said that taxis without the speed-limiting gadgets will not be issued fitness certificates by the Transport Department from 24 February.

Absence of taxis inconvenienced tourists visiting the coastal state which is witnessing peak tourist season.

"The chief minister has assured to give fitness certificate to all taxi vehicles by 24 January," North Goa Tourist Taxi Owners Association General Secretary Vinayak Nanoskar said while addressing agitators at Azad Maidan in Panaji.

He said the order asking the state Transport department to issue fitness certificates would be issued within two days.

"Based on the assurance given by the chief minister, the agitators have decided to withdraw the strike," Nanoskar said.

Lobo told agitators that he would quit the government if it fails to fulfill the promise made by the chief minister.

The strike crippled the tourism industry for the last three days even as state government initiated some measures to ease the situation.

State-run Kadamba Transport Corporation Limited's buses were pressed into service to cater to tourists at various places, including the airport and railway stations.

In the absence of tourist taxis, hotels have failed to arrange for any transport for their guests, who have to manage on their own to reach their destinations.
The Centre has begun final negotiations to buy Russia-built five advanced S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems for Rs 39,000 crore.

The Centre has begun final negotiations to buy Russia-built S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems for Rs 39,000 crore, The Times of India reported on Monday. According to the report, the government wants to operationalise the deal by the end of FY2018-19. If the deal is inked, it will be one of the biggest arms contract with Russia, added the report.

The deal was first approved the Ministry of Defences Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) in December 2015, just days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Russia. If the deal goes through by the end of the financial year, India will be the second buyer of the missile system after China, which concluded the deal with Russia in 2014.

Once the deal is finalised, the first of the five air missile defence systems will be delivered to India immediately while the associated battle-management systems will be delivered after two years of the deal being inked, The Times of India report said.

All five missile systems will be in Indias possession in 54 months, the report quoted a source in the defence ministry as saying.

A major plug in Indias air defence

India has over eight lakh square nautical miles of airspace, of which nearly 35 percent is under military control. With two nuclear-armed neighbours, India faces the constant threat of air attacks.

An air defence system detects, tracks and destroys hostile strategic bombers, stealth fighters, spy planes, medium-range and cruise missiles as well as drones at a range of up to 400 kilometres and altitude of 30 kilometres.

According to a Business Today report, the S-400 missile systems has a tracking range of 600 kilometres, while it can engage up to 36 targets at one time. Compared with its predecessor, the S-300, the S-400 has a 2.5 times faster firing rate. Hence, reports consider it to be the most modern, air defence system in the Russian arsenal.

According to reports, the missile system can be used against Pakistans short-range nuclear missiles, Nasr. Nasr missiles are specifically designed to counter Indias cold start strategy against Pakistan. With S-400 missiles in Indias armoury, the air bases of Pakistan and Chinas Tibetan bases come under striking distance.

Other missile shields for India

Akash, Indias indigenously-built air defence system, is a medium-range Surface-to-Air missile system. Built by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), these missiles have a range of 25 kilometres. The first batch of the Akash missiles was inducted by the Indian Army in May 2015. The missile was formally inducted into the IAF in July 2015.

The two other major air defence systems with India are Spyder and Barak 8. While Spyder has a range of just 15 kilometres, Barak 8, a joint project of the DRDO and the IAI, has a longer range of at least 70 kilometres.



Missile defence systems in other countries

South Korea

Always facing a nuclear threat from its northern neighbour, South Korea has the Korean Air and Missile Defense (KAMD) system to safeguard itself from a nuclear missile strike. The missile system consists of US Surface-to-Air patriot missiles and indigenous M-SAM (Cheolmae) medium-range missiles. The M-SAM missiles are expected to be deployed on a large scale from 2019.

Japan

According to the Wall Street Journal, Japan has the most sophisticated air-defence missile systems after the US. Japan has the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 surface-to-air missile defence systems. These were acquired to destroy any ballistic missile that enters the Japanese air space. These missile systems compliment the sea-based standard missile 3 system.

Pakistan

In 2017, Pakistan inducted the Chinese-built LOMADS LY-80, which is a low-to-medium range air defence system. Ary News reported that the LY-80 can intercept very low-flying targets at a distance of up to about 40 kilometers. The Pakistan Army also inducted the short-range HQ-7B missile system in 2015, which is Chinas copy of the French-made Cartole surface-to-air defence system.

China

Since the 1990s, China has been developing its air defence missile systems. Some of the major air defence systems under Chinas control are HQ-9, which has a range of at least 200 kilometres and the 50-kilometre range HQ-12 missile system. In addition, China has had close defence ties with Russia which has helped it acquire several Russian models of air defence systems.
The Kashmir dispute, four resulting wars, cross-border terrorism, and the threat of nuclear escalation have continued to define India-Pakistan relations.

The Kashmir dispute, four resulting wars, cross-border terrorism, and the threat of nuclear escalation have continued to define India-Pakistan relations.

This relationship is best conceptualised by the Stability-Instability Paradox, where stability in the nuclear realm exists due to the military strategy of mutual assured destruction, but which opens up massive scope for disruption via sub-conventional conflict (see the past three decades of history in Kashmir).

Indian administrations, over this period  when cross-border terrorism in Kashmir and the discovery of covert nuclearisation escalated tensions on an existential scale  have more or less adjusted to functioning in this paradox. Yet, New Delhi has been constantly searching for a response to this sub-conventional conflict from Pakistan, which would allow it to achieve the dual goal of deterring Rawalpindi, and simultaneously not inviting a nuclear attack.

In the aftermath of the 2001 Parliament attack, the ruling NDA attempted to pressurise Pakistan with the Cold Start doctrine (which was not declared officially) but was deterred by Pakistan's frequent nuclear threats. Pakistans introduction of tactical nuclear weapons was specifically aimed at deterring Indian forces' attempts at shallow thrusts and territorial grabs under Cold Start.

More than a decade later, the Bharatiya Janata Party, in its 2014 election manifesto raised eyebrows when it mentioned that nuclear doctrine would be reviewed, something Prime Minister Narendra Modi denied. The then defence minister Manohar Parrikar talked of imbuing the Indian nuclear doctrine with more ambiguity, which was followed by professor Vipin Narangs statement on Indias move consisting of full comprehensive counter-force strike, attempting to completely disarm Pakistan of its nuclear weapons.

While there is clarity on No First Use and the second strikes  much has been written about it  the debate continues on the Indian response to large scale sub-conventional strikes. There are multiple opinions on whether punitive retaliation across the border in response to a terrorist attack would invite a tactical nuclear strike.

From the air force base at Pathankot to the army bases in Uri and Nagrota, 2016 saw many lethal attacks on the Indian forces. India responded by conducting surgical strikes at multiple locations across the Line of Control (LoC).

While such strikes across the LoC are not new and have been reported, the decision to go public was aimed at sending a message: Asymmetrical warfare would engender a response. However, as cross-border infiltration and attacks on the army and the paramilitary forces continued, the efficacy of surgical strikes was questioned. This is because surgical strikes were still seen in a limited binary context and their failure to stop infiltration was interpreted as failure.

The narrative post-surgical strikes was not primarily aimed at stopping asymmetric warfare  which wasn't under Indian control anyway  but a strategic shift in the way New Delhi dealt with these threats. The passive approach of combating infiltrators once they crossed over appears to be at an end. This is something that Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat stated during a recent press conference before Army Day. Rawat referred to these non-state actors as disposable commodities of unlimited supply, which meant the new strategy encompassed a broader strategic framework of deterring Pakistan, and not limiting itself to eliminating terrorists.

The philosophy behind the surgical strikes and a deliberately tense LoC is to make it costly for the Pakistanis to continue sub-conventional disruptions, compel them to carry out a cost-benefit analysis comparing its troop casualties, and infrastructure damage from Indian shelling to the benefits it derives from its policy of asymmetric warfare.

In the same conference, Rawat admitted that ceasefire violations were part of the new counter-terrorism strategy. However, he clarified that only those Pakistani posts and bunkers were targeted which were believed to be launch pads for infiltrators. Interpreting these events according to New Delhi's line of thinking, it seems that its long-pending quest to disturb the status quo is being hastened.

The question that needs to be asked: Will the new approach further raise costs for Pakistan even as it continues to suffer civilian and military casualties? According to a recent PTI report, The Indian Army killed 138 Pakistan Army personnel in 2017 in tactical operations along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and lost 28 soldiers during the same period along the LoC.

The Pakistani foreign office also claimed that Indian forces committed more than 70 ceasefire violations along the LoC and Working Boundary till 20 January. With these escalating costs, there are pressures on Pakistan but it is unlikely that such activities would halt, given the intensity of India-Pakistan rivalry. However, New Delhis strategic shift sends Rawalpindi the signal that adjusting to the new normal just got dearer.

The author is a research associate with Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi.
Abdul Subhan Qureshi, a founding member of the Indian Mujahideen, was under the radar of the intelligence agencies for his involvement in the 2008 serial blasts in Gujarat.

The Delhi police arrested the founding member of the Indian Mujahideen Abdul Subhan Qureshi after a brief encounter in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur, officers from the Special Cell told the media on Monday. The encounter took place on Saturday. Qureshi used to be a SIMI operative, media reports said. Qureshi was under the radar of the intelligence agencies for his involvement in the 2008 serial blasts in Gujarat, The Times of India reported.

"A three-member special team of the Delhi Police was following his movement. On Saturday, we came to know that he was going to meet his old associate in Ghazipur. After a brief encounter, we arrested him," Pramod Kushwah, DCP, Special Cell told mediapersons.

According to the report, his cropped up after the Gujarat Police in 2008 found an email from the Indian Mujahideen, which claimed responsibility for the attack.

According to India Today, Qureshi is also suspected to be involved in Delhi, Bengaluru attacks along with the 2006 Mumbai train blasts, which killed over 200 people.

Kushwah told mediapersons that Qureshi alias "Tauqeer" fled India and was living in Nepal and Saudi Arabia for a few years before coming back to India.

"He came to India after he realised that most of the leadership of SIMI was killed in action or were arrested by intelligence agencies. He wanted to revive Indian Mujahideen in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh," Kushwah added.

According to India Today, Qureshi was carrying a bounty of four lakh rupees on his head. On Qureshi being called "India's Bin Laden" by a section of the media, Kushwaha remarked, "I have read it on Wikipedia, never heard anyone else saying so."

Qureshi is also wanted by the NIA for organising terror camps in Kerala, where recruits were given physical and psychological training to mislead investigators, Kushwah said.

A techie known for his expertise in making bombs, Qureshi worked for top IT firms before he was recrutied by the SIMI in 1998, The Times of India reported.
For border dwellers of Jammu and Kashmir, the trauma of seeing their loved ones die in front of their eyes is more than the fear of getting caught in the crossfire.

Jammu: For border dwellers of Jammu and Kashmir, the trauma of seeing their loved ones die in front of their eyes is more than the fear of getting caught in the crossfire.

The border residents continue to live on the edge, 'hoping against hope' to safeguard themselves and their families from the mortar bombs fired by Pakistani troopers along the International Border (IB).

Jeet Raj of Sia Khurd border hamlet says the injuries on his body would heal, but the 'wounds to his heart' would accompany him to his grave.

He lost his wife, Bachno Devi, to cross-border mortar shelling on 19 January. He and his son were injured in the incident.

"The wounds of my body caused due to splinter injuries will heal with time. But the pain of losing my wife will never leave me," Raj said as his eyes welled up.

"We were heading to our agricultural field when the shelling started. As we rushed back, a shell exploded in the compound of my house. My wife was hit and she died in front of my eyes," he said.

Raj said he rushed his injured son to the hospital, still grieving the loss of his wife.

"How long should the border dwellers remain sitting ducks and lose our family members to the Pakistani guns," he asked.

Yesterday, a civilian was killed and two persons were injured in the Pakistani shelling along the IB in Kanachak belt of Jammu district, raising the death toll in the ceasefire violations since Thursday last to 12 and injuries to over 60.

Over 300 educational institutes have been closed for next three days along IB and LoC in Jammu region in the wake of increased tension along the Indo-Pak border.

Krishen Lal of Korotona hamlet is yet to come to terms with the death of his 25-year-old son in the cross-border firing.

"It is a curse for a father to see his son die so young. I lost my son Sahil to the cross-border shelling. He was an obedient child and used to help me in the fields," says an emotional Lal, who is undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College.

"We bear the brunt of ceasefire violations. How long will our kith and kin keep getting killed? I want the government to find a solution to end it once for all," he says.

Another heart-wrenching tale is that of the family of 17-year-old Ghara Singh of Kapoorpur border hamlet in RS Pura sector. Singh died on Saturday after being caught in the crossfire.

As the family prepares for the marriage of his eldest sister, Singh's death has left a large void.

"Pakistani shelling killed my son. This wound to my heart will never heal. I have lost my support," says Singh's father.

"Ghara was looking forward to his sister's wedding. He was busy arranging the event, but fate snatched him away from us," the father says as he struggles to complete his sentence.

The bustling settlement of Arnia and a chain of border hamlets along the Indo-Pak border wear an empty look, with over 40,000 villagers abandoning their homes to escape heavy shelling by Pakistani forces.

Arnia town, with a population of 18,000, resembles a ghost town with only a few people left each in its adjoining hamlets to take care of animals and guard homes.

Farming, schooling, cattle rearing and everything else on which border dwellers survive have come to a halt due to the shelling episodes.

Deputy Commissioner Jammu, Kumar Rajeev Ranjan said 58 villages in Arnia and Suchetgarh sectors of Jammu district were affected due to shelling by Pakistan.

"Over 36,000 border population have migrated from their homes," he said, adding 131 animals have been killed, 93 injured besides damage caused to 74 buildings and houses.

While most of the migrated border people are living with their relatives, over 1,000 are camped in boarding and lodging places setup by the state government in schools and panchayatgarh.

Over 5,000 cattle and bovines have been shifted from various border hamlets to safer places like Chakroi farm, Ranjan said.

In Samba and Ramgarh sectors of Samba district, over 5,000 people have migrated besides over 3,000 from Hiranagar sector of Kathua district, the officer added.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson of the Kashmir University said that the 'poor results' were due to students not completing the formalities like filling the OMR answer sheet correctly.

Srinagar: Police on Monday fired tear smoke shells to disperse a group of female students who were protesting against Kashmir University authorities for their "mass failure" in the examinations for which results were declared last week, officials said.

Students from several colleges assembled at the Maulana Azad Road in Srinagar and blocked the traffic, demanding they be given back the papers they had written for their first semester examinations last year, they said.

The officials said that the police tried to persuade the protesting students to disperse peacefully, but in vain. The cops then fired tear smoke shells to disperse the students, they said.

Talking to reporters, the students said they did not want re-evaluation or rechecking of their papers. "We want to see our papers first. How can all the students fail? I think they have lost the answer sheets," one of the students said.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson of the Kashmir University said that the "poor results" were due to students not completing the formalities like filling the OMR answer sheet correctly.

"It is worthwhile to mention that the number of such candidates is more than 7,000. In order to resolve all these issues, it will take at least 15 days to correct and assess their OMR sheets and declare their results. The mistakes committed by the students on the OMR sheets can be seen on the sample copies of OMRs displayed on the university website," the spokesperson said.

He said that the evaluation of answer scripts is exclusively done at the college-level. "Lapses, if any, found on part of the invigilating or supervisory staff, shall be recommended for appropriate action under rules," the spokesperson added.
Several National Conference and Congress members on Monday staged a walkout from the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly over the government's 'unsatisfactory reply' on the issue of power crisis in the state and border shelling

Jammu: Several National Conference and Congress members on Monday staged a walkout from the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly over the government's "unsatisfactory reply" on the issue of power crisis in the state and border- shelling which has claimed 12 lives since Thursday.

NC MLA Ali Mohammad Sagar was the first to leave the House and was followed by party legislators Altaf Kaloo and Javaid Rana and Congress members Vikar Rasool, Usman Majeed and G M Saroori.

Opposition members staged the walkout as the deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh, who holds the power portfolio, was replying to questions and supplementary raised by various members related to the power crisis in the state.

Sagar took a dig at the government for its alleged failure to deal with the power crisis in the state especially in Kashmir valley. Parliamentary Affairs Minister A R Veeri intervened and asked Sagar to take his seat.

However, Sagar continued to raise issues.

The border firing (by Pakistan) is continuing, claiming 12 lives.

Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday said the state will not be allowed to become a battlefield but union home minister Rajnath Singh made a statement (that India has shown it can attack its enemies not only on its soil, but also in a foreign territory, if need be). We stand with the statement of chief minister as we are suffering (because of border skirmishes between the two countries), he said and criticised the state government for its failure to send a message of peace from the House. Sagar also accused Speaker Kavinder Gupta of not giving time to the opposition on the directions of unidentified forces.

When the opposition raises any issue, our voice is muzzled. The power minister accepted that the work was stopped on Alasteng, Budgam and Telbal grid stations.When the contractor has left, how the power supply will be made available to the people, Sagar told reporters outside the House.

He said the people of Kashmir are suffering immensely due to non-availability of power in sub-zero temperature and there is no end in sight as at least three more years are required for completion of these projects if the government was able to rope in contractors in time.

"I asked the government not to make the availability of power an issue between Kashmir and Jammu. Both regions need power supply but the demand is more in the valley due to winter, he said adding the deputy chief minister made no specific reply on how to tackle the power crisis in the valley.

Earlier as the speaker took the chair, several opposition members rose to their feet and raised the issue of alleged baton-charge on people protesting the brutal murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua district on 17 January, arrest of a youth in Meerut and alleged highhandedness of security forces during the course of a search operation in a village in home shalibugh constituency.

NC MLA Ishfaq Jabbar raised the concerns of the people of Ganderbal district and said they are apprehensive about stopping of work on central university there and fear shifting of the varsity.

However, education minister Syed Altaf Bukhari assured the house that there is no proposal to shift the central university from the district. Relief and rehabilitation minister Javaid Mustafa Mir also intervened when NC MLA raised the issue of arrest of a Gujjar leader Talib Hussain for leading protest against the killing of the minor girl in Kathua.

"He was seeking justice for the girl and was arrested.It is shame for this government, Kaloo said. Mir assured the House that the government would look into the incident.
More than a fortnight after the Kamala Mills tragedy, this will be the eighth big arrests made in the case, where the rich and mighty were charged with non-compliance of safety norms and negligence resulting in loss of lives.

Mumbai Police on Monday arrested Kamala Mills Compound owner Ramesh Govani, according to several media reports.

Govani, owner of the compound where a blaze at two open-air pubs claimed 14 lives and injured 55 others on 29 December, was arrested from suburban Chembur late on Monday evening, PTI reported.

CNN-News18 reported that Govani was arrested under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code.

More than a fortnight after the tragedy, this will be the eighth big arrest made in the case, where the rich and mighty were charged with non-compliance of safety norms and negligence resulting in loss of lives.

Before Govani, Yug Tulli, one of the co-owners of The Mojo's Bistro where the fire first erupted, surrendered to the Mumbai police on 16 January and was formally arrested.

The police have already arrested Yug Pathak, another co-owner of Mojo's Bistro. Pathak, the son of a retired IPS officer, and Tulli, a Nagpur-based businessman, were booked under sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life and personal safety of others) and other relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code.

Among others, Tuli has also been booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder in the December 29 fire which started in The Mojo's Bistro, spread to 1Above and other pubs on the rooftop of Kamala Trade House early that morning.

Ealier, Yug Pathak, son of a retired DGP level IPS offier KK Pathak, who is Tuli's partner in the pub, was arrested.

Besides, the three owners  Kripesh Sanghavi, Jigar Sanghavi and Abhijit Mankar  of the 1Above pub where most of the 14 deaths took place, were arrested on 10 January.

Two managers of 1Above  Kevin Bawa and Lisbon Lopez  have also been arrested in the same case.

Besides, four others, including hotelier Vishal Karia, were arrested but later released on bail on charges of aiding and sheltering the absconding accused owners against whom Mumbai police had announced a reward of Rs 100,000.

Karia was booked under Section 216 of the Indian Penal Code for harbouring an offender after the police found an Audi car belonging to prime accused Mankar, co-owner of the 1Above pub, at his residence.

On Sunday, the Mumbai Police had also arrested Kamala Mills director Ravi Surajmal Bhandari, Fire Brigade officer Rajendra Baban Patil and Utkarsh Vinod Pande, the owner of the hookah company Nirvana on various charges in the case.

The latest in the series of arrests took place after an inquiry report by the Mumbai municipal commissioner confirmed the theory that flying embers from hookah served illegally at Mojo's Bistro was the trigger for the fire. The report also proposed criminal action against the owner of the premises, owners of both the restaurants and concerned architects and interior decorators.

Earlier, a preliminary probe report by the Fire Brigade had also suggested that the blaze possibly started at Mojo's Bistro. The blaze soon spread through an inflammable canopy, installed to weather-proof the open air pub, which was again an illegal addition as open-air establishments are not allowed to cover the roofs.

The owner of the premises who gave permission for unauthorised use of terrace areas to these two restaurants was equally responsible for the fire and deaths, the municipal commissioner's report said.

"It is therefore proposed to initiate criminal action against owner of the premises, owners of the restaurants, the architect and the interior decorator who carried out...these unauthorised works and illegal activities," the municipal commissioner's report said.

It also proposed departmental inquiry against ten fire brigade officials for dereliction of duty. The 98-page report sought amendments to the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act to make punishment for such lapses by restaurants or eateries more stringent.

The husband of Parul Lakdawala, one of the fire victims, had filed an intervention application, opposing the anticipatory bail plea of Tulli, saying that the latter was responsible for the death of his wife and others.

With inputs from agencies
Athena said: I am curious about your background that makes you aware of such things. Click to expand...

For sure Obama was not a financial expert and this is where so many do-gooders fall down. I was disappointed when Obama relied on the same people who got into us into trouble, to get us out of trouble. I think he could have made better choices, and we could have gotten better results. Click to expand...

That Roosevelt did understand business and banking and would not be dependent on others was a certainly a benefit. Trump may have that benefit, but he is not a FDR. He does not have the class of FDR and Roosevelt had a different understanding of judging our success. Franklin Roosevelt came from a family with high standards.



Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children's children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.



 Theodore Roosevelt



Patriotism means to stand by the country. It Does not mean to stand by the President. Franklin Roosevelt



"The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people." -Theodore Roosevelt. Click to expand...

Thank you, but as I've mentioned before, I have no special, formal education other than high school and the necessary course work needed for apprenticeships in machining and tool&diemaking. Although the introduction of CNC(computerized) machines starting in the 80's requires regular upgrading and has changed a lot of the work from manual to programming/though this is all dumb technology, and manual adjustments still have to be made.But, I work to live/not live to work! So, on my own time...even back when I was in high school, I was always interested in exploring deeper into history and social and physical sciences than any course work offered. I just wanted to know stuff and have questions answered...the part about making any of this a career choice wasn't really on my radar cause I couldn't envision sitting in a classroom after grade 12 or pursuing an academic career...which was a lot easier back then than it is today, where even major scientists and researchers have turned into prostitutes to try to scare up the funding necessary to pursue any work they consider important. Instead of working for institutions, they're really working for corporate sponsors today!What's sad is that if I go back a previous generation or two, my father...who came of age just as the Great Depression was starting, only had a grade 5 education...like most farm kids on the east coast; yet he had no trouble reading newspapers(that have actually been dumbed down in recent decades) or important papers, do his own income tax, and when WWII broke out, nearly all the men of conscription age who had that similar grade school education were deemed literate enough and sufficient in basic math to pass the induction tests as enlisted men for the Army or Navy. But, most important, people of my father and mother's generation(who was a little younger) seemed to have a greater desire to learn new things than any generation after the TV age that us boomers grew up in. Educators worried that TV was making us less literate and turning children into passive consumers. All this "smart" technology we have today is even worse! The 'smarter' the technology gets/ the dumber the people become!Most of us...especially outside the Chicago area didn't know about a certain billionheiress named Penny Pritzker, who has been the power behind the scene of Chicago Democratic Party politics. For reasons that nobody really understood when the 08 campaign got going, she got behind an essentially green candidate, who was brand new on the national scene..just arriving at the right time and providing the fresh face the Party wanted for a Senate candidate. And within a year, he's running for president. And it's not a throwaway campaign to build his name nationally, it's a really serious campaign that gathers big donors on Wall Street in a year when it was assumed to be "Her Turn!" That, and all the big money...so big that Obama opted out of the old, inadequate campaign finance reform for matching funds, and just pocketed twice the money the McCain Campaign could take in in the General Election.With all that, it was pretty damn obvious that Obama would never prosecute fraud on Wall Street, nor bailout mortgageholders with 'liar loans.' And a Democratic Party that failed to take on Wall Street or help mortgageholders had nothing to offer when the fake "Tea Party" got kicked off by CNBC with attacks on those who were bankrupted by this fraud...not to mention their neighbors likewise ruined as foreclosed houses were abandoned and left for arsonists...destroying property values in neighborhoods consigned for gentrification. America discovered it had a rightwing pro-business party and a do-nothing pro-business party!Yeah, the worst thing about Trump is that he pretended to be something of an FDR or at least a Teddy Roosevelt- who went after the monopolists directly back at the turn of the century. Part of it was Trump has always been faking how much he is actually worth, and he was looking at achieving high political office as a business opportunity above all else! So, he is even more tightly constrained than the usual opportunist seeking high office, since he doesn't seem to care about anything outside of his own personal needs and he is at least as dumb as Reagan if not stupider!
The Mahadayi river has become a political flashpoint in Goa and Karnataka, and tensions are expected to spiral further with Kannada organisations and farmers planning to hold two bandhs.

The Mahadayi river has become a political flashpoint in Goa and Karnataka, and tensions are expected to escalate further with Kannada organisations and farmers planning to hold two bandhs in Karnataka over the next two weeks. The issue is pending before the Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal in Delhi.

What is the dispute about?

The 77 kilometre-long Mahadayi or Mandovi river originates at Bhimgad in the Western Ghats in Belagavi district of north Karnataka and flows into the neighbouring Goa where it eventually joins the Arabian Sea.

Though the river flow runs 29 kilometres in Karnataka and 52 kilometres in Goa, its catchment area  the area from where water drains into the river  is spread over 2,032 kilometres in the southern state as against 1,580 kilometres in Goa.

Since 2001, Karnataka has been asking Goa to release 7.6 thousand million cubic feet of the river water to meet the drinking and crop irrigation needs of its people in four drought-prone districts.

Karnataka plans to build two canals at Kalasa and Banduri, the river's tributaries in the state, to divert and supply the water to the four districts. However, this diversion of water is being opposed by Goa, which contends that Karnataka should not divert water to the Malaprabha river basin as the Mahadayi river already has a water deficit, according to a report by The Hindu. Karnataka, for its part, claims that the river is water-surplus.

Why has it erupted now?

In December, Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar wrote a letter to former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa saying that the state was willing to share water from the river for drinking purposes. On 3 January, he also said that sharing of the Mahadayi river with Karnataka is 'inevitable.'

"One has to understand that 52 kilometres of the river runs through Goa, 35 kilometres through Karnataka and 16 kilometres through Maharashtra. As such, sharing of water of the Mahadayi river is inevitable as it is passing through all the three states," he had said.

His statement promptly met with sharp reactions from the Shiv Sena and the Congress. The Sena said it expected Parrikar to "fight like a real son of the soil" against all the attempts to share even a drop of water from the Mahadayi river. His letter to Yeddyurappa was termed as an electoral gambit by the ruling Congress in poll-bound Karnataka. The Hindu points out that the issue has become a heated topic in Karnataka, as there is public anger over non-implementation of the project to divert water to the Malaprabha river.

On 29 December, agitated farmers of Karnataka Raita Sena from several North Karnataka districts staged a dharna outside the BJP head office in Malleshwaram and demanded that Yeddyurappa sit down with them to resolve the issue, according to this Firstpost report.

Narendra Modi's upcoming visit to Karnataka has led to escalating tensions, as the timings of the bandhs in the state coincides with his tour. The pro-Kannada outfits have asked Modi to intervene. Farmer leaders have hit out at the BJP, saying that the prime minister should have resolved the dispute much earlier as the BJP is in power at the Centre.

Is it likely to be resolved soon?

The Mahadayi River Water Tribunal is expected to hear the final arguments in the matter in February. According to a report in The Indian Express, the final hearing is expected to take place from 6 February to 22 February.

Meanwhile, Karnataka organisations have called for two bandhs on 4 February and 25 February. The Goa government, for its part, formed a committee to inspect violations of a Supreme Court order in the case by Karnataka. Goa water resources minister Vinod Palyekar set up the four-member committee to monitor, on weekly basis, possible violation of Supreme Court directives at Kankumbi village in Karnataka with resumption of the construction of a canal there.

With Modi's visit to Karnataka and two protests expected in the near future, this issue is likely to remain in the headlines.
Kannada organisations and farmers have decided to hold two bandhs in Karnataka over the next two weeks over Mahadayi river water sharing row

Kannada organisations and farmers have decided to hold two bandhs in Karnataka over the next two weeks over Mahadayi river water sharing row, said media reports.

According to Deccan Herald, a federation of pro-Kannada organisations has decided to call a state-wide bandh on 25 January, and a Bengaluru bandh on 4 February.

The Bengaluru bandh will coincide with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the city to attend the state BJP's Parivarthana rally.

The BJP had put off Modi's Bengaluru visit to 4 February. The prime minister was earlier scheduled to visit on 28 January to address a rally to mark the conclusion of the partys Parivarthana Yatra, The Hindu had reported.

The pro-Kannada outfits have asked Modi to intervene in the Mahadayi river water sharing dispute between the state and neighbouring Goa.

Vatal Nagaraj, leader of Kannada Chalavali Vatal Paksha (KCVP), a pro-Kannada outfit, had said that about 2,000 Kannada outfits had backed the bandh call.

However, according to The Times of India report, some Kannada activists were upset with Nagaraj for not taking them into confidence when he gave a call for a Karnataka bandh.

"Did you take our consent before giving a bandh call on 25 January? We will not support it. Our intention of calling a bandh on January 27 was to pressure Modi to intervene in the Mahadayi issue, as he was to visit the state on 28 January. Frequent bandhs are causing a lot of inconvenience to the public, who are now upset," Kannada activists were quoted as saying by The Times of India.

On 11 January, Nagaraj said the organisations had decided to speak to government officers and employees, lorry owners, fuel service stations, education institutions and appeal to them to cooperate in ensuring that the Bandh was a success.

The Kannada organisations have decided to show black flag to Modi when he visits Bengaluru for Parivarthana Yatra, a state-wide programme against the Congress government.

Karnataka has locked horns with Goa over the Mahadayi river sharing issue to supply water for Hubballi and Dharwad towns for drinking water through Kalasa-Banduri canal. Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar, on 11 January, said he would go by the decision taken by the Mahadayi river water sharing tribunal.

Earlier he had written to state BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa lending his support to resolve the Mahadayi river water sharing issue.

Karnataka is seeking release of 7.56 tmcft water by Goa from the Mahadayi river for the Kalasa-Banduri Nala project, being undertaken to improve the drinking water supply to Hubballi-Dharwad and districts of Belagavi and Gadag in the northern region.

The Kalasa-Banduri Nala (diversion) project involves building barrages across Kalasa and Banduri, tributaries of Mahadayi River, to divert 7.56 tmcft to the Malaprabha river which supplies drinking water needs of the region.

On 27 December last year, a bandh was declared in five north Karnataka districts over the same issue following a call by farmer groups.

Karnataka Bandh tomorrow: Here are the services which will affect Bengaluru and other cities

With inputs from PTI
An overview of the Assembly elections in the NorthEastern state of Nagaland, which are scheduled to be held in February 2018

Nagaland chief minister TR Zeliang said on Saturday that a solution was necessary for the seven-decade-old Naga insurgency before upcoming Assembly elections in the state. "Solution is a must for all the Nagas and it must arrive for the sake of permanent peace in the land. And that is why solution first and then election," Zeliang said.

The Election Commission on 18 January announced election dates for three northeastern states, Nagaland being one of them. Nagaland, along with Meghalaya, will vote on 27 February, while the results will be declared on 3 March. Voting in all the three states will be conducted in a single phase.

For Nagaland, the Election Commission released a revised electoral roll on Wednesday, naming a total of 11,89,264 voters, which reflects a 2.2 percent increase from the draft electoral roll published in October 2017, The Economic Times reported.

"In the revised roll around 6,00,536 are male and 5,88,728 are female. We will use Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) across the 2194 polling stations," the report quoted chief electoral officer Abhijit Sinha as saying. On Thursday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that the election in Nagaland will be held on schedule, amid demands by the state's civil society groups for deferring the polls.

Here is a brief overview of the Assembly elections in Nagaland, and what we may expect for the 2018 polls:

Numbers about Nagaland:

Sharing borders with Assam to the West, Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Myanmar to the east and Manipur to the south, Nagaland has a population of 19,80,602, according to the 2011 Census report. Of this, over 14 lakh lives in rural areas, the Census report says.

Nagaland is the only state to record a population drop between the 2001 and 2011 Census reports. The 0.47 percent drop has been attributed to incorrect and inefficient past censuses.

Sixteen separate tribes, each distinct in its culture and traditions, inhabit Nagaland. They are: Angami, Ao, Chakhesang, Chang, Kachari, Khiamniungan, Konyak, Kuki, Lotha, Phom, Pochury, Rengma, Sangtam, Sumi, Yimchunger, and Zeme-Liangmai.

While a significant majority (almost 18 lakh of the 19.8 lakh population) of these tribes follow Christianity, Nagaland also has many Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist and Jain residents. With a literacy of 80.11 percent across the state, the predominant language spoken in the state is English.

The grosss state domestic product (GSDP) of Nagaland was about 12,065 crore in 2011-12. The states GSDP grew at 9.9 percent compounded annually for a decade, more than doubling the per capita income.

Local politics

A state-level coalition of political parties called Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) has been in power in Nagaland since 2003. The alliance consists of Naga People's Front (NPF), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal (United).

The last Assembly election of 2013 saw the NPF sweep the polls with 37 seats, followed by the BJP and JD(U) with two and one seat respectively.

Being the leader in the DAN coalition, the NPF has the biggest say in the selection of chief ministers. Neiphie Rio was the states chief minister for two full terms, from 2003 to 2013. He also served as the chief minister for a short third consecutive term before TR Zeliang succeeded him in 2014.

Rio became a member of the Lok Sabha after he registered a landslide victory in 2014, eclipsed only by the winning margin of Narendra Modi.

Infighting within the ruling NPF

In July 2017, battling infight, the NPF expelled 19 MLAs owing allegiance to ousted chief minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu and suspended 10 legislators belonging to incumbent TR Zeliang's camp, two days after Zeliang was sworn-in after a controversial trust vote.

Days earlier, Liezietsu and his supporters failed to turn up in the Assembly to face the floor test, following which the House was adjourned sine die.

Governor PB Acharya had previously directed Liezietsu, who was facing rebellion by 43 ruling NPF MLAs led by Zeliang demanding change of leadership in the House, to seek a vote of confidence.

Zeliang, who was forced out of office in February 2017 following large-scale protests over holding of urban local bodies election with 33 percent reservation for women, had staked claim to form the government saying he had majority support in the House.

Months later in December 2017, in a possible end to the bickering within the NPF, Chief Minister Zeliang and NPF president Liezietsu signed a document to reconcile and re-unite.

Health Minister Imkong L Imchen, who is in the Zeliang camp, said the process was initiated as a solution to the long awaited Naga political crisis regarding insurgency is expected to be reaching the final stage. "As legislators we thought it is best to work together for a final settlement without difference to achieve the common aspiration of the Naga people," he said.

Another reason for the reconciliation, Imchen said, was the acknowledgement of the directive of the Election Commission of India to reconcile and resolve the matter as per provisions of the NPF constitution.

Demand for a peace accord and talks with rebel groups

On 8 January 2017, a state-based organisation urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to defer the state's Assembly election and impose President's Rule in order to facilitate a solution to the vexed Naga insurgency.

It said, "If elections are held in Nagaland for the sake of constitutional process before the completion of the negotiation process with the six Naga National Political Groups (or rebel groups) and the NSCN-IM, then solution to Naga problems will remain a mirage," reminding Modi of his promise to resolve the issue within 18 months.

Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju told The Hindu that he does not want the insurgency issue linked to the elections.

This election is special and challenging as talks are going on between the NSCN-IM and our interlocutor (RN Ravi). While talks are going on, many people expect it to conclude fast and the election process to start thereafter. We dont want to link the talks with elections, he said.

Naga Hoho, the apex Naga tribal body, also said that solving the insurgency problem is more important than elections.

"It is the unanimous view of the Naga people that the political solution or Naga Peace Accord is more important than elections and therefore, it has become imperative that the elections to the legislative assembly of Nagaland be deferred for peace and tranquility," the tribal body said.

The expectations for a lasting peace have soared in Nagaland, which had been hit by insurgency for decades, after the Centre and the NSCN-IM signed a framework agreement in 2015.

The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), commonly known as NSCN-IM, has been engaged with peace talks with the Centres interlocutor since 1997, when it announced a ceasefire agreement after a bloody insurgency movement that began soon after Indias Independence.

During a visit to Nagaland in November 2017, President Ram Nath Kovind said the state was at the threshold of making history as the final agreement on the Naga political issue would soon be arrived at and a lasting peace achieved.

On 19 September 2017, Nagaland governor PB Acharya had said the issue would be solved within a few months.

Seeking to allay concerns of the three Northeastern states, Rajnath Singh had said on 8 November 2017 that the territorial integrity of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Manipur would not be compromised on while inking the final Naga Peace Accord.

NSCN-IM's key demand is to integrate Naga-inhabited areas of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Manipur, which has been strongly opposed by the BJP-ruled states.

The beef burden

Amid a crackdown by governments in states like Uttar Pradesh to enforce a ban on cow slaughter and illegal abattoirs, political parties in Christian-majority Nagaland have been prompt to declare that its residents do not have to fear a similar exercise.

Bans on cow slaughter like the one in UP wont take effect in Nagaland if our party comes to power. The reality here is very different and our central leaders are aware of that, Nagaland BJP chief Visasolie Lhoungu told Hindustan Times.

After Yogi Adityanath dared Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah to ban cow slaughter and beef in the state if he proclaimed to be a Hindu, Rijiju said the BJP will not run a similar campaign in Karnataka.

"India has different regions with different characteristics, habits, culture and background. We must be sensitive to the sentiments of people in different regions. In Karnataka, a majority of the people have a particular ingrained sentiment that is for that area and it must be respected. You cannot replicate slogans for Karnataka in Nagaland... Yogiji has said what he did in Karnataka, not in Nagaland."

Key Players in the 2018 polls

After running multiple successful election campaigns consecutively, the ruling NPF remains the strongest political party in the state, even after the internal conflicts. Its ally BJP, however, wants more say in the alliance and is hence gunning for more seats in the Assembly this year.

When asked about seat adjustments with the NPF, Union minister Rijiju, who is in charge of BJPs campaign in the state, said, We have not started the talks on seat adjustment, but we will definitely have a bigger share this time, but we will not be unreasonable.

During the elections in 2012, the BJP fought in very few seats, whereas in 2007 we won seven seats. An NDA government is absolutely necessary in Nagaland because the Congress that ruled the State for so long has failed miserably, Rijiju said.

However, the Congress, which is the most prominent Opposition party in Nagaland, said the BJP will not pose a threat and is therefore going to fight the 2018 election without support from other parties.

"NPCC will be the real challenger for NPF in the 2018 hustings as other parties wont pose any threat. We will be fighting alone," Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) President K Therie said.

The 2018 elections will also see new players competing for space in the 60-seat Assembly. The Aam Aadmi Party announced it will contest all 60 seats, according to Eastern Mirror.

AAP said it will focus on improving existing infrastructure such as roads and education. Nagaland is facing lots of problem where the state education system is at its worst, with poor road condition and health system, party leader Sanjay Singh said.

With inputs from agencies
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday arrived in Zurich, Switzerland, from where he will leave for Davos to attend the World Economic Forum meeting where he will 'share his vision for India's future engagements with the international community.'

Zurich: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday arrived in Zurich, Switzerland, from where he will leave for Davos to attend the World Economic Forum meeting where he will "share his vision for India's future engagements with the international community." The main event in Davos will be the keynote speech of Modi at the plenary session on 23 January.

Modi will also interact with 120 members of the International Business Council, which is a part of the WEF. He will also interact with CEOs of Indian companies.

The prime minister is also looking forward to separate bilateral meetings with Swiss President Alain Berset and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven in Davos.

Modi will host a dinner for global CEOs. On Tuesday, he will interact with global business community members, besides delivering his keynote address. The prime minister had said in his departure statement that India's engagement with the outside world in the recent years has become "truly and effectively multi-dimensional covering the political, economic, people to people, security and other spheres".

"At Davos, I look forward to sharing my vision for India's future engagement with the international community," he had said.
A 1.5-year-old child lost her life and another was critically injured when a fire broke out in a Bandra West building on Monday. Locals in the area said the fire started from the pump room of the building where the two children were sleeping.

A one-and-a-half year old child lost her life and another was critically injured when a fire broke out in a Bandra West building on Monday. Locals said the fire started from the pump room of the building where the two children were sleeping.

The injured child, four-year-old Uma Shankarbahadur Dhanu, has been admitted to the ICU of Holy Family Hospital. According to The Times of India, MLA Ashish Shelar visited the spot and said that it was a 'tragic incident'. He has assured that all arrangements were being made to ensure to save the injured child. Later, the MLA tweeted about the visit.

Bandra near kantwadi turner rd Shoaib manzil fire- Fire occured in staff room of bldg - Prima facie appears 2 b an illegal stucture! Visited spot & hospital !Ask BMC 4 imm enquiry n criminal FIR , guilty shd b punished 4 loss of young girls life! pic.twitter.com/VJhQYKqTPv  ashish shelar (@ShelarAshish) January 22, 2018

The pump room was being used for the residential purpose of the watchman. Since using a pump room for residential purposes is illegal, a Nominated Officer has been asked to lodge a police complaint against office bearers of the society.

Mumbai has seen several incidents of fires in the recent past. On Monday, a massive fire had broken out in an industrial area in suburban Andheri, leaving two firemen injured and gutting a part of the premises, a fire brigade official said. The fire brigade got a call around 1.16 am about the blaze in a ground-plus-one-floor structure in the Mistry Industrial Estate area near Marol, he said.

The flames spread over the electrical wiring and other installations, and gutted a part of the industrial area, he said.

With inputs from Sanjay Sawant and PTI
Having finished his fifth term as Paryaya Swami of the Udupi Sri Krishna temple, Vishwesha Theertha Swami now wants to campaign for the Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya.

Having finished his fifth term as Paryaya Swami of the Udupi Sri Krishna temple, Pejawar seer Vishwesha Theertha Swami now wants to campaign for the construction of the Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya.

The octogenarian seer, who is known for uninhibited views on culture and politics, told Firstpost that one of the resolutions passed in the recently concluded Dharma Sansad in Udupi was to formulate a roadmap for dealing with the opposition to the temple to facilitate its construction.

Vishwesha Theertha Swami is the only seer to have ascended the Paryaya Peetha five times since the system of transferring power between the eight mutts surrounding the Udupi Sri Krishna temple came into being. The Paryaya Swami offers prayers at the Sri Krishna temple and is confined to Udupi town for two years ordained by the norms of the eight mutts. Vidyadheesha Theertha Swami of Palimar Mutt has been assigned the responsibility of the present Paryaya cycle.

Talking about the Ayodhya dispute, the seer said that Ram Janmabhoomi temple is overdue. Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) should initiate action now. It is not an election issue, but will have wide ranging implications. It is better that the temple be built in the original place and there should be deliberations between the two parties, he said.

Vishwesha Theertha Swami said he wants to update himself with all the developments in the last two years before beginning to campaign for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has been asked to coordinate with the parties opposing the construction of Ram temple. I have been in touch with the seers, but the picture will get clearer once I am there, he added.

Explaining the terms of Paryaya, Vishwesha Theertha Swami said that after the two-year period of looking after the Sri Krishna temple in Udupi, the seers are expected to propagate the Dwaita (dualism) philosophy across the Bharat Khanda.

His immediate attention would be to restart the stalled welfare activities, particularly in the areas of education and health, he said.

The seer had faced the wrath of Hindu hardliners last July for hosting an iftar for Muslims during Ramzan at the Sri Krishna temple. Terming the controversy needless, he said, It was an effort to show solidarity with the minority, to send out a message that minorities rights will be protected if need be. Anyway, the namaz was offered in the dining hall, far away from the sanctum sanctorum, so there is no reason for anybody to have a problem. The seer pointed out that even when Shaiva devotees pray at the Sri Krishna temple in their own style, no one objects them. If we do not facilitate them, the discord among various Hindu sects and other communities will widen.

When questioned about the rift between Veerashaivas and Lingayats in the state, the seer said that learned leaders of the Shaiva fraternity have deliberated on this issue and they know how to resolve it. The Shaivas are highly evolved in their religious school of thought, he said.

The 86-year-old seer said his priorities at this juncture are to complete the work he had taken up in past, which includes construction of a school and a hospital in Hubbali, a hostel in Shivamogga and creating a fund that ensures better pay for teachers, staff and researchers at Poornaprajna Vidyapeeta in Bengaluru.

If I am alive for the next Paryaya cycle, I would want my junior Vishwaprasanna Theertha to take his first Paryaya, he said.

M Raghuram is a Mangaluru - based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.
Last month in Chirag Singhvi versus State of Rajasthan, the Rajasthan High Court was faced with an increasingly common set of facts. What sets the Singhvi case apart from the dozen other cases with analogous facts is that the court took it upon itself to frame certain guidelines regulating how and when a person can convert from one religion to another.

Last month in Chirag Singhvi versus State of Rajasthan, the Rajasthan High Court was faced with an increasingly common set of facts. Singhvi filed a habeas corpus petition arguing that his sister Payal Singhvi had been kidnapped, forcibly converted to Islam, and compelled to marry a Muslim man.

The claims regarding the kidnapping were rendered questionable when Payal appeared in court on her own volition and it came to light that she had filed a complaint of her own. She claimed to have both converted to Islam and married on her own free will and was being harassed by her brother and father. Nonetheless, the high court noted that she was born and raised a Jain and thus decided to examine whether an individual must complete a specific procedure before they can convert from one religion to another.

What sets the Singhvi case apart from the dozen other cases with analogous facts is that the court took it upon itself to frame certain guidelines regulating how and when a person can convert from one religion to another. While the guidelines re-affirm the right of individuals to change religion, they also impose certain troubling conditions regarding notice and publication. Specifically:

The person, who is desirous to change his/her religion, shall give information to the district collector/SDM/SDO of the concerned city and Sub-Divisional Area before conversion of religion.

The district collector/SDM/SDO shall put such information upon the Notice Board of its office on the same day.

The person, who has converted his religion from one religion to another religion, shall solemnise the marriage/Nikah after one week of such conversion of religion.

By requiring individuals to provide public notice of religious conversion the courts guidelines raise troubling questions about the right to privacy, the freedom of association, and ultimately the freedom of conscience and propagation of religion.

In this post, I examine how anonymity is a crucial element in exercising the freedom of association, including religious association, and the potential harms of requiring the disclosure of religious conversions.

Some Context

Before proceeding further, it would be wise to quickly recap the context in which the Singhvi decision came out. In 2006 the Rajasthan Assembly passed the Rajasthan Dharma Swatantrya Act which made religious conversions made on the basis of allurement or inducement an offence. The Act did not get the assent of the Rajasthan Governor, who reserved it for the Presidents assent. The advocate-general raised some concerns and finally the matter was passed on to the home department. The law has still not received the presidents assent. Rather than let the checks and balances of the constitutional scheme operate, the high court noted that the State Government was very serious to frame certain rules to govern conversion and thus thought it more expedient for the high court to frame guidelines itself. The high court did not examine why the Act might not have received the governor or the presidents assent, nor did it even seem concerned that it had not. It merely noted that the guidelines would be in force until the Act did come into force. What happens if the Act or other regulations do not receive the Presidents assent is one left unanswered by the high court.

The question of religious conversion also has some context. In Stanislaus versus State of Madhya Pradesh, the Supreme Court upheld Madhya Pradesh and Orissas legislations which criminalised forcible religious conversion. The court said that although Article 25 protects the rights of people to propagate their religion, it does not allow an individual to convert somebody else to his or her religion.

In the courts own words: if a person purposely undertakes the conversion of another person to his religion, [] this would impinge on the freedom of conscience guaranteed to all the citizens of the country. This understanding seems to misconceive the reason why religious ideas are disseminated. They are not disseminated, or propagated to increase social awareness of a religion, but to engender in individuals the moral conviction that results in conversion. Article 25 thus protects the right to propagate religion by individual A, and also protects the freedom of conscience of individual B to choose any of the religions being propagated. Thus, disseminating ones religious ideas to convert others is not an interference with their religious freedom, but rather gives meaning to their freedom of conscience.

Coming to the Rajasthan High Courts guidelines, they go further than the legislations in Madhya Pradesh and Orissa did. The legislations of those two states required the person conducting the conversion ceremony to notify the relevant authority in the event they thought the conversion was coerced. However, the guidelines in Rajasthan require the individual converting to himself/herself give notice of conversion, and by displaying it in public, allowing anyone to object to the conversion.

The right to anonymous association

By requiring that individuals disclose when and which religion they intend to convert to, the guidelines place a restraint on the individuals freedom of association (included here is their religious association), and thus on their freedom of religion. For example, if an individual intends to convert to a religion whose members have been the victims of persecution, requiring the individual to publicly acknowledge their intention to convert may dissuade him or her from converting because of the risk of persecution. However, if you allow them to convert privately, they may happily do so. We would all balk at the idea of members of a religion being compelled to publicly identify themselves (for example, during the Nazi occupation of Poland, Jews were required to wear white armbands with the Star of David). Requiring individuals who intend to convert provide public notice similarly infringes on this crucial relationship between the freedom to associate and the privacy of ones associations.

The US Supreme Court highlighted this exact problem when the State of Alabama demanded that the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) disclose its list of members. In NAACP versus Patterson, the court held that by compelling the disclosure of the NAACPs membership lists, Alabama was violating the privacy of group association which was essential to the freedom of association. The court stated that, we think it apparent that compelled disclosure of the petitioners membership is likely to affect adversely the ability of petitioner and its members to pursue their collective effort to foster beliefs which they admittedly have the right to advocate.

The court stated the obvious, that disclosure would dissuade individuals from joining the NAACP as they may face reprisal due to their membership. Crucially, the court went on to hold that it did not matter that this reprisal was not from the government and may have been from fellow citizens. The court noted:

It is not sufficient to answer, as the State does here, that whatever repressive effect compulsory disclosure of names of NAACPs members may have upon participation by Alabama citizens in NAACPs activities follows not from state action, but from private community pressures. The crucial factor is the interplay of governmental and private action, for it is only after the initial exertion of state power represented by the production order that private action takes hold.

Therefore, it should not matter that an individual facing discrimination or violence due to their conversion to a religion does not face this hardship at the hands of the State. By requiring public notice of conversion, the government is opening up these individuals to the risk of reprisal for actions that they have a constitutionally protected right to pursue.

Treatment in India

The requirement for public notice as espoused by the Rajasthan High Court has in fact been explicitly struck down by both the Himachal Pradesh High Court, and the Delhi High. In striking down the requirement of public notice prior to religious conversion in the Himachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, Justice D. Gupta stated, A person not only has a right of conscience, the right of belief, the right to change his belief, but also has the right to keep his beliefs secret (See Evangelical Fellowship of India versus State of Himachal Pradesh). The court also noted that the government failed to show how requiring people to publicly disclose their conversion to another religion would in any manner stop, or even reduce forcible religious conversions.

The Delhi High Court also had similar observations regarding the notice requirements in the Special Marriages Act (SMA). While each religion in India has its own set of marriage laws, the SMA allows for inter-religious marriage. Prior to marriage however, there was a requirement to publicly disclose the inter-religious marriage by a notice at the residence of both the husband and the wife to-be. The Delhi High Court struck down this requirement stating that requiring individuals to disclose their marriage to the public was a violation of their right to privacy.

As in the two cases above, the court is affirming the right to privacy that individuals have regarding their associations. This anonymity in association is essential to the meaningful enjoyment of the freedom of conscience that Article 25 guarantees. The court also noted, The unwarranted disclosure of matrimonial plans by two adults entitled to solemnise it may, in certain situations, jeopardise the marriage itself. In certain instances, it may even endanger the life or limb of one at the other party due to parental interference.

The case of Singhvi and countless others is a testament to the fact that the fears of the Delhi High Court were well founded. By requiring individuals to disclose their association on marriage or religion, the State violates their right to privacy and puts them at risk of social persecution.

Post Puttaswamy

It is pertinent to note that these decisions were all prior to last years landmark Right to Privacy judgement. In Puttaswamy, the Supreme Court emphatically asserted that the right to privacy protects an individuals choice of preference on matters of religion, and stated, The constitutional right to the freedom of religion under Article 25 has implicit within it the ability to choose a faith and the freedom, to express or not express those choices to the world. Requiring that individuals provide public notice of their intention to convert from one religion to another seems to fall foul of this right to anonymously practice ones religion articulated by the Supreme Court, and places the guidelines in a rather dubious position.

Conclusion

The Rajasthan High Court cited the Law Commissions 235th Report as evidence of the rising problem of religious conversions, and the need to regulate them. It is true that the Law Commission did lay down certain guidelines, but it prefaced these guidelines by stating, statutory prescription of procedure to establish conversion or nature of proof required is neither desirable nor practicable. The high court may have enacted the guidelines in the hope of reducing litigation of the kind in Singhvi. But such cases centre around the appreciation of evidence, something no statute or guideline can ever achieve. After examining the FIR, the various statements, and the testimony of the Molvi, the court dismissed the case by stating that Payal and Faiez Modi are free to go and at liberty to live their life as per their choice. If only the court had extended this courtesy to the rest of the residents of Rajasthan.

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On Friday, Union minister Satyapal Singh claimed that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was 'scientifically wrong' and it needed to be changed in school and college curriculum.

On Friday, Union minister Satyapal Singh claimed that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was "scientifically wrong" and it needed to be changed in school and college curriculum.

Singh, the Minister of State for Human Resource Development  for those that skipped civics, this department is in charge of India's education system  told some presumably slack-jawed reporters (one hopes) that nowhere did our ancestors mention they saw an ape turning into a man. "Darwin's theory (of the evolution of humans) is scientifically wrong. It needs to change in school and college curriculum. Since man is seen on earth he has always been a man," he said.

For those wondering where Singh got such a fantastical idea, worry not. Singh was quick to provide a sound explanation and scientific support. Not. "Nobody, including our ancestors, in written or oral, said they saw an ape turning into a man," he said. "No books we have read or the tales told to us by our grandparents had such a mention," the minister added. Well, quite.

This is disturbing for a number of reasons. Firstly, of course, Singh is in charge of the department responsible for what children and teenagers learn in schools and colleges and he holds a prominent position in the Narendra Modi Cabinet. Second, some of us, at a young age, learned not to take too seriously the tales our grandparents told us (some of which were tinged with casual racism and sexism). It seems that Singh never learned that invaluable lesson.

Third, Singh is an educated man (although he may have played hooky with a few biology classes during his schooling). According to a report in The Indian Express, Singh is an MSc, an MPhil in Chemistry from Delhi University, has an MBA in Strategic Management from Australia, and an MA in Public Administration, including a PhD on the Naxalite movement. Singh is also an author, and has written books on Naxalism and the tribal conflict resolution, according to The Indian Express report.

Examining why the Narendra Modi government seems to have an anti-science bent is an article for another day (just do a quick Google search for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ganesha and plastic surgery).

Some have said that India and the US share uncanny parallels: The world's largest democracy and the world's oldest democracy (side note: Greece is actually the world's oldest democracy. In fact, the word democracy comes from the Greek word "demos", which means people. But let's pull a Satyapal Singh and ignore this fact). We both freed ourselves from the British, have had some of the great leaders on the world stage and like to Netflix and chill.

However, there's one major difference: Unlike in India, Darwin's theory of evolution continues to be fiercely debated in parts of the United States. This been ongoing for nearly a century. In 1925, the state of Tennessee passed the Butler Act, which prevented the teaching of the theory of evolution in public schools. This law was later challenged by the Scopes Trial (also known as the trial of the century until a certain OJ Simpson came along) in which John Scopes, a substitute teacher in a public school, declared that he had taught evolution to his pupils and was promptly arrested.

Much like our HRD minister, an intrepid individual in the United States called William Jennings Bryan took up the case against evolution. Unlike Singh, Bryan was a Christian, a pacifist, and a former presidential candidate. Fighting for Scopes (along with reason and logic) was legendary attorney Clarence Darrow.

Long story short: Much like Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, logic and reason was soundly defeated. Scopes was found guilty of violating the law, which gave credence to the old adage that sometimes, the law (along with large swathes of the American people) is an ass. The result, however, can be instructive: Evolution wasn't taught in US classrooms for nearly 40 years.

Let's imagine Singh gets his way and evolution is done away with in classrooms. In its place, Indian students are taught one of the several creation myths of Hinduism, along with dubious theories such as ancient India had airplanes and nuclear weapons, yogic farming (empowering seeds with the help of positive thinking) can solve our agriculture problems, astrology is the topmost science, and cow urine can cure cancer (someone tell Dennis Leary).

All this will leave our students a laughingstock when they go abroad. Heck, even President Donald Trump (a stable genius by his own reckoning and no one else's) was smart enough to make sure his six-year-old granddaughter was taught Mandarin (Ni Hao, my future Chinese overlords). To quote Homer Simpson: Children are the future. Unless we stop them now. And monkeying around with their education is a good way to do that.
Achal Kumar Joti on Monday demitted the office of the Chief Election Commissioner after heading the poll body for six months

New Delhi: Achal Kumar Joti on Monday demitted the office of the Chief Election Commissioner after heading the poll body for six months.

He came under attack from the opposition at least twice in his short tenure at the helm of affairs at the poll panel.

The commission's decision to delay the Gujarat polls to allow local authorities carry out relief work in the aftermath of floods came under attack from the opposition which alleged it was done to help the ruling BJP.

On Friday, just days before his term ended, the poll panel opined to the president to disqualify 20 Delhi AAP MLAs for holding posts of parliamentary secretaries, which EC said was office of profit which a lawmaker should not hold.

Officials who worked under him since he joined the EC in 2015 say he is particular about details and is behind several decisions to fast-track clearances required by political parties for electioneering.

A former IAS of the Gujarat cadre, he maintained a low-profile in the poll body.
In the light of the BJP-IPFT alliance announced for the Tripura elections, the INPT (Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura) has decided to unite all other indigenous parties.

In the light of the BJP-IPFT alliance announced on Friday for the Tripura Assembly elections to be held on 18 February, the INPT (Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura) has decided to unite all other indigenous parties and will try to form a grand alliance with Congress to counter the BJPs move and overthrow the CPM government, said party vice-president Amiya Debbarma. Joining hands with IPFT (Indigenous Peoples Front of Twipra) will not benefit the BJP, he said.

The NC Debbarma-led faction of the IPFT will contest on 10 of the 20 Assembly seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST) in the state, according to UNI. With two-third of the state area inhabited by indigenous people, who constitute one-third of the states population, influencing the tribal vote bank has been a major concern for all parties.

The Election Commission of India (EC) on Thursday announced the polling dates for Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland and said the votes will be counted on 3 March. Meghalaya and Nagaland will both go to poll on 27 February, the EC said.

The INPT was formed in 2002 as a merger of IPFT and Tripura Upajati Juba Samiti (TUJS). However, before the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, some INPT members revived the IPFT under the leadership of NC Debbarma, with their main agenda being the formation of separate Twipraland. The INPT enjoys a larger support base among the tribal and non-tribal people of Tripura owing to its unhindered existence and dissociation from the demand for a separate state. In the 2013 Assembly election, INPT contested on 12 seats and secured 7.6 percent vote share without winning a single seat. That said, IPFT secured only 0.5 percent of votes in the same election.

With IPFT, BJP is being cornered into the same failed experiment that was the talks with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) during the Gorkhaland agitation. They have not been clear about whether they are for or against IPFTs demand of a separate state. While the BJP president doesnt support it, the Centre says something different. And to align with INPT to fight the elections, BJP will have to give up 15 out of 20 tribal seats, again something we are not sure they are willing to do, said the sole heir of the Manikya royal family, Pradyot Kishore Deb Burman, who has also been the Tripura Congress working president since 2015.

Another factor that is expected to influence the tribal population in Tripura is the respect that major parties in fray show towards the erstwhile monarchs. The saffron party has ensured to pay obeisance to the erstwhile monarchy of the hill state during its campaign in order to reap benefits of identifying with the reverence that tribals have for their kings.

BJPs courting of Tripura royalty has impelled the ruling CPM as well to change its attitude towards the matters concerned with monarchs. For the first time in their partys history, they [CPM] have started renovating statues of kings across the state, said Debbarma of INPT, adding that the CPM had been critical of the kings in the past.

But, the fact that Deb Burman has been made convenor of the Congress election committee complicates the math around tribal voters. Deb Burman, who is also heading a eight-member social media team of Congress, is for the first time at the helm of elections in the state. A staunch Congressman (his parents, former MPs both, have had a long association with the party), he confidently says the party will contest on all 60 seats.

As far as alliances go, Tripura is a tricky playground. The BJP, which is keen to spread its reach beyond the four northeastern states, has entered into an alliance with IPFT, but it may find tough to negotiate their demands of a separate state. Their alliance, however, may clear the ambiguity around other coalition in the making.

But there is definitely one player in Tripura that the BJP is wooing in a not-so-subtle manner. The Royals. Or at least the idea of royalty, which it expects will go down well with the tribal population. The saffron party in its effort to honour Tripuras revered former king Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya has submitted proposals to the Centre to confer him with Bharat Ratna posthumously, name a road after him in the national capital, rename the Agartala airport as Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport and erect a statue of the Maharaja at the royal familys holiday palace in Agartala.

While the BJP is making all efforts to accommodate to the north eastern state, such as dressing up Bharat Mata in the traditional tribal attire and giving up on its cow politics, the strong support enjoyed by the CPM across the state makes matters difficult for them. That the CPM has been instrumental in mobilising the non-tribal settlers for the movements for indigenous peoples rights has been considered Marxists greatest success in the state.

Pradip Chakraborty is a Agartala-based writer and Suneet Shukla is a Bengaluru-based writer. Both are members of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters. With inputs from Ayswarya Murthy, a Bengaluru-based journalist and a member of 101reporters.com
Unlike with Lalu Prasad Yadav, Mulayam Singh or Mayawati, Congress has no problem attacking Arvind Kejriwal, because it believes weakening AAP will increase its chances of defeating BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls

Delhi Congress president Ajay Makens relentless attacks on Aam Aadmi Party conforms to the model that Congress began to subscribed ever since its decline started following the rise of Bharatiya Janata Party.

Call it the model of comeback built on the assumption that BJPs Hindutva and misgovernance will scare left-liberals, the genteel right wing, and the ideologically neutral into voting for Congress. Where else can these disenchanted groups go but flock to the tent of Indias grand old party? After all, it is the only national alternative to BJP. Congress has to only ensure that state-based parties take away as few anti-BJP votes as possible in order for it (Congress) to return to power.

This deeply flawed model of comeback has inspired Maken to train his guns on AAP instead of BJP. True, Congress feels bitter at AAP having grown at its expense in Delhi. It is also true that as an opposition party it must raise issues on which the ruling party is found wanting. It is indeed the right of Congress to rebuild itself for a comeback.

Yet Congress leaders and their supporters never miss an opportunity to emphasise the necessity of forging a broad front to take on BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The need of the hour, they say, is to reconcile competing interests among Opposition parties to check Hindutvas ascendancy and the Modi governments growing authoritarianism. Or else, Indias democracy will be imperiled, and the cherished values of the Republic will be eroded, the Congress argues.

But such worries begin to sound hypocritical when there is a gross mismatch between its rhetoric and action. Maken has created tremendous sound and fury over AAPs parliamentary secretaries even though the Congress government in Karnataka has 10 of them, each having the status and salaries equivalent to that of a minister. A week before the Election Commission recommended to the President that 20 AAP MLAs should be disqualified for holding "office of profit", Maken had met Chief Election Commissioner Achal Kumar Joti urging him to take the precipitate measure.

In July 2016, Maken had sought to become a party to the office of profit case, but the Election Commission rejected his plea. Perhaps Maken believes bye-elections in the 20 seats (which could be vacated following AAP MLAs disqualification) in Delhi could provide Congress a chance to enter the Assembly, where it doesnt have a seat, and prove his mettle to the Congress high command. As of now, he and his party seem to be punching well above their weight; bye-elections to these 20 seats are likely to boost BJPs tally, giving it yet another victory to crow about.

Few will deny that the Modi government has created obstacles to prevent smooth functioning of the AAP government, objecting to just about every initiative it had taken, either delaying projects or scuppering them altogether. Though the Supreme Court is yet to determine as to who is the government in Delhi, the NDA governments propensity to stonewall Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, through the office of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, meets the definition of authoritarianism that Congress often invokes to criticise Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Yet Congress has chosen to be seen on BJPs side. Whether it is about the Mohalla clinics, improvement in government schools, allocation of land to AAP to build its office, or, the party's advertisement expenditure, Maken has been firing at AAP like a man possessed. It is presumed his strategy has the backing of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who is said to have a soft corner for the Delhi president.

Perhaps Congress hasnt forgiven AAP for having launched the anti-corruption movement in its earlier avatar, targeting the Manmohan Singh government and eroding its credibility. The narrative that AAP created was indeed an important factor behind Congress' defeat. It is now time for Indias grand old party to take its revenge on AAP. This too is understandable because vengeance has long been the norm in Indian politics.

A new story gets revealed if you were to look at Congress from the perspective of the last 28 years, that is to say, after it lost the 1989 Lok Sabha elections. This style seemingly stems from the belief that the best way to fight BJP is to weaken the state-based parties.

For instance, through the 1990s, Congress' focus of attack had been Lalu Prasad Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav, and the Kanshi Ram-Mayawati duo. Congress targeted them because each of these four leaders had ferreted away a chunk of its traditional base. But so had BJP, to which the upper caste voters of Congress migrated.

Unable to reinvigorate its organisation, or reinvent itself, the upper caste leadership structure of Congress could scarcely conceal its disdain for the emerging OBC and Dalits leaders. It attacked them even though they were, on the side, arrayed against Hindutva, hoping their weakening could correspondingly lead to its own strengthening and revival.

It took Congress nearly 14 years to realise that it cant possibly counter BJP without the support of regional outfits. In the months before the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Sonia Gandhi overcame the biases of the Congress leadership to enter into alliances with regional outfits whose bosses were mostly non-upper caste. This was largely because Sonia, an Italian by birth, did not have a caste. It was thus that Lalu became a member of the United Progressive Alliance government in 2004 and 2009.

Makens attack on AAP is a throwback to the politics that Congress pursued in the 1990s, aimed at weakening those whose base overlaps with its own. This too is a justifiable pre-emptive measure. No party in the world loves a competition detrimental to its interests.

But Congress and its supporters cant also rail against parties which field candidates that turn elections into multi-cornered contests, weakening what is called the Index of Opposition Unity and benefitting BJP. Over the last three years, as soon as election results in any state are announced, we are given the precise number of seats the Congress lost because non-BJP formations gobbled votes that would have otherwise come to it.

Really, Congress, to use a cliche, cant eat its cake and have it too. It cant attack state-based parties and still expect them to not field candidates so that Hindutva is trumped. Who would want to bear the cross of secularism to ensure that Congress comes to power despite its own ideological and organisational weaknesses? After all, Congress isnt a movement, but another party jockeying for power.

This is a fact that Congress supporters, including left-liberals, dont understand. They want all small outfits to make sacrifices for the cause of secularism. For instance, months before the Gujarat elections they were critical of AAPs decision to field candidates there. It was said that AAP and other outfits would eat into Congress votes and enable BJP to triumph. In case AAP contests all 60 Assembly seats in the forthcoming elections in Nagaland, the charge of it betraying the fight against secularism will be raised again.

How about Congress asking Maken to think of the fight against Hindutva before he fires yet another volley against AAP?

But Congress will not restrain Maken from attacking Kejriwal unlike Lalu or Mulayam and his son Akhilesh Yadav or Mayawati, all of whom are required for an alliance without which Congress knows BJP cant be trumped. But then no such compulsion exists in Delhi especially since the state has just seven Lok Sabha constituencies and AAP cant but fight in all of them.

This is what drives Maken to snipe at AAP. His party believes that by joining BJP in tarnishing AAPs image it can perhaps win over a large segment of its voters who too have anxieties about BJPs rise. To be on the side of Hindutva to fight it is indeed a strange strategy. Congress thrives on the fear of Hindutva, but the party will not counter BJP. Congress model of comeback rests on such weak foundations.
The 2013 elections in Rajasthan saw the BJP romp to a historic win. In 2018, the outcome of the election will be seen as a popularity test for the NDA government.

The results of the Rajasthan Assembly election in 2013, along with several other electoral battles, had at the time provided a clear indication that the UPA government at the Centre was on its way out. Not only had the Bharatiya Janata Party ousted the Congress, but had done so with a historic majority in the north-western state. In 2018, when the state votes again for a new Assembly the results will be seen as a popularity test for the NDA government in New Delhi.

Since 1998, Rajasthan has alternated between the Congress and the BJP holding the reins of power, due to which the former would fancy its chances. However, this time, the Modi factor and the BJP's overwhelming presence in most of the country may disrupt the trend of the revolving door. Even in 2013, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje had attributed her party's unprecedented win to Narendra Modi-at a time when he was yet to become the prime minister. This time around, the role of Modi will be even more important.

However, recent trends suggest that the BJP may not have an easy time in the election. In the recent local body by-polls in the state, the Congress won a majority of seats. In fact, the Congress won all four wards in the Zilla Parishad by-polls in Banswara, Bhilwara, Jalore and Karauli districts. Except for Karauli, in all the other places, the BJP had won the 2013 Assembly elections. Thus, it appears that a tough contest may be on the cards.

Demographics of the state

Rajasthan, with a population of 6.86 crores according to the 2011 census, has 200 Assembly constituencies in all. The state has nine regionsAjmer State, Hadoti, Dhundhar, Gorwar, Shekhawati, Mewar, Marwar, Vagad and Mewat.

Jats and Meenasboth comprising about 10 percent of the populationare numerically significant communities in the state. Muslims constitute 9.07 percent of the population.

Several of the communities in the state have been antagonistic to each other in the past. For instance, in 2009, the tribal Meena community had resented the demand for reservation of the Gujjars and their demand that they should be included in the Scheduled Tribes category, as this article in Mint states.

Similarly, historically, there was antagonism between Jats and Rajputs, due to the latter's feudal past, as this Firstpost article states. In the early decades after independence, Jats gravitated towards the Congress while the Rajputs voted for opposition parties. However, the 'feudal' perception holds relatively lesser influence now, according to the article. The Congress' decision to make Ashok Gehlotwho belongs to the Mali communitythe chief minister instead of Jat leader Paras Ram Maderna also did not go down well with the community. In recent elections, their vote has swung both ways, even as the community has largely voted as a block.

Vote share over the years

As mentioned above, Rajasthan has alternatively voted for the Congress and the BJP since 1998. However, the BJP's victory in 2013 was significant not only for the number of seats it won but for the fact that it cornered the highest vote share  45.17 percent  of a single party since 1998. The Congress received 33.07 percent of the votes in 2013. The Congress had garnered a significantly higher vote share than the BJP in 1998  44.95 percent as against 33.23 percent of the saffron party. In the elections in 2008 and 2003, the difference in the vote shares of the two parties was not significant  less than four percentage points.

The Congress had dominated the political scene and the vote share in this state until the Emergency, after which a non-Congress government (Janata Party) came to power for the first time. The vote share of the Congress in 1951, 1957, 1962, 1967 and 1972 was 40.32 percent, 45.13 percent, 39.98 percent, 41.79 percent and 52.76 percent respectively.

Key issues

In the recent past, Rajasthan has been in the news for a series of hate crimes and politics of polarisation. The political campaign during the recent bypolls in Alwar also provide a sign of things to come. Recently, the Congress filed a complaint with the Election Commission after BJP Jaswant Yadav told a rally, "If you are a Hindu, vote for the BJP. Muslims will go with the Congress." A Facebook post by BJP MlA from Alwar had on 2 January stated that Muslims are having more children to outnumber Hindus and take over the country.

Caste considerations will also weigh heavily on political parties' minds. For instance, the Congress has replaced Bhanwar Jitendra Singha Rajput with Karan Singh Yadav hoping to cash in on the Ahir vote bank, a Firstpost article states. Further, as detailed before, caste identities such as those of Jats, Rajputs and OBCs go a long way towards influencing electoral outcomes.

Much like neighbouring Gujarat, farmers' issues may also play a major role in the voting preferences of the rural regions. If agrarian discontent translates to anger against the ruling party, it will worry the BJP. Rajasthan has a 75.13 percent rural population, as against 57.40 percent in Gujarat, according to the 2011 census. After farmers launched a protest in Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh, the agitation soon spread to Rajasthan as farmers sought, among other things, higher minimum support price and loan waivers. However, the state government in September announced a Rs 60,000 crore farm loan waiver, which may douse some of the anger.

Important faces

Much like Gujarat, Rajasthan too has been a largely bipartisan state in the recent past, with the BJP and Congress dominating the political scene. While the BJP is banking on Vasundhara Raje to retain the faith of the voters, the Congress is hoping that Ashok Gehlot will help the party shore up its fortunes.

Raje has gained accolades in the past for improving the economic environment of the state. A report by the World Bank had in 2015 placed Rajasthan in the upper league of 'aspiring leaders.' However, she has faced criticism for an ordinance protecting bureaucrats and judges from being scrutinised for any on duty-action, and allegations of backing Lalit Modi.

The government's decision of continuing with a controversial mining lease in the Aravali hills, despite the party's vociferous criticism of it earlier, had also dented Raje's image. In the run-up to the 2013 Assembly elections, the BJP had released a 'black paper' alleging that the company to which the lease was given was close to the Congress. However, after it came to power, the government filed an affidavit in the Rajasthan High Court justified the lease and argued against its cancellation.

She has also faced criticism for failing to contain farm distress. To illustrate, a report by Scroll states that even the region of Alwar has seen farmer suicides in the recent past, although farmer suicides had not been reported there earlier. Farmers were reported to have been disappointed with her personally as she went to Japan to seek the country's participation in a business summit at a time when the assembly was in session and farms had been ravaged by hailstorms.

However, as Raje has been part of the BJP fold since its early days and has twice been chief minister, she might find herself to remain the trusted face of the party.

Gulab Chand Kataria, who first became an MLA in 1977, is a BJP veteran who is also an important face for the party. He has earlier served as the general secretary of the BJP in Rajasthan on two occasions, as also the party president in the state on one occasion. as he holds the position of the home minister in the state, he has also faced criticism for the condition of law and order there. Following a series of incidents of cow vigilantism, he was slammed for saying that people who kill cows are as much to blame as vigilantes, a statement that was seen as condoning violence.

As mentioned earlier, the appointment of Gehlot as chief minister had angered the Jats in the past. However, his political capital in the Congress may have risen due to the party's improved show in Gujarat, where he was the party's campaign chief. Gehlot has faced public anger in the past over allegedly favouring his relatives in allocating sandstone mines in Jodhpur, as mentioned in this Tehelka report. He was accused of doing so by bending eligibility criteria and violating the mining policy. Gehlot may also face a tough time during the election campaign over accusations of favouritism towards Robert Vadra, Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law. Reports stated that Vadra's firms bought 20 plots in Bikaner district shortly after Gehlot came to power, after which land prices shot up 40 times.

For Sachin Pilot, the by-polls in Alwar and Ajmer will be a major test. As Ajmer is his home turf, a loss here would mean a personal setback, in addition to a political one. Pilot enjoys a clean personal image, and has had electoral success in 2014, when the Congress won three out of four assembly by-polls after he was made the state's party chief. However, as the son of Congress leader Rajesh Pilot, he will have to defend himself against allegations that he is a dynast.
The draft political resolution adopted by the central committee (CC) of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) ruling out an alliance with the Congress is being widely seen in Kerala as a personal victory for Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

The draft political resolution adopted by the central committee (CC) of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) ruling out an alliance with the Congress is being widely seen in Kerala as a personal victory for Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Political observers say Vijayan rallying for all but one of the 14 central committee members from the state, against the draft political resolution presented by CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury seeking a broad anti-communal platform, as an indication of his move to carve out a greater role for himself and the state unit of the party at the national level.

The alternate line advocated by former general secretary Prakash Karat was adopted by the central committee with a 55-31 vote at its meeting in Kolkata on 21 January. The Karat line opposing any alliance or understanding with the Congress was discussed threadbare in the local committee and district conferences in the state.

Vijayan had ensured support of the party committees for the Karat line by personally guiding the discussions in most of the district conferences. His interest in defeating Yechury is understandable since the latter had sided with his arch-rival VS Achuthanandan in their long power struggle in the state.

He has already decimated Achuthanandan, who once called the shots in the party, by shunting him to the Administrative Reforms Committee and clipping the wings of those leaders who were supporting him. His next target is apparently Yechury.

Vijayan had teamed up with Karat and three other politburo members MA Baby, S Ramachandran Pillai and Kodiyeri Balakrishnan to prevent Yechury from becoming the party chief at the last CPM congress in Vishakhapatnam three years ago.

This clique had also played a key role in denying Yechury another term in the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal. Political observers believe that their next aim is to stall the second term for Yechury. They intend to hoist Ramachandran Pillai, popularly known as SRP, in place of Yechury.

This will allow the clique to control the party remotely since SRP is old and confined mostly to AKG Bhavan, the party headquarters in New Delhi, says NP Chekutty, a Kozhikode based senior journalist.

Chekutty told Firstpost that this will make the CPM a Kerala party and there was no ideology behind Karats line. It is the result of the personality clash and it may lead to a vertical split in the party after the Hyderabad congress, Chekutty said.

The main argument of the Kerala unit is that any alliance with the Congress may harm CPMs prospects in the coming Lok Sabha poll since Congress is its major opponent in the state. This may not hold ground since minorities may view the anti-Congress line as pro-BJP.

Leaders of the minorities have already started expressing concern over the new political line proposed by the CPM. Geevarghese Mor Coorilos, Metropolitan of the Niranam Diocese of Jacobite Syrian Church, said he was shocked by the CPM resolution. The bishop, who is known for Left-leaning, said the decision would disappoint the secular forces in the country.

CPMs refusal to forge a broad alliance against the Sangh Parivar will make the communal forces happy but it will disappoint secularists. This is the second historical blunder that the CPM has committed since it has entered the electoral politics, the bishop said.

The Congress, which is witnessing an erosion in its support base among the minorities, has described the new political line proposed by the CPM as an anti-minority move. Senior leaders of the party have viewed the resolution as the result of an understanding with the saffron party.

Party working committee member and former Union defence minister AK Antony said the resolution was a clear indication that the CPM was not interested in fighting the communal and fascist forces.

The Kerala unit of the CPM is behind the new political line. The party leadership in the state want Modi more than protecting the secular fabric of our country. History will never forgive them, nor will the people of Kerala," the senior leader said terming the resolution as a betrayal of democratic forces.

Congress legislator Joseph Vazhakkan termed the new resolution as a gift to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for shielding the chief minister in the SNC Lavalin scam. Vijayan is obliged to Modi for the clean chit he got in the case in the lower court, he added.

The CPM is opposing electoral adjustments with the Congress citing its economic policies. Since he came to power in the state, the chief minister himself has been pursuing the neo-liberal policies followed by the Congress while it was in power at the Centre and now being implemented by the BJP, he added.

He pointed out that Harvard professor Geetha Gopinath, who is the economic advisor of the chief minister, has been a strong advocate of liberal policies. She had justified the Modi governments demonetisation that the CPM opposed tooth and nail, said Ashokan.

If it is the policy that matters for the CPM, it should explain why it is trying to woo the Kerala Congress (M), a former Congress ally into the Left Democratic Front (LDF). The partys anti-Congress line has nothing to do with ideology. It is sheer opportunism, he added.

Vijayans support to the Karat line has come as a surprise to political observers since he is considered as an advocate of practical politics. Noted writer and social critic Prof MN Karaserry said that the resolution was not guided by political realities but narrow interests of the CPM.

In rejecting the Yechury line, CPM has committed yet another historical blunder. It shows that the party has not learnt any lesson from its past mistakes. If the party is sincere in fighting the communal forces it should correct this mistake, Karaserry said.

The decision has also disappointed the partys allies in the LDF and its fellow travellers. The Communist Party of India (CPI), the second largest constituent of the coalition, wondered how the CPM, that has no base outside Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura, could fight the communal forces alone.

The need of the hour is a broad alliance against the BJP. I hope the CPM will realise this and take the lead in bringing together all democratic and secular forces against the BJP before the Lok Sabha polls, said Benoy Viswam, former minister and member of the CPI state executive.

State leaders of the CPM have defended the resolution saying that the party would not be able to fight fascist forces without making its ideological base strong. Senior leader KT Kunhikannan said that the partys attempt was to lead a larger struggle against the communal and fascist forces than making adjustments for electoral gains.

He pointed out that the party did not find any merit in joining hands with the Congress for fighting the communal forces since the saffron party is able to buy the elected representatives from other parties.

We have seen this in Goa and Manipur. More than 80 percent of the leaders in the BJP now are former Congressmen. If we help Congress to win seats, what is the guarantee that they will not join the BJP? We are not here to supply MPs and MLAs to the BJP, Kunhikannan added.
During his Rajya Sabha tenure, Yechury developed a cosy relationship with the Congress and was often seen as a 'Congress apologist'. On the theoretical plane, he could justify his proximity to the Congress leadership as siding with the lesser evil to checkmate the bigger evil of communalism  in the form of emergence of Narendra Modi.

Much before Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury got marginalised within the partys central committee last week over the possibility of an alliance with the Congress, is learnt to have had an interesting conversation with Arun Jaitley, his fellow student-politician back in the 1970s and now the union finance minister.

Just days before the end of his Rajya Sabha term in August last year, Yechury apparently walked up to Jaitley and asked him how he (Jaitley), as leader of the House, would describe him (Yechury) in the upcoming customary farewell message retiring members. Jaitley in his characteristic manner remarked, "I would say to the effect that you came here as a Marxist ideologue and would be leaving this house as a Congress apologist." "Dont say that. I will be in trouble with my party," Yechury pleaded. Jaitley, of course, only praised Yechury in his formal remarks.

Perhaps nothing highlights the dilemma of the CPM leadership as its inability to choose the correct path for political action. At the same time, the above anecdote, though unsubstantiated, is indicative of the BJP's deep understanding of the Marxist predicament in Indian politics and its marginalisation. This is not the first time that Yechury was making efforts to break the Marxist mould in order to adapt the party to Indian realities.

During the hey days of the Indo-US nuclear deal, he initially hobnobbed with Amar Singh, late Digvijaya Singh of JD(U) and Yashwant Sinha to topple the Manmohan Singh government. Later, he went all out to save the nuclear deal along with Amar Singh-Mulayam Singh combine, much to the chagrin of the traditionalists within his own party, then led by Prakash Karat. He was clearly out of tune with his party leadership. But he found support in the then Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee who openly favoured the deal and was sacked from the primary membership of the party.

Of course, Karat presents himself as a classical Marxist who is quite averse to revisionism. He was marginalised when the CPM was completely decimated in the 2009 Lok Sabha election after its unsuccessful attempt to pull the rug from under Manmohan Singhs feet. Two years later, as the party also lost its citadel  West Bengal  to Mamata Banerjee, the CPM leadership veered towards moderation and found Yechury as an answer.

During his Rajya Sabha tenure, Yechury developed a cosy relationship with the Congress and was often seen as a "Congress apologist". On the theoretical plane, he could justify his proximity to the Congress leadership as siding with the lesser evil to checkmate the bigger evil of communalism  in the form of emergence of Narendra Modi. Yet, his thesis turned out to be nothing more than a theorisation of his tendency to be amenable to the Congress-style politics.

Instead of bringing dividends, Yechury's efforts to align his Marxist party with the Congress-led opposition further marginalised the Left forces. Today, the party retains a semblance of base only in two smaller states: Kerala and Tripura. In both the states, radical elements in the party have been feeling the heat as the BJP is gradually replacing the Congress as the effective rival of the CPM. And quite evidently, in these states the Congress politics often conforms to the BJPs Hindutva line which is anathema to the CPM.

Apparently, the recent churning within the CPM over following either Yechury's line or Karat's line is directly related to the upcoming polls in Tripura, the Left bastion which has been showing signs of cracks. Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar is a pragmatist and has been running the government since March 1998. He is seen as a chief minister liked by the people for his simplicity, accessibility and his understanding of Tripuras society.

After the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he was the first in his fold to read the message on the wall and tried to mend fences with the BJP and build a good rapport with prime minister Narendra Modi. Remember the manner in which he insisted on inviting Modi to his own office in Agartala to hold a meeting with the states cabinet ministers. The idea was apparently to develop a good relation with the Centre in order to speed up developmental projects in the state and neutralise the belligerence of the BJP. However, Sarkar was stopped in his tracks by CPM traditionalists who saw a semblance of bonhomie with the BJP in general and Modi in particular as political sacrilege of the highest order.

Perhaps the CPM leadership is oblivious of the fact that in the BJP's imagination of India, the Northeast plays a critical role. After Independence, during Nehru's time, the entire region was found to be emotionally alienated from the mainland for a variety of reasons, ranging from geography to culture. The Sangh Parivar has made huge emotional and organisational investment to make a breakthrough in the region which was considered practically inaccessible for the Hindutva forces.

Few know that the RSS and its affiliates had the first major run-in with the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the issue of the northeast where its activists were abducted and killed ostensibly by insurgents owing allegiance to the Church. The RSS leadership accused the then home minister LK Advani of inaction. This issue emerged as a major flashpoint between Vajpayee-Advani on one side and the RSS and its affiliates working in the region on the other. Modi is quite conscious of the importance the Sangh Parivar attaches to the northeast. Ever since he assumed power, he is consciously focusing on the region and building up a strong organisational network to challenge the CPM in Tripura.

Of late, there are reports of violent clashes taking place between the BJP and the CPM all over the state. That is a clear indication of the BJP taking the place of the main opposition and emerging as a formidable challenge to Manik Sarkar whose long stint of rule has many weak spots. But what is clearly ruining the CPMs position is the inability of the leadership to choose correct political course. It faced decimation when it adhered to the traditionalist approach. And its marginalisation is complete when it aligned with the Congress. In either case, the countrys biggest Marxist party is doomed to be tottering on political margins in India. If it loses Tripura, it may prove to be the proverbial last nail.
One of the earliest entries on Congress leader Ajay Maken's CV says he was parliamentary secretary to the then Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit in 1999.

One of the earliest entries on Congress leader Ajay Maken's CV says he was parliamentary secretary to the then Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit in 1999. So, it is indeed ironical that a man who has himself been a parliamentary secretary in the Delhi government is railing against Arvind Kejriwal for doing the same. A classic case of pot calling the kettle black.

The Maken hypocrisy could be the perfect metaphor for the latest tragedy to strike Kejriwal and his government in Delhi following the disqualification of 20 MLAs for holding a post that is almost a norm in every other Indian state.

Kejriwal's predecessor Dikshit had 19 parliamentary secretaries. Raman Singh's government in Chattisgarh had 11 before the appointments were quashed by the high court. Rajasthan has had a tradition of accommodating aspirations and ambitions of legislators by appointing them not just as parliamentary secretaries but also heads of various corporations and agencies, both under the BJP and the Congress. In Arunachal Pradesh, chief minister Prema Khandu has 31 parliamentary secretaries in a 60 member house.

So, why is just Delhi the target of the Election Commission? Does the law say having parliamentary secretaries is fine for the BJP and the Congress, in Arunachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh, even in Delhi under Diskshit, but not under Kejriwal? How does the legitimacy of parliamentary secretaries change with geography, with the party ruling a state?

On any other day, under different circumstances, the Election Commission would have been expected to impartially answer these questions. It would have been responsible for applying the extant law without any bias or prejudice. But, the manner in which the AAP legislators have been disqualified without a proper hearing, with so much opacity and secrecy, on the final working day of the outgoing chief election commissioner, leaves the questions unanswered.

At stake here is not just the fate of the AAP legislators disqualified by the Election Commission (EC). The bigger question here is can the poll panel apply a law selectively depending on the prevailing political equations? The fundamental question that needs to be addressed is about the impartiality of an institution that is at the vanguard of our democracy.

It is for this reason the fight for Delhi is not just political, which, going by the prima facie iniquitous treatment of the AAP government by the Centre and the history of face-offs with the BJP, it is. The issue of the disqualification of AAP legislators need to be addressed legally too. The valid questions that arise because of the EC decision need to be addressed by our courts. And they need to do so fast to ensure Indian democracy has the same set of rules for every player. To guarantee that every crime, if any, deserves the same punishment, with equal alacrity and severity.

There is no doubt that Kejriwal's intention was not sincere while appointing 21 MLAs as secretaries to assist ministers. In doing so, he was trying to circumvent the constitutional cap on the number of ministers. For a chief minister who won an election on the promise of cleaning up the system, this circumvention of law was a moral and ideological crime. So, in a way, the ongoing troubles for his government are deserved karma.

Yet, Kejriwal's moral and ideological lapses are politically understandable because he has precedence to back him. His was not the first government to appoint parliamentary secretaries. Nor did his political and legal troubles discourage the BJP to continue with the practice in other states. That's precisely why the punishment sounds harsh, unwarranted and hasty. Ideally, the Delhi high court's decision to declare the appointments null and void ab initio should have been enough rebuke.

The problem here is this: By escalating the issue and that too by allegedly violating principles of natural justice, the EC has put Kejriwal in a slot he loves, that of a victim. Left to himself, Kejriwal would have gone into the next election on the basis of his performance. There is every chance the constant friction within his ranks would have considerably weakened him. But, now he has the advantage of hitting the ground like a cornered victim of an unjust polity.

It is difficult to understand what the Congress and the BJP would achieve with the mini election in Delhi. The Congress, in spite of its bluster and propaganda, is down and out. Maken may be impatient to reclaim lost ground in Delhi but, in case elections are held, he is likely to get a rude shock.

Unless the BJP is relying on an Arunachal Pradesh like coup within the AAP, its gains too would be limited, even self-defeating for three reasons. One, the Delhi voters may be biased but it would be hard to convince them why an unnecessary mini-poll has been foisted upon them by selectively targetting Kejriwal. Two, except among hardcore BJP voters, Kejriwal and his team would arouse sympathy, a factor that could be decisive in an election. Three, it would once again put Kejriwal on the centre-stage, a slot he had been made to relinquish since the debacle in Punjab.

The BJP might be hoping to gain a few seats in case elections are held for these 20 seats. But, the question it needs to answer is this: What will it lose if the courts overturn the decision. Or, if Kejriwal manages to win back most of the seats by playing the victim card?

If that happens, both BJP and Ajay Maken would have embarrassing entries on their CVs.

Click here to follow live updates on AAP MLAs office of profit case
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit Palestine on 10 February, during which he will hold a meeting with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, media reports say

Days after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's much talked about India tour, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit Palestine on 10 February. The prime minister will hold a meeting with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during his visit there, media reports say.

As part of India's outreach to the Arab world, the prime minister will visit the Palestinian capital of Ramallah, apart from Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to The Hindu.

According to India Today, Modi will also attend the 'World Government Summit' in UAE, where he has been invited to be the keynote speaker. Modi's three-country visit will take place from 10 to 12 February.

This visit to Palestine comes just days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's six-day trip to India. The India Today report adds that Modi might go to Palestine through the Jordan route rather than go through Israel.

According to NDTV, Modi's visit to Israel last year, when he did not visit Palestine, seem to display efforts to de-hyphenate Israel and Palestine. The move was seen as indicating an intention to develop closer ties with Israel.

However, a diplomatic source said to The Hindu that Modi's visit to Palestine would be the most important in the Arab countrys calendar.

Modis upcoming trip will be the first-ever visit by an Indian prime minister to Palestine.

The official added that the trip also indicates that India remains on track with its traditional stance on Palestine.

According to IANS, the issue of Indian support to the two-state solution was also discussed during the meeting between Modi and Netanyahu, although it was not a "central part" of discussions.

Last month, India had also joined 127 other countries to vote in the United Nations General Assembly in favour of a resolution opposing the recent decision of US President Donald Trump to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

With inputs from agencies
The Madhya Pradesh unit of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) demanded the Election Commission disqualify 116 BJP MLAs in the state for holding offices of profit, an allegation dismissed by the ruling party

Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh unit of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday demanded the Election Commission disqualify 116 BJP MLAs in the state for holding offices of profit, an allegation dismissed by the ruling party.

The AAP submitted a memorandum to the EC in Bhopal with its demand, a day after its 20 MLAs in New Delhi were disqualified by President Ram Nath Kovind on the recommendation of the EC for holding offices of profit.

Following a protest at the EC office in Bhopal, the party said the action against the BJP's 116 MLAs should be taken under articles 191 (1) and 192 of the Constitution and The Representation of People Act, 1951.

State AAP convener Alok Agrawal said, "The EC exhibited alacrity in taking action against (AAP) MLAs in New Delhi. I hope the EC would show the same kind of promptness in taking action in case of Madhya Pradesh. The state government will be reduced to minority if action is taken against these MLAs."

The current strength of the BJP in the 230-member MP Assembly is 165 while that of the Congress is 55.

Agrawal added his party had submitted a complaint about this with proof to the EC on 4 July, 2016.

"Despite our complaint one-and-a-half years ago, no action has been taken against 116 MLAs of the state for violating offices of profit norms and provisions of the Representation of the People Act. This is a serious violation of the law," he said.

The BJP dismissed the allegations and said the AAP was doing this out of "frustration".

"AAP is frustrated due to the EC's action in Delhi. None of the MLAs here in Madhya Pradesh violate the existing office of profit norms. The AAP is trying to make an issue out of nothing. Such allegations should not be taken seriously," state BJP spokesman Deepak Vijayvargiya said.
Aaditya is widely viewed as Uddhav's political heir and he has also led various student agitations at Mumbai University

Mumbai: Uddhav Thackeray is set to be re-elected as Shiv Sena president at the partys national executive meeting in Mumbai on Tuesday. Further, Yuva Sena chief and Uddhav's elder son Aaditya may be elevated to the role of a Sena leader or a secretarial post. There are no other nominations for the post of party president, and so Uddhav's confirmation as party president for the next five years is a mere formality.

Aaditya is widely viewed as Uddhav's political heir and he has also led various student agitations at Mumbai University. In Tuesday's executive meeting, Aaditya is set to be handed more responsibility as a secretary or Sena leader in addition to being Yuva Sena president. Party insiders have said that the time has come for Aaditya to play a bigger role in the organisation. With his promotion, the Shiv Sena will enter its third generation of leadership.

Uddhav (57) became Sena president five years ago (23 January, 2013). Tuesday's meeting will be held at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Indoor Stadium in Worli on the birth anniversary of late Sena supremo Bal Thackeray. Following his re-election, Uddhav is likely to handpick his new team of office-bearers and his core team.

On condition of anonymity, a senior Sena leader said that organisational changes will reflect the party's preparations for next year's Parliament and Assembly elections. "In 2019, there are major elections, so Aaditya, who is doing very well in the organisational setup (especially the youth setup) will have to play a bigger role. And so, Aaditya may be elevated as one of the leaders of the party," he added. Thackeray is also expected to pass a political resolution at the gathering. "The Sena shares an uneasy alliance with the BJP in the state as well differences with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies. Uddhav has, on many occasions, been categorical that the Sena will not fight elections in alliance with any party," he added.

Elections will be held for the posts of party president, members of the national executive committee and deputy leaders who will be elected from among the 180 members of the national executive. Along with Thackerays re-election, the party will also appoint party functionaries like leaders, deputy leaders, secretaries and other party functionaries name as per Election Commission laws that mandate internal elections in parties every five years.

The changes will be effected to accommodate those party cadres and legislators who have not been made ministers or leaders in the party so far. These new faces may get some representation in the party organisation, said a Sena leader. Battle lines have already been drawn by the BJP. At its state executive meeting recently, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis asked the BJP cadres to be election-ready. "Public sentiment is against BJP government and there is an increasing sentiment among Shiv Sena cadres that we should withdraw support from this government. This is the right time to withdraw support from the BJP government," said another Sena leader.
The Shiv Sena on Monday raised questions over 'the haste' with which 20 legislators of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi were disqualified for holding 'office of profit'.

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena on Monday raised questions over "the haste" with which 20 legislators of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi were disqualified for holding 'office of profit'.

"This is an unprecedented incident in which so many elected legislators have been disqualified in a wholesale manner. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is facing a crisis, and that is because of the public campaign against corruption and injustice," the Shiv Sena said.

Even President Ram Nath Kovind took cognisance and stamped his approval to the Election Commission of India (ECI)'s recommendations, the Sena said in a strong edit in the party mouthpieces, 'Saamana' and 'Dopahar Ka Saamana'.

There were similar complaints against legislators during the tenure of former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, and even now in different states, but their positions have remained intact.

In the case of AAP's 20 legislators, the Election Commission has acted in haste, that is the opinion of even former ECI officials, and that too, without giving them an opportunity to present their case, it said.

"The Election Commission gave its ruling on the complaints against these legislators without a hearing in the matter or giving the 20 AAP elected representatives a chance to explain themselves. This is wrong," the Sena said.

It pointed to the ongoing war between the Delhi chief minister and Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, in which the latter doesn't miss "a single opportunity" to create obstacles for Kejriwal and the AAP government.

"Instead of Kejriwal, if there was a Bharatiya Janata Party chief minister, would the Lieutenant Governor have dared to behave in such a fashion, or recommend to the Election Commission to shunt 20 legislators home without giving them any opportunity to defend themselves. More than the Centre, the Lieutenant Governor appears to work like a BJP agent," the Sena commented sharply.

The recent developments have raised a new debate on "what exactly is the meaning of 'office of profit' held by an elected representative since this incident is the first of its kind in the country", it said.

According to the Constitution's Section 102(1), it is illegal for an elected peoples' representative to accept any other post which is paid for by the government, since as MPs or MLAs they are already getting remuneration.

"The charge against the 20 AAP legislators is that they accepted another office of profit - of 'Parliamentary Secretary' - and hence forfeited their posts as elected peoples' representatives," the Sena said.

The AAP was elected with 66 members in the 70-member Delhi legislature and there was a huge pressure on Kejriwal for ministerial berths, so many were offered the carrots of parliamentary secretary.

In the sparring over the 'office of profit' issue, the AAP and other political parties have accused the ECI of political vendetta and haste in its action of recommending their disqualification, said the Sena.

"It is alleged that the ECI has been used as a political weapon to disqualify the 20 AAP legislators. This has raised questions on the credibility of the ECI," the Sena concluded.
The CPM and the Congress together could have been a strong alternative to the BJP and the TMC, West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Chowdhury said on Monday, a day after the left party decided not to ally with the Rahul Gandhi-led party.

Kolkata: The CPM and the Congress together could have been a strong alternative to the BJP and the TMC, West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Chowdhury said on Monday, a day after the left party decided not to ally with the Rahul Gandhi-led party.

He said the split between the Congress and the CPM is the reason behind the growth of the BJP in West Bengal.

"The CPM and the Congress together at the national level could have put up a strong alternative to the BJP and its policies at the Centre," Chowdhury said.

On Sunday, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury's draft resolution proposing an alliance with the Congress was voted against by the party's central committee.

It was defeated in a voting by the Kerala faction of the party led by Politburo member and former CPM general secretary Prakash Karat which opposed any sort of direct or indirect truck with the Congress.

Chowdhury said the division of votes between the Congress and CPM is helping the BJP and the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal.

"Since the day the CPM broke the alliance with the Congress, the BJP's vote share has been increasing. The rise of the BJP in the state is due to the CPM's inability to hold on to its votes," he said.

Chowdhury said the TMC wants a four-cornered fight in the state for its own benefit.

The West Bengal unit of the CPM had forged a tactical alliance with the Congress against the TMC during the 2016 West Bengal Assembly polls.

Though the political line worked out by the CPM party congress in 2015 had precluded any understanding or electoral alliance with the Congress in the fight against the BJP, the party had allowed state units to review specific political situation before deciding their own tactical line in consonance with the overall understanding.

As a result, the CPM's West Bengal unit had entered into a tactical alliance with the Congress for the 2016 polls, which proved disastrous as the Left was relegated to the third position in the state.

The CPM and the Congress have since been fighting elections separately.

The two parties fought separately in the recent bypoll for Sabang Assembly seat and have fielded their respective candidates for Uluberia Lok Sabha bypoll in West Bengal slated for 29 January.
tech2 News Staff

In a bid to woo maximum customers, telecom companies are waging on-going tariff wars. Bharti Airtel has now revised two of its prepaid plans. These plans are the Rs 399 and Rs 149 plan.

Airtel has revised its Rs 399 plan where it has increased the number of days from 70 days to 84 days. The plan now offers unlimited local, STD and roaming calls with 1 GB of internet data per day. The other offer in this plan includes 100 SMS per day.

Meanwhile, it has also revamped its Rs 149 plan where it will give unlimited local and STD mobile calls for 28 days. This is inclusive of 1 GB of 4G/3G internet data per day. According to Telecom Talk, the plan also includes 100 SMS per day.

In other news, according to Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the mobile subscriber base has increased to 97.54 crores in November 2017 with Airtel topping the charts in this case. The subscriber base was closely followed by Vodafone and Idea Cellular.

Apart from that, Airtel's over the top music application, Wynk's installation has crossed 75 million installations. The languages in which it caters music are Hindi, English, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Punjabi. The service was launched in 2015.
PTI

A panel headed by Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha has recommended the commercial use of ISROs lithium-ion battery technology under the 'Make In India' initiative for electric vehicles, official sources said.

The Committee of Secretaries also recommended that the power ministry should initiate "requisite power tariff and access policies" for enabling development of charging infrastructure, in consultation with the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission and others concerned.

Official sources told PTI that the panel has firmed up the strategy for increasing use of zero-emission vehicles to lower India's dependence on oil imports and improve the ambient air quality.

The panel, they said, has advised, "ISRO may consider transferring" its lithium-ion battery technology used in electric vehicles to interested parties on a "non- discriminatory basis for commercialisation with Make in India condition", after obtaining approval of the Space Commission and other authorities.

In October last year, Niti Aayog member VK Saraswat had said that India has to set up large lithium-ion batteries manufacturing plants to become a global player in electric vehicles (EVs) technology market.

At present, lithium-ion battery is not manufactured in India on a commercial basis and the country has to depend on imports from Japan or China.

To curb vehicular pollution and bring down the Rs 7 lakh crore annual crude oil import bill, the government is emphasising the need for vehicles run on alternative fuel, including electric vehicles.

Government's think-tank Niti Aayog has also come out with a vision document on electric vehicles.

The meeting of the Committee held on 8 January to discuss the "strategy to scale up transformative mobility for uptake of zero-emission vehicles and ancillary technologies" was attended by secretaries from nine departments, Niti Aayog CEO, representatives from the Department of Space and Cabinet Secretariat, sources said.

The panel also made a case for an empowered mission under Niti Aayog for overall policy formulation and for driving the programme to boost uptake of zero-emission vehicles, the sources said.

However, individual initiatives may continue to be driven by ministries/departments concerned.

In its wide-ranging recommendations, the panel has also said the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas may examine the possibility of leveraging the existing retail network of oil marketing companies for scaling up public charging infrastructure.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways may consider issuing an advisory to states for ensuring that registration of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) is facilitated, recommended the panel.

The Committee suggested that steps may be taken in regard to the monitoring structure proposed by Niti Aayog for "providing leadership and inter-ministerial coordination".

Further, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy may pursue the development and promotion of energy storage technologies with a focus on grid-scale operations, recommended the panel.
AFP

Facebook said on 22 January that it will train 65,000 French people in digital skills in free schemes to help women set up businesses and the long-term unemployed get back to work.

The internet giant also announced that it will pour an additional 10 million euros ($12.2 million) into artificial intelligence in France by 2022, without saying how much it will invest in the training schemes.

The US social network will work with 50,000 job seekers in a partnership with the national unemployment agency, helping them with their computer skills, until late 2019, a company statement said.

At the same time, it will work with 15,000 French women hoping to start their own companies, in an expansion of the She Means Business campaign already present in several countries.

That scheme will give 3,500 women intensive free computer training across various French cities, with another 11,500 women given access to an online course.

"These initiatives are part of a pan-European programme, with Facebook hoping to train a million people and business founders by 2020," the internet giant said.

Its artificial intelligence investment will meanwhile allow Facebook to double the number of researchers at its AI hub in Paris, one of four worldwide, to 60.

"Facebook wants to play a key role in France's ambition to become the international champion of AI," the social network said.
FP Staff

The history of cinema would remain indebted to the Soviet filmmaker and film theorist Sergei Eisenstein who introduced the art of creating montages through editing to the world of filmmaking.

He and his techniques are revered across the globe for the kind of effect they had for batches of filmmakers that followed. Google Doodle commemorates the brilliance of Eisenstein's cinematic legacy on what would have been his 120th birth anniversary on 22 January.

Eisenstein was born (as Sergei Mikhailovich Eizenshtein) in the year 1898 in Riga, Latvia (Governorate of Livonia, which was then part of the Russian empire) in an affluent family. His father was a rich architect and engineer. Young Eisenstein too followed his father's profession and studied at the Institute of Civil Engineering in Petrograd; later, with the fall of the Tzar empire, he joined the Red Army in 1917 during the Bolshevik Revolution.

In 1920, Eisenstein came to Moscow where he joined the Proletkult Theatre as a set designer and later also as a director. It was there when he met Vsevolod Meyerhold, the theatre director who have had a huge influence on Eisenstein's school of filmmaking. By 1923, he had already started working as a film theorist.

In 1925, Eisenstein directed his first film Strike, that was followed by what is regarded as one his most monumental works  Battleship Potemkin. In the film, Eisenstein presented to the world his "montage"  a technique of editing and placing shots in a sequence that would evoke emotions much larger in comparison to that of the summation of shots, that he would call an "intellectual montage". Battleship Potemkin was a revolutionary propaganda film that was divided into five acts. The "Odessa Steps" sequence is till date considered a masterpiece. Eisenstein moved the audiences across the world with the way he shot (or rather edited) the sequence.

In his brief yet illustrious career, Eisenstein has seen both ups and downs. While his films enjoyed a cult status across the globe, they were banned in Russia itself. He took his last breath in 1948 aged 50. Many of his films, that were banned earlier, were gradually released. Some of his other known films include October (1928), Ivan the Terrible (trilogy - 1945, 1958, released in 1988), Alexander Nevsky (1938), Que Viva Mexico (released in 1979) to name a few.
tech2 News Staff

Apple CEO Tim Cook believes that there should be limits to the use of technology in schools and he does not want his nephew to use a social network.

According to a report by The Guardian, the Apple CEO was speaking at Harlow college in England, where he was visiting to launch Apples 'Everyone Can Code' curriculum.

Tim Cook warned about the overuse of technology while talking to the students at the school in England.

The Apple Everyone Can Code curriculum which is adopted by 70 institutions across Europe teaches students computing skills through the use of a variety of games, lessons and interactive materials. Every student is provided with an iPad with coding apps and tools. Teachers guide them through the course and students completing the course get two qualifications at the end of the course.

Cook also said that one should prefer learning coding if asked to choose between a foreign language or coding.

The CEO said that education is a great equaliser for people. He also mentioned that introducing coding at early age will help gender diversity, as the gender diversity is not good in computer science courses at many universities.

Up to 1.8 million Apple developers in China have earned $16.93 billion, roughly a quarter of total earnings from the App Store in China.
tech2 News Staff

NSA whistle-blower-at-large Edward Snowden seems to be following Aadhaar developments quite keenly. It is evident from his Twitter handle that Snowden has his own take on Aadhaar. Earlier this month, he had come out in support of the journalist who had uncovered the Aadhaar WhatsApp scam.

More recently, Snowden has tweeted an article authored by former India head of our external intelligence unit, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), saying that it is one of those rare instances where he is in agreement with a former intelligence chief.

In response to a Unique Identification Authority of India's (UIDAI) tweet busting Aadhaar myths where it calls Aadhaar an identifier and not a profiling tool, Snowden said that while that could be true there are other issues. "But any Indian can tell you they're asked for their number by non-government entities  and those companies have databases too," said Snowden.

That might be true if banks, landlords, hospitals, schools, telephone & internet companies were prohibited by law from asking for your #Aadhaar number. But any Indian can tell you they're asked for their number by non-government entitiesand those companies have databases too. https://t.co/WsKC9wR6sj  Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 21, 2018

Since then Snowden has been tweeting responses he has got with regards to Aadhaar.

While it's true that Aadhaar database in itself does not store any additional information of the entities that use it for verification, it would be naive to think that these third-party non-government agencies do not store your Aadhaar number, which can then be mapped to the data they have. So for instance, say you are applying for a mobile connection, and you are supposed to fill out a form wherein you fill in your personal details such as name, address, date of birth, email address, etc. Now, this data is already there with the telco. On top of that, it is requesting you to give your Aadhaar number for the verification process, which is verified via the Aadhaar authentication API. Who's to say that these companies are not storing your Aadhaar number. Expand this to other institutions which ask for your database, and you have your Aadhaar number linked to multiple sets of data. The weak link lies in these databases getting compromised.

We have observed in the past how databases of institutions were available on the public internet with a simple Google search and were searchable by an Aadhaar number. There was even an Aadhaar data leak from the Jharkhand Directorate of Social Security (JDSS). These are just two examples.

The fault here isn't with the UIDAI as such, but with the poor practices employed by third-party agencies or institutes who mandate the verification by Aadhaar number.

According to the Aadhaar Bridge website, "Aadhaar authentication API is the procedure wherein the Aadhaar number of the user along with other attributes including the biometrics, are submitted online to the CIDR for verification on the basis of data and documents available with it. Aadhaar UIDAI authentication API offers several ways in which a user can authenticate themselves using the system. This Aadhaar authentication service uses demographics data or biometric data or OTP. During the authentication transaction of Aadhaar API, the users record is first selected using the Aadhar number and then the biometric or demographic inputs are matched against the stored data within CIDR which was given by the user during enrolment or update process."

The Aadhaar act (PDF) says,"No Aadhaar number or core biometric information collected or created under this Act in respect of an Aadhaar number holder shall be published, displayed or posted publicly, except for the purposes as may be specified by regulations."
Reuters

China's Xiaomi plans to expand its Indian store network as it attempts to grab the lead in a smartphone market which Korea's Samsung has dominated for more than five years.

A little over three years after Xiaomi entered India, its cheap, high-spec handsets have helped the startup, which is now valued at close to $100 billion and plans to list this year, to pull neck-and-neck with Samsung in its biggest market behind China.

"If you look at 2017 and 2018 combined, the biggest change in our strategy is our focus on offline," Manu Kumar Jain, Managing Director of Xiaomi India, told Reuters in an interview.

Xiaomi opened its first Mi Home, an Apple store-style sales and experience centre, in May and already operates 17 such outlets in India.

Jain said Xiaomi is ahead of schedule on its plans to open 100 Mi Home stores by mid-2019 in India and also plans to add more preferred partner stores  multi-brand outlets that stock largely Xiaomi products.

In a bid to widen its user base in India, where about a third of its 1.2 billion mobile phone subscribers use smartphones, Xiaomi is looking to strengthen its network beyond online, which accounts for some 70 percent of local revenue.

Its strategy in India has so far rested on flash sales on leading homegrown e-commerce player Flipkart and Amazon.com's Indian sites, an approach that helped Xiaomi save on expensive marketing spends and grab market share.

Jain, who declined to provide financial metrics, said Xiaomi will launch six to eight new smartphones across key price ranges in 2018.

"We want to improve on whatever we launched in 2017 and also launch and plug whatever we think are the big use cases where we are not present," he said.

Last year, Xiaomi launched eight smartphones priced from Rs 4,999 to Rs 32,999. Samsung, by comparison, offers more than 40 smartphone models in India.

Xiaomi also plans to unveil at least one or two new smart products in 2018. It already sells air purifiers and fitness bands in India and will likely venture into TVs, water purifiers, scooters and rice cookers in the future, Jain said.
Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House hit the stands earlier this month, but to be fair, a large chunk of the most salacious information contained within was already doing the rounds

Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House hit the stands earlier this month, but to be fair, a large chunk of the most salacious information contained within was already doing the rounds. And upon its eventual launch, the subject of the piece had the following to say:

Michael Wolff is a total loser who made up stories in order to sell this really boring and untruthful book. He used Sloppy Steve Bannon, who cried when he got fired and begged for his job. Now Sloppy Steve has been dumped like a dog by almost everyone. Too bad! https://t.co/mEeUhk5ZV9  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018

The tell-all book about President Donald Trump's administration, by the author's admission, is a patchwork of "conversations that took place over a period of 18 months with the president, with most members of his senior staff  some of whom talked to me dozens of times  and with many people who they in turn spoke to". This little stub that appears on page IX (that's right, before the Arabic numerals have even begun) of the book is problematic for two reasons. First, there's Trump's own 'clarification':

I authorized Zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phony book! I never spoke to him for book. Full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that dont exist. Look at this guys past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018

Second, there's the vagueness of the author's attributed sources. "(M)ost members of his senior staff" and "many people who they in turn spoke to" make his sources seem a lot hazier than they should have been, thereby, casting a shadow of doubt on the veracity of the tales related in the 300-odd pages that follow. Unfortunately, even after those 300-odd pages have passed, the reader is left no clearer about the veracity of Wolff's tales.

Further, reports of how the book likely went to the printers without a fact-check do little to shake off the idea that the 'non' part in this 'nonfiction' book might be slightly stretched. Nevertheless, a closer examination is required and considering it was this week last year that Trump was sworn in as President of the United States of America, it would be timely too.

A year ago, it's debatable how many people would have accurately been able to predict what the world would look like in January 2018. It's safe to say that so far, at least, our worst fears are far from coming to fruition. Put another way, it's not a worst case scenario, however, it's still far from ideal  this is evident in the fact that the most powerful man in the world is someone who, in public, says things like:

"I know a lot about West Point, I'm a person who very strongly believes in academics. Every time I say I had an uncle who was a great professor at MIT for 35 years, who did a fantastic job in so many ways academically  he was an academic genius  and then they say, Is Donald Trump an intellectual? Trust me, I'm like a smart person."

What, you may well ask, was the occasion at which Trump delivered these lines.

In case you happen to be reading this on Google AMP or Facebook Instant Articles, there's a chance you missed the little interaction above, so, where do you think Trump delivered those lines? Was it at MIT, CIA headquarters in Langley, US Military Academy at West Point or UN headquarters in New York? Interestingly enough  and as those able to take the quiz discovered/already knew, it was at Langley soon after he took office that Trump delivered these words.

According to Wolff, it was in order to make peace with the intelligence community  which he had frequently berated on the campaign trail  that Trump picked Langley as one of his first stops and the subject of what the author calls "some of the the most peculiar remarks ever delivered by an American president" was incoming CIA director Mike Pompeo, who as it turned out had graduated from West Point. But Trump's quote (arriving well into the first quarter of the book) is a good analogy for the man portrayed across the span of Fire and Fury: Someone who takes any topic, sprinkles over it somewhat apocryphal (often completely fallacious) anecdotes, makes it all about himself and ultimately, serves only to obfuscate the matter and confuse his audience.

It's here that Wolff's book runs into a bit of rough weather, because it's hard to know which parts are apocryphal, which are factual and which are Steve Bannon's own opinions. The over-reliance on once White House chief strategist Bannon for the proverbial dope on the goings-on in the Oval Office and elsewhere on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue becomes clear over the course of Fire and Fury's many chapters in the way the former Breitbart chief's own views largely colour the narrative. To this effect, PTI had quoted US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley as stating, "I dont know if it was 200 interviews with Steve Bannon, or if it was 200 interviews with himself..." when asked about some of the content of the book.

And then there's the inability to stick to a story, the most high-profile instance of which was Wolff quoting media mogul Rupert Murdoch as calling Trump a "f**king idiot" in the book and saying he called him a "f**king moron" during a TV interview. The book is rife with other such discrepancies.

So what's actually in the book?

An earlier article on Firstpost had skimmed through some of the biggest 'disclosures' contained within the book, but here's a quick rundown of some of the more notable ones:

1) The idea that neither Trump nor his team particularly planned on (or even desired, it seems) to be in the White House and that the whole idea of expanding the Trump brand was top priority is explored at the outset.

2) The notion that not only was Trump aware of the June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer that Donald Trump Jr and the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner conducted is presented and so too is the insinuation that Trump himself may have been in attendance.

3) The controversial topic of the president's purported unfitness for office has been covered extensively.

4) The role of Ivanka in Trump's life (public and private)  including playing the part of 'marriage counsellor'  is also explored, with an allusion to her own political aspirations.

5) The harebrained schemes of 'Jarvanka' (the portmanteau of Kushner and Ivanka) are discussed, including the contentious decision to hire Anthony Scaramucci as White House communications director.

6) Trump's relationship with Melania is painted as a very troubled one, right from the way she reacted to him being elected all the way to them having separate bedrooms.

7) The sense of paranoia  almost up there with Richard Nixon-esque levels  with which Trump lives from day-to-day is detailed throughout the book. Wolff touches upon why he chooses to almost exclusively dine on cheeseburgers, change his own bedsheets and refuse to allow the help to pick his clothes up off the floor, all the way to his distrust of people around him.

8) The president's strange relationship with women also goes under the microscope with statements like "Trump liked to say that one of the things that made life worth living was getting your friends' wives into bed" sitting side-by-side with assertions like "...the kind of women he liked  positive-outlook, can-do, loyal women, who also looked good  understood him". That women of this sort were also "tolerant of or oblivious to or amused by or steeled against his casual misogyny and constant sexual subtext" goes some way in providing a glimpse into how Trump views women.

9) The most recent revelation to have jumped out of the pages of Fire and Fury surrounds Wolff's insinuation that Trump is having an affair with a member of his staff. To that effect, there is plenty of conjecture around who the target of his affection could be.

The bottomline

The problem with most 'tell-all' books is that they rarely tell all and what they do contain suffers from a jaundiced retelling of events. Fire and Fury is no different, conveying one side of the story and carrying with it a considerable number of Bannon's own biases. But the biggest problem with the book is that it is as flaky as the subject it seeks to examine. It lavishes detail on individuals  past and present  in the Trump White House  and ignores anything to do with policy. The most fascinating aspect of the year-old Trump presidency has been its policymaking thus far and an insider's look into the synthesis of some of the new policies would have been enlightening. Unfortunately, what we're left with is a hodgepodge account of the people around the president, which is neither here nor there and lacks substance.

The other problem is the apparent haste with which the book seems to have been pushed out. Perhaps Wolff thought that Bannon's exit would mean his own days of access to the corridors of power would soon dry up and decided to rush through with it. Perhaps he didn't feel corroborations or second opinions  particularly from those vilified in the book  were needed. Perhaps he wanted to beat a possible injunction that would make it impossible for him to publish at all. Regardless, what has emerged is not just an incomplete and factually-dubious book, but one that is replete with editing errors.

Here's a look at two of the most glaring ones:

On Page 127: "Bannon was making his first official pubic appearance of the Trump presidency..." (emphasis added)

On Page 291: "...Bannon, with mounting ferocity and pubic venom, could abide them less and less every day." (emphasis added)

Of course, it's perfectly human for mistakes to slip through the nets of a horde of editors and proofreaders, but when it's errors as basic as the ones above, it makes you wonder if and not how the book was edited. In summation, while the book will likely sell many millions of copies and make its author and publisher a tonne of cold hard cash, history will look upon it as an opportunity squandered. Wolff spurned the chance to put out a substantive text that would help millions make sense of the strange goings-on in the White House and in doing so, may have blocked off access to writers who may have performed a better job with that brief.

Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House is published by Hachette India
Pakistan's former envoy to the US, Husain Haqqani, has been booked for allegedly giving hate speeches and writing books and articles defaming the military and the government.

Islamabad: Pakistan's former envoy to the US, Husain Haqqani, has been booked for allegedly giving hate speeches and writing books and articles defaming the military and the government.

Haqqani was named in FIRs lodged by three people in two police stations in Kohat district of northwest Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, accusing Pakistan of "maligning" in his books, the Dawn News reported.

The three FIRs were registered in Cantonment and Bilitang police stations by Momin, Muhammad Asghar and Shamsul Haq. The complainants alleged that the former ambassador had caused irreparable loss to the country and defamed it.

Asghar alleged in the FIR that Haqqani was a "mentor of the Memogate scandal" and had issued visas to "CIA and Indian agents" while serving as Pakistani ambassador to the US. He served as ambassador from 2008 to 2011 in US and was removed for alleged role in what is known as Memogate controversy.

The sections of the Pakistan Penal Code applied by police in the FIRs are 120B (hatching a criminal conspiracy) and 121A (waging a war against Pakistan). A police official said that under due procedure, Haqqani should surrender himself to them or he would be declared an absconder.

Haqqani was criticised by parliament for his column in The Washington Post in which he had written that he had helped the US forces in eliminating Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden when the government and the Inter-Services Intelligence had been kept in the dark about the secret operation.

It was about a memo sent to former Admiral Mike Mullen apparently seeking help of the then Obama administration to avert a military takeover in the wake of raid at the hideout of Osama in May 2011. Haqqani has also served as ambassador to Sri Lanka from 1992 to 1993.
US Vice President Mike Pence arrived in Israel today for a visit that will see him warmly welcomed by Israeli leaders but snubbed by the Palestinians, deeply angered by the White House's Jerusalem policy.

Jerusalem: US Vice President Mike Pence arrived in Israel on Monday for a visit that will see him warmly welcomed by Israeli leaders but snubbed by the Palestinians, deeply angered by the White House's Jerusalem policy.

The visit, initially scheduled for December before being postponed, is the final leg of a trip that has included talks in Egypt and Jordan as well as a stop at a US military facility near the Syrian border.

Controversy back home over a budget dispute that has led to a US government shutdown has trailed Pence, and he sought to blame Democrats for the impasse during a speech to troops at the military facility on Sunday.

Arab outrage over President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital on December 6 had prompted the cancellation of several planned meetings ahead of Pence's tour.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is refusing to meet Pence because of the declaration, making his visit a rare one by a high-ranking US official not to include talks with the Palestinians. He will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday before addressing the country's parliament later in the day -- a speech that Israeli Arab lawmakers will boycott, calling Pence "dangerous and messianic".

On Tuesday, the devout Christian will visit Jerusalem's Western Wall, one of the holiest sites in Judaism. Trump became the first sitting US president to visit the site when he travelled to Jerusalem in May 2017.

The site is located in east Jerusalem, occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed in a move never recognised by the international community.

The city's status is perhaps the most sensitive in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the Palestinians' reaction to Trump's recognition was an illustration of the importance placed upon it.

Beyond refusing to meet Pence, Abbas has said the United States can no longer serve as mediator in Middle East peace talks and the Palestinians were planning a general strike on Tuesday to protest Trump's declaration.

Unrest since the announcement has left at least 17 Palestinians dead, most of them killed in clashes with Israeli forces. One Israeli has been killed in that time. Pence, speaking at the military facility, said he hopes "the Palestinian Authority will soon re-engage".

Netanyahu appeared more interested in talking with Pence on other issues, though he stressed "there is no substitute for US leadership". "We will discuss the efforts of the Trump administration to block Iran's aggression and the Iranian nuclear programme, and of course, advancing security and peace in the region," Netanyahu said ahead of a cabinet meeting on Sunday.

"Whoever truly aspires to realise these goals knows that there is no substitute for US leadership."

Earlier Sunday, Jordan's King Abdullah II, a key US ally, voiced concern over Trump's Jerusalem recognition as Pence visited Amman. "Jerusalem is key to Muslims and Christians as it is to Jews," he said. "It is key to peace in the region. And key to enabling Muslims to effectively fight some of the root causes of radicalisation."

Speaking in Amman, Pence called Trump's Jerusalem move a "historic decision" but said the United States respected Jordan's role as custodian of the city's holy sites.

"The United States of America remains committed, if the parties agree, to a two-state solution. We are committed to restarting the peace process, and Jordan does now and has always played a central role in facilitating peace in the region," Pence said.

The US move to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital broke with decades of international consensus that the city's status should be settled as part of a two-state peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, while the Palestinians see the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.
US Vice President Mike Pences planned trip to Israel on Sunday has been overshadowed by President Donald Trumps announcement last month that the United States recognises Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and will start the process of moving its embassy there.

Jerusalem: US vice-president Mike Pences planned trip to Israel on Sunday has been overshadowed by President Donald Trumps announcement last month that the United States recognises Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and will start the process of moving its embassy there.

Pence, an evangelical Christian, plans to meet Israeli leaders and to visit the Western Wall, the Israeli parliament and a Holocaust remembrance centre in Jerusalem during the two-day visit, after stops in Egypt and Jordan.

Pence, however, is not scheduled to meet any Palestinian leaders, who declined to see him.

The trip was originally planned for December but was postponed after protests from Arab political and religious leaders  Muslim and Christian  about Trumps Jerusalem decision, which broke with decades of US policy and drew widespread criticism from Americas allies.

Why did Trump recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital, and announce the embassy will be moved there?

There has long been pressure from pro-Israel politicians in Washington to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and Trump made it a promise of his 2016 election campaign.

Pence and David Friedman, the ambassador to Israel appointed by Trump, are thought to have pushed hard for both recognition and embassy relocation. It is a decision that was popular with many conservative and evangelical Christians who voted for Trump and Pence. Many of them support political recognition of Israels claim to the city.

Why does Jerusalem play such an important role in the West Asia conflict?

Religion, politics and history.

Jerusalem is a city that is sacred to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and each religion has sites of great significance there. Jerusalem has been fought over for millennia by its inhabitants, and by regional powers and invaders including the Egyptians, Babylonians, Romans, early Muslim rulers, Crusaders, Ottomans, the British Empire, and by the modern states of Israel and its Arab neighbors.

Israels government regards Jerusalem as the eternal and indivisible capital of the country, although that is not recognized internationally. Palestinians feel equally strongly, saying that East Jerusalem must be the capital of a future Palestinian state. The city even has different names. Jews call it Jerusalem, or Yerushalayim, and Arabs call it Al-Quds, which means The Holy.

But the citys significance goes further.

At the heart of Jerusalems Old City is the hill known to Jews across the world as Har ha-Bayit, or Temple Mount, and to Muslims internationally as al-Haram al-Sharif, or The Noble Sanctuary. It was home to the Jewish temples of antiquity but all that remains of them above ground is a restraining wall for the foundations built by Herod the Great. Known as the Western Wall, this is a sacred place of prayer for Jews.

Within yards of the wall, and overlooking it, are two Muslim holy places, the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which was built in the 8th century. Muslims regard the site as the third holiest in Islam, after Mecca and Medina. The city is also an important pilgrimage site for Christians, who revere it as the place where they believe that Jesus Christ preached, died and was resurrected.

What is the citys modern history and status?

In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly decided that the then British-ruled Palestine should be partitioned into an Arab state and a Jewish state. But it recognized that Jerusalem had special status and proposed international rule for the city, along with nearby Bethlehem, as a corpus separatum to be administered by the United Nations.

That never happened. When British rule ended in 1948, Jordanian forces occupied the Old City and Arab East Jerusalem. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in a move not recognised internationally.

In 1980, the Israeli parliament passed a law declaring the complete and united city of Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel.

But the United Nations regards East Jerusalem as occupied, and the citys status as disputed until resolved by negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The King of Jordan retains a role in ensuring the upkeep of the Muslim holy places.

Does any other country have an embassy in Jerusalem?

Other countries have had embassies in Jerusalem in the past, but moved them out of the city some years ago. In December Guatemalas president, Jimmy Morales, said that his country will move its embassy from Tel Aviv. Israels prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said several countries were considering following the US lead, but he declined to identify them.

Also in December, 128 countries voted in a non-binding UN General Assembly resolution calling on the US to drop its recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital. Nine voted against, 35 abstained and 21 did not cast a vote.

What is likely to happen next? Has Jerusalem been a flashpoint before?

The time frame of the US embassy move is unclear, with different predictions from Israeli and US officials about how soon it could happen. Since the announcement there has been tension, with Palestinian protests in Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank. At least 18 Palestinians and one Israeli have been killed since Trumps 6 December announcement.

Although the clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces have not been on the scale of the first and second Palestinian intifadas in 1987-1993 and 2000-2005, violence has erupted before over matters of sovereignty and religion.

In 1969, an Australian Messianic Christian tried to burn down the Al-Aqsa Mosque. He failed, but caused damage. So charged was the Middle Easts political climate - just two years after the Six Day War - that there was fury across the Arab world.

In 2000, the Israeli politician Ariel Sharon, then opposition leader, led a group of Israeli lawmakers onto the Temple Mount/al-Haram al-Sharif complex. Palestinians protested, and there were violent clashes that quickly escalated into the second Palestinian uprising, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada.

Deadly confrontations also took place last July after Israel installed metal detectors at the entrance to the complex following the killing of two Israeli policemen there by Arab-Israeli gunmen.

Arab leaders across the Middle East have warned that a unilateral American move could lead to turmoil, and hamper US efforts to restart long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont arrived in Copenhagen on Monday, defying a threat by Madrid to issue a warrant for his arrest if he leaves Belgium, where he has been in exile since a failed independence bid.

Copenhagen: Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont arrived in Copenhagen on Monday, defying a threat by Madrid to issue a warrant for his arrest if he leaves Belgium, where he has been in exile since a failed independence bid.

Danish broadcaster TV2 released an image on its website of Puigdemont being surrounded by reporters after his plane landed in Copenhagen Airport.

A source in his entourage also confirmed his arrival in the Danish capital.

Puigdemont is to take part in a debate on Catalonia at the University of Copenhagen later Monday.

His trip comes a day after Spain's prosecution service said it would "immediately" have a Supreme Court judge issue a warrant for his arrest if he travels to Denmark, and urge Copenhagen to hand him over.

Puigdemont fled to Belgium in late October after Madrid sacked his cabinet over their breakaway attempt, but is eyeing a return to power after pro-independence parties won an absolute majority in regional elections in December.

Spanish Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena had dropped a European arrest warrant for Puigdemont and four of his deputies who fled to Belgium in early December, saying it would complicate the overall probe into the region's leaders.

At home, however, he risks arrest on charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds.

On Monday, the speaker of the Catalan parliament is due to announce his candidate to become the president of the region.

Puigdemont is the favourite but wants to govern the region from exile in order to avoid arrest if he returns to Spain.

Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy reiterated Saturday that governing Catalonia from abroad would be "illegal".
A top Pakistani police officer has been suspended after a probe committee found him guilty of staging a fake encounter and killing a budding model along with three other suspected Taliban militants.

Karachi: A top Pakistani police officer has been suspended after a probe committee found him guilty of staging a fake encounter and killing a budding model along with three other suspected Taliban militants.po

Senior Superintendent of Police Rao Anwar and another senior policeman were suspended after a widespread uproar on the social media as friends and relatives of Naqeeb, 27, who hailed from North Waziristan, disputed the claims that he was a commander of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

The committee found that Naqeeb had a shop in Sohrab Goth area in North Waziristan and was looking for a career in modelling and acting.

He had no prior links to any criminal or terror groups.

The police and protesters had clashed over the issue at Sohrab Goth area, leaving many injured.

Naqeeb and three other militants were gunned down by a raiding party led by Anwar on 13 January on the outskirts of Karachi with the police claiming that they were all members of the TTP.

Additional Inspector General (AIG) Counter-Terrorism Department Sanaullah Abbasi, who headed the probe committee, said that protection would be provided to the family of Naqeeb when they travel to Karachi to record their statements.

Naqeeb's family has said that he was picked up from his shop by Anwar earlier in January. Anwar has become known for carrying out controversial "encounters" in which he claimed to have killed militants.
Here to attend the World Economic Forum being addressed by Modi among other world leaders, Ajay Singh said it is a very big occasion for India as an Indian prime minister is attending the WEF Davos summit after 20 years

Davos: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a great story to tell about significant reforms undertaken in India and even a greater story about 1.4 billion Indians, a young population and a massive market for the world, while no one other than him is better to tell this story, Spicejet CEO Ajay Singh said today.

Here to attend the World Economic Forum being addressed by Modi among other world leaders, Singh said it is a very big occasion for India as an Indian prime minister is attending the WEF Davos summit after 20 years.

"When we saw Chinese premier Xi Jinping here last year, there was a lot of focus on China and it's natural there would be a lot of focus on India this time," Singh told PTI in an interview.

Singh, who himself has scripted a major turnaround story after taking over no-frils carrier Spicejet, said India has a real terrific story to tell in Davos.

"There have been very significant reforms including GST which have been in-waiting for so many years. There are also developments like bankruptcy law, digitisation and

formalisation of the economy on a fast track basis, 42-place jump on ease of doing business index, etc," he said.

"There is a good story on all economic parameters and of course there is the larger story also of 1.4 billion people, of a young population and of a massive market," Singh said.

"It's a great story and who can be better than the prime minister to tell this story. India will create the buzz this time at Davos and there is no question about it," he said.

Singh said he and all other Indian CEOs are already seeing overflowing meeting requests and there is certainly a lot of interest about India this time.

In the largest ever Indian presence in the 48-year history of WEF summit in this Swiss ski resort town, more than 130 Indian CEOs are present along with over 2,000 business leaders and 70 heads of states and governments. Besides, several other leaders from politics, business, academia, art, culture and civil society are also present for the event which opens today and will close on Friday.
The tragic death of three-year-old Indian girl Sherin Mathews may lead to a new law in the US state of Texas which would make it a felony to leave a child alone at home, a media report quoted activists as saying.

Houston: The tragic death of three-year-old Indian girl Sherin Mathews may lead to a new law in the US state of Texas which would make it a felony to leave a child alone at home, a media report quoted activists as saying.

Sherin was found dead in a culvert in Richardson city in suburban Dallas on 22 October, over two weeks after she was reported missing by her Indian-American foster father, Wesley Mathews.

The proposed 'Sherin's Law' would make it a felony to leave a child at home alone, WFAA television station reported.

Richardson Police has said that Wesley had told investigators that he, his wife Sini and their biological daughter went out for dinner on 6 October, the night prior to Sherin's disappearance, leaving the toddler alone at home.

Wesley first told cops he made Sherin stand next to a tree at 3 am outside their home as punishment for not drinking her milk. After Sherin's body was found, he changed his story to say the girl choked to death while drinking milk.

"With Sherin, we draw the line. It's enough. It's time to make a change," said Reena Bana, an advocate for missing or abused children and domestic issues.

It is a change they would hope to title "Sherin's Law."

"No children under 9 or 10 years old need to be left unaccompanied at home," said Shanna Poteet, an activist and advocate was quoted as telling the channel.

Attorney Bilal Khaleeq, who practices family and criminal law, has been helping Bana and Poteet in their quest to make changes in the Texas state laws.

The group's hope is to also push for reform to Child Protective Services in Texas, where the crime has occurred.

"The Texas books don't have a minimum age for a child to be left alone," Khaleeq was quoted as saying by WFAA.

The attorney said the current law really leaves it to the parent's discretion whether a child is mature enough to be left alone. Ages nine, ten, and even 12, have been mentioned as minimum age requirements for the law.

"We still have some meetings with representatives to find out what the best age for that is," said Poteet.

The proposed Sherin's Law would also make it a felony for not reporting a missing child within a few hours. Bana said there are laws from other states in the US that address this, but not Texas.

According to Richardson police, Wesley reported about his missing daughter hours after he claimed she disappeared on 7 October.

Bana referenced Caylee's Law, which was adopted in states like Florida. The law "makes it a felony for a parent or legal guardian to fail to report a missing child, in cases where the parent knew or should have known that the child was possibly in danger."

Khaleeq said there may be some overlap in laws like with current endangerment and abandonment changes. But the proposed Sherin's Law would make it more black and white, he said.

"That could be a law that requires a parent to take some responsibility, especially if they have something to do with that child being missing," the attorney said.

It is the beginning of what will likely be a long advocacy road, the report said.

The group told WFAA that several representatives locally have already indicated interest in lending help to Sherin's Law and make it a reality.

Wesley, 37, previously was charged with injury to a child, a first-degree felony punishable with a maximum 99 years in prison.

Earlier this month, Sherin's autopsy report showed that she died of "homicidal violence". A grand jury then indicted Wesley for capital murder for which he could face the death penalty.

Authorities have not said what happened to Sherin, and court documents only allege that Mathews caused his daughter's death using a deadly weapon "by a manner and means unknown to the grand jury."

Sherin's adoptive mother, Sini, 35, faces one count of abandoning a child. The punishment for that ranges from two to 20 years in prison with a fine up to $10,000.
The top senator from US president Donald Trump's party urged lawmakers to 'step back from the brink' as they gathered Sunday for a vote to keep the government shutdown from stretching into the coming work week.

Washington: The top senator from US president Donald Trump's party urged lawmakers to "step back from the brink" as they gathered on Sunday for a vote to keep the government shutdown from stretching into the coming work week.

Hundreds of thousands of federal employees are set to stay home without pay as of early Monday following the dramatic collapse of the Friday night talks to agree on an urgent funding measure.

The shutdown cast a huge shadow over the first anniversary of Trump's inauguration as president and highlighted deep divisions between Republicans and Democrats.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell warned that the shutdown would "get a lot worse" if federal workers have to stay home without pay.

"Today would be a good day to end it," McConnell said from the Senate floor during a rare Sunday session aimed at reaching a deal ahead of a vote he said would take place at 1:00 am (0600 GMT) Monday, unless progress is made sooner.

A bipartisan group huddled for hours on Sunday trying to end the standoff.

"Encouraged that 22 members from both parties attended," Republican Senator Susan Collins said in a tweet.

A member of that group, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, told reporters that McConnell has "included immigration in the mix for the first time," addressing an issue at the heart of the dispute, if funding is provided until 8 February.

"Mitch has got a proposal. We should rally around that," said Graham, blaming "White House staff" for not working with lawmakers.

"I'm begging the White House to find a way to work with us," Graham said.

Yet, rank-and-file Republicans expressed skepticism over the bipartisan effort.

"I don't see any of our people interested in some half-baked idea that's produced by a self-appointed group of senators," Oklahoma Republican House member Tom Cole said.

Lawmakers have traded bitter recriminations for the failure to pass a stop-gap funding measure, and McConnell once again sought to blame Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Early Sunday, Trump encouraged the Senate's Republican leaders to invoke the "nuclear option"  a procedural maneuver to change the chamber's rules to allow passage of a budget by a simple majority of 51 votes to end the shutdown.

But Senate leaders have been wary of such a move in the past, as it could come back to haunt them the next time the other party holds a majority.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump had spoken during the day with McConnell and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn. She did not mention Trump's speaking with any Democrats but said White House director of legislative affairs Marc Short had been in touch with members of both parties and updated the president. "We are continuing to work hard towards reopening the government," she said.

Essential services continue

At the heart of the dispute is the issue of undocumented immigration.

Democrats have accused Republicans of poisoning chances of a deal and pandering to Trump's populist base by refusing to back a program that protects an estimated 700,000 "Dreamers" -- undocumented immigrants who arrived as children  from deportation.

Schumer said he and Democrats were willing to compromise, but Trump "can't take yes for an answer  that's why we're here."

"I'm willing to seal the deal, to sit and work right now with the president or anyone he designates  let's get it done," Schumer said.

Trump has said Democrats are "far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border."

Essential federal services and military activity are continuing, but even active-duty troops will not be paid until a deal is reached to reopen the US government.

There have been four government shutdowns since 1990. In the last one, in 2013, more than 800,000 government workers were put on temporary leave.

"We're just in a holding pattern. We just have to wait and see. It's scary," Noelle Joll, 50, a furloughed US government employee, told AFP in Washington.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said Sunday that state funding would pay for the reopening Monday of the Statue of Liberty, which was among facilities affected by the shutdown.

A deal had appeared likely on Friday afternoon, when Trump  who has touted himself as a master negotiator  seemed to be close to an agreement with Schumer on protecting Dreamers.

Anti-Trump protests

But no such compromise was in the language that reached Congress for a stop-gap motion to keep the government open for four more weeks while a final arrangement is discussed.

Republicans failed to win enough Democratic support in the Senate to bring it to a vote.

They have a one-seat majority in the Senate, and on Friday needed to lure some Democrats to their side to get a 60-vote supermajority to bring the motion forward. They fell 10 votes short.

Highlighting the deep political polarization, crowds estimated in the hundreds of thousands marched through major US cities on Saturday against the president and his policies and express support for women's rights.

They gathered again on Sunday in Las Vegas, Nevada, chanting: "Power to the polls."
The next hearing date is expected within the next few weeks, to be determined internally between the legal counsels and announced at a later date

London: The next submissions hearing in the extradition trial of Vijay Mallya over alleged fraud and money laundering amounting to Rs 9,000 crores remains uncertain as the case was on Monday not discussed in a London court due to differences among lawyers on a mutually convenient date.

Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot was listed to hear the case at Westminster Magistrates Court on Monday, with the 62-year-old embattled liquor baron exempt from attending.

However, the case was not discussed in the court as the lawyers are yet to agree on a mutually convenient date.

The next hearing date is expected within the next few weeks, to be determined internally between the legal counsels and announced at a later date.

The case had been left undecided over the issue of admissibility of evidence presented by the Indian authorities at a hearing earlier this month.

Judge Arbuthnot is set to rule on the issue once Mallya's defence team completes its argument claiming "absence of a strong prima facie case" and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), arguing on behalf of the Indian government, responds in favour of the evidence.

Meanwhile, Mallyas bail on an extradition warrant has been extended until 2 April.

The next hearing is expected to also lead to a time-frame for closing arguments and verdict in the case, which seeks to establish that there are no bars to Mallya being extradited to India to stand trial on the charges of fraud and money laundering.

A senior official had confirmed that the Indian government has now presented all clarifications sought by the judge during a hearing in the case in December, including

regular medical assistance that will be made available to the businessman at Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai where he is to be held.

At the last hearing on 11 January, Mallya's barrister Clare Montgomery argued that evidence that was claimed as a "blueprint of dishonesty" by the CPS was in fact privileged conversation between Mallya and his lawyer about "legal advice in clear contemplation of litigation" and hence should be inadmissible.

On a separate category of evidence presented by the Indian government, Montgomery questioned the reliability of investigating officers in the case. She pointed to over 150 pages of "near identical material" purporting to be statement of witnesses taken under Section 161 of the Indian CrPC.

Dismissing the nature and source of these witness statements, Mallyas defence claimed they do not meet "obligations" under the India-UK extradition treaty to provide

"proper" statements.

The Indian authorities have stressed that they are confident the evidence meets all the requirements under the treaty.

Mallya was arrested by Scotland Yard on an extradition warrant in April 2017 and has been out on bail on a bond worth 650,000 pounds.

Chief Magistrate Arbuthnot will present her ruling within a timeframe she sets out at the end of the trial. If she rules in favour of the Indian government, the UK home secretary will have two months to sign Mallya's extradition order.

However, both sides will have the chance to appeal in higher courts in the UK against the chief magistrate's verdict.
Spicejet CEO Ajay Singh said India has a great story to tell at Davos and there can be no one better than Prime Minister Modi to tell this story

Davos: As the world leaders await to hear Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for India's engagement with the world, Indian CEOs today made a strong pitch for a statesman like position for the country to counter the protectionism and domestic rhetoric likely to be presented by countries like the US.

Eminent banker Uday Kotak, a Davos veteran who has been attending the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in this Swiss ski resort town for years, said India needs to

understand the subtle difference between sales and marketing, and present the India story accordingly while positioning itself in the role of a statesman.

Spicejet CEO Ajay Singh, who has himself steered a major turnaround in a sector like aviation, said India has a great story to tell at Davos and there can be no one better than Prime Minister Modi to tell this story.

Top banker Chanda Kochhar of ICICI Bank, who has also been regular here, said Indian economy is seeing broad-based improvement across several sectors and is on track for a robust growth that can be tapped by one and all.

Speaking to PTI, a number of Indian CEOs present here said the global community is waiting to hear from Prime Minister Modi and his speech is generating even more interest because the US president is also likely to come later at this summit with his America First pitch and how he has lowered the corporate tax rates and made the American corporations to bring back jobs and profits from abroad to the US.

Modi will deliver the keynote speech at the plenary session of the WEF tomorrow.

Before his departure from India, Modi had said he will share his vision for India's future engagements with international community in Davos, and will seek "serious

attention" of world leaders on existing and emerging challenges to the contemporary global systems.

"The existing and emerging challenges to the contemporary international system and global governance architecture deserve serious attention of leaders, governments, policy makers, corporates and civil societies around the world," he tweeted.

"I look forward to my first visit to the World Economic Forum at Davos, at the invitation of Indias good friend and Founder of the WEF, Professor Klaus Schwab," he said, while describing the theme of the Forum, 'Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World' as "both thoughtful and apt".

The comments assume significance as several leaders are expected to talk about various risks facing the world, including those from economic protectionism and differences between various world powers. The Summit is also being attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emannuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Theresa May, among other leaders.

Spicejet's Singh said Modi has a great story to tell about significant reforms undertaken in India and even a greater story about 1.4 billion Indians, a young population and a massive market for the world.

"When we saw Chinese premier Xi Jinping here last year, there was a lot of focus on China and its natural there would be a lot of focus on India this time," Singh said.

Singh said he and all other Indian CEOs are already seeing overflowing meeting requests and there is certainly a lot of interest in India this time.

In the largest ever Indian presence in the 48 year history of WEF summit in this Swiss ski resort town, more than 130 Indian CEOs are present along with over 2,000 business leaders and 70 heads of states and governments. Besides, several other leaders from politics, business, academia, art, culture and civil society are also present for the event which opens on Monday and will close on Friday.

Pitching for a nuanced message here at WEF to present India as an open economy that cares for the interest of domestic as well as global audience, Kotak said that "we need to position ourselves at this forum as a statesman and not just a salesman".

He also said it is a very big opportunity for India to demonstrate the new India we are building.

Kochhar said Indian economy is seeing broad-based improvement across all sectors and should clock 7 percent growth in the second half of the current fiscal.

She also said reforms have fast tracked the process of digitisation and formalisation of Indian economy and the country is on track to again attain the fastest growth rate in the world.
With exquisite desi cuisine on the platter and live yoga sessions on display, the annual Swiss jamboree of the rich and powerful from 'a fractured world' will begin on Monday in Davos where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to pitch India as a growth engine for the global economy

New Delhi: With exquisite desi cuisine on the platter and live yoga sessions on display, the annual Swiss jamboree of the rich and powerful from 'a fractured world' will begin on Monday in Davos where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to pitch India as a growth engine for the global economy.

Over 3,000 world leaders from business, politics, art, academia and civil society will attend the 48th World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting over the next five days in the small ski resort town on snow-covered Alps mountains, where the Indian presence will be the largest ever with over 130 participants.

WEF Chairman Klaus Schwab will declare the summit open on Monday evening with a welcome message on the meeting's theme, 'Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World'.

It will be followed by honouring Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan, Australian actress Cate Blanchett and legendary musician Elton John with the annual 'Crystal Awards' for their respective work towards improving the state of the world.

The evening will also see a ballet performance, while India will host the 'welcome reception' with the country's "exquisite cuisine and age-old Yoga heritage as well as the spirit of a young, innovative New India".

The official sessions will begin on Tuesday when PM Modi will deliver the 'opening plenary', during which he is expected to pitch India as an open economy that is ready for investments from across the world and also as a major engine to drive the global economic growth.

PM Modi is the first Indian Prime Minister to attend Davos meeting in about 20 years since HD Deve Gowda in 1997.

During his 24-hour-visit, described by officials as "short but very focused", PM Modi will also host a dinner for CEOs from across the world, 20 of Indian companies and 40 from elsewhere, on Monday evening and will interact with a large gathering of 120 members of WEF's international business community on Tuesday.

Besides, he will hold a bilateral meeting with Swiss President Alain Berset, among other pull-asides, as per the government officials.

PM Modi will be accompanied by six union ministers -- Arun Jaitley, Suresh Prabhu, Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, MJ Akbar and Jitendra Singh.

The CEO delegation, led by top industry body CII, will include Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani, Azim Premji, Rahul Bajaj, N Chandrasekaran, Chanda Kochhar, Uday Kotak and Ajay Singh, among others.

Among global leaders, US President Donald Trump will be there to deliver the closing address, but any meeting with Prime Minister Modi is unlikely as the two would not be in town on the same day.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will also be in Davos, but officials in India have said no meeting is planned between him and PM Modi.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Theresa May and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are among the other attendees.

While US President Donald Trump is expected to talk about his 'America First' policy, officials in India said PM Modi's central message at this multilateral forum will be about India being an economy that can be an engine of global growth and which wants others to participate in its growth and also wants to contribute to others' development.

A lot of focus is expected on what President Trump says and what would be the response of other world leaders, including from Germany, France and the UK.

Ahead of the summit, an annual WEF survey, likely to be discussed in detail during the meeting, showed that the world will see risks related to environment, economy and international relations intensify this year with a majority of stakeholders expecting political or economic confrontations between major powers to worsen.

In a first at the WEF summit, India will also host yoga training sessions for the entire duration of the meeting, while also showcasing Indian heritage and culture in Davos.

On the sidelines of the WEF summit, the Swiss government will also host the annual informal WTO ministerial meeting, which will be attended by Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu and his global counterparts.

According to a Swiss government statement, negotiations on a bilateral investment protection pact and the envisaged free trade agreement between India and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), of which Switzerland is a member, will figure prominently during PM Modi's meeting with President Berset.

PM Modi is expected to encapsulate the making of 'a new, young and innovative India', while he is also expected to talk about his experience with 'cooperative federalism' in India, while urging the world for a collective crackdown on terrorism, economic imbalances, cyber threats and various societal ills.

According to officials, PM Modi will also talk about numerous steps they have taken to make it easier to do business in India, check corruption, clamp down on black money, streamline taxation and boost sustainable growth.

Another star speaker will be ex-RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, who has been praised as well as criticised often for his vocal views on everything from politics to economics and is credited for predicting the global economic crisis of 2008.

He will speak on the power of economic narratives and how policymakers can address the challenges of the 21st century.

Bollywood king Shahrukh Khan, for a change, would not be seen serenading heroines with his signature 'open-arm' charm on Swiss Alps, but will rather talk about creating a change in India through women empowerment.
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Google has silently rolled out an update to its Gboard app which brings the Gif-Making button to the main screen right next to the word suggestion bar. Though this feature is available since last September, it is hidden behind the emoji button on the bottom. With this new change, accessing the button is more convenient.

The Gif-making button with its new placement allows you to quickly create your own funny reactions and send it as Gifs while chatting. You can use your front or rear camera to create Loop a small three-second Boomerang like clip or Fast-Forward one or two-second clips. Once you are done, you can copy paste the gif to send it to your friends.

Turning small video clips isnt a new feature, there are many 3rd party apps that can do it. In Fact, Googles own Motion Stills app makes it possible. But bringing the Gif-making button to the home screen is the easiest way to create funny reactions. For now, the update is just available to iOS, but we can expect it to land in Android very soon.

Source | Via
OnePlus opened its first Experience Store in India in Bengaluru last January, later it opened one in Noida. It also partnered with Croma to provide easy access to OnePlus products. On January 20th the company opened its first OnePlus Authorised Store in Mumbai located at Prime Mall in Vile Parle-West.

It started selling the OnePlus 5T Lava Red edition on the same day and also offered a free Bullet V2 earphone on the purchase of any OnePlus smartphone. OnePlus said that the store is part of the companys focus on creating more offline touch points across key cities to allow users to experience the smartphones before buying.

The new OnePlus Authorized Store in Mumbai is the next step in the evolution of OnePlus community offerings to help provide the best possible in-store experience to the OnePlus community, said the company.

Commenting on the launch, Vikas Agarwal, General Manager, OnePlus India, said:

Customer satisfaction has always been at the core of OnePlus strategy. The new OnePlus Authorized Store is designed to complement our online first business strategy and also attract new users while serving as a destination for our fast growing community to experience and purchase OnePlus products.

Image Via
There were rumors about an unknown Nokia phone for quite some time which is said to come with 5-camera lens on the back. Now a design sketch of the same has surfaced showing how the camera arrangement on the rear might look like. This is just a prototype design, and Foxconn is said to be currently working on a way to design and manufacture the phone.



From the design sketch revealed by the forum member, and an alleged Foxconn employee, we can see 5 lenses arranged in 1-1-3 formation, one LED flash, an unknown sensor on a circular ring. The fingerprint sensor is also placed on the rear down below the camera module. This design sketch might hint at why HMD global is adopting the rotating Zoom camera tech from Zeiss. The flagship is currently under development and we expect to see the phone in the second quarter of 2018.

Furthermore, sources reveal that the Nokia phone might pack an 18:9 display with glass body design both on the front and back making it a stand out from rest of the Nokia phones. The Nokia 10 will be powered by the Snapdragon 845 chipset and might run on the latest Android OS.

On the other hand, HDM Global is gearing up to launch the Nokia 9, Nokia 7 Plus, Nokia 1, and few other Nokia phones at the MWC 2018 event in February.

Source | Via
Oil settled higher on Monday after dollar fluctuations and the restart of some Libyan oil fields caused the market to vacillate, with prices testing lower before rallying to levels just below three-year highs.

Brent crude futures for March delivery settled up 42 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $69.03 a barrel, after earlier rallying to $69.51. Brent on Jan. 15 had hit $70.37, the highest since December 2014.

U.S. crude rose 25 cents, or 0.4 percent, to close at $63.62 a barrel.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six rival currencies retreated to near a three-year low, but pared losses as the U.S. government shutdown appeared poised to end. The index drifted lower again late in the session, weighing on crude a second time. [USD/]

Traditionally, a weaker dollar spurs buying of dollar-based commodities as they become cheaper for holders of other currencies. However, buying as the dollar weakens has been less frequent in recent months.

That trade has been out of vogue a bit, but were reaching a level now where that is going to start to kick in, said John Kilduff at Again Capital in New York.

Earlier in the day, resumption of output from Libyas As-Sarah fields weighed on the market.

The downside might be limited but last weeks highs are unlikely to be penetrated unless there is a significant bullish change on the supply front, PVM analyst Tamas Varga said in a report.

Production at As-Sarah resumed on Sunday and was expected to add 55,000 barrels per day by Monday.

Brent is particularly sensitive to changes in output from Libya, as most Libyan crude is priced against Brent.

Supportive to the market were comments from top exporter Saudi Arabia that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers would continue to cooperate on oil output cuts beyond 2018. The deal began in January 2017.

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said market rebalancing might not occur until 2019, suggesting it would take longer than OPEC had previously indicated.

Global economic growth was also helping prices by driving up demand.

Global growth has become synchronized and accelerated above trend, U.S. bank Morgan Stanley said in a note.
A former oil executive was sentenced to life in prison and a former high-ranking Vietnamese government official received a lengthy prison term Monday at the end of a major corruption trial.

The 22 defendants in the case were mostly current or former executives at PetroVietnam and were convicted of mismanagement, embezzlement or both in their tenures at the state energy giant.

Foreign media were not allowed to attend the two-week trial, though more than 100 Vietnamese gathered outside the courthouse as the sentences were announced.

Former PetroVietnam chairman Dinh La Thang, the first Politburo member to be jailed in decades, was sentenced to 13 years in jail by the People's Court in the capital, Hanoi. He was accused of deliberate economic mismanagement that cost the state millions.

Trinh Xuan Thanh, an ex-chairman of PetroVietnam's construction arm, was given life imprisonment for embezzlement. Thanh was also convicted of economic management. Germany accused Vietnam agents of snatching him from a Berlin park last year, a charge Vietnam denied, saying Thanh turned himself in to police voluntarily. The incident strained relations between the two countries.

In Germany, foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Adebahr said German, French, EU and U.S. diplomats were able to observe the trial, and that Germany had "taken note" of the fact that Thanh did not receive the death penalty. She declined to comment further, but voiced regret that the media and a German lawyer weren't allowed to attend the trial.

Thanh was also ordered to pay compensation of $1.5 million and Thang $1.3 million.

Three other former chairmen of PetroVietnam were sentenced to nine years in jail each for economic mismanagement. Punishment for the other defendants ranged from 22 years in prison to suspended sentences.

The Tuoi Tre newspaper quoted a judge as saying the prosecutions were "well-founded."

The Communist Party under the watch of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong is waging an unprecedented crackdown on corruption, with PetroVietnam and the country's banking sector at the center.

Thang was convicted of "deliberately violating state economic management regulations, causing serious consequences" by choosing PetroVietnam's Construction Joint Stock Co., or PVC, to build a thermo power plant without a proper bidding and appraisal process.

Thang was accused of ordering an advance payment of $67 million to PVC, which did not use the funds for the proper purpose, causing losses of $5.5 million to the state.

A retired government official, speaking outside the court, said the sentences were tough enough.

"I think the sentences handed down were fair. It is necessary for the country to fight against corruption," the retiree, Hoang Dinh Thanh, 70, said.

Jonathan London, a lecturer at the Leiden University in the Netherlands and a Vietnam expert, said further reforms and commitments by the Communist authorities are needed to root out corruption.

He said while the jail sentences may be dramatic, history in other countries suggests in the longer term that corruption is not best fought by punishment "but precisely the kinds of institutional reforms and levels of commitment to transparency that Vietnamese public opinion has been calling for, but which Vietnamese leaders have been unfortunately unwilling to embrace."

Thang is accused of economic management in another case for his role in PetroVietnam's purchase of shares worth $36 million in Ocean commercial joint bank. PetroVietnam lost all of its investment when the State Bank of Vietnam bought the bank for nothing. He is expected to stand trial in the coming months.

Thang was once a rising political star but was dismissed from the all-powerful Politburo in May and was subsequently fired as Communist Party secretary of the southern commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City. He was arrested on Dec. 8.

In the meantime, Thanh is scheduled to be put on trial on Wednesday on charges of embezzling $622,000 from a property development project.

Another trial involving 46 defendants, including many former bankers, is currently taking place in Ho Chi Minh City.

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Associated Press writer Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this story.
Bitcoins price has slowly crept back to nearly $11,000 after it fell from almost $20,000 to below $10,000, but the cryptocurrencys volatility has added to concerns from investors and governments around the globe. South Korea has threatened a ban of bitcoin, while countries such as India have started to regulate it.

Ive argued we should not ban it, I mean, we dont have a tradition of banning the assets or investment choices by the market. But I do think some regulation is important. Were seeing the CFTC the SEC, the Treasury Department move in that direction, Former FDIC Chair Sheila Bair told FOX Business Connell McShane on Mornings with Maria.

Bair predicted blockchain, the technology behind bitcoin, could actually one day become a useful tool for regulators.

I personally believe that blockchain technology is going to have important regulatory benefits in terms of being more secure, more reliable and less expensive for both consumers and businesses in terms of recording transactions, but were still a long way off in actually making that happen.

Bair then warned investors about getting into cryptocurrency or blockchain in the near term.

I do think this is a scenario where investors need to be extremely careful, youve got a lot of companies out there just attaching crypto and blockchain terminology to their name and trying to their value when theres really no substance behind that.
China defended its role in global trade Monday and accused Washington of being disruptive after the U.S. government said it was a mistake to support Beijing's World Trade Organization membership on terms that failed to open its economy.

China is "strictly complying with WTO rules" and "making great contributions" to the global trading system, said a foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying. She repeated criticism that U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has threatened the stability of the international system by launching trade investigations against China under U.S. law instead of through the WTO.

"We are a defender, builder and contributor of the multilateral trade system," Hua said at a regular news briefing. "And you may have noted it is the unilateral actions and unilateral messages from the U.S. that pose an unprecedented challenge to the multilateral trade system. Many WTO members have expressed their concerns over that."

Beijing faces growing complaints from Washington, Europe and other trading partners that it hampers access to its banking, energy and other industries in violation of market-opening commitments it made when it joined the WTO in 2001.

In a report to Congress, the U.S. Trade Representative said the United States made a mistake in supporting China's WTO membership "on terms that have proven to be ineffective in securing China's embrace of an open, market-oriented trade regime."

The report echoed previous U.S. frustration with China's trade policies but used unusually severe language.

The Trump administration is expected to announce results in coming weeks of its "Section 301" investigation launched in August into whether Beijing improperly pressures foreign companies to hand over technology.

If the investigation concludes Beijing acted improperly, Washington could seek remedies either through the WTO or outside of it. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce warned earlier that Beijing will "resolutely safeguard" its interests if Washington takes action.

Also this month, Chinese authorities criticized Washington for invoking national security concerns in blocking e-commerce billionaire Jack Ma's proposed acquisition of the money transfer service MoneyGram.
With a yield of 11.3%, Energy Transfer Partners (NYSE: ETP) catches the eyes of income investors. However, with as much risk as it has reward, this master limited partnership (MLP) isn't the best option for those seeking a steady income stream. That's why dividend-seekers shouldn't bother with Energy Transfer but instead should consider buying Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD). While Enterprise has a lower current yield of 6%, that payout should keep growing while Energy Transfer's has a good chance of getting cut.

Drilling down into the numbers

One of the reasons Energy Transfer Partners has such a sky-high yield is that the company's financials are in rough shape, especially compared with a top-tier MLP like Enterprise Products Partners:

As that chart shows, Energy Transfer's leverage ratio is well above that of Enterprise Products Partners, which makes financing growth projects more expensive. While Energy Transfer is working to whittle that number down, and recently completed another transaction that will reduce debt, its balance sheet remains an area of concern.

Another trouble spot is its coverage ratio, which is tighter than it looks. That's because Energy Transfer's parent, Energy Transfer Equity (NYSE: ETE), is currently providing it some support by giving up a portion of its incentive distribution rights. Without that help, Energy Transfer Partners would have distributed roughly $150 million more to investors than it brought in through the third quarter of last year. That's a concern, because Energy Transfer Equity's support will shrink significantly this year.

Getting safer versus an increasingly costly way of doing business

Enterprise Products Partners has better metrics than Energy Transfer because it has a much more conservative financing strategy. One aspect of this strategy is to retain a meaningful portion of its cash flow to help finance expansion projects. In fact, the company recently decided to slow the pace of its distribution growth rate, so it would retain more cash flow to fund growth. That plan puts the company on pace to internally finance the equity portion of a $2.5 billion annual capital investment program starting next year. It's an approach that should enhance the company's financial flexibility and has the potential to create "greater long-term value" for investors, according to CEO Jim Teague.

Contrast that with Energy Transfer's plan to continue distributing all its cash to investors. Because it will do that, the company will need to keep issuing more debt and equity to finance growth projects no matter the cost. To put this difference into perspective, Enterprise Products Partners' strategy would eliminate the need for selling more of its 6%-yielding equity to finance expansions, saving it from having to pay out that incremental cash to new investors for years to come. Energy Transfer, on the other hand, would need to issue equity at 11% to finance growth. On a $1.25 billion equity investment, that adds up to a difference of $200 million in additional annual cash distributions. That's money that won't go toward creating value for existing investors, such as a higher distribution, additional high-return expansion projects, or a repurchase program. It would put Energy Transfer at a disadvantage and could ultimately force the company to reduce its payout so it can internally finance at least a portion of its future growth projects.

Don't bother stretching for this yield

While it's tempting to want to buy Energy Transfer for its double-digit yield, that payout isn't worth the risk, since it's quite possible that the company could eventually reduce its distribution. That's why income-seekers should instead opt for the much safer payout Enterprise Products Partners offers. Not only should its distribution continue heading higher for years to come, but its strategy also has the potential to create more value for investors over the long run.

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The Latest on the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland (all times local):

9:00 p.m.

President Donald Trump's trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, appears to be on.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday that if "all things go as expected" with reopening the government, the delegation will travel Tuesday and the president will go later in the week.

A delegation of Cabinet members was scheduled to leave Monday, but it was delayed amid the federal government shutdown. Senate Democrats dropped their objections to a temporary funding bill later in the day.

Trump plans to bring his "America First" message to the gathering of global political and business elites. The event is rarely attended by sitting presidents.

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8:30 p.m.

Pope Francis is urging political and business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos to create the conditions "for building inclusive, just and supportive societies."

Francis sent meeting participants a message after he returned from a weeklong visit to Chile and Peru on Monday.

He wrote: "We cannot remain silent in the face of the suffering of millions of people whose dignity is wounded, nor can we continue to move forward as if the spread of poverty and justice had no cause."

The pope said "selfish lifestyles" full of "opulence" have boosted unemployment, increased poverty, created new forms of slavery and widened the socio-economic gap in many places.

By rejecting "throwaway" culture and a "mentality of indifference," Francis said entrepreneurs have the potential to effect substantial changes such as "creating new jobs, respecting labor laws, fighting against public and private corruption and promoting social justice."

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6:30 p.m.

With stock markets booming and global growth picking up, CEOs are a lot more confident about the future.

In its annual survey of business leaders, consulting firm PwC said a record-breaking proportion of CEOs are optimistic about the global economy, at least in the short term.

According to its survey of almost 1,300 CEOs worldwide, PwC said 57 percent believe global economic growth will improve in the next 12 months, almost double last year's 29 percent. It's the largest-ever increase since PwC began surveying views on global growth in 2012.

PwC singled out the U.S., with optimism recovering strongly following the recent focus on regulation and tax reform by the Trump administration.

PwC's global chairman, Bob Moritz, said "it's no surprise CEOs are so bullish."

The firm's findings chime with others, including the International Monetary Fund, which earlier Monday revised up its global growth forecast for 2018 to a 7-year high of 3.9 percent.

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5:15 p.m.

Bob Moritz, chairman of accounting firm PwC, says another Oscar mishap involving his company could really dent the company's brand.

Speaking to The Associated Press at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Moritz said a brand's reputation "can be lost in an instant but it takes decades to create."

Last year, PwC's reputation suffered when actors Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty wrongly announced the top Oscar went to "La La Land," instead of "Moonlight." The presenters, it turned out, had been given the wrong envelope by a partner from PwC.

Moritz conceded that the PwC brand was "damaged on a temporary basis by a human error and we quickly took responsibility for that."

For this year's 90th Academy Awards on March 4, Moritz said PwC is taking additional measures "so we have the confidence that we won't have that problem again."

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5:00 p.m.

The White House says a delegation of Cabinet members is delaying their departure for this year's World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland amid the federal government shutdown.

Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday that they will determine what to do "as the day goes on and as we see how the next couple of hours go."

Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin (mih-NOO'-shin) is leading the delegation of Cabinet members and top aides and was scheduled to leave Monday. President Donald Trump was planning to leave later in the week.

Asked if Trump would attend if the government is still shutdown, Sanders said: "I don't know that that's very likely. I wouldn't imagine it is."

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4:35 p.m.

The head of Switzerland's Young Socialists is accusing Swiss authorities of bowing to "global elites" by rejecting a request to protest in the town of Davos this week against President Donald Trump's visit.

Tamara Funiciello told The Associated Press on Monday: "I find it scandalous! It's unbelievable."

The authorities said heavy snowfall had limited the space available for a demonstration in Davos on Thursday, the day before Trump is due to address the World Economic Forum.

Funiciello said the move was "a way of hiding behind the power of global elites," adding that the authorities "need stronger spines."

She added: "If they really wanted to give people the space to demonstrate, it would have been possible." She accused the authorities of trampling on Swiss democracy.

Funiciello said her group was searching for other ways of registering their opposition to Trump's visit, such as by airing a live web stream from Davos and refocusing their attention on an anti-Trump demonstration Tuesday in Zurich, Switzerland's largest city.

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2:40 p.m.

Authorities in Davos, Switzerland, have rejected a request by left-wing groups to stage a protest during the World Economic Forum, saying heavy snowfall means there's not enough space.

Davos officials said in a statement Monday that "the extremely tight space situation due to the enormous amount of new snow doesn't allow for a rally in the coming days."

Members of Switzerland's Social Democratic Party and Green Party had requested permission to stage a protest Thursday.

The Alpine resort's inability to cope with the mid-winter glut of snow means that protesters won't get to stage their demonstration a day before U.S. President Donald Trump is due to speak at the meeting of top political and economic leaders.

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12:50 p.m.

The Swiss military is stationing 4,377 troops in and around Davos, Switzerland, to provide security for this year's meetings at the World Economic Forum, which is set to be headlined by U.S. President Donald Trump.

General Aldo Schellenberg told The Associated Press that the number was not changed following the announcement that Trump would be the first serving president U.S. president to attend in nearly 20 years. He also said the security detail is similar to that provided in the past few years.

Around 93 percent of the military on display are conscripts. The Swiss air force is providing 2,580 troops, while 1,600 are infantry and 187 are from the military police.

In light of the heavy snow that's falling around Davos, military and police officials are not sure how many people are preparing to protest against Trump's visit.

There is some uncertainty about Trump's attendance, however, in light of the government shutdown in Washington.

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11:15 a.m.

The founder of the World Economic Forum has told The Associated Press that he hopes President Donald Trump's planned visit to a gathering of world decision-makers and elites in Davos later this week will "provide him even better with a global perspective."

Klaus Schwab declined to comment whether the U.S. government shutdown might spoil Trump's plans to attend the event in the Alpine snows and deliver a speech on Friday.

Schwab said Monday: "It's good to have the president here, if the snow conditions and the situation in Washington allow us."

The White House has said Trump plans to detail his "America First" policy in Davos. More than 60 heads of state and government, plus hundreds of business leaders, academics, policy advocates and celebrities are expected for the Tuesday-Friday meeting.
The Port of Savannah loaded and unloaded a milestone 4 million shipping container units for the first time in 2017 as larger cargo ships fueled double-digit growth at its docks, the Georgia Ports Authority announced Monday.

That makes Savannah only the fourth U.S. seaport to handle that many container units  each equal to one-half a standard 40-foot (12 meter) shipping container  of combined imports and exports in a single 12-month period.

Savannah's busy seaport surpassed the 4 million mark in a calendar year marked by an 11 percent increase in containers, giant metal boxes used to ship goods ranging from consumer electronics to frozen chickens. Port officials largely attributed the growth to giant ships that began transiting an expanded Panama Canal in the summer of 2016.

"We fully expected to see increases, but we did not expect to see this," said Griff Lynch, executive director of Georgia's state-operated seaports. "Every time we expect it to slow down a little, it doesn't."

Less than four years have passed since the Savannah port first exceeded 3 million container units in 2014. And reaching that prior milestone from 2 million containers took eight years.

Georgia Ports officials hope the rapid growth will spur Washington to increase funding to deepen the Savannah River shipping channel that stretches 39 miles (63 kilometers) from the port to the Atlantic Ocean.

Like other East Coast ports, Savannah needs deeper water to make room for larger ships that otherwise need to carry lighter loads or arrive at high tides.

The $973 million Savannah harbor expansion has been underway for more than two years, with dredging funded mostly by $260 million from Georgia taxpayers. Both President Donald Trump and Barack Obama before him have requested far less than the roughly $100 million in annual federal funding that state officials say the harbor deepening needs to avoid delays.

"We don't care where the money comes from, we've got to find the money to finish," said Jimmy Allgood, board chairman of the Georgia Ports Authority. "We will lose business if the river is not deepened."

Gov. Nathan Deal has asked Georgia lawmakers this year to approve an additional $35 million in state funds for the harbor deepening. Allgood said that money should help fund dredging without interruption for another two years.

Exceeding 4 million container units puts the Port of Savannah far ahead of its nearest Southeast competitor, Charleston, South Carolina, which reported moving 2.2 million container units in calendar 2017.

Three other U.S. ports still handle much heavier container traffic than Savannah. The Port of Los Angeles moved 9.3 million container units last year. The Port of Long Beach, California, handled 6.8 million through November, while the Port of New York and New Jersey reported more than 6.1 million container units during the same 11-month period.

And it remains to be seen whether the Savannah port, which operates on a fiscal-year calendar, will remain above 4 million units for the fiscal 2018 period that began in July and ends June 30.

"That's a really good question," said Lynch, who expects growth to slow in the coming months. "I think we will. But it's not a lock for sure."
Oregon aggressively expanded its Medicaid rolls under the Affordable Care Act, adding enough people to leave only 5 percent of its population uninsured  one of America's lowest rates.

Now, with the reduction of a federal match that covered those enrollees, the state is calling on voters to decide how to pay for its ballooning Medicaid costs.

A special election on Tuesday asks Oregonians whether they approve of a tax on hospitals, health insurers and managed care companies that would leave Medicaid, as it is now, untouched. More than 1 in 4 residents here rely on it.

Maine voters were in the national spotlight when they recently approved Medicaid expansion. But experts say Oregon's election is the only instance of voters  not lawmakers  getting the final say on the complicated question of how to fund rising Medicaid costs.

The outcome could have significant consequences for the state's health care spending.

"If it's not supported, you have a huge hole, and where do you go from there?" said Stacey Mazer, senior staff associate with the National Association of State Budget Officers. "I followed these issues starting in the fall, and this was the biggie."

Measure 101 would impose a 0.7 percent tax on some hospitals and a 1.5 percent tax on the gross health insurance premiums collected by insurers and on managed care organizations, raising anywhere from $210 million to $320 million over the next two years.

Proponents call the tax an "assessment" and say money raised could cover the more than 350,000 low-income Oregonians who were added to the plan since 2014 while state lawmakers work out a long-term solution.

The loss of that revenue could jeopardize an additional $630 million to $960 million in federal Medicaid matching funds that flow to the poorest in the state, according to the nonpartisan voter pamphlet. That possibility prompted the very hospitals and health insurers who would be taxed to come out as the measure's biggest backers. They say the cost of the taxes would be less than that of uninsured emergency-room visits.

The ballot measure arose from a grassroots campaign to put parts of a bipartisan legislative funding solution passed last year before voters. Republican Rep. Julie Parrish and several colleagues were angered by portions of the bill that exempt large, self-insured corporations like Nike from Medicaid taxes but not Oregonians who buy insurance on health care exchanges.

They also believe hospitals and insurers will pass the cost to consumers, despite language that limits premium rate increases to 1.5 percent.

Parrish, who represents a Portland suburb, spearheaded the drive to collect more than 84,000 signatures to get the measure on the ballot. Her cellphone number appears in the official voter's guide with a note urging voters to call her with questions.

"This is not a 'We hate Medicaid' referendum," Parrish said. "This is about the fact that our colleagues put forward some pieces of the funding package that we believed to be unfair, unequitable and unsustainable."

Those in favor of the measure say Parrish's opposition to the taxes is what's unsustainable. More than 175 organizations have backed the pro-Measure 101 campaign, including former Gov. John Kitzhaber, an emergency room doctor.

People who support Measure 101 have raised $2.8 million. Parrish and her allies have raised $353,000.

Portland resident Kelly Burke has volunteered at a pro-Measure 101 phone bank. She briefly lost her insurance years ago when she was pregnant with her second child. She now has a serious auto-immune disease and is thankful she has insurance through her partner's employer.

"What people don't understand is that people are working, but they still can't afford health care," she said.

Medicaid is a federal-state collaboration originally meant for poor families and severely disabled people. Over the years, it's grown to become the largest government health insurance program, now covering 1 in 5 Americans.

In 2014, Oregon was one of 32 states and the District of Columbia to allow people making 138 percent of the federal poverty line to qualify for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. That's $34,600 for a family of four. Before, they had to make less to qualify.

The changes brought Oregon's slew of new enrollees. For the first two years, the federal government covered the full cost for them  and for those in other states.

In 2017, the match dropped to 95 percent, adding $136 million in costs in Oregon. It will drop to 90 percent in 2020.

At the same time, the federal government asked Oregon to pay more for its other Medicaid recipients because of its strong economy. And state lawmakers voted to provide Medicaid coverage for children living in the country illegally starting Jan. 1, adding another $27 million in costs.

Parrish says she has a backup funding plan if Measure 101 fails, though her opponents say it's not workable.

Lawmakers reconvene for a short, six-week session next month.

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Follow Gillian Flaccus on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus
President Donald Trump's trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is likely a go.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday that if "all things go as expected" with reopening the government, the delegation will travel Tuesday and the president will go later in the week.

A delegation of Cabinet members was scheduled to leave Monday, but the group was delayed amid the federal government shutdown. But reopening was in sight later in the day after Senate Democrats dropped their objections to a temporary funding bill.

Trump planned to take his "America First" message to the gathering of global political and business elites that is rarely attended by sitting presidents.

Earlier Monday, when asked if Trump would attend if the government was still shut down, Sanders said: "I don't know that that's very likely. I wouldn't imagine it is. Our priority is making sure that the government reopened and we start having the conversations that need to take place over the next couple of weeks."

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had said he would cancel his trip to Davos if the government was still shut down.
One of the most powerful Republican-backed super PACs was preparing to unleash a horde of attack ads against incumbent Democrats voting not to reopen the government  a move that may be revisited if Democrats threaten a shutdown later in the year, the FOX Business Network has learned.

On Monday, the Senate voted overwhelming to reopen the government after a two-day shutdown as Democrats who were holding out from voting on a continuing resolution decided to join with Republicans and approve the measure. The House is expected to approve it as well, a move that will officially reopen the government on Tuesday.

Both sides were looking to earn political points on the shutdown, with Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) referring to it as the Trump Shutdown, after President Trump backed out of a initial deal. Trump and Schumer appeared to have tentatively agreed on reopening the government while allowing children of illegal immigrants living in in the United States under a federal program to remain in the country.

Trump, meanwhile, took to Twitter labeling the shutdown the Democrat Shutdown because the Senate minority leader wouldnt vote to keep the government open without immigration reform that he wanted. The GOP was also preparing an onslaught of ads against any Senate Democratic incumbent up for re-election in 2018 through the Senate Leadership Fund, people with direct knowledge of the matter say.

The attack ads were said to target Democrats seen particularly vulnerable in states that Trump either won or came close to winning in the 2016 election, such as West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin.

With the House on the verge of voting for a 17 day extension to keep the government open, the PAC decided to hold its fire but may release the ads if Democrats return to the bargaining table in February and vote no on keeping the government open, these people add.

Before the vote on Monday, the PAC gave incumbents a taste of what could be coming as they fight for their seats in states won by President Donald Trump. In a press release going into the crucial vote, the fund released a statement against Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), an 11-year Democrat veteran of the Senate who is seekingre-election this year. Trump easily won that state in the 2016 election as he did West Virginia.

Jon Tester joined liberal party boss Chuck Schumer in shutting down the federal government, a statement from the PAC read. This hurts Montanas seniors, children and military personnel  and Jon Tester knows it, it added.

Other Democrats up for re-election this year who are targets of the super PAC include Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Joe Donnelly (D-IN).

Tester voted against the bill that keeps the government open for another 17 days, while other incumbents voted yes.

With that, Tester is expected to be one of the funds top targets throughout the election.

Chris Pack, a spokesman for the Senate Leadership Fund, declined to comment on the PACs future plans against incumbent Democrats but did give FOX Business a statement in response to Testers no vote.

Jon Tester has been exposed as a liberal extremist, Pack said. It is a sad day for Montana when Tester puts illegal immigration ahead of Montanas children, seniors and military personnel, he added.

Neither Tester nor Manchin returned calls for comment.

So far in the 2018 election cycle, the PAC has spent more than $3 million in TV advertisements against Democrats running for re-election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group that tracks the effects of money and lobbying on elections.

Their top two targets this year have been Manchin and McCaskill.

Theyve spent over $80,000 against them throughout the current election cycle. The PAC is led by allies of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), such as its CEO Steven Law, who previously served as McConnells chief of staff and later created the Leadership Fund in 2015.

Since its debut, the fund has been supported by Republican mega-donors such as Blackstone (NYSE:BX) CEO Steve Schwarzman, Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) CEO Sheldon Adelson and Point72 Asset Management founder Steve Cohen.

During the 2016 election cycle, the PAC spent $83 million on TV ads and $4 million on internet attack ads. Schwarzman and Adelson were some of the funds top donors that year, with the Blackstone executive contributing more than $3 million and Adelson handing out over $17 million. Cohen is one of the top donors this year, giving $2 million to the PAC so far.
Sadly, this is CNN.

CNN personalities already blame virtually everything on President Trump and now the network has floated a theory that the earth could be jeopardized by an asteroid because of the government shutdown -- but don't worry, experts have already dubunked the fake news.

CNN correspondent Tom Foreman said on "The Lead with Jake Tapper" that NASA could potentially stop monitoring asteroids during the shutdown.

A big one, by the way, is expected to brush by Earth on February 4, Foreman said on Friday's show.

He explained that this occurred back in 2013 during the Obama administration when the government last shut down. For more than two weeks, NASA reportedly stopped monitoring potentially dangerous asteroids, he said.

Foreman might not be the best when it comes to measuring things, as he said the anticipated asteroid will brush by earth, but it will actually be roughly 2.6 million miles away, according to Space.com.

NASA representatives say there's no chance that it will collide with Earth, Space.com reported.

Center for Near-Earth-Object Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Paul Chodas told the site, which bills itself as the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, that the asteroid CNN hyped has no chance -- zero -- of colliding with Earth on Feb. 4 or any time over the next 100 years."

CNNs attempt to create a sense of panic was mocked by conservative news organizations such as Breitbart and TheBlaze, while some supermarket tabloids have joined CNN in sensationalizing the asteroid.

You arent hearing things. CNN suggested that we could get hit by an asteroid because of the Schumer Shutdown, conservative journalist Carmine Sabia tweeted.

Along with pondering aloud whether or not an asteroid would ruin the entire planet, Foreman discussed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention potentially back down on its flu tracking program despite the worst outbreak in years.

CNN has become increasingly liberal and is called fake news by members of the Trump administration on a regular basis.
CNN host Bill Weir slammed Megyn Kellys salary and hosting ability on Monday, saying "real" journalists took cuts for her "ginormous" salary, after the NBC News morning show star criticized Jane Fonda earlier in the day.

Kelly used her platform on Monday to blast Fonda for continuing to bring up the four-month-old, cringe-worthy moment when Kelly asked Fonda about plastic surgery. Fonda told Variety over the weekend she would only appear on Kelly's show again "if she comes around and learns her stuff."

"It wasnt like I was upset," Fonda said. "I was stunned. It was so inappropriate. It showed that shes not that good an interviewer."

Kelly said on Monday that Fonda "has no business lecturing anyone on what qualifies as offensive." She said Fonda had been invited on her show to "to promote a film about aging" and added that Fonda has discussed her plastic surgeries "pretty much everywhere." She said she had no way of knowing "this subject was suddenly off limits."

Well, it seems that Weir didnt appreciate Kellys explanation.

A decent host might drop by the green room before the show and ask an 80 yr-old the best way to broach a sensitive topic but @MegynTODAY would rather attack the guest for being offended, Weir tweeted. Meanwhile, real journalists are forced to take cuts so NBC can pay her ginormous salary.

Insiders consider it a major breach of decorum for one anchor to slam another publicly over their salary, but Weir apparently didnt mind mocking Kellys reported $23 million per year deal  and NBC executives may agree with the CNN host.

A well-placed NBC source tells Fox News that NBC News executives knew in advance that Kelly planned to denounce Fonda but were powerless to stop her.

"The 'Today' staff was appalled at Megyns comments about Fonda and want nothing to do with them," an NBC staffer told Fox News.

Kelly has been involved in a series of high-profile gaffes since taking over the 9 a.m. ET hour of Today, including not being chosen to represent NBC at the Olympics, rumors of a toxic culture at her show, reportedly irking executives by attempting to book former E! News host Catt Sadler on her show after Sadler walked away from her gig on NBCs sister station last month because of gender wage gap issues. In addition, former head writer Kevin Bleyer was fired after sending an email to the shows staff alleging a chaotic and abusive workplace.

Furthermore, a source says embattled NBC News president Noah Oppenheim is hiding from the controversy over Kelly while in North Korea, where hes accompanying Nightly News anchor Lester Holt.

He has absolutely no reason to be there, said the source.

Fox News Sasha Savitsky contributed to this report.
CNN star Chris Cuomo took to Twitter and belittled a viewers concerns about illegal immigration on Monday, asking, Who teaches you guys this tripe?

The social media thread started on Sunday when Cuomo wrote, Honest question: how is wanting to help dreamers become citizens, being anti-American citizens? A user responded, When you put those who have entered the US illegally before US citizens. Remember that the government cannot give anything to someone that it hasnt taken from another.

The anti-Trump Cuomo didnt appreciate the comment and responded to his 1.2 million followers, mocking the comment as tripe and dismissing someone simply for having opposing viewers.

Who teaches you guys this tripe? America cant be about us vs them, Cuomo tweeted. Diversity is our advantage, remember?

Earlier on Monday, Cuomo also sided with illegal immigrants during an on-air conversation with White House Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short, claiming the GOP philosophy on border security and DACA is proof Republicans dont care about DREAMers.

By numbers and statistics, you cannot make the case that the illegal entrance are more dangerous than native born citizens, Cuomo said. Why make them monsters when that's not true in the data?

Cuomo, who co-hosts the struggling morning show New Day, also appears on the predominantly male networks primetime lineup on occasion. He is known for his bizarre questions and frenetic interviewing, which often leads to combative interviews with members of the Trump administration and its supporters. He has sparred with members of the Trump administration whenever given the chance -- and it became particularly heated with Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, on multiple occasions. Last August she even called him an amateur climatologist when Cuomo insisted on talking about climate change during an interview about Hurricane Harvey disaster relief.

Last week, Cuomo apologized after botching the name of an Indian-American Trump staffer when he referred to Principal Deputy White House Press Secretary Raj Shah as Raj whatever-his-name-is.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders mocked CNN on Twitter for the blunder, but called the anti-Trump CNN star classy for apologizing. However, Sanders warned Cuomo that Shah is tough, alluding to the fact that he would hold his own in an interview with the CNN host.

Be careful what you wish for, Sanders wrote.

Cuomo, 47, who came to CNN from reliably liberal ABC News, has fully embraced CNN boss Jeff Zuckers apparent anti-Trump programming strategy. Cuomos older brother Andrew, the Democratic governor of New York, is known to harbor presidential aspirations. In recent memory, Cuomo has also urged Americans to get woke while denouncing Trumps border wall and referred to a viewer as a lemming during a nasty Twitter spat.
Its been 40 years since Elvis Presley died in 1977 at age 42  and his ex-girlfriend Linda Thompson still remembers the king of rock n roll fondly.

I was always a fan, but I didnt think he would transcend time and space and become the iconic, almost religion he is now, Linda Thompson told Closer Weekly Sunday.

The pair dated from 1972 until 1976.

EXCLUSIVE: LINDA THOMPSON OPENS UP ABOUT HER RELATIONSHIP WITH ELVIS PRESLEY

Thompson was crowned Miss Tennessee back in 1972. She first met Presley at a movie theater. The former pageant queen described how Presley, whose marriage to Priscilla Presley had ended, was abusing prescription pills.

I dont have such an ego that I think I could have made a difference, the 67-year-old said of Presleys failing health. But I know I did take very good care of him and probably extended his life by a few years I felt a keen responsibility to take good care of him.

While Thompson went on to marry Bruce Jenner, who is now known as Caitlyn Jenner. She also later wed music producer David Foster, but they split in 2005. Still, she still keeps Presley in her heart.

He was my first love, the one who altered my life the most, she explained. He was the first, and thats always very special. Time and circumstances will express themselves no matter what you do.

Back in 2016, Thompson told Fox News Presley initially wanted to preserve her virginity due to her religious upbringing.

He was very old-fashioned, she said. I think that was one thing that he very much appreciated and valued in me, that I was a virtuous girl at the time. I wasnt that young, but I was a Southern Baptist. I grew up very conservatively and traditionally. I wanted to save myself for marriage, and he just thought that was very commendable. He didnt want to put the pressure on me to commit before I was ready. He was a Southern gentleman, a lovely human being.

Thompson also revealed she learned romantic love from Presley while living with him in Las Vegas and Graceland, as well as when they hit the road together for his performances.

I [learned] just about everything about love, both good and bad, she explained. One of the biggest lessons I learned from living with Elvis and loving him for so many years was that were all human, and no matter what level one has reached in terms of fame, theyre still human beings.

"Its a disservice, really, when we put celebrated people on a pedestal and dont allow them to be human. Its a very lonely experience for the individual. Its not a sustainable way to live. I think that happens to a lot of people who find themselves thrust into the spotlight Life becomes a little distorted for them.

Thompson had no regrets about their romance.

I absolutely adored him, she said. And I still feel a connection to his soul because he was such a good human being and a charismatic figure. I got to know him very intimately as a human being, not just Elvis Presley the icon.

"I still feel that and theres a raw spot in my heart when I see him or hear him sing. I have to stop what Im doing and just remember the great love that we shared. That doesnt go away. That stays in the heart forever.
Former "Today" host Matt Lauer, who was booted by NBC at the end of 2017 following sexual assault allegations, has now been kicked out of his home in the Hamptons by his wife, according to the New York Post.

Annette Roque recently sent Lauer, 60, packing, a source told The Post. The newspaper reports he has since been living nearby in another Hamptons property so he can be near his children. Previously, Lauer spent his time during the week in New York City to be near NBC's studios while he was still employed by "Today."

Roque and Lauer have three kids together, and The Post reports one of the children is away at school.

The latest move by Lauer's wife should come as no surprise. NBC insiders tell Fox News that "Today" staff has long believed Lauer was living at his own Hamptons property, away from Roque. The insiders say Roque and Lauer lead separate lives in the Hamptons.

From 2009 to 2016 he owned a different property in the Hamptons that many believed he was spending his time at when he was not in New York City. Then, in June 2016, Lauer purchased another spare property in the Hamptons for $3.6 million, The Post reported at the time.

In early December, it was reported that Lauer had ditched his NYC digs and was spending time in the Hamptons with his wife. And while the former anchor was snapped in Sag Harbor wearing his wedding band, Roque was captured without hers. In an interview with The Daily Mail, Roques father told the publication that his daughter had no intention of getting back together with Lauer.

She is not going to stay with him and work it out," he said. "They are not together trying to work it out.

Before Christmas, Roque reportedly met with lawyers, but she has yet to file for divorce.

If she does file for divorce, it won't be the first time. According to multiple media reports Roque attempted to divorce Lauer back in 2006, stating she suffered cruel and inhumane treatment by Lauer. However, she quickly dropped the filing.

Lauer was fired from his 20-year post as anchor of NBCs Today show in November, after a former employee he had worked with accused the veteran TV man of sexual misconduct. Since Lauers firing, several women have come forward to reveal their stories about the news anchor.

On January 17, Ann Curry, said in her first TV interview since leaving NBC in 2015 that she would have been surprised if anyone at the "Today" show didn't know about her former co-host Matt Lauer's pervy behavior with women, adding that there was a culture of sexual harassment at the peacock network.

"I can tell you that I am not surprised by the allegations," Curry told the "CBS This Morning" hosts on Wednesday morning regarding the harassment and assault claims against Lauer.

Curry was then pressured to talk about whether others at NBC and "Today" knew about Lauer's alleged behavior at the time.

"I think it would be surprising if someone said they didn't see that," an uncomfortable Curry said. She added, "I would be surprised if many women did not understand that there was a climate of verbal harassment that existed."

"CBS This Morning" host Gayle King also asked Curry about the longtime rumors that Lauer was behind her firing from "Today" in June 2012. "Today" executives reportedly referred to the plot to remove Curry, 61, as "Operation Bambi."

While saying earlier that she knew what it was like to be "publicly humiliated," Curry would not point the finger at Lauer.

"You should ask someone else," Curry told King. "I'm not the one to ask about that, no, because I don't know what was behind it. I know that it hurt like hell. It wasn't a great moment."

Fox News' Sasha Savitsky contributed to this report.
The royal family has a lot to celebrate this year.

Just two months after Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle revealed their engagement, Princess Eugenie announced she will walk down the aisle just months after her cousin's nuptials.

Eugenie, the daughter of Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, will marry Jack Brooksbank in the fall, Buckingham Palace said Monday.

The palace said that the wedding will take place at St. George's Chapel in Windsor. Prince Harry and his fiancee Markle will marry at the same chapel in May.

The 27-year-old Eugenie was the second child born to Andrew and Ferguson.

Ferguson tweeted: "Total joy!!" to mark the engagement and said the couple "float with laughter and love."

The groom's parents, Nicola and George Brooksbank, also welcomed the news, saying they couldn't be more delighted.

Eugenie is the granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II and is eighth in line to the throne.

The palace said she and Brooksbank became engaged in Nicaragua earlier this month. They have been dating for a number of years. Brooksbank proposed with a padparadscha sapphire surrounded by diamonds.

Brooksbank has been working as a brand ambassador for Casamigos tequila's expansion into Britain and Europe.

Eugenie is a director at the Hauser and Wirth art galleries.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Andrew Zimmern has eaten a lot of truly bizarre dishes during his tenure as the host of Bizarre Foods, but he reserves the word disgusting  a term he claims he rarely uses  for a very odd condiment he tries in the upcoming season.

Zimmern, obviously, is no stranger to strange cuisine. Hes munched his way through over 20 collective seasons of Bizarre Foods, Bizarre Foods America and Delicious Destinations. Hes eaten putrefied shark in Iceland, tree grubs in Peru and even horse rib and rectum sausage in Kazakhstan, the latter of which he described as delicious despite being one of the most bizarre things hes ever eaten.

CASEY WEBB OF 'MAN V. FOOD' ON HIS TWO FAVORITE 'FOOD CITIES'

But it was a simple tomato-based dish that intimidated Zimmern during a trip to Missouri while retracing the route of the James Gang.

I think its been a while since Ive eaten something that I felt was truly horrific on camera, Zimmern told Fox News. That being said  the rotten tomato ketchup certainly was disgusting, in every sense. And thats a word I never use around food, but at one stage before its cooked, thats the only way to describe it.

As Zimmern told Fox News, the ketchup he sampled in Missouri isnt really ketchup in the same sense that most diners would recognize as the red stuff they dip their fries in, but rather a savory, vinegary condiment for roasted meats.

[Its] literally rotten tomatoes with inches and inches of blue, white and black mold growing on it, Zimmern explained. The type of thing youd throw in the garbage. Youd never get near it.

ANTHONY BOURDAIN REVEALS HIS 'SHAMEFUL' FAST-FOOD SECRET

But once all of the harmful bacteria is boiled off, Zimmern sampled the ketchup and described it as having a faint, fermented, off flavor  in the same way that really great hams or cheeses have a slightly off or fermented flavor to them.

And at the end of the day, Zimmern ended up liking it so much that he hasnt ruled out the possibility of recreating the dish in his own kitchen.

The one thing Zimmern loves more than sampling the worlds most bizarre foods, however, is the people he meets and the villages he visits where folks still appreciate these dishes.

The show has taken quite a turn over the last 11-and-a-half years that weve been on, said Zimmern. What started out as a show that was definitely fat white guy goes around the world and eats bugs  even though we had a higher purpose  it was a Trojan Horse [I used] to try and sneak into the television world. I wanted to talk about cultures by exploring food.

From the sound of the upcoming episodes, Zimmern definitely gets to do just that: In addition to retracing the route of the James Gang, the new season of Bizarre Foods takes Zimmern hunting in Poland, down the romantic road in Germany, and stopping for a bite everywhere from Minnesota to the Amalfi Coast.

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To walk into a store and see someone who still makes rotten tomato ketchup, and that moment of looking to the pot and seeing all that mold and rotten food that they were going to boil off it just gives you pause, Zimmern said. And to see that there are people who still prefer to live that way.

Its the little moments that grab me.

The new season of Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern premieres Tuesday, Jan. 23 on Travel Channel.
A customer at the Corowa RSL Club in Australia returned her sandwich to the kitchen after complaining that it was not cut into equal portions. The clubs CEO Peter Norris measured each half of the sandwich to check, and it turned out one half of the sandwich measured six centimeters while the other measured five centimeters.

Norris described the picky patron as "a bingo lady, in her eighties. He told ABC News Australia that the complaint was passed along to him by the clubs duty manager. "We laughed at it, but you know, the customer was right," he said.

The clubs Facebook account posted evidence of what Norris said they are calling roll-gate to Facebook. Close but not close enough, the post reads. The girls were 5mm off a direct centre cut yesterday. This was brought back as a legitimate complaint + the roll was replaced. For those who have worked in hospitality you will understand the randomness  if you can't have a laugh life will be pretty dull!

The sandwich was replaced with a fresh one that the customer was able to cut in half herself, exactly how she wanted.
It turns out Facebook is good for something other than keeping up with old friends.

Photos on a young doctor's Facebook account helped surgeons reconstruct her badly smashed face after she was involved in a horrifying horse accident.

Dr. Elizabeth Calton had her face "crushed backwards" after jumping off her horse, Barney, and getting kicked in the head.

"The impact basically crushed the middle of my face backwards, the physician told news service SWNS.

While taking a ride on her horse, the 38-year old pediatric doctor had to suddenly jump off the horse when he was startled by a noise. The spooked horse trampled across his owners chest, breaking nine of her ribs and crushing her face.

BABY BORN WITH 4 LEGS, 2 SPINES RECOVERING AFTER

RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY

"I was incredibly lucky, both to have been discovered by passersby, but also to be brought to St Georges, which has so many specialists in one place," she said.

The London-based doctor suffered multiple facial fractures, including both cheekbones, her eye sockets, nose and upper jaw, which had broken in two under the weight of the horses hoof.

It took nine surgeons 10 hours, 41 screws and 11 plates to reconstruct her face after the accident last October. But it was Elizabeths pictures from Facebook that helped the team recapture her original bone structure.

MOROCCAN WOMAN WITH FACIAL TUMOR GETS LIFE-CHANGING

RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY

Plastic surgeon Dr. Nick Hyde, who led the operation, told SWNS "Multiple injuries to the face such as this are rare, and the surgery Elizabeth required was complex and labor-intensive."

"However, the end result is very pleasing, and a credit to the many different people involved in her care.

"It was a real team effort," he noted.
A Utah State University student was reportedly rushed to a hospital Saturday after ingesting a Tide Pod, which has become a dangerous trend on social media as teens dare each other to eat the miniature, neon, detergent-filled pods.

Campus police initially called the incident a Tide Pod overdose, but Eric Warren, director of media relations at USU, told FOX 13 Salt Lake City the female student ingested a Tide Pod.

Utah State University walked back on its claim the Tide Pod ingestion by a female student was related to the social media craze. The school said in a statement to FOX 13 Salt Lake City, the incident was not in any way connected to a larger trend involving tide pods.

KWCH-TV reported the female was taken to a local hospital, but her condition was not immediately made available.

The incident comes after doctors warned people earlier this month not to eat the laundry pods due to health concerns. The warning was sparked by social media posts and online videos of people participating in the "#TidePodChallenge" that involves eating the pods and filming the reaction.

The challenge appeared to begin as a joke in an article in The Onion, a satirical news organization. In 2017, College Humor posted a satirical video of a man eating the pods because they looked inviting and delicious, USA Today reported.

DOCTORS WARN AGAINST EATING TIDE PODS IN LATEST SOCIAL MEDIA CHALLENGE

According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, which compiles numbers on poison control calls, poison control centers in 2016 and 2017 handled 39 and 53 cases of intentional exposures, respectively, among 13- to 19-year-olds.

In the first 15 days of 2018 alone, the AAPCC said poison centers have already handled 39 such intentional cases among the same age demographic.

The laundry packet challenge is neither funny nor without serious health implications, AAPCCs CEO and Executive Director Stephen Kaminski said in a statement. The intentional misuse of these products poses a real threat to the health of individuals. We have seen a large spike in single-load laundry packet exposures among teenagers since these videos have been uploaded.

As the challenge picked up traction earlier this year on social media, Tide's parent company Procter & Gamble quickly took action. On Jan. 12, they released a cautionary video starring New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski scolding viewers of even thinking of snacking on Tide Pods.

YOUTUBE BANS TIDE POD CHALLENGE VIDEOS

A P&G spokesperson told Fox Business they are working with leading social media networks to remove harmful content from the web, and detailed actions taken to reduce accidental exposure to the product since its debut in 2012.

Each year laundry pacs have been on the market, we've taken meaningful steps to reduce accidental exposure," the spokesperson said. "We have co-led the development of industry standard since its initiation and taken actions including adding child resistant closures to the bags and tubs and adding bittering substances to the packets to deter accidental ingestion. We've also worked with organizations like Safe Kids Worldwide to educate parents and caregivers on safe use and storage."

YouTube has also stepped up, banning all challenge videos as they violate community guidelines.

YouTubes Community Guidelines prohibit content thats intended to encourage dangerous activities that have an inherent risk of physical harm, a YouTube spokesperson told The Daily Meal on Jan. 18. We work to quickly remove flagged videos that violate our policies.

Fox News' Kathleen Joyce and Jeanine Puhak contributed to this report.
When the U.S. Olympic team marches through the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang next month, they might be a few degrees warmer than the competition.

Ralph Lauren, the official outfitter of the U.S. Olympic team at the 2018 Games, has reportedly designed the athletes opening and closing ceremony attire with a built-in heating system that the athletes themselves can activate at the push of a button  and that's good news for Team USA, as Pyeongchang's temperatures could easily hover in the single digits, the Weather Channel reports.

Ralph Lauren is excited by the convergence of fashion and function, and we are committed to supporting Team USA athletes by outfitting them with the latest innovative technology, said David Lauren, the son of Ralph Lauren and the companys chief innovation officer, in a press release.

TICKET SALES FOR OLYMPICS IN SOUTH KOREA ARE SLUGGISH

According to Ralph Lauren, the heating element is made from electronic printed conductive inks, printed into the shape of an American flag in carbon and silver ink, and bonded to the inside of the teams opening ceremony parkas and closing ceremony bomber jackets. This specific process is also said to be exclusively designed for Ralph Lauren.

"There have been heatable blankets for kids before but they have wires. This is a fabric with ink that heats up  it's weightless, it's conductive and it's immediate." David Lauren told USA Today.

Athletes need merely to push a button on an accompanying electronic device to experience either high or low heating, which Ralph Lauren describes as immediate. Heat can last for up to 11 hours on a single charge of a battery element.

[Heat] can be felt as soon as the button is pressed, according to the companys press release.

WOMAN SUED BY SALON AFTER POSTING PHOTOS OF PAINFUL REACTION TO EYEBROW TATTOO

This revolutionary design will keep American athletes warm as they proudly walk through the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium, added Lisa Baird, the chief marketing officer of the United States Olympic Committee.

Along with news of the warmer uniforms, Ralph Lauren is launching a social media campaign called Heat the Way for Team USA and promising to donate $1 for every post liked on social media that contains the hashtage #HeatTheWayForTeamUSA (up to $100,000).

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The press release also makes a point to note that Team USAs clothing was designed and produced in America  unlike the companys Team USA uniforms for the 2012 Summer Olympics, which were discovered to have been made in China.
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The wealthy and powerful have a way of steamrolling those who have less. Silicon Valley, however, prefers to cloak itself in virtue. Unlike the company towns of yore, Mountainview, California was supposed to be different. There, it was supposed to be about Googliness, an almost mythical mashup of passion and drive thats hard to define but easy to spot.

But every now and then reality intrudes. These days, Google finds itself in the barrel for alleged political discrimination in connection with the termination of James Damore and David Gudeman, two ex-employees and the lead plaintiffs in a recently commenced class action brought in a California state court.

In its most rudimentary form, the case raises the question raises of whether Google discriminates against plaintiffs (i) due to their perceived conservative political views; (ii) due to their male gender; and/or (iii) due to their Caucasian race.

To be sure, they may have been fired for all of the above. Or they may have been canned for being first class jerks and flaunting internal policy. In the end, the trial court will sort that out. Regardless, this is one lawsuit that Google can definitely do without.

The Damore class action raises questions about what Google is about, and whether all of its high-minded rhetoric and self-image are simply illusory.

For a company whose motto is dont be evil, Google is not having the easiest time. This latest episode follows a September 2017 lawsuit brought by three women who alleged that the tech giant systemically paid men more. There was also the companys opposition to legislation that sought to halt online child sex trafficking.

So how did Google become embroiled in this latest mess? Well, last summer Damore unleashed his salvo against Googles ideological echo chamber  at the same time that Googles compensation practices were being put under the figurative microscope. Damore also suggested that biology may have something to do with men being particularly suited for hi-tech. And yes, thats a big deal.

To put things in perspective, Lawrence Summers, Bill Clintons former Treasury Secretary, was forced to walk away from his job as president of Harvard a year after he told a 2005 economics conference that under-representation of female scientists at elite universities may stem in part from innate differences between men and women. Suffice to say, comments like that can have serious consequences.

Like Summers at Harvard, Damore struck a nerve. According to court papers, Google employees demanded that Damore be axed, and that those who shared his views should be purged.

Googles senior managers allegedly told Damore that he was fired for perpetuating gender stereotypes. The Complaint even contains a quote from another Google employee who demanded that Google fire Damore, but also severely discipline or terminate those who have expressed support. Was that righteous indignation, conformity run amok, or a little of both?

As for Gudeman, he questioned a Muslim co-worker who claimed he was being targeted by the federal government because of his religion. According to the lawsuit, Google alleged that Gudeman had accused his colleague of terrorism.

Do Damore and Gudeman come up short in the tact department? Bigly. Are they clods, clowns, or worse? Maybe so. But thats not the end of the discussion. There are two pesky things out there. One is called free speech, and the other is the State of California.

Under California law, political speech appears to be protected from retaliation  even from private actors. Unlike the First Amendment that guaranties speech rights in the face of government retribution, California appears to extended speech protections to private sector employees.

Whether Google broke the law will likely be hashed out in court, and its safe to say that lots of folks will be watching  and with good reason. The Damore case raises questions about what Google is about, and whether all of its high-minded rhetoric and self-image are simply illusory.

In the end, trial-related discovery has a way of shining a light on things corporations dont want to be exposed, like lobbying practices and internal ethics. For example, when Google was slapped with an antitrust investigation in 2010 by the Texas Attorney Generals office, it had no qualms about hiring Ted Cruz, then merely a former state solicitor general and the AGs former deputy, to help kill the investigation. When pressed, Google offered no comment on its strategy.

Googles official documents are also potentially problematic. According to Googles filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company prides itself on its uniqueness and its commitment to democracy  their words, not mine. Google put it this way: Google is not a conventional company  We believe that technology is a democratizing force, empowering people through information. As for its corporate culture, Google had this to tell the SEC: We strive to hire great employees, with backgrounds and perspectives as diverse as those of our global users.

In other words, Googles version of diversity was not just about fielding a corporate softball team that could double as a United Colors of Benetton ad. Rather, diversity at Google was also supposed to be about heterodoxy, multiplicities of thought and viewpoints.

But from the looks of things, apparently not so much. The spiel it gave to federal regulators and sold investors may not comport with actual reality. From the looks of things, Google is finding out that moral hygiene can get complicated, and that lawsuits seldom wind up the way parties hope they do. If these cases drag on, Google will have some explaining to do.
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Grading President Trumps first year in office is all the media rage. But lets look at the other side of the story  and grade the media.

F for effort, F for result and F for the lack of honesty.

Thats not a blanket condemnation of every journalist at every news organization. There are many hardworking professionals who try to get the facts right and keep their opinions to themselves.

But few of those people cover the White House and almost none have prominent roles at The New York Times, The Washington Post, the broadcast networks, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and The AP.

Those are the bell cows of the liberal national media, and their coverage is relentlessly anti-Trump. Day after mind-numbing day, every story is a negative opinion.

O'Keefe accused mainstream journalists of groupthink, saying they move in packs . . . like blackbirds on a telephone wire. Theyre all talking about the same thing.

There is, of course, nothing new about the pattern. Media bias during Trumps first year in office is a continuation of the bias that exploded during the 2016 campaign.

The press tried to defeat him then and now is trying to hobble his presidency if not drive him from office. The real scandal is that nothing has changed.

The Get Trump mob reached parody levels last week when the White House doctor declared him in excellent health, physically and cognitively. That wasnt the answer the press corps wanted, so it badgered Dr. Ronny Jackson, a decorated naval admiral and the physician who examined the president.

Jackson, who was White House physician under Barack Obama, gave no ground. Yet both the New York Times and CNN nonetheless declared that Trump suffers from heart disease.

Notably, both organizations previously featured shrinks declaring Trump mentally unfit, too. Who needs real exams when liberals are willing to exploit their medical credentials to give politicized diagnoses from afar?

Trump, of course, is a blunt instrument and he celebrated his one-year anniversary by hitting back. His Fake News awards  Fakies, a wag called them  singled out the worst of the worst, leading with Times Op-Ed columnist Paul Krugman.

The Nobel economist foolishly wrote on election night that the stock market would never recover from Trumps victory. You cant be more wrong than that, yet Krugman shows no shame in continually predicting doom.

The collapse of journalism as we knew it, and the lack of any sign of a return to traditional standards, explains why I found myself in an unfamiliar setting last week. It was the book launch of American Pravda, the latest work by James OKeefe, the founder of Project Veritas.

A self-described guerilla journalist, OKeefe and his team use disguises and false identities to secretly videotape people in hopes they will admit breaking the law or abusing their power.

His targets include government and media officials as well as Planned Parenthood, ACORN, political organizations, elections officials and Twitter.

He has had success and a number of people caught in his stings have resigned or been fired. But his video editing has come under fire for being deceptive, hes been sued repeatedly, including by New York and California attorneys general, and pled guilty to a federal misdemeanor for entering the office of a Louisiana senator disguised as a telephone repairman. He was sentenced to probation and a fine.

OKeefes track record is actually pretty good, but his reputation has been battered because journalism organizations dont regard him as a journalist because he uses deception.

That prohibition was part of my training at the Times years ago, which is why I stayed clear of OKeefe. Until now.

Part of my changing view is that OKeefe, despite his mistakes, has revealed evidence of serious wrongdoing and unethical behavior that no one else did or would.

Most recently, for example, he captured current and former Twitter managers admitting they use shadowbans, which effectively hide a users tweets, based on content, without notifying the user.

Other personnel admitted the company tracks user behavior and reads direct messages to find prohibited content.

Those are troubling revelations, yet most media coverage bought the companys claims that the videos amounted to little or nothing.

That gets me to another reason for my changing view of OKeefe  the reprehensible conduct of so-called legitimate news organizations. They, too, are guilty of deception by pretending to offer straight news when they function more like propaganda outlets for the Democratic Party.

OKeefes deception is not materially different from theirs. In fact, hes more honest, admitting he has a conservative agenda to expose the lies of powerful liberal organizations.

Moreover, as OKeefe stressed at his well-attended book launch, many of the celebrated muckraking journalists of the early 20th century went undercover to expose social horrors. Were doing what people used to do, he said, adding his book is about what went wrong in journalism.

His 20-minute talk was both rambling and heartening. The 33-year-old Eagle Scout from New Jersey cited George Orwell, Abbie Hoffman and Noam Chomsky, saluted the late Andrew Breitbart and said Jeff Sessions, now attorney general, once praised him by saying, you confirm suspicions.

OKeefe said his nonprofit organization has a synergy with Trump, who made a $10,000 donation in 2015, in that both are out to expose fake news.

What is journalism? he asked. Its not an identity, its an activity. You are what you do.

He accused mainstream journalists of groupthink, saying they move in packs . . . like blackbirds on a telephone wire. Theyre all talking about the same thing.

His goal is to dent the fortress and crack the dam so the public knows who is abusing power.

OKeefe has a passion for gathering facts and sharing them that recalls the best journalists I have known. And he is right that journalism history was written by people who went undercover to expose scandals.

Upton Sinclair, whom he cited, lived and dressed like a worker, even carrying a lunch pail, to fit in with the men who toiled in The Jungle, his takedown of Chicagos meatpacking industry.

And Nellie Bly feigned mental illness so she could become a patient and expose the horrors of a New York lunatic asylum for women on what is now Roosevelt Island.

OKeefe is in that mold. Smart, committed and fearless, hes a modern muckraker worth watching.

To read more Michael Goodwin on the New York Post click here.
The Senate adjourned Sunday without reaching an agreement to end the government shutdown as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called for both parties to "step back from the brink."

"The shutdown should stop today," McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor Sunday evening. "And we'll soon have a vote that will allow us to do that."

However, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he and McConnell "have yet to reach an agreement on a path forward" to re-opening the government.

For most of the day, a bipartisan group of approximately 18 senators huddled to craft a compromise spending plan to present to their respective leadership teams. The group was expected to meet at 10 a.m. Monday, with a vote to break a Democratic filibuster on a short-term funding bill scheduled for noon.

The contours of the bipartisan proposal were still taking shape Sunday evening. In exchange for Democratic votes on a three-week spending measure, the GOP leadership in the Senate would agree to address immigration policy and other pressing legislative matters in the coming weeks.



Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said the potential deal would not secure an immediate vote on immigration tied to reopening the government, but lawmakers were seeking "an agreement that we would proceed to immigration."



The approach found advocates in Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who has been trying to broker an immigration deal, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., both of whom rejected an earlier short-term proposal. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., another previous "no" vote, announced he would vote in favor of reopening the government Monday.



Seeking to win over holdout votes, McConnell pledged Sunday that the Senate would take up legislation on some top Democratic priorities, including immigration, if they aren't already addressed by Feb. 8.

Republicans have appeared increasingly confident that Democrats were bearing the brunt of criticism for the shutdown and that they would ultimately buckle. The White House and GOP leaders said they would not negotiate with Democrats on immigration until the government is reopened.

There were indications Sunday that Democratic resolve was beginning to waver, with growing worries that a prolonged shutdown could prove to be an electoral headache for the party just as they have grown confident about their prospects in November.

"I think they miscalculated on the shutdown," Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, said. "It's very unpopular and they're trying to find a way out of it."

"The American people cannot begin to understand why the Senate Democratic leader thinks the entire government should be shut down until he gets his way on illegal immigration."  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

During a meeting with reporters, Graham, R-S.C., warned Democrats to not "overplay your hand."

"A government shutdown is not a good way to get an outcome legislatively," Graham added.

Discussions took place in behind closed doors throughout the day with few outward signs of progress, as lawmakers took turns delivering animated speeches to near empty chambers to explain why the other party is to blame. McConnell and Schumer met off the Senate floor in the early evening, as many in quiet Capitol offices flipped their television screens to playoff football games.



McConnell opened the chambers rare Sunday legislative session, on the second day of the shutdown, by saying Schumer on Friday made the extraordinary and destructive choice to filibuster our bipartisan bill and guarantee the American people a shutdown of their federal government.

He also accused Schumer of making the decision to shut down the federal government for hundreds of millions of Americans because he didnt get everything he wanted in one meeting with President Trump.

The shutdown has centered on Democrats demand that any spending bill to keep the government fully operational include protections for illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children.

Schumer argued again Sunday that he offered a compromise immigration plan to Trump to avoid a shutdown, including billions for his must-have U.S.-Mexico border wall. However, he stopped short of repeating that negotiating with President Trump is like negotiating with Jell-O.

On Friday in the Oval Office, I made what I thought was a very generous offer to the president, the most generous offer yet, Schumer said Sunday on the Senate floor. The president must take yes for an answer. Until he does, its the Trump Shutdown.

Earlier Sunday, Trump suggested that Senate Republicans change chamber rules -- and resort to the nuclear option -- so that they could sidestep the 60 votes needed to stop the Democrats filibuster, then pass a long-term budget with a simple, 51-vote majority.

Great to see how hard Republicans are fighting for our Military and Safety at the Border, Trump tweeted. The Dems just want illegal immigrants to pour into our nation unchecked. If stalemate continues, Republicans should go to 51% (Nuclear Option) and vote on real, long term budget, no C.R.s! referring to continuing spending resolutions.

However, McConnell has said he's opposed to changing the rules.

The Senate Republican Conference opposes changing the rules on legislation, a McConnell spokeswoman told Fox News.

Later, on the Senate floor, McConnell sounded less unequivocal, suggesting he supported using a filibuster from an institutional point of view but the question is, when do you use it?

Coons was critical of Trump's tweet on Fox News Sunday, including its suggestion about the nuclear option, considering the 60-vote threshold has for decades provided the Senates minority party with some check on the majority partys power.

This is another example of President Trump throwing a tweet in the middle of bipartisan negotiations that are making progress, Coons said. I think Senator McConnell, the majority leader, in the end will have much more say about how the Senate is run than the president should.

Many Americans already have felt the impact of the shutdown, with weekend closures at national parks. But the full impact will be more evident Monday, when nearly 1 million federal workers are set to be furloughed without pay. In addition, many needed-but-non-essential government services with be curtailed because the government has no money to provide them.

Democrats have said their concerns about the spending bill go beyond protecting young illegal immigrants from deportation to include providing disaster relief and boosting spending for opioid treatment and other domestic programs.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, disagreed Sunday. Amnesty for illegals is more important, he told Fox News Fox & Friends.

His remarks were typical of the finger-pointing and blaming involved in the shutdown.

The GOP-controlled House passed its version of the spending bill before sending it to the Senate, where it has stalled.

House Republican leaders also met Sunday but only for about 15 minutes.

Too many people are hurt by this, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said afterward. We want to get this done.

The president canceled plans to travel to his resort in Florida for the weekend, which was to include a high-dollar fundraiser. And he instead has worked the phones, staying in touch with McConnell, while White House legislative affairs director Marc Short and budget chief Mick Mulvaney meet at the Capitol with House Republicans.

Mulvaney told Fox News Sunday that Trump wouldn't try to weaponize the shutdown to his political advantage like the Obama administration did in 2013.

Social Security and most other safety-net programs will not be affected by the lapse in federal spending authority. Critical government functions continued, with uniformed service members, health inspectors and law enforcement officers set to work without pay. But if no deal is reached before Monday, an estimated 800,000 federal employees will be furloughed.

On immigration, Democrats are seeking a deal to protect so-called Dreamers. About 700,000 of them have been shielded against deportation by the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which Trump will end in March. He's given lawmakers until then to pass legislation restoring the protections, but he's demanded added money for his proposed border wall with Mexico as a price.

Fox News' Chad Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The anti-Trump text messages between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page that led to Strzoks removal from Special Counsel Robert Muellers Russia probe have been obtained by Fox News.

Read them below.

01/18/2016

Peter Strzok  Martin OMalley is a freak show.

Lisa Page  Yikes Baby! Yeah, thats what everyone says.

03/02/2016

Strzok  He asked me who Id vote for, guessed Kasich.

Page  Seriously?! Would you not D?

Strzok  I dont know. I suppose Hillary.

Page  I would D.

03/04/2016

Page - God Trump is loathsome human.

Strzok  Yet he many win.

Strzok  Good for Hillary.

Page  It is.

Strzok  Would he be a worse president than Cruz?

Page Trump?, yes I think so

Strzok  Im not sure.

Strzok  Omg hes an idiot.

Page  Hes awful

Strzok  America will get what the voting public deserves.

Page  Thats what Im afraid of.

---

Strzok  God Hillary should win. 100,000,000-0.

Page  I know

Page  Also did you hear him make a comment about the size of his d**k earlier? This man cannot be president.

Strzok  Yes I did. In relation to this size of his hand. All the Lil Marco blah blah blah

Strzok  Ok I may vote for Trump.

Page  What? Poor Kasich. Hes the only sensible man up there.

Strzok  He was pretty much calling for death for Snowden. Im a single-issue voter. ;) Espionage Machine Party

Strzok - Exacty re Kasich. And he has ZERO appeal

03/12/2016

Page  What the f is wrong with people? A Texas Candidate pushes the boundary to the far right. (NYT)

http://nyti.ms/1TqBqj

Strzok  That Texas article is depressing as hell. But answers how we could end up with President trump

Page  Wasnt it? Seriously, how are people so incredible ignorant?

Strzok  I have no idea, but it depresses me. Same people who drive more when they get extra daylight from daylight savings, Im guessing.

03/14/2016

Page  Dont listen to npr morning- npr Richard Clarke is an uninformed do*che.

03/16/2016

Page  I can not believe Donald Trump is likely to be an actual, serious candidate for president.

04/02/2016

Page  So look, you say we text on that phone when we talk about Hillary because it cant be traced, you were just venting, bc you feel bad that youre gone so much but that cant be helped right now.

Strzok  Right. But did you say anything other than work? I did, [redacted].

04/09/2016

Strzok  This is clear and utter bias by the media specifically the NY TIMES, WAPO, and CNN who if you look at all of them have large donors for Clinton.

Strzok  The fact citing source they used is owned by a newspaper which publicly endorsed Clinton.

05/04/2016

Page  And holy sh-t Cruz just dropped out of the race. Its going to be a Clinton Trump race. Unbelievable.

Strzok  What?!?!??

Page  You heard that right my friend.

Strzok  I saw trump won, figured it would be a bit

Strzok  Now the pressure really starts to finish MYE....

Page  It sure does. We need to talk about follow up call tomorrow. We still never have.

---

Strzok  K. Rybicki just sent another version.

Page  Bill just popped his head in, hopefully to talk to him.

Strzok  Hope so. Just left Bill. Talked about the speed, the [redacted] stuff relating to the case, and what I told you about earlier.

Strzok  He changed President to "another senior government official."

06/12/2016

Strzok  They fully deserve to go, and demonstrate the absolute bigoted nonsense of Trump

Strzok  Truly

06/17/2016

Strzok  Now were talking about Clinton, and how a lot of people are holding their breath, hoping.

06/22/2016

Page  Hi. Just leaving my meeting now. How we make law in this country is offensive and irresponsible.

Strzok  I know it is. Its why I LOATHE congress. Cant wait to hear the story.

07/01/2016

Strzok  Holy cow....nyt breaking Apuozzo, Lync [sic] will accept whatever rec and career prosecutors make. No political appointee input.

Strzok  Lynch. Timing not great, but whatever. Wonder if that's why the coordination language added.

Page  No way. This is a purposeful leak following the airplane snafu.

Strzok  Timing looks like hell. Will appear to be choreographed. All major news networks literally leading with "AG to accept FBI D's recommendation."

Page  Yeah, that is awful timing. Nothing we can do about it.

Strzok  What I meant was, did DOJ tell us yesterday they were doing this, so D added that language.

Strzok  Yep. I told Bill the same thing. Delaying just makes it worse.

Page  And yes. I think we had some warning of it. I know they sent some statement to rybicki, bc he called andy.

Page  And yeah, it's a real profile in couragw [sic], since she knows no charges will be brought.

07/07/2016

Page  Thought this was spot on. Hillary Clinton: Survivor https//NYTi.ms/29z0oku

07/08/2016

Strzok  And meanwhile, we have Black Lives Matter protestors, right now, chanting no justice no peace around DoJ and the White House

Page  Thats awful.

07/14/2016

Page  Have you read this? Its really frightening. For Whites Sensing Decline, Donald Trump Unleashes Words of Resistance http://NYTI/ms/29WCu5!

Strzok  I have not. But I think its clear hes capturing all the white, poor voters who the mainstream republicans abandoned in all but name in the quest for the almighty $$$

Page  Yeah, its not good.

Strzok  Poll Finds Emails Weighing on Hillary Clinton, Now Tied With Donald Trump http://nyti.ms/29RV5gf

Page  It is

07/19/2016

Strzok  And are you kidding me? Duck Dynasty now Scot Baio? Ridiculous

Page  Wait, is that who is speaking at the convention?!

Strzok  Yes!!!!!!

Page  Charles in Charge?! Thats the best they can do? Lmfao

Strzok  Its PATHETIC!

Page  That unbelievable. My god. Thank god its on.

---

Page  Likely to come down shortly so we can bust through more of this sh*t. Just fyi.

Strzok  Oooh, TURN IT ON, TURN IT ON!!! THE DO*CHEBAGS ARE ABOUT TO COME OUT. You can tell by the excitable clapping.

Page  My god, Im so embarrassed for them. These are like second-run stars. Nothing the B-list to relate to the kids these days.

Page  And wow, Donald Trump is in an enormous do*che.

Strzok  Hi. How was Trump, other than a do*che? Melania? And any luck with home purchases?

Page  Trump barely spoke, but the first thing out of his mouth was were going to win soooo big. The whole thing is like living in a bad dream.

Strzok  Jesus.

Page  Melania was perfectly fine, except the whole point of the spouse talking is to reveal those personal stories, what a ind human the candidate is. There was none of that.

Strzok  That was her job! What the hell did she talk about? Winning huuuge?

Page  I dont know. Lots of my husband is great but no description to back it up.

Strzok  Omg. You listening to npr? Apparently Melanias speech had passages lifted from Michelle ObamasUnbelievable

Page  NO WAY!

Page  God, its just a two-bit organization. I do so hope his disorganization comes to bite him hard in November.

Strzok  It HAS to, right? Right?!? Panicked

07/26/2016

Strzok  And hey. Congrats on a woman nominated for President in a major party! About damn time! Many many more returns of the day!!

Page  Thats cute. Thanks

07/27/2016

Page  Yeah, it is pretty cool. She just has to win now. Im not going to lie, I got a flash of nervousness yesterday about trump. The sandernistas have the potential to make a very big mistake here

07/28/2016

Page  I really really like Joe Biden.

Strzok  Opened on Trump? If Hillary did, you know five field offices would

08/06/2016

Page  Jesus. You should read this. And Trump should go f himself. Moment in Convention Glare Shakes Up Khans American Life http://nyti.ms/2aHulE0

Strzok  God thats a great article. Thanks for sharing. And F TRUMP.

---

Page  And maybe youre meant to stay where you are because youre meant to protect the country from that menace. To that end comma, read this:

Page  Trump Enablers Will Finally Have to Take A Stand http://nyti.ms/2aFakry

Strzok  Thanks. Its absolutely true that were both very fortunate. And of course Ill try and approach it that way. I just know it will be tough at times. I can protect our country at many levels, not sure if that helps

08/09/2016

Page  Hes not ever going to become president, right? Right?!

Strzok  OMG did you hear what Trump just said?

08/26/2016

Strzok  Just went to a southern Virginia Walmart. I could SMELL the Trump support

Page  Yep. Out to lunch with (redacted) We both hate everyone and everything.

Page  Just riffing on the hot mess that is our country.

Strzok  Yeahits scary real down here

09/27/2016

Page  Man, I shouldve started drinking earlier. Im genuinely stressed about the debate.

10/14/2016

Page  God, she's an incredibly impressive woman. The Obamas in general, really. While he has certainly made mistakes, I'm proud to have him as my president. Voice Shaking, Michelle Obama Calls Trump Comments on Women Intolerable http://nyti.ms/@e0MtqY

Page  Full on dog whistles too. "We do not want this election stolen from us. Everybody knows what I'm talking about." The racism is barely even veiled anymore.

10/20/2016

Strzok  I am riled up. Trump is a f***ing idiot, is unable to provide a coherent answer.

Strzok  I CAN'T PULL AWAY, WHAT THE F**K HAPPENED TO OUR COUNTRY (redacted)??!?!

Page  I don't know. But we'll get it back. We're America. We rock.

Strzok  Donald just said "bad hombres"

Strzok  Trump just said what the FBI did is disgraceful.

10/24/2016

Page  Article is out but hidden behind paywall so can't read it.

Strzok Wsj? Boy, that was fast. No word from [redacted] Should I "find" it and tell the team?

Page  No, I think not. Maybe he didn't get a chance, or [redacted] decided not to say anything until tomorrow.

Strzok  Not behind pay wall. I need to send

Strzok  The article is not behind a paywall We get several hours of warning about every other email, but not this, arguably more important than most...

Page  Jesus [redacted] Then fine. Send it to everyone you know. Or I can not tell you about it at all and you can just come across it given all the time you spend reading the Journal.

Page  What differ now does it make to send it to the team Sunday night vs monday morning?

Strzok  Or I can get it like I do every other article that hits my Google news alert. Seriously.

Page  Send me the Google alert.

Strzok  Give me a break. Go look at EVERY article I've sent the team. Count them. Then count every Godd*mn heads up I get from [redacted] but NOT this one. Them tell me I should sit on THIS one and let them hear from someone else. You're not being fair about this.

10/30/2016

Strzok  This is all Matt / Justice officials warned FBI that Comeys decision to update congress was not consistent with department policy - The Washington Post https://washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/justice-officials-warned-fbi-that-comeys-decision-to-update-congress-was-not-consistent-with-department-policy

Page  Yeah. I saw it. Makes me feel WAY less bad about throwing him under the bus in the forthcoming CF article

Strzok  Yep the whole tone is anti Bu. Just a tiny bit from is. And serves him right. He's gonna be pissed...

11/03/2016

Page  Sorry. Rybicki called. Time line article in the post is super specific and not good. Doesn't make sense because I didn't have specific information to give.

Fox News' Jake Gibson contributed to this report.
Calling the Trump administrations tax reform plan a middle-class tax increase, two California lawmakers introduced a bill that would force large companies to fork over half of their expected savings to the state.

Assemblymen Kevin McCarty and Phil Ting, both Democrats, introduced Assembly Constitutional Amendment 22, which calls for a 10 percent surcharge on companies with net earnings over $1 million. The plan could potentially raise billions for the state's social services programs.

It is unconscionable to force working families to pay the price for tax breaks and loopholes benefiting corporations and wealthy individuals, Ting said in a statement, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. This bill will help blunt the impact of the federal tax plan on everyday Californians by protecting funding for education, affordable health care and other core priorities.

The paper reported that the two lawmakers face an uphill battle because Democrats in the state have lost their supermajority in the Legislature.

The Trump administrations tax bill cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. The administration contends that the lessened tax burden will stimulate the economy and help the U.S. stay competitive on a global scale.

About 2 million workers have received a bonus after the bills passage.

Congressional Democrats said the bill was rushed through and benefits the top 1 percent of earners. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has diminished the corporate bonuses as mere crumbs.

An editorial last week in The Sacramento Bee called the McCarty-Ting proposal dumb.

Californias tax system should be updated to match a 21st century economy, the editorial read. The high sales tax rate, which hits low-income people hardest, ought to be lowered, and certain services used by wealthier people and corporations ought to be subject to taxes. Proposition 13, the property tax cutting measure approved by voters 40 years ago, could be revisited.

The editorial pointed out that the state will maintain a $13.5 billion reserve this year, but, Bills that blindly seek to soak big business and the rich at a time of budget surplus solve nothing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Funding for a health insurance program for children became front and center as lawmakers struggled to reach deals to keep the government funded in 2018.

The federal funds for the Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP) expired at the end of September, and a permanent solution had not been passed by the beginning of this year.

However, the Senate reached a budget agreement Wednesday that reportedly funds the program for 10 years.

Heres a look at the CHIP program and what it does.

What is it?

Created in 1997, the Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is low-cost insurance for families with incomes too high for Medicaid but potentially too low to afford private insurance plans.

CHIP covers routine check-ups, doctor visits, prescriptions, emergency services and hospital care, among other things, according to HealthCare.gov.

Every state has a CHIP program, but the rules and qualifications vary state by state.

Nearly 9 million children in the U.S. were enrolled in the CHIP program for the fiscal year 2016, according to research from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF).

Whats going on with its funding?

The program expired on Sept. 30, and a short-term funding extension was passed by Congress shortly before Christmas.

Many states have nearly exhausted their funds.

Some families have already been informed or received notice that their childrens coverage could be reduced in the future, Samantha Artiga, an analyst at KFF, told Fox News earlier this year. Already families are feeling a lot of worry, concern and stress right now  particularly families with children who have ongoing health conditions who rely on insurance for treatments to keep them healthy and give them the care that they need.

Artiga added that the earlier uncertainty around CHIP funding presented administrative and economic headaches for states that try to plan for the programs future in an uncertain environment.

What have healthcare experts said about it?

"Without this program, these children are caught in a dangerous gap that would deny them access to needed care," the Council for Affordable Health Coverage President Joel White told Fox News. "Every day that CHIP remains without a long-term reauthorization is a day that access to health care is threatened for the most deserving and vulnerable among us."

During the budget talks, White urged lawmakers to vote for a spending bill that included the funding.

Every day that CHIP remains without a long-term reauthorization is a day that access to health care is threatened for the most deserving and vulnerable among us.  Joel White, president of the Council for Affordable Health Coverage

"Senate Democrats have rightfully advocated for CHIP funding in recent months, and it would be the height of hypocrisy for them to oppose a spending bill with this included now."

Joan Alker, the executive director of Georgetown Universitys Center for Children & Families, argued that Congress should pass CHIP reauthorization as a standalone bill so its future is not in limbo every few years.

Whats especially frustrating is that theres no disagreement on the policy, Alker told Fox News, adding that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle support funding CHIP. Its become a bargaining chip.

The right thing to do would be to take CHIP out of [the] political fight and pass it by itself, she said.

What has Trump said?

Trump urged lawmakers to make CHIP part of a long-term solution, not a 30-day, or short-term, extension, in a tweet last month.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The federal government will be open for business Tuesday after President Trump signed a bill funding the government until Feb. 8.

Trump signed the measure Monday evening, hours after the House and Senate approved the package by wide margins as Senate Democrats backed off their opposition.

Democrats agreed to re-open the government after Republicans assured them the Senate would soon consider legislation that would protect illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children. It was a stark contrast from the Senate Democratic position just a few days ago.

In a few hours, the government will reopen, Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said on the Senate floor on Monday.

The Senate then voted 81-18 to break a Democratic filibuster on the stalled government spending bill. Several hours later, the Senate approved the bill by the same margin and the House followed suit, 266-150.

"I am pleased that Democrats in Congress have come to their senses and are now willing to fund our great military, border patrol, first responders and insurance for vulnerable children, Trump said in a written statement.

During Mondays press briefing, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the administration expects the bill to make it to the presidents desk late Monday and the government to open at full capacity on Tuesday morning.

Sanders pushed back against the notion from Democrats that Trump wasn't doing enough behind the scenes during the shutdown. She said Trump was busy working the phones with lawmakers and Cabinet officials.

The president was putting pressure and standing firm on exactly what he was willing to do and what he wasn't, Sanders said. And it very clearly worked.

The funding and reopening of the government would allow U.S. military personnel to be paid, end the furlough of nearly 1 million federal workers and resume all federal services and operations.

But congressional lawmakers made it clear Monday that theyre still faced with challenges, like how to fund hurricane disaster relief and craft a comprehensive immigration reform bill on which both parties can agree.

We still have a lot more work to do, said Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa.

After days and weeks of blaming and finger-pointing, a bipartisan group of senators met Sunday and brokered the deal in which rank-and-file members would provide the 60 votes in exchange for Senate leaders' promise to immediately proceed to immigration reform.

Democrats largely had opposed the stopgap spending bill because it did not include provisions to protect the illegal immigrants from deportation under former President Barack Obamas Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals executive order. Trump last year set a deadline of early March to end the protections, but has indicated he wants to provide permanent protections for the young illegal immigrants -- along with border security, particularly funding for his U.S.-Mexico border walll.

Under the apparent deal to end the filibuster, Schumer said Monday they would negotiate on immigration, and immediately consider such legislation if theres no agreement by Feb. 8.

Schumer lauded the bipartisan groups weekend efforts and suggested the group could lead efforts to replace DACA with permanent, legislative protections.

However, he also needled Trump, whom he said on Friday rejected his compromise plan that included money for the border wall.

Today we enter the third day of the Trump shutdown, Schumer said before saying they would provide the votes to get to the spending bill. Republicans call it the "Schumer Shutdown."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., then thanked Schumer and said: I think if we've learned anything during this process, its that a strategy to shut down the government over the issue of illegal immigration is something the American people didn't understand and would not have understood in the future. So I'm glad we've gotten past that.

With Republicans having just 50 senators available to vote Monday, they needed the support of roughly a dozen Democratic senators to break the filibuster. They got 33.

The 18 senators who didnt vote to end debate included Republican Sens. Mike Lee, of Utah, and Rand Paul, of Kentucky.

The 15 Democrats in opposition were Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, both of Connecticut; Cory Booker and Bob Menendez, both of New Jersey; Catherine Cortez Masto, of Nevada; Kirsten Gillibrand, of New York; Mazie Hirono, of Hawaii; Patrick Leahy, of Vermont; Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, both of Massachusetts; Jon Tester, of Montana; Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both of Oregon; and Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein, both of California. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, also voted in opposition.

Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain did not vote because hes home fighting cancer.

Early Monday, before the votes, the Trump White House and Capitol Hill Republicans cranked up the pressure on Democrats to abandon their immediate demands for immigration measures and vote in support of the temporary spending bill.

They shut down the government, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told Fox & Friends on Monday morning. The pressure is on them.

Trump tweeted that Democrats shut down the government to appease the far left base and are now powerless to change course.

The Democrats are turning down services and security for citizens in favor of services and security for non-citizens. Not good! he tweeted.

Fox News' Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
Monday marks the start of another workweek for many Americans, but hundreds of thousands of government employees have now been furloughed as the shutdown enters its third day -- and its first weekday.

The federal government ran out of funding Friday night at 11:59 p.m. ET, after Republicans and Democrats failed to reach a short-term deal to fund the government another 30 days and give more time for negotiations on a larger, long-term spending package.

The Senate inched closer over the weekend to an agreement to reopen federal agencies, but fell short. Federal workers were among the first to feel the hit.

But not everybody gets sent home.

During a shutdown, federal employees generally fall into one of three categories: furloughed, excepted or exempted.

President Trump is an exempted federal employee, as Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution forbids the presidents salary to be reduced while in office. But just 21 of 96 members of the White House residential staff would report to the grounds during a shutdown.

Essentially, our core group of residence staff would still report to work to ensure that basic services are still provided to the first family, said Stephanie Grisham, spokeswoman for first lady Melania Trump.

Congress, which has been in and out of session for days to reach some sort of agreement to get the government up-and-running, is exempt. Salaries for House and Senate lawmakers are written into law, not funded through annual appropriations, but congressional staff and employees could be subject to furlough.

But nearly all federal employees that are designated as non-essential or non-emergency are furloughed, meaning they cannot come into work and are on unpaid leave for the duration of the shutdown.

During the last shutdown, in 2013, 850,000 federal workers were furloughed each day, according to the Office of Management and Budget.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) typically would furlough 87 percent of its employees, but due to the fact this shutdown has occurred at the start of tax filing season, the IRS will likely keep about 43.5 percent of its employees. This means more than half of the agencys 80,600 employees are furloughed.

Financial regulators, like The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), would be forced to furlough thousands of workers who monitor the financial markets. And the vast majority of workers at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are furloughed, with just 37 employees retained during the shutdown to cover critical IT issues and FCC functions related to national security.

Excepted employees are those who have been designated essential for emergency operations. These employees are required to come into work, as normal, but are not paid during the shutdown. This group of federal employees includes all in military uniform, and much of the Pentagons bureaucracy, who will continue their posts, but without any compensation.

Despite the lack of pay, funding for security operations, in the U.S. and overseas, continues to flow, in an effort to maintain protection for deployed troops. But non-essential Pentagon employees are likely to be initially put on furlough. During the 2013 shutdown, a total of about 400,000 Pentagon civilian employees were put on temporary leave without pay.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the shutdown would have a terrible impact on the military, but that missions would continue.

The Central Intelligence Agency will be largely unaffected by the shutdown.

Were going to continue crushing our adversaries whether the governments open or closed, CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Monday on CBS This Morning.

State Department employees also will continue to work, but without pay. Those employees have been designated as necessary for the safety of human life or the protection of property, or national security.

And some federal employees are exempt from the shutdown all together. The difference between these employees is that their pay, throughout the year, does not come from annual appropriations.

The majority of employees from the Department of Homeland Security will remain on the job, with approximately 210,000 of the agencys 241,385 employees exempt from a shutdown, according to department protocols. Still, though, at least 30,000 DHS employees will be forced to stay home without pay.

DHS employees, including Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Coast Guard, Secret Service and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are considered exempt from the shutdown due to the law enforcement mission of the agencies which affect national security.

The Justice Department is expected to lose at least 20,000 employees to furlough, but due to the agencys law enforcement and national security responsibilities, the agency said the majority -- 80 percent -- of its employees will continue to perform duties.

Special Counsel Robert Muellers probe into Russian meddling and potential collusion with Trump campaign officials will continue through the shutdown, as its funding does not come from annual appropriations.

The Senate is considering a new proposal Monday that would fund the government through Feb. 8. -- which Democrats could agree to, in return for commitment from Republican leadership to immediately address immigration policy.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Lawmakers were hoping to prevent another government shutdown in 2018  but failed to reach a deal by midnight on Dec. 22. As a result, the federal government witnessed its longest shutdown in history.

The government has now shut down a total of 21 times since Congress introduced the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act, which established the federal budget process in 1976. Half of those shutdowns occurred over a weekend.

"I call them 'fake shutdowns,'" Marc Goldwein, senior policy director of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget  a bipartisan, nonprofit organization that educates the public on fiscal policy issues  told Fox News. Most shutdowns occur over the course of a weekend. Were talking days or weeks  not months.

WHAT HAPPENS DURING A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN? 7 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

But there have been a handful of lengthy U.S. government shutdowns. According to data from the Congressional Research Service (CRS), seven shutdowns in the past four decades lasted more than 10 days.

On Jan. 12, the government reached its 22-day mark, breaking the record for the longest shutdown in U.S. history. The previous record-holder occurred during the Clinton administration in the winter of 1995 to 1996 when former President Bill Clinton and the Republican Congress were at odds and shut the government down for a total of 21 days. The third occurred during the Obama administration in 2013. A stalemate between the House and Senate led to a 16-day hiatus.

Here is a look back at every government shutdown in the history of the U.S.

President Gerald Ford

When: Thursday, Sept. 30 to Monday, Oct. 10, 1976

Duration (full days): 10 days

The first partial shutdown occurred under Gerald Fords presidency when Ford vetoed a $56 billion spending bill for the Departments of Labor and Health, Education and Welfare, according to a 1976 report from The New York Times.

This was the year the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act became law, allowing Congress to take an extension, known as a continuing resolution (CR).

President Jimmy Carter

When: Friday, Sept. 30 to Thursday, Oct. 13, 1977

Duration (full days): 12 days

When: Monday, Oct. 31 to Wednesday, Nov. 9, 1977

Duration (full days): 8 days

When: Wednesday, Nov. 30 to Friday, Dec. 9, 1977

Duration (full days): 8 days

There were three shutdowns, referred to as the "abortion shutdowns," in the late 1970s under the presidency of Jimmy Carter. The Democratic party may have dominated both the House and the Senate, but they couldn't get Republicans on board when it came to using Medicaid to pay for abortions.

When: Saturday, Sept. 30 to Wednesday, Oct. 18, 1978

Duration (full days): 17 days

In 1978, Carter vetoed a $37 billion defense authorization bill, which included a $2 billion nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft carrier -- equipment he didn't consider essential to national security, The Washington Post reported. This led to the second largest shutdown in the history of the nation.

When: Sunday, Sept. 30 to Friday, Oct. 12, 1979

Duration (full days): 11 days

Another funding gap took place a year later when the House and Senate disagreed over raising pay by 5.5 percent for members of Congress and senior civil servants, The Washington Post reported. And there was yet again another debate over abortion funding.

President Ronald Reagan

When: Friday, Nov. 20 to Monday, Nov. 23, 1981

Duration (full days): 2 days

President Ronald Reagan vetoed a spending bill because it didn't make enough cuts.

When: Thursday, Sept. 30 to Saturday, Oct. 2, 1982

Duration (full days): 1 day

The government shut down for one day when Congress failed to pass the spending bill on time.

When: Friday, Dec. 17 to Tuesday, Dec., 21, 1982

Duration (full days): 3 days

Both the House and Senate wanted to increase public works spending in order to create more jobs -- a move Reagan opposed. The House also opposed MX missile funding, which, The Washington Post noted, was a "major defense priority" of Reagan's.

When: Thursday, Nov. 10 to Monday, Nov. 14, 1983

Duration (full days): 3 days

Reagan argued over the Democratic-controlled House's proposed foreign aid and spending cuts and their plea for an increase in funding for education. At the same time, Reagan was pushing for more funding for the MX missile.

Eventually, both parties reached an agreement.

When: Sunday, Sept. 30 to Wednesday, Oct. 3, 1984

Duration (full days): 2 days

In short, Reagan agreed to the House's proposed crime-fighting package, but he opposed their water projects package.

"Reagan offered to forgo his crime bill in exchange for junking the water package...but a deal wasn't reached in time to avoid a brief shutdown," The Washington Post reported.

When: Wednesday, Oct. 3 to Friday, Oct. 5, 1984

Duration (full days): 1 day

Lawmakers reportedly needed another day to discuss the spending bill.

When: Thursday, Oct. 16 to Saturday, Oct. 18, 1986

Duration (full days): 1 day

The Democratic-controlled House was once again in disagreement with Reagan and the Republican-controlled Senate. This time, over a welfare package deal.

When: Friday, Dec. 18 to Sunday, Dec. 20, 1987

Duration (full days): 1 day

Reagan and Democrats couldn't agree on funding for Nicaraguan "Contra" militants. Democrats also pushed to reinstate the "Fairness Doctrine," which required licensed broadcasters to give equal air time for people with competing political points of view.

President George H.W. Bush

When: Friday, Oct. 5 to Tuesday, Oct. 9, 1990

Duration (full days): 3 days

Only one shutdown took place during George H.W. Bushs presidency. It occurred in October 1990 after Bush vetoed a stopgap spending bill, The New York Times reported at the time.

But the timing was right. The shutdown happened over Columbus Day weekend and most federal workers were already off for the holiday.

President Bill Clinton

When: Monday, Nov. 13 to Sunday, Nov. 19, 1995

Duration (full days): 5 days

President Bill Clinton vetoed a continuing resolution in November 1995 over Medicare premium increases.

"The government is partially shutting down because Congress has failed to pass the straightforward legislation necessary to keep the government running without imposing sharp hikes in Medicare premiums and deep cuts in education and the environment," Clinton said during an address on Nov. 14, 1995.

When: Friday, Dec. 15, 1995, to Saturday, Jan. 6, 1996

Duration (full days): 21 days

It's the second longest shutdown in U.S. history: 21 days.

The government shut down after Clinton vetoed the spending bill proposed by the Republican-controlled Congress.

After a long three weeks, the president and Congress agreed to a seven-year budget plan, which included "modest spending cuts and tax increases," according to research by the Regional Oral History Office at the University of California, Berkeley.

President Barack Obama

When: Monday, Sept. 30 to Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013

Duration (full days): 16 days

Seventeen years later, the government shut down once again. Lawmakers couldn't come to an agreement on the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, in 2013.

The House passed several versions of the bill to fund the government. But each time, the Senate sent it back.

This is an unnecessary blow to America, Harry Reid, the Senate Democratic leader at the time, said of the shutdown.

John Boehner, the House speaker during the shutdown, said Republicans were fighting to keep the government open, but the Senate "continued to reject our offers.

President Donald Trump

When: Saturday, Jan. 20 to Monday, Jan. 22, 2018

Duration (full days): 3 days

When it comes to immigration and spending, President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers and Democrats were divided.

Republicans controlled the Senate but they still needed 60 votes to break a filibuster.

"When you only have 51 votes in the Senate, then you have to have Democrat support in order to keep the government  to fund the government," OMB Director Mick Mulvaney told reporters during a White House press briefing Friday.

Democrats said from the beginning that they'd reject any deal that didn't include a legislative fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, an Obama-era program, which offers protection for immigrants  also known as "Dreamers"  who came into the U.S. illegally as minors.

I'm proud of the House and Senate Democrats' unity in insisting on a budget that supports our military and the domestic investments that keep our nation strong and honors the values by protecting our DREAMers," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement as the government shut down.

Trump, on the other hand, said Democrats only had themselves to blame when it came to both shutting down the government and failing to make a deal on DACA.

PARTIAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN TIMELINE: FROM TRUMP'S DEMANDS TO DEMOCRATS' PROPOSALS

"Deals cant get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our Military," Trump tweeted. "DACA is probably dead because the Democrats dont really want it, they just want to talk and take desperately needed money away from our Military."

In the end, Democrats reached a compromise to reopen the government through Feb. 8  with one condition.

After several discussions, offers, counter-offers, the Republican leader and I have come to an arrangement," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, said on the Senate floor. "We will vote today to reopen the government to continue negotiating a global agreement, with the commitment that, if an agreement isnt reached by February 8, the Senate will immediately proceed to consideration of legislation dealing with DACA.

When: Friday, Feb. 9, 2018

Duration: 9 hours

Republican and Democratic senators announced a two-year budget agreement on Feb. 7 that included an increase in military spending, an extension for the Childrens Health Insurance Program and additional funds for disaster relief, among other issues.

"I am pleased to announce that our bipartisan, bicameral negotiations on defense spending and other priorities have yielded a significant agreement," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a speech on the House floor.

It's a deal "neither side loves, but both sides can be proud of," Senate Minority Leader Schumer, D-N.Y., added.

But not everyone was a fan of the deal.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., slammed the plan for not addressing immigration.

"[The] package does nothing to advance bipartisan legislation to protect Dreamers in the House," said Pelosi, as she shared the stories of "Dreamers" on the House floor for more than eight hours. "Without a commitment from Speaker Ryan comparable to the commitment from Leader McConnell, this package does not have my support."

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., also voiced his frustration with the deal, which he said irresponsibly busted through budget caps and increased the country's deficit even more.

"I ran for office because I was very critical of President Obama's trillion-dollar deficits," Paul said. "Now we have Republicans hand in hand with Democrats offering us trillion-dollar deficits. I can't in all honesty look the other way."

A last-minute maneuver by Paul led to an hours-long shutdown.

In the end, Congress agreed to pass the $400 billion deal and it was on Trump's desks within hours. He announced that he had signed the bill at 8:40 a.m. ET.

When: Saturday, Dec. 22, 2018

Duration: Friday, Jan. 25, 2019

Democrats and President Trump were at an impasse over a spending bill  particularly in regards to funding for border security. As a result, and just ahead of Christmas, the government partially shuttered at midnight on Dec. 22.

Trump had urged Senate Republicans to use the so-called nuclear option to pass a spending bill that included enough funding for a border wall. The House scrambled to put together a package that included the $5.7 billion the president wanted but was unable to agree on a deal to fund the government by the deadline.

Trump has warned a closure could drag on for a very long time. When it surpassed the 22-day mark on Jan. 12, it became the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

Fox News' Kaitlyn Schallhorn contributed to this report.
More than 50,000 texts were exchanged between two FBI officials who have come under fire for exchanging anti-Trump messages during the 2016 election, Attorney General Jeff Sessions revealed Monday.

The figure surfaced as lawmakers have been pressing for answers after revelations that the FBI failed to preserve five months of texts between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

We will leave no stone unturned to confirm with certainty why these text messages are not now available to be produced and will use every technology available to determine whether the missing messages are recoverable from another source, Sessions said in a statement provided to Fox News. If we are successful, we will update the congressional committees immediately.

The missing messages from Strzok and Page span a crucial window, between the presidential transition and the launch of Robert Muellers Russia probe -- where both officials previously were assigned.

After reviewing the voluminous records on the FBIs servers, which included over 50,000 texts, the Inspector General discovered the FBIs system failed to retain text messages for approximately 5 months between December 14, 2016 to May 17, 2017, Sessions said.

That number does not include the five months worth of texts that are missing.

Sessions said the Justice Department informed the congressional committees of the missing text messages on Friday.

I have spoken to the Inspector General and a review is already underway to ascertain what occurred and to determine if these records can be recovered in any other way, Sessions said. If any wrongdoing were to be found to have caused this gap, appropriate legal disciplinary action measures will be taken.

Earlier Monday, lawmakers pressed the Justice Department to determine how the messages were lost.

"We need to get to the bottom of it and find out what exactly happened," Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said Monday on Fox News' "Outnumbered Overtime."

The Justice Department acknowledged the lapse in records in turning over 384 pages of new text messages between Strzok and Page, who were romantically involved, to congressional committees.

Rather than clearing up prior FBI and DOJ actions, these recently produced documents cause us to further question the credibility and objectivity of certain officials at the FBI, said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes in a Monday statement.

"The day after the election, the day after what they really, really didn't want to have happen, there's a text exchange between [Strzok and Page] ... saying, 'Perhaps this is the first meeting of the secret society,'" Gowdy told Fox News' "The Story with Martha MacCallum" Monday. "So, of course I'm going to want to know: What 'secret society' are you talking about?"

The DOJ blamed a technical glitch for the gap.

The Department wants to bring to your attention that the FBIs technical system for retaining text messages sent and received on FBI mobile devices failed to preserve text messages for Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page from December 14, 2016 to approximately May 17, 2017, Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs Stephen Boyd wrote to Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis.

The FBI has informed [the Department of Justice] that many FBI-provided Samsung 5 mobile devices did not capture or store text messages due to misconfiguration issues related to rollouts, provisioning, and software upgrades that conflicted with the FBIs collection capabilities.

When asked Monday whether the FBI failed to preserve text message records on similar Samsung 5 devices belonging to any other FBI officials during that time period, the FBI told Fox News they had no comment.

A Justice Department spokesperson told Fox News that the Departments Office of Inspector General also does not have any text messages between the two during that time period.

An OIG spokesperson declined to comment.

The claim that five months of critical evidence went missing due to a technical glitch is really hard to take at face value, a source from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence told Fox News on Monday, leaving the door open for that committee to also launch a formal inquiry with the FBI.

NEWLY RELEASED TEXTS BETWEEN EX-MUELLER TEAM MEMBERS SUGGEST THEY KNEW OUTCOME OF CLINTON EMAIL PROBE IN ADVANCE

During the window of missing text messages, a lot happened.

President Trump took the oath of office; National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, whom Strzok interviewed, was fired; the controversial anti-Trump dossier was published; the president fired FBI Director James Comey; and special counsel Mueller was appointed to investigate Russian meddling and potential collusion with Trump campaign associates during the 2016 presidential election.

The loss of records from this period is concerning because it is apparent from other records that Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page communicated frequently about the investigation, Johnson wrote in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray over the weekend, requesting more information and questioning whether the FBI had done a thorough search on non-FBI devices belonging to Strzok and Page during that period.

A source on one committee in receipt of the new text messages told Fox News it was outrageous that the FBI had not previously indicated the five-month gap in messages existed. The source said it was incumbent on the FBI to prove that the missing texts do not constitute obstruction of congressional oversight or destruction of evidence.

Last month, the Justice Department released hundreds of text messages that Strzok and Page had traded. Both served for a short period of time on Muellers team, with Page leaving over the summer and Strzok being reassigned late last year to the FBIs human resources division after the discovery of the exchanges with Page.

Many of the texts revealed a clear anti-Trump and pro-Clinton bias, and included discussions of the Clinton email investigation.

Rep. Jordan said Monday that the lapse in documents is reminiscent of the mysterious disappearance of emails from former IRS official Lois Lerner during the Obama-era IRS/Tea Party targeting scandal.

Lerners emails disappeared during congressional investigations.

The Lerner thing was huge, Jordan told The Daily Caller. My gut tells me this is probably bigger.

And Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., said the need for a second special counsel was abundantly clear now.

"It reminds me of hard drives missing with [former IRS official] Lois Lerner and email servers," Meadows told Fox News Monday night. "At what time are we going to have an IT backup system that can keep things that are appropriate? They're supposed to be out tracking terrorism and we can't even find our own text messages?"

Fox News Catherine Herridge, Samuel Chamberlain and Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
House Republicans are hopeful that a four-page memo allegedly containing "jaw-dropping" revelations about U.S. government surveillance abuses will soon be made public.

Rep. Dave Joyce, a Republican from Ohio, told Fox News on Monday that the intelligence committee plans to work on releasing the document but warned that once Americans see it, theyll be surprised how bad it is.

The process of releasing the memo could take up to 19 congressional working days which puts its release around mid-March. The documents release would first need approval from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., who can decide to bring the committee back together for a vote. If the majority of the committee votes to release the memo, it would then be up to President Trump.

If he says yes, the memo can be released.

Joyce said hes personally read the memo twice and it was deeply disturbing as anyone whos been in law enforcement and any American will find out once they have the opportunity to review it.

The FBI has requested to receive a copy of the memo in order to evaluate the information and take appropriate steps if necessary. To date, the request has been declined, FBI spokesman Andrew C. Ames told Fox News.

Joyce and a handful of other conservatives have been pushing for the memo to be made public. They have suggested that it contains damning evidence the Obama administration used FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) warrants to spy on the Trump campaign as well as his transition team ahead of the presidents swearing-in.

GOP LAWMAKERS DEMAND RELEASE OF FISA MEMO

'It was deeply disturbing.'  Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, on viewing the surveillance memo

A FISA warrant allows U.S. spy agencies to collect information on foreigners outside the country and was reauthorized by Congress earlier this month.

Obama officials have strongly denied the claims.

Democratic lawmakers argue the Republican uproar over the memo is a last-ditch attempt by conservatives to discredit the Russia investigation and cast doubt on the people who are running it.

California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff has called the memo a profoundly misleading set of talking points drafted by Republican staff attacking the FBI and its handling of the investigation.

He said its riddled with factual inaccuracies and said it gives a distorted view of the FBI.

But Joyce has hinted that the memo was so scandalous that termination would be the least of these peoples worries and suggested that some of the people involved might even be prosecuted.

The report was spearheaded by Nunes.

Over the weekend, Nunes met with Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., to discuss the possibility of releasing some of the information from the classified document.

Calls from Republicans to release the memo have been intensifying in recent days.

Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, who has called the memo jaw-dropping, is demanding full transparency.

The House must immediately make public the memo prepared by the Intelligence Committee regarding the FBI and the Department of Justice, Gaetz said.

North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows described the memo as shocking and troubling.

Part of me wishes that I didnt read it because I dont want to believe that those kinds of things could be happening in this country that I call home and love so much, he added.

Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania stated bluntly, You think about, is this happening in America or is this the KGB? That's how alarming it is.

Fox News' Jake Gibson contributed to this report.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has three words for the women who shared their stories of abuse to spark the #MeToo movement: Its about time.

Before Ginsburg slipped on her iconic judicial robe, the 84-year-old feminist from Brooklyn confessed she had her own brush with sexual harassment and gender inequality.

"Every woman of my vintage knows what sexual harassment is, although we didn't have a name for it," Ginsburg told a crowd during a forum to promote her new documentary "RBG" at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on Sunday. The attitude toward sexual harassment was simply, Get past it. Boys will be boys.

Clutching a microphone between both hands, Ginsburg told NPR legal correspondent and longtime friend Nina Totenberg, who was leading the discussion, about an incident that allegedly occurred when she was a student at Cornell University in the early 1950s.

She shared concerns with her chemistry instructor over her "abilities" ahead of a big test. The teacher comforted her and told her he'd give her a practice exam to make her more comfortable with the material.

The next day  on the test  the test is the practice exam. And I knew exactly what he wanted in return, Ginsburg said. Thats just one of many examples.

Ginsburg didnt just ignore the professors inappropriate gesture, she said. After the exam, Ginsburg walked straight up to the instructor and allegedly confronted him.

I went to his office and I said, How dare you! How dare you, you  Ginsburg said. And that was the end of that.

When Ginsburg began teaching at Rutgers Law School in 1964 she said that she quickly realized she was being treated differently than her male colleagues.

Since Rutgers was a state school, Ginsburg knew she'd be taking a pay cut -- but when the dean told her how much of a cut, she was astonished. She asked how much a male colleague who had been out of law school about the same amount of time of her was being paid.

"Ruth, he has a wife and two children to support. You have a husband with a good paying job in New York," the dean responded.

"That was the very year the Equal Pay Act had passed," Ginsburg said. "That was the answer that I got."

In response to the dean's remarks, a group of women employed at Rutgers worked together to file an Equal Pay Act complaint, which the university later settled.

Ginsburg recalled another example of gender inequality in 1972 when she was a professor at Columbia University. A feminist told her the school issued lay-off notices to 25 women in the maintenance department, but not a single man received a notice.

"And she said to me, 'What are you going to do about it?'" Ginsburg recalled.

Ginsburg told the universitys vice president for business office the school was violating Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits workplace discrimination based on religion, national origin, race, color or sex.

Columbia eventually found a way to avoid laying off anyone, Ginsburg said.

A lot has changed since then, Ginsburg explained, as she shared her final thoughts on the #MeToo movement that's sweeping the nation.

For so long women were silent, thinking there was nothing you could do about it," Ginsburg said. "But now the law is on the side of women or men who encounter harassment, and thats a good thing."

Right now, Ginsburg said she's not concerned about the potential backlash the #MeToo movement might cause women.

"Let's see where it goes. So far, its been great," Ginsburg said. "But when I see women appearing every place, in numbers, I'm less worried about backlash than I might have been 20 years ago."
Sen. Doug Jones, D- Ala., is co-sponsoring an initiative that would ensure military service members receive their pay during the federal government shutdown that began on Friday.

Jones is joined by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who introduced the measure shortly after the U.S. Senate failed to reach an agreement to prevent the government shutdown.

"Around the world and here at home, our military and their families continue to serve during this shutdown," Jones said in a statement, according to Al.com.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell objected to the measure on Sunday, urging the Congress to fund the entirety of the government rather than just the military.

He said a similar measure was passed during the prolonged shutdown in 2013 but expressed hope that we can restore funding for the entire government before this becomes necessary.

Both Jones and McCaskill, Democrats from a deep-red state carried by President Trump in the 2016 election, broke ranks with their party and voted in favor of the Republican plan to fund the federal government on Friday.

Their votes were not enough to beat the filibuster  requiring 60 votes to pass the funding bill  and both sides reached a deadlock. Democrats insist on coming up with protections for undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children before re-opening the government.

There is an expected procedural vote in the Senate on Monday at noon that would fund the government until Feb. 8. It remains unclear if theres enough support and it would not reopen the government.

Jones became the first Democratic Senator from Alabama in 25 years after beating last month embattled Republican candidate Roy Moore, who was accused of sexual misconduct with underage girls.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The new U.S. embassy in Israel is set to officially open in Jerusalem on Monday as President Trump has formally recognized the holy city as the countrys capital.

The opening comes after a day of celebratory festivities in Israel juxtaposed with mass protests along the border of Israel that left at least 52 Palestinians dead and more than 1,000 injured Monday. It was the bloodiest day of weeks of demonstrations that has cast a cloud over the embassy opening.

The Trump administrations decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital was heralded by many pro-Israel activists but decried by Palestinians and Americas Arab allies.

Ahead of the opening, Trump tweeted its a great day for Israel."

Read on to find out why the decision is so contentious  and why it wasnt accomplished before.

Finding the capital

The international community  and until 2017, the U.S.  largely does not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel as it is claimed by both Palestinians and Israelis. Like other countries, the U.S. kept its embassy in Tel Aviv, approximately an hour away.

The U.S. moving its embassy could cause significant harm to the U.S. credibility as a mediator for peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, said Dylan Williams, vice president of government affairs for J Street, a left-leaning pro-Israel advocacy organization.

Williams added that the move could undermine confidence from Palestinians and Arab countries that the U.S. would remain an impartial negotiator in efforts to create peace in the Middle East.

Even seemingly minor changes of Jerusalems status quo  either in fact or in law  have historically had the impact of sparking violence, Williams said.

Support for Jerusalem

Millions of evangelical eyes were on Trump, waiting to see if he would keep his campaign promise to move the embassy, longtime Pastor John Hagee told Fox News ahead of the president's official announcement.

"I can assure you that 60 million evangelicals are watching this promise closely because if President Trump moves the embassy into Jerusalem, he will historically step into immortality," Hagee said. "He will be remembered for thousands of years for his act of courage to treat Israel like we already treat other nations."

"If he does not, he will be remembered as just another president who made a promise he failed to keep which would generate massive disappointment in that strong evangelical base that went to vote for him against Hillary Clinton," he added.

"Trump will be remembered for thousands of years for his act of courage to treat Israel like we already treat other nations."  Pastor John Hagee

Hagee is the founder and senior pastor of Cornerstone Church, a megachurch in San Antonio, Texas. He founded the nonprofit Christians United for Israel in 2006, as well.

A March 2016 Gallup poll found that the majority of Americans didnt express an opinion when asked if the U.S. embassy should move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. But of those who did have an opinion, Americans were split with 24 percent supporting a move and 20 percent disagreeing with relocation.

Congressional authority

Trump isnt the only president to declare his intentions to move the U.S. embassy; both former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush also pledged to move the embassy  only to abandon the idea once in the White House.

Congress approved in 1995 the funding and relocation of the embassy to Jerusalem by 1999. But the law included a stipulation, allowing for presidents to sign continuous waivers to stall the relocation. Every president since had used the waiver in an effort to avoid conflict with the peace negotiations.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The brother of NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps, who was scheduled to be the first African-American crew member on the International Space Station (ISS), claims racism is the reason his sister was pulled from the mission.



My sister Dr. Jeannette Epps has been fighting against oppressive racism and misogynist in NASA and now they are holding her back and allowing a Caucasian Astronaut to take her place! Henry Epps wrote in a Facebook post Saturday, according to The Washington Post. In addition, he linked to a MoveOn.org petition asking NASA to reinstate his sister.

Epps' Facebook post has since been removed.

ASTRONAUT SET TO BE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN ON SPACE STATION CREW REMOVED FROM FLIGHT

NASA has not responded to a request for comment from Fox News why Epps was removed from the flight, scheduled for June. The government agency did provide a statement to The Post, however, saying: Diversity and inclusion are integral to mission success at NASA and we have a diverse astronaut corps reflective of that approach.

In an email to The Post, Epps said she was not going to comment on her brother's social media comments, nor did she know why she was bumped from the flight. She also noted that neither she, nor anyone in her family, created the MoveOn.org petition.

It's not uncommon for crew changes to be made on space flights, even ones that come at the last minute. Ken Mattingly was pulled from Apollo 13 and replaced by Jack Swigert because of exposure to German measles, though he never contracted the disease. Mattingly eventually flew to the Moon on Apollo 16, making him one of only 24 people to go on lunar missions.

Epps will be considered for future space missions, according to NASA. She's been replaced by her backup, Serena Aunon-Chancellor.

Epps is returning to Houston from Russia, where she'd been training to fly to the space station with a German and Russian. NASA spokeswoman Brandi Dean said Friday it was a decision by NASA, not the Russian Space Agency.

Fourteen African-American astronauts have flown into space in total, with some of them having visited the ISS. Epps, however, would have been the first to live there.

Chosen as part of NASA's 20th astronaut class in 2009, Epps has a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering and used to work for the CIA.

Aunon-Chancellor, who was also part of the same class as Epps, will be the first Hispanic woman to live on the ISS.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Follow Chris Ciaccia on Twitter @Chris_Ciaccia. This story has been updated to reflect Mattingly never set foot on the Moon, but did go on a lunar mission.
Two educators turned astronauts will film science lessons while aboard the International Space Station that were originally planned to be performed by the late Christa McAuliffe, the first "teacher in space" who died on the space shuttle Challenger in 1986.

Joe Acaba, who taught high school science before joining NASA, announced the plan from aboard the space station during a live video downlink with McAuliffe's alma mater on Friday (Jan. 19).

"It's been 32 years since we lost the Challenger crew. One of them, of course, was Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space, so I can't think of a better time or a better place to make this announcement," said Acaba, who then joined two of his Expedition 54 crewmates fielding questions from students at Framingham State University. [The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster: What Happened? (Infographic)]

"I would like to announce that Ricky Arnold and I, over the next several months, will be working with the Challenger Center to record several of Christa's original lesson plans that she was to do in space," said Acaba. "We are looking forward to sharing that with educators and students around the world."

Arnold, who as a middle school mathematics and science teacher taught in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Romania, is scheduled to launch to the space station in March, about two weeks after Acaba departs the outpost for Earth. The McAuliffe lessons are part of NASA's Year of Education on Station effort, spanning both astronauts' time in orbit.

"Filming Christa McAuliffe's lessons in orbit this year is an incredible way to honor and remember her," Mike Kincaid, the associate administrator for NASA's Office of Education said in a statement released Friday. "Developed with such care and expertise by Christa, the value these lessons will have as new tools available for educators to engage and inspire students in STEM is what will continue to advance a true legacy of Challenger's mission."

McAuliffe was teaching high school social studies classes when she was selected through a nationwide search to be the first teacher to launch to space. She and her six STS-51L crewmates were lost when a faulty rocket booster led to space shuttle Challenger breaking apart 73 seconds into flight on Jan. 28, 1986.

Had she reached Earth orbit, McAuliffe planned to conduct six science lessons in subjects ranging from magnetism to simple machines. Acaba and Arnold will complete four of McAuliffe's demonstrations, including lessons in liquids in microgravity, Newton's laws of physics, effervescence and chromatography.

Some of the lessons will be performed as they would have originally been done by McAuliffe. A few will be reimagined based on materials available on the space station. Acaba's and Arnold's resulting videos, as well as the corresponding classroom lessons, will be made available to educators on the Challenger Center's website beginning this spring.

"We are thrilled to work with NASA's educator astronauts to bring Christa's lessons to life," said Challenger Center's president and CEO Lance Bush in a statement Friday. "For more than 30 years, we have continued the mission of the Challenger crew, reaching more than five million students with our hands-on programs. We are honored to have the opportunity to complete Christa's lessons and share them with students and teachers around the world."

In addition to Acaba and Arnold, two other teachers have followed in McAuliffe's path and flown into space. Barbara Morgan served as McAuliffe's backup before launching on the space shuttle Endeavour in 2007. And Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, who was selected as an astronaut alongside Acaba and Arnold, flew aboard shuttle Discovery in 2010.

Watch NASA educator-astronaut Joe Acaba's announcement from the space station on collectSPACE.

Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @ collectSPACE . Copyright 2017 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.
Grab and go is the premise of Amazons new vision for grocery convenience stores. You walk in, pick up a few items, and walk out  all without standing in a checkout line or swiping your debit card.

After a year of employee-only testing, the Amazon Go flagship store in Seattle will finally open to the public on Monday, January 22. Implementing the concept proved more difficult than Amazon had initially realized, and it ran into a few setbacks along the way.

This technology didnt exist, Gianna Puerini, vice president of Amazon Go, said in an interview with Reuters. It was really advancing the state of the art of computer vision and machine learning.

The computer tracker for the store had some difficulty identifying people with similar body types. Items being moved from one shelf to another also caused confusion. The store even survived a Pickachu invasion at one point during testing.

Touring the store before its grand opening, Dilip Kumar of Amazon insisted to GeekWire that the technology wasnt the problem, it was the sheer volume of customers. Not at all. Weve been operational from day one, and it has performed flawlessly, he said.

We thought we had to open to the public to get that traffic. But we had a significant amount  well beyond our expectations  of demand from just the Amazon population itself, which allowed us to learn everything that we needed, he added.

After they check in by scanning their QR code when they enter, the store tracks customers with dozens of sensors suspended from the ceiling. Puerini explained to the Seattle Times that the technology was similar to that used in self-driving cars, with a combination of video feeds with image analysis and laser arrays to identify people and items in the store. The customers Amazon account is automatically charged when they leave the store.

The prices seemed to be in line with other similar brick-and-mortar convenience stores, with a whole section devoted to Whole Foods products. Although Amazon Go was unveiled before the $13.7 billion acquisition of the upscale grocery retailer last summer, speculation has been rampant that the Amazon Go model is one they want to replicate in larger stores.

Amazon has been evasive about the future of Amazon Go. Wed love to open more, Puerini said, but stopped short of announcing any specific plans. Rather than a traditional grocery store, the emphasis is on office workers in an urban environment. Such a clientele would cater to what the store does well, Puerini said. People pressed for time and hungry.
The German Navys latest multimillion-dollar warship, the Baden-Wurttemberg, is battling delays and technology challenges.

The Baden-Wurttemberg is the first of four new F-125 class frigates ordered by the Bundeswehr, the German military, with a total price tag of around 2 billion ($2.44 billion).

Citing the German Navy, The Wall Street Journal reports that the ships central computer system has not passed the necessary tests. The ship, which has been undergoing sea trials, returned to port last week, enabling the unspecified technology issues to be resolved.

We are confident that we will be able to promptly solve the current problems with the IT-infrastructure thanks to our proven experience in the construction of complex naval vessels, according to a spokesman for Thyssenkrupp, the company leading the ARGE F125 consortium bulding the ships.

ROBOT PATROL: ISRAELI ARMY TO DEPLOY AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES ON GAZA BORDER

For the frigate 125 Baden-Wurttemberg, necessary revisions have led to delays in the trials to prove its operability, he explained. These trials are mainly carried out at sea and require extensive support and resources from all project participants.

With a wealth of new technology on board, experts are still fine-tuning the frigate. The frigate class 125 is a newly designed, technically sophisticated ship with highly complex new developments -- including new technologies. With regard to such a major project, delays can never be completely ruled out, the Thyssenkrupp spokesman told Fox News.

The ship, which displaces around 7,000 tons, was delivered for sea trials in 2016 after a series of delays, according to The Journal. Designed to stay at sea for up to two years, the F-125 frigates will eventually replace the German Navys eight Bremen type 122-class frigates.

The Baden-Wurttemberg is expected to be handed over to the Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support (BAAINBw) this year, according to Thyssenkrupp's spokesman and the German military.

ARMY TESTS HIGH-TECH AIRDROP SYSTEM THAT 'SEES' ITS TARGET

"From mid-January, the ship will be deployed to the shipyard in Hamburg for troubleshooting activities and elimination of open items to be carried out by the ARGE F125 consortium," explained a spokesman for the BAAINBw, in a statement emailed to Fox News. "After the shipyard period, the ship will undergo the remaining acceptance trials so that final acceptance by BAAINBw can take place in 2018. Any lessons learned will be applied to the sister ships."

The spokesman noted that about 90 percent of the components on the Baden-Wurttemberg are new. "It was an enormous challenge for the manufacturers to integrate the various systems and to fulfil the increased reliability requirements associated with intensive use," he explained, via email. "All systems must operate reliably even under extreme conditions to ensure full operational capability. For this purpose, BAAINBw subjects the ship to extensive acceptance trials."

Troubleshooting the IT problems, however, can be a tough task. "All software and hardware faults of the IT systems used on the ship must be eliminated so that all outstanding acceptance trials can be carried out," explained the spokesman. "Such defects are often found at interfaces between the subsystems, which makes their analysis more difficult. An increased failure rate of power supply units may, for example, be attributed to the components themselves, but it may also be caused by a faulty power supply."

"BAAINBw expects delivery to be in accordance with the contract," he added. "Any agreed penalties will be consistently applied."

Thanks to its sophisticated technology, the F-125s will utilize a much smaller crew than the 122-class ships. The new frigates will each have a regular crew of 120, but can support a maximum crew of 190. The 122 class frigates each have a crew of 203 plus 20 additional helicopter crew, according to Naval Technology.

The F-125s are also designed to support a two-crew model, where the complete crew can be changed in mid-deployment.

Citing the German newspaper Kieler Nachrichten, The Journal reports that the Baden-Wurttemberg experienced problems with its radar, electronics and the flameproof coating on its fuel tanks. During its sea trials, the frigate was also found to list slightly to its starboard side, although this is being resolved.

"The list to starboard of the Baden-Wurttemberg will be corrected during the first planned deployment to the shipyard by the ARGE F125 consortium," explained the BAAINBw spokesman. "The list has no impact on the remaining acceptance trials. The correction of the list is taken into account during the construction of the other sister ships which are currently being built," he said.

Critics have also questioned whether the German military ordered the Baden-Wurttemberg without the necessary weaponry needed for anti-submarine warfare. The vessel, according to The Wall Street Journal, lacks the sonar and torpedo tubes found on the 122-class frigates.

HIGH-TECH 'BAZOOKA' FIRES A NET TO TAKE DOWN DRONES

Despite the delays experienced by the Baden-Wurttemberg, the consortium delivering the F-125 project expects to hand over the three additional frigates; the Nordrhein-Westfalen, the Sachsen-Anhalt and the Rheinland-Pfalz, on time. The Nordrhein-Westfalen has successfully completed its ship-related technical trials. Currently the combat system is being tested. The delivery of the Nordrhein-Westfalen to the BAAINBw is also planned for 2018, explained the Thyssenkrupp spokesman, in an email to Fox News. The frigate Sachsen-Anhalt is planned to be handed over in the year 2019 and the Rheinland-Pfalz in the year 2020.

This story has been updated with comments from the BAAINBw.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers
As lawmakers in Washington, D.C. were close to a resolution to reopen the government, President Donald Trump got a boost from Russian bots in his quest to blame the shutdown on Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer.

Republicans and Democrats took to Twitter to advocate for why the other party is responsible for the three-day government shutdown that began on Saturday and left some federal sites closed and workers furloughed.

According to a bipartisan national security group, #SchumerShutdown was the top trending hashtag promoted by Russian propaganda bots on Twitter as of 10 p.m. Saturday.

The Alliance for Securing Democracy discovered that hashtag blaming Schumer had exploded among Russian influence networks. The security organization tracked about 600 Twitter accounts believed to be operated by Russian-tied groups and found the shutdown hashtag had surpassed another popular Russian bot hashtag #ReleaseTheMemo, reports the Hill.

FACEBOOK TO LET USERS RANK NEWS CREDIBILITY

Other hashtags that have been pushed by Russian bots include #Syria, #Maga, #Ukraine, #Turkey, #Obamagate, #WomansMarch2018 and #Russia.

The GOP had targeted Schumer for the Democrats plan to use a federal funding deadline to leverage the protection of over 700,000 immigrants protected by the Barack Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) scheme.

However, Democrats and their supporters launched the hashtag #TrumpShutdown to blame Republicans and White House, which became the highest trending topic on Twitter worldwide. Republicans and the president then responded by pointing the finger of blame at Schumer, and the #SchumerShutdown phrase started to gain traction.
For convenience and good exchange rates, savvy travelers should try to settle bills using no-foreign fee credit cards when out of the country. But cash is always handy for buying rides on public transit, paying street vendors for food, and craft items and for leaving tips.

Going home with leftover foreign currency may feel wasteful, but there are plenty of ways to put that money to good use.

Spend it

No matter how much money is left over, I pay my hotel bill with it, said Chris McGinnis, of the TravelSkills blog. Part in cash, the rest on a credit card. Others suggest stopping at a Starbucks before leaving a country to have leftover cash added, fee-free, to a Starbucks card balance.

Airports offer plenty of places to spend money and the part-cash/part-credit card method works well when buying pre-flight snacks or items in the duty-free stores.

Save it for another time

I have a box from [French Bakery] Laduree on my dresser with all my leftover foreign currency in it, said Christina Saull, of Alexandria, Virginia. When I have a trip, I dig through it to see what I have to spend.

Beth Whitman, founder of Wanderlust and Lipstick and WanderTours has a basket of envelopes and small purses filled with coins and bills from past trips around the world, organized by country.

It helps to have some local currency upon arrival for taxis or tips without having to go to an ATM or change money, Whitman said.

Exchange it

Services like Travelex exchang leftover currency at its stores in cities and in airports, and by mail. Airport stores swap bills and most coins on the spot, but keep in mind that each store sets its own rates and fees. Mail-in exchanges are limited to banknotes and getting you check may take three weeks to arrive, but the $5 fixed fee and day-of exchange rate is apt to net you more.

Another mail-in option is offered by Leftover Currency, which takes both notes and coins for circulating and discontinued currencies and promises to pay within five working days via PayPal, check or bank transfer, or to donate the funds to charity.

Donate it

Some airports have change globes or bins to collect leftover money from travelers leaving a country. And 10 airlines, including American, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, currently participate in UNICEFs Change for Good program, which collects spare currency from passengers on international flights. In 2016 about $8 million was raised for UNICEF this way.

Make friends

Teachers may be able to use your leftover currency in a geography lesson. Or ask around to see if friends or neighbors have nieces or nephews who collect coins, said traveler writer Carol Pucci. A little bag of foreign coins that had been sitting my desk for years recently found a good home in a kids collection.

Make art

Leftover coins offer an opportunity to explore your inner Etsy. Drill holes to make earrings or a necklace, or get out the glue gun and decorate a frame to hold a favorite travel photo.

Surprise yourself

Whenever I go to pay for something and stumble across the foreign currency I keep in my wallet, Im transported, for a moment, back to that destination said Francine Cohen, Director, Spirits Colangelo & Partners. It is also good for a laugh when I accidentally try to pay for something in one country with another countrys currency. Canadians are indeed really nice, but not so nice that theyll take pesos for a croissant.
A woman claiming to be a frequent AirAsia passenger says shes fed up with the uniforms worn by the airlines female flight attendants, and called them quite disgusting in a letter she penned to Malaysian Senator Hanafi Mamat  or so says Mamat, who claims he received the letter last week and who, coincidentally, had publicly criticized the uniforms in December.

In the letter, which Mamat shared to Facebook on Jan. 14, a woman calling herself Dr. June Robertson from Wellington, New Zealand, wrote that she was pleased to read that Mamat was unhappy with AirAsia uniforms, and added that she, too, was very offended by the extremely short skirts these females wear on AirAsia.

UNITED AIRLINES SAVES 170K GALLONS OF FUEL AFTER PRINTING MAG ON LIGHTER PAPER

On Monday, however, doubts over the veracity of the letter  and even the existence of June Robertson  had been raised by commenters who suggested this might be a political ploy by Mamat, The New Zealand Herald reported.

In early December, Mamat pushed for government regulations regarding the uniforms worn by Malaysian airline employees, saying they dress too sexily and disrespectfully, and may give tourists who use the services of our national carriers the wrong impression, according to Free Malaysia Today.

The time has come for the government to provide new uniform guidelines which will portray Malaysia as a Muslim country with strong Eastern values, stated Mamat at a Malaysian Parliament meeting on Dec. 11.

Robertson, the woman from the letter Mamat posted, seemed to agree that the airline is letting your [countrys] reputation down.

The European Airlines; NZ; Australian or American Airlines do not wear such short skirts, wrote Robertson. I found it quite disgusting myself as not everyone appreciates this.

DELTA TIGHTENS REQUIREMENTS FOR SERVICE ANIMALS AMID INCREASED INCIDENTS

The woman in the letter goes on to describe the instances in which the disgusting uniforms allowed her to see the flight attendants underwear, including one alleged incident in which a flight attendant bent over at a supermarket inside a Kuala Lumpur airport, and another in which a flight attendants blouse was undone and I could see the top of her breasts.

She allegedly told Mamat that she found the uniforms especially disconcerting, seeing as Malaysian women do not dress like prostitutes and that its people are usually very respectful.

The Herald subsequently tried tracking June Robertson down, but was not able to find anyone registered as a doctor in Wellington under Robertsons name. They did, however, note that a woman with the same name was registered to LinkedIn, where her minimal profile stated that she worked for a health center in New Zealand.

The health center was not immediately available to confirm her employment.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

Mamat isnt the only senator in Malaysia to publicly denounce the nations airlines over their uniforms. Following Mamats statements in December, Senators Abdullah Mat Yasim and Megat Zulkarnain Omardin asked the country's aviation commission to revise its guidelines for uniforms, with the latter claiming his wife was worried about him whenever he flew alone on AirAsia or Malindo Air.
The TSA is no match for Marilyn Hartman.

The 66-year-old serial stowaway was caught yet again after sneaking through security at Chicagos OHare Airport last week without a ticket or passport  but not before she made it all the way to London.

Hartman, who lives in Grayslake, Ill., has made a hobby of ducking the TSA. Her arrest last week was at least the 10th time shes been caught trying to slip past airport security without a plane ticket.

She was busted for the stunt at least eight times in 2014. In 2015, she was arrested twice in two months at OHare and Chicagos Midway Airport, and shes also been nabbed in California and Arizona.

Hartman spent a year in a Chicago-area jail for the repeated episodes and was released on probation to a nursing home in December 2015.

Sources told CBS Chicago that the most recent security footage shows Hartman wandering around OHare for two days last week before boarding a British Airways flight Monday. She managed to evade the gate attendant by blending in with the passengers, Chicago police told the Chicago Sun-Times. Sources did not address how she made it past TSA checkpoints to get to the gate.

Once on the aircraft, she hid in the bathroom, then found an empty seat. The airline warned Heathrow airport officials that they had a stowaway on the incoming flight. The pesky passenger was sent back to the US when she couldnt produce a passport and was arrested Thursday upon arrival at OHare.

A TSA spokesman said Hartman was screened at the security checkpoint, but managed to get by without a ticket. Its unclear how she evaded federal authorities.

Click for more from the New York Post.
A half-century after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination, the very states that clung to racial segregation are now coming together to expand peoples knowledge on the Civil Rights Movement.

A dozen Southern tourism departments unveiled a unified website highlighting 110 pivotal landmarks that led to the attainment of civil and human rights for African-Americans. Dubbed the U.S. Civil Rights Trail, the digital map of historic sites stretches from Topeka, Kan. to Wilmington, Del., including 14 states and Washington D.C.

With this new development, people are going to be able to find out more truth about what happened to African-Americans, and yet how America is growing past that and beginning to acknowledge that were all human beings, Kings niece, Alveda King said.

WHY A TRIP TO CHARLESTON SHOULD BE ON EVERY TRAVELER'S ITINERARY

The interactive website, which features pictures, 360-degree video, interviews with foot soldiers and explanations of the historic sites, was the brainchild of Alabama's tourism director, Lee Sentell.

Sentell told Fox News that former National Park Service director Jonathan Jarvis challenged him and other historians two years ago to create an inventory of surviving civil rights landmarks. Sentell turned to Georgia State University (GSU), he said, which compiled a list of 60 sites and paved the foundation for the new U.S. Civil Rights Trail.

GSU researcher Dr. Glenn Eskew had already been collecting a list of locations that the federal government, state agencies and local communities themselves identified as "important civil rights sites" for a separate project.

'SERIAL STOWAWAY' ARRESTED FOR 10TH TIME AFTER SLIPPING PAST AIRPORT SECURITY

A dozen state tourism directors, who are members of TravelSouth USA, supplemented the remaining locations to reach a total of 110.

2018 is a very good year for equalizing the plight of humanity."  Alveda King

Eskew says this list will continue to grow, adding that every community has something because the fight took place in every community to alter Americas oppressive racial system.

The trail highlights renowned historic sites, like the recently expanded Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Park and Kings birth home in Atlanta.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., and the home of Medgar Evers, who was a voting rights activist assassinated just after President John Kennedy proposed civil rights legislation, also serve as anchors along the trail.

But the tourism campaign is aimed at expanding peoples scope of the era, thus also recognizing lesser-known sites that shaped the Civil Rights Movement.

Howard High School of Technology made the list for its direct association to Brown v. Board of Education, which ruled racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. In Kentucky, the birthplace of Whitney M. Young Jr. commemorates the civil rights leaders tireless work to end employment discrimination.

This movement didnt just happen in the cities, it happened all across the region, director of Georgia tourism Kevin Langston said. You have to get out and see some of those sites off the main road to experience that.

By providing this umbrella website, tourism directors hope to spark a domino effect in visitors interest, getting tourists to not only cross state lines but oceans to learn more about the volatility in the 1950s and 1960s.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

The Southern tourism departments have received calls all week this week from Europe about the trail, according to Langston. They are currently working with European tour operators on developing a trip experience based on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail.

Sentell is expecting a conservative increase in visitor attendance at trail sites  estimating 13 million visits in 2018 and $1.62 billion in spending between tickets, travel and souvenirs. He says the heightened interest stems from the introduction of the website and the 50th anniversary of Kings death.

2018 is a very good year for equalizing the plight of humanity, Alveda King said. As we explore the African-American history, what else will be uncovered?
One of President Trumps main goals in office is to combat the notoriously violent MS-13 gang.

The gang, responsible for dozens of gruesome deaths throughout the U.S., was designated a priority last year by the Department of Justices Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. Prosecutors are able to pursue any legal avenue to target MS-13, according to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Read on for a look at the gang and the Trump administrations fight against it.

What is MS-13?

MS-13 was started by Central American immigrants, mainly from El Salvador, in Los Angeles in the 1980s. It has expanded since to include Hondurans, Guatemalans, Mexicans and other Central and South Americans.

MS-13s motto is mata, viola, controla  which means "kill, rape, control," according to Robert Hur, an official with the Justice Department.

They seek to live up to this motto through truly shocking acts of violence designed to instill fear: vicious machete attacks, execution-style gunshots, gang rape and human trafficking.

Gang members perpetuate a number of various criminal acts, according to the FBI, including: murder, rape, home invasions, kidnapping, carjacking and robbery. The FBI said most of the crimes are carried out against members of rival gangs, but often innocent people are hurt as well.

Is it a big threat?

MS-13 recruits are middle- and high-school students, predominantly in immigrant communities, who are said to risk violent retribution if they leave.

Authorities estimate the group has tens of thousands of members across several Central American countries and many U.S. states. MS-13's presence is higher in the western and northeastern parts of the U.S., according to the FBI.

OFFICIALS DETAIL BEST WAYS TO COMBAT MS-13

The gang is believed to be behind at least 25 killings on Long Island in the past two years. Many teenagers on Long Island have been held on gang accusations, swept up in various federal investigations.

What has the Trump administration said about MS-13?

Trump called on Congress to finally close the deadly loopholes that have allowed MS-13 members into the U.S. during his first State of the Union address. He also acknowledged parents of MS-13 victims  some of whom were guests of the White House for the speech  and said the country is praying for you.

Trump has often blamed the Obama administration for the rise of MS-13 across the country. The gang was sanctioned as a transnational criminal organization by the Treasury Department in 2012.

Trump's Justice and Homeland Security Departments have made targeting the gang a top priority. Sessions instructed his department's law enforcement agencies and federal prosecutors across the country to prioritize MS-13 members prosecution, as directed by an executive order Trump signed in February 2017.

The classification of MS-13 allows some local police departments to tap into federal money to help with investigations. Suffolk County was granted $500,000 by the federal government.

Trump has used the word "animals" to describe members of MS-13, and says he will continue to use the term when speaking about members of the gang.



In July 2017, Trump visited Brentwood, N.Y., a town that has experienced firsthand the tragedy caused by MS-13, and pledged to push Congress for additional federal immigration agents to crack down on gang members who are in the country illegally. He is back on Long Island in May 2018 to hold a roundtable discussion on gang violence.

What are some of MS-13s more notable killings?

-Two teenage girls from Brentwood, N.Y. were found dead after being brutally beaten and cut in September 2016. Kayla Cuevas, 16, was targeted by gang members and her friend, 15-year-old Nisa Mickens, tried to scare off the attackers, WPIX-TV reported.

-The remains of Oscar Acosta, a 19-year-old high school senior, were found in a wooded area in Brentwood in September 2016. Acosta, who had been missing for months, came to the U.S. from El Salvador and had told his mother he was worried about gangs, she told WNBC-TV.

-The remains of Miguel Garcia-Moran were found in the same area as Acostas in September 2016. He was 15 years old at the time of his death and had been missing since February. Police said he was the victim of a homicidal beating.

-Damaris Reyes Rivas, 15, was killed in January 2017 and found one month later buried under railroad ties. The teenager, from Gaithersburg, Maryland, was stabbed multiple times by MS-13 gang members who filmed the brutal attack. Venus Romero Iraheta, who was 17 at the time of the attack, pleaded guilty in 2018 to the murder. She told Reyes Rivas dont forget my name during the slaying, Iraheta told investigators.

-Police in Nassau County charged Kevin Granados-Coreas, 19, and Carlos Portillo, 22, with second-degree murder in the killing of Julio Cesar Gonzales-Espantzay. Police said MS-13 gang members lured the 19-year-old with the promise of marijuana and sex before they hacked him to death in a park. Gonzales-Espantzay was not a gang member, police said.

-Prosecutors said Christian Villagran Morales was stabbed more than 153 times in a Maryland park. Juan Gutierrez-Vazquez took part in the 2016 killing, holding down the victim while other gang members took turns stabbing him, prosecutors said. Gutierrez-Vazquez pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. Vanesa Alvarado, who was accused of luring Morales to the park, was also sentenced to 40 years in jail.

-The bodies of four young men, ranging in ages from 16 to 20, were found in April 2017 in a park in Central Islip, N.Y. Police said all had signs of significant trauma. Justin Llivicura, 16; Michael Lopez Banegas, 20; Jefferson Villalobos, 18; and Jorge Tigre, 18; were reportedly lured to the park by two women associated with MS-13 before they were ambushed by more than a dozen gang members armed with wooden clubs and machetes.

-Angel Soler was 15 years old when he went missing in July 2017. His body was found a few months later in the Roosevelt hamlet of Long Island, police said. Soler was hacked to death with a machete as he was attacked by a group of people, police said. Several MS-13 members have been indicted or charged in connection to his murder.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Two improvised explosive devices exploded inside a Florida mall on Sunday, police said.

Lake Wales police Deputy Chief Troy Schulze told reporters that the Lake Wales Fire Department received a call just before 5:30 p.m. about a possible structure fire at the Eagle Ridge Mall.

Schulze said when firefighters arrived at the scene they discovered an IED that ignited or detonated inside the service corridor as they went inside near the J.C. Penney. Schulze said they also found a bag contained what they believed to be other devices inside.

Police said the devices were flares wrapped in electrical tape inside a plastic pipe, according to Fox 13 Tampa Bay. Authorities detonated the flares, the station reported.

Officials said the mall was evacuated and there were no injuries.

Investigators said they are looking for a person of interest, described as a middle-aged white man with a heavy or stocky build who was wearing a grey shirt and grey hat. The mans name was not released.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Lake Wales Police Department at (863)678-4223 or Heartland Crime Stoppers at (800) 226-8477.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Authorities have captured a naked man who they say walked in and out of traffic on a major highway in Philadelphia and threw various items at vehicles.

The man was first spotted around 12:15 p.m. Saturday on the southbound side Interstate 95. Authorities say he was wandering between the shoulder of the roadway and the right lane.

The highways two right lanes were briefly shut down as police tried to apprehend the man, who eventually taken into custody. His name has not been released.

The incident caused lengthy delays in the area at least one minor accident, though no injuries were reported.

This story first appeared on Fox 29.
An official in Texas says authorities there had no reports involving the couple charged in California with shackling and starving 12 of their 13 children.

David and Louise Turpin have pleaded not guilty in Riverside County, California, to multiple counts of torture, child abuse and false imprisonment. The couple moved to California from near Fort Worth, Texas, in 2011.

Patrick Crimmins with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services said Saturday that his agency had no investigations concerning the Turpins.

A former neighbor in Rio Vista, Texas, tells the Los Angeles Times that the Turpins never socialized and rarely left their house. Ricky Vinyard says the Turpins kept lights on at all hours, blinds drawn. He says one Christmas they bought eight new children's bicycles that sat outside, unused.
Police say a 9-year-old boy was fatally shot in an exchange of gunfire in Kansas City, Missouri.

The boy's father told police he was driving with his son Saturday night when people in two other vehicles began shooting at each other. The father didn't initially realize that his child had been caught in the crossfire and he continued driving to suburban Grandview. When his wounds were discovered, the boy was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The name of the child has not been released. Police say the father and child are presumed to be innocent bystanders.

Police say a driver fled the crime scene, crashed and was arrested. That driver's role in the shooting has not been specified.
Oregon anti-fascists say they have gone as far as memorizing a residents dog-walking route in their mission to protect a community from a dangerous person who lives with them.

The claim was made by a member of the Portland-based Direct Action Alliance to a Sky News reporter that spent time with the group. The reporter was with members while they posted flyers in a neighborhood to identify an alleged white supremacist who lives in the area.

"That's what this is, is letting the community know that there's a dangerous person who lives with them and so they can take the proper precautions to protect themselves, said a member who went by the name of Jacob.

The Sky News report, published Monday, said about 10 hooded and masked members of the group stapled fight racism posters to lampposts and glued them to the street. The report gave nicknames or pseudonyms to every person that spoke to them.

Jacob told the news outlet that other activists did "necessary reconnaissance" and figured out the mans dog-walking route and where he buys his milk.

"What Antifa is, is basically community defense, what we do is make sure the people in our community are safe, he said.

"The Trump presidency has really wakened a lot of folks to realize... white supremacy isn't over, racism isn't over, he added.

Another told the reporter the group will do whatever it takes to get rid of white supremacists.

"We can't give fascists an inch or they will take a mile, we've seen that before in Europe, the Antifa member said, they have to be quashed when they are small and by any means necessary."

The anti-fascist, or Antifa movement, has gained prominence in recent years following the violent clashes across the U.S. on university campuses and other gatherings. But the loosely connected group has been criticized for using coordinated violence against people they deem to be espousing far-right ideology.

Federal agencies reportedly warned in 2016 about the possible outbreak of violent clashes or domestic terrorist violence perpetrated by the anarchists.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security had said that anarchist extremists and Antifa groups were the leading instigators of violence in public spaces, where they attack police, government and political institutions, racists, fascists and symbols of capitalism, Fox News reported.

A member of the Rose City Antifa group, named Lucy, told Sky News that they often spend time tracking down alleged white supremacists online.

"I think they get much more scared when we know their names, when we know their addresses, where they work, that certainly makes them more afraid, she said. "When we release someone's place of work, our hope is to get them fired.

"Any second that a Nazi is spending looking for work, or looking for housing if they've been evicted, is time they're not spending organizing," she added.

One of her colleagues, named Carter, said the situation is a very genuine threat, you know they're organizing, they're emboldened, and they are committing murders.

But despite trying to oust people online, the members themselves dont want to be known.

"We cover our face because many people on the far right dox us; they take our photos, they post it online, they find our home addresses and cell phone numbers, they send us death threats, they attempt physical violence against us, if they dont know who we are we're safe, essentially, it is self-protection, said another Antifa protester, identified by Sky News as Isaiah.

Fox News' Lukas Mikelionis contributed to this report.
A man is in police custody after he allegedly shot out a Georgia hotel's glass lobby door Monday morning, the Henry Herald reported.

The incident unfolded at the Home2 Suites by Hilton in McDonough. Police Capt. Joey Smith told reporters that people reported seeing a distressed man.

Shermane Jernine Perkins, 43, is accused of shooting the door.

"Detectives have determined that Perkins made his way on foot from Grover Turner Way and ran through the wood line and made entry to the Hotel by shooting out the glass side entry door with a hand gun," Henry County police said in a release.

Perkins, according to authorities, headed to the hotel's third floor and gained entry to a room by gunpoint. He then headed to a stairwell and police took him into custody.

No employees or hotel guests were hurt.

Perkins was not staying at the hotel, officials said.

"Officers advised that he appeared to be under the influence or suffering from possible mental issues," police said.

Perkins has been treated for cuts, according to authorities. Police say he claimed he was being chased by people at his house, which they couldn't confirm.

Basically were just going to be spreading out now, trying to check his histories, his address history, to determine if theres another incident somewhere, Smith was quoted as saying by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. We just dont know right now.

The incident prompted a major police presence in the area. Authorities searched room-to-room as a precaution.

Police are also investigating another possible crime scene after observing Perkins, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Fox News Shira Bush and Zoe Szathmary contributed to this report.
A brand-new U.S. Navy warship has not moved from Montreal since Christmas Eve and will spend the winter stuck in Canada due to cold and ice.

The USS Little Rock  unveiled in a ceremony on Dec. 16 in Buffalo, New York and attended by nearly 9,000 people  has not moved far since due to adverse weather conditions that kept the warship trapped at bay in Canada, the Toronto Star reported.

The warship known as a Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) cost $440 million to build and stretches 387 feet in length and weighs 15 tons more than the Statue of Liberty. It is capable of traveling more than 46 miles per hour.

Such combat ships are described as agile and designed for rapid transitions between missions with minimal manning. They are used for surface warfare, counter piracy and drug operations, as well as other first response missions.

In the wake of weather problems, the ship has been reportedly equipped with heaters and de-icers to reduce ice accumulation on the hull.

The U.S. Navy spokeswoman told The Star the ship will remain inactive in Montreal and will not move towards its home port in Mayport, Fla. until weather conditions improve.

The temperatures in Montreal and throughout the transit area have been colder than normal, and included near-record low temperatures, which created significant and historical conditions in the late December, early January time frame, Lt.-Cmdr. Courtney Hillson told the newspaper.

Keeping the ship in Montreal until waterways are clear ensures the safety of the ship and crew, and will have limited impact on the ships operational schedule.

The navy official did not say whether it is a common practice for ships to be delayed due to bad weather, but said other ships encountered no transit problems in December.

The crew stationed on the ship was provided with cold-weather clothing and will focus on mission training while the delay continues.
A Minnesota woman who vanished earlier this month was reportedly abducted and killed by her boyfriend -- who then allegedly drove her body to New Orleans and burned it in a shipping container.

Federal prosecutors on Friday charged Joseph Porter, 25, with kidnapping the woman, Cristina Prodan 27, whose burned body was found Jan 6, the day after her mother reported her missing in Edina, where she lived.

Porter had noticeable burns on his face that could be seen in his mug shot when he was arrested in Arkansas Jan. 10 on a theft charge.

The Minnesota Star Tribune reported the federal complaint says Porter's husband, Richard Crawford, of Little Rock, Ark., told investigators Porter admitted to killing Prodan somewhere in Minnesota and taking her body to New Orleans where he burned it.

Porter has not been charged with murder in connection with Prodan's death. His attorney in Little Rock declined to comment.

MOTHER FEARS MISSING DAUGHTER, 27, KILLED; BOYFRIEND ARRESTED WITH FACIAL INJURIES

The arrest warrant in the theft case quoted Porters mother as saying he told her in December he was going to kidnap the victim, drain her bank accounts, empty her safe deposit box of the guns, and take her some place where no one could find her again, FOX9 Minneapolis reported Friday.

Before authorities announced finding the body, Prodans mother told the station last Monday she was holding out hope her daughter would be found alive.

The deputies told me that they are looking for the body, but I dont know if they find it or not, Livia Prodan, of Richfield, Minn., said.

Her daughter and Porter began living together after meeting through Facebook in October.

In early December, Porter allegedly became abusive and was the subject of a court order barring him from having contact with Prodan, the station reported.

Records show on Dec. 28, Porter pleaded guilty to violating the order and was sentenced to time served.

Soon after that, Prodan reportedly took him back only to disappear days later.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Twelve years after the disappearance of an Orlando woman, Jennifer Kesse, her family isn't just holding onto hope the investigation can be solved - they're demanding it.

Drew Kesse, Jennifer's father, says the Orlando Police Department has largely denied the family access to information in the case. He has hired a team of lawyers and investigators in the hopes they can find answers where others haven't, and is considering legal action.

We need to get this information, Kesse told Fox News in an interview last week. After 12 years, we deserve that.

Kesse says the family has had little access to the case outside of a two-page document, which was heavily redacted. That was a slap in the face to us, he said.

The Orlando Police Department responded to Fox News with a comment saying it was "committed to getting answers for the Kesse family," and adding it was not at liberty to disclose too much informaiton.

"It is the Department's standard practice not to release file materials in open and active cases such as this one, as the release of the records could jeopardize the investigation. Again, this decision has been made in an effort to ensure that our investigation can be conducted in a thorough manner, hopefully resulting in answers for the family."

Known by friends and family simply as "Jenn," the 24-year-old was last seen alive on Jan. 23, 2006.

We need to get this information. After twelve years we deserve that.  Drew Kesse

Jenn, who lived alone, was reported missing by her parents the next day, when she failed to show up for her job as a manager at Central Florida Investments. Her car, a black Chevy Malibu, was found by authorities three days later approximately a mile from her condo.

In a previous Fox News interview, in 2013, Drew Kesse said he believed more than one person was responsible for his daughters disappearance. His theory is that Jenn was abducted while leaving her home early on Jan. 24, and that she never made it to her car.

No forensic evidence was obtained from her vehicle  only one latent print, which her father called too minuscule to be useful.

Drew Kesse suggested his daughter -- 5-foot-8 with blond hair -- may have been taken by human traffickers and may no longer be in the country.

The Orlando Police Department had hoped for a break in the case when it released security footage of a person seen parking Kesses vehicle near a pool at an apartment complex and walking away. But the suspect  who appears to be between 5-foot-3 and 5-foot-5  has never been identified.

The Orlando Police Department announced at a recent press conference that they were increasing the reward in the case, as well as stepping up efforts to ask for the publics help with billboards and bus wrap ads in the hopes the mystery person of interest can be finally identified.

Anyone with information on Jennifer Kesse is urged to call the Orlando Police Department at 407-246-3982, or Crimeline of Central Florida at 1-800-423-8477.

Fox News Cristina Corbin contributed to this report.
The couple charged in California with shackling and starving 12 of their 13 children grew tired of their strict religious lifestyle -- so they started engaging in seedier sex-fueled hijinks, the mothers sister revealed on Monday.

David and Louise Turpin began experimenting in different religions and forcing their older children to take care of the younger children so that her and David could kinda sow those wild oats that they didnt sow when she was younger, Louises sister Teresa Robinette said on Megyn Kelly Today.

For example, the sister said Louise, 49, had sex in a hotel with a stranger she met online  with the blessing of her husband, 57  before re-enacting the affair in the same room exactly a year later, The New York Post reported.

Louise told her sister in a phone call around 2009 that the couple had met a man online from Huntsville, Alabama, and that they were on their way there to meet him and that she was going to sleep with him and that David was okay with that, Robinette claimed.

All I know is that it did happen, Robinette continued, according to The Post. She met this man at a motel, slept with him, and what makes it even worse and even weirder is that exactly one year to the day of the anniversary that she did that, she called me and thought it was funny that David was taking her back to the exact same hotel room  the exact same bed that she slept with this man in  so that David could sleep with her in the same bed.

The Turpins have pleaded not guilty in California to multiple counts of torture, child abuse and false imprisonment, after 13 children, ages 2 to 29, were found living in deplorable conditions in the Riverside County home.

David and Louise Turpin were charged Thursday and face up to life in prison. Each was ordered held in lieu of $12 million bail.

The 12 oldest children, as Fox News has reported, showed signs of severe malnutrition, including stunted growth.

The children were being homeschooled but lacked even basic knowledge such as what a policeman was, investigators said.

Prosecutors said they didnt know what motivated the Turpins to torture the children in such squalid conditions. The parents were quoted as saying that God called on them to have such a large family.

Prosecutors have said that over the years the children were mistreated, beaten and taunted with food and toys they could look at but not have.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The younger brother of a man serving life in prison for the murder of a 20-year-old Tennessee nursing student pleaded guilty Monday to facilitating her kidnapping and killing.

John Dylan Adams entered a so-called Alford plea, officially maintaining his innocence while acknowledging that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict him of facilitating first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping in connection with the death of Holly Bobo. He cannot appeal his sentence.

"Our goal when this started was to punish this man as much as we could," Shelby County Assistant District Attorney Paul Hagerman told reporters. "And today, with a guilty plea, John Dylan Adams will serve a 35-year sentence without parole in the Tennessee Department of Correction for his role in this terrible crime."

Adams' brother, Zachary, was convicted this past September of kidnapping, raping and murdering Bobo, who disappeared near her home in rural Parsons, Tenn., in April 2011. Her remains weren't found until September 2014, when they were located by two ginseng hunters in woods not far from their home, about 100 miles southwest of Nashville.

Prosecutors relied on witness testimony to convict Adams after failing to recover useful DNA evidence from Bobo's remains.

HOLLY BOBO'S CONVICTED KILLER SENTENCED TO LIFE PLUS 50 YEARS

Zachary Adams was sentenced to life in prison plus 50 years after reaching an agreement with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty. He is seeking a new trial.

Holly Bobo's mother, Karen, told reporters that John Dylan Adams' plea was "some justice" for her daughter's killing.

"But there is no closure," Karen Bobo added, "and she's still the last thing on my mind when I go to bed every night and the first thing when I wake up every morning."

A Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent testified at Zachary Adams' trial that the agency made a mistake when it did not pursue leads only days after Bobo went missing that pointed to four men who lived in a dark underworld of crime and drug use: the Adams brothers and their friends Jason Autry and Shayne Austin.

Autry, also charged with Bobo's kidnapping, rape and murder, testified in expectations of getting a lenient sentence and is on a list of witnesses who have been offered immunity. He said the Zachary Adams told him in graphic detail how he, John and Austin raped Bobo. Autry also testified that he served as a lookout while Zachary Adams shot Bobo under a bridge spanning the Tennessee River. Austin committed suicide in Florida in February 2015.

A fellow jail inmate, Shawn Cooper, testified that Zachary Adams told him he was involved in the "Holly Bobo murder case" and wanted him to deliver a message to his younger brother: Stay quiet, or he would "put him in a hole beside her." At the time, Cooper was about to be transferred to the same jail where John Dylan Adams was being held.

Autry, meanwhile, testified that Zachary Adams asked him to kill his younger brother to silence him.

Prosecutors have not publicly revealed the details of John Dylan Adams' involvement, but Shelby County Assistant District Attorney Paul Hagerman did say Monday that he had less involvement than his older brother.

No hearing has been set to resolve Autry's charges, but his lawyer has told the judge that a trial does not need to be set, indicating that he has reached a deal with prosecutors.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A jury has convicted a Detroit-area man who was charged with selling infected body parts for research.

Arthur Rathburn was accused of covering up the fact that the body parts had tested positive for hepatitis B and HIV. They were used for medical training at national conferences. There were no reports of illness from conference attendees.

Rathburn was convicted of eight crimes Monday, including illegal transportation of hazardous material. Some of the crimes carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison apiece.

The government's witnesses included Rathburn's ex-wife, who pleaded guilty to fraud.

A federal agent told jurors about raiding Rathburn's Detroit warehouse four years ago. Agent Leslie Larsen said she saw body parts frozen together.

Defense lawyers said Rathburn may have been negligent but he didn't commit crimes.
A man was reportedly attacked and set on fire Sunday in a Virginia suburb by a group of men -- and several of the suspects remained at large Monday.

Fairfax County Police said the assault happened around 2 p.m. at an apartment complex in Annandale, located about 13 miles outside of Washington D.C.

A caller reported a man being assaulted by five or six young men, who then lit the victim on fire.

"Officers responded to the scene and they observed people matching the description running from the area," Lt. Eli Corey with the Fairfax County Police Department said at a press briefing. "So they gave chase and they were able to apprehend two of the possible five suspects."

BURNED BODY OF MINNESOTA WOMAN FOUND IN NEW ORLEANS; BOYFRIEND WITH FACIAL BURNS CHARGED WITH KIDNAPPING

A charred backpack was among the items found by investigators at the scene, according to FOX5 DC.

Police said the victim suffered burns to his upper body and was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Authorities did not disclose a motive behind the attack, and said they are still searching for the other attackers.
A rookie Maryland police officer and three others had to be rescued Sunday after falling through ice on a lake at a park just outside the nation's capital in a dramatic incident captured on dashcam video.

The Prince George's County Police Department said the 911 call came in around 3:30 p.m. from Hyattsville, Md., just over the border from Washington D.C.

When two officers went onto the ice to help the victims caught in the freezing water, one of the cops fell through, police said.

"They were frantic, they were screaming, they were exhausted," Officer Timothy Tully told FOX5 DC. As Tully went onto the ice he noticed one of the men in particular was struggling in the water.

Tully, who is only two weeks on the job, was able to pull himself and one of the men out of the water before the Prince George's County Fire Department could be seen on video arriving at the scene to pull out the other two men.

"Hitting the water and actually having that cold really takes your breath away," he said.

WATCH: OFFICER CRAWLS ACROSS PARTIALLY FROZEN POND TO RESCUE DOG

Police said Tully and two of the men who fell through the ice were taken to the hospital and treated for hypothermia. All have since been released from the hospital.

Tully's training officer, Rion Robinson, told FOX5 the incident was a "life or death situation."

"I was proud of him. He didn't hesitate, he was calm," Robinson said. "He never looked nervous and it seemed like he's been out here for a couple years now, so I was very proud about that."
A California Uber driver living in the country illegally has been charged with raping, assaulting and robbing at least four young women.

Alfonso Alarcon-Nunez, 39, faces 10 criminal charges, including forcible rape, rape of an intoxicated victim, oral copulation of an intoxicated victim and first degree burglary. He pleaded not guilty to all 10 counts Monday and was being held on $1.4 million bail.

San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow said Alarcon-Nunez was not always driving for Uber when he picked up those women but added that the alleged crimes show that the company should improve its driver screening process.

Prosecutors say Alarcon-Nunez targeted women who were on their way home from parties. After driving them home, investigators say he would assault the women and steal their property -- including cell phones and jewelry.

Authorities told KSBY that Alarcon-Nunez would collect payment for the rides through Venmo to disguise his identity and his Uber records. Prosecutors say he has also used the alias "Bruno Diaz" and his Venmo username was "Brush Bat."

Dow said Monday that Alarcon-Nunez's alleged victims are between 19 and 22 years old and three were intoxicated when they were assaulted. The alleged crimes are said to have occurred in December and January in San Luis Obispo, a city of about 45,000 with a large population of college students.

Predators in cars parked outside bars or restaurants "jump in front of the actual Uber driver and they will take someone unsuspecting to their home. And that's a way of putting someone at risk, and in this case that's exactly what's alleged to have happened," Dow said.

Dow urged Uber users to make sure they are getting in the car of the correct driver by verifying the license plate and other information provided to clients.

Dow says detectives are looking for potential witnesses and trying to determine if there are additional victims in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties northwest of Los Angeles.

Officials say Alarcon-Nunez, originally from Mexico, returned to the U.S. illegally after a voluntary deportation from New Mexico in 2005. Dow did not have details about why he was deported or whether he has a criminal record in the U.S.

Alarcon-Nunez's immigration status will not have a bearing on the prosecution, Dow said. He could face life in prison if convicted on all charges.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Frustrated MS-13 gang leaders feeling the pressure from the Trump administrations crackdown are looking to send younger, more violent offenders to the United States to take over the role of being enforcers, officials say.

The revelations were made Thursday during a House Committee on Homeland Security meeting on fighting international criminal organizations, where officials discussed the arrests and imprisonment of MS-13 members and leadership over the last year.

"They're very much interested in sending younger, more violent offenders up through their channels into this country in order to be enforcers for the gang," said Stephen Richardson, assistant director of the FBI's criminal investigative division, according to VOA News.

Peter King, R-N.Y., the committees chairman, said his staff recently visited El Salvador and was told by law enforcement there that the gang -- which mostly operates out of prisons in the Central American country -- is "frustrated that MS-13 members in [the U.S.] are not violent enough.

"It's a horrifying thought," King was quoted as saying by VOA News.

Justice Department figures say the gang has 40,000 members worldwide, with around 10,000 in the U.S. carrying out crimes ranging from extortion to gun trafficking.

"We're looking at the information we're getting and doubling down our efforts against MS-13," Raymond Villaneuva, an assistant director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told lawmakers in response to Kings comments.

The gang, also responsible for dozens of gruesome deaths throughout the U.S., was designated a priority last year by the Justice Departments Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. Prosecutors are able to pursue any legal avenue to target MS-13, according to Attorney Gen. Jeff Sessions.

U.S. officials and three Central American countries announced in September that more than 3,800 members of MS-13 and the 18th Street gangs have been charged since March.

Sessions also said in December the Justice Department convicted more than 1,000 gang members in the U.S. in 2017, VOA News reported.

MS-13 is believed to be behind 25 killings on New Yorks Long Island alone in the past two years.

Trump in July 2017 visited Brentwood, N.Y., a town that has experienced the gang's wrath, and pledged to push Congress for additional federal immigration agents to crack down on gang members who are in the country illegally. He also called MS-13 members animals.

Many MS-13 recruits are middle- and high-school students, predominantly in immigrant communities, who are said to risk violent retribution if they leave.

Fox News' Kaitlyn Schallhorn and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Less than a day after officials said two improvised explosive devices ignited inside a mall in central Florida, officials on Monday walked back those statements.

The FBI and Eagle Ridge Mall said in separate statements two signal flares triggered a fire alarm in an unoccupied area of the facility around 5:30 p.m. Sunday.

"It appears two items, believed to be marine flares, were ignited in a mall hallway, creating a large amount of smoke, and a backpack was located at the scene," the FBI statement said. "Bomb technicians examined the contents of the backpack and determined it did not contain any incendiary or explosive devices."

The FBI said there was "no current indication of any terrorist connection to this incident."

Eagle Ridge Mall also said the device was not an IED.

"Initial reports of pipe bombs, IEDs, explosions or detonations of any kind at Eagle Ridge Mall were incorrect, as were reports that any additional dangerous materials were found during a thorough law enforcement search of mall property," mall officials said in a statement.

The mall was quickly evacuated after the incident, and no injuries were reported.

Lake Wales Police Deputy Chief Troy Schulze initially told reporters Sunday that, as firefighters arrived at the scene, they discovered an IED that ignited or detonated inside the service corridor near J.C. Penney. Schulze said at the time crews also found a bag containing what they believed to be other devices.

Police said Sunday the devices were flares wrapped in electrical tape inside a plastic pipe, according to FOX13 Tampa Bay. Authorities detonated the flares, the station reported.

Mall officials on Monday said a law enforcement investigation is "currently underway to determine the cause of the incident."

Schulze said in a news release Monday officials are searching for two "persons of interest" and released surveillance video of one of the individuals leaving the mall at the time of the incident.

Both are described by law enforcement as white men. One is believed to be middle-aged while the second is between 20 and 40.

The mall was opened for business on Monday, Schulze said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Five people were missing Monday after an explosion at an Oklahoma drilling rig sent plumes of black smoke into the sky, emergency officials said.

The drilling rig in Quinton, about 100 miles southeast of Tulsa, exploded just before 9 a.m. while about two dozen people were working onsite, the Pittsburg County sheriff told KOTV. At least three medical helicopters responded to the explosion.

Seventeen people were accounted for - one of whom was flown off the site for medical attention - but five people remained missing Monday afternoon. The explosion sparked several fires and sent thick black smoke into the air. The derrick, a towering metal structure above the well, also collapsed.

"They have extinguished the secondary fires, the primary fire on the well head is still burning," Pittsburg County Emergency Management Director Kevin Enloe said in a Monday afternoon press conference.

No fatalities were immediately confirmed, Oklahoma Office of Emergency Management spokeswoman Keli Cain said.

The drilling site was being operated by Oklahoma City-based Red Mountain Energy, said Matt Skinner, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates oil and gas operators. A cause of the blast was not immediately clear.

"Theres no knowledge of what caused it or what it was," Enloe said. The search for the unnacounted, Enloe said, will continue.

"We have searched the surrounding area and have not found anybody at this time," he said. "Im not going to presume anything."

Skinner said a company that specializes in rig fires and other well control problems also responded to the blaze.

"Everything is contained and there is no danger to other residents," Enloe said, noting that the closest home was located about a half mile from the rig. Homeowners there, Enloe stated, were told to shelter in place.

"There will definitely be operations continuing overnight and tomorrow," Enloe said, noting that there would be another press conference later Monday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ralph McClintock wasnt even supposed to be on the mission that changed his life.

Out of duty to both his country and sense of curiosity, the young U.S. Navy communications technician volunteered to fill a vacant spot on the USS Pueblos mission in the waters off North Korea in January of 1968.

I took the job because I wanted know what the North Koreans did and I wanted to see the enemy up close, McClintock told Fox News. The mission was only supposed to last 22 days.

Instead of lasting 22 days, McClintock and 82 other Pueblo crew members would spend 11 grueling months away from their home port  most of it spent in North Korean prisoner of war camps  in what might have been one of the more gripping dramas of the Cold War. But the incident was somewhat buried in the headlines of a tumultuous time.

It was just an extraordinary year, with the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson announcing he wouldnt seek re-election, RFK and MLK being killed, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and the Apollo 8 launch to name just a few, Jack Cheevers, author of Act of War: Lyndon Johnson, North Korea, and the Capture of the Spy Ship Pueblo, told Fox News in an interview. The Pueblo fell through the cracks of history because it became a sideshow to everything that happened.

But Cheevers added that given the current heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea, the saga of the Pueblo could hold clues as to how Washington should deal with its longtime adversary.

The Pueblo incident may gain prominence over time because it teaches us that you can deal with North Korea, even during a major crisis, he said.

The tale of the Pueblo begins in early January, 1968, when the crew set off from the U.S. Navy base on Yokosuka, Japan with orders to conduct surveillance on Soviet Navy and North Korean communication activity. The ship carried out its work without incident for the majority of the mission, with little to no resistance, as Commander Lloyd M. Bucher kept the vessel safely in international waters.

The problems began as the mission approached its close. First, a North Korean submarine chaser passed within some 4,000 yards of the Pueblo. Two days later, a pair of North Korean fishing trawlers came within 30 yards, while the "fishermen" looked on with binoculars and snapped photos.

Id never heard off any North Korean fishermen bringing cameras with them, McClintock said.

The following day, Jan. 23, another submarine chaser appeared, challenged the Pueblo, and ordered the crew to stand down. The Pueblo tried to outmaneuver the other ship, but another submarine chaser, four torpedo boats and two MiG-21 fighter jets joined the scene.

After a protracted chase, which the Americans insist occurred in international waters and which cost one Pueblo crewmember his life, the U.S. sailors signaled compliance, and began destroying any sensitive material.

We had large, weighted bags for dumping documents, Don Peppard, an administrative assistant on the Pueblo and the president of the ships veterans association, told Fox News. The problem was that there were just too many documents for us to destroy in such a short time. The North Koreans got a lot of documents.

The North Korean also took all 82 surviving Pueblo crewmembers captive  blindfolding them and binding their hands on the trip to the port of Wonson. They were then bused to Pyongyang, and kept as prisoners of war in two different camps: the Barn and the Farm.

We had no idea what was going to happen to us, but whatever it was, it didnt seem like it would be pleasant, Peppard said. At that point I felt like my life wasnt going to be worth very much.

While all of the crew were beaten and tortured, some of the worst treatment was reserved for Cmdr. Bucher. He was subject to horrific psychological torture, which included putting him in front of a mock firing squad in an attempt to force a confession. It was only when the North Koreans threatened to execute the entire crew in front of Bucher that he relented, and agreed to confess to the crimes leveled against him.

Bucher, who died in 2004, spent much of the rest of his life defending his actions. It wasnt until 1989 that the U.S. government finally recognized the crew's sacrifice, and granted them Prisoner of War medals.

His view was that the Navy treated the crew very unfairly, Cheever said. The crew really have had to fight to have their reputations restored.

Some of the worst treatment came during a period they refer to as Hell Week, which occurred when the North Koreans discovered the crew had secretly given "the finger" in staged propaganda photos, an action the crew had initially explained as being a "Hawaiian good luck sign."

They must have seen the Time Magazine article where they explained what flipping the bird was, Peppard said. After they found that out, they beat us mercilessly.

After 335 days in captivity  and following an apology, a written admission by the U.S. that the Pueblo had been spying - as well as an assurance the U.S. would not spy in the future  the men were sent to the Demilitarized Zone border with South Korea, and ordered to walk south across the "Bridge of No Return." Many of the men were crippled, malnourished and almost blind from the treatment they received.

Some, like Peppard and McClintock, say the fact that the story of their suffering has gone under-reported remains very difficult to accept.

They must have seen the Time Magazine article where they explained what flipping the bird was. After they found that out, they beat us mercilessly.  Don Peppard, administrative assistant on USS Pueblo

There are a lot of people who have no idea of what we went through, Peppard said. I think were lost to history.

Another sore point: The Pueblo itself remains in North Korea. Still officially in commission in the U.S. Naval Vessel Register, it sits in the Botong River in North Korea, where it has become a popular tourist attraction.

The U.S. has attempted to have the boat repatriated, without success. I would really like to see our ship come home, Peppard said.
During the last year, multiple schools across the U.S. have been impacted by shootings, which have resulted in the deaths of both students and faculty members.

Read on for a look at school shootings that have taken place within the last year.

Noblesville West Middle School, Indiana

A male student fired shots at Noblesville West Middle School in Indiana on May 25, critically injuring another student and a teacher at the school.

The alleged shooter, who has not yet been identified, was taken into custody shortly after the incident occurred at roughly 9 a.m.

Sources told FOX 59 the suspect walked into a science classroom with a gun and opened fire, hitting a female. A science teacher was able to tackle the student who fired shots inside the classroom, student Ethan Stonebraker told The Associated Press.

The victims were taken to a local hospital. The extent of their injuries is unclear.

Santa Fe High School, Texas

At least eight people were killed and several others were injured following reports of an active shooter at a Texas high school on May 18, local affiliate KTRK reported. The suspected shooter was taken into custody.

"Personnel treating the injured. Info is still preliminary, but there are multiple casualties," Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez confirmed.

Police officers responded to Santa Fe High School around 8 a.m. CDT after reports that a shooter opened fire inside a first-period art class. Details of the incident were not immediately available.

"Details will be released as we receive updated information. Law enforcement will continue to secure the building and initiate all emergency management protocols to release and move students to another location," the school district said in a statement.

Highland High School, California

A 14-year-old student was taken into custody after allegedly shooting a classmate at Highland High School in Palmdale, California on May 11.

The suspected gunman shot a fellow student in the arm, police said. The shooting stemmed from a dispute between the shooter and the victim, according to authorities.

The injured student is expected to make a full recovery.



Forest High School, Florida

A suspected gunman, later identified as 19-year-old Sky Bouche, allegedly opened fire at Forest High School in Ocala, Florida, on April 20. The shooting occured on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting.

At least one student was injured after the gunman shot through a classroom door, hitting a 17-year-old student in the ankle, authorities said. The student was later taken to a local hospital with a non-life-threatening injury.

A school resource officer, James Long, was hailed a hero after arresting Bouche just three minutes after he opened fire.

Bouche, a former student at the school, allegedly carried the weapon in a guitar case inside the school, authorities said.

Great Mills High School, Maryland

On March 20, a gunman, identified as 17-year-old Austin Rollins, shot 16-year-old sophomore Jaelynn Willey at Great Mills High School in Lexington Park, Maryland, authorities said. Willey died days later from her injuries.

Investigators believe the shooting was not random as the gunman and Willey had recently ended their relationship.

Rollins was fatally wounded during a confrontation with Deputy Blaine Gaskill, an armed school resource officer who doubles as a SWAT team member.

"Our school resource officer...pursued the shooter, engaged the shooter, fired a round at the shooter," St. Mary's County Sheriff Tim Cameron said. "The shooter fired a round as well. In the hours and days to come, we'll be able to determine if our school resource officer's round struck the shooter."

Gaskill was praised because he reportedly contained the situation in under a minute, Cameron said.

Willey's parents announced on March 22 that their daughter was brain dead and that they would be taking her off of life support. She died later that night.

Jaelynn's mother, Melissa, told reporters her daughter had "no life left in her."

"On Tuesday ... our lives changed completely and totally forever. My daughter was hurt by a boy who shot her in the head and took everything from our lives," she said.

A 14-year-old boy, later identified as Desmond Barnes, was also injured in the shooting. Authorities said he was shot in the thigh but was later released from a local hospital.

Police are still investigating if the boy was shot by Rollins or Gaskill while the two exchanged gunfire.

Huffman High School, Alabama

A 17-year old girl is dead and one other person was left injured from a March 7 shooting at Huffman High School in Birmingham, Alabama.

Courtlin Arrington, 17, was killed when shots were fired in a classroom, Birmingham Police Chief Orlando Wilson told WBRC. A 17-year-old male student was wounded. He was taken to the hospital and released.

Birmingham Police Department announced March 8 that a student was taken into custody in the investigation into the deadly shooting. Police said evidence, surveillance video and statements were reviewed throughout the night.

Police initially called the shooting accidental, but later reviewed a video that captured the deadly incident.

"We're not saying he shot her, we're not saying he didn't shoot her," the chief said. "We're asking those questions ourselves so we can determine exactly what happened."

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Florida

Police responded to reports of shots fired at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., around 3 p.m. on Feb. 14. Seventeen people lost their lives and 17 others were injured.

The day after the shooting, the suspected gunman, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, told authorities he arrived at the school with an AR-15 rifle, adding that he shot "students that he saw in the hallways and on school grounds," according to an arrest affidavit.

Cruz may plead guilty to avoid the death penalty, his lawyer reportedly said Feb. 16.

Cruz was formally charged March 7 with 17 counts each of premeditated murder and attempted murder.

A 12-year-old girl was taken into custody after police said the loaded gun she brought to Salvador B. Castro Middle School in Los Angeles accidentally discharged on Feb. 1, shooting a 15-year-old boy in the head and a 15-year-old girl in the wrist.

Police interviewed the 12-year-old student and agreed the shooting was accidental. She was booked in a juvenile detention center on suspicion of negligently discharging a firearm on school grounds.

It is unclear where the girl got the gun or why she decided to bring it to her school.

Doctors said both students who were shot are expected to recover.

Additionally, an 11-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl were treated at the hospital and released while a 30-year-old woman, who is a school staff member, had only minor injuries, Los Angeles city police said in a statement.

Marshall County High School, Kentucky

A shooter opened fire at Marshall County High School in Benton, Ky., on Jan. 23, killing two people.

Students Bailey Nicole Holt and Preston Ryan Cope, both 15 years old, died.

Suspected shooter Gabriel Ross Parker, 15, was arraigned on Feb. 16, according to Kentucky State Police.

"A Marshall County Grand Jury returned an indictment on Tuesday, charging Parker with two counts of Murder and fourteen counts of First Degree Assault," KSP said.

Marshall County Circuit Clerk Tiffany Griffith told Reuters a judge entered a not guilty plea on the teen's behalf.

Italy High School, Texas

A 15-year-old girl was hurt in a Jan. 22 shooting at Italy High School in Italy, Texas. A 16-year-old male student was taken into custody, Ellis County police told Fox News.

In the school's cafeteria, the suspect "engaged the victim" and fired several shots with a semi-automatic handgun, Ellis County Sheriff Chuck Edge said during a press briefing.

The suspect was confronted by an Italy Independent School District staffer in the school cafeteria and took off, Edge said. Law enforcement later apprehended the suspect on school grounds.

The suspect was charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, the Ellis County district attorney's office announced.

Aztec High School, New Mexico

Gunman William Atchison, 21, disguised himself as a student to get inside Aztec High School in Aztec, N.M., on Dec. 7, 2017, according to authorities. Atchison was also a former student.

State police said that Atchison killed students Francisco I. Fernandez and Casey J. Marquez.

Officials said Atchison eventually shot himself, adding that the students killed were not targeted, but were at the "wrong place at the wrong time."

Rancho Tehama Elementary School, California

A man in Northern California went on a random shooting rampage on Nov. 14, 2017, killing five people and wounding at least a dozen adults and children before authorities shot and killed him.

The gunman, who was later identified as Kevin Neal, 44, rammed a car into the gates of Rancho Tehama Elementary School and shot at its portable classrooms. He repeatedly tried to get into a kindergarten classroom but quick-thinking staff locked the school down, and he eventually stormed off.

Neal reportedly targeted the elementary school as part of a long-running feud with neighbors.

Mattoon High School, Illinois

A male student shot and injured a fellow student at a central Illinois high school on Sept. 20, 2017. The shooting unfolded in Mattoon High Schools cafeteria around 11:30 a.m., officials said at the time.

One female teacher intervened and successfully subdued and disarmed the gunman -- a move Mattoon Police Chief Jeff Branson said at the time was pivotal.

The gunman was taken into custody shortly after the incident.

Freeman High School, Washington

A 15-year-old student opened fire on fellow classmates at a Washington state high school on Sept. 13, 2017, killing one, investigators said. Caleb Sharpe, the suspected gunman, said the student who died had bullied him.

The slain student tried to stop the teen's rampage when the gun jammed, according to The Associated Press. A school janitor was hailed a hero after he was able to subdue the alleged shooter.

Three other students were wounded in the attack. According to court documents, Sharpe told officials that he brought the two guns to school to teach everyone a lesson about what happens when you bully others.

North Park Elementary School, California

A special needs teacher and a child, 8, were killed in what police said was a murder-suicide at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino, California.

Police said Cedric Anderson walked into the school on April 10, 2017, and shot his estranged wife, Karen Elaine Smith. Two other students were also struck before Anderson killed himself, although law enforcement officials said they do not believe they were intended targets.

Jonathan Martinez was identified as the 8-year-old killed at the elementary school. A 9-year-old was injured.

Liberty-Salem High School, Ohio

Two high school students were injured after a fellow student allegedly fired a shotgun inside Liberty-Salem High School in Ohio on Jan. 20, 2017.

Logan Cole, who was 16 at the time, was shot twice but survived. Another student was grazed by a bullet. Champaign County Sheriff Matthew Melvin said the gunman intended to harm more students than he did.

Ely Serna, the accused gunman, was 17 at the time of the shooting but is being tried as an adult in Champaign County court. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Fox News' Nicole Darrah, Kaitlyn Schallhorn, Elizabeth Zwirz, Katherine Lam, Lucia I. Suarez Sang, Samuel Chamberlain, Kathleen Joyce, Shira Bush and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A 15-year-old girl who was possibly the last person to be treated by former gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar before he was fired by Michigan State University disclosed in court on Monday that her family is still receiving medical bills from the appointments where she was sexually assaulted.

Emma Ann Miller, 15, told a courtroom during her victim impact statement at Nassar's sentencing hearing her last appointment with the former USA Gymnastics national team doctor was in August 2016, before he was fired by the school.

"I'm possibly the last child he will ever assault," she told the courtroom while maintaining her composure.

Miller described being abused in a supply closet, adding that MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine still has her family on the hook for those appointments.

"My mom is still getting billed for appointments where I was sexually assaulted," she told the courtroom.

USA GYMNASTICS BOARD MEMBERS RESIGN AMID NASSAR SEXUAL ASSAULT SCANDAL

The 15-year-old also detailed how she thought she mattered to Nassar, and how he put her picture on his wall alongside other Olympians he treated.

"I have never wanted to hate someone in my life, but my hate for you is uncontrollable," she told the 54 year-old, who pleaded guilty in November to multiple counts of sexual assault.

More than 80 girls and women, including some Olympians, gave statements at last week's sentencing for Nassar, who worked at MSU and as a team doctor for USA Gymnastics.

NASSAR SCANDAL HAS MICHIGAN STATE PRESIDENT FACING CALL TO RESIGN

Miller used her time in the courtroom to tell Nassar to redeem some of his actions, by providing "who knew what, and when" at Michigan State and USA Gymnastics and to detail any missed opportunities that may have stopped him.

"If you want to salvage yourself, you need to begin the reformation process, you need to do redeeming acts," she said.

"Just remember, Larry, it's never too late to do the right thing," Miller added.

A Michigan State spokesman told the Associated Press that Miller's comments are being looked into, and patients of Nassar's "will not be billed." Officials at the school are under fire for not doing enough to stop Nassar years ago.

On Saturday, an MSU trustee called for the university president to quit over the school's handling of the sexual assault scandal involving Nassar.

Trustee Mitch Lyons issued a statement breaking ranks with the board, which had said a day earlier that it supported President Lou Anna Simon.

"I do not agree with our statement of support for President Simon," Lyons told the Detroit Free Press. "As I expressed repeatedly to fellow board members during our discussion Friday, I don't believe President Simon can survive the public outcry that has been generated by this tragedy and even less so after hearing the testimony of these brave survivors of Larry Nassar's abuse.

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY OFFICIALS KNEW OF NASSAR SEX ABUSE ALLEGATIONS, BUT FAILED TO STOP HIM, REPORT SAYS

In a statement responding to Lyons, Board of Trustees Chairman Brian Breslin said that all the other trustees continue to support Simon.

"The Board of Trustees shares the outrage of the survivors over the egregious crimes committed by Larry Nassar on the campus of Michigan State University and in his work outside the university with USA Gymnastics and other organizations. The stories told in court this week are heartbreaking," Breslin said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A female student was wounded Monday morning after a fellow classmate opened fire in a Texas high school cafeteria, police said.

The suspected gunman, a 16-year-old male student who was not identified by name, was taken into custody without incident shortly after allegedly firing at the 15-year-old student at Italy High School, about 45 miles south of Dallas, just before 8 a.m., Ellis County police told Fox News.

The teenage girl was airlifted to a hospital, but her condition wasn't immediately clear.

"This is a trying time for our community and our school," said Lee Joffre, superintendent of the Italy Independent School District.

Details about what led to the shooting are still being investigated. Authorities did not provide details about the female and male students relationship.

The shooter left the building immediately after opening fire at the high school, which had about 600 students.

Joffre would not say whether the suspect had any previous disciplinary issues at the school. He said when the district officials became aware there was an active shooter, the district "immediately took action to get our students in a safe position."

A fellow student, however, told The Associated Press that the suspect has previously been violent at school.

Cassie Shook said she was just arriving at Italy High School when the shooting occurred. The 17-year-old says she saw the cafeteria doors fly open and a rush of students running out.

Shook says she had complained about the suspect at least twice before to school officials, including a vice principal. She says the first time was after he allegedly made a "hit list" in eighth grade and her name was on it.

Then last year, she says the boy got angry during a class and threw a pair of scissors at a girl. She says he also threw a computer against a wall. Shook says police came to talk to the class. Shook says the boy was removed from the school but eventually was allowed back.

Police have not named the suspect.

Italy has a population of about 2,000 people and calls itself "the biggest little town in Texas," Dallas Morning News reported. There's only one high school in the town.
A German city thats become a focal point of right-wing extremists temporarily banned new refugees in an attempt to stem a surge in violence there.

Cottbus, located southeast of Berlin, has been hit with attacks from refugees and far-right extremists since the start of this year.

Brandenburg state police said two Syrian teenage boys were arrested under the suspicion of injuring a German teenager in the face with a knife, the Telegraph reported.

The 16-year-old reportedly sustained injuries that were not life-threatening in what started as a fight between Syrian and German schoolmates.

GERMANY OFFERS MONEY FOR MIGRANTS TO GO BACK HOME

That fight unfolded just days after a group of three Syrian asylum-seekers, aged 14, 15 and 17, attacked a man and his wife outside a shopping center, police told the Telegraph. Officials handed the 15-year-old a negative residency permit effectively ordering him and his father to leave the city.

Cottbus, a small university center with just over 100,000 residents, has taken in around 3,000 asylum seekers since embattled German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the country to a large number of refugees in 2015.

Coupled with a lackluster economy, the influx has fueled anti-immigrant sentiment among German citizens, and Cottbus is home to one of the countrys largest right-wing extremist scenes.

Authorities counted 145 right-wing radicals living in Cottbus last year, Express Digest reported.

A community group told local media that neo-Nazis had assaulted refugees on the morning of New Years Day, while last weekend a group of around 100 masked neo-Nazis marched in an illegal demonstration through the city.

SPAIN RESCUES 56 MIGRANTS CROSSING MEDITERRANEAN SEA

Brandenburgs state interior minister Karl-Heinz Schroeter told a German broadcaster on Friday that the ban on new refugees would stay in effect for the next few months.

The city also will take safety measures including increased video surveillance, a larger presence of police officers and 10 new social worker positions throughout local schools, officials said.

A Cottbus police spokesperson told The Telegraph that officers were being deployed on daily foot patrols of the city from late afternoon to evening "for as long as it serves its purpose."

Cottbus is not the first German city to impose a refugee ban. Last year the towns of Salzgitter, Delmenhorst and Wilhelmshaven in the northern state of Lower Saxony implemented a prohibition.
A CEO from one of the world's top five global fashion brands has to work for just four days to earn what a garment worker in Bangladesh will earn in an entire lifetime, campaigning group Oxfam International said Monday.

In the run-up to the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, Oxfam has sought to put inequality at the heart of this week's deliberations of the rich and powerful.

"The billionaire boom is not a sign of a thriving economy but a symptom of a failing economic system," said Winnie Byanyima, Oxfam International's executive director. "The people who make our clothes, assemble our phones and grow our food are being exploited to ensure a steady supply of cheap goods, and swell the profits of corporations and billionaire investors."

In its report "Reward Work, Not Wealth," Oxfam says 82 percent of the wealth generated last year went to the richest 1 percent of the global population while the poorest half of the world's population  3.7 billion people  saw no increase in their wealth.

Billionaire wealth, it added, has risen by an annual average of 13 percent since 2010, over six times more than the wages of average workers, and the number of billionaires rose at an astonishing rate of one every two days in the year to March 2017.

Oxfam listed a series of actions government should take, including limiting returns to shareholders and top executives, ensuring workers receive a minimum "living wage" and pushing through policies to eliminate the gender pay gap and protect the rights of women workers. It also urged a clampdown on tax avoidance and other associated practices, which have been highlighted by the recent publication of the "Panama Papers" and the "Paradise Papers."

Oxfam, which has sought for several years sought to highlight the problem of inequality on the eve of the World Economic Forum, said that without action, the populist and nationalist tides around the world will only become more acute.

"We've seen a shift in narrative in terms of what people say, but we haven't seen action to match those words," said Nick Bryer, Oxfam's Davos campaign manager.

Governments, he said, need to "get back into the driving seat" and challenge the big corporations and the billionaires.

"There's plenty they can do," he said.

While conceding that the efforts of Oxfam and other civil society groups have yet to force substantive change among governments, Bryer said it's important that they carry on delivering the message to the rich and powerful at events like the World Economic Forum, a gathering that's perceived by many as solely serving the needs of the global elite.

"People are realizing that shocks are fueled by inequalities," he said.

Oxfam's findings are based on the annual Global Wealth Databook of Swiss bank Credit Suisse, and Forbes' billionaire ranking series
The prime ministers of the Czech Republic and Bulgaria are calling for swift reform of the European Union's asylum system.

Czech Premier Andrej Babis and Bulgarian counterpart Boyko Borissov agreed that a reasonable compromise on migrant issues has to be found in the EU.

Babis told a news conference Monday in Bulgaria's capital that "the mandatory redistribution of migrants is unacceptable and divisive."

He said that the issue of migrant quotas should be resolved in a way acceptable for all EU member states.

Borissov, whose country took up the rotating presidency of the European Council at the beginning of the year, insisted that asylum-seekers should enter the EU only through official border checkpoints. He also proposed safe areas for asylum-seekers to be set up outside the EU.
The European Union's top diplomat says EU foreign ministers will study ways to support a two-state solution in Israel and the Palestinian territories in talks Monday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Federica Mogherini said that the EU is working "to support an international framework to accompany direct negotiations" despite the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

President Donald Trump's move to recognize Jerusalem, which the Palestinians also see as their future capital, broke with international consensus on the best way forward in Middle East peace moves.

Mogherini told reporters that "clearly there is a problem with Jerusalem. I would say that this is a very diplomatic euphemism."

She said "the only pragmatic, realistic solution for Jerusalem has to come through direct negotiations."
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Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has met with Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi to discuss the potential return of Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled from Myanmar after being attacked by the military and Buddhist mobs.

Richardson has said he also plans to push for the release of two Myanmar journalists who had been covering the military violence against the Rohingya.

It was not immediately clear what, if anything, was decided in the meeting Monday in Myanmar's capital, Naypyidaw. The Rohingya exodus, along with widespread killings and rapes reported by the refugees, have drawn global attention and brought criticism of Suu Kyi, a former Nobel Peace Prize laureate once seen as a champion of human rights.
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France is welcoming U.S. President Donald Trump's decision not to pull out of the agreement limiting Iran's nuclear ambitions despite his demands to change the key international pact.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Monday that "we have observed with interest that President Trump has not broken the agreement, even if, on the other hand, he has made a certain number of demands that at times seem like ultimatums."

Le Drian underlined France's support for the agreement, saying it is an "essential element in the fight against proliferation" of nuclear weapons. The European Union has previously said it cannot be renegotiated.

The 2015 nuclear deal with world powers saw Iran accept curbs on its nuclear program in exchange for lifting international sanctions.
For thousands of U.S. personnel who fought in the Iraq War, Baghdads destitute Sadr City holds a pivotal place in their memories. Not only the years spent dodging ceaseless bullets, but the years spent trying to clean up the squalor, to win the hearts and minds, to show that there was a humanitarian side to the war after all.

So what became of the district, commonly known as the Thawra District, once deemed the ultimate danger zone?

For those of us that fought there, we revere the name of that city like a ghost that we have been forced to make friends with, Boone Cutler, U.S. Army veteran and author of the Voodoo in Sadr City: The Rise of Shiaism in Iraq told Fox News. Its a part of us. The Sadr City smell never leaves us. We all left something there that we miss from time to time. Its a birthplace to the souls we have become separated from the bodies we have.

Today, the soundtrack of the impoverished Shia-dominant Sadr City is a chorus of constant car honks and the shrilling, infant-like screams of poultry being burned alive in the open slaughterhouses. The pavements are still thick with animal blood and urine. But the faces that stare back are ones smiling, working, sweeping floors, selling spices and scarves or slaughtering livestock.

I have a normal life now, there are no problems, a beaming fresh-faced 25-year-old named Sadoon Aziz said from behind his bench, where he was making cheese and yogurt. It is much better now than under the Americans. They were closing the streets, cutting the roads off, arresting people, now we are all living in the quiet.

In April, 2003 the U.S. Army 2d Squadron, 2d Armored Cavalry Regiment set up their headquarters in an abandoned cigarette factory in Sadr City, formerly Saddam City, comprised of more than 1,000 soldiers and military police with a focus on repairing civilian infrastructure and rebuilding.

But six months later, hearts and minds gave way to guts and anger as the Mahadi Army  the citys esteemed militia loyal to Moqtada al Sadr  the prominent Shia cleric who still holds the citys sway to this day - ambushed the U.S. troops. The chaos that ensued quickly degenerated into what would later be dubbed Black Sunday, which recently debuted as a re-enactment by National Geographic.

The moments that made up the years that followed were defined by urban fighting, city lock-downs, almost daily mortar rounds and RPGs crackling in the intolerable stench-filled air, the unearthing of shallow graves, and the sound of car bombs popping in every direction. The Mahadi Armys will to defy a foreign presence only gained momentum throughout the troop surges of 2007 and 2008, when rockets were fired from Sadr City into the nearby Green Zone.

Abbas, 43, sells seeds and nuts in the local market. His face and one side of his body is mangled by deep-rooted scars and discoloration. He claimed he was one of those people arrested by U.S. forces, and held from 2003 to 2006 in the notorious Camp Bukra prison, the same prison that had once sheltered ISIS leader Abu al-Baghdadi.

I was attacking the Americans here so they arrested me, Abbas explained. They found out my name and took me from my house to the jail and tortured me. You can see the signs of torture on my face and body.

Pressed further, it emerged that was not the case. The story unraveled that he gotten into some kind of conflict with the prison guard, an uprising had stirred, and he was shot.

Then there was an elderly lady named Saami who has been running her fabric shop single-handedly for 30 years.

During the Americans, I could not open my shop. Everyday there was weapons, she said. But we are secure now, we live in peace now. We have the Iraqi Army, the Mahadi Army, the Popular Mobilization  all of them together give us peace.

INSIDE MOSUL DAM, IRAQ'S BIGGEST POTENTIAL WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION

ISIS CURSED, MOCKED IN MOSUL, WHERE OLD CITY REMAINS A HAUNTED WASTELAND

While recollections of U.S. occupation are typically not ones doused with happiness, there are some  the intellectuals of Sadr City  who have nothing but hope and praise for that era of their lives.

I am a secular person. Trump now and all the American presidents before him, they are good men who want us to have a free and open society, Ismik al-Baghdadi, a local political writer and journalist, said over a sip of tea. But the U.S. dream for an open society did not work in a country like Afghanistan, but it did in Japan. Maybe it is not too late for it to work here.

Nonetheless, al-Baghdadi insisted that it was far from a place of loss. He smiled and tipped his hat as a token of appreciation, before disappearing into the fouled streets where wild goats scampered through the overflowing trash bins like rabid dogs, having been let off by their owner for a daily meal as he simply could not afford the feed.

According to Cutler, Sadr City is a classic example of the challenges posed in their quest to help the poorest of poor during the occupation. The U.S. created programs known as SWET (sewage, water, electricity, trash) but if residents were seen using the trash cans or participating in American-led assistance, they may have paid with their lives.

It was a rough time. That was the leverage of the Mahadi militia, he recalled. That was their game, not to let the Americans take credit for helping. We even brought in water, but they went along breaking the nozzles.

Six years since the troop withdrawal, Sadr City has not become a beacon of prosperity, it was not squeaky clean and dripping with diamond trades, but it is a place that  for the vast part of Iraqs last eight terror-rocked years  had seen little internal violence and crime compared to many other parts of the country.

The tribes enforce the law, not the law of the government, explained Rusly Almaleky, Baghdad-based author of The Collapse. Other tribes will punish for hurting someone, people know this and that is why the crimes have stopped in Sadr City.

It is a poor but tame place that more than three million are proud to call home. Its inhabitants do not complain; they do not want more. In fact, members of the local council claimed that they had rebuffed a recent multi-billion dollar housing project awarded to a Turkish contracting company because they did not want to live in large group settings, they did not want their family homes knocked down and replaced by something towering and new.

An ISIS bomb blast killed 76 inside Sadr City in August, 2015 and the citys members quickly mobilized to seal its borders from another infiltration.

Their leader Sadr has since redefined himself from a religious hardliner to a national patriot, a constant preacher of accord and harmony  even changing his Armys name to the Peace Brigades  and bringing his many die-hard followers with him on that journey to lay down arms.

Sadr orders everyone not to talk about their own party and their own tribe, but all of us we listen to him. We go to Friday prayers, we teach lessons of peace in the school, Mahadi Army leader, Moslem Salik added. We are not scared from terrorists. Some of the simple people still worry about their businesses, but we will protect them with peace. ISIS will never come here.
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The Latest on fugitive Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont (all times local):

10:10 a.m.

Spain's state prosecutor has set in motion the process to arrest Catalonia's former leader in Denmark, where he has arrived to attend a debate.

Ousted Catalan president Carles Puigdemont is scheduled to speak Monday at the University of Copenhagen and meet Danish lawmakers on Tuesday.

The trip is Puigdemont's first outside Belgium since he fled there to avoid a Spanish probe for his role in an illegal and unsuccessful secession bid for Catalonia in October.

The prosecutor's office says it has asked the Supreme Court to approve a European warrant for his arrest. It's unclear if Judge Pablo Llarena will grant it. In December, Llarena withdrew a similar order, concerned that Brussels would send Puigdemont back to Spain but restrict the crimes with which he could be charged.

___

9:15 a.m.

The fugitive former leader of Catalonia has arrived in Denmark, despite threats from Spain to seek his immediate arrest there.

On Sunday, Spain's state prosecutor's office said it will reissue a European arrest warrant for Carles Puigdemont if he travels from Belgium to Denmark.

Spain issued a warrant for Puigdemont's arrest in November, but withdrew it after a month amid fears that Brussels would send him back but restrict the crimes he could be tried for.

Puigdemont is being investigated by Spain over a unilateral declaration of independence by Catalonia's parliament on Oct. 27.

He is slated to take part in a debate at the University of Copenhagen Monday, and Tuesday he has been invited to the Danish Parliament by a Faeroese lawmaker, but leading members of the government and opposition have declined to meet him.
North Korean officials desperate to feed Kim Jong Uns hungry army are ransacking the homes of drought-stricken farmers to collect every last grain of food inside, according to a report that highlights rising tensions between the regime and the public.

The raids come weeks after news surfaced that soldiers in Kims army are being given months off at a time to scrounge around fields to find food.

"Officials carried out home searches in Paekam County to determine how much food some families had, a North Korean source told Daily NK. As an excuse to enter and demand bribes, they said to the residents, 'Are we just going to let our military starve while the Americans lick their lips and prepare to eat us alive?'

The Seoul-based website, which covers the Hermit Kingdom through a network of informants, published a photo last month purportedly showing North Korean soldiers rummaging through a corn field.

Despite drought conditions and a poor harvest last year in parts of North Korea, government officials are still demanding farmers fulfill a mandatory quota for military provisions.

All individuals who weren't able to meet the demands have been receiving additional assignments since the very beginning of January," a source in South Hamgyong Province told Daily NK last week.

Another source in a neighboring province also said these demands are pushing people to their wits' end."

Sources told the website residents are not surprised by the annual demands to offer food to the military, but the tactic of officials ransacking homes in some regions is a new development.

A few homes have been singled out, sources said, after they consumed frozen potatoes they intended to hand over to officials come collection time.

"The officers know better than anyone that they must feed their soldiers in order to maintain morale, and that rations of cornmeal with very few calories only serve to instill disillusionment among them, a source from the northern Ryanggang Province told Daily NK last month.
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Palestinian Christians say U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's brand of evangelical Christianity, with its fervent embrace of modern-day Israel as fulfilment of biblical prophecy, lacks their faith's compassion and justice, including for those who have endured half a century of Israeli occupation.

Pence was in Jerusalem on Monday, expressing his full-throated support for Israel in a speech to parliament filled with biblical references. During an exuberant welcome, Pence and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rejoiced in the Trump administration's decision last month to recognize contested Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The dramatic policy shift is seen as a betrayal by the Palestinians, who claim Jerusalem's Israeli-annexed eastern sector as a capital and now reject U.S. mediation in any future efforts to resolve their long-running conflict with Israel. The Jerusalem pivot also upset some of Washington's Arab allies, particularly Jordan, where King Abdullah II laid out his disagreement with U.S. policy to the visiting Pence in unusually pointed remarks Sunday.

The Jerusalem declaration and a subsequent Trump decision to curb aid to Palestinian refugees  both aligned with the Netanyahu government's agenda  had been top priorities for Pence.

The vice president  by his own definition "a Christian, a conservative, a Republican, in that order"  has cited his religious beliefs as the source of his unwavering support of Israel.

He has been embraced by so-called Christian Zionists who believe the establishment of the state of Israel is proof of God keeping his promises and a step toward the second coming of Christ.

In a 2017 speech to Christians United for Israel, or CUFI, an influential organization run by Texas pastor John Hagee, Pence signaled similar views, saying that "though Israel was built by human hands, it is impossible not to sense that just beneath its history lies the hand of heaven."

Critics say Jewish supporters of Christian Zionists and their pro-Israel fundraising juggernaut conveniently overlook violent end-time prophecies that are espoused by some and are based on the belief that only those who embrace Jesus will be saved.

David Parsons, a spokesman for Christian Zionism's International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, said it's a big tent movement with different views on end-time prophecy.

In his CUFI speech, Pence stuck to what the vice president portrayed as biblically mandated support for Israel.

Pence has "very solid evangelical credentials," Parsons said. "We consider him to be ... in our camp."

Palestinian Christians, many with deep roots in the Holy Land, consider Christian Zionist views as a negation of the teachings of Jesus on justice and compassion for all of humanity. They argue that such streams of evangelical Christianity have used religion to whitewash Israel's harsh policies during its half-century-old rule over millions of Palestinians.

"For me, it's a sick ideology," said Munib Younan, the recently retired bishop of the small Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land and former president of the Lutheran World Federation, an umbrella for churches with millions of believers.

"When I say Jesus is love, they want my Jesus to be a political Jesus," Younan, 67, a Jerusalem-born Palestinian, said in a recent interview at his West Bank church.

Younan said he supports a just solution to the conflict with Israel, including the establishment of a Palestinian state in the lands Israel captured in 1967  east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. Jerusalem should be shared by Christians, Muslims and Jews, he said, adding that a peace deal would enhance Israel's security.

Pence on Monday portrayed the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital as the "only true foundation for a just and lasting peace," but omitted any mention of Palestinian claims to the city. He also gave less than full support to a two-state solution, once a pillar of U.S, Mideast policy, saying President Donald Trump is in favor "if both sides agree."

In biblical Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, Mayor Anton Salman said Pence's comments contradict his declared aim of helping Christians in the Middle East.

"He would need to change his thoughts and behavior ... and recognize the rights of Arab Palestinian Christians who are the people of this land, to support their rights to have their independence, their freedom and east Jerusalem as our capital," said Salman, a Roman Catholic.

Christians make up a small minority of the overwhelmingly Muslim Palestinian population in the West Bank, but relations between the two religious groups are typically cordial and tolerant  unlike in conflict-battered Iraq and Syria, where Islamic State extremists have persecuted Christians. In Gaza, dominated by the Islamic militant group Hamas, a tiny Christian community has been targeted from time to time by zealots.

"We are the authentic Christians and we live with our brothers, the Muslims, without any problem," said Bethlehem Christian Nadia Hazboun, 55, standing outside a souvenir shop in Manger Square, where the pealing of church bells often blends with the Muslim call to prayer. On Saturday, a towering Christmas tree decorated with large red balls was still up in the square, near the entrance to the Church of the Nativity, the basilica built over Jesus' traditional birth grotto.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become a hot button issue for U.S. Christians, pitting Christian Zionists again those calling for an end to Israel's occupation or expressing support for a Palestinian-led campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions as a means of pressuring Israel.

Rebecca Littlejohn, a Disciples of Christ pastor from La Mesa, California, contemplated the debate while sipping hot lemon in a coffee shop off Manger Square, at the end of a Holy Land study tour during which her group met Israelis and Palestinians.

Littlejohn said her denomination works with Palestinian Christians and that she belongs to a grass-roots group engaged in peace efforts.

She said that while Disciples of Christ emphasizes Christian unity, "I find very little, from what I know of it, in Mike Pence's religion that looks like Christianity to me."

"But am I going to say, he is not welcome at the table?" she said. "No, I'm not going to say that because it's not up to me."

__

Associated Press writer Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
The Philippines most-active volcano explosion Monday, sending a huge plume of gray ash, steam and lava fragments into the sky and prompting officials to warn that a major eruption may be imminent.

Superheated lava, molten rocks and steam cascaded down Mount Mayon and covered nearby villages in darkness, said Renato Solidum, an official with the Philippine Institute of Seismology and Volcanology.

The explosion forced authorities to raise the alert level to four on a scale of five. The increase means an explosive eruption could be possible within hours or days.

"If the eruption is vertical, it's possible pyroclastic flows or pyroclastic density currents may cascade down in all directions," Soldium said, adding that villagers and tourists should stay away from the volcano.

Soldium said his agency has observed increased seismic activity and lava fountaining and a summit explosion from Sunday, according to Reuters.

More than 27,000 villagers have fled since Mayon started acting up more than a week ago.

Mayon is in coconut-growing Albay province, more than 200 miles southeast of Manila. With its near-perfect cone, it is popular with climbers and tourists but has erupted about 50 times in the last 500 years, sometimes violently.

In 2013, an ash eruption killed five climbers who had ventured near the summit despite warnings. Mayon's first recorded eruption was in 1616 and the most destructive, in 1814, killed 1,200 people and buried the town of Cagsawa in volcanic mud.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Students linked to rival groups have clashed at a prestigious university of Pakistan, with dozens reported hurt in the skirmishes.

Zakaria Zakir, vice chancellor at the University of Punjab, says Monday's violence began when the two groups, one linked with a radical Islamic party, the other with nationalists, attacked each other at the campus in the eastern city of Lahore.

He says students also turned on the police who were dispatched to quell the violence. Local TV footage broadcast images of police officers, bleeding from minor cuts after they were hit by stones hurled buy the students.

Zakir says the groups argued over the holding of a cultural festival at the campus.

Radical Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba party dominates the university and it has a history of clashing with rival groups.
North and South Korea agreed to put past tensions aside and promote a Peace Olympics  but some South Koreans slammed the decision to make temporary amends with the Hermit Kingdom, accusing Seoul of embracing Kim Jong Uns propaganda efforts amid the nuclear and missile crisis.

Though South Korean President Moon Jae-in touted the recent Olympic breakthrough as a historic event," his push to include North Korea has received sharp criticism.

North Korea was all about firing missiles last year, but suddenly they want to come to the South for the Olympics? Who gets to decide that? Kim Joo-hee, a 24-year-old translator, told Reuters in Seoul. Does North Korea have so much privilege to do whatever they want?

KIM JONG UN'S LUXURY SKI RESORT A PROPAGANDA WIN FOR NORTH KOREA DURING OLYMPICS

Other South Koreans took to social media shortly after the North and South announced the joint opening ceremony march, writing that the unification flag  a blue silhouette of the peninsula placed on a white background  was not [their] g-------- flag.

Yeah. Like me. That is NOT my g-------- flag. I did NOT salute that rag while I was in the ROK Army. It is not the flag that draped over the coffins of those 46 sailors of the ROKS Cheonan that those b-------- murdered, John Lee tweeted.

He added: I repeat. That is NOT my g-------- flag.

The Pyeongchang Olympics have already become the Pyongyang Olympics, another person wrote.

Other South Koreans told The Associated Press their governments efforts to use sports diplomacy was a waste of time and an outdated approach.

"We are always repeating meaningless things and North Korea isn't a country that will change easily," Kim Hye-jin, 39, said.

"Why are we doing this?" said Heo Doo-won, a 40-year-old teacher. "We are clearly two different countries and it's better if things stay that way. I don't want a unified team or a unification flag. Why can't we just let the North Koreans march under their own flag?"

NORTH KOREAN OFFICIALS RANSACKING FARMERS' HOMES TO FIND FOOD FOR KIM'S HUNGRY ARMY, REPORT SAYS

Others said the Olympics have become free propaganda for North Korea to promote places such as the Masikryong ski resort, which Kim has been pushing to make a go-to tourist destination.

I repeat. That is NOT my g-------- flag.  John Lee

The idea of joint training could be used as a propaganda tool to rationalize how far-sighted Kim Jong Un was in making what was actually an anachronistic decision to build the ski resort at a time when ordinary citizens are starving to death," Kim Sung-han, a former South Korean vice foreign minister, told Reuters on Sunday.

In a series of meetings conducted since the start of the New Year, North Korea agreed to send a delegation  including a 140-member art troupe, 230-member cheerleading squad, 22 athletes, reporters and officials  to the Olympics that will march with the South Korean team under the unification flag at the opening ceremony.

South Korea will be the first host country to not wave its own flag at the opening ceremony.

Moon urged the public to support the Feb.9-25 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, saying the current thaw in tensions could dissipate in a second.

The current condition is so fragile that no one can be optimistic about how long the dialogue will last," Moon said, according to Yonhap.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Syrian civilians near the war-torn country's capital were attacked Monday with suspected poisonous gas  believed to have been launched by the Syrian government, activists and rescue teams said.

More than 20 civilians, including women and children, were evacuated from a rebel-held neighborhood in the Douma district early Monday morning, Syrian Civil Defense said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 13 people suffered from suffocation, Reuters reported.

The Ghouta Media Center, an activist-operated media organization, claimed chlorine gas was used in the attack. Health officials said people had symptoms that "suggest they have been exposed to chlorine gas inhalation."

The team of first responders known as While Helmets, or Syrian Civil Defense, showed videos of babies who suffered complications from Monday's alleged chlorine attack.

A foul smell followed a series of bombings that hit the neighborhood, activists said.

The Syrian government was previously blamed for deadly gas attacks on its own citizens. The Syrian government and army have vehemently denied using the poisonous gas.

The most recent attack that killed at least 58 people last April prompted President Trump to launch 59 Tomahawk missiles that targeted an airbase in Shayrat, located outside Homs.

The airbase was believed to be the same place where the Syrian government launches most of its suspected gas attacks.

The Easter Ghouta suburb of Damascus has been under intensive attack. The U.N. said government forces are holding 400,000 people under siege there.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Police in Thailand have arrested two Israeli men suspected of killing a fellow citizen on a Thai resort island after running him down with a car.

Police said the two men, Dolez Zuarez and Eyal Bokal, were arrested Sunday at a Bangkok airport. They are accused of slamming their vehicle into a motorcycle driven by the victim, Maor Malul, and then stabbing and killing him.

Deputy police chief Chalermkiat Sriworakan said three others were injured in the collision Sunday.

Police Capt. Silchach Kamunee said Monday that the suspects are being held on suspicion of premeditated murder.
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The trial of the two women accused of killing the estranged half brother of North Korea's leader has resumed after a seven-week recess, with witnesses taking the stand to verify the authenticity of security camera footage showing the attack.

Prosecutors at the trial in Malaysia on Monday called three technicians working at the airport and airport hotel to explain how they extracted relevant images from the main computer server and copied them to discs. This was to enable the court to accept the footage as evidence.

Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong are accused of smearing VX nerve agent on Kim Jong Nam's face in a crowded airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur last Feb. 13. They pleaded not guilty to murder charges when their trial began Oct. 2.
Syria's Kurdish militia says it has repelled Turkish troops and their allies from villages they seized during the Turkey-backed offensive against the enclave.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday that the U.S.-backed Kurdish militia has waged a ferocious counteroffensive, repelling Turkish troops and allied Syrian fighters from two villages they briefly captured

The Observatory says Turkey-backed troops opened two new fronts on the third day of the offensive, attempting once again to enter Afrin in northwestern Syria.

The Kurdish militia, known as People's Defense Units or YPG, says it's clashing with the Turkish troops northwest of Afrin.

Turkey considers the YPG a terror organization because of its affiliation to its own Kurdish insurgency. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has promised to expand the operation.
Cramele Recas prepares for 2018 Romanian wine boost

Cramele Recas, Romanias largest winery, is poised to launch new products to tap into Romanias advantageous position in a market riddled with short harvest woes.

The producer reports of strong growth through 2017 and it said exports had doubled since 2014 to eight million bottles last year and it expects wines sales to exceed 10 million bottles for the first time in 2018.

Cramele added that Romanian wines are in a good position to benefit by offering well-made, affordable wine, at a time when many European wine producing nations are under pressure from the euro and reduced availability due to short harvests.

The producer plans to tap into this by launching a range of new premium products over the next few months. In addition, Cramele has invested in expanding the winery to produce an additional four million litres in 2018, bringing total capacity up to 30 million litres.

Elvira Cox, export director, said: We firmly believe our strong exports are driven first and foremost by our growing reputation for long-term flexible production of great wines. We pride ourselves on our high service levels and flexibility towards our customers which work together to build strong working relationships.

Cramele Recas was launched in 1998 by Philip Cox and his wife Elvira. The producer sells more than two million bottles a year in the UK and it produces wine from a range of grape varieties.

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Porretto Beach abandonments head to council  again

GALVESTON

A controversial request for the abandonment of several dozen rights of way at Porretto Beach will go to the Galveston City Council on Thursday for what could be the last time.

Randy Williams, the Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee trying to sell the beach front property, has been stuck in a holding pattern as the council has debated and deferred variations of the abandonments for almost a year.

Williams has said he doesnt have faith the rights of way will be abandoned, however. But abandonment is key to completing a $6 million deal to sell the beach. And if the city councils vote is unfavorable to his position, Williams next steps are unclear, he said.

At this point, I dont know whats going to happen, Williams said. Anythings possible right now.

Williams could potentially put the beach on the auction block, or the property could go through foreclosure, he said.

Williams also has threatened to sue the city over the ownership of 10 of the rights of way. Although the city council voted to turn them over to the Porretto family in 1978, the city hasnt found any proof the legal documentation was filed to make the transaction official.

All of those are still options, said Williams, who has no order to sell the property by a certain date.

The Porretto Beach abandonments have been the subject of heated public debate. Although the beach is privately owned, opponents have criticized abandoning the city rights of way because it would give away the citys last claim to the beach.

Many opponents are unhappy about developer WRCB L.P.s pending $6 million purchase, which could make way for a planned multiuse boardwalk development on the beach front. Opponents of such development worry about blocked views and the proposed developments vulnerability to hurricanes. Theres also a large contingent of islanders who oppose any development on beaches.

Its not very often buyers have a chance to purchase a private beach  at least not in Texas, where public access for the most part is protected by law.

The 9.75 acres of beach between Sixth and 10th streets  dubbed Porretto Beach Classic  has long been an unusual piece of property and subject of two decades of disputes between owners and Texas General Land Office, which oversees public beaches. In July 2015, the Texas Supreme Court ruled the land office didnt own the property, making it more attractive to potential buyers. Most of Galvestons beaches are owned by the state and managed by the Park Board of Trustees.

The Porretto family has owned the beach since the 1950s. Sonya Porretto, the current owner, in 2009 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which allows companies to reorganize. Two years later, a judge ordered her case be changed to Chapter 7, so that her assets, including the beach land, could be liquidated and the proceeds used to pay creditors.

Like Williams, Michael Gaertner, the architect planning the boardwalk development, doesnt know what to expect from city councils pending vote about abandonments.

No one can predict what theyre going to do, Gaertner said.

If the beach were to be auctioned, Williams said hes unsure whether it would be sold for more than a few hundred thousand dollars.

Nobodys going to pay $6 million for it, he said.

The court wouldnt likely approve a sale below $1 million, given that Rosemary Porretto has successfully claimed to the court shes owed at least that amount for the beach, Williams said.

The city owns the rights of way but has never intended to use them. The citys position that it has no intention to use the rights away is usually enough reason to agree to abandon them, City Manager Brian Maxwell said.

Galveston Planning Commission on Jan. 9 recommended not to approve the abandonment of dozens of rights of way on Porretto Beach, between Sixth and 10th Streets. The commissions vote is solely a recommendation and has no bearing on whether the abandonments occur, city planning officials have said.
MGM China, a facility that is under MGM Resorts is joining hands in the fight of modern-day slavery. The casino signs a deal to take part in ending the slave and sex trade to show its commitment.

In 2014, many images were spreading through social media. Many ladies walk the streets at late night. One particular image shows half-naked women parade along Lisboa Hotel lobby. Through the years, reports are showing such acts. Many commercial sex workers are wandering in Macau. Because Macau is Chinas most exotic resort, you can imagine the target. A lot of people are in this sex and slavery trade. For this reason, MGM China is signing a deal. In the deal, the casino is pledging to take part. The aim is to be a responsible facility in ending this vice.

The state of this kind of slavery is rampant in the world. The Mekong from Hong Kong conducts a survey. This nonprofit organization says that there is slavery everywhere. It points that 45.8 million people are languishing in slavery. The Mekong Club says that if they dont live in slavery, they live in such conditions. The exciting part of the study is the focus. According to this club, countries with higher rates are China and South Korea. Others are Taiwan and India.

In the pledge, MGM China agrees to take an active role in combating sex and slavery. It is not an easy thing. But the facility commits itself to take an active part. The resort should ensure that there are practical steps. The aim is to prevent slavery as well as sex trafficking.

Mekong Club started this program a couple of months ago. All the club needs are for signatories to come up with a practical plan. The plan each signatory will come up with must be actionable. It must contain practical steps the facility takes to end the voice. MGM China, part of the grand MGM Resorts owns and operates MGM Macau. Above all, this is a magnificent casino and resort in Macau. The subsidiary is also the owner of MGM Cotai. The latter is a $3.3 billion facility that will open in February 2018.

By signing the End Slavery and Sex Trafficking deal, it makes it the sixth casino. Otherwise, it is the first gaming conglomerate to do so. Speaking after the signing of the deal, MGM China CEO says they are proud. He points out that they are happy in parting in a transforming exercise. We believe were taking a public stance. Above all, this shows our commitment. We also hope that this move will contribute to encouraging others to join the fight, Grant Bowie says. See how MGM CASINO Feels That Trump Is A Threat To U.S.A. Tourism, Casino Sectors over here.

On his part, Mekong Club CEO Matt Friedman says 66,000 are now free from slavery last year. Also, this shows that the efforts are yielding. In December last year, Bowie admits that sex trafficking is live. It happens in Macau. He points out that it is happening in MGM China and other facilities. Bowie concedes when he says, At the level of sex workers, clearly in our properties, we accept that it occurs.
The coordinated Saturday rallies in Washington, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and about 250 other cities are a reprise of the mass protests that marked the beginning of Mr Trump's presidency.

The 2017 Women's March was one of the largest demonstrations in US history, with hundreds of thousands of people descending on Washington DC.

"People were pretty damn mad last year and they're pretty damn mad this year," Tamika Mallory, co-president of the Women's March board, told The Associated Press.

Mr Trump acknowledged Sunday's march on Twitter, writing that women should be celebrating "the historic milestones and unprecedented economic success and wealth creation that has taken place over the last 12 months".
Who are Lydians independent mining experts? - AEF

There are number of factual reasons why no mine should be exploited in Amulsar and these have been brought forward by experts with years of experience. However, in addition to this, the offshore Lydian company that hopes to dig gold on Amulsar mountain is not only inexperienced in mining sector, it also presents wrong information to public and to state authorities who in their turn are responsible for permitting this project and thus violating all laws. The company spreads such information also through media trying to create positive attitude towards its planned activities. The company not only misleadingly claims that they can control any risk, but that all their claims can be backed by independent experts. On January 12 the company met with the representatives of the Ministry of Nature Protection and claimed that all environmental risks in Amulsar are manageable. To prove this, the company invited Larry Breckenridge - an international independent expert according to the company. However even a short research in google makes it clear that this expert cannot be independent, since he and the company he works for- Global Resource Engineering, worked for Lydian for years and wrote reports for it, including the report on Amulsar Project Geochemical Characterization and Prediction Report, Feasibility report, etc. Another case: on 16th of October 2017 mining industry expert Aaron Steeghs was to give a public talk at American University of Armenia. It was organized in cooperation with Lydian International. The public talk did not happen. But something else is worth mentioning. The speaker was to present about modern mining and Beyond Zero Harm framework which he had created. According to event description this framework is a mechanism for mining companies to avoid inflicting environmental harm, for protecting health of the nearby communities and workers safety. The speaker however was not an independent one (how could he if the event was co-organized by Lydian) since he works as an expert at Community Development Advisory of International Finance Corporation. The latter for years had invested in Lydian. But more than this, Aaron Steeghs is directly linked with the vice president of sustainability at Lydian International Robert Carreau as they worked together for Canadian IAMGOLD and Breakwater Resources mining companies. Additionally, Aaron Steeghs is Robert Carreaus daughters husband. Thus it is impossible to expect that Lydian presents any independent assessment to public or the government. When all truly independent expertise against this mine project is taken into account, absence of grounds of Lydians claims become even more evident. Armenian Environmental Front (AEF) civil initiative Website: http://www.armecofront.net/en/ Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/armecofront YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/armecofront Email: [email protected]
felicilin at 22-01-2018 10:46 AM (3 years ago) (f)

Petrol scarcity which started in Abuja last week, have already spread to Lagos as residents of the commercial city woke up over the weekend to witness queues at petrol stations, even as black market dealers, who had in the last two weeks retreated to their shells, following improvement in supply, again took over major roads with their product.

Petrol scarcity which started in Abuja last week, have already spread to Lagos as residents of the commercial city woke up over the weekend to witness queues at petrol stations, even as black market dealers, who had in the last two weeks retreated to their shells, following improvement in supply, again took over major roads with their product. the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), blamed the current development on technical hitches, limited supply, poor distribution and sharp practices.

However, Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), on Sunday, warned that the nation would continue to experience intermittent fuel scarcity, in as much as government has abandoned local refining for importation of petroleum products.

Explaining the reason for the scarcity, Ndu Ughamadu, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, told Vanguard on phone, yesterday, that there were little technical hitches over the weekend while discharging the product in Lagos.

Reason for fuel scarcity in Lagos  NNPC

He said: Port Harcourt refinery is slightly down for now, pending when the problem will be rectified. But the hitches in Lagos have been fixed, thus paving way for normal distribution.

As I speak, fuel supply has been stepped up nationwide. For instance, NNPC has allocated 250 trucks for Lagos. Hopefully, the situation will improve soon.

Local refining is the solution  NUPENG

Explaining NUPENGs position on the issue, President of the union, Igwe Achese, said yesterday, that the resurgence of petrol scarcity across the country was a result of refusal of marketers to import products because it was not conducive for them.

He said: The scarcity of products will continue. We may witness stability once awhile. But until we de-emphasise importation of products and concentrate on local refining, we will continue to witness scarcity once there is distortion in the supply chain because of international market issue.

As we speak, the marketers are not importing because it is not conducive for them to do so. The government is not prepared to pay them subsidy from the differential of what the local pump price is, against what the international market price dictates.

We dont have the product DAPPMA

Meanwhile, investigations showed that there were also long fuel queues in many parts of the nation, especially Abuja, Edo State, and Kano, yesterday.

Executive Secretary, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA), Olufemi Adewole, indicated that members of his association have not been having supplies from the NNPC.

He said: Our members do not import fuel into the nation; we only depend on NNPC for supply. At the moment, we do not have supply from the corporation. Our members will sell when we have the product.

Like DAPPMA, many independent oil marketers, under the argies of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, did not also have the product, thus compelling them to shut their gates against motorists and other users of the product.

Situation nationwide

Abuja

The lingering fuel crisis continued unabated in Abuja, with queues still doting petrol stations in the countrys federal capital.

Though a number of fuel stations were selling petrol to motorists, a significant number of stations were, however, still shut down, claiming to have ran out of the commodity.

Kano

The fuel scarcity has also worsened in Kano and its environs as a result of limited supply, lack of adequate monitoring and enforcement.

Investigations by Vanguard showed that inter and intra city transportation fares have increased by 60 per cent as a result of the scarcity.

Ondo

The scarcity was also observed to be severe in Ondo State as a result of some factors, especially alleged hoarding.

But the Ondo State Anti Hoarding of Petrol task force, weekend, arrested no fewer than 10 petrol dealers involved in hoarding, diversion and over pricing of petroleum products.

The committee effected the arrest during a raid of 15 filling stations across the state capital.

The committee, headed by Senior Special Assistant to the governor on Special Duties and Strategy, Dr Doyin Odebowale, said in Akure that sharp practices, ranging from overpricing, hoarding and diversion, would no longer be tolerated.

During the raid, stations were forced to sell at the rate of N145 per litre just as some petrol dealers were apprehended for diverting the product after loading at Shagamu depot.

Odebowale said the raid would continue until the marketers complied with the governments directives.

The government frowned on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), blamed the current development on technical hitches, limited supply, poor distribution and sharp practices.However, Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), on Sunday, warned that the nation would continue to experience intermittent fuel scarcity, in as much as government has abandoned local refining for importation of petroleum products.Explaining the reason for the scarcity, Ndu Ughamadu, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, told Vanguard on phone, yesterday, that there were little technical hitches over the weekend while discharging the product in Lagos.He said:Explaining NUPENGs position on the issue, President of the union, Igwe Achese, said yesterday, that the resurgence of petrol scarcity across the country was a result of refusal of marketers to import products because it was not conducive for them.He said: The scarcity of products will continue. We may witness stability once awhile. But until we de-emphasise importation of products and concentrate on local refining, we will continue to witness scarcity once there is distortion in the supply chain because of international market issue.Meanwhile, investigations showed that there were also long fuel queues in many parts of the nation, especially Abuja, Edo State, and Kano, yesterday.Executive Secretary, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA), Olufemi Adewole, indicated that members of his association have not been having supplies from the NNPC.He said:Like DAPPMA, many independent oil marketers, under the argies of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, did not also have the product, thus compelling them to shut their gates against motorists and other users of the product.The lingering fuel crisis continued unabated in Abuja, with queues still doting petrol stations in the countrys federal capital.Though a number of fuel stations were selling petrol to motorists, a significant number of stations were, however, still shut down, claiming to have ran out of the commodity.The fuel scarcity has also worsened in Kano and its environs as a result of limited supply, lack of adequate monitoring and enforcement.Investigations by Vanguard showed that inter and intra city transportation fares have increased by 60 per cent as a result of the scarcity.The scarcity was also observed to be severe in Ondo State as a result of some factors, especially alleged hoarding.But the Ondo State Anti Hoarding of Petrol task force, weekend, arrested no fewer than 10 petrol dealers involved in hoarding, diversion and over pricing of petroleum products.The committee effected the arrest during a raid of 15 filling stations across the state capital.The committee, headed by Senior Special Assistant to the governor on Special Duties and Strategy, Dr Doyin Odebowale, said in Akure that sharp practices, ranging from overpricing, hoarding and diversion, would no longer be tolerated.During the raid, stations were forced to sell at the rate of N145 per litre just as some petrol dealers were apprehended for diverting the product after loading at Shagamu depot.Odebowale said the raid would continue until the marketers complied with the governments directives.The government frowned on Quote their current profiteering strategy that callously takes advantage of the current situation to exploit and extort the public.

He expressed concerned that since December last year, owners of petrol stations in Ondo State, particularly, Akure, the state capital have been deeply enmeshed in sharp practices, ranging from overpricing, hoarding and diversion hinging it on non availability of the products.

This has in no small measure brought untold hardship on the people. As a government, we cannot fold our arms and watch our people suffer.

We have our facts and figures about products lifted. We have been moving round and we caught some of you pants down selling as high as N250, even N500 in the dead of the night. Those who are caught will be charged to court and prosecuted.

Nobody, however, highly placed will be allowed to exploit our people and inflict pains on them. The state government will not accept anyone, under any nebulous guise, to sell the product above the officially approved  N145 per litre.

Post Reply Posted: at 22-01-2018 10:46 AM (3 years ago) | Hero
felicilin at 22-01-2018 11:06 AM (3 years ago) (f)

A pastor and farmer identified as Tay Martins, has bared his mind on the Fulani herdsmen saga which has been rocking the country for months now, by sharing the expereince he had with some of them on his farm recently.

A pastor and farmer identified as Tay Martins, has bared his mind on the Fulani herdsmen saga which has been rocking the country for months now, by sharing the expereince he had with some of them on his farm recently. According to him, there is a group of a vicious and sinister nature that are orchestrating these killings and trying to manipulate Nigerians into believing its Fulani herdsmen.

Read the mans lengthy piece below;

According to him, there is a group of a vicious and sinister nature that are orchestrating these killings and trying to manipulate Nigerians into believing its Fulani herdsmen. Quote Let me start by saying i used to be a big supporter of President Buhari. I still like him, but my approval rating of him has dropped; and this has nothing to do with the ongoing killings by herdsmen. I have been trying to assess the herdsmen situation from several point of view. If you carefully engage the sixth sense, you will agree with me that certain things concerning this menace does not add up.

My opinion of the above: One: the pastor received an intelligent report about those who were behind the killings. In my belief: that intelligence report was credible and genuine. But someone somewhere, who wants the pastor to disbelieve the credibility of the report wrote him the letter purporting to be from Fulani herdsmen. Purpose of which to steer up religious sentiments in this killing saga and to consolidate our thinking that the killers are Fulani herdsmen, contrary to what the report might have stated.

What i see here is a manipulation. There is a group of a vicious and sinister nature that are orchestrating these killings and trying to manipulate Nigerians into believing its Fulani herdsmen. As for me, the letter they sent to the pastor just gave out their schemes. This manipulation is the handy-work of a group of syndicates, somewhere.

My Fulani Story:

Quote I am a Pastor and Farmer. I share a river from which I irrigate my farm with Fulani herdsmen. There they bring their cattle to drink water. There is a large stretch of my land that are yet to be cultivated. Sometimes I see these herdsmen feed their cattle of that part of my land. At first I was worried and apprehensive of them bringing their cattle on it but from the distance where I watch, I saw them standing guard, preventing any in the cattle from coming onto the cultivated farmland. I saw how they speak languages (like a warning) at the cow and the animal obey by stepping back. I also watch how they beat (with their staff) the hell of out of any cow that dare step into my farm. One day I walk to them. As they saw me coming, they came towards me smiling like they already knew my worries. They greeted and spoke to me in fluent Yoruba language.

They told me not to worry about my farm; that they would secure it from the cattle. Then they begged me for water. I realize they could not drink of the river when and after the cattle steps in. So I took them to one of the surface tanks on my farm and told them they could come for drinking water as much as they need. They just took enough in a water bottle and left. At another time I engaged them in further discussions, where they told me that cattle belongs to one popular Yoruba my tribes man. That they are only workers skilled in the keeping of cattle, working for my tribes man. I was amazed to hear that.

I dont stay in the farm 24hrs but I have never return to find them destroyed my crops. But there was a time their cattle, while drinking stepped on and broke my water irrigation pipe. I called their attention to it, they apologized sincerely and offered to pay for the replacement, which I refused. They promised to take extra measures to prevent it from happening again. At another time, I realize that they usually hang a scabbard (cover of sword or large knife) on their shoulder. Very funny, but then I asked: what is that sword for? I was expecting them to say something like: it is for protection against thieves that might want to steal their cow. But no, they told me they carry it around in case any in the cattle would die of sudden illness or snake bite, they would quickly slaughter it and sell the beef. That it is unethical for them to sell beef of cattle that died before being slaughtered.













Sometimes they wave at me by the road side when I drive home from the farm, seeking a lift. Then I stop my car to pick them but wont even recognize who they are. In the car they would ask: sir, dont you recognize me? I am the cattle man. Amazingly I will shout wow! Youve changed. We both laugh and they tell me: we are going to town to make some purchase and that is why they are not in herdsman clothing. No conflict or violence with Fulanis has ever been recorded in that village community to my hearing.

This is my own story with Fulani Herdsmen. I keep picture records of events on my farm because I dont know when I may qualify for grant. Those are pictures that reflect some activities on my farmland. In the ordinary I would not have shared them for now. But if it could promote peace; why not? Maybe herdsmen are not the enemy here; because I think about this all the time. Herdsmen attack? How are we sure they are Fulani Herdsmen? Is it because they come with their cattle when they attack? I just dont understand.

My message: lets be very careful on what we think and what we say. I have noticed that a lot of unconfirmed videos and contents are flying around on our electronic devises. Let us employ the wisdom to verify all things and hold strong which is the truth. The first question you should ask yourself when you receive a content (video, image or text); would this promote peace or generate hate? Think twice before you share. Let us resist the powers that are trying to bring us into strife and divide. I know that many region (if not all) has a reason to be very angry. But the battle to win Nigeria back into her glorious destiny is not of bullet but of the mind. We need to be at peace with one another. Check at all the nations in conflict with their selves. No one is talking about development but about relief and humanitarian situation & solutions. What they continue to get in place of development is death and destruction, until peace if first achieved. Peace is the platform or vehicle by which every good thing comes. Peace is not for free, we sacrifice for it. Peace does not stay or wait; we pursue after it.

How do we sacrifice for peace? I know many of us has lost so much or even too much already. Both Christians and Muslims, this nation mourns with you. But remember that every precious thing you have lost can only be regarded as sacrifice when you forgive. Forgiveness is the sacrifice of peace; and your sacrifices towards the unity and progress of this nation shall never be in vain. If not in your lifetime, your children shall speak of your good story. I plead with you; let us give peace a chance to survive meaning: we are just about to kill peace.

A light in the tunnel: hope is very near. I can see God raising the next generation of liberal minded leaders. We (our generation) are younger and has seen better things and so shall do better things. If this generation of leaders that has ruled us since the beginning of Nigeria refuses to step off the mantle; I hope they are seeing the writing on the wall that their time is almost up. But if they refuse to retire and pass leadership to the next generation, nature is just about to retire them. As the next generation prepares, let us learn from their mistakes and not wallow in the same folly. God bless Nigeria. Sometimes they wave at me by the road side when I drive home from the farm, seeking a lift. Then I stop my car to pick them but wont even recognize who they are. In the car they would ask: sir, dont you recognize me? I am the cattle man. Amazingly I will shout wow! Youve changed. We both laugh and they tell me: we are going to town to make some purchase and that is why they are not in herdsman clothing. No conflict or violence with Fulanis has ever been recorded in that village community to my hearing.This is my own story with Fulani Herdsmen. I keep picture records of events on my farm because I dont know when I may qualify for grant. Those are pictures that reflect some activities on my farmland. In the ordinary I would not have shared them for now. But if it could promote peace; why not? Maybe herdsmen are not the enemy here; because I think about this all the time. Herdsmen attack? How are we sure they are Fulani Herdsmen? Is it because they come with their cattle when they attack? I just dont understand.My message: lets be very careful on what we think and what we say. I have noticed that a lot of unconfirmed videos and contents are flying around on our electronic devises. Let us employ the wisdom to verify all things and hold strong which is the truth. The first question you should ask yourself when you receive a content (video, image or text); would this promote peace or generate hate? Think twice before you share. Let us resist the powers that are trying to bring us into strife and divide. I know that many region (if not all) has a reason to be very angry. But the battle to win Nigeria back into her glorious destiny is not of bullet but of the mind. We need to be at peace with one another. Check at all the nations in conflict with their selves. No one is talking about development but about relief and humanitarian situation & solutions. What they continue to get in place of development is death and destruction, until peace if first achieved. Peace is the platform or vehicle by which every good thing comes. Peace is not for free, we sacrifice for it. Peace does not stay or wait; we pursue after it.How do we sacrifice for peace? I know many of us has lost so much or even too much already. Both Christians and Muslims, this nation mourns with you. But remember that every precious thing you have lost can only be regarded as sacrifice when you forgive. Forgiveness is the sacrifice of peace; and your sacrifices towards the unity and progress of this nation shall never be in vain. If not in your lifetime, your children shall speak of your good story. I plead with you; let us give peace a chance to survive meaning: we are just about to kill peace.A light in the tunnel: hope is very near. I can see God raising the next generation of liberal minded leaders. We (our generation) are younger and has seen better things and so shall do better things. If this generation of leaders that has ruled us since the beginning of Nigeria refuses to step off the mantle; I hope they are seeing the writing on the wall that their time is almost up. But if they refuse to retire and pass leadership to the next generation, nature is just about to retire them. As the next generation prepares, let us learn from their mistakes and not wallow in the same folly. God bless Nigeria.

Post Reply Posted: at 22-01-2018 11:06 AM (3 years ago) | Hero
Trial on "Zibilics" case takes place (video)

Following the Yerevan City Council Elections, Yelk (Way out faction) and especially, Nikol Pashinyan, again appealed to the Arabkir and Kanaker-Zeytun administrative districts for revising the preliminary investigation for "Zibilics" case, which was already dismissed. According to him, everything has been done in order to not disclose the circumstances of the criminal case. "There were 5 computers in the pre-election headquarters, but according to the preliminary investigation, there was only 1 computer. We are not even sure if it was a computer of headquarters, as during the examination, we have not received any evidence proving this fact," says Nikol Pashinyan. Due to one the video that was filmed by of the media outlets in the pre-election headquarters, similar documents on the computer screen are seen, but the investigator ignored it, too. One of the cameras of the banks were near the garbage bin, where the documents were found. However, the workers of the bank replied to the request of the investigator that the records were destroyed. Pashinyan claims that the investigator has done everything in order not to detect any circumstances, which can be considered as a proof.
Every American with an interest in social justice and the future of our urban economies should watch two paradigm-shifting visual productions from last summer. One is a Hollywood film, and the other is an hour-long mayoral presentation to business leaders. Both are about Detroit, and both offer valuable insights into the roots of today's political and economic rancor. They testify to the value of the popular adage: "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." "Detroit" is a Hollywood dramatization of the 1967 Detroit race riot. Detroit had the worst of more than 150 urban riots during what came to be known as America's "long hot summer." Unfortunately, the lessons of those severe sustained protests of economic and political policies hostile to people of color seem to have been forgotten.Today, Americans turn their attention to massive protests in Iran, which erupted due to long-term economic distress and political corruption. Yet America was the scene of similar unrest just five decades ago for similar reasons. In the Motor City alone in 1967, 43 people died, hundreds were injured, 1,400 buildings were burned and more than 7,000 arrests were made. The riot was one of two major protests in Detroit's history that shaped it for decades. (The other was the 1943 race riot, which set the conditions for what happened in 1967.)Before and during World War II, Detroit was a boomtown with a 90 percent white population. Today, it is a minority-majority city (82 percent black, 7 percent Hispanic) still reeling from the decline of the auto industry and decades of decay and economic deprivation that culminated in the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. The degradation of this once-flourishing city is highlighted in the second film that every American should watch: Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's unforgettable presentation at the Mackinac Policy Conference.Every major American metropolitan area has a history similar to Detroit's policies of economic hostility to black residents. In presenting the racial history of Detroit to a packed house of business and foundation leaders, investors and policymakers, Duggan established the root cause of Detroit's present-day problems in policy decisions made by white supremacists decades earlier. Today, we view white supremacy as an ideology exemplified by openly aggressive and hostile attitudes toward people of color by extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and white nationalists. We forget that it has long been ingrained in federal, state, regional and local policies and practices.It would be hard to find a better example of those policies at work than the physical wall that was built in 1941 along an area at the edge of Detroit known as "Eight Mile." "There was a racially mixed neighborhood that was the pride of a number of African-American communities," Duggan recounted. "A developer wanted to build right next door. [The Federal Housing Administration] said we won't make the loan because you're adjacent to a mixed neighborhood. ... The developer had an idea. He said he would build a wall. The wall doesn't have to be so high it has barbed wire, but we won't make loans to black people on their side of the wall. And the FHA said great, and approved the project."The wall still exists, but it is hardly an isolated instance of federal complicity in housing segregation. Duggan displayed FHA mortgage guidelines from the era that the agency included in its underwriting manuals for banks and other mortgage lenders: Incompatible racial groups should not be permitted to live in the same communities. Properties shall continue to be occupied by the same social and racial classes. Appraisers are instructed to predict the probability of the location being invaded by incompatible racial and social groups.Policies like those produced segregation not only in housing but also in wages, education and transportation, creating a toxic mix of overcrowding of black residents in cramped, quarantined areas along with white hostility in the factories where blacks worked for lower wages. Racial animus in Detroit was fueled by government policies biased in favor of whites. "And in June of '43," Duggan told his Mackinac audience, "we had racial violence in this city over the housing issue in the middle of WWII. This happened then, when the country should've been pulling together."In 1967, the year that that racial violence erupted again, 67,000 white residents left Detroit. Another 80,000 followed the year after. A city of more than 1.8 million was rapidly reduced in population. Today, Detroit's population is less than 675,000, and its once-flourishing economy has fled to suburbia in the pockets of wealthier white residents.As a white man first elected in 2013 by a predominantly black population, Duggan said he recognized the responsibility and trust that Detroit residents placed in him, and he didn't blame the past 40 years of failure on black leadership. As mayor, he initially focused on shoring up basic infrastructure to get the city functioning properly. After his re-election last November, expectations for an economically inclusive, revitalized Detroit have risen. Recognition of the core problem -- systemic segregationist policies and practices -- empowers local leaders to address present-day needs by identifying and disrupting ingrained, sustained biases.In his Mackinac speech, Mayor Duggan shared a vision of a new city built upon intentional "inclusive growth" economic-development strategies embraced not only by city leaders but also by business leaders, stakeholders and other influencers.There are already encouraging signs. A new Detroit is open for business. It is welcoming everyone who wants to live in a vibrant multiracial, multicultural metropolis that's rebuilding and rebranding itself as a city designed on an economic strategy of inclusive economic competitiveness, equitable access to opportunity, and shared prosperity. And the lessons of Detroit apply beyond its boundaries. Like an inclusive Detroit, an inclusive America must invest in cultivating all of its talent to reap the rewards of a robust and vibrant globally competitive economy.
Three days into a shutdown of the federal government, Congress reached a deal to reopen it and fund the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for six years.The Senate agreed 81-18 on Monday afternoon to pass a short-term spending bill to fund the government through Feb. 8 and give Congress more time to work out a deal on immigration. The House and President Trump signed off on it later that day.CHIP, which expired more than 100 days ago, insures 9 million low-income children and pregnant women who dont have employer-based insurance but make too much money to qualify for Medicaid. It's jointly funded by the federal government and states, but the feds foot almost 80 percent of the bill.Congress has continually released unspent funds in the last few months to help states keep CHIP running, but this was the first time there was a significant funding lapse in what has historically been a bipartisan program.If the deal wasn't finalized, 10 states -- Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Ohio and Washington -- plus Washington, D.C., were expected to run out of CHIP money by the end of the month, according to the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.States were already planning on ending coverage for children and pregnant women or freezing enrollment. Connecticut had already froze enrollment between Christmas and New Year's.Congress' failure to find a long-term CHIP solution for months was surprising to many, considering the programs history of bipartisanship and recent analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that shows that reauthorizing it for 10 years would actuallythe federal government up to $6 billion The six-year deal, however, isn't long enough to see those $6 billion savings.Part of the savings are a result of the new tax law, which eliminated the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate that required everyone to have health insurance. Without it, the CBO predicts that less people will now enroll in CHIP.Now CHIP is far and away less expensive than lawmakers originally thought, said Kelly Whitener, associate professor at the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.Under the ACA, the federal match that funds CHIP is scheduled to wind down to 93 percent in 2019 and to 70 percent in 2021.Despite the division in Congress, governors had remained united on this issue. Republican Govs. John Kasich of Ohio and Brian Sandoval of Nevada and Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper all issued statements in the last few days, urging Congress to come to a long-term agreement.In the meantime, state health officials were scrambling.Its been very time-consuming keeping up with the what-ifs, said Linda Nablo, chief deputy director for Virginia's Department of Medical Assistance Services. If Congress reauthorizes this soon, do we still send out letters to families? Are we withholding information if we dont? What does it take to stop the computer system from making payments? What about our call centers, we have to train people to answer questions about whats going on."Nablo is worried, however, that stalemates on previously bipartisan programs might be the new normal.If the same dysfunction is applied to other social service programs, thats no way to run the government. Its just way too much worry and confusion and resources that shouldnt have to be there, she said.Health officials say the uncertainty led families to either overutilize services or believe that theyve already lost benefits.The better outcome is for families to just know its there," said Whitener. "The stress is just so unnecessary and just feeds into distrust of the government."
You Care About This Person

New Uses for Data

In its annual count of the citys homeless population, New York in 2015 listed how many people fit into 10 different groups: nearly 4,000 chronically homeless, more than 8,000 severely mentally ill, 1,500 veterans, and so on. But when the list got to victims of domestic violence, the annual federally mandated count showed one striking number: zero.Far from the reality on the ground  nearly a third of homeless families with children have experienced domestic violence, according to the citys Department of Social Services  the glaring statistical gap in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developments Point-in-Time count was a red flag for advocates who work with victims every day.Without an accurate count of people who are homeless because of domestic violence, communities across the country cant fully understand and serve their homeless population, said Carol Corden, one of those advocates.If you ignore them, you ignore a major part of homelessness, said Corden, the executive director of New York-based New Destiny Housing, which connects low-income victims of domestic violence with affordable permanent housing.This year, after lobbying from advocates for homeless women and children like Corden, the annual count will for the first time ask people whether they are currently homeless because of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence or stalking. HUD had previously suggested that communities ask homeless people if they had ever experienced domestic violence, but the narrower question will help paint a more accurate picture, Corden said.The Point-in-Time count, a one-night survey of the countrys homeless population, includes unsheltered homeless people, such as those living on the streets or in cars, and sheltered homeless people, including those in transitional housing or subsidized hotel stays. (The count does not include people in rapid rehousing or permanent supportive housing programs.) The snapshot is mandatory for communities looking to receive federal grants to help pay for local homeless services.Communities, led by their local homeless agencies, this year can choose any of the last 10 days of January to conduct the count. In the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, for example, the count is Jan. 24. In the Charlotte area, its Jan. 31.Along with asking about domestic violence, officials and volunteers will scour their streets and shelters, asking homeless people where they are staying that night, how many members of their family are staying in the same location, whether they have HIV or a severe mental illness, and whether they are a veteran, a chronic substance abuser, or chronically homeless. Some participants decline to answer, even though the results remain anonymous. While the survey is not exact, the count provides a general estimate of homelessness in the community.This years question was added because HUD officials determined that asking whether homeless people had been a victim of domestic violence in the past wasnt telling them whether they were homeless because of that violence. William Snow, who works in HUDs Office of Special Needs Assistance Programs, made this point clear when, earlier this month, he briefed local officials across the country about the upcoming count.When we analyzed our domestic violence data in the past  we realized we didnt know what we were getting, Snow, a senior programs specialist, said in the webinar. We didnt know if we were getting information about everyone whos ever experienced some form of domestic violence, whether we were getting information about those who are currently fleeing, and were pretty sure that we were getting a mix of the two.So, for example, of the 554,000 homeless people counted nationally in 2017, about 87,000 said they had been a victim of domestic violence at some point in their lives  a number that does not indicate whether they are currently homeless because they are fleeing abuse.Brian Sullivan, a spokesman for HUD, said this problem has been a vexing issue for the department for the past decade, since it began gathering data on domestic violence survivors among the national homeless population. Refocusing the question, Sullivan said, is just part of the effort to get accurate data.We wanted to get to the root of homelessness, as opposed to just gathering data, Sullivan said.A homeless person who may suffer from a severe mental illness requires different care from one who is a victim of domestic violence, Corden said. In New York City, for example, an accurate estimate can help get families out of the citys 47 emergency shelters that provide temporary housing for domestic violence victims for 180 days, and into one of the 11 properties with affordable, permanent housing that New Destiny manages.Asking these intimate questions, though, can be difficult. Getting accurate data starts with training volunteers who assist with the annual count, said Courtney Morton, the housing and research coordinator for Community Support Services of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, a government agency for the Charlotte area.During several of the two-hour trainings that take place in the weeks leading up to the count, Morton wants volunteers to understand why they ask specific questions and why answering a question about domestic violence can be traumatic.We meet them where they are, try to understand what they might be thinking and offer that this may be a difficult question to answer, Morton said. Just be mindful. This is more than getting information. You care about this person.Morton and her 250 volunteers will start their count in the early evening of Jan. 31 and will survey homeless people in camps, parks, cemeteries, shelters and temporary houses until 8 a.m. the following day using the mobile app Counting Us. Most of the countys homeless population  1,476 last year  is sheltered and concentrated in Uptown, Charlottes city center.But there still are many homeless people in the county who are spread out and hard to reach. Many volunteers are formerly homeless and may have a sense of where people might live, Morton said.The count does not show the full picture of homelessness, Morton said, but it can provide a good glimpse of a communitys homeless population and help advocates and officials engage with those people.Clarifying the problem as much as possible can lead to better solutions, she said.Mecklenburg County is one of many localities that choose to ask more questions than are required by the federal government for that reason. For several years, volunteers and officials have been asking homeless people their perspectives on future housing, additional information on income, and in which other communities they have lived.From 2010 to 2017, county officials used the data on homelessness to more than triple spending on rapid rehousing, which allows families to quickly leave shelters and move into permanent homes of their own. In that period, homelessness went down by 26 percent, despite the countys overall population increasing by 17 percent  a rare combination in urban areas.Communities in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, which includes parts of Virginia and Maryland, have been asking the homeless population about domestic violence for many years, before it was mandated by the federal government. Last year, officials found that 12 percent of homeless adults in families were homeless because of domestic violence.In Fairfax County, Virginia, Julie Maltzman, the lead manager of the countys Office to Prevent and End Homelessness, said the data has been very useful in planning homeless and domestic violence programs.In 2016, the county found that of the 472 homeless people in families, 42 percent were homeless at the time of the count because of domestic violence. A year earlier, 49 percent were homeless for that reason. In recent years, this data has allowed Fairfax County to prioritize a new rapid rehousing program for families who are homeless because of domestic violence.Using data this much is new in the homeless and domestic violence fields, Maltzman said. But now, we totally recognize that domestic violence is a major cause of homelessness.Still, some advocates warn these numbers may not accurately show how many people are homeless because of domestic violence. The count, after all, reflects a communitys homeless population only on one day in January, and it is voluntary. Julie Dworkin, the director of policy at the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, an advocacy and organizing group that conducts its own count, has concerns about the validity of the count overall.Its not an accurate reflection, Dworkin said. Just because theyre not homeless one night doesnt mean they wont be homeless another night. If we underestimate the problem, then we underestimate the resources needed.Still, the more data officials and advocates have on domestic violence, the better they can address the issue, said Linda Olsen, the housing program director at the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Current criminal data from the U.S. Department of Justice and other agencies doesnt provide a full picture of the problem, and homeless victims of domestic violence are undercounted too, Olsen said.Even the new question in this years count may not give an accurate picture of the problem, Olsen said. I often get worried that they are the hidden homeless.
West Virginia's drug czar resigned Thursday, after a little more than four months on the job.Jim Johnson, director of the state's new Office of Drug Control Policy, was hired to help lead the effort to reduce drug overdose deaths. West Virginia has the highest fatal overdose rate in the nation.Johnson's sudden departure comes just days after the release of a preliminary report on ways to combat the opioid epidemic. Johnson had served on a panel of experts that drew up the report. A final report is expected before the end of the month.Johnson, who started the job Sept. 2, spoke at a House of Delegates committee meeting last week, but he gave no hint that he was planning to step down.In a news release Thursday, West Virginia health officials characterized Johnson's departure as a "retirement." Johnson will work part-time for the state on unspecified "special projects.""I have decided that after 45 years, it really is time to enjoy retirement, although I am still excited and appreciative for the opportunity to continue some of those efforts to combat this terrible disease," Johnson said in the release.Johnson was the director of Huntington's Office of Drug Control Policy for three years. He previously was a police officer and interim police chief in Huntington.In 2011, then-governor Earl Ray Tomblin created the Governor's Advisory Council on Substance Abuse and six regional task forces to address substance abuse in West Virginia.During the 2017 legislative session, lawmakers created the state Office of Drug Control Policy and, last month, Gov. Jim Justice signed an executive order stating that the Governor's Advisory Council on Substance Abuse would become an advisory board to the Office of Drug Control Policy.In recent interviews about the transition, two members of the Advisory Council on Substance Abuse, Prestera CEO Karen Yost and Mark Drennan, executive director of the West Virginia Behavioral Healthcare Providers Association, said no one from the Department of Health and Human Resources or the drug office had contacted them about whether they would continue to serve and in what capacity.Susie Mullens, program manager at the drug control office, has been appointed interim director of the agency.
Generation A 13  your chance to be the change

President of the Artsakh Republic Arayik Harutyunyan met with Russian Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor Khovayev

"uDays" special offer at Ucom: discounts for all smartphones and accessories for 2 days only

For more than 3 hours, 50 or more Azerbaijani servicemen have blocked the interstate road

Call on the international community for an adequate response against azerbaijani aggresssion

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The hearsay rule is a bedrock principle of American jurisprudence: Anything offered as evidence that doesn't come from a witness testifying in court is hearsay and cannot be considered by jurors.There are, of course, exceptions -- two dozen in fact.And they'll be tested repeatedly during the political corruption trial starting Monday in Allentown against Mayor Ed Pawlowski, a case centered on secret recordings -- most including the mayor himself.Expect those recordings to spark frequent courtroom sparring between defense attorneys and prosecutors over what parts jurors should hear.Pawlowski's lawyer, Jack McMahon, argued in pretrial filings and a hearing this month that the recordings contain the best evidence of his client's innocence. The mayor's own words show that he told his associates "we shouldn't even come close to crossing the line" and insisted "everything is to be done ethically," McMahon says. Prosecutors say those statements are "self-serving, misleading and can't be played for jurors."Prosecutors assert the recordings will convince jurors Pawlowski was at the center of a broad conspiracy to trade contributions to his campaigns for city contracts, legal work and other favors. Defense attorneys say the prosecution must show other evidence of the alleged conspiracy before they can play recordings of the alleged co-conspirators plotting.U.S. District Judge Juan R. Sanchez, who will preside over the trial, said at a Jan. 4 hearing he will decide issues related to the recordings and hearsay on a case-by-case basis."They're very technical rules. Hearsay is not admissible unless it is," said former federal prosecutor Seth Weber, noting the broad range of exceptions gives lawyers leeway to use an out-of-court statement when they can show it meets certain requirements.One or more of those exceptions may give McMahon an opportunity to let jurors hear the recordings he asserts show Pawlowski never intended to break the law.Pawlowski faces a 54-count indictment charging him with conspiracy, bribery, attempted extortion, fraud and making false statements to the FBI. A co-defendant, Allentown lawyer Scott Allinson, is charged with conspiracy and bribery. A third co-defendant, business consultant James Hickey, pleaded guilty to two counts of honest services fraud in the Allentown case and a related case in Reading.According to court filings, the charges came after a three-year investigation in which Pawlowski's campaign consultant, Mike Fleck, and Fleck's employee, Sam Ruchlewicz, agreed to wear wires after being confronted by the FBI with evidence of thefts from campaign funds. The FBI also tapped their phones.Between June 2014 and July 2015, when the investigation was revealed in an FBI raid on City Hall, Fleck and Ruchlewicz made more than 100 recordings that captured their conversations with Pawlowski, Allinson and others, including former city Managing Director Francis Dougherty and former Finance Director Garret Strathearn.Prosecutors used the recordings to build their case against Fleck, who pleaded guilty in 2016 to conspiracy to commit bribery and implicated Pawlowski in alleged schemes to shake down contractors. Ruchlewicz has not been charged, but he and Fleck will be witnesses in the trial, prosecutors have said.The recordings will be central to the U.S. attorney's case against Pawlowski and Allinson, but even prosecutors must overcome the presumption that hearsay, which includes recorded statements, is inadmissible.The rules of evidence are designed to promote the ideal that trials should be conducted efficiently and fairly, Penn State Dickinson School of Law Professor Michael Mogill said.They define what is considered valid evidence, and rule out hearsay as generally unreliable because such statements are not made under oath, and the judge and jury can't observe the speaker to decide whether he's telling the truth, Mogill said."We don't want to rely on repeated statements from out of court," he said. "That's going to undercut the whole truth-finding process."Barring out-of-court statements eliminates uncertainty about the meaning of what was said or the accuracy of its repetition, Mogill said."Maybe [the witness] misheard it. Maybe there was some kind of misunderstanding. Maybe [the witness is] going to misstate it because he has some kind of grudge," Mogill said. "We want people to testify in court from their own personal knowledge, not from someone else's knowledge."A broad exception to the hearsay rule is that statements by a co-conspirator can be used against a defendant if the statement was made as part of the alleged conspiracy. To use such evidence, prosecutors must first show that there is other evidence of a conspiracy."Most judges will say you have to paint the picture a little bit before I can see how this fits in," said Bruce Antkowiak, a criminal justice professor at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Westmoreland County. "If you're going to use a co-conspirator statement, then you have to lay the groundwork to show how this statement would have been made in furtherance of the conspiracy."McMahon noted in the hearing that some of the people identified in the recordings, such as developer and campaign fundraiser Jack Rosen, from whom Pawlowski is accused of soliciting contributions in exchange for a cyber security contract for a company backed by Rosen, do not appear on the government's witness list. He questioned how prosecutors could lay the groundwork to allege a conspiracy without Rosen testifying."If there has been no showing of a conspiratorial relationship, I will object to the tape on that basis as hearsay," McMahon said.Another broad exception to the hearsay rule is that any prior statement that a defendant allegedly made can be used against him.When a defendant wants to use a prior statement in his defense, however, it is hearsay and is considered inadmissible, Antkowiak said. That's because any statement a defendant might want to use to demonstrate his innocence is considered self-serving and unreliable."A defendant could call his grandma to testify what the defendant said," Antkowiak said.Criminal defendants also have a constitutional right not to testify. That means prosecutors would never have an opportunity to cross-examine a defendant about prior statements.In the Jan. 4 hearing, McMahon argued, however, that barring the recorded statements that point to Pawlowski's innocence would hamstring the defense."The government is attempting to keep out a voluminous amount of evidence that negates the alleged 'corrupt purpose' of my client," he argued.Sanchez indicated he would hear McMahon's arguments during the trial."If you have a proper basis for admitting it ... you can make your pitch," Sanchez said, adding, "You're not going to get the opportunity to throw in every statement that he has made."Weber said it's possible Pawlowski's recorded statements could be admitted under an exception for utterances that demonstrate a person's mental, emotional or physical condition at the moment the statement was made.There is also a catchall exception that allows hearsay when it can be shown to be as trustworthy as other evidence in the case, when it proves the defendant's point better than any other evidence that's available and when allowing it will best serve the interests of justice."Basically, you ask: Do the constitutional rights to a fair trial and being allowed to present a defense trump the rules of evidence if the interests of justice require it?" Weber said. "Why can they use those words when I can't use other words on the exact same tape?"
CNN reported late Friday that the FBI is looking into Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, but the governor's personal attorney has called on the cable network to retract the report.Citing information from two unnamed U.S. officials, CNN reported that the FBI recently opened an inquiry into the governor.Jim Bennett, the governor's attorney, said in an email that he and his colleagues have "seen no indication of an FBI investigation, see no matter that is worthy of such an investigation, and do not believe that one exists. Any suggestion based on CNN's reporting that an investigation exists would not be accurate. Governor Greitens has not been contacted at any time by the FBI and we are not aware of any interest by the FBI."A spokesman for CNN said in an email Saturday morning that the network stands by its reporting.CNN also said it interviewed a 22-year-old man who said he volunteered to help with Greitens' transition team in December 2016. The man, identified as Eli Karabell, told the outlet that he was interviewed by two FBI agents in November.It's unclear when the FBI might have opened an inquiry into Greitens or whether the conversation the man reportedly had with the FBI is related to the open inquiry two unnamed U.S. officials confirmed to the outlet.Karabell said the interview with the FBI lasted for about an hour. CNN reported Karabell didn't say what he discussed with the two agents.The CNN report does not say whether the reported federal inquiry is linked to the allegations of blackmail, which have spurred a criminal investigation in St. Louis.Karabell has retained Albert Watkins, the same St. Louis attorney who is also representing the ex-husband of the governor's former lover who first brought the blackmail allegations to light.Watkins said in an email to The Star Saturday morning that Karabell served as a Republican committeeman from March to November 2017 after volunteering for the governor's transition team."By virtue of his observations, interaction with Greitens officials and other Republican elected officials who had been targeted by Greitens, my client started lobbying others in the Republican party to call for an investigation into dark money use for attack ads, information procurement, and undermining of other Republican office holders. My client also actively sought answers to questions about dark money use from others in the Greitens circle," Watkins said in an email."My client was thereafter subjected to threatening phone calls; threats to ruin his political career and reputation, physical intimidation, and his family was contacted by a high level state Republican official. My client was threatened with being banned from the state capitol," he said.Watkins' email also says that a state lawmaker told Karabell he also had been interviewed by the FBI regarding the governor's use of dark money -- donations routed through nonprofits and other organizations to hide their source.That lawmaker, Sen. Rob Schaaf, a St. Joseph Republican who has railed against the governor's use of dark money, clarified that he has spoken to a federal agent about Greitens but was not formally interviewed."The answer is I have talked to an FBI agent many times over many years," Schaaf said in a phone call Saturday. "I wouldn't characterize my conversations as an interview. It's not like they go, 'We'd like to interview Sen. Schaaf.' It's more like we're talking. It's informal."Schaaf said the FBI agents he has spoken to over the years never comment when an investigation is taking place, "but they are always interested in whatever perspective one has to offer" about the workings of state government."I have no idea whether they are or are not investigating the governor," Schaaf said, adding, "absolutely, I think they should."The FBI could neither confirm nor deny the existence of an inquiry, said Bridget Patton, a spokeswoman for the Kansas City Division.Bennett said in an email to The Star shortly before midnight Friday that he has asked the cable network to retract the report based on the report's use of Karabell as a source."I have notified CNN that this story should be retracted. Without getting into the details, it is sufficient to say the named source has a history of profane and aberrant behavior toward people associated with Governor Greitens dating back to last year to such a degree that Governor Greitens' press secretary had to block his calls and other members of the Missouri Republican Party staff felt threatened to the degree that senior leadership attempted to intervene with his family," Bennett said in an email.A Twitter page that appears to belong to Karabell includes several posts criticizing the governor, some of which use profanity.He called for Greitens to resign the day after KMOV-TV in St. Louis first reported on allegations that the governor blackmailed a woman to keep her quiet about an affair, calling the governor a "sexual predator" and his actions "unconstitutional, illegal & unconsciously cruel" in a series of tweets."I stand with the Hundreds of Missourians who have asked for this tyrant Governor to resign. Resign now!" Karabell tweeted.Karabell applauded Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley's decision in December to launch investigation into the governor's staff's use of private messaging app."Eric shall meet his Waterloo & when that moment strikes I will be celebrating in complete joy. A disgusting disgrace Gov. Greitens happens to be," he tweeted.And in November, the same month that Karabell told CNN he was interviewed by the FBI, he railed against Greitens and St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson."Why do they need to ignore me & or try to silence me? Because Missouri is full of Dark Money, Corruption & Graft from City Hall to Jefferson City & Joplin. Missouri needs new leadership," he tweeted.Watkins said Karabell was interviewed by the FBI on Nov. 8 for roughly one hour and was advised that he might be contacted for followup questions, but he has received no contact information since that time.Watkins also pushed back on Bennett's characterization of his client's behavior as profane and aberrant."Like beauty, that which is profane and aberrant lies in the minds of the beholder. That being said, it should not be at all surprising that the Governor would think that anyone critically inquiring of dark money use was profane and aberrant. One is compelled to embrace the real possibility that the Governor is an expert in all that is aberrant," he said.The report of a federal inquiry comes more than a week after an audio recording was released of a woman who had an affair with Greitens. In that recording, the woman confessed to the affair and accused Greitens of blindfolding her and taking a nude photo against her will to blackmail her into silence.On Saturday, in an interview with the Associated Press, Greitens did not directly say "yes" or "no" when asked if he had bound and blindfolded and taken a photo of the woman. But he firmly denied that he had attempted to coerce the woman."This was a consensual relationship," Greitens said. "There was no blackmail, there was no violence, there was no threat of violence, there was no threat of blackmail, there was no threat of using a photograph for blackmail. All of those things are false."The allegations came shortly after Greitens delivered his annual State of the State address Jan 10. The woman's ex-husband gave KMOV an audio recording of her talking about the affair.St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner announced Jan. 11 that her office would investigate Greitens' actions.Watkins has previously said that he has shared tapes recorded by the ex-husband of the governor's former lover with both Gardner's office and the FBI.Bennett said that he does "not believe that an FBI investigation exists -- not on this personal topic from three years ago or any other."CNN's report uses the word inquiry rather than investigation, an important distinction, according to Jeff Lanza, a retired FBI agent who lives in Kansas City."The FBI does use what's called preliminary inquiry. It's basic and exploratory in nature and those generally use those types of inquiries, especially in the case of public officials.... The goal of a preliminary inquiry is to see if there's enough grounds for a full field investigation," said Lanza, who served as an agent for two decades.During a preliminary inquiry, agents perform interviews and review public records in an effort to round out the allegations, Lanza said.Lanza said that he has no knowledge of a possible inquiry into Greitens, but he explained that a preliminary inquiry typically lasts 30 to 90 days.
Arkansans have no right to file a lawsuit against their state government, even where the Legislature has given them permission to, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled in a split decision Thursday that overturned two decades of case law.The new precedent handed down by a 5-2 decision prompted musings throughout the day by lawyers, lawmakers and lobbyists as to what the effect would be on a wide range of cases: from simple wage disputes to criminal appeals to requests for public records.The issue before the high court was a legal doctrine known as sovereign immunity, which, as Article 5, Section 20, of the Arkansas Constitution of 1874, simply says: "The State of Arkansas shall never be made defendant in any of her courts."For 60 years, the Arkansas Supreme Court had taken a strict approach to interpreting that language, according to the majority opinion written by Supreme Court Chief Justice Dan Kemp. Then, in 1996, the justices reversed their precedent and began allowing the Legislature to pass laws with exemptions to sovereign immunity.
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GIS - 22 January, 2018: The Peoples Republic of China has donated a cheque of Rs 1 million to the Prime Ministers Cyclone Relief Fund to help support The Peoples Republic of China has donated a cheque of Rs 1 million to the Prime Ministers Cyclone Relief Fund to help support victims who have been severely affected by the recent cyclone Berguitta.

The cheque was handed over by the Ambassador of the Peoples Republic of China in Mauritius, Mr Sun Gongyi, to the Prime Minister, Minister of Home Affairs, External Communications and National Development Unit, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, this morning at the New Treasury Building in Port Louis.

The donation follows the appeal made by Prime Minister Jugnauth to the private sector, enterprises and the population in general to contribute to the Prime Ministers Cyclone Relief Fund which will eventually assist to finance several measures to alleviate those who are affected by natural calamities.

In a statement, the Prime Minister expressed his gratitude towards the Peoples Republic of China who has responded promptly and positively to his appeal. He recalled the strong ties of kinship between the two countries which have been further cemented and added that China has always stood by Mauritius and supported the country in any situation.

Prime Minister Jugnauth reiterated his appeal for further contribution to the Prime Ministers Cyclone Relief Fund from the private sector and the population.

For his part, the Ambassador Gongyi, spoke of the excellent relationship between China and Mauritius and the intent of the Peoples Republic of China to contribute to the Prime Ministers Cyclone Relief Fund. This gesture, he highlighted, bears testimony to the longstanding friendly bond that both country share.

The Prime Ministers Cyclone Relief Fund has among its objectives to assist victims affected by cyclones and other calamities to undertake reparation works of their houses and other related infrastructures. Contributions to the Fund can be issued by cheque to the Prime Ministers Cyclone Relief Fund or via bank transfer on the following Account number: State Bank of Mauritius - Savings Account No. 61031200000107.
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GIS  22 January, 2018: The third round on the resumption of discussions between Mauritius and India on the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA) was launched this morning at Le Meriden Hotel in Pointe aux Piments. The conclusion of the CECPA will move the commercial relations between both countries to a higher level and provide a platform to address any barriers in trade.

Both India and Mauritius are willing to finalise a Joint Study Report which will set the basis and the parameters for the negotiations to take place and enable the start of negotiations on two different chapters which are trade in goods and trade in services. The CECPA has four pillars which form the basis of negotiations, namely trade in goods, trade in services, investment and economic cooperation.

In her opening remarks, the Head of the Mauritian delegation, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs (SFA), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, Ambassador Mrs U. C. Dwarka Canabady, said that from our perspective, CECPA is going to be the most important instrument for Mauritius to work with the developing and the developed world. In some way, the CECPA is going to be responding to the aspirations of the people who in recent years have lost businesses, she pointed out.

According to the SFA, beyond the agreement on trade in goods and trade in services the latter which is of high interest to Mauritius, we do not see ourselves in any way as challenging India on services as India is far too gigantic. However, we see small in-roads that will help us build a financial services centre that is strong and capable and we see more cooperation with India in that area. More importantly, in CECPA, we see economic cooperation which might take a little longer to finalise and how this economic cooperation will respond to expectations, she added.

For his part, the Head of the Indian delegation, Mr Manoj Dwivedi, Joint Secretary (Africa/Wana) Department of Commerce, recalled that India and Mauritius are from the same blood and DNA and therefore it should not be difficult to reach a win-win agreement for the two countries and one which is mutually beneficial for both economies. So far in the discussions we have had on the Joint Study Report and the way forward there has been no difference of opinions or any kind of conflict which has stopped us from moving ahead, he remarked.

Moreover, the Joint Secretary added that the present meeting is quite important because India has witnessed a lot of reforms at a fast pace during the past two years or so, and in the last decade or so, Mauritius has also gone through many reforms and changes. The kind of market access that we already have with Mauritius is definitely very encouraging, he added.

nd Meeting which was held in India and final discussions on the Joint S The work agenda comprises: consultations on Trade in Goods and Services including sub working groups on sanitary-phytosanitary measures; technical barriers to trade and rules of origin as well as the way forward. The three-day discussions, is taking stock of the 2Meeting which was held in India and final discussions on the Joint S tudy Report.The work agenda comprises: consultations on Trade in Goods and Services including sub working groups on sanitary-phytosanitary measures; technical barriers to trade and rules of origin as well as the way forward.

Negotiations of the CECPA got stalled in 2006 and negotiations started following the visit of the Indian Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, in Mauritius in 2015.
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.
(TNS) - When news of the Hawaii missile alert mistake broke last week, it immediately brought a sense of deja vu to local emergency management officials.A similar  though not as alarming  incident took place here last September in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. Volusia County officials were on a countywide conference call with officials from various cities when everyone's cell phones began sounding off with an "extreme alert.""Volusia County boil water notice. Residents are advised to boil water before consumption," warned the notice. It was a mistake.The warning, issued in error by a state employee, created hours of confusion as officials tried to figure out what was going on and notify people there was no need to boil their water."Thank God it wasn't an inbound missile alert like the mistake made in Hawaii," Jim Judge, Volusia County's emergency management director, said last week.However, there is this: The same system that mistakenly sent out the boil water notice for Volusia County also is responsible for sending out notices of imminent missile attacks.That boil water notice was the first thing that popped into Judge's mind when he heard about the missile alert. The boil water notice didn't send local residents scrambling for their safe rooms, but it was a local example of how mistakes in the nation's emergency warning systems can have a huge impact within seconds."I think there are some pretty good fail-safes but there's no such thing as perfect," said Jonathan Lord, newly appointed public safety emergency manager for Flagler County. "Every system has human interaction. Mistakes happen."The Hawaii incident also prompted questions about who's responsible for monitoring for incoming missiles, and what would happen if there really was a missile alert locally. It has been decades since Floridians practiced missile drills.The Hawaii missile alert and Volusia County boil water notice were both broadcast through statewide systems used for warning residents of impending danger.In Florida, state officials said the boil water notice "was a simple human error," said Judge. "Somebody pressed the wrong button." That's exactly what Hawaii officials said caused the missile alert mistake.A second alert stating there was no boil water notice in Volusia County was issued about an hour later. In Hawaii, it took 38 minutes for the state to retract the missile warning.The best way to make sure mistakes don't happen, Lord said, "is to practice often, to make sure that people who are responsible for those systems understand how to activate them, or test them in an appropriate fashion.The investigation into what happened in Hawaii and how it could be prevented in the future is ongoing.The organization responsible for watching for incoming missiles or aircraft is well known to families everywhere who track the arrival of Santa Claus every year  NORAD."We're watching the skies over North America, in terms of any air or missile threat," said Michael Kucharek, a spokesman for the bi-national North American Aerospace Defense Command, which includes the United States and Canada."We have various ways and means via NORAD to detect both air and missile threats," said Kucharek, a civilian based at NORAD headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado.The Continental U.S. NORAD region is divided into two sectors, west and east. Sector activities are coordinated by a combined air operations center, based at Tyndall Air Force Base, just west of Panama City, Florida."We have land-based sensors, space-based sensors and airborne sensors," said Kucharek. "It's all integrated, not just for North America, but it's integrated worldwide."Information generated by the tiered system can be quickly shared and threats can be identified, he said.If there's "a significant event," anything from a missile threat to an air threat, a lot of agencies would be represented on a national events conference call, said Kucharek. Participants, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, would "span the gamut of the U.S. government.""The notification process for each state is owned by each state and FEMA," he said. "They're seeing what we're seeing and listening in on these assessments, whenever there's a national event conference that's convened."Lord, who has worked in state emergency management, said the state is in "constant communication" with the nation's military and defense coordinating officers for FEMA.The alert from the state would be issued across multiple systems, including the same text system that sends tornado warnings, amber alerts and the boil water notice last fall. The systems include the national Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, known as IPAWs, and geographic-based wireless emergency alerts.Any cell phone capable of receiving a warning that is within range of a cell phone tower in the area, whether they subscribe to a particular service or not, would receive the alert. The systems also can send presidential alerts for national emergencies, the only alert that can't be turned off on a cell phone.State officials also are able to interrupt all media sources, such as television and radio, to put the word out, Judge said. "Just like in Hawaii, they were alerted by every means possible."2018 The News-Journal, Daytona Beach, Fla.Visit The News-Journal, Daytona Beach, Fla. at www.news-journalonline.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
(TNS) - As Sonoma County students settle back into the classroom routines after winter break, school officials will be watching closely for dips in academic performance and attendance, outbursts and other behavioral reactions as they continue to wrestle with the aftermath of Octobers wildfires.Ed Navarro, principal of Rincon Valley Middle School and Santa Rosa Accelerated Charter School, said students showed kindness, camaraderie and support for displaced classmates immediately after the fires. While that support remains visible, he said, some students are starting to feel frustrated and left out as classmates and their families remain settled in nearby neighborhoods while they have to commute. Navarro said the fires destroyed the homes of 126 students.Some have bought homes in the neighborhood and are re-establishing their lives, while others are still staying on grandmas couch or in a hotel, he said. Thats causing even more isolation.Students are struggling to focus in class, while others are losing their temper more easily with friends in the courtyard, Navarro said.They just dont have the ability to let things roll off their shoulders, he said. They have so much on their minds that the smallest things are becoming triggers.An estimated 9 million students in nine states, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico missed some school in the fall from various natural disasters. Research from the Child & Family Policy Center shows that such chronic absence, defined as missing two days of school a month, is a proven early warning sign of academic risk and school dropout.Further, research on New Orleans education system after 2005s Hurricane Katrina found that 42 percent of the nearly 5,000 surveyed fourth- through 12th-graders qualified for a mental-health referral.Navarro said local post-fire attendance numbers werent available, but he believes student attendance is down, though not nearly as much as hed expected. Some families face longer commutes, but he said theyre trying to maintain as much normalcy as possible, getting their kids to school every day.Steve Mizera, the school districts assistant superintendent of student and family services, said the district is continuing to develop strategies on how best to support and track students and families impacted by the fires. It has provided training to faculty and staff members on what behaviors to look for and how to get students help, knowing the fires impacts could linger for months or longer.Dr. David Schonfeld, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician and director of the University of Southern Californias National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement, met with district educators earlier this month to discuss ways to support students and school employees. Schonfeld, who has assisted schools across the country after natural disasters, shootings and the 9/11 attacks, stressed the importance of all school employees, regardless of position, understanding students likely reactions. Sometimes, he said, its the bus drivers, custodians and lunchroom workers who notice changes in students behavior.Schonfeld said its not just kids who lived in the burn areas who were impacted. Some could have been traumatized watching news coverage of the fires and their devastation.At Oak Grove Elementary School, students now get startled when the nearby Graton fire station siren goes off, second-grade teacher Victoria Hill said. Theyre unsettled by school bells or passing ambulances. None of her students lost homes, but some were evacuated or had relatives who lost homes.They need reassurance that those things are normal, and it doesnt mean a big fire is coming to get us, Hill said.Schonfeld said crises can awaken memories and feelings of past traumatic events. Kids also might pretend to be fine because they are concerned about the stigma surrounding mental health or dont want to alarm already stressed-out parents.Santa Rosa City Schools lead psychologist Matt Park said parents also should be mindful of how much they share with their kids on the recovery efforts. Too many details about the cleanup and rebuilding can cause unnecessary stress for kids.The filter is very important, recognizing what to share and when to share it, he said.Schonfeld said during a presentation earlier this month at the Sonoma County Office of Education that schools need to be vigilant and intervene early; otherwise, they could later face an increase in absenteeism, suspensions and expulsions. He said its common for children to struggle academically, but schools need to make sure it doesnt turn into academic failure. He urged educators to remain flexible. If a student is anxious about an oral report, for example, he said, a teacher could allow him to turn in a written report instead.Children have the capacity to be able to cope with things if we support them, Schonfeld said.Navarro said students already are struggling with grades. Kids who traditionally got As and Bs now are seeing their grades slip because they cant focus in class or dont have a place to do homework at home.Its really amplified their anxiety, he said. They were putting all their energy and resources in getting through the day, which leaves little for their academic progress.He said he and faculty members have tried to accommodate students while also holding them accountable for their schoolwork. He remains confident his students will bounce back.I know this event is going shape a lot of their lives, Navarro said. Im optimistic that the future is good  that these kids are going to be OK.2018 The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.)Visit The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.) at www.pressdemocrat.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
(TNS) - Debris removal and other post-fire recovery programs in Sonoma County will continue in the wake of the federal government shutdown, which will have no major immediate impact on Sonoma County, officials said Friday.The shutdown will have no impact on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employees or government contractors engaged in hauling away tons of ash and debris from the October wildfires, said Nancy Allen, a Corps of Engineers spokeswoman.The work is covered by a federal Disaster Relief Fund that does not depend on congressional action at this time, she said.Wildfire debris removal had ramped up during the week and will continue to expand next week, Allen said.There were 70 crews in the field Friday and work will continue over the weekend, with 90 crews scheduled to work starting Monday, she said.Disaster relief programs run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency will also continue, funded by the same source, said Frank Mansell, a FEMA spokesman.There will be no interruption in our work in the North Bay, he said.People with questions about their applications for FEMA assistance can get help online at www.disasterassistance.gov or by calling 800-621-3362.The John F. Shea Federal Building in Santa Rosa will remain open next week, but some offices may be affected by the shutdown.North Bay recreational spots will remain accessible through the weekend, with boat ramps, campgrounds and other facilities open at Lake Sonoma and Lake Mendocino, both managed by the Corps of Engineers.But if the shutdown continues into next week, all visitor facilities will go under lock and key, said Nick Malasavage, chief of operations and readiness at the corps office in San Francisco.Dam operations will not be impacted by the shutdown, he said.Roads and trails at Point Reyes National Seashore on the Marin County coast will remain open, along with vault toilets at many trailheads, but there will be no visitor services, such as restrooms, trash collection or public information there or at national parks nationwide.During the last government shutdown in 2013, closure of parks and national monuments created an uproar, according to a National Public Radio report.The shutdowns economic impact on Sonoma County will be minimal, assuming it is short-lived, said Robert Eyler, a Sonoma State University economics professor.There are only 1,300 federal employees in the countys workforce, amounting to less than 1 percent of the total of 211,000 wage earners. Even if some of them are furloughed during the shutdown they will eventually be compensated, Eyler said.We dont have a major federal presence in Sonoma County, he said.Eyler said he is not aware of any major federal construction contracts in the county and if there were any, the funding would already have been authorized.Washington, D.C. is going to be like a ghost town, Eyler said, identifying the nations capital as the area hardest hit by a shutdown.If the shutdown were to last a month or more, it might impact federal grant funding to local nonprofits, he said.I think they will hammer out a deal (to end the shutdown), Eyler said, referring to federal lawmakers. Democrats might let a shutdown linger to put a pinch on (President Donald) Trump, he said.Key government functions, including active military operations, mail delivery, issuance of Social Security checks, air traffic control, airport security and federal court operations, will continue.During the 16-day shutdown in October 2013, the largest direct cost to the federal budget and the economy was about $2 billion in pay to federal employees for work not done while they were furloughed, according to an Executive Office of the President report the following month.About 850,000 employees  40 percent of the civilian workforce  were furloughed per day in the immediate aftermath of the shutdown, the report said. Workers received the pay retroactively.Among the impacts cited in the report:Head Start centers serving about 6,300 children were closed for up to nine days.Federal research activities were brought to a standstill.Environmental Protection Agency inspections at about 1,200 sites were halted.The National Park Service lost about $7 million in fee revenue and $500 million in visitor spending around parks.Consumer confidence levels slumped and 2 out of 5 Americans said they would reduce their spending.You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 707-521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner.2018 The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.)Visit The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.) at www.pressdemocrat.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Whose president Armen Sarkissian will be? - Narine Dilbiryan (video)

Linguist Narine Dilbaryan believes that according to the new constitution, president also has a sufficient authority. Touching upon Armen Sarkissian's candidacy for the 4th President of the Republic of Armenia, she asks: "Whose president he will be? Republic of Armenia's or Serzh Sargsyan's? If he can demonstrate his own political behavior, some hopes can be justified. And I believe it is early to talk about investments. Let's remember Karen Karapetyan. Many people were saying that he would come and change, as he had friends in such businesses, and so on. He really tried, but that did not change much." Speaking about the Ambassador's activity in the UK, Narine Dilbarian remembered only Prince Charles's business trip to Armenia in 2013 as an achievement. "England has always been Turkey's interests, and we can say that Armen Sarkissian did not move the "wheel" evenly. I cannot mention great achievements in the field of diplomacy by Armen Sarkissian," continued Narine Dilbaryan. Former MP of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) Mkrtich Minasyan, contradicted Narine Dilbaryan and stated that he considers the prince's visit to Armenia as great achievement, which took place thanks to Armen Sarkissian.
Monza boss Angelo Sticchi Damiani has admitted the future of the Italian grand prix is not secure for the future.

After a period of uncertainty, the historic race is firmly on the 2018 calendar.

But the boss of the Italian automobile club Aci told La Gazzetta dello Sport: "If conditions do not change we can no longer guarantee the future of the grand prix at Monza.

"For the 100 year anniversary in 2022, it's only right that the circuit must be adapted," Sticchi Damiani insisted.

He said one major problem is an Italian regulation known as the 'stability law', explaining: "We do not cost the state one euro and we don't ask for anything except that we are not hindered."

Like the other 20 race promoters, representatives of Monza attended a key meeting last week with Liberty Media.

Sticchi Damiani said: "What I notice is a general suffering. On the part of Liberty it is because a monstrous investment has been made and now there must be a return.

"And also (it is true) on the side of the teams, who have even higher costs, and us as organisers who are strangled," he added.

(GMM)
Robert Kubica could now be a contender to race for Williams in 2019.

The British team's technical boss and shareholder Paddy Lowe said he does not regret assessing the Pole's capabilities in a series of tests, even though Kubica was ultimately given only the reserve driver role.

"We organised a serious test programme for him and we will continue this process of assessing him," Lowe is quoted by Russia's Championat.

"Let's see where this leads."

When asked if the former BMW and Renault driver could race in 2019, Lowe answered: "Yes, perhaps."

However, there still may be no place for Kubica.

Team CEO Mike O'Driscoll is quoted as saying by Russian media: "We do not divulge the details, but the contract with Sergey (Sirotkin) is for several seasons.

"Together with Paddy, I want Williams to become world champions once again and Sergey is a part of that," he added.

O'Driscoll is quoted by Sport-Express as saying that Sirotkin's greatest strength is his "consistency".

"In the tests he was incredibly consistent," he said.

"Yes, many tracks are unfamiliar to him, but Sirotkin is very talented and a fast learner."

Many believe it was Sirotkin's big backing by the Russian bank SMP that gave him precedence over Kubica.

But SMP boss Boris Rotenberg insists: "Money is an important component, but Sirotkin is at Williams not because of money but because of the sporting factor.

"We are investing our money in technology instead," he told Tass news agency.

McLaren driver Stoffel Vandoorne also backed Sirotkin.

"Williams made a very good choice," he told La Derniere Heure newspaper.

"I competed against Sergey and he is a very good and very fast driver who works hard," the Belgian said. "He's faster than many believe."

Williams' Lowe agrees: "It is important that the drivers squeeze the last tenths from the car, and I can tell you that Sergey is very smart and very fast."

SMP racing director Dmitry Samorukov confirmed that Sirotkin's contract is for multiple years.

"We cannot disclose that information in detail, but it's one year or more," he told Sportbox. "Everything will depend on how Sergey will prove himself this year."

(GMM)
Sean Bratches has confirmed that more F1 live events will take place in 2018.

Last year, every team and driver except Lewis Hamilton attended a demonstration of F1 cars in London.

Bratches, the sport's new commercial chief, said big PR events like that are "very important".

"The next events of this kind will not be quite that big," he told Auto Motor und Sport.

"We're planning something similar in Marseille, Berlin, Milan, Shanghai and Miami, but not with so many cars," Bratches revealed.

"But we do believe that this contact with the audience outside the race track is important. It carries our message to people we would not otherwise reach.

"Formula one has been so exclusive over the years that it was only accessible to interested people. The same applies to sponsors. There is a lot of interest from companies that are not yet in F1," he added.

However, some teams are resistant to some of the changes planned by Liberty Media, particularly if they cost money and therefore reduce the income 'pot'.

Bratches responded: "If there is a business that has been as poorly marketed as formula one, then everyone understands that first of all you have to invest.

"There was previously no department for sponsors, digital platforms, marketing, communication, the rules. Setting this up will pay off one day to the extent that everyone will appreciate the investments," he said.

(GMM)
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

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For more than 3 hours, 50 or more Azerbaijani servicemen have blocked the interstate road

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Covid-19: 163 new cases in Armenia

Armenia: Remarks by Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi at the press point with Acting Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan

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Armenia: Statement by the Spokesperson on the early parliamentary elections

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Armenias early parliamentary elections were competitive and well run, but polarized and marred by aggressive rhetoric, international observers say

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Khandoyan brothers cannot visit each other (video)

Khandoyan brothers in Nubarashen penitentiary cannot be visited. They have the right to visit close relatives, but there is no such law that detainees can visit each other. Attorney Ara Gharagyozyan believes this is a violation and has appealed to the Human Rights Defender (HRD). "The Nubarashen penitentiary, and they also, refused. Besides, Artush Gabrielyan did not allow Ararat Khandoyan to visit Araik Khandoyan, so we that is why we cannot interfere in the court proceedings, "Ara Gharagyozyan told A1 +. The HRD clarifications are unacceptable for an attorney. "Again, my clients are subjected to political persecution. For this reason, the Ombudsman did not take any real action, the law is presented in his desirable way, so that the issue would not be solved." Today attorneys of Sasna Tsrer group presented the issues that emerged during the preliminary investigation and trial. According to Mushegh Shushanyan, the circumstances of three policemen's death should be thoroughly investigated. Smbat Barseghyan and Armen Bilian are charged with murdering three policemen. "Time will come when the specific circumstances will be investigated, then their attorneys and other attorneys may also present facts, from which it will become clear that the official view does not correspond to the reality," assured Mushegh Shushanyan. Defender Arayik Papikyan believes that the preliminary investigation of the case of the murder of a policeman has ended very quickly. However, there is no news about the attempted murder to Sasna Tsrer group members and the torture in court. Sasna Tsrer continues to insist that the occupation of the USSR regiment in the summer of 2016 is an uprising. According to attorney Tigran Hayrapetyan, the authorities did not deny the existence of this right. Defenders once again warned that accusation of Sasna Tsrer members was not personalized, everyone was charged with the same act.
Have you noticed an increasing number of airline passengers accompanied in the cabin by a dog (or other critter) that is clearly not a service animal like a guide dog for a blind person?

These non-service dogs are known as emotional support animals, and under a federal law called the Air Carrier Access Act, they have just as much right to fly with their owner as a service animal does.

However, critics say that passengers sometimes claim their dog is an emotional support animal just so they can bring it in the cabin free of charge. Why? Because they dont want it to travel in a crate in the baggage hold  or because with a dog, they can snag a bulkhead or aisle seat.

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Delta Air Lines is now cracking down on emotional support and service animals, citing a lack of regulation that has led to serious safety risks involving untrained animals in flight. The airline said it carries about 700 service or emotional support animals every day, and since 2016 it has seen an 84 percent jump in animal incidents, including urination/defecation, biting, and even a widely reported attack by a 70-pound dog that bit a passenger in the face.

The airline notes that the emotional support needs of some passengers for animal companionship can be pretty far out there. Customers have attempted to fly with comfort turkeys, gliding possums known as sugar gliders, snakes, spiders and more, Delta said.

So starting March 1, Delta will impose new rules on in-cabin service and emotional support animals. Theyll still fly for free in accordance with federal law, but owners will be required to show proof of health or vaccinations 48 hours in advance of their flight.

In addition to the current requirement of a letter prepared and signed by a doctor or licensed mental health professional, those with psychiatric service animals and emotional support animals will also need to provide a signed document confirming that their animal can behave, the airline said. The rules dont apply to small animals kept in a kennel under the seat.

About a year and a half ago, some airlines led an effort to get emotional support animals banned from aircraft cabins, but thus far without success.

Whether Deltas new rules will achieve the desired result is far from certain. Do a Google search for service animals on aircraft, and youll see that for a price, you can get someone to vouch for just about anything if you want to take your dog on a plane. The top four search results are all ads that promise things like: Stop struggling with no-pet policy  instant approval  get your letter today! and Licensed therapist  get ESA (emotional support animal) letter in 24 hours! and Get a service dog letter and never pay for flight pet deposits again!

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Chris McGinnis is the founder of TravelSkills.com. The author is solely responsible for the content above, and it is used here by permission. You can reach Chris at chris@travelskills.com or on Twitter @cjmcginnis.
GREENWICH  Greenwich elementary schools and Greenwich High School could have some expanding to do in order to accommodate future classes, according to a recent update of the Greenwich Public Schools 15-year master facilities plan.

Collectively, Greenwich elementary schools are missing about 95,000 square feet of core instruction space, according to Russ Davidson, president of KG and D architects, the firm completing the master plan. Thats the equivalent in square footage, of about two whole elementary schools.

KG and D has been evaluating each of the districts 15 schools and comparing their capacities to their highest projected enrollment in the next eight years in order to gauge the schools readiness to meet upcoming demands. The architects do not yet have specific recommendations on how to renovate or maintain Greenwich schools.

We have completed some capacity analysis work and enrollment work and we are about to come up with some ideas about how to improve each school, said Davidson. Were getting near the end.

He said some of the schools might need to be renovated.

Your enrollment is trending upwards, he told Board of Education members Thursday night. It is not dramatic but it is about 3.7 percent overall.

Increasing enrollment over the next several years at Greenwich High is responsible for the lion share of the increase, Davidson said. The high school could need modest renovations to accommodate more students, he suggested.

Is it worth exploring creating a freshman academy? Davidson said. Maybe that is an interesting thought to look at.

Meanwhile, while elementary school enrollment is not predicted to change in the future, a few schools are at or over capacity already. Many schools have smaller classrooms than is recommended by national and Connecticut standards, and some lack certain kinds of learning spaces, like science rooms, that are present in the districts more modern schools. Julian Curtiss, Old Greenwich and Riverside schools are not Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessible.

A bunch of your elementary schools need adjustment to be on par with your new buildings, he said. Big changes are needed at Riverside, even Old Greenwich and Julian Curtiss have a shortage, North Mianus  these are buildings that do not have generous amounts of space.

School board member Lauren Rabin wondered if building a 12th elementary school should be considered. Davidson said renovations of existing schools would be recommended.

If you build a new elementary school, you still have 11 substandard buildings that students go to every day, he said.

Greenwich middle schools are equipped to handle their future enrollments, Davidson said, but at previous public meetings he suggested poor 1960s design and indoor air quality issues might make some of the schools candidates for tear down.

KG and D and district administrators emphasized that they still have a lot of planning and analysis to do before they unveil specific construction plans.

We are having to reinvent and reimagine schools for the next 50 years, said Superintendent of Schools Jill Gildea. We are going to have to build that road map together.

This is a starting point, said Board of Education Chair Peter Bernstein. He said the board will devote a retreat to facilities discussions when the master plan is ready.

KG and D architects held public meetings to get community input on Greenwich school facilities in the fall. The master plan will be presented to the school board in the spring. It will form the basis of the school districts 2019-20 capital budget and those going forward.

emunson@greenwichtime.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson
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Are you happy with your job? If you live in Hawaii, Alaska or Wyoming, then you probably answered yes.

Its no surprise that a job can have a strong impact on your happiness. Often, many people have experienced first-hand what it feels like to be unhappy with your work, which can have an effect on your social life, family relationships and overall well-being. Research shows that the average worker will spend one-third of their life at work, so its important to make sure youre doing something that makes you smile. And it turns out, geography can also play a big role.
The California wildfires were still raging last fall as Jennifer Bilstein and her 15-year-old son inched their way down Highway 101, a two-hour drive in ordinary times that took four hours through the smoke-filled air and yellow sky. She was determined to get Jacob to his doctor's appointment on time.

It was his second visit to the adolescent gender clinic, where Jacob - a shy boy with pink cheeks, a cowlick and black oversize glasses - was being medically evaluated to begin taking testosterone.

He had already gone through puberty as a girl, an experience that made him conclude he had been born into the wrong gender. "I was always uncomfortable calling myself 'she' or 'her,' " he explained. "It made my skin crawl."

At 13, Jacob - then called Samantha - had informed his mother, sending her the news in a Facebook message after being dropped off at school one morning in Ukiah, one of Northern California's iconic hippie towns.

Now, the two sat in an examination room at the University of California at San Francisco, or UCSF, as Jennifer Bilstein signed her name to a seemingly endless succession of medical forms. Bilstein acknowledged that she initially had trouble accepting the news.

"I didn't understand the words coming out of my child's mouth," she said. "To raise a beautiful daughter to 13 and then have her tell me she's a boy . . . "

As she spoke, her child studied his hands, legs swinging back and forth under the examining table. "But the reality is that Jacob's my child, and regardless of gender or whatever, my child always comes first in my life," she said. "And realistically, it's not about me. It's about Jake."

As they navigate the rough shoals of the trans life, the Bilsteins are putting their hopes in the Child and Adolescent Gender Center at UCSF. Founded in 2012, it is one of 40 or so such clinics around the country, seeing patients as young as 3 and as old as 25.

It is also one of the busiest, encompassing four disciplines: Medical, mental health, patient advocacy and legal services. Although surgery is not available at the center, its clinicians maintain close ties with local surgeons to whom they refer patients upon request. On the day that Jacob arrived for his appointment, the examining rooms were filled with 15 elementary schoolchildren, adolescents and teenagers who had traveled from as far away as Hawaii and Sweden and as nearby as the Bay Area. All were seeking a change in their physical sex characteristics to align with their gender identity.

Since opening, the center has seen close to 700 patients. The demand for its services has grown so much that UCSF over the past two years opened two satellite clinics.

The type of services being requested has also changed. Clinicians say they are no longer taken aback by youths seeking some kind of boutique treatment - often "just a touch of testosterone" for an androgynous, nonbinary identity.

"It's the children who are now leading us," said Diane Ehrensaft, the director of mental health for the clinic. "They're coming in and telling us, 'I'm no gender.' Or they're saying, 'I identify as gender nonbinary.' Or 'I'm a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I'm a unique gender, I'm transgender. I'm a rainbow kid, I'm boy-girl, I'm everything.' "

In fact, the entire medical field is playing catch-up. Last summer, the Mount Sinai Health System in New York awarded two medical fellowships - the first of their kind in the United States - in transgender surgery and transgender psychiatry.

The National Institutes of Health last year awarded $5.7 million for a five-year, multicenter study - also the first of its kind - to evaluate long-term outcomes of medical treatment for transgender youth. The UCSF clinic is one of the study's four sites.

Nationally, the transgender adult population is estimated at 1.4 million, according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. That is twice as many as previously estimated. The rate among U.S. youths is even greater. At 0.7 percent of the population, 150,000 Americans between 13 and 17 years old reportedly identify as transgender.

"The question I'm most often asked is whether the transgender population is actually growing or whether more people are coming out," said Stephen Rosenthal, the clinic's medical director and founder. "I'm convinced it's the latter. It seems there's almost a critical mass that's emerged because of increased public awareness and increasing acceptance of diversity."

A pediatric endocrinologist, Rosenthal is not only the central figure of UCSF's gender clinic; immediate past president of the Pediatric Endocrine Society (PES), he is also one of the most influential authorities in the field.

His views are helping to shape a new generation of medical providers. A longtime advocate of early hormone therapy for transgender youth, he was instrumental in helping rewrite the international guidelines for medical treatment for transgender youth.

While the previous guidelines cited 16 as the cutoff age to begin hormone therapy, the new ones, published in November in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, make no reference to age and cite "compelling reasons" to start earlier.

Medical treatment for younger children will continue unchanged. As before, they will receive puberty blockers, which work by decreasing secretion of pituitary and sex hormones.

Puberty blockers have long been the gold standard for treatment of precocious puberty. They work by preventing the growth of breasts and onset of menstruation, or the sprouting of facial hair and swelling of the penis. In the case of transgender youth, endocrinologists say that blockers can buy teenagers some precious time, allowing them to put off a final decision and prevent future and unnecessary surgeries such as breast removal.

And if they change their minds and become what are called "desisters" - kids who return to their assigned gender at birth - no harm done; their puberty has simply been delayed a year or two. The effects are largely reversible.

"We recognized that there's no biological logic to a cutoff of 16," explained Joshua Safer, an endocrinologist at Boston University School of Medicine who was also instrumental in revising the guidelines. "There are kids with a clear gender identity out there and there is no reason to make them wait for some legal line when we can already be helping them with their biological reality."

But puberty blockers do come with a shelf life, according to Rosenthal.

"One of the things that happens during puberty is that the rate of calcium development increases markedly," he said. A puberty blocker slows down the rate of bone mineral acquisition, potentially lowering bone density. "This uptick is important in minimizing risks of osteoporosis later in life. So there's a theoretical harm if you put puberty on hold a long time."

The average age for puberty in girls is 10 or 11. In boys, it's generally between 10 and 12.

"As an endocrinologist, I decided years ago that if you waited until 16, which is way beyond the normal age of puberty, that would be taking an unnecessary risk,' Rosenthal continued. "We made the decision we wouldn't do that. A person needs to determine by 14 what their gender is. If they aren't sure, they have to come off the blocker."

In other words, the decision to transition - often irreversibly - is increasingly made by age 14.

Some psychologists have pushed back on this idea, arguing that a child should be required to go through puberty before making such an enormous decision.

Gender dysphoria - the feeling that the body one is born into doesn't conform to one's sense of gender identity - may dissipate as kids get older. A 2011 study is often cited as an argument against medical and social transitioning. It found that 84 percent of kids with gender dysphoria eventually desisted, or came to feel comfortable with their birth-assigned gender. But the study has been widely criticized for its lack of follow-up and other problems.

The controversy - whether gender dysphoria is permanent or ephemeral - has occasionally made its way into the UCSF clinic, with clinical psychologist Erica Anderson - herself a transgender woman - sometimes playing devil's advocate.

"I think a fair number of kids are getting into it because it's trendy," said Anderson, who was married for 30 years and fathered two children before transitioning seven years ago.

"I'm often the naysayer at our meetings. I'm not sure it's always really trans. I think in our haste to be supportive, we're missing that element. Kids are all about being accepted by their peers. It's trendy for professionals, too."

Rosenthal is of the opinion that the vast amount of interest is real. In his experience, people - especially young people - rarely seek medical intervention unless they're deeply committed. Young patients are required to undergo a mental-health screening and evaluation in tandem with medical treatment "to help achieve clarity for the best path forward," as Rosenthal put it.

Transgender youth are inordinately susceptible to acute depression, according to studies published by the Williams Institute. More than anything, Rosenthal said, it's this understanding that brings families to the UCSF clinic.

Every parent here is familiar with the statistic, the one that says 41 percent of transgender people have attempted suicide at least once. Most of the kids who come through the doors at UCSF have experienced at least one episode of acute depression, according to Rosenthal.

For years, Muir, a self-possessed 12-year-old from the East Bay, told his parents that he was a "birl": part boy, part girl.

He knows how to tie his own bow tie and loves to read. And while he's not positive what he wants to be when he grows up, he's pretty sure it's either an actor, a writer, a doctor or a park ranger.

"I don't think of [being born female] as a particularly important detail," he said during a recent visit to the UCSF clinic. "If you start out life with a female body and you're like me, you're labeled straight. It's just a label."

Muir (to protect his privacy, he and his parents asked that only his middle name be used in this article and that the family's last name not be used) was 10 years old when he came out to his fourth-grade classmates at circle time. "Some of you have known I haven't been an average girl," he began. His parents stood by in support, videotaping the conversation. They needn't have worried. "Everyone I've told is, like, 'Oh, what's for lunch?' " he said with a shrug.

At the UCSF clinic, young patients such as Muir are closely followed and frequently checked for signs of puberty such as breast budding or testes enlargement. As soon as any are spotted, they are given the option of hormone blockers to delay puberty for a few years.

Muir's initial treatment was a momentous occasion. The date is burned in his memory: May 5, 2017. So is the setting: "The room had puppies on the wall," he said. Muir loves dogs.

His parents have changed the birth name and gender on his passport and birth certificate. "It's not something we feel there's any possibility he would change his mind," said his mother, who uses the pen name Elle White on the blog justmyboy.com, about the journey that she has embarked on with her child.

"He's living as the boy he's always been," she said. "There's still a lot ahead: Hormone therapy when he's an adolescent, possibly gender affirmation surgery when he's an adult, navigating relationships and making choices about parenthood.

"But he'll make his way along his journey as a person, as we all do, regardless of the body we're in or who we love. He'll discover who he is in the world, just like any other kid."

Clinicians at UCSF anticipate a future in which trans women will be able carry their own babies to term, thanks to medical breakthroughs such as uterine transplantation.

They now routinely counsel young patients on their future fertility options, encouraging them to bank their sperm or eggs in case they ever want to have a genetically related baby.

"Everything is changing so fast," said Ehrensaft, a supportive presence who oversees fertility counseling at the clinic. "One of the reasons we have a clinic today is because we have puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. Most transgenders who are 50, 60 years old - they never imagined that would be possible."
Antoni Porowski is here to help. Photo: Melissa Hom

Leave it to Netflix to reboot the award-winning, early 2000s makeover show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. The premiere is set for February 7, and along with the shows move from Bravo to the streaming service, there are a few other changes: The name is now officially just Queer Eye, the setting has moved from New York to Georgia, theres a stronger emphasis on self-care, and there is, as you may have guessed, a new Fab Five.

Enter Antoni Porowski, the new food and wine expert (as well as something of a protege to former Queer Eye food authority Ted Allen). I think we all want to be taken care of and loved, Porowski says of his approach to the new gig. To give somebody that  its a service job, is what I realized. Grub talked to Porowski about the new show, the new setting, the crushing disappointment of bad peaches, and whether the original cast members had any helpful advice.

Ted Allen was the original Queer Eye food expert  and you worked for him. How did you meet him?

So a good buddy of mine, who has actually always encouraged me to get more involved with food on the public level, told me, like, Look this guy Ted Allen lives in your hood; hes someone that you should know. And this is right when his book came out, In My Kitchen, and he was hosting a book signing at Green Light on Fulton Street, so I decided to go and we chatted it up. We found out that we lived literally across the street from one another, and then eventually I started working for him and cooking for him.

You were his personal chef?

Yes. Was, but not anymore. When he was a little busier with Chopped, I would help with publications requesting recipes; he does a lot of public speaking, so I would help with talks about things that he was passionate about, mostly food-related, and doing that for him.

Did he give you any advice for this show?

We met the original Fab Five, and they were all super sweet. Ted was like, the stereotype  and it is a stereotype  is that gay guys have all these strong opinions about interior design and grooming and fashion, but not so much with food. He said that the good thing about that was that you have a bit of freedom to do what you want and figure out whats right for the person youre helping. He also told me to, like, take it easy. I like to complicate things, but its not about me. Its about the person that were helping.

So, how did you get into food?

Food has always been such an important part of growing up. Whenever we would travel with my parents, wed always come back with recipes, cookbooks, and really weird ingredients from all these different places, so Ive always been very passionate about cooking. When I was in college, and I wasnt as spoiled anymore, I had to fend for myself, and a good way to continue entertaining was to have dinner parties at my house, so I had to learn how to cook. I basically taught myself. A lot of Julia Child, a lot of PBS.

My kitchen is very tiny at the moment, but I still use Teds kitchen a lot. He invites me for dinner where he demands that I cook, but not in a professional capacity. We actually still do a lot of dinners whenever we can. He likes to host. He has a gorgeous backyard with a massive outdoor grill, a full-on smoker, and a really professional kitchen that I get to play around with.

What are your food obsessions?

My favorite Italian restaurant is this classic Italian place called Da Ciro on Myrtle. They have this really thin focaccia with a robiola Lombardia and a little bit of prosciutto, arugula, and some sun-dried tomatoes. Its thin and crispy, with creamy cheese on the inside. My boyfriend and I go and just scarf one of those down. Since its winter, I love a good ragu or a Bolognese, any type of a meaty sauce. Im very meat-and-dairy. On the healthier side, Im all about butternut squash during the winter. Or any squash, roasted with the skin, with miso. I love crispy lacinato kale.

How did you get involved with the show?

I have two people in my life  my best friend, P.J., and my boyfriend, Joey  who have always told me that I should pursue food in a more professional capacity, but food has always been something very sacred and personal and private for me. I never really wanted to share it, until the opportunity actually came about with the reboot of Queer Eye.

I was afraid when I first found out about it because youre not playing a character. Maybe its a heightened version of myself, maybe Im a little louder on the show than I am in real life, but essentially Im asked to be myself. That part was really intimidating. While I am a very fearful person in life, I always tend to lean into fear, and it served me really well in the past. It did with this experience as well.

Were you a fan of the original show?

I used to watch Queer Eye along with shows like Will & Grace. I became interested in guys a lot later in life; it was never anything that I felt the need to explore until my 20s. I remember watching these shows and  my parents are pretty liberal people; there wasnt any homophobia growing up or anything like that  I still felt like I had to watch it secretly.

I remember Ted went somewhere in the Village where this guy was talking about mozzarella and cheeses, and talking about how the last thing that goes for immigrants when they move to a new country is food. Language disappears, the clothing we wear, all of these customs go, but food is the one constant. I remember being so excited by that and the way that Ted spoke about food. It just gave me chills! I think that was my favorite episode of the old series.

So how is the new Queer Eye different from the original?

Part of what was very attractive to me was the fact that its a little more global now. The way that they set up this one is very documentary-like. We really get to know these guys. Some of these guys have never had somebody pay so much attention to them, to teach them how to care for themselves, or show up. Its super emotional, and Im a very sentimental, supersensitive guy, so there was a lot of crying, ugly-snot crying that got edited out, thank goodness.

I have my favorite transformations, ones that really stuck to me. A guy who was super passionate about cooking who had just stopped for ten years  to see him find that spark again  he sends me photos of his dinner parties and these cheese and charcuterie platters that he does, and I get teary-eyed when I look at it. It just makes me so happy.

As much as I wanted to show off my skills and what I know about food, its about showing up for that person and figuring out what their needs are.

The original show was set in New York, and now youre in Georgia. How does that change your approach?

I thought that it was going to be more of a culture shock, but it reminded me a lot of when I lived in West Virginia for a few years, like Appalachia, Bible Belt, right in the mountains. In the stores, especially, that part was definitely when I realized its pretty incredible what we have available to us here in New York. Although sometimes we were able to take our heroes to the more international markets in the city, a lot of times that wasnt the case. Its just a reminder that its difficult, but its not impossible to eat right.

What were you working with?

There was one thing I was really disappointed about. We were going to Georgia, it was summer, and my favorite fruit is a peach. In a salad, or grilled, or in desert, its so good. When its perfectly ripe, a grilled peach with a little Maldon salt and, like, a basil leaf: Thats poetry. Anyway, I wanted to cook with peaches, and it was, like, the worst crop in I dont know how many years. Like 80 percent of them were total garbage, which is really unfortunate!

How do you approach cooking with the guys youre trying to help?

Not everyone cares about cooking. I think most people dont, actually. But you can do it if you have a reason. If, say, you want to show your parents, you know what, I do know how to make that traditional dish that we had when we were growing up on Sundays with Grandma. Or if youre somebody whos dating and wants to know how to make the perfect risotto, just learn the basic rules and then you can learn how to make it your own.

Its different with everyone, and if there are future seasons, I hope I just get to continue doing that because it never gets old. Everyone is so different. At the end of the day, we all want the same thing.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
UK bound: French Wine Discoveries

By Jo Gilbert

It can be a double-edged sword being a French winemaker.

On one hand, you have the cachet of having a product from the worlds most venerated wine country; but this is at stark odds with the task of standing out in a crowded market place like the UK  predicted to be the second biggest importer of still wine by value this year behind the US, according to the IWSR.

Such is the challenge for those at last weeks French Wine Discoveries tasting, where as yet undistributed producers in the UK were not only seeking representation but aiming to adapt to a notoriously competitive market, which not only means fending off New World competition, but competition from within France, where big names like Bordeaux and Burgundy take most of the star power.

However, France as a whole is used to adjusting its offering to the UK.

Take the Loire, Frances biggest producer of appellation white wines, for example: the UK is the regions top export market, (20% of volume sales), behind the US (18%) and Belgium (15%).

In the UK, Brits tend to prefer the white-heavy production coming out of the region (47% is white, compared to 20% red, 24% rose and 9% sparkling), favouring Sauvignon Bancs from the likes of Pouilly-Fume and Sancerre, and also Coteaux de Giennois, which continues to grow in popularity and recognition.

This love of light, crisp whites, is at the expense of Cabernet Franc, which has been generally rejected by Brits - although according to Antoine Waels, international project manager at Val de Loire, this could be changing.

In the UK, everyone wants Sancerre and also Cremant de Loire, he said. When you spoke to UK buyers before, they didnt like Cab Franc. But now there is a new generation producing high quality with soft tannins and ripe grapes. Its the same for Muscadet. A few years ago, it wasnt talked about in good way. But there has been a rebirth for Muscadet.

Muscadet, made from Melon de Bourgogne grapes at the western end of the Loire Valley, is produced more than any other Loire wine; and this new style of Muscadet could be seen in the wines of Chateau la Perriere and Domaine Derame Alexandre at the French Wine Discoveries tasting, where more time on lees makes for more of a rich and rounded wine.

However, this is still a very new way of producing Muscadet, said Waels.

It is more likely to be found in boutique wine shops in Brittany and in Paris  which are incidentally the two key French hotspots for Loire wines outside of the Loire itself.

Author Paul Strang confirms persistent insular regional consumption patterns across France, making it difficult for the myriad AOCs of a place like the Languedoc to push through outside of their own locale, let alone to the UK and beyond.

If you live in Paris, you drink Burgundy, Bordeaux and Loire, and you dont want to know much else, he said.

Outside of Paris, you drink the wines of the region. Only on high feasts and holidays do people branch out.

In his new book, Languedoc Roussilon: the Wines and Winemakers, Strang charts his love of the older grapes of the Languedoc, such as Cinsault and Carignan which continue to bounce back from being put on the back burner by the French government in former decades, when vintners were paid to plant Syrah and Mourvedre instead.

Along with Grenache, Cinsault and Carignan are now continuing to thrive in terms of perception and commerciality, at home and abroad he said, despite being known for producing bad, cheap wine pre-1985.

Thanks to a switcheroo in thinking on the merits of these historic grapes, growers are no longer paid to root up Carignan, they are paid to grow it: It was found if you prune it and keep yields low, then it makes great wine.

While a sizeable 25% of all French wine reaching the UK comes from the southwest, the Languedoc-Roussillon is still dominated by its co-operatives, so individual wineries gaining export distribution is still a challenge for many - especially in a region which has to a certain extent been swallowed by the ever growing Occitanie, now comprising the Languedoc, Rousillion and mid-Pyrenees.

The Languedoc has been lumbered with other wines from part of the southwest  Im not sure the Languedoc producers are very keen about that, said Strang.

However, Cahors and Gaillac in the southwest are making very interesting wines as part of the Occtaine, he added, and along with appellations to the east in Minervois and Corbieres, and the lesser-known areas of Pic St Loup and Terrasses du Larzac are making some of the best wine in the country.

While the Occitanie as a wine branding tool is still taking its very newly formed messaging to places like the UK, individual appellations continue to grow names for themselves.

The success of Picpoul, for example, is encouragement for Howard Laughton, UK director of Chateau Capion based in the Languedocs Terrasses du Larzac - a relatively small appellation consisting of around 80 producers (as per listed on the official wesbite) half an hour from Montpellier.

It is a treasure trove of super talented winemakers who make great wines, Laughton said. But the Languedoc is such a big area  you have to go hunting, which from a marketing perspective makes it more difficult.

The Languedoc is less defined compared to Burgundy and Bordeaux and even the Roussillon. The only way to do it really is to raise the profile of the appellation. Picpoul has suddenly taken off. In the UK, you have to differentiate yourself even more because of the wealth of wine available on shelf.








McPherson reveals unique wines to celebrate 50 anniversary

By Lisa Riley

Australian winery McPherson Wine Co has revealed a raft of activity to celebrate its 50 birthday, including a number of exclusive wines.

Lanchester Wines, the exclusive UK distributor of the family winery, said the celebrations would kick off at Australia Day Tasting in London tomorrow, with McPhersons winemaker Jo Nash busy creating a number of exclusive anniversary wines.

Set to be released throughout the year, the newcomers would comprise special parcels of low volume, unique offering encompassing the spirit of McPherson, said Gary Williams, McPherson's general manager.

Wine is exceptional in that every bottle will be enjoyed in a unique environment and appreciated in a different way which is why weve developed the theme In Good Company to run throughout our celebrations, he said.

The UK will also be the first to see a new quartet of McPherson wines and vintages - La Vue Riesling 2017, Aquarius Marsanne Viognier 2017, Dont Tell Gary Shiraz 2016 and MWC Shiraz Mourvedre 2015.

Other activity planned to mark the anniversary include a number of events across the globe, such as a summer party in Australia, an anniversary dinner in China and events with bloggers across New York and LA.

As one of its leading exports markets, the UK was the perfect place to start the one-year celebrations, said Williams.
WARD QUESTIONS GOVERNOR IGE ABOUT MISSILE ALERT, WARNS OF POSSIBLE CONFLICT OF INTEREST WITH GENERAL HARA

News Release from Office of Rep. Gene Ward

Rep. Gene Ward (R-Hawaii Kai, Kalama Valley) wrote a letter to Governor David Ige putting forth the questions he was not given an opportunity to ask in the Legislative Hearing held at the State Capitol Auditorium on January 19, 2018.

Wards letter noted, I was not allowed to ask you any questions in last Fridays hearing because my last name started with W and you left the hearing after 38 minutes, the exact same period of time the people of Hawaii were traumatized by the January 13ths false missile attack alarm.

Your early departure connoted the amount of concern you gave this subject -- more akin to a budget hearing rather than a total breakdown of communications with the people of Hawaii. I am also of the opinion that the Chairman of the hearing was not seriously interested in having a detailed Information Briefing into the Missile Alert Fiasco when the period allotted was just a 2-hour time slot at the Capitol Auditorium for you and three of your Generals. This was a matter of serious national interest and it was treated with less attention than a hearing on homelessness at the Capitol.

Ward asked a number of questions to the Governor and then ended his letter with a warning about a possible conflict of interest:" Lastly, I raise the issue of conflict of interest if you expect the people of Hawaii to believe your final report when it is being written by General Hara, who is too close to the situation at HI-EMA, a close personal friend of General Miyagi and under the command of General Logan. According to the Department of Defense, General Logan serves as the Director of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, so how can he be evaluated by his Deputy Director, General Hara? How can he investigate his boss and colleague General Miyagi and his assigned responsibilities at HI-EMA in an objective manner?

SA: Ige Defends Hara Investigation

* * * * *

Dear Governor Ige, January 22, 2018

I was not allowed to ask you any questions in last Fridays hearing because my last name started with W and you left the hearing after 38 minutes. Two pretty lame excuses, unless of course you and the Chair were attempting to send a message that 38 minutes is what you want to be remembered for.

My point is you were too easily dismissed by the Chairman to be responsible to the people of Hawaii to answer legislators questions. Your early departure connoted the amount of concern you gave this subject -- more akin a budget hearing rather than a total breakdown of communications with the people of Hawaii. I am also of the opinion that the Chairman of the hearing was not seriously interested in having a detailed Information Briefing into the Missile Alert Fiasco when the period allotted was just a 2-hour time slot at the Capitol Auditorium for you and three of your Generals. This was a matter of serious national interest and it was treated with less attention than a hearing on homelessness at the Capitol.

Im writing this follow-up letter to you today not only because I could not ask you any questions in last Fridays Hearing, but also because the people of Hawaii did not receive the detailed answers they deserve. Until those answer are provided, the images of a father putting his daughter in a sewer manhole for protection and UH students fleeing for their lives on campus, and a constituent of mine having a heart attack, will be indelibly linked to the future credibility and trust of your Administration.

I trust you are prepared to regain the confidence of the people of Hawaii and you could certainly begin that by promptly answering this letter.

Below are questions I would have asked you as a member of the House Committee on Veterans, Military, & International Affairs, & Culture and the Arts, plus a few others as new information has been forthcoming since the hearing:

My opening statement: Thank you Governor Ige for being here, but more important, taking responsibility for what I have called the Missile Alert Fiasco. You have said the buck stops here and should be commended for this (as President Trump did on national TV) but regardless of how many mea culpas or kala mais you constantly repeat, there are simply too many unanswered questions to accept your apologies and promise of never again..

(Some of the questions below were asked in my January 15 letter to the Governor and I will paraphrase them with the other questions I was intending to ask at the Hearing.)

 First, Governor Ige, how can the emergency alert system you set up issue an official live missile alert without first getting permission from PACOM? PACOM is the only authority that knows there is a missile threat. How can you override that with your so-called drill when your message of January 13 did not say it was one?

 Is there a protocol from PACOM that has to first signal to you that the state is actually under a missile threat before you send out an alert? If not, why not? Your button should not be allowed to be pushed without this clearance protocol, so why was it? Did you discuss this with your software vendor and allow a single individual to make the determination on his own? How this has been explained so far borders on incompetence of personnel or a Rube Goldberg software system for which we should get our money back.

 Because there are so many gaps in time and knowledge of what precisely happened on the morning of January 13, I requested in my January 15 letter to you what I called a forensic tour" of the HI-EMA facilities so legislators can fully understand what happened on the morning of January 13, 2018. Will you organize and allow your generals to conduct such a tour so legislators will be able to explain exactly what happened to their constituents?

Now what follows are the questions that I asked to Generals Logan and Miyagi in your absence. This includes the partial questions I asked and others that I was not allowed to ask.

QUESTION 1: CAN WE KICK THE TIRES OF HI-EMA?: I basically asked the same question as above to General Logan about HI-EMA organizing a forensic tour" of HI-EMA and a walk through of the events of the morning of January 13. General Logan gave a vague yes with a bit of dancing between the need for transparency and how a study by General Hara will have details available that Legislators can see. Your answer to this question will be more important than his response to date.

QUESTION 2: "MOTHER MAY I" FROM FEMA REQUIRED: I then asked General Logan if he, you, or General Miyagi had said that HI-EMA had to ask FEMA for permission to retract the message that was incorrectly sent out? While he was answering this question, KHON reporter Gina Mangieri shook her head at his response because she had spoken with FEMA and was told that no such permission or clearance was required by them -- some misinformation initially put out by your Administration suggesting that Hawaii had to do a mother may I with FEMA before retracting your false alarm. General Miyagi stepped up to the microphone and fell on his sword on this one.

Unfortunately, before I got beyond General Miyagis HI-EMA Mea Culpa -- I was cut off by the Chairman as I was in the process of asking General Miyagi: If you were still on active duty during the January 13 events and they occurred on your watch and under your supervision, what would your response be to what happened regarding personnel, and what would your commanding Generals likely do to you after how you handled this event?

So, will heads roll, Governor? Sometimes the most honorable thing is for those in error is to remove themselves.

GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY I WOULD HAVE ALSO ASKED A RHETORICAL QUESTION WITH A TOUCH OF LEVITY: Mr. Chairman, may I call Gina Mangieri of KHON TV to the stand? She appears to know more about this event and what went wrong than most people in this room. (I knew he would object to this suggestion, though as a former reporter himself, the Chair might appreciate the intent.)

But let the facts be known, Gina Mangeri has uncovered a number of half-truths that put HI-EMA in a very unfavorable light, particularly noting that FEMA did not have to give permission to HI-EMA to retract the Missile Alert, and that the so-called wrong click of the mouse on a single screen, turns out to be a series of screens and a series of clicks required as uncovered by Ms. Mangeri.

THE LAST QUESTION WAS TO ASK GENERAL LOGAN ABOUT THE FCC COMING TO HAWAII AND THIS HEARING: Who was responsible for the 3 FCC members being here today? Did you invite them, or did the Federal Government see fit to intervene, or perceive we needed outside help and could NOT do this on our own?

So Governor Ige, thank you for the opportunity to ask these questions to you, albeit some days later but nonetheless still as important and in print.

TRANSPARENCY REQUESTED:

As earlier stated, I am disappointed that you and your Generals did not spend more time with us. I am very curious about what was on your schedule, on Friday morning, January 19 that did not allow you to stay longer than 38 minutes in the hearing. I and a few others are interested to learn of what kept you from answering further questions.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST:

Lastly, I raise the issue of conflict of interest if you expect the people of Hawaii to believe your final report when it is being written by General Hara, who is too close to the situation at HI-EMA, a close personal friend of General Miyagi and under the command of General Logan. According to the Department of Defense, General Logan serves as the Director of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, so how can he be evaluated by his Deputy Director, General Hara? How can he investigate his boss and colleague General Miyagi and his assigned responsibilities at HI-EMA in an objective manner?

General Hara is an honorable man, but may I suggest you work with the Legislature in forming an investigative panel to ensure the objectivity of this report and that it is received with the highest credibility. The way it is currently structured looks to incestuous and unobjective.

Thank you ahead of time for responding to these questions I have posed to you and your Generals. I trust the nature of this subject and its importance to the people of Hawaii will be reason to answer these questions in an expeditious manner. Mahalo.

Respectfully,

Rep. Gene Ward, Member
Former US coal company CEO, jailed for deadly mine explosion, to run for Senate seat

Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, sentenced in 2016 to one year in prison on a conviction stemming from the deadliest US mine explosion in four decades, has announced he will launch a campaign to wrest the West Virginia US senate seat currently held by moderate Democrat Joe Manchin.

Don Blankenship - Image: DonHayden1980/Wikimedia

His sentence was for conspiring to violate federal mine safety standards at Massey's Upper Big Branch Mine in southern West Virginia where 29 workers died in a 2010 explosion. In September 2017, the US Supreme Court rejected his appeal against the conviction.



He is aligning himself with President Donald Trump, and is banking on the significant support in West Virginia for the President to boost his Senate campaign. Being jailed during the Obama administration was probably a badge of honour, Blankenship told CBNC in an interview.



The former Massey Energy CEO said he did not believe his sentence would hurt his Republican bid to become one of the states two senators.



Once dubbed West Virginias king of coal for his working-class background and tough approach to business, Blankenship helped build Massey into Appalachias largest coal producer, with more than 7,000 employees and more than 40 mines.



An investigation by the US Governments Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) concluded that the disaster was caused by a lengthy period of safety violations by Massey and that the company's management prioritised coal production and profits ahead of safety protections for miners.



Blankenship maintains his innocence, saying natural gas and not methane and excess coal dust caused the explosion. He has been trying to get the MSHA, now controlled by a Trump appointee, to revisit the original investigation and come to different conclusions over the causes of the disaster.



Blankenship is positioning himself as a businessman who gives to charity and has worked to change his state for the better.



Trump won West Virginia by a landslide in the 2016 president election against the Democrat candidate, Hillary Clinton.




(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has named Dr. Timothy Timura, CFA, as Deputy Director and Deputy Chief Economist in the agencys Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA). Dr. Timura joins DERA from the faculty of the Kogod School of Business at American University, where he has been an Executive in Residence. Dr. Timura has more than 30 years of experience serving individual and institutional investors as a professional money manager, and he has held senior management positions with private financial institutions and the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio. Dr. Timura also taught finance and economics at Ohio State University, Lehigh University, and Albright College.

Dr. Timura will assist the Chief Economist on a wide range of agency activities focusing initially on economic policy in agency rulemaking.

Tim brings a wealth of academic knowledge and industry expertise in finance that will significantly help the Commissions efforts in financial economics and risk analysis, said Dr. Jeffrey Harris, DERA Director and Chief Economist. Im looking forward to working with him and truly appreciate Tims willingness to help DERA serve investors.

Dr. Timura said, It is a great honor to serve the public here at the SEC and Im excited to have this opportunity to share my experience with the dedicated staff in DERA as we work on behalf of the long-term interests of Main Street investors.
(Bloomberg) Its hard to be a bear these days. Take Crispin Odey, whose main hedge fund has tumbled by two thirds in three years because of bets against the market. He blames his losses partly on banks that helped troubled companies to keep their own investments intact. As a bear, this market has been so painful, the fund manager wrote in a letter to investors after his Odey European Inc. fund declined more than 20 percent last year in its third successive annual loss.

To read this article:
Brigham Young University

FHE  A Family Home Evening event on Emotions in the Scriptures will be at 7 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Monday in the Education in Zion Gallery in the Joseph F. Smith Building. The free group activity will include refreshments. Call (801) 422-6519 for reservations.

Forum  Sharon Eubank, the director of LDS Charities and the first counselor in the General Presidency of the Relief Society in The Church of Jesus Christ will give the forum at 11:05 a.m. Tuesday in the Marriott Center. The forum will be broadcast live on BYU, BYUtv.org and will be archived on speeches.byu.edu.

Blood drive  The BYU University Police are hosting a blood drive from noon to 5 p.m. on Tuesday in rooms 3222 to 3224 of the Wilkinson Student Center. Go to redcrossblood.org and put in BYUPolice as the sponsor code to schedule an appointment.

Utah Valley University

Adulting  The UVU Student Alumni Association will be putting on Adulting 101 at noon Monday at Centre Stage. The event will teach students adult skills and connect them with resources for how to prepare to be an adult.

Appomattox Project  A monthly lecture in the Appomattox Project will be at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday in room 511 of the Classroom Building. The project looks at the subjects such as civil discourse, public policy and the ethical dimensions of democratic societies.
A murder accused, Srijan Singh, 46, was abandoned by his family. For several years nobody came to see him in Bhopal Central Jail.

Authorities told him a few months ago that he would be released on this Republic Day before his term was over owing to his good behaviour.

Srijan had paid most of his fine working inside the jail but RS 5,000 was still outstanding. He was in a state of depression because he knew that his family would not come to his help.

Like Srijan, there are three other prisoners who had lost hope of getting freedom because of non-payment of their remaining fine.

But thanks to 14-year-old award winner Ayush Kishore, all four prisoners are set to walk out of jail on January 26.

The winner of the National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement, 2016, given by the President of India, for excellence in mathematics, Kishore gave his prize money to pay for the remaining fine owed by the four, all of whom were in jail for more than a decade, said PD Shrivastava, deputy jail superintendent.

Kishore, who has won several medals and national and international competitions in mathematics, was moved after the alleged jailbreak in Bhopal on the night of October 30, 2016.

He asked his mother Vineeta Malviya, a police officer, about what life was like in jails.

The Bhopal jailbreak and a murder of jail sentry moved Ayush a lot. He received a cash award of Rs 10,000 in the Presidents Award and Rs 28,000 from his school after being declared an all-round student. He asked me so many questions about jail and prisoners and showed his willingness to do something for them, said Malviya.

My mother told me that there are many prisoners who are very poor. They work inside the jail for many years and pay their fine through the money they earn. Some cannot afford paying even Rs 2,000 for their freedom. I have decided to help such prisoners, said Kishore.

Circumstances made these prisoners criminals. They have completely changed. Owing to their good behaviour, some are being freed before the end of their term, Shrivastava said.
It seems the Shree Rajput Karni Sena, the group vehemently opposing the release of Sanjay Leela Bhansalis new film Padmaavat, has mellowed down as it has given the hint that the group is ready to watch the film before its release on January 25.

The Karni Sena said today that it was ready to watch the Bollywood period drama as offered by Bhansali productions to end the deadlock on the issue. The film made at a budget of Rs 180 crore has been facing protests by Karni Sena and other fringe groups over allegations that historical facts were distorted in the flick.

We are ready to watch the film. We never said that we will not watch the film. The filmmaker had assured us one year ago that he will go for a special screening and now he has written for the screening and we are ready for that, Sena leader Lokendra Singh Kalvi, who was in Uttar Pradesh, told PTI over the phone.

Bhansali production had on January 20 written a letter to Shree Rajput Karni Sena and Rajput Sabha, Jaipur, inviting them to watch the film and assured that the film showcased the honour and valour of the Rajput community.

Padmaavat, which was earlier titled Padmavati, has been facing roadblocks since the beginning. First, the Karni Sena vandalised the films sets in Jaipur and assaulted its director Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Later, similar violence took place in Kolhapur as well.

The group intensified its protests after the release of the films trailer in October, 2017. However, the Supreme Court has paved the way for the pan India release of the film.

Padmaavat features Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh in pivotal roles.

(With inputs from PTI)
New Delhi

Soha Ali Khan has a great sense of humour  a fact evident in the title of her recently released memoir, The Perils of Being Moderately Famous. Though an A-list Bollywood actor, she has lived most of her life with the fact that she has family members whore more famous than her. Would she be okay if her daughter, Inaaya, grows up to be moderately famous, too? Whatever level of fame [Inaaya] achieves, whether shes incredibly famous, moderately famous, or totally anonymous... doesnt make any difference, says the 39-year-old, who is married to actor Kunal Kemmu.

Soha, who gave birth to Inaaya on September 29, 2017, says that shell support her daughter in whatever she chooses to do. Whether she wants to be a full-time mother, astronaut, actor, or architect, I will support her. I want to give her a good foundation, and be involved in her life. I want to teach her my values. And then, ultimately, I want to be able to help [make] her dreams come true, says Soha.

I do want [Inaaya] to have a tough skin  I believe that in the world today, its important to have one, otherwise it can get to you. People are very direct and outspoken, and sometimes you hear things that can hurt us. I want her to be able to withstand that  Soha Ali Khan, actor

In the age of social media, when star kids come into the spotlight within weeks or days after birth, Soha says that setting some examples is the best way to teach children how to deal with comparisons. Ill show her that these things dont matter or affect you, says the actor. Also, one must learn to respect other peoples opinions. If somebody disagrees with you, it doesnt mean you block them out or you remove yourself from the equation. Sometimes, its good to have a healthy debate. And then, of course, you can agree to disagree as well. And live and let live

She adds, Id like to exhibit that kind of behaviour around Inaaya. I do want her to have a tough skin  I believe that in the world today, its important to have one, otherwise it can get to you. People are very direct and outspoken, and sometimes you hear things that can hurt us. I want her to be able to withstand that.

Part of developing this tough skin is learning to take criticism. Soha says, It shouldnt be that Inaaya remains only surrounded by love and positivity. She should also be a strong person, with the [sense of] security to withstand criticism... and also be able to laugh. I think having a sense of humour is very important.

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The three-storey building, where 17 people were killed after it caught fire on Saturday, in northwest Delhis Bawana industrial area was registered as a plastic factory but was used illegally as a unit to package and store firecrackers, police said on Sunday.

The fate of the victims was sealed 21 days ago when businessman Manoj Jain started stocking firecrackers in the rented building that had no fire evacuation plan, only two fire extinguishers, and a lone exit that was allegedly locked when the blaze broke out.

Jain had allegedly hired workers to put in packages firecrackers bought from manufacturers and keep the highly inflammable material on different floors of the building.

Police said at least 30 people worked in the unit in different shifts, but did not specify how many were inside when the fire started.

According to Delhi municipal corporation officials, building Number F-83 was being used by its tenant, Manoj Jain. MCD officials cited property tax papers to make their point.

The Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC) allots plots in the industrial area spread over 2,100 acres, which reported more than 450 fire emergencies and five fire-related deaths in 2017. The municipal corporation gives licences to run factories and warehouses.

The factory was originally in Shahdara but was shifted to Bawana as part of a government relocation scheme.

Delhi police has registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and under sections of the explosives act against Jain, who was arrested early on Sunday. He was produced before a city court, which remanded him in judicial custody for a day. The case was transferred to crime branch in the evening.

Rohini deputy commissioner of police Rajneesh Gupta said: We are interrogating Jain to know if he had a licence. The factory was stocking firecrackers used in stage shows and Holi celebrations.

Jain used to run a plastic toy manufacturing unit in the building, but discontinued the business and started supplying firecrackers, he said.

According to MCD officials, building owner Uma Mittal applied for a fresh licence in 2015 but her application was shot down. YS Maan, spokesperson of the North MCD, said tenant Jain was using the building to store firecrackers illegally.

Civic officials said Jains factory was running without a licence, even as North MCD mayor Preeti Aggarwal of the BJP was purportedly caught on video cautioning her aides not to speak about the building because its licence was with the civic body. She denied making such a statement and called the video fake.

Delhi lieutenant governor Anil Baijal and health minister Satyendar Jain visited the Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital to meet families of the deceased.

A probe committee has been formed. Action will be taken after we receive the report, minister Jain said. According to police, those who died in the fire  10 women and seven men  were workers between 18 and 65 years, mostly from parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Most of them were paid between Rs 6,000 and Rs 10,000 a month.

We have identified 14 of the 17 bodies The injured workers told us they were packing firecrackers, while Jain said he ran a colour packaging unit, DCP Gupta said.
The Delhi Police on Monday filed a charge sheet against suspected al Qaeda terrorist Zeeshan Ali, deported from Saudi Arabia in August last year, in a case of making provocative speeches to recruit Indian youths and establishing a base for the terror outfit.

Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma posted the matter for February 2 when it will decide on the point of taking cognisance of the document filed by the police.

Alis name, along with that of 11 others, was disclosed by Syed Anzar Shah and four others -- Mohd Asif, Zafar Masood, Mohd Abdul Rehman and Abdul Sami -- arrested in the case earlier.

The Delhi Polices Special Cell had arrested Ali after searching for him over a year after three alleged AQIS (al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent) operatives were arrested in 2015.
Senior Aam Aadmi Party leader and deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Monday questioned the unconstitutional and illegal disqualification of 20 AAP legislators and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party government of indulging in dirty politics in an open letter to the people of Delhi.

I am unhappy today, but not disappointed. I have faith in the people of Delhi and country, Sisodia wrote in the two-page letter shared on social media.

President Ram Nath Kovind approved the Election Commissions recommendation to disqualify 20 party MLAs for violating the law against holding an office of profit.

The MLAs, including Delhis transport minister Kailash Gahlot, were parliamentary secretaries in the government, a post that the poll panel said can be considered an office of profit.

Sisodia said the posts were created to help in governance and did not have any benefits such as vehicles or houses attached to them.

When there were no benefits, how is it an office of profit? he asked while alleging that the MLAs were not given time to explain themselves after the last hearing on June 23 last year.

Sisodias letter comes on a day when the Delhi high court is scheduled to hear the appeal of six AAP legislators against the poll panel on Monday. The party will also move a fresh petition against the government notification issued on Sunday after President Ramnath Kovind approved the poll panels recommendation.

In case the court does not quash or stay the decision, fresh elections will have to be held in the 20 assembly seats.

Listing the work that the AAP government has done in the last three years, Sisodia alleged that the MLAs were disqualified to stall the developmental work in Delhi in the remaining two years of the Kejriwal government.

By pushing Delhi into elections means the model code of conduct coming into place. Our government has a lot to do. But elections would mean we cannot do much. Besides it also means huge expenses, he said.

The senior leader also asked the people of Delhi whether it was justified to push Delhi into polls.

Isnt it unconstitutional and illegal to disqualify MLAs? Isnt it pushing Delhi into polls? Isnt it dirty politics? he asked.

The letter slammed the Centre for hampering the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi governments work.

They (BJP) have been trying to derail us in the last three years. First, they try to frame our MLAs in false cases later dropped by the court. Then they try to poach our MLAs. When everything else failed, they disqualify our 20 MLAs, he said.

I have faith in you. You will give a correct and befitting reply, Sisodia said.

The AAP, which swept the Delhi elections in 2015 and came to power with 67 MLAs in the 70-member assembly, is now reduced to 46 MLAs. One legislator, Jarnail Singh, had quit from the assembly last year to contest elections in Punjab.

Kejriwals party still has enough MLAs to run the government, but it might be more vulnerable now with fewer seats.
The Delhi Police arrested on Monday a man suspected of being involved in 2008 serial blasts in Gujarat and Delhi after an exchange of fire.

Abdul Subhan Qureshi alias Tauqeer, an alleged co-founder of terrorist outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM), was listed in the National Investigation Agencys (NIA) most-wanted list. Special commissioner of police (special cell), MM Oberoi said Qureshi was arrested after a tip on his movements in Delhi.

A special cell officer said Qureshi -- said to be the IMs top bomb-maker -- held the top rank in the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) after the arrest of its general secretary Safdar Nagori from Madhya Pradeshs Indore in March 2008.

Qureshi is also suspected to be involved in the July 2006 Mumbai train bombings. He is also believed to be the al-Arbi who signed the emails issued by the IM after the terror strikes.

Qureshi and Riaz Bhatkal of Karnataka collaborated with the SIMI cell led by Atif Ameen, the mastermind of September 13, 2008 serial blasts, to carry out the Delhi blasts, according to investigators. Special cell sleuths say Qureshi not only assembled the bombs that were used in the Ahmedabad serial blasts in July 2008 but also trained other IM operatives instrumental in serial Delhi bombings in making improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

In 2008, 21 bomb blasts hit Ahmedabad and Surat on 26 July within a span of 70 minutes. Fifty-six people were killed and over 200 people were injured. The blasts were low intensity, and were similar to the Bangalore blasts, which occurred the day before.

The chargesheet, filed in 2010, named 95 people as accused. They belonged to 11 different states and were arrested at different times.
The Rajput Karni Sena is by now notorious for its mindless obstructionism and lawlessness in its protest against the release of Sanjay Leela Bhansalis movie Padmaavat. It is mindless because the protesters have refused to see reason in the fact that the movie has been seen and certified by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). It is lawless because of the sheer havoc it is wreaking over a swathe of North and West India. In the process, the once obscure organisation now regularly hits the headlines. Perhaps that was the objective all along.

The sena and similar fringe outfits believe that the movie hurts Rajput pride by showing Queen Padmini in poor light.

The protesters have refused to see reason, even after the Supreme Court stayed the decision of four states  Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan  to ban the release of the movie. Reacting to the SC order passed on January 18, Lokendra Singh Kalvi, the senas chief, told news agency IANS: We will not allow the film to be released at any cost. The Supreme Court has directed the state governments to ensure release of the film, but not to us (Karni Sena). This is brazen disrespect to the top court and judiciary. The state governments concerned cannot sit idle in the face of threats of violence and mass suicide, as threatened by women in Rajput groups. Interestingly, though, two of the states have chosen to react by filing please before the Supreme Court, allowing them to ban the film.

In many of the protests across India, the state governments have done little to stop the vandalism of public and private property including buses, cinemas, and malls. On Saturday, four public transport corporation buses were torched in Gujarat. Reacting to the lawlessness a senior state minister said such protests were natural.

Groups that led such protests must be held responsible and made to pay for the damage caused. The Punjab and Haryana High Courts observation in a similar case is noteworthy. In August 2017, when deadly violence broke out in Panchkula, Haryana, after the CBI courts verdict against Ram Rahim Singh, the high court ordered that the money be recovered from the Dera Sacha Sauda, the organisation Singh was heading. In November, the court asked the Centre to form courts in every state to fix accountability for vandalism during protests and compensate the victims. This should also be followed in cases of violence relating to the protests against Padmaavat.

On Tuesday the apex court will hear Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh governments plea requesting a modification on its order. Irrespective of the outcome of that, the state governments where protests are taking place must safeguard the rights of the film exhibitors and uphold the freedom of the agitators to hold peaceful protests. However, there must be zero tolerance towards violence.
Government think tank Niti Aayog has sought the views of the University Grants Commission and All India Council for Technical Education on allowing foreign universities in India, a person familiar with the development said on Monday.

The executive council of AICTE, responsible for technical and business education in the country, met in New Delhi during the day to draw up its response. It has been decided that as it is a policy decision, the UGC should take a call on this, an AICTE official, who attended the meeting, said.

India does not have a legal framework on allowing foreign institutes to set up campuses. The UGC act says only universities set up by Parliament or a state legislature, and those declared deemed universities by the government, can award degrees.

Several engineering and management institutes had already tied up with foreign education providers under what the official said was a collaborative twinning programme. As part of the arrangement, students get to spend some time on campuses abroad but the degree is awarded by the Indian institute.

The HRD ministry was also examining the issue but was not in favour of allowing for-profit institutes, the official said.

The welfare of Indian students is crucial and we have to ensure that they are not affected by the move, the official said.

This is not the first time that such an attempt is being made. The Congress government in 1995 had introduced a similar bill but it ran into opposition.

In 2016, the UGC notified regulations for collaboration between Indian and foreign institutes. An Indian university or college with highest accreditation grade and conforming to other eligibility conditions can apply online to the UGC for a twining arrangement, an HRD official said.
Two of Delhis top colleges, St Stephens and Lady Shri Ram (LSR) College, have refused to part with information regarding their faculty, a mandatory parameter to assess the performance of colleges in the national ranking system.

The National Institution Ranking Framework (NIRF) will be announced in April this year by the government. Apart from an overall list of top institutes, a separate list for colleges will be published too. The LSR College ranked sixth and St Stephens did not participate in 2017 ranking.

After that ranking was released, St Stephens, Hindu College, Sri Venkateswara College, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) decided they would apply for the 2018 ranking and submitted application forms to the effect. It now emerges that St Stephens and LSR College may not figure in the rankings  at least not until they share information on their faculty.

Hindustan Times learns that the faculty of both the colleges is not keen on sharing their data.

All entries are scrutinised and evaluated. We have not received data from these two and some other institutes which makes them ineligible for participating in the ranking. We are still giving them a chance and if they do share the faculty related data we are willing to include them. But so far we havent got a positive response, said a senior official from the human resource development (HRD) ministry who asked not to be identified.

A total of 4,734 institutes are participating in the exercise this year, 1,525 more than last year.

Rankings are given in eight categories: overall, engineering, management, architecture, law, medical, pharmacy, and general colleges.

The principals of both St Stephens and the LSR College didnt respond to calls and text messages seeking comment.

The ministry prepares the list based on a range of parameters such as teaching and learning resources, quality of research, and outcomes that judge the employability of graduates. The last date to register for the NIRF was October 6 last year.

Former Delhi University vice-chancellor Dinesh Singh said that most of the information related to the faculty is available in the public domain and can be accessed under the Right to Information Act. Why should the faculty be reluctant in sharing such details? asked Singh.

The ministry official said the ranking system is different from the National Assessment and Accreditation Councils (NAAC) exercise that assesses and accredits institutes of higher education. We are giving a ranking to an institute. Also, this is done every year whereas accreditation is done in five years, he said.

Miranda House of New Delhi and Bengalurus Indian Institute of Science were Indias best college and university, respectively, in the 2017 rankings. Loyola College (Chennai) and Shri Ram College (New Delhi) were second and third on the ministrys general degree colleges list.
Hedi Slimane, the designer who pioneered the skinny look at Dior and Saint Laurent, is to take over at Celine, the brands owners said on Sunday.

The 49-year-old France-born creator is one of fashions biggest and most enigmatic names, and his future has been surrounded by speculation since he walked away from Saint Laurent last year.

The luxury giant LVMH, which owns Celine, has given Slimane complete control of the brands images and creative side in order to sign him up  a concession which put him alongside Chanels Karl Lagerfeld as one of the most powerful designers in fashion.

They are also letting him create a menswear line at the label, which up until now only made clothes for women.

Announcing the surprise appointment, Bernard Arnault, the owner of LVMH, said: He is one of the most talented designers of our time. Hedi will oversee and develop all creativity for both womens and mens fashion, but also for leather goods, accessories and fragrances, he added.

Slimane fell out with Saint Laurent reportedly because of his frustration at not being able to control its perfume and cosmetics arms. Slimanes skinny and rock star chic looks made millions for both Dior and Saint Laurent, and were much copied by mass-market brands.

Lagerfeld, who famously shed 41 kg to squeeze into Slimanes skinny jeans, was the first to cheer the news of his move. I am enchanted, what a great choice, he told Womens Wear Daily. It will be great.

Karl Lagerfeld, who famously shed 41 kg to squeeze into Slimanes skinny jeans, was the first to cheer the news of his move. (AP)

Friend of the stars

Like Lagerfeld, Slimane is a renowned photographer, and he has spent the last seven years living in Los Angeles, where he had moved his studio at the end of his reign at Saint Laurent.

The designer drew much of his inspiration from the LA rock scene, which he tirelessly documented with his photographs and in his blog. A mysterious and intensely private figure, he nonetheless has struck up close friendships with many A-listers including pop star Lady Gaga. AFP understands that he will continue to live in the city while he designs for Celine, and start work within 10 days.

Slimane borrowed many of the elements of his grungy, androgynous look from the world of rock, with his skinny style initially influenced by British indie bands like Franz Ferdinand and The Libertines.

The Libertines bohemian frontman Peter Doherty became a friend and muse, and figured prominently in his 2006 photo book, London Birth of a Cult.

The sultan of skinny

Arnault, who is known to be close to the designer, said Slimane will use his global vision and unique aesthetic virtuosity in further building an iconic French fashion house.

He will make his first bow for Celine during Paris womens fashion week in September, when he will show a co-ed collection with clothes for both men and women. I am delighted to join Bernard Arnault in this all-embracing and fascinating mission for Celine, Slimane said. I greatly look forward to returning to the exciting world of fashion and the dynamism of the ateliers.

Slimane will also be reunited at Celine with Sidney Toledano, one of fashions most influential backroom figures. The pair were a formidable team at Dior where Slimane was a huge trendsetter until his departure in 2012.

Dubbed the Sultan of skinny, Slimane designed for the late rock star David Bowie, with his skinny silhouette dominating mens style for more than a decade. He takes over at Celine from the highly-rated British designer Phoebe Philo who quit last month after a decade at the helm. She had created a cult following at the label for her hip minimalist and very modernist style.

Slimane designed for the late rock star David Bowie, with his skinny silhouette dominating mens style for more than a decade. (REUTERS)

Philo had also lately embraced the oversized trend which Slimane is credited with kickstarting at Saint Laurent with his long gorilla-sleeved jackets.

While his designs have made millions, Slimanes immigrant origins are modest. He was born in a working-class district of the French capital to a Tunisian father and Italian mother, who worked as a dressmaker.

He first wanted to be a journalist before slipping into fashion after he became an assistant to Jean-Jacques Picart, one of the founders of the haute couture house Christian Lacroix.

Celine, which has a turnover just shy of one billion euros ($1.2 billion), was founded by Celine Vipiana in Paris just after World War II.

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On a chilly January night, Amit Chauhan, a mason in Gurgaon, stepped into a night shelter at Bhim Nagar, washed his hands with the water from a community tap and lined up in a queue of men waiting to partake of a meal comprising lentils, cottage cheese (paneer), rice, and chapatti. The platter was generous compared to the one last winter, he said.

Until last year, I had to finish my work and then look for food stalls near the station. Then again, only a few offered complete meals for 15 or less. It was all that I could afford, said Amit, who hails from Sawastipur in Bihar and earns a daily wage that varies between 50 and 60.

There were days when I had to sleep on an empty stomach, especially during festivals. However, the food on offer at the night shelters this year has reduced my worries considerably. I have an assured meal after a hard days work and can I sleep here. It helps me recover from stress and work better, Amit said.

Amit is among the many homeless people in the city who have benefitted from the free meals provided by the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) at night shelters this year.

During a visit to night shelters at Bhim Nagar and the railway station, this reporter received positive feedback from occupants about the free breakfast and dinner. They said that the facilities at these shelters have also improved significantly since last year.

Last season, the Hindustan Times highlighted the appalling provisions at night shelters which made the administration take corrective measures before the winter set in.

Barring the absence of geysers at the Bhim Nagar night shelter, issues such as non-functional toilets, seepage, wet mattresses, unhygienic conditions, and inadequate drinking water facilities were found to be rectified at the night shelters this time around.

Read I Officials take stock of provisions at Gurgaons night shelters

Harinder Kumar, who is among the many people who were recently moved from the railway station platforms to the nearby night shelter, said, Earlier, I would examine all the food stalls around the railway station and pick out the one which served the cheapest meal. Often, my luck would run out as the food at the stalls will run out or the stall owner would not show.

Kumar, who hails from Rajasthan and works for a daily wage, is deeply appreciative of the free meal initiative. The new initiative of free food at the night shelter not only gives me an assured meal, but also helps me save money; I can now eat two meals instead of one, he said.

The free food service was announced by deputy mayor Sunita Yadav on January 11. Two social welfare organizations transport the food from several home kitchens to the night shelters spread across the city, and the MCG serves it.

We received a generous offer from several social welfare organisations; they provide food to the MCG and we then serve the same to those seeking refuge at the night shelters. It is our duty to ensure that facilities are optimum, the MCG commissioner V Umashankar said.

Since the (free food) initiative was proposed, residents and social welfare organizations came forward wanting to be a part of this setup. According to our estimates, we ask them to prepare a plate of food, which costs around Rs40 per person, for 250 people. Cumulatively, the cost comes to Rs10,000, Mahender Singh, project officer of MCG said.

Singh said the MCG plans five days in advance to ensure they do not run out of ration.

Dinner at the night shelters is provided starting 7.30pm; caretakers even reserve food for latecomers. For breakfast, all shelters offer a standard snack of tea, biscuits and bread.

BOX: A refuge for the homeless

No. of homeless: 1,500+*

No. of permanent night shelters: 3 at Bhim Nagar, Kanhai Village, and Sheetla Mata temple

Housing capacity: 75 each; 225 in all

No. of portable night shelters: 7 at Rajiv Chowk, Iffco Chowk, Basai Chowk, Gurgaon railway station, Vatika Chowk, Sector 14 part-II and Mahavir Chowk

Housing capacity: 12 in each; 84 in all

Size of portable night shelter: 10 feet high and 28 feet wide

* According to an estimated by the Red Cross Society
Continuing its crackdown on illegal meat shops, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) sealed 20 such establishments on Sunday in the presence of a police team at Chakkarpur, Kanhai, Badshahpur and Harijan Colony.

According to the MCG officials, they had first sent notices to the shop owners for procuring the requisite licences and permits, and acted against those that failed to comply.

We received information that these meat shops were illegal and accordingly sent notices so shop owners could get permits within the stipulated time or else face the prospect of the establishment getting sealed. The MCG carried out the sealing drive only against those who did not have permits, MCG medical officer Ashish Singla said.

Singla led the sealing drive which was carried out in the presence of teams from the police, enforcement and sanitation departments.

The MCG has forwarded a letter to each police station, whose jurisdiction covers the areas where the illegal shops are located, for registering a FIR under Section 338 of the Haryana Municipal Corporation Act, 1994, for unlawful slaughter of animals. It carries a maximum sentencing of six months of imprisonment, Singla said.

Although the MCG has issued 102 licences to meat shop owners in the last six months, officials estimate that there are around 150 illegal meat shops in the city, many of which are in residential areas.

The MCG surveyed the city for illegal meat shops after being directed by Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on October 8, 2017, during a janta darbar for cracking down on such establishments in residential areas.

Meat shops which were constructed in residential areas before the Master City plan was conceptualised are exempt from being termed illegal owing to lack of clarity in demarcation.

On January 9, MCG officials had sealed six illegal meat shops cum slaughterhouses at Naharpur, Kanhai village, Wazirabad and Sector 37 after shopkeepers failed to procure a licence.
Abdul Subhan Qureshis journey as a terrorist began in 2001 when he left a reputed computer firm to pursue religious activities and went on to edit Islamic Voice  the mouthpiece of the banned Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).

Qureshi alias Tauqeer, suspected of being involved in the serial blasts in Gujarat and Delhi in 2008, was arrested by Delhi Police after a gunfight on Saturday night following a tip-off. He figured in the National Investigation Agencys (NIA) most-wanted list.

Investigators looking for details about the alleged top bomb-maker of the Indian Mujahideen had little clue about who indoctrinated Qureshi, a quiet boy in school who was labelled as the Osama bin Laden of India.

Qureshi had become a staunch SIMI activist by 1998 and, sources in the police said, also attended its conference in 1999 at Aligarh, which was addressed by the founder and spiritual leader of Palestines Hamas Sheikh Ahmed Yasin.

READ MORE: 2008 Ahmedabad blast accused among two terror suspects arrested from Gaya.

Many believe that Qureshi was indoctrinated by Sadiq Israr, the arrested co-founder of Indian Mujahideen and a resident of Cheetah camp in Mumbai, along with Salim Mujahid Islahi from Hyderabad.

Islahi was shot dead in 2004 when a team of Gujarat police officials opened fire to disperse a mob that tried to prevent the arrest of Maulana Naseeruddin, an accused in the murder of former Gujarat minister Haren Pandya.

An officer of Delhi Polices special cell said Qureshi held the top rank in SIMI after the arrest of its general secretary Safdar Nagori from Madhya Pradeshs Indore in March 2008.

The 45-year-olds name cropped up for the first time in the list of wanted terrorists when Indian Mujahideen operatives sent out emails claiming responsibility for the blasts in Uttar Pradesh, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Delhi between 2007 and 2008.

Counter-terrorism agencies of various states believed that the emails sent by Qureshi, who had been travelling across the country meeting and indoctrinating youth, and plotting blasts across the country.

But arrests of Indian Mujahideen cadre by the Mumbai Polices crime branch in September 2008 revealed that the emails sent by Mohammed Asghar Peerbhoy, a Pune-based engineer who worked for Yahoo.

It gave enough time for Qureshi, an alleged co-founder of terrorist outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM), to slip under the radar and disappear. Qureshis presence in Nepal was established much later after his close associate Haseeb Raza was arrested by Gujarat police in 2010.

READ MORE: 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts accused nabbed from Karnataka.

But the Intelligence Bureau mobilised its sleuths to nab Qureshi only in 2011. Qureshi, who had been alerted about Haseebs arrest, left the hideout known to Haseeb and the sleuths returned empty-handed.

Raza knew the precise details because he had stayed with Qureshi in Nepal, a senior Gujarat police officer, requesting anonymity, said.

Since then little was heard of Qureshi, who did not get in touch even with his mother. She now lives on Mumbais Mira Road.

Qureshi told the police during initial interrogation that he fled to Nepal through the border in Bihar in 2008, soon after his name surfaced in the July 2008 Ahmedabad serial bombings probe.

Qureshi worked as a school teacher and again came in touch with Riyaz Bhatkal, founder member of IM, in Nepal where he lived until early 2015. He even managed to procure a Nepalese voters ID card and passport, said police.

In February-March 2015, on Bhatkals instructions he went to Saudi Arabia to arrange finances needed for the revival of the weak and scattered network of Indian Mujahideen in India, Pramod Singh Kushwah, deputy commissioner of police (special cell), said.

After returning from Saudi Arabia in June 2017, Qureshi began visiting India clandestinely to indoctrinate unemployed youth among the community and fill the space left void by the fall of the top IM leaders, Kushwah added.

As investigators are trying to piece together information about the Mumbai man, a Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) officer said his six brothers and sisters are well-educated and not inclined to anti-national activities.

Qureshis journey into terrorism has stunned his teachers at Antonio De Souza High School in Byculla. A teacher requesting anonymity said that he was not the kind of student who would score a 90% in mathematics or any subject but he would do better than many others in his class.

Qureshi scored 76.6% in his secondary school examination in 1988 and obtained a diploma in industrial electronics from Bharatiya Vidyapeeth at Kharghar in 1995. He also did a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) course from CMS Institute in Marol and worked for Datamatics.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said on Monday he would like to contest next years general elections from Kannauj constituency, presently held by his wife Dimple Yadav.

I will like to contest from Kannauj, he told reporters in Lucknow after paying tribute to veteran socialist leader Janeshwar Mishra on his death anniversary.

Replying to a question, Akhilesh Yadav said netaji Mulayam Singh Yadav will contest the polls from Mainpuri.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the 78-year-old SP patriarch had contested from Azamgarh and Mainpuri and won both, but chose to retain Azamgarh to strengthen the party in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

He vacated Mainpuri, which was then won in a bypoll by his grandson, Tej Pratap Yadav.

The SP insiders said the decision of the party chief to contest the next general elections from Kannauj was aimed at quelling allegations of promoting dynasty in the party.

Kannauj could, however, pose crucial test for the SP in the present scenario as in last years assembly election, the party had lost two of the three seats in the Lok Sabha constituency to the BJP while it won the Kannauj city seat by meagre 2,000 votes.

SP also lost all the three nagar palika chairman seats and all five nagar panchayat chairman seats in Kannauj in the recent civic polls.

Dimple Yadav had beaten the BJP candidate in 2014 by just 20,000 votes.

Akhilesh Yadav has represented Kannauj thrice in the Lok Sabha before relinquishing the seat after becoming chief minister in 2012.

Speaking about the current BJP regime in the state, Akhilesh Yadav charged the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh with failing on all fronts, especially the law-and- order situation.

The Yogi Adityanath government has failed on all the fronts. There is no law and order in the state. The incident of dacoity yesterday in Kakori, on outskirts of the state capital, has exposed the tall claims of the state government on the law and order front, he said.

Kakori, which was known for martyrs who laid down their lives for the sake of the countrys freedom, is now becoming infamous for dacoities, he said.

Martyrs Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah Khan, Rajendra Lahiri and Thakur Roshan Singh, were hanged on December 19, 1927, for the Kakori conspiracy against the British.

Citing recent crime incidents in Kannauj and Mathura, Akhilesh Yadav accused the police of inflicting atrocities on people and said that under such circumstances only Samajwadi (socialist) ideology can fight for the people.

The BJP divides the society while samajwadis unite people, he said.
The civil aviation ministry has cited data showing low average prices of air tickets to a parliamentary panel and said that it has no plans of controlling the ticket prices.

Civil aviation secretary Rajiv Nayan Choubeys reply to the Parliaments consumer affairs panel comes after another House panel (on transport, tourism and culture) recommended the capping of fares.

High air ticket prices, especially during peak season or holidays, have often hit the headlines, but deposing at the meeting of the consumer affairs panel on January 12, Choubey said: The average price is closer to the bottom fare. We have analysed 12 routes to see where does the average fare stands between the highest and the lowest fare rates. Only 3-4% tickets are sold in the highest fare bracket.

When Congress MP from Haryana Shadi Lal Batra remarked that he had to shell out Rs 64,000 to buy a ticket, Choubey politely reminded him that had he bought his ticket in advance, he could have got it for Rs 2,000.

You should have noticed advertisements that if you buy tickets today and fly later, you will get tickets from Delhi to Mumbai for Rs 2,000. If a prudent traveller plans his journey sufficiently in advance, he will get very good fares.

But if tickets are bought at the eleventh hour, then (the) demand-supply (equation) operates there, he told the panel.

Reminding the lawmakers that price regulation is to be used only when the market fails, Choubey said in India prices were actually falling. The civil aviation ministry regularly asks airlines for information on prices, he admitted, but doesnt get into regulating them.

If demand is high but seats are limited, then the government does not step into that. This is presently the practice all over the world and it is also the practice followed in India, the secretary said,

Indias civil aviation sector has recorded growth of 17% to 20% in the last three years, highest in the world. Chinas growth rate is 12%. In 2014, 395 aircraft were in service in the domestic sector. But in last three years, all domestic airlines put together have ordered 900 aircraft.

Choubey pointed out that civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapati Raju had to spend Rs 10,000 to come to Delhi from Vijaywada a few years ago. Now, he can buy tickets at Rs 3,000-Rs 4,000, he added.
After spending almost two years rounding up stray cattle and bovines whose ownership was not clear, municipal officials in Jabalpur are facing a new problem: More than a third of this cattle is now missing.

Out of the 1,770 animals the municipal corporation had housed at a local cow shelter run by the Dayoday Pashu Sanvardhan Kendra since 2016, only 1,013 remain. The rest, civic officials allege, have died of neglect, lack of hygiene and disease.

MP Jain, president of the Kendra, blames a lack of funds and adequate medical support from the government, and says the private shelter, one of 142 he runs across the country, cannot do much.

We get only Rs 1.50 per head of cattle from the state, whereas we spend around Rs 50 per head of cattle per month. There is no medical facility and we get only hay for the cattle, while we have to procure green grass on our own, said Jain.

The 17 acre shelter is divided into two wings  one for the cows the gaushala keeps, and the other for animals that were sent by the municipal corporation. A visit to the wings revealed that the former section was well kept while the latter showed a lack of hygiene.

Jain said the shelter spent around Rs 9 lakh a month, collected from donors, for running the place. The donors are supplied fresh cow milk in return.

Jain admitted that most cows died of plastic poisoning but that there was little medical help available.

There is a government doctor who comes once a fortnight and sometimes even once a month; the work of looking after and tending to sick animals is done by the employees, he said.

MP has almost 20 million heads of cattle but has struggled in recent months with increasing cases of strays, of which there is no official estimate. The state has a stringent anti-cow slaughter law, but there is little in place to deal with farmers increasingly abandoning their cattle. In November last year, a state government panel had recommended punishment for people abandoning their cattle in the state .

In Jabalpur too, local administration is trying to trace the fate of these cows.

We are in the process of giving notice to the owners of gaushalas to find out what happened to the cattle. If they are dead, how did they die, said Sandeep Jaiswal, a municipal officer in charge of catching stray cattle in the region.

Collector Mahesh Choudhary said the administration will bolster medical facilities. The state government only gives grants and medical facilities, they are not involved in management of the gaushalas. The municipal authorities should give more money if required.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau announced on Monday he will travel to India for a state visit from February 17 to 23.

Canada and India share a special bond and are linked by tremendous people-to-people connections. The more than one million Canadians of Indian origin make the relationship between our two countries a truly special one. I look forward to meeting with Prime Minister Modi, and further strengthening the Canada-India friendship, Trudeau said in a release issued on Monday.

Our two countries share much in common, including an commitment to diversity, democracy, freedom, and the rule of law, he added.

This visit - which includes stops in Agra, Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and New Delhi - will provide an opportunity for the Canadian prime minister to connect with Indian leaders in government and business, promote the empowerment of women and girls, and strengthen Canada and Indias close economic ties.

Trudeau will also participate in several business roundtables to promote further trade and investment between Canada and India, as Canada works closely with Indian leaders to advance economic opportunities in both countries.

While in India, Trudeau will engage with youth, and visit several landmarks, including the Taj Mahal, Sri Harmandir Sahib (also known as the Golden Temple), the Jama Masjid, and Swaminarayan Akshardham.
Governor of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh E S L Narasimhan has come under fire from the opposition Congress and the BJP in the two states for completely surrendering to Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.

The Telangana unit of Congress has also threatened to lodge a complaint with the Centre and President Ramnath Kovind against his style of functioning.

Narasimhan who has been the governor of Andhra Pradesh since 2009 before he took the additional charge of Telangana in 2014, when the state was formed, had drawn the ire of BJP leaders in Andhra Pradesh for being biased towards Telangana and neglecting their state. The BJP has four seats in the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly.

Kambhampati Haribabu, BJPs Andhra unit president and member of Parliament from Visakhapatnam, wrote to Union home minister Rajnath Singh last week seeking appointment of a new Governor exclusively for AP.

Telangana Congress leaders are fuming at Narasimhan for heaping praises on KCR and his nephew T Harish Rao, who is also the irrigation minister, during his two-day visit to Karimnagar and Adilabad districts over the weekend to inspect the progress of Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project on Godvari river.

Describing the project as an engineering marvel, the governor was all praise for KCR and Harish Rao for their commitment to complete the irrigation projects.

When the chief minister gave a presentation on redesigning of irrigation projects of Telangana in Raj Bhavan last year, I was surprised at his vision and commitment. I was wondering whether I could call him as Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhar Rao or Kalala (of dreams) Chandrasekhar Rao. But after seeing this massive irrigation project, I want to call him Kaleshwaram Chandrasekhar Rao, he said, referring to the Kaleshwaram irrigation project.

He also appreciated the dedication shown by the irrigation minister in completing the Kaleshwaram project on war footing. He is not Harish Rao now, he is Kaleshwar Rao, Narasimhan, a former IPS officer, said.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee working president Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka described the governors comments as cheap and political. He is speaking like a TRS leader, rather than the head of the state. It is better he names Raj Bhavan as TRS Bhavan and call himself as Kalvakuntla Narasimhan, he said.

We may lodge a complaint with President Kovind against his style of functioning, Vikramarka added.

Congress leaders also pointed out that the chief minister and his family members had only changed the name of Ambedkar Pranahita-Chevella irrigation project taken up by the previous Congress government to Kaleshwaram project. The original project cost of Rs 38,500 crore was revised to Rs 80,000 crore in the name of redesigning.

Large scale irregularities took place in this process and we submitted a detailed memorandum to the governor in the past. But he conveniently ignored it and is now praising KCR and his family members as if it was a great achievement, Vikramarka said.

He also alleged that Narasimhan had kept quiet when an MLA defected from the TDP into the TRS was inducted into the KCR cabinet, instead of disqualifying him. When we recently went to him to represent on the atrocities being perpetrated against Dalits by ruling party leaders, the governor chided us and supported the TRS government, he said.

The Congress is the main opposition party in Telangana with 14 seats in the 119-member House.

BJP MP from Secunderabad and former Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya also found fault with the governor for ignoring the contribution made by the Centre in supporting the Kaleshwaram and other irrigation projects in Telangana.
Dressed like a farmer himself, a taupe shawl drawn over his shoulders, former finance minister Yashwant Sinha, a sort of rebel-within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), let out a throaty war cry at a farmers rally in Madhya Pradeshs Narsinghpur on January 11.

Those in the seat of power mustnt think we are small in numbers and inconsequential. We will force those in power to bow down. Well shake things up. Well unseat them.

Madhya Pradesh  which promotes itself as the heart of India and is home to the Pench national park, the setting of Rudyard Kiplings Jungle Book  has seen some stupendous farm growth rates. But the states image of being a hub of rural prosperity fell apart in June 2017, when the central city of Mandsaur became the flashpoint of violent protests.

Angry over falling prices of their produce, farmers announced a 10-day siege in cities such as Sehore, Bhopal and Indore. Five farmers of the Patidar caste, the community behind the campaign against the BJP government in Gujarat, died in police firing in Mandsaur, a wealthy belt that grows legally-sanctioned opium, wheat, soyabean, oilseeds and lentils.

A rough patch in Indias agriculture has thrust the rural economy and farmers issue on to the political centre stage, posing a key political risk in BJP-ruled states. Three of them  Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh  will face elections this year.

Agrarian distress was responsible for the BJPs diminished rural tally in the Gujarat elections last month. With farm issues back on the national radar, the BJP is watching out for the possibility of rural dissatisfaction-fuelled anti-incumbency shaking its formidable rural-support base.

Nearly 72.4% of Madhya Pradeshs population is rural. About 49% of land-owning farmers had voted the ruling NDA in the 2014 general election, according to data from Lokniti. The BJP-led formation had also won the support of a third of landless tenant cultivators.

Across states, falling rural incomes due to a combination of unfavourable global factors, bad weather and unprofitable prices has spawned a new wave of protests. There is a near consensus around two key demands. First, farmers want assured returns that are 1.5 times the cultivation costs, which translate into a 50% profit. Second, they want a complete write-off of all farmers loans. The first demand isnt hard to justify  it was, after all, part of the BJPs official poll manifesto in 2014. The Modi government has also declared that it will double farmers income in six years.

One of our sister organisations in Punjab went to court seeking an implementation of this promise (50% profits). In its response in an affidavit in January 2015, the Modi government has said it was not in a position to do so. This is cheating, said Shiv Kumar Sharma alias Kakaji, one of the main leaders behind the 10-day Mandsaur agitation and the chief of Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangaha. He was arrested during the Mandsaur crackdown.

Kakaji was referring to the Centres response in February 2015 to a plea filed by the Consortium of Indian Farmers Association. In it, the Centre said a mec- hanical linkage between MSP and cost of production may be counter-productive. The Centre said a 50% hike on MSP on cost may distort the market, Chengal Reddy, the petitioner, told HT. Sharmas colleague Binod Anand says the organisation has set February 1 as the deadli- ne for the government to meet its dem- ands. The next stop: a protest in Delhis Jantar Mantar on February 23, he says.

Madhya Pradeshs farm fortunes began dipping in 2013-14, when farm GDP contracted 1.14% due to a drought. The next year, farm growth rose 4.6% but slowed again to 1.7% in 2015-16. In 2016-17, growth shot up 22.39%, the result of a statistical base effect due to poor growth the previous years and a bumper harvest. However, disruptions caused by demonetisation and the implementation of the goods and services tax meant prices crashed.

The state is looking to stem rural angst with a slew of sops. This includes an unprecedented flagship scheme, Mukhya Mantri Bhavantar Bhugtaan Yojana, to directly pay farmers a part of the prices they fail to recover for their produce from the markets, something never tried before in the country. But farmer organisations have made it the main target of their attacks.

The scheme pays only the difference between the prevailing modal price of a crop and what farmers manage to sell for. The modal price of a crop denotes the price level at which a majority of transactions take place. It therefore serves as an average price. It doesnt pay the higher minimum support prices, or the floor price, set by the Centre. Farm leaders allege the scheme benefits traders more than farmers. Farmers organisations that came together in the aftermath of the Mandsaur protests are preparing for a fresh spell of agitation in the year ahead. Sinha, a detractor of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has promised his support and time to them.

The Gadarwara rally attended by Sinha and former Union farm minister Sompal Shastri, who doesnt belong to any party now, was called to highlight the plight of farmers nearby whose land was acquired for a power plant.

New-age tactics

The issues may be rooted in agricultural prices but the battle in Madhya Pradesh is a political one. Anand claims they arent fighting on partisan lines and its difficult to predict what political impact their movement will have in Madhya Pradeshs elections. But leaders of many political parties are in touch with us, he admitted.

The Harda-based Aam Kisan Unio is however open about bringing about a regime change if the current government doesnt accept its demand.

One of its leaders, Kedar Shankar Sirohi, is a social-media savvy activist who has a Bachelors degree in agriculture and a Masters in agricultural economics. Sirohi says he founded his organisation in 2011 to create an independent, apolitical farmers union as some of the bigger farmer groups were directly affiliated to either the Congress or the BJP.

We are non-party but we are not non-political, Sirohi, a farmer who grows wheat and soyabean, in his Harda farm says. Asked to explain his intriguing comment, Sirohi says farmers issues need political solutions. In this new-age farmer mobilisation, social media is a handy tool.

When the Mandsaur agitation happened, Sirohi says, the chief minister (Shivraj Singh Chouhan) pointed to jeans-clad protesters to say they werent real farmers. He doesnt know how young farmers look. Today, farmers have one hand on their steering wheel and the other on the mobile (phone).

Catchy sloganeering on Facebook and WhatsApp is drafting support. Those who live by the sword die by it. This is a government of slogans and social media, and we will discredit it through social media and slogans, Sirohi says.

The Aam Kisan Union has attacked the Bhavantar price-deficit payment scheme as byapariyon ka poshan, kisano ka soshan or nourishment for traders, exploitation of farmers. Our slogan is catchier, laughs Bhopal-based Irfan Jafri, a farm leader who runs the Kisan Jagriti Sangathan. We are calling the scheme election ka collection.

Sirohi says joblessness among educated children of farmers has become a major social anxiety. Its delaying marriages, he says. I am a farmer, but our children dont want to do farming. This election could be worse than Gujarat for the BJP, says Anand Bajaj, a well-off farmer from Devas.

Sirohi and his colleagues have started an online campaign, asking farmers to stop making loan repayments. They are calling it a non-cooperation movement. Every farmer who enrols has to display a slogan on his house walls, pledging his support. Jafri has posted a picture on WhatsApp of 30-year-old Chain Singh Lodhi from Raisen districts Jamunia village standing next to his house with a pledge written in bold, blue paint that has been widely forwarded.

The farmers seem confident about their political strategy. Sirohi says concentrating on electoral seats where the BJP is entrenched would be a waste of time. Of the 230 seats, the BJP wins by a small margin is about 60-70 seats. Thats where we will put up our fight.
India and China, along with South Korea, will co-host a meeting of energy ministers from 60 countries in New Delhi in April.

The meeting, which will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will see ministers discuss global energy security and transition to renewables at the biennial International Energy Forum (IEF) on April 10-12. It will have representation from all major energy producers and consumers in the world.

We expect about 60 energy ministers, 15 chief of international organisations, including International Energy Agency (IEA) and Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and 30 CEOs from top companies. It will be across the board focus discussion on various issues related to the oil producers as well as consumers. We will focus, among other things, investment, technology, renewables and human resources, said Sunjay Sudhir, joint secretary (international cooperation), ministry of petroleum and natural gas.

The event assumes significance as most meetings of the forum are held in oil-producing countries, with the next meeting slated to be in China.

We will have themes, which concern both the oil-producing and consuming countries, and developing, least developed or developed countries. The theme of the meet is the future of global energy security. Transition, technology, trade and investment will be discussed, said Sudhir.

He said a great deal of focus will be on transition towards renewable energy that is taking off in a big way. The transition part will be very important because every now and then you hear about electric vehicles, renewable, competing with prices of solar or wind energy. So, this transition is something we need to capture, said Sudhir.

Sun Xiansheng, IEF secretary general, said, It is an important meeting for oil consuming and producing countries. He said many members of the IEF, such as Russia, dont belong to the IEA and the OPEC. India and China are Asian members of the IEA. But they do not have voting rights and are observers only. Thus, the IEF is more important, he said.

Around 700 delegates will attend this meeting.
Kabul is not an unfamiliar city for Akash Raj, who rejoined Afghan airline, Kam Air, after a gap of three years last month.

Raj, based in Dubai, regularly flies the route to Kabul. He usually stays at a company guest house. But last Saturday, when he landed in Kabul he was told there had been a change in policy: the company had decided to put up the crew in a five-star hotel because it thought a hotel was safer.

The 43-year-old native of Ernakulam, Kerala, didnt have an inkling of what was in store for him when he checked into the Intercontinental Hotel.

I was happy to be in a five-star hotel, the six-floor Intercontinental. I felt more safe as I checked in around 6:30 pm, said Raj.

His room, No 420, was on the fourth floor. Many of his colleagues were on the second floor.

An Afghan colleague and I had dinner in the room and around 8 pm, my friend left , he said over the phone from Dubai. Twenty minutes later as he was lying on the bed, flipping through TV channels, he heard gunshots.

Incessant gunshots..., I can remember. But I didnt realize it was from the hotel. They were heard from the distance, and I consoled myself: This is Kabul. These are expected things.

Afghan security personnel take position at the rooftop of the Intercontinental Hotel during a fight between gunmen and Afghan security forces in Kabul on January 21, 2018. (AFP Photo)

Soon enough, Raj got a message from the friend he had dinner with, asking whether he was alright. The friend told hiim there seemed to be some trouble in the hotel and asked Raj to stay safe. Soon, he received a bunch of WhatsApp messages, informing him of a shootout in the hotel. I just ensured the room was locked, Raj said.

By then, the gunshots grew louder. The noise from the firing and exploding grenades was very loud. Then the power went off. It was minus 5 degrees Celsius and the phone battery was about to drain. I did have a powerbank but not enough courage to move out from the corner of the room where I was hiding, he said.

After some time, Raj mustered enough courage to crawl to a nearby table where he had placed his powerbank. Then I was in touch with my family, said Raj, who has two children.

Past midnight, I could sense it myself (from the smoke), as well as from the messages I was receiving, that the attackers were setting the rooms on fire. I was almost choking, he said. An Afghan colleague told me to open the balcony, somehow.

Raj said he was afraid of making any noise. Somehow I managed to open the balcony by early morning. I sat on the floor and took in some fresh air, and I couldnt even think I was sitting on a floor when the temperature was minus 5.

At 7:30 am, Afghan securitymen arrived at his room. I was asked to leave the room and they took me to a camp office of United Nations. By then, I was in touch with the Indian embassy in Kabul. Raj got to know that some of his colleagues who were staying the hotel had been killed.

Gunmen who raided the hotel killed at least 22 people during a 12-hour standoff with security forces that ended Sunday, Afghan authorities said. Of those killed, at least 14 were foreign nationals, said Najib Danish, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior on Sunday. Four gunmen were also killed by Afghan security forces responding to the attack.
Trust in government, media and non-governmental organisations as institutions has dropped in India, says a survey released on the eve of the World Economic Forum in Davos where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will speak about the country as an investment destination.

As many as 70% respondents said they trusted the government, according to the annual Edelman Trust Barometer, a 5 percentage point drop from last year. As many as 61% people said they trusted the media--compared to 66% last year. As many as 68% people said they trusted NGOs--compared to 71% last year. As many as 74% said they trusted business--a number unchanged from last year. India, with a loss of 13 percentage point, was among the six countries with extreme trust losses for the four institutes.

The survey showed overall trust in the four institutions fell sharpest in the United States than in any of the 28 countries surveyed. Trust in the US government has plunged since President Donald Trumps first year in office.

Trump has broken with presidential tradition and repeatedly denounced the media and judiciary attacks his critics say risk undermining public confidence in those institutions. Italy, Brazil, South Africa and Colombia were the other countries with extreme trust losses.

By contrast, the country that saw the biggest trust gains among its own citizens was China, after a year in which President Xi Jinping cemented his hold on power at a triumphal party congress.

Faith in the Chinese government jumped 8 points to 84%. In the United States it fell 14 points to 33%.

The United States is enduring an unprecedented crisis of trust, said Richard Edelman, head of the communications marketing firm that commissioned the research.

Xi was the headliner in Davos last year, days before Trump was inaugurated. This year, Trump is the main attraction. He is expected to defend his America First policies in a speech on the final day of the conference of policymakers, CEOs, bankers and celebrities in the Swiss Alps, which runs from Jan. 23-26.

Pointing to the steep erosion in trust in the United States, Edelman said it was the first time since the survey began 18 years ago that such a precipitous drop was not linked to a specific event, such as an economic crisis or catastrophe, like the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

Instead it comes at a time when the US economy is showing robust growth and stock markets are at record highs.

Normally when things are going well, trust is pretty good, Edelman said. Increasingly there is a disconnect between trust and economic outcomes.

The Edelman survey, based on the opinions of over 33,000 people and conducted between October 28 and November 20 of last year, showed an even deeper lack of trust in US institutions among the informed public - people who are college educated, earn above-average incomes and consume news regularly.

(With inputs from Reuters)
There is likely to be an increase in militant attacks by Pakistan-based terror outfits such as Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) and Laskhar-e-Toiba (LeT) outfits, intelligence agencies have said in their briefing to the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) and the Jammu and Kashmir government.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh was informed by these agencies that the two militant outfits, especially the JeM, could take the lead in fomenting trouble in Kashmir, giving Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) time to regroup, a senior ministry functionary said.

While JeM and LeT comprise foreign and Kashmiri militants, HM is mostly a Kashmiri outfit.

Quoting intelligence inputs, the official added that Pakistan-based militant outfits made the decision after the killings of senior commanders of HM in the last two years. This includes 21-year-old Burhan Wani, who was killed by security forces in July 2016, sparking off a five-month violent agitation in the Valley.

The home minister is personally monitoring the situation and has directed security agencies to take all necessary steps to fight off foreign militants coming from Pakistan, said the official.

Intelligence documents obtained by HT suggest that the LeT is all set to campaign for growth in recruitment of militants inside Kashmir.

State intelligence units have cited a speech by LeT founder Hafiz Saeed, who spoke at Difat-e-Ummat Conference-2018 organised by Difa-e-Pakistan Council, Pakistan, at Dhobi Ghat in Faisalabad on January 12. Saeed, charge-sheeted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for allegedly sponsoring violent protests in the Valley, said that his organisation, Jamaat ud Dawa (JuD), would observe 2018 as the year of Kashmir.

While speaking at the conference in Faisalabad, primarily aimed to express solidarity with people of Kashmir and Palestine, Hafiz Saeed said that he and separatist leaders in the valley were repeatedly imprisoned, the intelligence note states.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa in an interview to Hindustan Times says his party is confident of winning 150 out of 224 seats in the upcoming assembly polls. Edited excerpts from the interview:

Q. How do you see the Parivartan Yatra coming along?

A. I have visited 191 assembly constituencies so far and the response has been beyond our expectations.

Q. What do you attribute this response to?

A. There is anger against this government and it is clear that people want change.

Q. What, according to you, are the reasons for this anger?

A. Firstly, there has been a breakdown of law and order. Second, corruption has reached a peak. Third, development works have ground to a halt.

BS Yeddyurappa, former chief minister of Karnataka and BJP state president, leaves for a political rally in Bengaluru. (Arijit Sen/HT Photo)

Q. How is the participation of national leaders helping your campaign?

A. State chief ministers and union ministers are participating in the yatra as per the instructions of Amit Shah and Narendra Modi. In my view, this is creating a very favourable atmosphere. As for Yogi Adityanath, across the nation he enjoys as much respect as the prime minister because of his hard work. Within eight months he has changed Uttar Pradesh.

Q. Do you not think this election could turn into a national vs local campaign like in Bihar?

A. This is not so because people are desperately looking for a change. Besides, our achievements when we were in power and those of the central government over the past three years speak for themselves.

Q. The Karnataka CM has tried to pitch this as a secularism vs communalism battle. What is your view?

A. Painting a national party as communal shows his weakness. Calling us communal is boomeranging on them because when the Modi government came to the centre we were ruling six states, which has increased to 19 and pretty soon this number will go up with the addition of Karnataka. When Modi says Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas, it means that Hindus, Muslims and Christians should live like the children of the same mother. Let them give one example of the Modi government breaking society.

Q. What about the controversy over union minister Anantkumar Hegdes comments

A. That issue is over. He has apologised in Parliament. I told him that he should not say such things and he has also realised that.

Q. Coastal Karnataka has witnessed rising communal tension and the Congress government has blamed your party for this...

A. As many as 24 Hindus have been murdered and Muslims, too, have been killed. This government has not been able to manage law and order. What is our role in this?

Q. What is your position on the demand for a separate religion status by a section of Lingayats?

A. My stand is clear. Shamanur Shivshankarappa is our national leader we will stick by his stand. The seer of the Siddaganga Mutt has also said that we must not break this community as Veerashaivas and Lingayats are the same.

Q. Chief minister Siddaramaiah has questioned your legitimacy because you were in jail

A. He is an advocate so he should understand that the high court and Supreme Court have exonerated me A bench of the high court criticised the refusal of bail saying such an instance had not happened even in Pakistan

Q. News reports have hinted at differences in the state BJP

A. Give me one example of this. For the past three months we have been touring together. Some media organisations and opposition parties are trying to create this.

Q. Are you confident of achieving Mission 150?

A. Definitely.

Q. What about the Lok Sabha elections in 2019?

A. We are going to win 23-24 seats this time (out of 28).
The founder-patron of the Shri Rajput Karni Sena, Lokendra Singh Kalvi, called for a public curfew if Padmaavat is screened and asked theatre workers on Monday to boycott the Rs 15-crore Bollywood movie that he alleges distorts history.

Kalvi told reporters in Gurgaon that he has accepted an invitation from the filmmakers to watch the movie at a pre-screening event. But he is certain the movie will not be released, though the censor board had cleared the film.

He warned of protests outside theatres screening the Sanjay Leela Bhansali movie, which the filmmakers say is based on Padmavat, a poem written by Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi around 500 years ago about a Rajput queen of Chittor choosing to kill herself rather than be captured by Delhis Muslim ruler Alauddin Khilji.

Kalvis statement follows the Supreme Court accepting pleas of the Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh governments that the movies screening be stopped to maintain law and order. The film is scheduled to open on Tuesday.

He said the top courts decision will be closely examined, but that would not dilute his groups demand for a nationwide ban on the movie.

Kalvi made his remarks a day after 15 people, who claimed to be members of the Karni Sena, were arrested on charges of vandalising the DND toll plaza along the Delhi-Noida border.

Several rallies and protests were organised by the group in Gurgaon. Effigies of the movies producer-director Bhansali were burned and traffic blocked.

Kalvi cited an email purportedly sent by Chetan Deolekar, associate producer with Bhansali Productions Pvt. Ltd, to claim that he was invited to the pre-screening. A copy of the email is with Hindustan Times.

We have an invite and have no hesitation in attending it, Kalvi said.

The invite clarifies that a scene depicting a romantic relationship between Khilji and Rani Padmavati, which Sena members have been protesting against, was never a part of the movie. The letter also asks for the groups cooperation to ensure a peaceful release of the film.

But Kalvi still stood his ground, saying the film should be banned because it still distorts historical facts.

I am certain the movie will not be released. If thats not the case then our group will ensure that a janata curfew will be carried out across the country wherever the movie is being screened, he said.

He cited movies Jodhaa Akbar and Fanaa, which too faced public ire Rajasthan and Gujarat respectively.

I do not support violence, but only a janata curfew. However, if there is any violence, that will be Bhansalis fault because he has created this whole spectacle, he warned.
The Ranchi administration on Monday assured multiplex owners of adequate protection to screen Padmaavat which releases on January 25.

The assurance came a day after Rajput Karni Sena (RKS) supporters tore posters and banners of Sanjay Leela Bhansalis Padmaavat at a cinema hall in the Jharkhand capital Sunday evening and appealed to theatre owners not to screen the film.

Ranchi deputy commissioner Manoj Kumar said multiplex owners met him on Monday seeking protection. I assured them to deploy additional forces during the release of the film. I spoke to senior superintendent of police, Ranchi and decided to depute extra forces at cinema halls at least for four-five days so that movie goers do not face any problem.

But Sundays strong-arm tactic by the Karni Sena seems to have worked for the protesters with theatre owners saying they may not exhibit the movie and would take decision in this regard in a day or two. On Saturday, multiplex owners in Gujarat said they would not screen Padmaavat after threats by groups led by the Karni Sena.

All 40 theatre owners of Ranchi have given us written assurance by signing on our memorandum that they would not exhibit the movie. Despite that, posters and banners were found in a cinema hall. The irate workers tore the posters, which was a message for hall owners in Jharkhand, said Mukesh Singh Rajput, president of the Ranchi wing of the RKS.

Theatres owners said they would restrain from showing the movie if protests continued. We may not exhibit the movie if protests continue. It is being said the movie hurts peoples sentiment. So, we have to think about it twice, said Dushyant Jaiswal of the movie hall Suajata where Karni Sena supporters tore the posters.

It was not possible for district administration to provide security to every cinema hall in Ranchi. We will take decision on exhibiting the movie in a day or two, he said.

Karni Sena supporters hand over a memorandum to a movie hall owner in Ranchi. (HT PHOTO)

The Deepika Padukone and Shahid Kapoor-starrer film, initially titled Padmavati, was slated to release on December 1 but was postponed due to protests in BJP-ruled states. The movie is now scheduled to be released on January 25 as Padmavat after the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) cleared it. On January 18, the Supreme Court set aside the ban on the film by the states of Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat. The apex court also directed the state governments to provide security to cinema halls.

But Rajput said that only minor change in the title of the movie would not make any difference. The movie has already hurt the sentiment of our community. Therefore, we have requested the theatre owners to respect public sentiment and stop it from screening. All hall owners have responded to our call and assured that they would not exhibit the movie, he said.

The Karni Sena claims that there are 12 lakh Rajputs in Jharkhand.

Meanwhile, Akhil Bharatiya Kshatriya Mahasabha (ABKM) and other right wing outfits have called a meeting on Tuesday to chalk strategy against the movie.

Akhil Bharatiya Kshatriya Mahasabha (ABKM) general secretary Nandkishore Chandel said, We will take to street if the movie was released in Jharkhand. To decide our protest strategy, we have called a meeting on Tuesday. He alleged that historical facts have been distorted in the movie.

In November last year, ABKM along with several right wing organizations including Hindu Jagran Manch and Hindu Mahasabha had protested the movie by staging rallies and tearing film posters.
Kerala governor P Sathasivam on Monday skipped references critical of the Modi government from his prepared speech as he addressed the assembly on the opening day of the budget session.

When the copies of Sathasivams speech were distributed among members of the assembly and media, it was found he had left out some portions critical of the Centre for allegedly bypassing the state.

The governors address is a policy statement of the state government, which prepares the speech.

We are also perturbed by the tendency of the central government to roughshod the best traditions of co-operative federalism by bypassing the state government and directly dealing with the district authorities and local bodies. The GST has resulted in serious abridgement of the fiscal powers of the state government, the omitted lines read, referring to the goods and services tax.

The launch of GST had pitted the Centre against some states that accused the Modi government of bulldozing the tax reform.

The governors address is a policy statement of the state government, which prepares the speech.

Though some Left legislators criticised the governor, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan played it down, saying he was not aware of any major omission.

Assembly officials later said two paragraphs were left out by the governor while addressing the House.

A former Chief Justice of India, Sathasivam was made the governor after the BJP-led NDA came to power.

In his speech, Sathasivam referred to campaigns by some communal outfits on the law and order situation in the state on both social and conventional media, in the past year.

Despite being a state with some of the best law and order indices in the country, a month-long campaign was carried out across India, on certain flimsy grounds by some communal outfits, he said.

However, people of the state responded to this campaign featuring the hash tags, the governor said.

During the past one year, there were slanderous attacks on the secular traditions of Kerala, doubts thrown on its social sector achievements and vilification of the law and order situation from various quarters, he said.

In October, the BJP had taken out the much-hyped Janaraksha yatra against the alleged red terror, a reference to violence perpetuated by Left cadres against the RSS and BJP.

BJP president Amit Shah, who participated in the yatra, had alleged that Kerala, under the CPI(M)-led LDF government, had become a fertile ground for jihadi terror.

Vijayan had alleged that the yatra propagated lies and false messages.

Though he enjoys a good relation with the Left government, the Kerala BJP unit was upset with him for not taking up political murders with the state government.

(With agency inputs)
The Supreme Court today transferred to itself two petitions, pending at the Bombay High Court and its Nagpur bench, relating to the alleged mysterious death of special CBI judge BH Loya in 2014.

The Loya case is seen as the trigger for the four senior Supreme Court judges  Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph  to go public with their criticism of CJI Misra for allocating sensitive cases to junior judges. Judge Loya, then presiding over the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, died in Nagpur on December 1, 2014. Current BJP president Amit Shah was named in the case but in December the same year, he was discharged by the court.

Read: Have no suspicion, stop harassing us: Justice Loyas son on his death

Besides the CJI, Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud will be on the bench, according to the list of business released by the Supreme Court registry on Saturday.

Here are the live updates:

2:20pm: SC restrains all high courts from entertaining any petition relating to Loyas death, reports PTI

2:18pm: CJI Dipak Misra gets angry after Jaising infers that SC is going to gag media, asks her to retract and apologise.

2:16pm: Vociferous arguments between the two sides in SC. Salve requests petitioners not to make government probe documents public while Dushyant Dave and Indira Jaising say this amounts to gagging the media.

2:15pm: SC also asks lawyers not to cast aspersions on BJP president Amit Shah, who is not a party before it: PTI

2:10pm: As of today, it was a natural death; Do not cast aspersions, says SC.

Lets look at this matter objectively. Its a serious issue. Let us be keeper of our own conscience: SC tells senior advocate Dushyant Dave when he objected to appearance of Harish Salve for Maharashtra govt.

2:06pm: Next hearing in the case will be held on February 2

2:05pm: SC transfers to itself two petitions from Bombay high court related to the alleged mysterious death of special CBI judge BH Loya.

2pm: SC tells Maharashtra government to hand over all documents related to death of Justice Loya for examination. The bench also asked petitioners and lawyers to file with the court additional documents in a sealed cover if they wish to.

1:55pm: The Maharashtra government tells SC a discreet inquiry was conducted to probe the death of Justice Loya and 4 judicial officers assured them there was no foul play involved. The three-judge bench recorded statements saying Justice Loya died of cardiac arrest.

1:30pm: Reports say senior advocate Harish Salve, who is appearing for Maharashtra government, has told the court Justice Loya died of cardiac arrest.

1:15pm: SC bench headed by CJI begins hearing the plea, say TV reports.

What we know so far

The two public interest litigations (PILs) demand an independent probe into the death of Judge Loya. The petitions were originally listed before a bench headed by Justice Arun Misra.

On January 16, the bench headed by Justice Arun Misra heard the matter directing the Maharashtra government to share details of the police investigation into Judge Loyas death with the petitioners and also passed an order for listing of the case before an appropriate bench.

In the SC a roster system is followed to mark cases to benches that sit in the combination of two judges. Roster is notified by the SC registry after the CJI approves it. However, the roster is not made public and even lawyers are unaware of the same.

When a sensitive matter or PIL is filed the SC registry brings it to the notice of the CJI who then takes a call on who will hear it.

Read: Nagpur police say CBI judge Loya died of heart attack

Justice Arun Misras January 16 order, fuelling apprehensions over him hearing the case again came a day after he broke down at a morning tea meet of SC judges where he expressed his anguish at being collateral damage in the fight between the four senior judges and the CJI because their allegations cast aspersions on his abilities.
Loan recovery agents allegedly crushed a Dalit farmer under a tractor in Sitapur on Saturday when he failed to deposit an arrear of the loan he had taken from a finance company, police quoted the victims brother as saying.

Assistant superintendent of police (ASP), Sitapur, Martand Prakash Singh said an FIR had been lodged against five recovery agents of the finance company.

Police said Gyan Chandra, 45, of Bhauri village in Sitapur had taken a loan of Rs 5 lakh from a finance firm in 2015 to purchase a tractor. He paid back Rs 4 lakh till December 2017 and assured the company that he would pay the remaining amount soon.

His wife Gyanwati said he had deposited an instalment of Rs 35,000 in the first week of January too but the company issued a recovery notice. Police said the agents reached Gyan Chandras house on Saturday to collect the dues.

According to Om Prakash, brother of Gyan Chandra, when his family members told the agents that he was in the field of a panchayat member with the tractor, they reached there and asked him to either pay the due amount or hand over the tractor to them.

Gyan Chandra told the agents that he would pay Rs 65,000 by January-end, said Om Prakash.

He said the agents refused to entertain his brothers plea and pulled him down after snatching the tractors key.

Gyan Chandra held on to the tractors bonnet but they started the vehicle, dragging him along , Om Prakash said and added: Gyan Chandras hand slipped suddenly from the bonnet and he came under the wheels of the tractor and died on the spot.

Angry over the death, the villagers staged a dharna and did not allow police to send the body for post-mortem examination. The villagers called off their agitation after senior officials of the district and police administration reached the village and assured action against the culprits.
A 45-year old man has been arrested in Maharashtras Nagpur for allegedly raping his 13-year-old daughter for the last three years, police said on Monday.

Officials said the incident came to fore after one of the girls friends brought it to the notice of the school principal. The principal, police said, alerted the girls mother but she kept quiet until she saw her husband abusing their daughter at home on Sunday.

The mother approached the local police in Gittikhadan area of the city and lodged a complaint against her husband, a peon in a school. The accused has been arrested by the police on charges of rape, molestation and child abuse.

Officials said the Class 8 student has developed suicidal tendencies and is undergoing treatment after repeated attempts to end her life.

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court sentenced a man named Rameshwar Iwanathe to life imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 for raping his minor daughter for two years, a couple of months ago. The incident took place four years ago.

The National Crime Records Bureaus recent report on crime shows there was a sharp increase in the cases of rape against children in 2016 by over 82% as compared to 2015.

The report said that 38,947 cases of rape were registered in 2016 across the country under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act as well as Section 376 and other related sections of the Indian Penal Code.

It said, the accused of rapes in 94.6% cases are none other than the victims relatives including brother, father, grandfather, sons or acquaintances.

It added that the accused were related to the victims in 36,859 cases and that in 630 cases, the victims were allegedly raped by grand-father, father, brother and son while in 1,087 cases the accused were acquaintances.

(With PTI inputs)
More than 1.29 lakh people have been arrested for violating the liquor prohibition imposed by the Janata Dal-United government led by chief minister Nitish Kumar in Bihar nearly two years ago, officials said on Monday.

Since total prohibition was imposed in Bihar on April 5, 2016, over 1.29 lakh persons were arrested for violating the law banning liquor. They have been sent to jail, an official of the Excise and Prohibition Department said.

Officials said police have raided 3.87 lakh locations while the Excise Department conducted raids on another 1.96 lakh locations and seized over 14 lakh litres of foreign-made liquor and 7.48 lakh litres of countrymade liquor.

Besides, police have seized thousands of litres of spirit and hundreds of beer bottles during the raids.

According to a police report, as many as 90,803 cases were registered in connection with violation of the prohibition law.

Nitish Kumar has repeatedly made clear his commitment to implement a ban on liquor sale and consumption in the state.

The law enforcement agencies have been directed to act tough against violators, he said.
The Gujarat Police on Monday warned protesters it would not hesitate to use force as highways were blocked and buses damaged in the state by Rajput castes groups opposing the release of Hindi film Padmaavat.

With the controversial period drama set for release on January 25, police have initiated legal action against protesters, who claim the Sanjay Leela Bhansali film misrepresents history and insults Padmavati or Padmini, a legendary Rajput queen.

No one would be allowed to break law. Patrolling vans will also do videography and all the miscreants will be booked, director general of Police Pramod Kumar told media, as a theatre was vandalised in the city.

Groups such as the Karni Sena and the Mahakal Sena have threatened to set fire to cinema halls showing the film, which was banned by the state government.

The Supreme Court, however, struck down the ban in Gujarat and other states and said the governments were responsible for the safety of people and cinemas.

The Multiplex Owners Association has decided not to screen the film but that has not stopped protests or vandalism.

State transport buses were not allowed to ply in north Gujarat. Buses were damaged and tyres burnt in Surat on Sunday, with police also getting reports of protesters misbehaving with women.

The way protests happened, it seemed a conspiracy. The police have booked 25 persons and conducting inquiries against leaders, who hatched the conspiracy, Surat commissioner of police Satish Sharma said.

The situation was brought under control but in future, police would not shy away from using force, he said.

The Samast Rajput Samaj has threatened to gherao the BJP headquarters in Gujarat, saying the film should not be released in the state.

The Supreme Court will on Tuesday hear appeals by Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh governments on modify its order that allowed the release of Padmaavat.
Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh approached the Supreme Court on Monday seeking modification of an order that paved the way for Bollywood film Padmaavats nationwide release as violent protests against the period drama intensified across India.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra agreed to hear the applications on Tuesday after the states requested an urgent hearing and expressed fears of a law and order breakdown if the film is released as scheduled on Thursday.

The Shri Rajput Karni Sena, which has led the violent protests, also filed an application in the apex court, seeking to be heard in the matter. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), also voiced its opposition to the film.

In its application, Madhya Pradesh said despite the January 18 order that stayed bans on Padmaavat by four states and instructed governments to provide security, many incidents of violence and vandalism had taken place.

despite the states obligation and best endeavours to protect the freedom of speech and maintain law and order, it is likely that the release of the film may cause breach of peace. It is submitted that the state is also duty bound to protect its citizens from any untoward incident and is thus empowered to take preventive measures in this regard, said the Madhya Pradesh government.

Rajasthan said it will have to divert forces from Lok Sabha bypolls scheduled on January 29 to provide security for the movie.

The film, starring Deepika Padukone as legendary Rajput queen Padmini and Ranveer Singh as Muslim emperor Alauddin Khilji, has battled mounting troubles for more than a year. The protesters, led by the Shri Rajput Karni Sena, are upset over the depiction of Padmini and especially a rumoured dream sequence between Padukone and Singh  a charge that director Sanjay Leela Bhansali has rejected.

Earlier this month, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) cleared the film after the title of the film changed from Padmavati to Padmaavat. A week later, four states  Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana banned the film, only for these orders to be stayed by the SC.

But the protesters havent backed down.

In Jaipur, Karni Sena members issued open threats to cinema hall owners and two film distributors refused to make the film available. If any cinema hall still decides to screen the film, and any sort of vandalism takes place, only the hall owner will be responsible for it, said Narayan Singh Diwrala, district president of Karni Sena.

Members of Rajput outfits caused disruptions in various districts including Rajsamand, Jalore and Pratapgarh. In Bhilwara, a man climbed a mobile phone tower with a bottle of petrol in protest against the release of the film but climbed down hours later after police assured him of leniency, ANI reported.

In Madhya Pradesh, various caste-based organisations blocked roads in Madhya Pradeshs Ujjain, Neemuch, Indore and Dewas and burnt posters of the film. In Bhopal, protesters threatened cinema hall owners if they screened the film.

We will not allow the release of the movie as it is a matter of our pride. We are ready to give our lives, said Karni Sena spokesperson Shivraj Singh Chandrawat. The group has already announced that Rajput women will commit Jauhar, a self-sacrifice ritual, if the film is released. Police said no FIR was registered against any protester but assured cinema owners of security.

In Gurgaon, Karni Sena founder-patron Lokendra Singh Kalvi said he had accepted Bhansalis invitation to watch Padmaavat but reiterated his threat of a janta (public) curfew if the film is released. I am certain the movie will not be released, Kalvi said.

Violence also singed Gujarat, where tyres and buses were burnt in Surat and a single-screen threatre in Ahmedabad vandalised. No one would be allowed to break law and order. Patrolling vans will also do videography and all the miscreants will be booked, said director general of police Pramod Kumar.

In Mumbai, police promised security to theatre owners who would screen the movie. The Mumbai Police will ensure that no law and order issue is created and they will provide adequate security to the theatres screening it, a top police official said.

Tensions also rose in Uttar Pradeshs Shamli district after a Dalit man allegedly posted a provocative comment on a Rajput mans Facebook profile about the film. Members of the Hindu Raksha Sena burnt Bhansalis effigy and warned of serious consequences if the film is released.

(with inputs from HT Correspondents in Jaipur, Bhopal, Gurgaon and Ahmedabad)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for Davos on Monday to attend the 48th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum accompanied by finance minister Arun Jaitley and commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu among others.

Modi is scheduled to deliver a keynote address on the opening day of the meeting on Tuesday. At Davos, I look forward to sharing my vision for Indias future engagement with the international community, the PM tweeted on Sunday.

Modi will be the first Indian Prime Minister to attend Davos in two decades  after HD Deve Gowda in 1997.

Read: PM Modi on Davos: World wants to communicate directly with India

The Prime Minister will also hold bilateral talks with the President of Swiss Confederation, Alain Berset, besides holding a series of meetings with business leaders and addressing the international business council.

Under the theme Creating a shared future in a Fractured World, the meeting aims to set an agenda to address political, economic and Social challenges of recent times.

More than 3,000 world leaders from business, politics, art, academia and civil society will attend WEF annual meeting over the next five days in the small ski resort town on snow-covered Alps mountains, where the Indian presence will be the largest ever with over 130 participants.

Read: World Economic Forum preps for Modi mantra with tastes of India, twists of yoga

WEF chairman Klaus Schwab will declare the summit open on Monday evening with a welcome message on the meetings theme, Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World.

It will be followed by honouring Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan, Australian actress Cate Blanchett and legendary musician Elton John with the annual Crystal Awards for their respective work towards improving the state of the world.
An armed forces tribunal (AFT) has put on hold the selection of brigadier Devender Singh as the next top law officer of the Indian Army for filing a false affidavit in another case.

A board led by the army chief had, in September 2017, picked Singh to take over as the judge advocate general (JAG) from Maj Gen Rakesh Mishra, who retires in March.

In its interim order, a copy of which is with Hindustan Times, the Lucknow AFT last week also restrained Brigadier Singh from discharging duties as the major general of the JAG branch in case he was promoted to the post.

Keeping in view the fact that the conduct of respondent number 5 (Devender Singh) has not been appreciated on the judicial side and a cost was imposed upon on him on account of filing of a false affidavit and for concealment of facts, we feel prima facie such an officer shall not be entitled to hold the highest post of the JAG Branch, i.e post of the major general, the bench of air marshal BBP Sinha and justice DP Singh said on January 18.

When reached for reaction, the army spokesperson declined to comment.

Singhs selection has been challenged by Brig DK Ahluwalia who claims a superior service record. Other than the army chief, the vice chief and seven army commanders also sit on the board that picks the JAG, who has to be a major general.

The JAG advises the army on military law and court martials.

The appointment of a person whose conduct was not appreciated on the judicial side would affect the functioning of the JAG, advocate Virat Anand Singh told the tribunal on behalf of Brig Ahluwalia.

After going through the service records of the two officers, the tribunal concluded that Ahluwalias credentials were more suited for the post of the JAG.

Normally, it would not comment on the merits of a selection made by the board, but from a perusal of comparative merit, it has not been disputed that the career of DK Ahluwalia is several times better, the tribunal said.

Singh was fined Rs 25,000 by the Chandigarh AFT in 2015 for concealing facts in a case in which an army officer was denied promotion as major general.
The Supreme Court said on Monday it will hear appeals by the governments in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday to modify its order that allowed controversial Bollywood film Padmaavat to be released in theatres across India on January 25.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra agreed to hear their interim application against its January 18 order that stayed a ban on Sanjay Leela Bhansalis film imposed by four states.

The ban was imposed by Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh despite the film being cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). Haryana and Madhya Pradesh governments have not issued any formal order but stated they would not allow the exhibition of the film.

The states claimed that section 6 of the cinematograph act empowers them to stop the exhibition of any controversial movie on the grounds of possible violation of law and order.

Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Viacom 18 - the producers of the film starring Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor in leading roles, opposed an urgent hearing.

The court, however, agreed to hear the applications on Tuesday.

Bhansalis Rs 150-crore movie is based on Padmavat, a poem written by Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi about 500 years ago, which gives an account of a legendary Rajput queen of Chittor choosing to kill herself rather than be captured by invading Muslim ruler Alauddin Khilji.

Historians are divided over whether the queen ever existed. Many Rajputs believe she did exist and accuse Bhansali of portraying her in a bad light  a charge denied by the filmmakers.

The movie has been facing violent protests particularly by the fringe group Shri Rajput Karni Sena, which has blamed the director and lead actors of insulting Rajputs and the communitys honour. Protesters have issued death threats against Bhansali and Padukone while alleging that the queen is shown romancing Khilji in the movie.

The films name was changed to Padmaavat as suggested by the CBFC, which recently cleared the film for release with a U/A certificate and a set of five modifications.
With the heat rising in Tamil Nadu politics due to the entry of matinee idols Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan, its two neighbours in the north, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, too, are set to witness a similar act, as popular Telugu actor Pawan Kalyan has decided to take a full-fledged plunge into politics.

Pawan, who had floated a regional political outfit, Jana Sena Party, shortly before the 2014 elections, had campaigned for the Telugu Desam Party-Bharatiya Janata Party combine.

He is now planning to test his political fortunes independently although detractors see state chief minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K Chandrasekhar Raos hand behind it to split the anti-incumbency votes in the next elections, which is 15 months away.

Though Pawan has been raising his voice on issues of the people occasionally, he has not been regularly active in the political arena. Now, he has decided to test the political waters by contesting elections  in a few winnable seats.

On Monday, the actor started a four-day political tour of Telangana, after launching his partys womens wing Veera Mahila at the party headquarters in Hyderabad.

His Russian wife Anna Lezhneva applied vermillion on his forehead and did aarti (ritual) before his started his tour. All religious prayers were held done earlier to bless him.

Dubbed Chalo re Chalo re Chal (a bit taken from the lyric of his popular Telugu film Jalsa), the tour began from Kondagattu, a pilgrimage centre in Jagitial district, after offering prayers to Lord Hanuman, his family deity.

Thousands of party workers and fans greeted him as he arrived at the temple town in a convoy of more than 50 cars. The police had a tough time controlling the crowd.

Later, he left for Karimnagar town, where he addressed a huge gathering of party workers in the evening to discuss the future plan of action.

Speaking to media later, Pawan said he would tour different parts of the two Telugu states to understand peoples issues and resolve them.

After my tour in Telangana in the next three days, I am planning to tour Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh to study the drought-like situation there. Later, I will go to Ongole in Prakasam district to interact with the people affected by kidney ailments. Subsequently, I will tour tribal areas of Visakhapatnam and from there, I will visit the villages affected by nuclear power plant at Kovvada in Srikakulam district, he said.

The actor said he did not want to adopt a confrontationist approach with the democratically elected government in both the Telugu states, but bring issues concerning the people to their notice.

I would like to play constructive politics. I am not focussing on how many seats our party will win in the next elections, but on finding solution to the peoples issues, he said.

The Jana Sena Party president said his party would contest only in those constituencies where it had winning chances. We will disclose in a couple of months as to how many seats we will contest, he said.

Congress leaders in Telangana tried to pick holes in Pawans campaign, saying he had strongly opposed the formation of Telangana from then-undivided Andhra Pradesh.

How can he expect that his party would get the support in Telangana? asked former Karimnagar MP and Congress leader Ponnam Prabhakar.

Prabhakar suspected state chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was behind Pawans tour, as he was trying to split the anti-incumbency vote in the state.

Very recently, Pawan had met the chief minister at the latters camp office and praised him. He described KCR as a role model for all the chief ministers in the country. How can he put up a fight against the TRS government? the Congress leader wondered.
People huddled around Shakandhya Devi at a relief camp in RS Pura town let her cry aloud when an urn containing ashes of her husbands mortal remains were shown to the woman on Monday.

She and daughter Shilpi have been weeping intermittently, the hollow of their eyes and dark circles around them showed as much, ever since a Pakistani shell exploded near Ghar Singh in the crop fields of their village, Bera, close to the border on Saturday morning.

Marginal farmer Singh had gone to the fields to rescue the family cow from the mortar shells. Splinters from one such deadly munition cut him down.

The father of three sons and a daughter was cremated by Saturday afternoon and the family left for RS Pura town to escape the relentless Pakistani attack with artillery and machine gun fire on frontier civilian areas.

The sole bread winner of the family was among a dozen people, including soldiers, killed in the heavy Pakistani shelling along the border in Jammu and Kashmir since Thursday. The situation was particularly bad in Jammu and Poonch districts.

Singhs eldest son Rakesh lit the pyre on Saturday, with mortar shells and bullets flying overhead.

Our father died for the country. This government provides jobs to stone-throwers and kin of terrorists. Cant any of us get a government job to sustain our family? asked the jobless man.

He continued in a trembling voice: Our world has turned upside down. We are marginal farmers; we do farming for others. Can Rs 1 lakh compensate a human life?

The family feared for their small, mud-stone home too. Is it still standing?

Nearly 15km from the camp, another family mourned the death of a beloved mother  50-year-old Bachno Devi of Sai Khurd village in Arnia.

Living barely 1.5km from the border, she had opened the door of her house hearing husband Jeet Raj screaming in agony. He was hit by a Pakistani shell in the verandah on Friday morning.

Raj was trying to tell his family to stay safe inside. But the moment his wife opened the door, a shell came flying and exploded near her. She was killed instantly.

Shrapnel hit my mothers neck, said Devis 18-year-old son Ravi Kumar, who was wounded too.

The family with a small land holding has three daughters and two sons. Eldest son Babu Ram, 21, and Ravi Kumar have passed their Class 10 finals, but are jobless. The father worked as a farmhand in the village.

My father has shrapnel wounds in both legs and a thigh. The shrapnel have not been removed and we fear he may not be able to work again  We pray to the government to provide us a government job, Babu Ram said.
Two persons were killed when a major fire gutted scores of shops in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal early on Monday, fire brigade official said here.

The fire broke out in a two-storeyed shopping complex in Dumdum Cantonments Gora Bazar that houses nearly 400 shops. An official said more than 100 shops were affected.

The fire broke out around 1.50 a.m. Two charred bodies have been recovered so far by firefighters. A few others sustained minor injuries. Firefighter Jiten Ghosh also suffered burn injuries on his hand, an official of the Barrackpore fire control room said.

As many as 21 fire tenders were used to douse the flames.

The fire is under control. We are spraying water on charred shops for cooling. The process to damp down pocket fires is on, he said.
Shri Rajput Karni Sena chief Lokendra Singh Kalvi on Monday said he would not allow Sanjay Leela Bhansalis Padmaavat to be released at any cost and warned that if cinema halls went ahead with the January 25 release it would lead to an enormous outburst of people.

He also urged other state governments that want a ban to come together to approach the Supreme Court.

Speaking to IANS, Kalvi said: We will not allow the film to be released at any cost. The Supreme Court has directed the state governments to ensure release of the film, but not to us (Karni Sena).

Once the film is released, the outburst of people will be enormous and cinema halls will be responsible for the cost. I request other state governments who had earlier declared they would ban the film to come forward and file a petition in the Supreme Court to stop the release of the film.

In Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, Karni Sena members on Monday blocked some roads to oppose the release of the film.

The Karni Sena staged blockades by burning tyres on roads connecting Ujjain to Nagda, Dewas to Maksi and Agar to Kota.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Sachin Atulkar said that the administration has urged the protesters not to take the law into their hands. We have cleared the road after receiving a memorandum from the protesters, he said.

There were also reports that protesters had pelted vehicles with stones on the Agar-Kota road. The SP, however, denied any incidents of violence. There were small road blockades. We will take stern legal action if protesters disrupt law and order, he said.

The apex court is to hear on Tuesday a plea by the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan governments seeking to block the release of Padmaavat.

The counsels for the two states on Monday mentioned the matter for urgent hearing seeking modification/clarification of the courts January 18 order that stayed notification/orders of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana government banning the release of the film in the three states.

The court had directed that no state government would issue an order that might come in the way of the release of Padmaavat on January 25.

The Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh governments have moved the apex court taking the support of the Cinematograph Act where movie screening can be stopped on grounds of law and order in the state.
Amid fresh shelling by Pakistan at Indian positions along the International Border and the LoC, Union home minister Rajnath Singh said Monday that the government would not let the country down even in adverse circumstances.

Paristhitiyaan kitni bhi pratikul kyon naa ho, hum Bharat ka mastak kisi bhi surat mein jhukne nahi denge (In no circumstances, however adverse they may be, we will never let India down), he said on the last day of his three-day visit to Uttar Pradesh. He was speaking at a public meeting here, but did not name Pakistan.

The home minister said, ...Bharat ab kamzor desh nahi rah gaya, vishwa samudaay ki Bharat ke prati dharna badal chuki hai (India is no longer a weak nation. It has become a strong nation and its image before the world has changed).

In a blunt message to the neighbouring country, Singh said in Lucknow on Sunday that India had shown it could attack its enemies not only on its soil, but also in their foreign territory, if need be.

His remarks came almost a month after a group of five Army commandos crossed the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir and killed three Pakistani soldiers and smashed a post, in a swift and daring operation to avenge the killing of four Indian Army personnel by a Border Action Team of the Pakistan Army in Keri sector in Rajouri district.

Indias image in the world has become that of a strong nation and we have given a strong message to the world that we can attack our enemies not only on our soil, but also in their territory. India has developed this power, he had said.

In the same refrain, he said today that India had given a bold message to the world community that any insult to the country would not be tolerated.

In the latest ceasefire violation, Pakistani troops opened fire and lobbed mortars at Indian positions along the International Border and the LoC in three sectors of Jammu and Rajouri districts overnight, raising the death toll in the ceasefire violations since Thursday last to 12.

Over 60 people were injured in the ceasefire violations.

Singh, who represents the Lucknow constituency in the Lok Sabha, on Monday inspected work on under-construction Outer Ring Road which will link the state capital with Barabanki.
West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee has decided to set up a hospital for dogs in Kolkata in the memory of his wife who passed away in July 2017.

He has also set up a trust to build and run the treatment centre that will be named Babli Chatterjee Memorial Pet Hospital.

Read: Wont allow processions with weapons: Mamata throws challenge at RSS, VHP

The minister, whose daughter lives abroad, stays alone with as many as six dogs giving him company in his residence at Naktala in south Kolkata.

Babli was a dog- lover in true sense. There are six dogs in our family now that include two St. Bernards, Golden Retriever and Pug. As long she was fit, she used to take care of them that including feeding them, giving them medicines and taking them to vets. Even when she went to sleep at night, her pets were her companions. So I thought that a hospital for dogs will be the best way to keep her memories alive, Chatterjee said. His wife was only in her mid-fifties when she passed away.

Though meant for dogs, the units will also be able to treat cats.

Read: Mamata gets D.Litt from Calcutta varsity, oppn says institute has lost its prestige

The minister, too, is not only fond of dogs but also went to great lengths to sacrifice for the comfort of the pets.

Often after returning home from late night party or administrative meetings he did not find room on his bed, since it was occupied by his pets, and he would spend the night on a couch.

Chatterjee, who became an MLA for the first time in 2001, leads an extremely busy schedule. The many hats that he wears -- minister for education, parliamentary affairs and spokesperson for the party in Bengal -- does not leave him much time for leisure. But when I return at night my pets give me company, said the minister.

Read: Mamatas pro-poor policies alone may not be enough to stop BJP in Bengal

The minister also guards the privacy of his pets. He never posts pictures with them on social media and does not allow outsiders to click their pictures.

Chatterjee, who used to work for Andrew Yule & Co, a central government undertaking, before joining politics, was always a dog lover.

The trust has a plot of 17 acres near Baghajatin railway station in south Kolkata, where the hospital will be set up, he said. However, Chatterjee refused to divulge the project cost.

In Kolkata, there is an acute shortage of sophisticated pet hospitals and my wife often mentioned it. The trust authorities have already started interacting with renowned veterinary doctors about the facilities than can be provided there. I have asked the authorities to complete the project as quickly as possible, Chatterjee said.

In June 2015 ruling Trinamool Congress suffered an unsavoury controversy when influential legislator, Dr Nirmal Maji, referred the dog of one of his relatives to state-run SSKM Hospital to carry out dialysis. The controversy heightened when the director of the hospital Dr Pradip Mitra was removed from his position days after he refused treatment of the animal there.
It was a big day in the life of Vidya Bai, 48, who migrated from Sukhur, Pakistan to India in 1990. At last she became an Indian citizen along with 54 others of her ilk on Sunday. The certificates of Indian citizenship were given by home minister Rajnath Singh at a function in Shiv Shanti Ashram on Sunday evening.

Hundreds of Sindhi community members thanked the home minister for his effort to grant citizenship to 55 Sindhi migrants .

Speaking on the occasion, Rajnath said, A delegation of Sindhis met me when I became home minister and apprised me of the citizenship issue. I promised them all support. I am happy that I have been able to deliver and grant Indian citizenship to oppressed people from Pakistan.

During partition, Pakistan and India entered into an agreement to take care of minorities and their rights, which India always honoured but Pakistan always violated . The suppression of minorities continued in Pakistan and as a result, a number of Pakistanis applied for Indian citizenship. But they were not granted this for years due to small technical issues. I called the attorney general and he helped in drafting the new citizenship and visa policy. But the bill is with the standing committee as it was not passed in Rajya Sabha. Soon we will have majority in Rajya Sabha and then the bill will be passed, Rajnath said.

He said the bill which was passed by the Lok Sabha had invested the powers of granting citizenship in the district magistrate. Now oppressed Pakistani citizens could apply for long term visa , open bank accounts and commercial establishments and their kids could get education in India. In the meantime, they could apply for citizenship.

District magistrate Kaushalraj Sharma said , In all, 146 Pakistani Sindhis applied for citizenship out of which 55 are granted citizenship. The rest will also be granted citizenship soon.

Head of Sindhi Samaj, Uttar Pradesh, Murlidhar Ahuja said,  There are around 15 lakh Sindhis in the state but they dont have any representation in the state assembly .

Also present on the occasion were mayor of Lucknow Sanyukta Bhatia, minister in state cabinet Brajesh Pathak, Mahendra Singh and principal secretary, home RK Singh.
Kanpur: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath will inaugurate a two-day conclave celebrating the entrepreneurial ecosystem created by the alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-K) here on January 27.

The event aims at not only promoting entrepreneurship among students but also helping the existing startups by exploiting IIT Ks experience in innovation and research and its vast alumni network, said the media head of the event Mihikaa Jain.

About 40 distinguished speakers, including some from the US, would address the conclave.

She said over the last couple of years this event had become one of the most awaited events for the budding entrepreneurs to interact with industry experts. The event was also a great platform for leading industries and investors to connect with startups and entrepreneurs and get a pulse of the ecosystem.

This is also a great opportunity for small and large corporations to do a brand awareness exercise amongst startup ecosystem.

Mihikaa said the event was an initiative of IITK alumni association under the banner of Startup Master Class (SMC). It came into existence 4 years ago but this will be the first time when the conclave will be held in Kanpur.

IITK alumni association, president, Pradeep Bhargava said: The SMC was for the entrepreneurs and by the entrepreneurs. It builds collaboration, inclusiveness and interactions enabling the startups to succeed.

It is a fully volunteer run, not-for-profit network of individuals and institutions (alumni of PAN IIT network) combining their skills and resources to promote entrepreneurship, said Mihikaa.

Through its 8th edition, organised across various cities in India - Bangaluru, Pune, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, the SMC has engaged more than 5000 startup enthusiasts, more than 200 delegates, 500 startups and 100 venture capital firms.

There would be four events, including one-to-one with mentors, which was hallmark of the previous edition and we had more than 250 such sessions. Besides, there would be workshops on blockchain, augmented reality, virtual reality, bulletproofing your startup, drones, mobility, artificial intelligence, innovation framework and startup fundamental, she said.

There would also be captivating sessions by venture capitalists (VC) Ravi Sakhuja, the national president at Indian American Forum; Chintan Vaishnav, academic director at MIT Tata Center, USA; BVR Mohan Reddy, chairman at NASSCOM and founder at Cyient; Lalitesh Katragadda, country head at Google India; Saurabh Srivastava, co-founder and director at Indian Angels Network, Mihikaa said.

Besides, a platform would be provided for startups to pitch their idea, product to various VCs, investors. Investors from Helion Venture Partners, Indian Angel Network, Accel Partners and Jungle Ventures will be present on the occasion. Indian Angel Network has a fund of 100 crore and was looking to invest in tier 2 city start-ups, Mihikaa said.

Finally, the participants would be made aware of the challenges in the real world.

The registrations for the event are open and those interested can log on to http://www.startupmasterclass.in/kanpur/#overview or through facebook at https://www.facebook.com/IITKAA/.
Handing out a terse warning to theatre owners against screening Sanjay Leela Bhansalis now re-named, re-edited Padmavaat set for January 25 release, various Rajput and Hindu bodies on Sunday demonstrated in different parts of Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP government is yet to take an official stand on the movies release.

To pressurise the Yogi Adityanath government, that was among the first few in the country to recommend ban Padmaavat in its previous avatar, the All India Kshatriya Mahasabha, Karni Sena along with few right wing outfits like Hindu Sena held demonstrations across the state.

After Thursdays Supreme Court order striking down the ban on Padmaavats screening imposed by four states on the ground that the movie could enrage passions and create law and order problem, the Rajput bodies, which claim that Bhansali hasnt done justice to Mewar queen Padmavatis character, have revised their strategy. Instead of pinning hopes on the government, they are now trying to threaten cinema hall owners to voluntarily say no to the movies screening.

Har woh cinema ghar jalega jisme Padmaavat chalega (All cinema halls screening Padmaavat would be set on fire), chanted Rajput youths who staged protests in the state capitals Hazratganj area on Sunday.

In the case of Muzaffarnagar  A Burning Love, a film set in the backdrop of 2013 riots that engulfed western UP, the police allowed only selective release. It wasnt screened in several west UP districts despite the fact that there was no administrative order banning the movies release. We want the government to do that here as well, an agitated protestor said.

In Noida protests were held outside some multiplexes while in Shamli and Gorakhpur effigies of Bhansali and actors essaying the role of Rajput king and queen were burnt.

Our youths are talking to cinema hall owners on the issue. We respect the Supreme Court but at the same time the society is feeling hurt at the manner in which our sentiments have been hurt by the cinematic depiction of the character of a queen who is revered by the Rajputs, said Pratapgarh MP Harivansh Singh, the national chief of All India Kshatriya Mahasabha.

In UP, police officials admit that the Supreme Court order leaves little scope for any doubt about the films release. Its a categorical order and we would do what the honourable court has ordered. As far as protests are concerned, we would persuade protestors not to take the law in their hands, said Anand Kumar, UPs additional director general (crime and law and order).

In neighbouring Uttarakhand, chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has made it clear that the movie will be screened. In UP too, senior government officials, who had in August 2011 seen apex court striking down the state governments two month ban on the screening of Prakash Jhas Aarakshan, agree that there is little the government can do.

While admitting that they feared violent protests, cinema hall owners, however, are hoping that the government will ensure security.

We are confident that the government will deploy adequate security outside our theatres and multiplexes, said one of the hall owners.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanaths office and senior officials of the states home department werent available for comment on the issue of threats to cinema hall owners.
An Italian business delegation has signed MoUs with Indian organizations dealing in leather, jems and jewelry sectors during the Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) 2018 in Kolkata.

The MoUs were signed in the presence of Council for Leather Exports (CLE) chairman Mukhtarul Amin on January 17.

The CLE is an autonomous non-profit company registered under the Indian Companies Act, 1956 entrusted with export promotion activities and development of Indian leather industry with its zonal office in Kanpur.

The first MoU was signed between Italy-based Dassault Systems and Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC), CLE and Indian Chamber of Commerce and Gems and Jewelry Federation (GJF) for design support in their respective design centers.

The second MoU was signed between Italian Leather Research Institute Stazione Sperimentale Industria Pelli (SSIP), Calcutta Leather Complex tanners Association and CLE, for technology exchange and training.

Addressing the Italian delegates during the event Country Session, Amin highlighted the role of Indian leather industry in the global market and its salient features.

He told the members of the Italian delegation, who represented different industrial segments including leather, that the Indian leather industry was the perfect partner not only for sourcing but also for joint ventures, technical collaborations and investments.

Amin said India accounts for 13% of global finished leather production, producing 3 billion square feet of leather annually.

He also invited Italian entrepreneurs and technical experts to join hands with the Indian leather sector for setting-up of mega leather clusters, common effluent treatment plans, moving-up the value chain through design development and other expansion efforts of the industry.

He further said: People of both India and Italy enjoy good food, are proud of their rich cultural heritage and work hard to go ahead in life and we can do wonders if business communities in both the countries join hands and take up collaborative projects, he added.
Former UP minister Azam Khan said on Monday he told the Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the alleged Jal Nigam recruitment scam, that he had no role in the recruitments.

Recruitments are the work of the government department and not the minister or chairman of Jal Nigam, the SP leader said.

Facts The state government has already terminated the services of 122 assistant engineers after detecting irregularities in their recruitment. The SIT conducted a raid on Jal Nigam office in Lucknow on September 22 last year and seized documents connected with the recruitment. The Jal Nigam was set up in 1975 to create a water distribution and sewage network in various cities of the state.

Khan was summoned by SIT to record his statement on charges of irregularities in recruitment on 1,300 posts in the Nigam during the SP government.

He arrived at the SIT office at 12.30 pm where a three-member SIT team  Nageshwar Singh (SP), Amirita Mishra (ASP) and Atal Behari (inspector)  recorded his statement till 2.30 pm.

Later, Khan told media persons that there is no stain on my political career. The BJP government is trying to malign my image with fake and baseless charges.

Lashing out at the BJP governments at Centre and in Uttar Pradesh, the former minister said that rather than providing employment to youths, the government is making them jobless. There has been a phenomenal increase in unemployment under the BJP rule, he said.

Criticising the SIT probe, he said: I have the blessings of the youths who were given jobs under the SP government. When SP returns to power, the government will again give jobs to the unemployed.

Majority of the youths, who were recruited on various posts in the Nigam, belong to poor families and only few are Muslims, whose parents do menial jobs to earn a living, he said.

The state government is trying to smear my image. I was left with no other option but to reply to the allegations, he said.

Khan said as a minister, I have established a university, a medical college and a school in Rampur to provide education to the youths. Majority of the students come from lower middle class and have won laurels in various national competitions. I have no car and live in an old house located in a narrow lane.

Meanwhile, superintendent of police (SP), SIT, Nageshwar Singh said, the state government handed over the Jal Nigam recruitment scam probe to it in July last year.

There were allegations of large-scale irregularities and corruption in the recruitments. The APTEC  the agency that conducted the test  had admitted that anomalies were committed in recruitment on 1,300 posts, including assistant engineers, junior engineers and clerks.

Khan, the then-urban development minister and chairman of Jal Nigam, was accused of interfering in the recruitment process.

The SIT has recorded the statements of then-secretary, urban development, SP Singh, then-chief engineer of Jal Nigam, AK Khare, former Jal Nigam MD PK Ashudani, officials of APTEC and Ashfaq Khan, officer on special duty.

Nageshwar Singh said SIT is probing whether the recruitments were done according to rules. A report will be sent to a committee, comprising principal secretary (home), DG (SIT) and principal secretary, urban development, for further action. SIT will also send data and answer books of the examination for forensic test.
Preparations for the UP Investors Summit 2018 get another shot in the arm as Japan has become one of the partner countries for the event.

The Netherlands, Mauritius and Finland are already partners for the summit.

The state hopes to get bigger investments from the partner countries as they are all interested in investing in UP, said a UP government officer associated with the summit.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath will meet the partner countries delegations in separate meetings on both the days of the summit on February 21 and 22.

Japanese companies are exploring possibilities to invest in UP and Japans banks are looking for giving loans to projects here.

Preparations for the summit are now peaking. This is the first mega event of the Yogi government.

Of late, the state government has accelerated implementation of new policies in all key sectors, including industry, food processing and tourism.

The government has identified land in each of 75 UP districts for setting up industrial units and allocating them to investors on demand.

The government has also identified eleven priority sectors for investments namely civil aviation, IT-enabled services, dairy, electronics manufacturing, tourism, MSME, infrastructure, renewable energy, films, handloom/textile, and agro/food processing.
Lawyer of the suspect girl in Brightland school stabbing incident said on Sunday, her family wants the case to be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation as they have no faith in police investigation and they also questioned school managements role in the entire case.

Lawyer Naushad Ali Khan and girls father questioned why the school did not report the matter to the police and concealed it for more than 24 hours. They also alleged about why did school teacher cut suspect girls hair while it was the job of the police to collect the sample.

Her father said, School management is trying to shield somebody and in the process they and the police are trying to frame my daughter, who too is minor and innocent. We want the guilty should be punished but innocent should be spared.

The suspect girl also answered queries of media persons. She recalled how she has been hounded by the school since Tuesday afternoon till such time she was sent to juvenile home. I have done nothing wrong and still everybody is questioning me about the incident, she said.

The family claimed the school has been saying that they have CCTV footage that shows the suspect girl going inside the toilet. But they have never shown the footage to the family.
Razor, trimmer, shaving foam, cigarette, lighter, chisel blade, i-pod, mobile phone, ultra slim laptop, porn magazine and gutkha pouch.

Nothing seems unusual in the list, until you are told that the seized articles have been found in bags of students of prominent schools in Lucknow.

Random surprise checks were carried in a few schools on Friday and Saturday, three days after a Class 1 boy of Brightland School was allegedly stabbed by a senior girl student of the same school.

While the school principal, who was sent to jail for hiding the incident from police for over 24 hours, is out on bail, the suspect girl is also back home on interim bail after spending 24 hours in the juvenile home.

Alarmed with the shocking incident, schools in Lucknow are taking preventive measures.

We were shocked to find that students of Class 9 bring pornography magazine with a brown cover and a label of science subject. We also found packets of cigarette and lighters from bags of several boys. These things have been confiscated and notices issued to their parents, said a teacher of an all-boys educational institution.

Some of the boys even brought razors, shaving foams and trimmers.

When confronted, they said their parents do not allow them to shave at home so they bring such items to school and use them before leaving for home, said a teacher, not willing to be named.

The checking of bags was also carried out at a prestigious all-girls educational institution 15 minutes before interval.

The students were asked to leave the class while teachers checked their bags. Scissors, blade, nail polish, lipsticks and perfumes were some of the common items that were found from their bags.

Many of them had brought I-pods and mobile phones, too. They have been seized, said a teacher.

Most of the schools have banned bringing mobile phones to classrooms after the Gurgaon school incident, where a boy was allegedly killed by a senior so that exams could be deferred.

However, the surprise checks have revealed that students are flouting rules with impunity.

Now, the schools want parents to check the school bags of their wards.

It is difficult for us to check the bags of 2,500 students daily. But, parents can at least check bags of their wards before they come to school. It is not difficult for them, said a principal of a school affiliated with the CBSE board.

A principal of a co-educational school in Lucknows Aashiana area said, One of the students had brought a mobile phone hidden in a school diary, assuming that it wont come under the teachers scanner. We have informed his parents about it.
After dilly-dallying for more than three years, the civic body is all set to roll out the parking policy.

After getting municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehtas approval for night parking in A ward which comprises Churchgate, Cuffe Parade and Kala Ghoda, the civic body will give night parking slots to 166 car owners for six months.

After the no-objection certificate from the traffic police, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday sent notices to 166 car owners belonging to 20 housing societies, asking them to pay Rs1,800 a month.

The BMC will collect Rs17.92 lakh for six months.

We have asked 20 housing societies to pay for six months in advance. After receiving the payment, we will put up signboards with the timings and also mark the slots with yellow paint, designating them as residential parking spots, said Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner, ward A.

Under the recently approved residential scheme, citizens will be allowed to park on roads at night for a monthly fee ranging from Rs600 to Rs1,800 for 12 hours (from 8pm to 8am).

The policy is meant to encourage citizens to use public transport and fine them for illegal parking.

After numerous objections over the parking rules and charges from citizens, the BMC received applications from 235 car owners from 39 housing societies, requesting for parking space on roads.

A ward is a prime location in south Mumbai for commercial complexes and government buildings and sees a heavy density of vehicular traffic. The area has a population of around 1.5 lakh people and also sees a floating population of 8 lakh daily.

The area also falls under A category or the busiest category where parking rates are the highest. The list of roads was forwarded by the BMC to the traffic police department for no-objection certificates and final approval to implement the policy. The traffic police rejected 69 applications because most of the roads have been dug up for Metro work.
The interim anticipatory bail application of Samasta Hindu Aghadi president Milind Ekbote, accused of instigating unrest between Dalits and Marathas in Bhima-Koregaon early this month, was rejected by a Pune court on Monday.

Rejecting the bail application, additional sessions judge Pralhad Bhagure said there was a possibility that the accused might flee if granted anticipatory bail.

On January 2, the Pimpri police had registered a zero First Information Report (FIR) against Ekbote and Shiv Prathistan Hindustan president Sambhaji Bhide after a complaint was filed by Anita Savale, 39, a member of the Bahujan Republican Socialist Party.

Ekbote, along with Bhide, was booked for January 1 violence at Bhima-Koregaon that left one person dead and angered Dalits, who then called a Maharashtra bandh. A former corporator from Pune, Ekbote and his followers have been in the news for cow vigilantism in Pune and neighbouring districts.

Suvez Haque, superintendent of police, Pune (rural) said, As of today (Monday), we have not arrested Ekbote but will take necessary action...

Special inspector general of police (Kolhapur range), Vishwas Nangre-Patil, has rejected a report by a 10-member fact-finding and co-ordination committee that the violence was instigated by a small section of radical Hindutva groups.

On Saturday, deputy mayor of Pune, Siddharth Dhende, who led the committee, claimed that the riots were pre-planned.

A minuscule section of radical Hindutva elements had conspired and targeted the Dalits... There was a significant amount of pre-event information available with the police ... he said.

Nangre-Patil said the report was entirely wrong and misleading. The government will issue a clarification soon, he said.
The investigation report on the Pawan Hans helicopter crash, which was expected in a week, will only come next month.

The chopper crashed on January 13, killing seven people  five ONGC staff and two pilots -- on board.

According to Pawan Hans officials, who are part of the investigating team, the black box was taken to Delhi to find out the exact cause of the incident. A team from France was in the city to decode the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR), but they couldnt do it, said a Pawan Hans official.

The device was then handed over to a team from Airbus -- the helicopters manufacturers -- in Delhi, who have taken it to France for decoding. Once decoded, there will be clarity on the situation before the crash. This will help us understand what caused the incident, said the official.

Senior officials from the ministry said the preliminary accident report was submitted to the Prime Ministers office last week.

A team from AAIB will also continue with the investigation. Sanjay Kumar, general manager, Pawan Hans, said a team will come to Mumbai to study the wreckage. Various angles are being looked at. The doubt on technical issues, if any, will be cleared after the team in France will complete decoding the black box of the helicopter, said another Pawan Hans official.

In the past, investigation agencies have never released a preliminary report. The final report usually takes over a year. If released as promised, this will be the first such instance, the official said.
Did Abdul Subhan Qureshi alias Tauqeer, the alleged co-founder of terrorist outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM), visit the city after he allegedly masterminded the 2008 serial blasts in Gujarat and Delhi? This is what the Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad (ATS) will try to ascertain when they interrogate him.

Qureshi has cases registered against him in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and other places. The ATS of different states will to await their turn to get custody of him. Since Qureshi is one of IMs founders, officials said they will examine his role in other serious cases, which will be clearer once security agencies question him about his activities.

The state ATS has dug out Qureshis file and a list of cases against him in the state. Sources in the agency said they will soon send a team to New Delhi to assess and question him.

Agencies see Qureshi as a former Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) man, who was instrumental in building up IM and organising its logistics.

Qureshi first came on the polices radar in 2001, when he and the Bhatkal brothers were booked for protesting in Kurla against the government ban on SIMI. The Mumbai police are investigating the case, lodged under the Unlawful Assembly (prevention) Act (UAPA). Qureshi was convicted in a case lodged by the Pydhonie police under the Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities Act, and has to pay a fine of Rs200.

The state ATS has filed two cases against him. In the first, a UAPA case, he and SIMI chief Sabdar Nagori were alleged to have met in Ujjain and planned a conspiracy. The case was filed based on a statement by Ehtesham Sidduqui, who was convicted in the 2006 train blasts. Qureshi was booked in the second case, in which jihadi literature was seized from a SIMI activist in Pune in 2008.
Abdul is my eldest son, but he was not in touch with me, said Mohammad Usman Qureshi, the ailing 75-year-old father of Abdul Qureshi, the terrorist arrested by the Delhi special cell from Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday.

Usman, his wife, daughter and son live in an apartment on the sixth floor of Highland Building in Nayanagar area of Mira Road (East). Dressed in a white kurta, he stood up with great difficulty, holding a urine bag while talking to reporters on Monday. He said he has to undergo an operation, but financial constraints pose a challenge. He also co-operated with policemen who came to his residence, following Abduls arrest.

I came to Mumbai from Rampur district of Uttar Pradesh more than five decades ago and was staying in Masjid Bander in South Mumbai. We bought a flat in Mira Road and moved there 15 years ago, he said.

Usman said he was unaware of Abduls arrest. I have had no contact with Abdul. I do not know what he does or what he used to do. I am unaware of the charges against him, he said.

I have never seen Abdul. I often meet Usman uncle when he comes for prayers. None of them ever talk about Abdul, said one of Usmans neighbours, who did not wish to be identified.

Abduls mother Zubeida refused to speak to reporters. She shut the door, weeping.
A 30-year-old labourer was crushed to death after a dumper carrying sand fell on him in Khar (West) on Saturday. The dumper was in reverse gear when its rear tyre went into a manhole and caused the vehicle to turn. Bharat Waze, the deceased, was standing next to the vehicle to help the driver park it when he got killed.

The Khar police have arrested Baban Dhavale, dumper driver, for causing death owing to rash driving and negligence.

The incident occurred 8.45am on Saturday when Dhavale was trying to park the dumper to unload the sand opposite Anand Vihar Society compound in Khardanda area in Khar (West). Waze, who lived in Vasai, had got off the dumper to help Dhavale but instead got crushed under it.

Senior inspector Ramchandra Jhadav of Khar police station said, While taking the vehicle in reverse, the dumpers rear tyre went into a manhole and it turned the vehicle, which crushed Waze to death.

In another incident, a 27-year-old labourer died after he fell into a duct of an under construction site. The incident occurred at 11.50pm on Friday when Zafar Khan, while working in an under-construction building in Saki Naka area, he lost his balance and fell in the buildings duct. The police have registered a case against the contractor for not taking precautions.
A day after the arrest of a director of Kamala Mills compound, a fire officer and a hookah supplier in connection with the December 29 blaze in Lower Parel, the police have alleged that the trio flouted various guidelines related to fire and property.

The blaze, according to a fire departments report, started from rooftop restaurant Mojos Bistro and spread to its adjoining 1Above, killing 14 people and injuring 55 others. It was attributed to flying embers from a hookah in Mojos Bistro.

The three men arrested on Saturday night are Utkarsh Vinod Pande, 28, a hookah supplier; Ravi Bhandari, 57, director of Kamala Mills; and Rajendra B Patil, 52, fire officer. A report highlighting violations and causes prepared by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) chief Ajoy Mehta was submitted to the state government, Mumbai police commissioner and city mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar on Friday.

Yug Tuli, co-owner of Mojos Bistro who was arrested on Tuesday, allegedly outsourced the hookah business to Pande. Pande employed his staff to serve hookah to customers, said a police officer privy to the investigation, adding that Pande knew that Mojos Bistro did not have permission to serve hookah.

Despite this, Pande went ahead with the deal. The fire has led to a renewed call, led by Mumbai mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar, to ban unregulated hookah parlours in Maharashtra.

On the role of Bhandari, the officer said that he had misused additional floor space index (FSI) by leasing out the terrace to 1Above and Mojos Bistro. The terrace was given on rent when there was no permission, such as commencement certificate, from the civic body, said the officer. The police are also investigating if Bhandari misused FSI meant for an information technology (IT) park.

According to the state governments IT policy, Kamala Mills Ltd has received an additional FSI of 1.33. The civic report states: There is possibility that the Kamala Mills has used commercial areas beyond permissible limits.

Fire official Patil has been accused for certifying that the restaurants were fire compliant. The police alleged that a week before the fire, he stated that the terrace was not covered.

However, investigations revealed that the it was covered with inflammable materials and sheets, which fuelled the December 29 fire. Patil is the first BMC officer to be arrested in the case.

Besides the trio, the police have arrested 11 people, including three owners, two mangers of 1Above, their friends for sheltering them, and two owners of Mojos Bistro.
The Opposition parties slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government over its decision to allow sale of Baba Ramdevs Patanjali products on its Aaple Sarkar Seva Kendra, its citizen facilitation centres.

The decision, which was announced via a government resolution (GR) on January 19, was taken without any formal agreement between the Maharashtra government and Patanjali. This is the first time where a private companys products will be sold through governments centres.

Senior bureaucrats defended the move saying that the decision was taken as per the Centres guidelines issued through its special purpose directives called the common service centre.

Former chief minister and Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee chief, Ashok Chavan, called the government an agent of Patanjali. The state governments decision to sell Patanjali products makes it clear that it has become an agent of the company. The government should use his picture in its Mi Labharthi (I am a beneficiary) advertisements, Chavan said.

Pantanjali products have been listed as one of the services offered on the e-Seva centres which are set up to provide services such as Aadhaar, PAN Card, income and domicile certificates, and passport related documents to citizens. The state governments decision comes after announcements that Patanjali has tied up with online giants Amazon, Flipkart and others .

Leader of Opposition in the legislative assembly, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil demanded that the GR be withdrawn immediately. This is not a common mans government, but that of a handful of rich ones. This decision to sell Patanajli products through the states e-Seva kendras strengthens our claim, said Vikhe Patil.

Nationalist Congress Party spokesperson Nawab Malik called the decision as a violation and accused the government of favouritism. This isnt the first time a controversy surrounding the state and Patanjali has surfaced. Earlier, Sanjay Nirupam, chief of the Congress partys Mumbai unit, had alleged that the state has allotted Ramdevs company land in the Multi-Modal International Cargo Hub Airport at Nagpur (MIHAN), at a throwaway price. The government is using its machinery to benefit certain companies that are close to the BJP, Nirupam said.
Maharashtra may have the highest number of government-aided institutes in the country, but it ranks a poor 20th among all states and union territories when it comes to getting funds from the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shikshan Abhiyan (RUSA), a central government scheme that finances state-run educational institutes.

Of the total Rs2,233 crore released under the scheme in four fiscal years  from 2013-14 to 2016-17 Maharashtra has received Rs39.58 crore, which is a mere 2%, data from the ministry of human resources development (MHRD) shows. At Rs254.95 crore, Uttar Pradesh secured the highest grant in this period.

RUSA was launched in 2013 with an aim of providing strategic funding to eligible higher state-run educational institutions. Funds can be utilised to upgrade existing autonomous colleges to universities, for infrastructure upgrades and to improve faculty, among other initiatives.

The states get funding on the basis of critical appraisal of their strategies to address issues of equity, access and excellence in higher education.

The disproportionately low funds that Maharashtra has received is a result of the governments freeze on recruitments in higher education institutes, a state government official said, requesting anonymity. The state finance departments ban on hiring new teachers remains a major hurdle in the way of attracting more funds for the state, he said. The absence of a higher education council in the state is another reason.

In 2015, the Maharashtra government put a freeze on creating new posts and filling existing posts in an effort to curb its expenditure on government employees. A government resolution, issued in May 2017, announced that this freeze would continue for concerned departments until it takes stock of existing posts and finalises a new administrative framework for the departments.

Despite all this, so far in 2017-18, Maharashtra has already been granted Rs60 crore, much more than the amount it has received in the previous four fiscals, revealed Meeta Rajivlochan, state project director (SPD) for RUSA. We have got funds for whatever we proposed, she said, adding that much of the grant is directed towards funding research projects in colleges and universities.

Activists criticise the states seeming inability to attract funds and spend them appropriately. The state did not get enough funds because of inadequate representation from the government, said Santosh Gangurde, vice-president, Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthi Sena (MNVS).

A 2016 report by the SPD blamed two universities  the University of Mumbai (MU) and Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University  for failing to utilise even a single rupee appropriated for them through RUSA. However, Rajivlochan said that now, all state universities have spent their funds and have been allocated a second instalment.

Gangurde said the state also should not have spent money where it did. Theres been no spending in the tribal belts, he pointed out. Sanjay Vairal, a former senate member of the MU, also believes that grants have been spent poorly. MU used the funds it got to renovate some new buildings that are yet to be occupied, he said.
Over the years, campus placements have witnessed many changes in the city. Until a few years ago, more students were opting for job experience over higher education and now, the placement department of every college is finding more and more students inching towards entrepreneurship and start-ups. City institutes are leaving no stone unturned in ensuring that no matter what their choice post-graduation, students are well-equipped to handle any situation that comes their way.

Entrepreneurship is not as easy as it seems but over the years, more students are showing interest in it and our Career Development Cell is on it, through the year, said Dinesh Panjwani, principal, R D National College, Bandra. He added that various sessions including interactive dialogues with those who are doing well in their chosen career path are organised through the year. Something as basic as your attire while approaching investors or finding the right partner are things we focus on and students are very appreciative of such programmes, he added.

Bhandups NES Ratnam College of Arts, Science and Commerce recently organised a one day start-up festival for college students from across the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been encouraging India to transform itself from a nation of job seekers to a nation of job creators and it is so nice to see young students coming up with interesting and non-perishable ideas, said a spokesperson for the institute. This is third year that the college has held this festival and this year too, participating students came from a range of institutes from cities such as Jaipur, Delhi, Pune, Nagpur, Hyderabad and Aurangabad. Through this fest, these aspiring student entrepreneurs get to interact with and get mentored by industrial leaders, capital investors as well as successful business owners, said principal Nithya Narayana.

Recently, HT had highlighted the growing demand for graduate students in various finance and capital organisations with undergraduate students from city colleges bagging as much as Rs12.5 lakh per annum through campus placements. The placement officers of various colleges are noticing a growing yearning among students to start their own venture and seek help with the same.

Theres a considerable rise in the number of students preferring to start their own venture, and they are very confident with their ideas especially because they have spent a lot of time zeroing in on their ideas. While many are open to taking risks immediately after graduation, a large number of students are also opting to work in the industry for two years to build their profile and network and then dive headlong into their own venture, said Haseena Sayed, coordinator of the E-Cell and Placement Cell at Jai Hind College, Churchgate.

An undergraduate student of St Xaviers College in Dhobi Talao has received one of the highest annual packages this year -- Rs12.5 lakh. At the same time, however, the number of students from the institute wanting to start their own venture after graduation has also increased, officials said. Almost 70% of graduating students this year have opted for jobs immediately after college to either use this work experience to later head for a higher education degree abroad, or to use this job experience in order to start their own venture later on, said Soni George, placement coordinator at the institute.
Resident groups and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) have raised objections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations (BMC) plan of demarcating 85,891 hawking pitches across the city. They have claimed the implementation of the proposal will affect the city adversely.

Residents associations have claimed that the spaces demarcated are along narrow footpaths in the vicinities of schools, temples, and hospitals. Several citizen groups have been holding meetings to chart out a course of action against the pitches.

The Bhuleshwar Residents Association has opposed hawking zone in the C ward. There is no area to walk for citizens on these narrow footpaths. If hawkers are allowed on footpaths, then the residents will be forced to walk on roads and be susceptible to accidents, said Vijay Petiwala, secretary, Bhuleshwar Residents Association.

NGO NAGAR have alleged that the civic body has drawn up the list without application of mind.

Nayana Kathpalia, Trustee of the NGO NAGAR, said, The pitches are drawn arbitrarily without any study on the holding capacity of the place. The hawking guidelines are very clear in stating that hawkers should not obstruct pedestrian and vehicular traffic. The ongoing exercise by the BMC stands in direct violation of the guidelines.

The Federation of Retail Traders Association (FRTA) has said that the huge number of hawkers will adversely impact the business community.

Ramesh Prabhu, Chairman, Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association (MSWA), said,This is a security risk and the BMC should come forward with a proposal and consider our views before implementation.

The move has already invited criticism over the allotment of hawkers pitches outside the residence of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, former CM Narayan Rane, and some Bollywood stars.

BMC officials admit that the issue is problematic and cumbersome. The issue is no one wants hawkers near their houses. How can we accommodate them if citizens have such a mindset, said a senior BMC official from the License Department.

The BMCs list of hawking pitches first met with opposition in 2015 when residents protested against allotments outside their houses, following which the list was withdrawn. But the BMC republished the same list in November last year and invited citizens suggestions and objections. The civic body is still considering suggestions until January 31 and making changes after considering them.
The Republic Party of Indias (RPI) Unity March, to be led by Union minister and Dalit leader Ramdas Athawale, on Monday evening is likely to disrupt peak-hour evening traffic in south-central Mumbai.

Thousands of RPI workers and Dalits are expected to attend the rally.

The three-kilometre march will start from Chaityabhoomi in Shivaji Park at 4pm and go up to Naigaon in Dadar. It is expected to pass through Shivaji Park, Plaza cinema, Tilak bridge, Dadar TT and culminate in a meeting at Sadakant Dhavan ground in Dadar (East) at 7pm, which will be addressed by the Union minister.

The RPI, however, does not think that the rally will not cause any major traffic disruptions. The police will manage things, and traffic will be delayed by five to 10 minutes, said Avinash Mahatekar, national general secretary, RPI.

The rally is being held to promote harmony between the Maratha and Dalit communities in the state. It is an attempt to foster relations and encourage unity between the two major communities, which have been affected by the Bhima Koregaon violence, Mahatekar explained.

On January 1, violence erupted at Bhima Koregaon , 40km from Pune, during Dalit celebrations of the 200th year of the British-Peshwa war in which Dalit soldiers played a pivotal role in ensuring victory for the British. Some attribute the violence to the simmering discontent between the Marathas and Dalits. The ensuing Maharashtra bandh paralysed life across the state, including in Mumbai, as well as large-scale destruction of public and private property.

Many Mumbaiites dont think the march is a good idea, and call it just a political stunt. How can any march promote peace between two communities? A march on a Monday evening will inconvenience the public and lead to traffic jams, said Mitesh Gala, a resident of Dadar.

Some suspect that the rally is Athawales way of countering his bete noire Prakash Ambedkar, who was the face of the Dalit stir following the Bhima Koregaon incident. Ambedkar, founder of the political party Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh and grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, had called for a statewide bandh on January 3 to protest against the violence at Bhima Koregaon, which was a success.
After the arrest of five members of Suresh Pujaris gang, interrogations revealed that twenty five businessmen in Mumbai and the neighbouring Thane district received threatening phone calls from the gangster.

Several businessmen continued to receive these phone calls following the gunshot firing at a hotel employee in Bhiwandi on January 10, with Pujari threatening a similar firing if the extortion money was not doubled.

Police officials said that since Pujari made the calls via the internet, his location has been traced to multiple countries.

On Friday, the Anti Extortion Cell of the Mumbai crime branch arrested Harish Kotian, 30, Sanket Dalvi, 25, Prathmesh Kadam, 22, Noormohammed Khan, 20 and Aniket Thakur, 25. The arrest had been made in connection with the firing at Bhiwandi , threating the owner, and planning to bump off a South Mumbai-based businessman for extortion.

According to sources, Kotian enlisted a friends help to contact various people in Mumbai, Thane and Ulhasnagar to collect details regarding potential targets. Kotians friend sought to settle some scores with the South Mumbai-based businessman, and hence gave his details to Pujaris gang, said a crime branch official.

Sanket Dalvi attempted to commit suicide while in police custody by using a piece of broken glass, and is currently undergoing treatment at the hospital. DCP Dilip Sawant confirmed this, stating that hardened criminals tend to use such tactics to avoid investigation.

Officials of Mumbai Crime Branch said that they may soon invoke the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA) against the five arrested accused. Invoking the MCOCA will help control future activities by the gang, said DCP Sawant.

Victims should come forward and lodge complaints so that we can tighten our noose on the gang, said the police.
An 18-year-old college student died and his uncle suffered injuries after a dumper hit their bike on Palm Beach Road on Sunday night.

According to the police, biker Asif Hussain Khan and his uncle Aslam Khan, 38, who was riding pillion, were travelling to Seawoods from Shahbaz village in CBD Belpaur around 10.30 pm.

Neither were wearing helmets, said police.

They were taking a right turn at Killa junction on Palm Beach Road in front of the civic headquarters when a dumper coming from Uran hit their bike, said an officer from Belapur police station. Asif fell and the dumper ran over him. He succumbed to his injuries on the spot. Aslam was taken to a nearby hospital. He is now out of danger, the officer said.

Police arrested the dumper driver, Arvind Rajbhor, 30. The driver said his brakes failed, which is why he hit the bike. We will ask RTO officials to help us verify t his. This was not a case drink driving, the officer said.

The police booked Rajbhor under sections 304a, 279, 337, 338 and 427 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 184 of the Motor Vehicle Act. He was produced before the judicial court on Monday afternoon.
The citys Naupada police claimed to have reached a fire mishap spot in just about three minutes, and rescued people, including children and elderly persons, trapped in the premises.

Their efforts were appreciated at a private function organised by some city residents on Sunday.

A 26-storey building in the Naupada area had caught fire on Friday afternoon.

While a number of fire engines were pressed into service to douse the flames, the Naupada police personnel also rushed to the spot and managed to reach the premises in 3.31 minutes, inspector Sanjay Dhumal claimed.

Senior police inspector Chandrakant Jadhav said taking into account the extent of fire, the first task before them was to keep at bay the large crowd which had gathered outside the building, housing around 100 families.

Dhumal narrated how he kept encouraging the panic- striken families trapped in the building not to lose hope, and brought them out.

He climbed up a scaffolding and rescued several people who were trapped in the smoke emanating from the fire.

He said a couple stranded on one of the floors was in a fix whether to drop down their two-year-old child to save him. On seeing their condition, Dhumal said he immediately climbed up the floor and saved the couple and their child.

Inspector (administration) Prakash Patil said as soon as he got information about the fire, he rushed to the spot on his sons scooter. Enroute he also alerted a police van, in which two woman constables also reached the building.

Patil said he rescued several people from the building by rushing up and down the floors.

In one apartment there was lot of smoke and nothing was visible. However, the policemen went inside and rescued an old woman trapped there, he said.

At the function, the brave policemen were felicitated for their efforts in saving so many lives.
The sessions court on Monday sentenced two speech and hearing impaired convicts to life imprisonment for killing a 58-year-old Bandra resident four years ago.

On June 11, 2013, Sarfaraj Bhavnagiri and Parvez Khan killed Nalini Chainani, who lived on the 10th floor of Madhuban Society in Bandra (W). Both the convicts are in their thirties.

As per the prosecution case, the womans husband Sunil returned from his Navi Mumbai workplace around 8pm and found her dead.

The two ran away with valuables worth Rs5.85 lakh.

The accused were known to the family as Bhavnagari was a friend of the couples son.

During interrogation, the accused said they had been planning the robbery for 15 days. Before executing their plan, the accused visited the family several times to avoid any suspicion.

Though there was no eyewitness in the case, the evidence given by the watchman proved to be crucial. The building watchman had seen the two going and coming out of the building on that day. Later, the prosecution connected the dots and proved that it was the two who could have killed Nalini. The police also recovered the stolen valuables from the accused.

The prosecution said the conspiracy was hatched by Bhavnagiri and Khan assisted him in his plan. Khans family had told that he was offered a job in Dubai to commit the crime.

The police said the two were unemployed and would often visit the couple. On the day of the incident, they were spotted by the watchman around the same time of the crime, the police said.

After their arrest, the police recovered stolen valuables worth Rs4.5 lakh.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to Israel on January 19 after a five-day visit to India, covering Delhi, Agra, Ahmedabad and Mumbai. The visit and the warm welcome  Prime Minister Narendra Modi receiving him at the airport and accompanying him on several events and tours  consolidated the post-2014 transformation in the optics and politics of the India-Israel bilateral relationship. It also showcased cooperation in innovation, agriculture, high technology and counterterrorism. Agreements were signed on cyber security, oil and gas, space, battery and solar technology.

Since the establishment of full diplomatic ties in 1992, relations between the two nations have been strengthened in several areas including agriculture, water conservation, science and technology and defence. Even before that, Israeli supplies were helpful to India during the 1962, 1965 and 1971 conflicts. They had made a difference during the 1999 Kargil conflict. Cooperation had extended beyond supplies to defence technology collaboration, including for short and medium range missiles.

However, high-level political exchanges were rare. There was a reticence here in public political acknowledgement of the depth and interest in the relationship. Prime Minister Modi visited Israel in July 2017, the first ever by an Indian prime minister. Netanyahu reciprocated within six months. This level of exchanges between the two countries is unusual, even with countries with which we have much higher levels of trade, investment and people-to-people linkages.

For Israel, with which many countries still do not have diplomatic relations, a growing relationship with a country of Indias global political presence, is helpful in its normalisation. For India, Israel has been a source of useful technologies. The second-highest number of start-ups in the world, after the US, are in Israel.

Several autonomous parallel events that took place during Netanyahus visit also reflected widening constituencies with a stake in the relationship. The US-India Business Council of the US Chamber of Commerce, along with US-Israel Business Initiative, held discussions with Indian, Israeli and US business to explore trilateral business and technology opportunities. Indiaspora, an organisation of Indian-Americans, partnered with NASSCOM, and Israeli representatives, with similar intent.

However, despite the new public bonhomie, there will be some continuing challenges in the relationship.

India was able to establish full diplomatic relations in 1992 only in the wake of dissolution of the Soviet Union and initiation of the Oslo Peace Process between the Israelis and the Palestinians. That process is now at a stalemate. Modis visit to Israel last year emphasised some de-hyphenation, when he did not make a customary visit to meet the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. However, clearly a need is now being felt to restore some balance. It has been reported that Modi is likely to visit Palestine in February.

There will also be differences in approaches to Iran, China and Pakistan, given the differing geopolitical locations. Israel considers Iran an existential threat and is active in international and regional efforts to isolate and sanction it. India has a historical relationship, and finds the cooperation useful for energy supplies, and an alternative route through Chabahar port to Afghanistan and Central Asia.

China is Israels largest trading partner in Asia, there are strong technology and investment linkages, and Netanyahu during a visit there had described the relationship as a marriage made in heaven, similar to his description of the India- Israel relationship. It was the US which prevented Israel from continuing a defence supply relationship with China. On Pakistan, Israels interest lies in keeping open the possibility of relations. The foreign ministers of the two countries met in Turkey in September 2005. There was no follow-up because of Pakistans reluctance. In the joint statement, while there is a general reference to the threat that terrorism poses, and advocacy for strong measures against those who sponsor or provide sanctuary, there is no specific mention of cross border or groups such as LeT and JeM, which find mention in several of our other joint statements.

In the coming period, Israel will focus on what it sees as growing challenges to its security. It assesses an expanding adversarial Iranian presence extending through Shia-dominated Iraq, Assad controlled Syria, and the Hezbollah takeover of Lebanon. It is heavily invested in counterterrorism cooperation with Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab countries with which it has diplomatic relations. There are reports of other Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, having back-channel contacts with Israel based on common perceptions of Iranian challenge.

We will need to navigate our relationship with Israel keeping in mind the advantages in the bilateral context, and the challenges in the regional aspects.

Arun K Singh is a former Indian ambassador to Israel and the United States

The views expressed are personal
Special inspector general of police (Kolhapur range), Vishwas Nangre-Patil, has rejected a report by a 10-member fact-finding and co-ordination committee that the violence in Bhima Koregaon was instigated by a small section of radical Hindutva groups.

The committee was appointed by the Pune rural police to find out the root cause of the Bhima Koregaon violence.

On Saturday, deputy mayor of Pune, Siddharth Dhende, who led the committee, claimed that the Bhima Koregaon riots were pre-planned.

A minuscule section of radical Hindutva elements had conspired and targeted the Dalits. The local police also failed miserably in maintaining law and order on the ground. There was a significant amount of pre-event information available with the police but the local police did not take necessary action in advance, which could have averted the riots, he said.

Nangre-Patil said the report was entirely wrong and misleading. The government will issue a clarification in this regard soon, he said.

Dhende the committee wanted the government to immediately constitute a special investigation team (SIT) to carry out an independent and fair probe into the violence and book the culprits under the stringent sections of NSA Act. He also stressed that the district collector must also visit all the villages affected by the violence and work towards strengthening communal harmony in the region, the committee suggested.

Dhende blamed Hindutva leaders Milind Ekbote and Sambhaji Bhide for the unrest and said, There is sufficient evidence against them in terms of audio-visual proof. He said that they instigated the violence against Dalits .

The co-ordination committee, comprising of 10 members, visited the villages around Koregaon Bhima, Vadhu Budruk , Shikrapur and Sanswadi and the other places from where violence was reported on January 1. The committee comprised members from the Dalit community, including professor Rahul Makhare, MN Kamble, Vikas Salve, Datta Pol, Shyam Gaikwad, Ramakant Khande, Rajendra Gaikwad, Kiran Shinde and others.

Akhil Bhartiya Brahman Mahasabha demands resignation of Dhende

Akhil Bhartiya Brahman Mahasabha president and staunch Hindutva activist Anand Dave has demanded the resignation of Pune deputy mayor Siddharth Dhende alleging that the fact-finding and co-ordination committee headed by him was disturbing law and order instead of working toward bringing peace in the society.

Dhendes committee should have had people from all communities and should have met people from all communities affected by the violence. He is making statements without any proof and is doing something which the government has not authorised him to do. He is doing this to gain political mileage out of the incident. The co-ordination committees duty was to restore peace and not find out the reasons behind the incident. The government is capable and responsible for carrying out the investigation and not the committee, he said. Dave issued the statement after Dhende alleged that Hindutva organisations were behind the violence during a media interaction.
The Chandigarh police on Sunday booked four youths after a 20-year-old Mohali girl, who had been missing since August 2017, accused them of abducting and raping her.

The girl, who is a first-year student, told the Sector-34 police that she was waiting outside her college in Chandigarh when the four youths  who stayed in her neighbourhood  offered her lift in their car.

She alleged the accused offered her a soft drink laced with sedatives and took her to Kanpur, where they gangraped her at a house for months .

On January 12, the girl reportedly managed to escape and reach the Kanpur railway station, from where she called her brother. Her brother-in-law, who stays in Uttar Pradesh, reached the station and brought her back home, states the complaint.

Main accused tells different version

One of the accused, identified as Babloo, reportedly told the police that the girl and he were in love and got married in court. He claimed they even sought protection from the high court. Police said they have registered a case of gangrape and are investigating the case.
The land pooling scheme was conceived by the Punjab government for various housing, commercial and institutional projects about a decade ago. The Punjab Urban and Development Authority (PUDA) was mandated to implement it. Under the scheme, land is taken from farmers to develop big housing, commercial projects. In lieu of the land, farmers are offered housing and commercial sites.

However, many farmers have had an unpleasant experience so far.

When was scheme introduced?

The Greater Mohali Development Authority (GMADA) implemented this scheme at Mohali in 2009 for the development of Aerocity, and later for the adjoining IT city.

What was offered to farmers?

Under the scheme, the GMADA authorities offered 1,121 square yards of land in the developed area to farmers for each acre of acquired land for Aerocity and IT park. Each farmer was to be given a commercial site measuring 121 square yards and 968 square yards of housing plots of various dimensions such as 500 square yards, 300 square yards and 200 square yards.

Who was to decide compensation?

Land acquisition collector (LAC) appointed by the department of urban development takes this decision. The collector decides how much share farmers will be given in the plots for residential and commercial purposes developed on the acquired land.

What are other benefits for farmers?

The farmers are not charged any stamp fee for getting the plots registered in their names under this scheme. They are also given an additional time of two years or more for construction on the plots allotted to them for housing and commercial purposes. Besides this, the farmers are paid rental from the day of land acquisition till the date of physical possession of plots under this scheme. This rental is fixed by the district collector concerned.

How much land was acquired?

Around 1685 acres of land was acquired for the IT city adjoining the Aerocity in Mohali in 2012.

What has been the experience of farmers?

Many farmers who agreed to the land pooling scheme in 2012 have had an unpleasant experience with the scheme. Jarnail Singh of Matran village, Gurmeet Singh and Surjit Singh of Bakarpur village, are among the victims of GMADAs land pooling scheme. These farmers allege that the authorities have neither paid them the annual land rental nor given them the possession of the plots and commercial sites allotted to them on paper.

How many farmers actually benefited?

It is surprising but GMADA officials dont have the exact figures of the farmers who opted for the land pooling scheme. An official called it a very cumbersome process. However, the total land acquired under the land pooling scheme from the farmers was 1685 acres.

What has been the spike in rental?

The farmers and the GMADA officials say they were promised an annual land rental of 30,000 per acre under the land pooling scheme in 2012. At present, the annual rental of farmland around Mohali is between 40,000 and 50,000 for an acre. The land, which doesnt have irrigation facility, also fetches at least 30,000 per acre.

What has been the track record in country?

Senior Vice President of Bhartiya Kissan Union (Lakhowal) Kirpal Singh says there is a trust deficit between farmers and government agencies. Farmers prefer to sell their land to private realtors who make payment instantly and dont harass them. Government development projects hang fire for years. In 2012, GMADA officials took away our land, our only source of income, but are yet to pay us even the annual rental, what to talk of allotting us plots.

How much more land is GMADA planning to acquire?

In all, the GMADA officials have decided to acquire 5,438 acres of land in the periphery of the airport, Aerocity and new Chandigarh. The villages that will be affected include Manoli, Chhatt, Badi, Sau, Kurdi, Kishanpur, Paton, Chau Majra, Matran, Bakarpur, Rurka, Safipur, Sainimajra(Premgarh), Naraingarh, and Kishanpura.
Though Gurdial Singh, 96, fails to recollect exact dates, he talks about the strategy, speeches and spirit of Subhas Chandra Bose with palpable excitement, on Monday, the eve of a function by the Punjab State Freedom Fighters Descendants Association to mark Boses 131st birth anniversary that falls on Tuesday.

Gurdial proved after a long court battle that he was in the Indian National Army established with the aim to overthrow the British Raj in India by Bose, and he now gets a pension for that.

Claiming that he was Boses trusted guard and driver, he said he travelled with him to Singapore, Burma (now Myanmar) and Bangkok in the 1944-45 period. Born on January 1, 1922, at Bhotna village of Barnala district, Gurdial had gone to Malaysia for work in 1937 and joined the INA in 1943 when Bose visited.

In Singapore, he once delivered that mesmerized people. The INA had members from varied communities. He was like a brother to them.

Gurdial said it is false propaganda that Bose was liberal towards the ideology of Adolf Hitler.

Jagmohan Singh, a professor, added, Bose worked on the philosophy of Bhagat Singh and his comrades following his document, dated February 2, 1931, to young political workers of India, in which they were advised to work among the people, and organise workers and peasants.
Only 15 of the 74 recognised private schools in Chandigarh (20.27%) have provided information on the number of seats they have reserved for the economically weaker section (EWS) and the number of forms received for admission to these seats.

The education department of the UT administration had asked all private schools to send this information by January 19. Applicants can submit their forms for admission under the EWS category till January 31.

Officials in the education department who are privy to the matter, on condition of anonymity, said only 15 schools out of the 74 recognised schools have sent their response to the department on how many seats they have reserved in EWS category and how many forms they have received for these seats.

Strawberry Fields High School, Sector 26, has a 160 seats in UKG, of which 40 are reserved for the EWS category. So far, the school has received 145 applications for these 40 seats.

KB DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 7, has 80 seats, of which 20 are reserved for the EWS category. The school has received 73 applications for admission under the EWS quota.

Meanwhile, Stepping Stone School, Sector 38, has received 92 applications for the 30 seats reserved for EWS students. There a total of 120 seats in pre-nursery in the school.

Moti Ram Arya Senior Secondary School, Sector 27, received 63 applications for 15 EWS seats. The school has a total of 60 seats. However, not all schools received a good response for admissions to the EWS category.

Pt MLSD Public School, Sector 19, did not receive a single application for its five seats reserved for the EWS category. The total number of seats for nursery in the school is 20.

Maharishi Dayanand Adarsh Vidyalaya, Sector 32, received four applications for 10 seats. The total number of seats is 40.

Other schools which provided information to the education department are Sri Guru Gobind Singh Public School, Sector 35; Kulwant Rai Sarvhitkari Vidya Mandir, Sector 43; Nav Bal Niketan School, Sector 29; Lohia International School, Sector 47; Divya Public School, Sector 44; Kundan International School, Sector 46; Tribune Model School, Sector 29; and DAV Model School, Sector 15.
Name: Jahnvi Kashyap

Born: July 29, 2000

Badge of honour: School representative, Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 16, Chandigarh

Jahnvi Kashyap, a Class 12 humanities student of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 16, Chandigarh, likes to lead for she takes responsibility easily and believes in building bridges.

What turning 18 means to me

It means Ill have to stop being lazy and dependent and do the daily chores all by myself. I plan to head out of Chandigarh for higher studies so it means moving out of my comfort zone.

What I want to be and why

Im training in western vocal music so that one day Ill write, compose and sing for a music studio. Im keen on studying music in performance at Cambrian College in Ontario, Canada. Im a physics enthusiast too so I have a logical and creative bent. After a degree in music, Ill graduate in physics. Though I have humanities, Ill be taking the math assessment test abroad to pursue physics.

My idea of India

Our future is bright because we are so diverse. Our demographic is a working population so we need more jobs. We need to be broadminded. We judge our leaders without knowing how things work. Change takes time. We should stay aware and be patient.

What makes me happy

The me time when I sing and read. I like to watch comedy sitcoms on the internet.

What makes me angry

The narrow mindset most people have about professions. Im passionate about science and music as a career. Why does it take so long to change the socio-cultural mindset? Why does society fit us into a mould or box?

Fear and fantasy

My only fear is that I may end up settling down for something. I dont want to be pressurised by society and settle for something that I dont enjoy doing in my life.

As for a fantasy, I fancy having a meeting with theoretical physicist Albert Einstein. I also wish I could meet some alien basement developer from an alternate universe or dimension. I could be an alien myself.

Am I happy where I am?

Im happy but Im also busy with the board exams nearing. Youll always find me laughing though.

What money means to me

I should have enough money to support myself. Im not craving for a luxurious life. The only time Ill cherish money is when Ill be able to share it with the less privileged.

What makes me proud of India

Im proud of the strong family culture and our inter-personal bonds. Our parents are our biggest strength and support.

What I cant live without

Books and music. I read biographies and science fiction. Elon Musks biography by Ashlee Vance is my favourite. On the music front, I must listen to ACDC, Metallica and Nirvana. I share my love for music with my parents -- Madan Lal Kashyap, a deputy secretary in the Haryana government, and Purnima Kashyap, a lecturer at Punjab Engineering College.

What does social media mean to me

Its an imperative component of life today. All business is built on social media. It offers 21st century jobs such as social influencers and Instagram models. Online networking is a must.

Change I want to see in Chandigarh

I want the Chandigarh administration to put up more garbage bins across the town. Stick bins to trees, put them everywhere to stop littering. The city is an education hub and offers job opportunities, making it a big draw for migrant population. The growth on the periphery needs to be streamlined and traffic congestion eased.

What religion means to me

If there is a power, its within us. Were made of the same structure as the stars. Then why cant the star think or question or feel the way humans do? Thats because we have life and consciousness within us. We still dont have the knowledge to comprehend questions like, is there a creator? We can only wander in our imagination and live with the mystery.

My role model and why

Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, is a futurist and visionary. He is truly the Iron Man. He has given the world the idea of ITS or inter-planetary transport system. Hes making the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) that will be used to transport people from earth to Mars in less than an hour.

Change I want to see in India

The unequal distribution of wealth and resources besides social and political bias should end.
Well-known Tamil filmmaker J Mahendran, who is lately busy with some acting assignments, on Sunday was rushed to hospital after he complained of slight discomfort due to food poisoning. Mahendran was resting in his hotel room when he sensed something was not alright with him and sought for help. According to a statement, he is currently under hospital observation in ICU. His wife is said to be alongside with him.

After impressing everybody with his menacing performance in Vijays Theri, Mahendran played a minor role in Pawan Kalyans Katamarayudu. He is said to have played a pivotal role in Vijay Sethupathis 25th film Seethakathi, which reunites him with Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom director Balaji Tharaneetharan. He has also played an important role in this weeks release Nimir, the Tamil remake of Maheshinte Prathikaaram, starring Udhayanidhi Stalin in the lead. He plays Udhays father in the film, directed by Priyadarshan.

Known for his association with superstar Rajinikanth in films such as Mullum Mallarum, Uthiripookal and Johnny, Mahendran began his career as a writer. His son John Mahendran is a writer too and his best known for directing Vijay starrer 2005 Tamil film Sachein.

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The United States, not China, threatens the global trade system, Chinas foreign ministry said on Monday, after US President Donald Trumps administration called US support for Beijings joining the World Trade Organization in 2001 a mistake.

WTO rules have proved ineffective in making China embrace a market-oriented trade regime, and the United States erred in backing Chinas entry to the trade body on such terms, the office of the US Trade Representative said last week.

Its report came as Trump weighs a series of trade actions against Beijing, including a decision in a Section 301 investigation into Chinas alleged theft of intellectual property, expected in the next few weeks.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said that since China joined the WTO, it had strictly followed the bodys rules, carried out its obligations and contributed to the development of the multilateral system.

Other countries have benefited from trade with China, which has stuck by the route of reform and opening up and has supported an open global economy, she added.

I think everyone has seen that its precisely the United States unilateralist methods, and the sounds its made on unilateralism, that are an unprecedented challenge to the multilateral trade system, Hua told a regular news briefing.

Many WTO members have already expressed worry about this, she added.

So we hope the United States can correctly view China and at the same time take their own actual steps to protect the multilateral trading system.

China has sought to portray itself as a champion of global trade in the face of Trumps America First policies, despite criticism from foreign businesses, and their governments, that many parts of its market are protected from foreign competition.

Critics also say Chinese industrial policies seek to assimilate and supplant foreign technology.

White House officials have said China has failed to follow through on promises to move toward a market-oriented economy.

Trump told Reuters in an interview last week that he was considering a big fine against China for forcing US companies to transfer their intellectual property to China as a cost of doing business there.

In Beijing, many experts believe Washington is unwilling to pay the heavy economic price needed to upset prevailing trade dynamics between the two countries, including Chinas record high trade surplus of $275.81 billion with the United States in 2017.
China is staring at a gloomy demographic situation, with the number of births falling in 2017 compared to the previous year, despite marking two years of the end of the strictly enforced one-child policy, state media reported.

The falling birth rate has raised questions about the efficacy of the current two-child policy, with experts questioning whether it has been implemented years too late.

With 630,000 fewer babies born in 2017 than the year before, China, the worlds most populous country, is facing a gloomy demographic situation, with many experts doubting the efficacy of the countrys two-child policy, Peoples Daily, the Communist Party of Chinas official mouthpiece, reported.

The report quoted data from Chinas National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that a total of 17.23 million babies were born in 2017, declining from 17.86 million in 2016. In percentage terms, the birth rate dropped from 12.95% to 12.43%.

The unsatisfying data has fallen short of government estimates, which predicted that the countrys population would rise from 1.39 to 1.45 billion by 2030, the report said.

The declining birth rate in 2017 indicates the end of the baby boom brought by Chinas two-child policy. Its possible that the countrys birth rate will continue to decline over the next few years, He Yafu, a demographic researcher in China, told state media.

The dividend of the second-child policy has largely been used up in the past two years. As Chinas young population continues to decline, and the level of the countrys urbanisation keeps improving in recent years, fewer babies can be expected to be born in the future, He said.

About 45% of the babies born in 2016 were to families who already had one child, while the age of first marriage and first childbearing have grown significantly in recent years. Experts said a primary reason why couples arent opting for the second child is the cost factor, especially in cities.

The average annual cost of raising one child ranges from 20,000 to 30,000 yuan ($3123- 4685) in major cities, which is unbearable for many low-income families, Caixin.com, a business and political news portal reported.

Coupled with a government report published in October, the new statistics indicates that the number of working young in China will drastically reduce in the coming decades. That report had said China is on its way to becoming a hyper-aged society and in the next three decades, more than 30% of its population will be above the age of 60.

The term hyper-aged society was coined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for countries with 20% of the population above the age of 65.

In real terms, more than 300 million Chinese are expected to be senile in the next 20 years, it added.
Canadas Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will arrive in India on February 17 for a weeklong visit that will span five cities and involve plenty of work and some play.

While Trudeau will be in India at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his visit will include a stop in Ahmedabad, the latters home state and now increasingly featuring on the itineraries of foreign dignitaries.

Trudeau will pay to visit to Swaminarayan Akshardham in Ahmedabad. There will also be a bit of romance in the air for the charismatic Canadian leader as he will visit the Taj Mahal in Agra, and there is a distinct possibility he will be accompanied by his wife Sophie Gregoire.

Also on the schedule for the visit, which will conclude on February 23, are New Delhi, Mumbai and Amritsar. He will visit the Golden Temple and, as with the temple in Gujarat, this reflects the importance given to the large number of Sikhs and Gujaratis within the Indo-Canadian community.

A large business delegation will accompany Trudeau, and trade ties will be an important facet of his Mumbai stop.

Some of Trudeaus cabinet colleagues, including Indo-Canadian minister for innovation, science and economic development Navdeep Bains and minister of international trade Fancois-Philippe Champagne, are likely to join the trip. In addition, nearly a dozen members of Canadas Parliament, of Indian heritage, will also arrive in India with Trudeau.

In a statement released by the Canadian Prime Ministers Office, Trudeau said, Canada and India share a special bond and are linked by tremendous people-to-people connections. The more than one million Canadians of Indian origin make the relationship between our two countries a truly special one. I look forward to meeting with Prime Minister Modi and further strengthening the Canada-India friendship.

It added this visit will provide an opportunity for Trudeau to connect with Indian leaders in government and business, promote the empowerment of women and girls, and strengthen Canada and Indias close economic ties.

Trudeau and Modi will reaffirm the close friendship between our two countries, and discuss ways to create good middle class jobs for Canadians and Indians, it said.

Besides multiple roundtable discussions to promote bilateral trade and investment, the Canadian delegation will work closely with Indian leaders to advance mutual growth and prosperity. Trudeau will also address students while in India.

In a statement released by the Canadian mission in New Delhi, its envoy Nadir Patel said, Canada greatly values its strong relationship with India. This visit reflects the high level of priority that Prime Minister Trudeau places on this strategic partnership. Prime Minister Trudeaus visit builds on visits by 11 cabinet ministers of the Trudeau government in the past 18 months.

Trudeau also tweeted details of the visit: Next month, Ill travel to India to meet with leaders in government & business to strengthen the close friendship between our two countries.

While this visit has been anticipated for nearly two years, its scope and expanse are evidence of Trudeau wanting to make his presence felt in India.
The founder of the World Economic Forum says he hopes President Donald Trumps planned visit to Davos this week will provide him even better with a global perspective, and says critics of the US leader should hear him out.

Klaus Schwab couldnt confirm whether Trump will actually attend the WEF event in the Alpine snows on Friday, as scheduled, because of the US government shutdown. The White House has previously said that Trump would detail his America First stance  which doesnt always square with the Davos globalist mindset  and that it was assessing day by day whether the government shutdown might derail his trip.

More than 60 heads of state and government, plus hundreds of business leaders, academics, civil society advocates and celebrities are meeting in Davos from Tuesday to Friday, an event featuring roughly 400 debates and panels on topics like action on the environment, the outlook for Africa, and ways that refugees can contribute to their host countries.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Schwab said that now that economic fortunes worldwide are rising and the financial crisis is fading, business has to take a major role in solving social problems.

What we need is qualitative easing to make the lives of those who have been left out better, and to include them into the economic development process, said Schwab.

As for Trump, the WEF founder said the emphasis should not be on him as a person.

Lets not forget he is the democratically elected president of the most powerful nation in the world, Schwab said. Without the cooperation, without the positive approach of the United States, we will not make very much progress in finding solutions. So his participation is very important.

Some participants and protesters want Trump to stay away, or even apologize for his remarks that they perceive as racist, sexist or xenophobic.

My message to those people would be: It is the spirit of Davos to listen to people, to interact, to show respect, he said. And we should not look at, lets say, being influenced by our emotions. We should see what his message will be, and then we can form our own proper opinion.

As for Trump himself: Could he come away with a changed mind?

I think whats important is that whoever is the leader of a country does not have just a national perspective, but an international perspective, a global perspective, Schwab said. And the presence of the president of the United States here, Donald Trump, will hopefully provide him even better with a global perspective.
US President Donald Trump has been known to mimic an Indian accent to imitate Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his conversations about US policy in Afghanistan, according to a news report in The Washington Post.

Modi, in his visit to the White House last June, told Trump that never has a country given so much away for so little in return, referring to the US campaign in Afghanistan.

To Trump, Modis statement was proof that the rest of the world viewed the United States as being duped and taken advantage of in Afghanistan, the report quoted unnamed officials in the White House as saying.

Its in that context, the Post said, that senior administration officials said the president has been known to affect an Indian accent and imitate Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The White House did not respond to a request for confirmation or denial of the Post report.

Modi and Trump have had several meetings and telephonic conversations since the latter was elected US president. While Modi was en route to Washington in June, Trump had called him a true friend in a tweet.

The two leaders have since settled into an easy working relationship and, according to officials on both sides, they share a great rapport.

In his South Asia policy unveiled in August 2016, Trump sought a larger role for India in the economic development of Afghanistan, while putting Pakistan on notice for offering safe haven to terrorists operating against US-led international coalition forces.
Major hotels popular with tourists or Westerners across the globe have been prime targets of jihadist groups for years. (Kabul hotel attack highlights)

Here are some of the major attacks over the past decade:

- Kabul: wave of Taliban strikes -

Gunmen stormed the Intercontinental hotel in Kabul on January 20, 2018, opening fire on guests and staff and taking dozens hostage. At least six people including a foreigner were killed. The attack was claimed by the Taliban.

On August 1, 2016, a bomb-laden truck struck at the Northgate, a hotel for foreigners in the Afghan capital. After a seven-hour siege by Taliban fighters, one policeman is killed.

On January 4 2008, the luxury Serena hotel in the heart of Kabul is targeted in a suicide bombing that left seven people dead. The Norwegian foreign minister was in the hotel at the time.

On March 20, 2014, a Taliban squad hit the same hotel, leaving nine dead including an AFP journalist and members of his family.

- Mogadishu: Shabaab attacks -

Fighters from the Islamist insurgent group Al-Shabaab have carried out a wave of attacks against hotels in the Somali capital over the past 10 years, using car bombs and commando raids.

Between 2015 and 2017, more than 100 people were killed in about a dozen attacks, including a double car bombing on the Dayah Hotel near the Somali parliament and state house that left at least 28 people dead.

- Ivory Coast: beach resort under fire -

March 13, 2016: Nineteen people, including foreigners, were killed when gunmen stormed the resort of Grand-Bassam, firing on the beach and hotels just 20 kilometres away from the main Ivory Coast city of Abidjan. Al-Qaedas North African affiliate, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), claimed responsibility.

- Burkina Faso: jihadist raids -

On January 15, 2016, 30 people, mainly Westerners, were killed in jihadist raids on the upscale Splendid hotel and a restaurant in Ouagadougou. The attacks were claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Murabitoun group of one-eyed Algerian jihadist Mokhtar Belmokhtar. The assault lasted about 12 hours before being ended by Burkina Faso armed forces backed by French troops.

- Mali: nine-hour siege -

On November 20, 2015, a siege at the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in Malis capital Bamako left 20 people dead, including 14 foreigners. Guests and staff were held by gunmen for nine hours. Al-Murabitoun claimed the attack.

- Tunisia: beach shooting spree -

On June 26, 2015, a student went on a shooting spree in the resort town of Sousse, in the northeast of Tunisia. A total of 38 tourists, including 30 Britons, were killed in the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group.

- Libya: Islamic State assault -

The Islamic State group claimed a January 27, 2015 assault on Tripolis luxury Corinthia hotel. Nine people including five foreigners were killed in the raid.

- Baghdad: coordinated suicide bombings

On January 25, 2010, at least 36 people were killed and more than 70 wounded in coordinated suicide bombings against three hotels in Baghdad, the Palestine, the Babel and Hamra.

- Jakarta: double attack -

On July 17, 2009, nine people died in a double suicide bombing targeting the luxury Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels in Jakartas business district.

- Mumbai: 166 dead -

A series of coordinated gun and bomb attacks across Mumbai that targeted top hotels, the main railway station and a Jewish centre left a total of 166 people dead.

The horror of the carnage played out on live television around the world over three days as commandos battled the heavily armed gunmen. India blamed the attacks on Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

- Islamabad: truck bombing-

On September 20, 2008, a truck driven by a suicide bomber and loaded with 600 kilos of explosives drove into the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, killing 60 including the Czech ambassador.
Indian and other non-EU students who typically pay at least three times the annual fee for academic courses than British or EU students, contribute 4.6 billion to Londons economy annually, according to mayor Sadiq Khan.

Khan and five mayors of major regions in England, in an open letter to Financial Times, set out the financial and other contributions that international students make. The Theresa May government has been resisting demands to remove students from overall migration figures.

The six mayors detailed the financial contribution of the students: London (mayor Sadiq Khan)  4.6 billion; the West Midlands (mayor Andy Street)  1.2 billion; Greater Manchester (mayor Andy Burnham)  852 million; City of Liverpool region (mayor Steve Rotheram)  469 million; West of England (mayor Tim Bowles)  374 million; Cambridgeshire and Peterborough (mayor James Palmer)  278 million, and the Tees Valley (mayor Ben Houchen)  203 million.

London and the five regions have a large number of universities that attract Indian students, whose number has dwindled since 2010, when the Conservative government introduced curbs as part of measures to bring down net migration into the United Kingdom.

The mayors wrote: International students who studied in our regions in 2015-16 provide a 8 billion net economic benefit. This helps support local businesses and provides a boost for tourism. These students also enrich our university campuses and the experience of UK students.

Many students return home having built strong professional and personal links that benefit our regions, and the UK as a whole in terms of long-lasting, soft diplomatic power.

Recent research in the higher education sector shows that international students are a vital source of export earnings for the UK, as well as a source of investment in the UKs towns and cities, generating a net economic benefit of over 20 billion for the UK economy.

As the UK prepares to leave the EU, it is important that any future immigration system acknowledges the vital contribution international students make to regional jobs and growth, the mayors wrote.

This includes sending a more open and welcoming message to international students, and improving post-study work opportunities for qualified international graduates in the UK to work and contribute to our regional economies.
Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas will ask the EU to officially recognise the state of Palestine when he meets foreign ministers from the bloc on Monday, a senior official told AFP Sunday.

Palestinian foreign minister Riad al-Malki said Abbas will tell the EU it should take the step as a way to respond to US President Donald Trumps decision to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.

Abbas will also reiterate his commitment to the peace process in the Middle East, Malki said in an interview with AFP in Brussels.
Pakistans Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar has come under fire after he compared the length of a speech to that of a womans skirt.

Addressing a recent event in Karachi, Nisar had said: I was always told that a speech should be like a womans skirt. It should not be too long to not reveal anything and neither too short that it doesnt cover the subject. His remarks were a reference to a quote by former British prime minister Winston Churchill.

However, a video of Nisars speech soon went viral, and the judge came under heavy fire on social media.

Its utterly shameful for a Chief Justice to be using such language and referring to women and their clothing in such a manner, the Twitter handle of Women Democratic Front, a Leftist political collective, posted.

Members of the judicial profession also criticised Nisar.

Women Lawyers Association released a statement on Monday condemning the statement: It is disappointing to hear the highest judicial authority in our country using womens bodies to illustrate a point about public speaking in this manner. It is especially a setback for women lawyers who practice in a male-dominated profession, as it is such statements that cause alienation and marginalization of women in the legal field.
Pakistans Supreme Court has given a 72-hour deadline to police to arrest the culprit behind the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl.

A special bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar, held the hearing of the case at the Lahore registry, reported Geo News.

Chief Justice Nisar had taken a suo motu notice of the case on January 10.

The minor, who was a resident of the Kasur district of Pakistans Punjab province, was kidnapped on her way to a tuition centre on January 4 from Kasurs Kot Road area.

Five days after her disappearance, she was found raped, dead and buried in a garbage dump on January 9 near the Kashmir Chowk.

According to the initial post-mortem report, the minor was strangled to death after being raped multiple times. As per the autopsy, the girl had marks of torture on nose, neck, and other parts of the body, the report said.

Hundreds of enraged protestors clashed with the police in Kasur last week over this incident.

The Punjab administration had then said that six personnel, including four policemen and two civil defence personnel, were arrested for allegedly opening fire at the mob.

Kasur made international headlines in 2015 when a gang of paedophiles running a child sex ring was busted.

The court observed that had the police been serious since 2015, so many cases would not have occurred.
As Prime Minster Narendra Modi and other world leaders gather at the Swiss resort of Davos for the World Economic Forum, an Oxford-based anti-poverty charity has reported that last year, 82% of the global wealth went to the richest 1% of the population.

Titled Reward Work, Not Wealth, the Oxfam report on global economic trends, which was released on Monday, said that the 3.7 billion people who make up the poorest half across the world saw their wealth flatline, while the biggest gains were made by billionaires.

According to the report, roughly a third of billionaire wealth is derived from inheritance, and over the next 20 years, 500 of the worlds richest people will hand over $2.4 trillion to their heirs  a sum that is larger than Indias GDP.

The wealth of billionaires is estimated to have risen by an average of 13% a year between 2006 and 2015  six times faster than the wages of ordinary workers. It takes just four days for a CEO of one of the worlds five biggest fashion retailers to earn as much as a Bangladeshi garment worker will earn in her entire lifetime, it said.

Last year saw the biggest increase in billionaires in history, one more every two days. Billionaires saw their wealth increase by $762 billion in 12 months. This huge increase could have ended global extreme poverty seven times over, the report said.

Mark Goldring, Oxfam GB chief executive, said: Something is very wrong with a global economy that allows the one percent to enjoy the lions share of increases in wealth while the poorest half of humanity misses out.

The concentration of extreme wealth at the top is not a sign of a thriving economy but a symptom of a system that is failing the millions of hard-working people on poverty wages who make our clothes and grow our food.

In India, those living on $2 (Rs 127) a day have a mortality rate three times the global average, the report said.

Oxfam said over 70,000 people were surveyed in 10 countries across five continents, including India. Most respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the gap between rich and poor in their country is too large.

Nearly two-thirds of all respondents think the gap between the rich and the poor needs to be addressed urgently or very urgently. And many have an even stronger sense of urgency: 73% in India, 79% in South Africa, 85% in Nigeria, and 93% in Mexico believe this, the report said.

Moreover, people think governments have a central role in addressing this issue. Around 60% of all respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their governments are responsible for reducing the gap between the rich and the poor.

Goldring said: Many leaders say theyre worried about the corrosive effect of inequality but their tough talk too often fades away at the first resistance. Some companies and wealthy individuals are taking steps towards fairer ways of doing business but too many others use their power to protect their own interests.

To really transform our economies, we need to look again at the business models and laws that prioritise shareholder returns above wider social benefit.
At least 22 people are now known to have died when Taliban militants slaughtered guests at a luxury Kabul hotel, Afghan officials said today, as fears grew that the attackers may have had inside help.

Authorities warned they were still investigating how militants breached security, which was taken over by a private company three weeks ago, at the landmark Intercontinental Hotel late Saturday.

Guests cowered behind pillars and in rooms as gunmen sprayed bullets and set fire to parts of the six-storey building. Some people climbed over balconies, using bedsheets in a desperate attempt to escape.

The attack ended after more than 12 hours Sunday with all six militants killed by Afghan forces, aided by Norwegian troops.

Afghan health ministry spokesman Waheed Majroh said 22 bodies had now been taken to Kabul hospitals.

Some of the bodies (are) burned badly and need DNA tests to be identified, he said.

Six Ukrainians were among those killed in the assault, the countrys foreign ministry has confirmed.

Earlier, Afghan officials had put the toll at 18 dead, 14 of them foreigners. Authorities are known to understate death tolls in high-profile attacks.

A hotel employee told AFP that he saw two fashionably dressed gunmen in the hotel restaurant before the assault began.

It was around 8.30 pm... They were sitting in the corner of the hotel, and they immediately started spraying bullets, the 20-year-old employee, who gave his name as Hasibullah, told AFP from his hospital bed.

He ran to a fifth floor room and locked himself inside, though not before seeing many bodies on the ground.

The gunmen went from door to door opening them with daggers and shooting everyone. They were searching for foreigners, Hasibullah said, though Afghans were not spared. They were saying kill the foreigners, he told AFP.

In terror he leapt from a window. I fell on people lying in blood... it was horrific.

Knocked unconscious, he awoke in hospital with a broken leg and other wounds.

We believe they were inside from before, he told AFP of the attackers.

Yesterday, an interior ministry spokesman also suggested there was evidence some of the attackers had already been inside the building.

But it was too early to say if the militants had inside help, a second spokesman, Nasrat Rahimi told AFP, adding the investigation was ongoing.

The militants were armed with suicide vests, pistols, hand grenades and Kalashnikovs, he said.

The attack followed security warnings in recent days to avoid hotels and other locations frequented by foreigners in war-torn Kabul.

Security has been ramped up in the city, but the resurgent Taliban and Islamic State are both scaling up their assaults.
Heavy snow and traffic jams greeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other heads of state, business leaders, celebrities and delegates at the annual World Economic Forum meet in Davos, which was hit by 47 cm of snow in 24 hours that buried large tracts of the ski resort.

With many of the around 1,000 private jets that were scheduled to land at airports around Davos  Zurich, St Moritz, Dubendorf and St Gallen-Altenrhein  being grounded because of the bad weather, roads open to traffic were packed with limousines ferrying delegates. This caused snarls that doubled the commute time between Zurich and Davos from a little more than two hours to close to five hours.

Ive lived here all my life and its never been this bad in almost 20 years. Some parts and one of the two roads leading to Davos are closed because of the chances of an avalanche, and the train didnt run for several hours yesterday, causing problems, said Aita Gainelli, a 25-year-old Davos resident studying sustainable development at the University of Zurich.

It last snowed this much here in 1999, but Im told it will get better on Tuesday, she said.

Delegates struggled to swap their snow boots for dress shoes and stiletto heels after ploughing through heavy snow to reach the 24th Annual Crystal Awards, where actor Shah Rukh Khan is being feted along with Cate Blanchett and Elton John for philanthropic work.

The awards were followed by a welcome reception hosted by India to showcase its cuisine, yoga and Bollywood (represented by King Khan), which are being promoted by the government as symbols of the countrys soft power.

Modi will deliver the inaugural address at the World Economic Summit in Davos, where he arrived on Monday for a busy two days to woo investors and promote the spirit of young, innovative, new India.

He will hold a bilateral meeting with Swiss President Alain Berset and address the international business council.
The United Arab Emirates has launched a smartphone app for Indians seeking work visas that is aimed at streamlining the process and completing most of the procedures in India so that the applicants can make a hassle-free entry into the workforce.

Currently available in Hindi and English for Android platforms, the app will soon be rolled out in Malayalam in view of the large number of people from Kerala who apply for work visas.

Much of the procedures that were earlier done in the UAE are now done here. The app will facilitate visa applications and make things easier, UAE ambassador Ahmed Al Banna said on Monday.

The app provides guidelines and directions to make the journey safe and hassle-free. It is meant to work like a map with key waypoints along with guidelines to complete a particular process, such as the mandatory medical checkup, attestation of documents and police clearance certificate.

Earlier the checks were done in the UAE, now they are done in India. We want to cut down the hardships for India and the applicants can now start working within a day of arriving in the UAE, said Al Banna.

The UAE currently has three visa centres in India  Delhi, Mumbai, and Thiruvananthapuram  and the one in the national capital alone issued about 50,000 work visas last year. A total of 1.6 million Indians visited the UAE last year, while Indian visitors to Dubai alone crossed the 1-million mark during January-September 2017.

The UAE is home to an Indian expatriate community of more than 2.6 million, the largest in the country. Professionally qualified workers make up about 20% of the community, followed by 20% white-collar non-professionals and the remainder are blue-collar workers.

Al Banna also said the two countries were close to a major breakthrough in resolving the problems linked to investments by DP World, a leading operator of marine and inland ports. The problems linked to investments by Etisalat and Emaar are still being looked at, he said.

In the case of DP World, we are almost on the edge of sorting out the technical issues, he said, with giving details.

Al Bannas remarks coincided with Dubai-based DP World and Indias National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIF) announcing that they had created a fund to invest up to $3 billion of equity in the transport and logistics sectors of India.

In the case of Etisalat, which had exited its India operations in 2012 after the Supreme Court cancelled 122 mobile licences in the 2G spectrum case, Al Banna said a high level committee was going deeper into the issues and hopefully, it will be sorted out soon.

The legacy issues faced by Etisalat, Emaar and DP World had been taken up at the meeting of the India-UAE task force on investment in Abu Dhabi on January 14. The meeting, chaired by Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed al Nahyan and commerce minister Suresh Prabhu, also discussed new business opportunities, including planned investments of about $1.5 billion from the UAE in logistics, dry ports and port management.
US Republicans and Democratic senators agreed Monday on a compromise deal that is expected to end the shutdown of the federal government and fund it till February 8 and work until then on a global agreement to protect undocumented immigrants brought as children.

If an agreement on these immigrants  Dreamers protected so far by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA  remained elusive till then, a separate bipartisan legislation will be brought for an up or down vote in the senate, according to the deal announced by both parties.

We will vote today to reopen the government to continue negotiating a global agreement, Democratic minority leader in the senate Chuck Schumer said on the floor of the senate, declaring his partys agreement to the compromise deal and its decision, therefore, to not block the spending bill.

The senate voted 80-18 to pass the bill, which will have to be cleared by the House of Representatives before it goes for President Donald Trumps signature for his assent. The shutdown, which entered the third day, is expected to end later in Monday, with the government funded through for the next three weeks.

This may or may not end in a legislation that will protect an estimated 700,000 DACA beneficiaries from deportation as the measure passed by the senate, if it does not clear that chamber, may run into trouble with the House of Representatives, which could go the other way.

Recent shutdowns, their causes and impact:  October 2013: Sixteen-day partial shutdown, which came as tea party conservatives, cheered on by outside groups, demanded that language to block implementation of President Barack Obamas health care law be added to a must-do funding bill. Then-Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, tried to avoid a shutdown by funding the government piecemeal, but the effort faltered.  The shutdown affected most government operations and resulted in the furlough of 850,000 employees, costing the government 6.6 million days of work and more than $2.5 billion in lost productivity, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service. Boehner survived the shutdown but stepped down two years later amid conflict with the hard-right House Freedom Caucus.  December 1995-January 1996: Republicans led by then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, intent on slashing the budget, forced a three-week shutdown in a bid to coerce President Bill Clinton to sign onto a balanced budget agreement. Republicans were saddled with the blame, but most Americans suffered relatively minor inconveniences such as closed parks and delays in processing passport applications. The fight bolstered Clintons popularity and he sailed to re-election that November.  November 1995: Five-day shutdown after Clinton vetoed an interim spending bill to block Medicare premium increases. Led to longer shutdown a month later. Sixteen-day partial shutdown, which came as tea party conservatives, cheered on by outside groups, demanded that language to block implementation of President Barack Obamas health care law be added to a must-do funding bill. Then-Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, tried to avoid a shutdown by funding the government piecemeal, but the effort faltered.The shutdown affected most government operations and resulted in the furlough of 850,000 employees, costing the government 6.6 million days of work and more than $2.5 billion in lost productivity, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service. Boehner survived the shutdown but stepped down two years later amid conflict with the hard-right House Freedom Caucus.Republicans led by then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, intent on slashing the budget, forced a three-week shutdown in a bid to coerce President Bill Clinton to sign onto a balanced budget agreement. Republicans were saddled with the blame, but most Americans suffered relatively minor inconveniences such as closed parks and delays in processing passport applications. The fight bolstered Clintons popularity and he sailed to re-election that November.Five-day shutdown after Clinton vetoed an interim spending bill to block Medicare premium increases. Led to longer shutdown a month later.

Some in the Democratic party have come out in opposition, especially those considering a run for the White House in 2020, with an eye on the Hispanic vote. Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were among those who voted no on a procedural measure to advance the funding bill.

Republicans and Democrats had continued to trade blame even as they negotiated to end the government shutdown Monday, the start of the workweek when its effect will be felt with hundreds and thousands of federal employees forced to stay home and their office-issued smartphones going dark.

US senates Republican leadership will vote in noon to end the shutdown with a proposal to fund the federal government till February 8, as demanded by Democrats, and take up fate of undocumented immigrant brought as children later if not resolved by then.

Republican Mitch McConnell, the senate majority leader, put forward the proposal Sunday night, seeking a vote ahead of the the 1:00am vote he had called for earlier. He said: Lets step back from the brink. Lets stop victimizing the American people and get back to work on their behalf.

McConnell repeated the offer Monday, promising in firmer language to bring a legislation to protect these nearly 700,000 immigrants from deportation to replace the Obama-era regulation DACA, which is set to lapse in the first week of March.

Charles Schumer, the top Democrat in the senate, rejected the Sunday night proposal, but had not responded to the new offer put forward by the Republicans. Democrats blocked the spending bill last Friday, demanding a commitment on DACA beneficiaries who include an estimated 8,000 Indians.

President Trump has been uncharacteristically quieter, resisting an impulse to dominate the news cycle on any issue and piled on pressure on Democrats accusing them of turning down services and security for citizens in favor of services and security for non-citizens (the DACA beneficiaries).

The president has also been less than clear on this issue, confounding even his own party. He has been sympathetic to the cause of DACA immigrants  used the phrase bill of love for the issue in talks earlier  but has struggled with hardliners in his administration who have pulled him back.

Schumer has said he and the president had agreed to a compromise Friday, just hours before the start of the shutdown that would have protected these immigrants from deportation in exchange for full funding for Trumps wall along the border with Mexico, and some other concessions. He reneged on the deal close to the shutdown hour. A frustrated Schumer has since said talking to the president was akin to negotiating with Jell-O.

Democrats are pushing Republicans, and the president, on this leveraging their vote in senate. The House passed a four-week short-term funding bill earlier last week, but it failed to muster the 60 votes  60% in the 100-member body  needed, with significant defections from the Republican party.

Moderates in both parties have been working since on a compromise deal, which has been elusive so far, despite some progress, call it concessions, from their respective leaders.

The shutdown that started Saturday morning is expected to furlough an estimated 850,000 federal employees, forcing them to stay home. Active duty military personnel will continue to report for work but will not be paid unless so allowed by congress, or after the shutdown.

Most essential services remain unaffected but there were reports of confusion at national monuments and major tourist destinations administered by the federally-un National Park Service.
Most Western boomtowns depended on mining, but Mondakplatted in 1903 on the border between dry North Dakota and wet Montanawas a liquor town. Its Montana saloons existed to separate booze-thirsty North Dakotans from their coin. Mondak had a hard reputation; its first recorded death was one C.H. King, who died of inebriation.

More than a dozen saloons lined the Montana side of State Street, Mondaks major thoroughfare. Early entrepreneur Jake Seel and brother John built a one-room log saloon astride the state linethe front door on the Dakota side and the serving bar in Montana. Seel painted the state line on the floor, but once patrons had legally purchased booze on the Montana side, they could sit and drink anywhere in the saloon.

Residents built homes in North Dakota, but nearly all businesses operated in Montana. A 1919 town map shows five east-west streets and five north-south streets, each named either for a Western personality (e.g., Cushing, Sibley) or a transportation corridor (e.g., Great Northern, Missouri). The Rex Hotel, Great Northern Hotel and other boarding houses put up beer-sated visitors. Townspeople also worked at three breweries, two granaries, two lumberyards, an icehouse and two livery stables. A church sat on a hillside overlooking town. Mondak also boasted a bank, Billy Curtis barbershop, a general store, a pharmacy and two mercantile stores. Retired steer-wrangler Luke Sweetman owned one of the latter, along with several saloons. The post office operated out of Sweetmans store.

The Yellowstone News, Mondaks own newspaper, published weekly on Saturdays from 1905 until 1920. A years subscription cost $2.

In 1912 the community outgrew its one-room schoolhouse, so townspeople built a $10,000 two-story brick school with four large rooms, employing three teachers and a principal. A gymnasium in the basement sheltered the entire student body on frigid winter days. The school doubled as Mondaks cultural and recreational center.

Mondak sat near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers. The Great Northern Railway ran through town and across Snowden Bridge, which spanned the Missouri about two miles away. A boat landing brought waterborne business, including frequent stops by the 64-ton steam ferry The City of Mondak (reportedly Montanas largest). Near the landing was the abandoned Fort Union trading post, a relic of the Indian fur trade that dried up in 1867; the post is now a National Historic Site [www.nps.gov/fous]. With road, rail and river traffic, Mondak flourished, reaching 350 to 400 permanent residents and scores of transients by the 1910s.

A red-light district operated between town and the river. Local resident Ralph Chase, when he was a boy, delivered newspapers and magazines to the ladies there and found them friendly and educated. Regardless, the brothels hosted frequent fistfights and contributed to Mondaks rowdy reputation. Inevitably the town attracted a criminal element, including local outlaws the Pigeon-Toed Kid and Kid Mathews. The jail on Missouri Street is one of only three buildings to survive to the present.

In April 1913, during construction of the Snowden Bridge, black laborer J.C. Collins shot Sheridan County Sheriff Tom Courtney and Deputy Sheriff Dick Burmeister, who had come to arrest Collins for physically assaulting a coworkers wife. Courtney, who died instantly, was making his first-ever arrest attempt. A citizen posse captured Collins and locked him in the jail. Later, when word spread that Burmeister had also succumbed to his wounds, an angry mob smashed in the jail door, grabbed Collins and hanged him from a telephone pole. The ugly episode spawned ugly rumors, among them that Collins body was encased in the cement of one of the Snowden Bridge piers.

In the early 1920s, Prohibition stopped the party at Mondak. The saloons closed, and by 1925 few residents remained. The final blow came in August 1927 when a prairie fire, reportedly started by a train carrying John Philip Sousas band to a performance in Glendive, razed what was left of the downtown.

Mondaks three remaining buildings the jail, a warehouse and a store or saloonare on private property.

The author thanks the MonDak Heritage Center [www.mondakheritagecenter.org] in Sidney, Mont., for its assistance.

Originally published in the April 2010 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here.
More than fifteen years after the release of their debut album, heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold are well-established for their electrifying live shows.

The band's tour follows the release of their critically acclaimed 2016 album The Stage.

Avenged Sevenfold will perform live at the SSE Arena, Belfast on June 6, with tickets on-sale this Friday at 9am.
Minister for the Diaspora and International Development, Ciaran Cannon, is calling on Irish communities across the world to submit ideas for a special commemorative stamp set celebrating the Irish diaspora.

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Scarlett Johansson has sensationally accused her Hollywood acting colleague of being a hypocrite for "privately preying on people who have no power".

Speaking during the weekend at Los Angeles leg of the inaugural Womens March 2018, she said: How could a person publicly stand by an organisation that helps to provide support for victims of sexual assault while privately preying on people who have no power? Johansson.

A spokesperson for the actress later confirmed to US media outlets that she was indeed referring to James Franco,

Hot on the heels of winning his Golden Globe award for best actor in 'The Disaster Artist', there was a flurry of graphic sexual misconduct allegations made on social media against the Hollywood star.

I want my pin back, by the way," Johansson also said during the rally, which was a clear reference to the fact that Franco was accused of being a hypocrite for wearing a 'Time's Up' pin to highlight the wave of sex scandals that have hit Hollywood.

You can watch Johansson's passionate speech at the rally here:



The wave of allegations against the Hollywood star prompted The New York Times to cancel a James Franco Q&A event at the last minute to promote his new movie earlier this month.

The paper of record said in a statement: Given the controversy surrounding recent allegations, were no longer comfortable proceeding in that vein.

One young woman, Violet Paley claims that Franco forced her to perform fellatio on him in a parked car.

She wrote: "Remember the time you pushed my head down in a car towards your exposed penis & that other time you told my friend to come to your hotel when she was 17? After you had already been caught doing that to a different 17 year old?"

Cute #TIMESUP pin James Franco. Remember the time you pushed my head down in a car towards your exposed penis & that other time you told my friend to come to your hotel when she was 17? After you had already been caught doing that to a different 17 year old?  Violet Paley (@VioletPaley) January 8, 2018

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Violet Paley also claimed that James Franco reached out to her and a few other girls recently to offer an overdue, annoyed, convenient phone apology'.

An uncomfortable looking Franco spoke about the allegations during an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

He said:The things that I heard that went on Twitter are not accurate, but I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice because they didnt have a voice for so long

I dont want to shut them down in any way. I dont want to shut them down in any way. I think its a good thing and I support it.

You can watch James Franco's full answer to the allegations here:


The Pope has caused controversy by speaking in defence of a bishop who has been accused of protecting a paedophile priest.

A number of Chilean Catholics expressed disappointment and anger on Friday after Pope Francis remarks, which were made before he left the country for Peru.

Victims of the Rev. Fernando Karadima, Chiles most notorious priest, have accused Bishop Juan Barros Madrid of bring complicit in Karadimas abuse of children. Father Karadima was convicted by the Vatican in 2011 of abusing teenage boys beginning in the 1980s, and he was ordered to lead a life of prayer and penitence. That year, a judge found the allegations truthful and reliable but dismissed a criminal case because the statute of limitations had expired. Bishop Barros, a former military chaplain, was part of Father Karadimas inner circle and, according to one of the victims, witnessed the priests advances on him.

Despite the allegations against Father Barros, Francis appointed him bishop of Osorno, in southern Chile, in 2015. Dozens of priests and legislators said they opposed the move.

On Thursday, Francis told reporters Thursday there was not a shred of evidence against Bishop Juan Barros Madrid. The day someone brings me proof against Bishop Barros, then I will talk, Francis said before celebrating Mass. But there is not one single piece of evidence. It is all slander. Is that clear?

The popes comments have raised questions about his commitment to repairing the damage inflicted by the Churchs sexual abuse scandals, and his determination to ensure no abuse is allowed to continue.

Benito Baranda, coordinator of the popes visit to Chile, told a radio station in Santiago that Bishop Barros should have ceased to be bishop a long time ago. He added: The damage he is inflicting on the church is big.

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Mr. Baranda, a psychologist, said that the church never believed Karadimas victims from the start and that the popes support for the bishop reignites the feeling of not being believed, or that they are exaggerating or being deceitful. Its like when children say they suffer abuse but no one believes them because they are children.

A Chilean governments spokeswoman, Paula Narvaez, said on her Twitter account: Respecting, believing and supporting victims of sexual abuse is an ethical imperative. No institutional defense can override this basic principle for a fair society, one that is empathetic with those who most need it.

James Hamilton, a victim of Karadima, also expressed his disappointment during a press conference on Thursday. What the pope has done today is offensive and painful, and not only against us, but against everyone seeking to end the abuses.

The archbishop of Santiago, Francisco Javier Errazuriz, has said that the controversy over Bishop Barros was an invention.
Three members of legendary Mancunian band are set to reunite on stage for the first time in 30 years for a trio of live concerts.

"Classically Smiths"  which debuts in the summer with concerts in Manchester, London and Edinburgh before a full UK tour later this year  will combine the sounds of The Smiths with a beautifully orchestrated live concert.

Mike Joyce, Andy Rourke and Craig Gannon will be joined by the Manchester Camerata Orchestra (Hacienda Classical) in a live collaboration which will reimage the songs of The Smiths.

Morrissey and Johnny Marr will not be part of the reunion.

Classically Smiths is presented by Bad Production Ltd. Joel Perry, executive producer and creative director, who said: Classically Smiths is bringing back into the now, from their extraordinary place in history, a reimagining of those irrepressible songs that we believe audiences, and indeed any discerning music lover, deserves to hear. Music that is as valid in 2018 as it was in 1987. Emotive, nostalgic, yet current and refreshed."

He added: We are not The Smiths, but we are certainly not to be missed by anyone whose lives were defined  and are still being defined  by the enduring sounds of one of the UKs finest ever bands. This is the celebration of that.

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Joyce said: Therell be Smiths classics in the set, but I cant wait to play the songs that have never been heard live before. With the addition of an orchestra, it will sound as totally unique as it will immense.

"Im really looking forward to fans being able to hear the songs in a way theyve never been heard before, either on record or live. On the stage, or out front, this is going to be quite an experience for us all.

Rourke said: To have been there the first time round and seen it first hand, and to still be such a big fan of The Smiths today, I am both thrilled and excited to be involved in Classically Smiths. Im really proud of the bands work, and being able to present those songs again in this particular production format promises to be a real gift for audiences everywhere.

Gannon said: When using an orchestra with a band, there are so many different approaches you can take. But rather than us bending something out of shape or forcing a completely different musical angle on it, we're doing this with the greatest respect and admiration for the songs we all love.

I played most of these songs live (and on some of the original recordings) when I was in The Smiths in 1986 and I'm really looking forward to revisiting them again.

Full list of upcoming live dates:

JUNE 28  MANCHESTER, O2 APOLLO

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JUNE 29  LONDON, O2 ACADEMY, BRIXTON

JULY 2  EDINBURGH, USHER HALL
Sure the U.S. is in the middle of a government shutdown, but this White House always has time to throw a tantrum.

If you ring the White House this week, you can expect the call to go to voicemail - and this is the message you'll be hearing:

Thank you for calling the White House. Unfortunately, we cannot answer your call today because congressional Democrats are holding government funding, including funding for our troops and other national security priorities, hostage to an unrelated immigration debate. Due to this obstruction, the government is shut down.

Talk about petty.

Its important to note the minimising way the message addressed the unrelated immigration debate.

Democrats are holding a hard line to make sure that Dreamersimmigrants who moved to the U.S. when they were young, and in many cases have spent most of their lives hereremain protected.

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The current bill contains no resolution to the immigration policy known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), so those immigrants are no longer officially protected after Trump rescinded Obamas policy that protected them from deportation.

Republicans are currently using the Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP) as a bargaining chip. The program that covers nine million kids ran out about 100 days ago, and Republicans didnt care, but theyre now using it in an attempt to force Democrats into a deal.

House Republicans could make CHIP permanent, but instead are adding a six-year CHIP extension plan to their short-term stopgap spending bill that would stop the government shutdown. Its a sneaky ploy, as if Democrats refuse to approve the spending bill on its own (lack of) merit or the DACA issue, Republicans can accuse them of not caring about children.

The shutdown began Friday at midnight, and the voicemail message seems to have changed shortly after.

It has already attracted huge criticism for its extreme partisan message.

Actor Sean Astin summed it up by tweeting:

The Public White House Phone Line spews partisan venom.

The Vice-President just told troops in the field that Democrats are playing games with their pay.

The Trump campaign is calling Democrats murderers.

I think these people are trying to start an actual civil-war.
The battlefield between brick-and-mortar stores and Internet retailers could become a lot more level by the end of the year.

The U.S. Supreme Court is going to reconsider a ruling it made a quarter century ago to block states from collecting sales tax from retailers in other states. Justice Anthony Kennedy in particular thinks a ruling made during the mail-order era should be reconsidered for the Internet age.

Most online shoppers take for granted that most out-of-state retailers will not collect sales tax, an oft-cited reason for shopping the Internet instead of local stores. This bug, not a feature, comes from Quill vs. North Dakota, where the Court decided that a state government could not force a retailer to collect and remit sales taxes unless they have a physical presence within the state.

RELATED: Taxes big reason online shopping is killing brick and mortar

The buyer still owes the tax, mind you, but the state tax authority has to go after the buyer, not the seller, if they want to collect. Needless to say, most buyers are not volunteering to pay sales tax, and most collectors only pursue major corporations which owe millions in unpaid taxes.

This casual tax evasion puts local retailers and governments at a huge disadvantage. Houstonians get an 8.25 percent discount when buying online instead of in-store, and Texas authorities lose about $1 billion in sales tax revenue, according to a Government Accountability Office report released last month.

Nationwide, state and local governments missed out on $13 billion last year, the GAO said. And that's after Amazon agreed to collect and remit sales tax. Third-party sellers in the Amazon Marketplace, though, are still not required to do so.

Justice Antonin Scalia never imagined his 1992 decision would cause so much trouble. He simply believed this was an issue for Congress, not the Court.

"The underlying issue is not only one that Congress may be better qualified to resolve, but also one that Congress has the ultimate power to resolve," Scalia wrote for the majority in Quill. "Accordingly, Congress is now free to decide whether, when, and to what extent the States may burden interstate mail-order concerns with a duty to collect use taxes."

Twenty-five years later and Congress has done nothing. New words, though, have entered the lexicon, such as online, Internet, e-tailing and dot.com.

RELATED: Cheat on your taxes, but don't cheat your neighbors

"They wanted Congress to make some policy choices because there are a lot of trade-offs," said Matt Boch, a state and local tax expert at Dover Dixon Horne in Little Rock, Ark. "If you are a small to mid-size seller, you have some real compliance concerns about complying with local and state sales and use taxes across 10,000 or more taxing jurisdictions."

Kennedy, who concurred in Scalia's opinion, wants a do-over.

"Although online businesses may not have a physical presence in some States, the Web has, in many ways, brought the average American closer to most major retailers," Kennedy wrote in a concurring opinion in 2015's Direct Marketing Association v. Broh. "A connection to a shopper's favorite store is a click awayregardless of how close or far the nearest storefront."

Kennedy invited states to produce a new law to test the Quill decision, all but guaranteeing a different outcome this time. South Dakota took him up on it.

The state's Legislature passed a law requiring Internet companies to collect sales tax if they make more than 200 sales, or perform $100,000 in transactions, with South Dakota in a year. Online retailers Wayfair Inc., Overstock.com Inc. and Newegg Inc. immediately sued, citing the Quill case. The Supreme Court agreed on Jan. 12 to hear the case.

Traditional retailers should not get too excited, though. The Court will likely overturn Quill, but do little more. Such a ruling will create legislative chaos.

"If South Dakota gets upheld, every state in the country ... is going to pass a similar law to see what they can get. The revenue pressure is so acute," Boch said. "Sales and use taxes get rapidly complicated as you move away from discrete, basic sales of tangible personal property."

RELATED: States to look to Internet taxes to close budget gaps

Members of Congress have introduced several bipartisan bills to establish a national standard for collecting and remitting sales taxes under the interstate commerce clause. Any of these measures would level the playing field and create a simplified, standardized remittance system. But like past years, none of the measures have gained traction.

Scalia was right, this is a matter for Congress, not the Court. Kennedy was also right, Quill was a decision for another era and needs to be overturned.

Online retailers should not profit from tax evasion, and if Congress cares about fairness for the nation's largest employers, they will act before the Supreme Court forces the issue.
Willie G's reboots in fresh Uptown space

Galleria-area staple Willie G's has relocated and reopened in Landry's CEO Tilman Fertitta's still-under-construction development, The Post Oak. The new space, 1640 W. Loop S., has a modern industrial design of dark wood, exposed brick and black granite countertops. Executive chef Jason Cole oversees an enormous seafood-centric menu with abundant raw bar options (oysters, crudo, sashimi, ceviche and poke), starters (crab cakes, New Orleans barbecue shrimp) and daily catch specials involving fish flown in from around the world that can be broiled, blackened, wood-fire grilled, oven roasted or fried. "Houstonians will still be able to enjoy the classic dishes they've come to love from Willie G's, but with this new location we've taken the menu to a whole new level," Cole said.

New date set for local food conference

The Houston Eats! Conference, rescheduled from September because of Hurricane Harvey, will take place Feb. 2-3 at the University of Houston. Organized by the Gulf Coast Food Project and Foodways Texas, the conference brings together academics, farmers, chefs, writers and activists to discuss topics such as Houston food history, diversity, how we eat now and how the city's food scene might change in the future. Tickets are free but required; find more information and the full lineup of speakers at uh.edu/gcfp/conference.html.

The Prime Room debuts inside Cafe Annie

The Prime Room, a 36-seat dining cove on the ground floor of Cafe Annie, 1800 Post Oak, is now open for dinner service Mondays through Saturdays with a tribute menu based on chef Robert Del Grande's favorite special-occasion dishes. That means starters (think East Coast oysters and Gulf shrimp cocktail), wood-roasted prime rib entrees, sides (sauteed spinach, whipped potatoes aligot, broccolini with olive oil and garlic) and old-school chocolate cake for dessert. "We want this to be a place where the menu is simplistic and timeless," Del Grande said.

Whiskey Affair returns to Houston

Texas Monthly's second annual Whiskey Affair, where whiskey tasting meets mixology, food, educational seminars, book signings and live music, will take place 6-10 p.m. Feb. 8 at Silver Street Studios. Expect tastings from more than 50 Texas and international whiskey brands including Balcones, Crown Royal, Garrison Brothers, Jack Daniel's, Jim Beam, Johnnie Walker, Ranger Creek, Rebel Yell, Texas Silver Star, Woodford Reserve and Yellowstone Whiskey. Food and cocktails will come from Bosscat Kitchen & Libations and Ramen Tatsu-Ya, among others. Tickets are $95 at texasmonthly.com.

Blue Onyx Bistro to open in February

Chef-owner David Chang of Redfish Seafood Grill is opening Blue Onyx Bistro, described as a steak and seafood restaurant, in February at 4720 Richmond. The Taiwan native's signature dishes will include a 35-day dry-aged rib-eye steak; Parmesan-crusted Chilean sea bass; grouper topped with bacon-wrapped sea scallops in a creamy ginger and key lime sauce; and the "Ocean Smokehouse," snapper topped with scallop and shrimp with buerre blanc brought to the table under a dome of cedar smoke. He opened Redfish Seafood Grill at 19550 Texas 249 in 2003.

Heights gets an Italian grocer

Louie Comella has opened Italian American Grocery next door to his Gelazzi gelato and pizza shop at 3601 White Oak in the Heights. The shop sells items from Comella's private label Little Italy Foods brand, in addition to Italian dry goods and specialty meats and cheeses. It will have roughly the same hours as Gelazzi. Comella eventually plans to offer delivery of pizza, sandwiches, ready-made pasta, lasagna, dessert, as well as craft beer and wine in a limited geographic area.
After a warm, wet afternoon, a cold front will move through the Houston area late Sunday, making way for a cooler, drier Monday.

Sunday's rains will continue into the evening, said National Weather Service forecaster Mikki Hathaway. Expect isolated thunderstorms and gusting winds later Sunday evening.
Alafair Burke graduated from Stanford Law School, was an assistant district attorney in Portland and currently teaches law at Hofstra Law School.

Her father, James Lee Burke, is a New York Times bestselling author. With this unique combination of qualifications and pedigree, Burke has forged a successful career in crime fiction.

Her latest novel, "The Wife" (352 pp., HarperCollins, $26.99) comes out Jan. 23, and she'll be at Houston's Murder by the Book the next day. She spoke with us about her new book, her career in law and her father in advance of her Houston appearance.

Q: "The Wife" is your 16th novel. Tell us about it.

A: Angela Powell and her husband, Jason, are the main characters. When Angela married Jason, he was a quiet academic, but now he is a famous, high-profile author and pundit. When he is accused of sexual misconduct, Angela's belief system is shaken, and she also has concerns about her own privacy.

Q: This is a timely topic.

Event What: Burke will sign and discuss "The Wife" Where: Murder By The Book, 2342 Bissonnet St. When: Wednesday, Jan. 24, 6:30 p.m. Click here for more information See More Collapse

A: Yes, but I should say the idea for this book came specifically from the Bill Cosby case. We have become somewhat accustomed to women standing next to their accused husbands. But in the Cosby case, it was accusations against this beloved comedian and actor, and it wasn't so much affairs as it was drugged rape. It was different from other sex scandals. How could Dr. Huxtable be a sex predator? People wondered about his wife: Where was she during all of this? What did she know?

Q: You are known for researching the topics you address in your books. What does the research say on this matter? Is it cognitive dissonance on the part of spouses?

A: It's no different from any other criminal case. Many of the people who are accused of doing terrible things show up in court with siblings, parents and grandparents who still love them whether they are guilty or not. This is the question for Angela in the book: Does she believe her husband to be innocent? Or does she believe the allegations are at least partly true? And, if so, does this mean her life with him is over?

MORE NEW BOOKS: When a child's game takes a sinister turn

Q: Angela's situation is complicated by her own personal backstory.

A: Angela has been a crime victim, and she cannot help viewing the accusations against her husband through the lens of the victim. As the book unfolds, more is revealed about Angela's past, and the path she has taken to her current life. This will entail a couple of surprises for the reader.

Q: In this and some of your other books, there are power differentials at play. In this case, Angela comes from a more humble background than Jason. Is this something you consciously do?

A: Probably. I write books about the world in which we live, and in this world there are power differentials. This power differential is especially true in the criminal justice system. More powerful people have better attorneys, jurors give them more benefit of the doubt and the media treat them differently. And I think these dynamics can be used to amplify the plots of crime novels.

Q: Is the setting something you used to amplify the plot of "The Wife"?

A: One of my favorite aspects about "The Wife" was to write about this tension out in East Hampton, which is where Angela is from. It's become something of a haven for celebrities, who helicopter there to weekend homes. Over time, the locals have kind of become "the help." Jason's family is wealthy, and he begins a relationship with Angela, who is a local. She feels like a fish out of water in his world. One of my favorite lines in the novel is when she says that when she hangs out with his friends, their first question is, "Where did you go to college?"

Q: Speaking of colleges, you went to Stanford Law School.

A: That's true.

Q: Why do you think so many attorneys pick up writing?

A: I think attorneys and journalists have in common the fact that their day jobs involve a lot of writing. Lawyers, as much as journalists, tell stories. If you think of a trial, the attorney not only has to tell a story that the jury finds compelling, but it is told in a certain structure. You have to go one witness at a time, and you have to make strategic choices about which piece of evidence should be told first. It's kind of like a Rubik's Cube, moving the pieces around to find the most effective structure.

MORE NEW BOOKS: The Hitchcockian influence in 'The Woman in the Window'

Q: Your father's not an attorney, but he, like you, is a writer. Tell us about sharing a profession with your father, James Lee Burke.

A: It's a delight. We can empathize with each other about the job. We are proud of each other. I am not sure I would have been a writer without my parents. I saw my dad writing every day, and my mother would take me to the library. She was a school librarian, and on the weekends she would take me to the city library to get a stack of books. Part of that was getting me out of the house so my dad could work, but I became a reader in the process. You need to read books if you are going to write them.

Q: You'll be coming to Houston's Murder by the Book, and a few years ago you did a novel in which the main character was McKenna Jordan. That is also the name of the owner of Murder by the Book.

A: Yes, that was a conscious nod to my dear friend McKenna Jordan! We have known each other for a long time. Her late husband, David, used to manage the store, and he would visit my dad in Montana to get books signed for the store. That gave me the chance to get to know him, and I met McKenna through him. She and I became good friends, and I make it a point to get to Murder by the Book for signings whenever possible!

Mike Yawn is the Director of the Center for Law, Engagement, And Politics at Sam Houston State University.

Bookmark Gray Matters. Where did you go to college?
A new book about Topsy, the famous circus elephant electrocuted in 1903 in an infamous electricity demonstration arranged by Thomas Edison, reminded me of a Texas elephant tale that's just as strange and disturbing.

No one's written a book about Black Diamond, the giant Indian elephant who met his demise in Texas, but Carmack Watkins, a Corsicana construction-company owner, doesn't need one. Watkins was an eyewitness on that terrible day in 1929, the day the circus came to Corsicana.

On Oct. 12, a warm Saturday morning, 5-year-old Carmack was perched atop his father's shoulder among the crowd lining Main Street. They had come to town that morning in a mule-drawn wagon from their farm outside the little community of Emhouse.

"There were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people come to town to see the parade," Watkins, now 88, told me one morning recently.

The youngster was enthralled by the noise, the smells, the garish colors. He watched wide-eyed as the marching bands, the clowns and trapeze artists, the big cats and elephants of the Al G. Barnes Circus paraded from the Cotton Belt railyard, making their way to a field north of town where the Big Top would rise. Among the 10 elephants shuffling down the street, trunks swaying, was a 12,000-pound, 31-year-old Indian behemoth with a massive head and 150-pound tusks. His name was Black Diamond.

Within seconds of passing young Carmack and his father, Black Diamond suddenly bolted from his handler. He charged at a Model T Ford parked on the street.

"It didn't have anybody in it," Watkins said. "He just flipped the car over. I wasn't 10 feet away."

Next, Black Diamond spotted "a little black coupe car parked at the curb. There's a lady in it, and he comes over and puts his tusk in the left door and pushes that car into another car, and that woman was screaming high heaven. And when he did, that's when I saw a man flip through the air."

The man somersaulting over another car was H.D. "Curly" Prickett, Black Diamond's trainer for the day. He suffered cuts and bruises and a broken wrist.

Killed former editor

Although young Carmack was only 20 feet away, the panicked crowd and the chaos of people trying to crank their Model Ts and flee the scene prevented him from seeing what happened next. It's a good thing.

The rampaging elephant spotted a well-dressed woman standing close enough for her to reach out and touch his trunk. He jerked toward her. She backed away screaming but couldn't escape the slashing white tusks. Slamming her to the pavement, the elephant continued to attack with head, feet and tusks. She died shortly after being pulled free.

Many people in the crowd knew the woman. She was Eva Speed Donohoo, a 52-year-old former Houston Post society editor who owned a farm she called Shoestring Plantation outside the small town of Kerens. She collected exotic animals and a year earlier, in Black Diamond's presence, had hired trainer Prickett away from the Barnes Circus - and from Black Diamond.

Prickett had been the elephant's trainer from 1920 to 1928. When the circus came to Corsicana, he asked to lead his old friend in the parade, "for old times' sake." Since he and Black Diamond were well acquainted, he didn't see a need for chaining younger elephants on each side to keep him calm, even though Black Diamond in years past had killed three people in three separate incidents.

Cyanide oranges

Although the show went on for its two scheduled nights in Corsicana - without Black Diamond - locals demanded the elephant's execution. John Ringling, who had recently purchased the Barnes Circus, reluctantly consented, requesting only that it be done humanely.

But how? The Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce, seeing the possibility of a tourist spectacle, offered to attach 30 tons of lead to the 6-ton animal and dump him into the turning basin. Another idea was to tie a chain around his neck and have him strangled in a tug-of-war to the death with three other elephants.

When Black Diamond turned up his trunk at cyanide-laced oranges and peanuts, his favorite fare, the owners decided to shoot him. By then, the circus was in Kenedy, southeast of San Antonio. Jack O'Grady, his regular handler, was chosen to be executioner. Five Texas gunmen - emergency executioners, so to speak - followed O'Grady and the shackled elephant into a field, where he was tied with chains to a wooden platform and nearby mesquite trees.

It took many rounds of high-powered rifle and pistol shots before the massive animal collapsed to the ground.

HOUSTON HISTORY: See our weekly look at our city's past

Decades later, Watkins still thought about what had happened the day the circus came to Corsicana. A frequent big-game hunter by then, he resolved to find whatever was left of Black Diamond and display it in his vast trophy room at Watkins Construction. He was surprised - after a few days' search - to find Black Diamond's stuffed head at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

"When I found him, he was in a basement in a box 22 years," he recalled.

Was Black Diamond jealous of the woman who took away his trainer? Is that why he killed her?

Could be, Watkins says, although he believes it's more likely that the years of abuse he had suffered in captivity caused the highly intelligent creature to crack.

"He was not in his right environment is the reason that I say that he killed the people," Watkins said. "He was always in torture."
When Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg created her misdemeanor marijuana diversion program last year, she envisioned a county-wide initiative that would save law enforcement officers and prosecutors time and resources.

It would also help non-violent low-level marijuana users stay out of jail and keep the arrest off their record, a campaign promise Ogg made to reduce the roughly 10,000 annual misdemeanor arrests in Harris County.

But in some jurisdictions across the county, especially along Galveston Bay, those who are eligible for the program are never offered the chance to participate, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis of the program.

There are 12 police agencies out of 61 in Harris County that have not referred anyone to the diversion program, including Seabrook, Nassau Bay, Friendswood, Morgans Point and Lakeview, all police departments in cities along the bay.

"There's a disparity in how law enforcement is dealing with a policy that has been in place for a year," said defense attorney Tristan LeGrande, who has a client waiting to go to trial on misdemeanor charge of paraphernalia after being caught with marijuana in Seabrook. "You're going to be treated differently depending on the uniform of the officer who pulls you over."

Steve Gonzales/Houston Chronicle

LeGrande said he believes the prevalence of non-compliance in small municipalities around the Gulf Coast is an effort to raise revenue.

"If a (Department of Public Safety) officer pulls you over on a highway in Seabrook, he's not going to follow the Seabrook policy, he's going to follow the Harris County policy," LeGrande said. "The smaller the municipality, the more likely they are not to institute the policy because they want to make sure they get the money, not Harris County."

Troopers with DPS in Harris County have sent more than 350 referrals to the district attorney's office, the third most of any law enforcement agency. As of January 10, the Houston Police referred 927 people to the program. Precinct 4 Constable's Office sent 429 and the Sheriff's Office referred 342.

By ignoring Ogg's marijuana diversion program and instead filing a citation for possession of paraphernalia, the law enforcement agency can funnel cases to small municipal courts instead of diverting suspects out of the criminal justice system.

Police chiefs with three law enforcement agencies confirmed that when they catch suspects with a small amount of marijuana, the suspect is charged with a class C misdemeanor of possession of paraphernalia for the container the marijuana is in. Then the case is sent to their municipal courts.

One chief said he is ignoring the policy.

"Before the DA's Office created their deferment program, we were filing cases of small quantities with our city courts under paraphernalia," Lakeview police chief Tom Savage said in an emailed response. "It did not make any sense for us to take a defendant all the way downtown (jail contract was with Harris County Sheriff's Office) to file on them for two joints. This would also cut our staffing in half for approximately three hours. We have continued to utilize our city courts since it works for us."

Advocates of the marijuana diversion program, including Ogg, said the initiative was developed to keep officers from having to transport suspects downtown or anywhere. Instead, the officer cites the suspect, confiscates the marijuana and continues on their patrol. The suspect agrees to take a 4-hour class on decision making at a cost of $150. If the class is completed within 90 days, the charge evaporates and no official arrest record or court record is ever created.

MORE: New policy to decriminalize marijuana in Harris County will save time, money, DA's office says

Seabrook Police Chief Sean Wright said his officers have discretion about what charge to file. Although none of them have referred anyone to the program, Wright said there is not an official position on whether or not to use the diversion program.

"It's really up to the officer on what charges he files," Wright said. "We fully comply with any mandates handed down by Harris County."

Nassau Bay's police chief said his department had one large marijuana arrest last year  6.6 ounces on June 21  which was over the 4 ounce limit to be eligible for the program.

"Other than that we have had 8 or 9 Class C citations issued for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia filed in Municipal Court in 2017," said Kenneth Campbell. "To my knowledge we are not actively circumventing the program. I did remind my Sergeants to again review the program with our officers."

Michael Ciaglo/Staff

Mark Smith, the police chief with the Port Authority, said his agency did not detain anyone who was eligible for the program. He said his department primarily arrests workers who have open warrants for other felonies.

"People come here and they don't get in a lot of trouble," Smith said. "They do their job, then they leave and get in trouble."

Sherri Ditrich, chief of the Morgan's Point Police Department, said her office is abiding by the marijuana diversion program, but has not had anyone who qualified for the program since it began.

"We're a really small police department," she said.

Requests for comment were not returned from Friendswood police department, which is a municipality that straddles the border between Harris and Galveston counties.

Earlier this month, Ogg issued a warning to offenders who have not completed the four-hour class to get it done by March 1.

"People have an opportunity to complete this class and get on with their lives," she said, referring to diversion program she said saves the county about $27 million annually, funds that can be redirected toward fighting violent crimes and other offenses.

MORE: Harris County DA Ogg issues deadline for marijuana suspects to take class

Since the program began in March 2017, it has drawn 3,209 participants, according to the district attorney's office, and 1,415 persons completed the program as of January 11. There were 978 people who were within their 90-day period to complete it. There were 816 people who failed to complete the class on time.

At a recent Wednesday night class on the fourth floor of the county's downtown jail administration building at 49 San Jacinto, 20 out of 21 participants arrived on time to participate in group activities. They learned to use a cost-benefits analysis matrix to consider the short-term and long-term effects on their decisions. One woman arrived almost an hour after the four-hour class began and was sent to reschedule her class. None of the participants commented on the class afterward.

Asked about the law enforcement agencies that do not appear to be participating, Ogg said police officers have the discretion to file the charges they deem appropriate, but she hopes cooperation will mean more time and resources for police to go after violent criminals.

"Officers have long had discretion in how they handle misdemeanor drug arrests. This is a collaborative effort to better spend taxpayer's money, including combating robbers, rapists and murders," Ogg said in a email about the analysis. "The program holds offenders accountable and provides them a way to avoid criminal records that disqualifies them from job, housing and educational opportunities. It also keeps more officers on the streets to keep the public safe."

LeGrande and other defense lawyers said the agencies that have not referred anyone to the program are thwarting the intent of the district attorney's program and treating Harris County residents differently than they would be treated anywhere else in the county.

"For them to say they have a choice about whether to charge them with either the marijuana or the paraphernalia is disingenuous because they would only do that in the circumstance where the diversion program is in place," LeGrande said. "I think its offensive that they're purposefully defying the policy."

Tucker Graves, president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association, said small municipalities have a financial incentive to bring people to court who otherwise would not have to deal with the criminal justice system.

"On the face of it, they're going to get some money out of it, like a fine and court costs," Graves said. "These small jurisdictions are always hurting for money and they feel like they're doing the right thing, but at the end of the day, they are costing the citizens of Harris County the chance to keep their record clean."

Analysis of the diversion program's records also shows that some of Harris County's educational institutions are not referring anyone.

Rice University, Texas Southern University and Lone Star College system are three of the area's largest educators and their police departments have not referred anyone to the program.

Kendrick Callis, with TSU, said the university is participating in the plan and participated in an earlier pilot program under former District Attorney Devon Anderson.

"However," Callis said. "We have not had any incidents that have met the criteria of District Attorney Kim Ogg's plan thus far."

Paul Willingham, Chief of Police of Lone Star College Police Department, also said his department has not had any misdemeanor marijuana cases since the program began.

Rice University did not return requests for comment.

Other institutions of higher learning that did refer suspects to the program included University of Houston and University of St. Thomas. Houston Baptist University referred two people.

Most of the area's independent school districts, like HISD, Aldine, Alief and Cy-fair have referred suspects to the program. Others, like Galena Park, are not listed because their security is handled by officers with the one of the constable's offices, so their referrals fall under the constable office's statistics.

Goose Creek CISD's police department did not have any referrals to the program and did not return calls for comment.

One of Harris County's medical schools, the University of Texas at Houston, said they have not had anyone detained for marijuana possession who was eligible for the program.
Charges of racism erupted across social media over the weekend after NASA replaced Jeanette Epps, slated to be the first black crew member on the space station, from its next mission.

NASA did not offer an explanation Thursday night when it announced that Epps, a Syracuse, N.Y., native, would be replaced by Serena Aunon-Chancellor, a Hispanic flight surgeon selected as an astronaut alongside Epps in 2009.

An online petition was soon formed calling for both an explanation and Epps' reinstatement. Many who signed the petition questioned whether the move was racially motivated.

That sentiment exploded Saturday when Epps' brother, Henry, took to Facebook saying "My sister Dr. Jeannette Epps has been fighting against oppressive racism and misogynist in NASA and now they are holding her back and allowing a Caucasian Astronaut to take her place!" The post has since been removed.

Officials from NASA headquarters in Washington and at Johnson Space Center in Houston were unavailable to comment Monday due to the government shutdown.

Now Playing: NASA on Thursday announced that astronaut Jeanette Epps has been removed from her upcoming space mission. Video: GeoBeats

READ MORE ABOUT THE NASA ANNOUNCEMENT HERE.

Calls to 12 people listed in the Whitepages with the last name Epps, both in Syracuse and Memphis, Tenn. (where Henry Epps lives, according to Facebook), either did not go through or went unanswered.

Henry Epps repeatedly shared on Facebook a link to an online petition demanding that Epps be reinstated to her space station mission. As of Monday at 5:15 p.m., the petition had more than 1,200 signatures, with many supporters calling on NASA to give a viable reason for their decision.

"Return Dr. Jeanette Epps or at the very least give a VALID reason for her removal," Tarnisha Williams, from Rocky Mount, N.C., commented on the petition Monday.

The petition, created by S.R. Ross, touts Epps' extensive resume, which includes seven years at the Central Intelligence Agency before joining NASA as an astronaut in 2009. S.R. Ross did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jeanette Epps would have been the 15th African American to fly in space, according to NASA.

Roosevelt Wright Jr., a retired captain in the U.S. Naval Reserve, commented on the petition Monday that he has watched Epps' "incredible growth and development."

His signature line continued, "she has paid her dues, and her resume is 'beyond the realms of greatness,'" he wrote. "She must be allowed to further 'Make History at NASA!'"

Several petition commenters brought up NASA's storied history with African Americans, particularly women, which recently was illustrated in the book "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly and film starring Taraji P. Henson and Octavia Spencer.

"Put Dr. Jeanette Epps back in her position for the NASA mission," wrote S. Hayes, from Orlando, Fla. "Or has NASA learned nothing about history and the black women who have contributed to the history of NASA."

Jeanette Epps did not respond to emails or Facebook messages from the Houston Chronicle but said in an email to the Washington Post that she couldn't comment on NASA's reasoning. She further told the Post that she did not have a family problem or a medical condition preventing her from participating in the mission.

In its announcement last week, NASA said Epps would return to the Astronaut Office at Johnson and would be considered for future space missions. Her replacement, Aunon-Chancellor, earned her medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston and is board certified in internal and aerospace medicine.

David Milliken, from Centennial, Colo., commented on the petition Monday that "NASA will be diminished in the eyes of the nation" by Epps' removal.

"This is a disastrous, racist administration. Its actions and appointments have all been made to benefit one extreme end of the political spectrum," Milliken wrote. "NASA should not be seen to be making a racially biased change to an established mission team."

Milliken wasn't alone in bringing President Donald Trump's administration into the discussion.

Michael J. Healy, who lives in Seattle and signed the petition Monday, commented that "in the political climate engendered by the current administration, this action by NASA seems suspicious."

But Chan Mainor, a Sacramento-based photographic artist and social editor, took a different approach on Facebook, saying he was "hesitant" to make Epps' removal about race  even though it would be "awesome" to have an African American living in space.

"NASA has proven time and again that race, gender, nationality is far secondary to the primary requirement of being able to do a very difficult job under very difficult circumstances," Mainor wrote Monday.

He added that decisions to bench astronauts "are made all the time."

"'Undisclosed reasons' means 'none of our business.' And since we aren't running a space program, it really isn't," he said. "Regardless of race, many many astronauts study, train and prepare for an opportunity that may never arise. A very select few actually strap in and hang on."

An Internet search by the Houston Chronicle turned up just three prominent cases in which an astronaut was removed from a mission to the space station:

NASA officials did not provide a list of astronauts removed from Space Station missions prior to the federal government shutdown Friday night.

Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is proposing a wide-ranging study of flooding in the Houston metropolitan area in response to the region's devastating deluges, including Hurricane Harvey, an undertaking that could examine nearly every aspect of flood control, such as the city's overburdened drainage system, a changing climate and the impact of paving over prairie and rural landscapes.

The first-of-its-kind study in the Houston area - called a Metropolitan Houston Regional Watershed Assessment - would examine 22 watersheds in the region, analyzing how stormwater moves from rooftops and streets to bayous and creeks, eventually to Galveston Bay, said Edmond Russo, deputy district engineer for Programs and Project Management for the Corps' Galveston District.

The study would re-examine the "frequency, distribution and magnitude" of rainfall trends given recent years' severe weather and whether the Houston region's development sprawl has had a "cumulative effect" on increasing flood risks downstream, Russo said.

'A smarter plan'

The resulting report is expected to include proposals the Corps, state, Harris County Flood Control District or city could implement, ranging from new widening and deepening projects on area bayous to utilizing "green" infrastructure and incentivizing developers to use technologies such as "porous concrete" that are capable of absorbing floodwaters.

Big-ticket infrastructure improvements could then be eligible for federal investment by Congress or the Corps. For example, if the study identified a need for a $1 billion retrofit of the city's drainage pipes and basins, the Corps could finance roughly two-thirds of that cost.

"You create a smarter plan with the regional watershed assessment," Russo said. "What do we want to look at 10, 15, 20 years later in terms of sustainable flood risk management?"

The study would require congressional approval, cost at least $3 million and take approximately three years to complete. The disaster-relief bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in December, if OK'd by the Senate and signed by the president, authorizes the Corps to conduct two regional watershed assessments in disaster-affected regions, with priority given to areas with multiple disaster declarations in recent years.

READ: Disaster relief caught up in federal politics, outlook uncertain

The Houston region has had three major disaster declarations in the last three years, during the Memorial Day 2015, Tax Day 2016 and Harvey floods.

Russ Poppe, executive director of the Harris County Flood Control District, said while he supported the Corps effort, he was waiting to see the full scope of what the Corps specifically wants to study, which would be finalized after a congressional vote.

Poppe said the flood control district, for example, would like to see the Corps look at tributaries in addition to larger waterways the Corps traditionally has worked on.

The watershed study proposal comes as local officials continue to revamp flood control strategies in Harvey's wake. The storm dropped more than 51 inches of rain in some parts of the Houston area, killing dozens and flooding hundreds of thousands of homes and other buildings.

Harvey shattered national rainfall records, in some cases exceeding the amount of rainfall believed to be scientifically possible.

Updated data

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett in October outlined a series of proposals in the storm's wake, including mandating disclosure of flood risk to homebuyers and renters, buying out or elevating all homes in the 100-year floodplain and identifying where old waterways have been paved over by development to predict and prepare for releases from Addicks and Barker reservoirs.

READ: Emmett proposes sweeping changes to flood control

Harris County Commissioners Court has indicated a willingness to put a bond issue before voters, possibly upward of $1 billion, to finance some improvements.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration currently is updating rainfall statistics. Preliminary data released in November suggested that current data routinely underestimate a "100-year" storm - rainfall that has a 1 percent chance of occurring in a given year - which could mean floodplain maps and regulations are falling short. The data would be finalized in May.

Harris County Commissioners Court also voted earlier this month to work with Montgomery County to re-evaluate flood risks in the San Jacinto River watershed, which could examine the feasibility of using Lake Conroe and Lake Houston for flood control purposes. For example, operators of the two reservoirs, which are designed to hold drinking water, could consider lowering water levels in advance of storms to make room for rainfall and prevent big releases.

READ: NOAA study finds Houston's 100-year floods have been underestimated

If authorized by Congress, the Corps' watershed study would be one of the most expansive developments following Harvey and would be the first to treat the network of waterways around Houston comprehensively. Where the Harris County Flood Control District would have the ability to make policy within only the county's boundaries, the Corps could make recommendations and take on projects in the entire region.

It still would require cooperation from local entities. For example, as part of an examination of the city's drainage system, the Corps would need data and schematics from the city.

"Obviously, we would like to help in whatever aspects that they would like to have information from us," said Steve Costello, the city's chief resilience officer, also known as the "flood czar." "I don't know the full scope of the work just yet. When I see that, I'll be happy to expand on how much success we can get from that."

Russo said the study's scope could include evaluating whether the region's sprawl is having a cumulative effect on downstream flooding, identifying "choke points" in city drainage systems and suggestions of ways to manage private water.

"Years and years ago, people used to have these large cisterns on their house that would collect rainwater," Russo said. "Could you reintroduce the idea of a cistern to retain water and let it out slowly? What would be the cumulative effect of something like that?"

Are the solutions realistic?

If authorized, the Corps would try to work with NOAA on updating rainfall statistics, Russo said.

Larry Larson, senior policy adviser for the Association of State Floodplain Managers, said an expansive study based on watershed boundaries instead of political boundaries could be the right approach. The challenge, however, will be rallying the political entities to act on it.

"Makes a lot of sense," Larson said. "Now the question is, when you come up with ideas and potential solutions, are they implementable?"
AUSTIN  Republicans in Dallas County have filed a lawsuit to remove 128 Democrats from the March 6 primary ballot.

The Dallas County Republican Party claims that the Dallas County Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Donovan didn't sign the candidates' filing paperwork before sending them to the Texas Secretary of State's office, as required by law.

The lawsuit, filed late Friday, contends that Texas law only allows the party chair to sign the paperwork, and there is very limited authority to delegate that duty to someone else.

If successful, the lawsuit could give Republicans an advantage in the primary and general election in November, greatly impact election results in Dallas and around the state.

"When it comes to election law and protecting the sanctity of the ballot we take this legal obligation seriously," said Republican Party Chairwoman Missy Shorey in a statement. "Unfortunately, the Dallas County Democratic Party flouts election law and appears to be resorting to forgery when it comes to the core requirement that their county chair sign candidate petitions. We demand Democratic leadership start upholding the sanctity of signatures."

The lawsuit includes copies of the filed election paperwork showing vastly different signatures for Donovan. Republicans claim Donovan signed only a fraction of the candidate petitions and allege the rest were signed by someone else.

"Laws have consequences and the law is crystal clear, only the county Chair can sign candidate applications, not others purporting to be the county Chair," Shorey said.

Donovan and other officials with the Dallas Democratic Party did not return requests for comment.

Donovan told the Dallas Morning News that the party believes its actions were legal, and it has assembled a legal team of election law attorneys to review the claims.

"Though we are taking this case seriously, the Republican Party's lawsuit is not supported by Texas law. We will fight to ensure that all Democratic voters in Dallas County can participate in a fair primary election," Donovan said.

State Rep. Eric Johnson, who is seeking reelection in Dallas, said the Republican party "has hit a new low in Texas."

"To try and knock over 100 mostly minority candidates off another party's primary ballot is simply unheard of," Johnson said. "I have known and respected people on the other side of the aisle for decades who would never have dreamt of doing something like this."

Alejandra Matos covers politics, education and immigration policy. Follow her on Twitter. Send tips to alejandra.matos@chron.com.
Fifty years ago, North Korea took an extraordinary gamble against the United States when communist gunboats attacked and captured a Navy spy ship, the USS Pueblo.

One American sailor was killed in the Jan. 23, 1968 assault. Eighty-two others were tossed into prison, touching off an international crisis that dragged on for nearly a year.

A U.S. naval armada gathered off North Korea, and North and South Korea alerted their armies for possible war. Lyndon Johnson's Pentagon prepared plans to use nuclear weapons. A diplomatic sleight of hand finally ended the standoff, with Washington issuing a "pre-repudiated" apology to Pyongyang.

Led by their haggard but unbowed skipper, Cmdr. Lloyd "Pete" Bucher, the surviving sailors, who had endured torture and food deprivation, were let go and flew to San Diego, where cheering crowds greeted them on Christmas Eve 1968.

But the Pueblo itself - packed with advanced electronic eavesdropping gear and classified documents - was never returned. Today, it remains the only commissioned U.S. Navy vessel in the hands of a foreign power, docked next to a war museum in Pyongyang.

You don't need to be a Navy veteran to be angry at this state of affairs. Many ordinary Americans would like nothing better than for a flock of cruise missiles to blow the old surveillance ship to smithereens.

But there's a perverse educational value in having the Pueblo moored in the Botong River, where American and other Western tourists visit it, playfully swiveling its machine guns and gawking at shell holes helpfully circled in red.

The ship's mission was a poorly planned affair. American and Soviet vessels had been eavesdropping on each other's naval bases for years without serious problems under an unspoken gentlemen's agreement. Navy officers assumed the North Koreans would treat the Pueblo the same way as it tried to pinpoint their coastal radar and missile batteries.

As a result, no warships or aircraft were assigned to protect the Pueblo. The ship carried only small arms and two machine guns to defend itself. Cruising in international waters, it came under attack by four North Korean torpedo boats, two submarine chasers, and two MiG jets.

Bucher tried to flee farther out to sea, since the Pueblo had no realistic way of fending off the onslaught. Nor did it have efficient means of getting rid of its classified payload. Equipped only with fire axes and sledgehammers, crewmen struggled to break up well-built electronic devices. They tried to burn mounds of secret documents in wastebaskets. But much classified material fell into communist hands when Bucher - with one sailor dead and 10 others wounded - decided to surrender.

Just two days before the assault on the spy ship, a North Korean commando team had come close to assassinating South Korea's president at his official residence, the Blue House, in Seoul. Together, the Blue House and the Pueblo incidents pushed North and South Korea closer to armed conflict than at any time since the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950.

In early 1968, President Johnson had his hands full with Vietnam. The last thing he wanted was a second war in Asia. He ordered the aircraft carrier Enterprise and 25 other warships to waters off North Korea, and more than 350 aircraft to bases in and around South Korea.

Despite strident calls for military revenge, LBJ held off while American diplomats opened secret talks with Pyongyang. Johnson's team persisted amid insults and foot dragging by communist negotiators before a deal was eventually struck for Bucher and his men to be freed.

One wonders if President Trump would have the same reserves of patience and restraint if faced with a similar provocation by North Korea today.

U.S. satellites, ships, and aircraft still conduct numerous surveillance missions around the globe. We clearly need to keep tabs on what our enemies are up to. But spying on other nations is an inherently provocative act that can backfire badly.

Five decades on, the Pueblo's forlorn presence in Pyongyang reminds us that such operations can go horribly wrong, bringing our country to the brink of war.

Cheevers is author of "Act of War: Lyndon Johnson, North Korea, and the Capture of the Spy Ship Pueblo," published last month.
Mark Mulligan/Staff

Houston is renowned for its great feats of innovative engineering, from the dredging of the ship channel to the building of the Eighth Wonder of the World, the Astrodome. Although we have never been known as a city that embraced planning, Harvey was a true game-changer. In the immediate aftermath, the city was focused on emergency response - clearing the roads, managing safe evacuations, operating shelters for flood victims. Now, we are looking to our partners at the state and federal government for funding and assistance to repair and rebuild our city.

As we move forward, we need to think long-term about how to make our region more resilient for the next storm. I am encouraged by the conversations happening at the community level as well as at the city, with Chief Recovery Officer Marvin Odum on the job. One point has resonated throughout these discussions: Houston must begin to do things differently if we want a better future.
WASHINGTON - In 1790, the finest mind in the First Congress, and of his generation, addressed in the House of Representatives the immigration issue: "It is no doubt very desirable that we should hold out as many inducements as possible for the worthy part of mankind to come and settle amongst us." Perhaps today's 115th Congress will resume the Sisyphean task of continuing one of America's oldest debates, in which James Madison was an early participant: By what criteria should we decide who is worthy to come amongst us?

The antecedents of the pronouns "we" and "us" include the almost 80 million who are either immigrants - not excluding the more than 11 million undocumented ones - or their children. They might be amused to learn that in the only full-length book Thomas Jefferson wrote, "Notes on the State of Virginia," he worried that too many immigrants might be coming from Europe with monarchical principles "imbibed in their early youth," ideas that might turn America into "a heterogeneous, incoherent, distracted mass."

TOMLINSON: Houston employers should prepare for immigration inspections as ICE turns up the heat

A century later, Theodore Roosevelt, who detested "milk-and-water cosmopolitanism," saw virtue emerging from struggles between the "Anglo-Saxon" race and what Roosevelt's friend and soulmate Rudyard Kipling called "lesser breeds without the law." TR, who worried that the United States was becoming a "polyglot boarding house," supported America's first significant legislation restricting immigration, passed to exclude Chinese, because he thought Chinese laborers would depress American wages, and because he believed they would be "ruinous to the white race."

EDITORIAL: What's next after an immigration deal goes bust?

In 1902, in the final volume of professor Woodrow Wilson's widely-read book "A History of the American People," he contrasted "the sturdy stocks of the north of Europe" - e.g., Norwegians - with southern and eastern Europeans who had "neither skill nor energy nor any initiative of quick intelligence." U.S. Army data gathered during World War I mobilization demonstrated, according to a Princeton psychologist, "the intellectual superiority of our Nordic group over the Mediterranean, Alpine and Negro groups." Richard T. Ely, a leading progressive economist, spent most of his academic career at the University of Wisconsin, but first taught at Johns Hopkins, where one of his students was Woodrow Wilson. Ely celebrated the Army data for enabling the nation to inventory its human stock just as it does its livestock. In 1924, Congress legislated severe immigration restrictions, which excluded immigrants from an "Asiatic Barred Zone."

FOSTER: End Trump administration attack on legal immigration

For more on this unsavory subject, read "Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics and American Economics in the Progressive Era," by Princeton economist Thomas C. Leonard. And "One Nation Undecided" by Peter H. Schuck, professor emeritus at Yale Law School, who writes: "In what may be the cruelest single action in our immigration history, Congress defeated a bill in 1939 to rescue 20,000 children from Nazi Germany despite American families' eagerness to sponsor them - on the ground that the children would exceed Germany's quota!"

The next phase of America's immigration debate, like the previous one, will generate the most heat about border security and whether those who are here illegally should stay. The heat will be disproportionate.

EDITORIAL: Plight of Mexican journalist is why Trump should rethink immigration policy

The border was irrelevant to the 42 percent of illegal immigrants who entered the U.S., mostly at airports, with valid visas that they then overstayed. Spending on border security quadrupled in the 1990s, then tripled in the next decade. Now that net immigration of Mexicans has been negative for 10 years, Americans eager to build a wall should not build it on the 1,984-mile U.S.-Mexico border but on the 541-mile Mexico-Guatemala border.

Fifty-eight percent of the more than 11 million - down from 12.2 million in 2007 - who are here illegally have been here at least 10 years; 31 percent are homeowners; 33 percent have children who, having been born here, are citizens. The nation would recoil from the police measures that would be necessary to extract these people from the communities into the fabric of which their lives are woven. They are not going home; they are home.

After 9/11, attitudes about immigration became entangled with policies about terrorism. So, as The Economist noted, "a mass murder committed by mostly Saudi terrorists resulted in an almost limitless amount of money being made available for the deportation of Mexican house-painters." This month, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided 98 7-Eleven stores in 17 states, making 21 arrests, approximately one for every 4.5 stores. Rome was not built in a day and it would be unreasonable to expect the government to guarantee, in one fell swoop, that only American citizens will hold jobs dispensing Slurpees and Big Gulps.

Will's email address is georgewill@washpost.com.
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Eventbrite Adds Two To Executive Team

Eventbrite has the hiring of Omer Cohen as Chief People Officer and Brian Irving as the companys Chief Brand Officer. Iriving joins from Levi Strauss & Co. and Cohen from Lytro and DigitalThink.

Building a global brand that people love and a global community that amplifies our values is paramount to our mission of bringing the world together through live experiences, Julia Hartz, co-founder and CEO of Eventbrite, said in a statement. Coming off a banner year of growth and momentum, we have a massive opportunity as we look ahead to 2018, but the destination is only a part of our end goal. How we get there  as both an organization and a brand  is critically important and I cant think of two better leaders than Brian and Omer to help us achieve success in this journey.

Irving brings two decades of experience building and marketing global brands like Apple, Google and Airbnb, according to the announcement, most recently serving as co-CMO and VP of global digital marketing for Levi Strauss & Co.

Brian Irving Brian Irving

What attracted me to Eventbrite is the power of the platform which brings millions of people together for live experiences every year. The stories of these transformative moments are so inspirational and relatable. We all remember that feeling we got when we went to our first concert or were surrounded by people that share our same passions, Irving said. What Julia and the team have created over the past decade is astounding and the opportunity to inspire businesses and entrepreneurs alike is massive. Im excited to further enhance the companys brand equity as we move into the next ten years of building a lasting company that people both know and love.

Cohen will be responsible for building Eventbrites global team of Britelings. He brings more than 25 years of operational leadership and development experience and most recently held roles at tech firms Lytro and DigitalThink. He also served as president of Great Place to Work, Inc., an HR consulting firm that was responsible for selecting Fortunes 100 Best Companies to Work For in America.

Working at Eventbrite is the ultimate live experience, Cohen said. We have an incredibly unique culture and Im thrilled to help identify and amplify our collective strengths to build a high-performing organization and make Eventbrite the career destination for talented individuals in all of our global markets.

- CelebrityAccess

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Spotify Lawyer Leads Law Institute Restatement of Copyright Project [Chris Castle]

Chris Castle investigates a suspicious development in the world of copyright, after the American Law Institutes moved to write up a "Restatement of Copyright", a project with some concerning ties to a lawyer with Spotify's best interests at heart.

_____________________________

Guest post by Chris Castle of Music Technology Policy

The anti-copyright crowd have a few different ways to turn astroturf into deceptively scholarly work product. One way is to take over otherwise credible brands to insert their own truthiness.

In a highly predictable move, the American Law Institute, a reliable old brand in the law, appears to have had some sudden interest in writing up a Restatement of Copyright treatise. The ALIs restatements of the law have been around a very long time, but they mostly deal with bodies of law that rely heavily on judge-made law such as agency, property or contracts.

The advantage of having a Restatement that says what you want it to say is that those toiling against artists and songwriters can cite it as an authoritative source in legal briefs, scholarly writings, amicus briefs, etc. Handy, eh?

The ALI Restatement of Copyright seems to have been the brainchild of one Pamela Samuelson, she of the Samuelson-Glushko technology and policy legal academic centersSilicon Valleys answer to the Confucious Institutes. The project is nominally under the watchful eye of Professor Christopher Sprigman, from whose intellectual loins sprang Spotifys defense of sorry just kidding in the Bluewater lawsuit for Spotifys alleged nonpayment of mechanical royalties. Sprigman is trying to convince the court that mechanical royalties dont exist, dont you know.

The Restatement of Copyright has been on the horizon for quite some time as it takes a lot of effort to produce one of these treatises. So naturally, one must askwhy the sudden interest at the American Law Institute in such a costly project that weve struggled along without for a hundred years or so? You dont suppose someone ispaying for the costs of this work? And who might be interested in picking up the tab for the project?

Perhaps the same company that paid for fivecount emfiveresearch projects by Professor Sprigman. That we know of.

According to the useful Google Academics, Inc. database created by the Google Transparency Project, Google funded these articles co-written by Sprigman (two of which criticize moral rights):

And speaking of astroturf, whats also interesting is that Sprigman appears to have filed comments in Copyright Office moral rights study that incorporated concepts in Google-funded papers and cited to one of them without disclosing Googles funding as far as I can tell. (https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=COLC-2017-0003-0019).

So a perfect lawyer to advance the interests of Spotify, the savior of the music business and to gift the legal community with the Restatement of Copyright, a crystalization of his genius.

Lucky us.

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The Board of Selectmen recognize James Thompson, who is retired last week after 30 years of service to the town.

Adams Selectmen Approve Administrator Search Process

jADAMS, Mass.  The Board of Selectmen approved the recommended town administrator search process that it hopes to have wrapped up by April.

The Board of Selectmen's personnel subcommittee brought forth its recommendations Wednesday and asked the full board to approve the process which could be completed within four to six months.

"We are all aware that it is pretty aggressive time to search, interview and hire," Selectwoman Christine Hoyt said. "Some of the dates may change as we go through and this will act as a guide."

Since the departure of former Town Administrator Tony Mazzucco late last year, the personnel subcommittee has been devising a process in which to seek out and hire a new administrator.

With the approval, Hoyt said the actual job will be posted by the end of the week or mid next week. She said the job description itself hasn't changed from three years ago.

From there a screening committee will be formed at the end of the month, which will hold its first meeting in February.

"They will be meeting to establish criteria and matrix and will begin reviewing applications and that would take up most of February," Hoyt said.

Selectman Joseph Nowak said his only gripe with the process is the subcommittee's recommendation to have two Selectmen on the screening committee.

"I personally feel that we have been voted in by people in the community  and I don't think it is fair," Nowak said. "I think there are people out there who will bring us good candidates  I have faith in the people that will be on this committee and our time will come."

There were no selectmen on the last search committee. The board only interviewed the three finalist candidates recommended by the search committee.

Hoyt said semifinalists would be selected in March and finalists would be sent to the selectmen for the interviews in April. Hoyt said if all goes as planned, they hope to have someone on the job July 1.

"I think this looks great and I hope we can bring great applicants," Nowak said.

The town is still building a budget for the marketing and search process and it will be brought before the selectmen before the end of the month.

The town acknowledged wastewater treatment plant operations Supervisor James Thompson who is retiring after 30 years of service to the town.

"Thank you, Mr. Thompson, for your 30 years of service and the town appreciates that," Duval said. "We wish you a happy retirement."

Duval read from a resolution that stated that Thompson started at the plant in 1988 and has held multiple posts, including operator one and two and lab technician, in the department.

Thompson has gone beyond that call of duty throughout his 30-year career, he said, and is responsible for a lab procedure and equipment manual that is still in use to this day.

In other business, Duval said the town has received many calls about un-shoveled sidewalks and urged residents and business owners to keep their sidewalks clean.

"We have had a lot of calls about sidewalks not being clean and it is a bylaw in this community," he said.

Police Chief Richard Tarsa said people need to do their part considering the many elderly in the community.
Berkshire Groups Use Women's March Anniversary to Talk Next Steps

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  Local civic and advocacy groups are looking at how to build on the progressive movement launched by the massive Women's Marches last year.

The fight to raise people up from poverty, provide economic equity, health care and education, and ensure safe and welcoming communities, has to start at the grassroots level and include the voices of those most affected. That was the takeaway from Saturday's forum sponsored by Indivisible Pittsfield.

"We need to have everyone at the table," Shirley Edgerton of the Four Freedoms Coalition said. "Everyone needs to be making decisions about their own lives."

As millions once again took to the streets for marches in some of the nation's  and world's  cities, Indivisible Pittsfield, part of a statewide movement born in reaction to the 2016 election, hosted a resource fair and panel attended by several hundred people at the Colonial Theatre. There were also some short performances on the stage prior to the panel.

Moderated by Drew Herzig of Indivisible, the panel was comprised of Edgerton, Geraldine Shen and Ali Benjamin of Williamstown's Greylock Together; James Mahon of Williamstown, a founder of the Democratic organizing group Berkshire Brigades; Russell Freedman of Lanesborough, representing the Progressive Democrats of American; Michael Wise of the Great Barrington Democratic Town Committee; Ciara Berkeley of Berkshire Immigrant Stories; Ralph Howe of the Pittsfield Area Council of Congregations; Rabeh Elleithy of the United American Muslim Association of the Berkshires; Jeff Lowenstein from Berkshire Interfaith Organizing; Pittsfield City Councilor Helen Moon and Pittsfield School Committee member Dennis Powell, also president of the local NAACP chapter; Kristen van Ginhoven of WAM Theater; and state Rep. Paul Mark, D-Peru.

In a round of questions of how local residents and groups can make change happen, Shen said her group, Greylock Together, has been figuring out what it can do on a smaller scale. Some of that has been advocacy in writing postcards and making calls, but also building coalitions.

"There's so many fires to put out," she said, adding that activists need to focus on what they can do. Benjamin said it was a matter of not getting discouraged or tired, and needing to speak with the people who are not in the run -- especially those who are not in what are considered progressive areas.

Mahon said it was up to the press to hold elected officials to account for their words and actions and for people to come together to take action on what it means to be a community. Using the example of Habitat for Humanity to address a host of issues, he said, "we need to look at what needs to be done in the community ... Making our cities and our countrysides accessible and livable. That's where we all can come from."

While he said Democrats have to go beyond "vague terms" like "stronger together" or "I'm with her," one woman objected that the expression of solidarity with presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had meaning for many people, including herself.

"It had me thinking about all of the women who are so important in our lives. It mattered to me," she said. "Stop blaming the Democrats for poor messaging because it was about women."

Despite that one criticism, the audience and panelists seemed to agree that action, not just messages, that would make the difference.

Mark said spoke of some of the efforts in the State House, such as the so-called Fair Share Amendment, which need pubic support. Berkeley said it was important to listen to people's stories, and Elleithy that acting locally didn't mean waiting for things to happen but making things happen, even if it was shoveling a neighbor's driveway. Lowenstein said they needed to be a community that values relationships and Howe described it as giving poeople hope: "We need to stop punishing people and invest in their lives." Herzig said they'd already made a start by bringing elements of North and South County together for this event.

Freedman said the 50 richest people in Massachusetts have a combined worth of $133 billion while more than 8,000 Pittsfield residents are on SNAP, and a children born in poverty have little chance of bettering themselves

At the same time, he'd been to Washington to see hallways filled with men in $1,000 suits influencing legislation.

"We need to fill these halls with sovereign citizens," Freedman said.

In response to a comment that there were faces missing among the attendees, Moon said it was necessary to go to those groups, not expect them to simply show up. She referenced her own actions during her successful campaign in Ward 1 in knocking on every door and listening to residents no matter who they voted for or what their background.

"We need to cross that line instead of expecting them to come to us," she said. "We need to have different leadership in local elections ... we ned to build that pipeline with poeple who want to see real change happen."

Powell, however, said there was a real absence of those in position to further community building and that, too often, it's the same people.

"Where are the lawmakers, where is law enforcement, where are the people responsible for creating so much of what we're exposed to?" he said. "We need action, not talk. We continue to sit around and talk, I'm tired of talking."

The event was recorded for later broadcast on Pittsfield Community Television.
Berkshire County Democrats Meeting to Choose Delegates

Berkshire County Democratic committees will be holding their caucuses in February. This year's Massachusetts Democratic Party Endorsing Convention will be held June 1-2 at the DCU Center in Worcester, where thousands of Democrats from across the state will come together to endorse Democratic candidates for statewide offices, including constitutional officers and gubernatorial candidates. Committees can submit their information to by email to be included in this list. A complete list of caucuses across the state can be found here.



* Adams: The Adams Democratic Town Committee will hold its caucus at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 3, at the Adams Free Library, Miller Annex, 92 Park Street, McKinley Square. The caucus is open to all registered Democrats.



* Lenox: The Lenox Town Democratic Committee/Caucus will be held on Thursday, Feb. 15, at 6:30 p.m. in the Lenox Town Hall Auditorium, 6 Walker St.
The poster of 2018 Happy Chinese New Year in Valletta showcases the planned activities. [Photo/Chinaculture.org]

A news conference for the 2018 Happy Chinese New Year in Valletta was held Jan 12 in the China Cultural Center in Malta, kicking off this year's celebrations for the Chinese Lunar New Year in the country.

Wang Yanjun, director of the China Cultural Center in Malta, briefed the audience on the 2018 Happy Chinese New Year in Valletta, a major event co-organized by the China Cultural Center and Valletta Local Council.

Wang said with the joint efforts of both nations, the celebrations during Chinese Lunar New Year have developed into one of Vallettas annual events, contributing to the mutual understanding and cultural communication between China and Malta.

During the celebration, 18 major activities will be staged, including livestreaming, exhibitions, film screenings, a parade, a temple fair, a Chinese ancient poetry reading and other festival celebrations by Chinese artists.

On Feb 13, the Malta Carnival, with an outstanding history of 483 years, will welcome its first Chinese art troupe, the Zhejiang Wu Opera Troupe, to give performances for the Maltese people.

The Chinese Zodiac Creativity Exhibition , an event featuring woodblock printing, paper-cutting and shadow play about the 12 Chinese zodiac animals attracted a lot of local visitors on Jan 12.
Morgan Freeman called out an audience member for talking during his Lifetime Achievement award acceptance speech at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

The 80-year-old actor was addressing the room full of actors, filmmakers and producers, including Brie Larson, Jason Bateman and Get Out star Daniel Kaluuya, when he peered into the crowd, leaned into the microphone and made the jibe.

Hey... I'm talking to you, he said with a smile on his face, in a seemingly joking manner. The unknown crowd member then replied to the actor with Freeman adding: Okay, well you just stand out to me, that's all.

The actor, who was presented the trophy by Rita Moreno, continued with his speech which he ended by criticising the award statue.

SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Show all 33 1 /33 SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Samira Wiley in Tadashi Shoji Getty SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Sydelle Noel in Leanne Marshall Rex Features SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Brie Larson in Gucci AFP/Getty Images SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Sadie Sink in Chanel SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Frances McDormand in Valentino EPA SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Kate Hudson in Valentino Getty Images SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Halle Berry in Pamella Roland Rex Features SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Yara Shahidi in Ralph Lauren Getty Images SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Saoirse Ronan in Louis Vuitton Getty Images SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Natalia Dyer in Dior Couture Getty Images SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Tracee Ellis Ross in Ralph & Russo Getty Images SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Margot Robbie in Miu Miu Getty Images SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Millie Bobby Brown in Calvin Klein Getty Images SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Allison Williams in Ralph & Russo Getty Images SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Vanessa Kirby in Valentino Getty Images SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Lupita Nyong'o in Ralph & Russo Getty Images SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Dakota Fanning in Prada Getty Images SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Nicole Kidman in Armani Prive Getty Images SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Uzo Aduba in Christian Siriano SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Reese Witherspoon in Zac Posen Getty Images SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Elisabeth Moss in Adam Selman Getty Images SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Madeline Brewer in Reem Acra Rex Features SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Susan Sarandon in Alberta Ferretti Rex Features SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Susan Kelechi Watson in Rubin Singer Rex Features SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Abbie Cornish in Philosophy di Lorenzo SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Olivia Munn in Oscar de la Renta Rex Features SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Mary J. Blige in Jean Louis Sabaj Getty SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Mandy Moore in Ralph Lauren Rex Features SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Hong Chau in Rodarte Rex Features SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Sally Hawkins in Dior Haute Couture Rex Features SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Alexander Skarsgard in Hugo Boss Rex Features SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Milo Ventimiglia in Brunello Cucinelli Rex Features SAG Awards 2018 Best Dressed Joseph Fiennes in Brioni Rex Features

I wasnt going to do this; Im going to tell you whats wrong with this statue. It works from the back, but from the front, its gender-specific. Maybe I started something.

The evening's biggest winner was Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri which followed its Golden Globes success to win three awards including Best Actress for Frances McDormand, Best Supporting Actor for Sam Rockwell and the coveted Outstanding Cast Performance.

You can find a full list of winners here.

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Another round of Oscar hopefuls are about to be confirmed with the imminent 2018 nomination announcement (follow our live blog here).

Awards recognition is set to be thrown the way of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Shape of Water and Darkest Hour but others won't fare so lucky.

Reflecting upon the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild and other recent awards ceremonies, it's become far easier to deduce just which features will be mentioned during the announcement tomorrow and which will go down in history as major snubs.

Below are the films, actors and director who will most likely not be mentioned during tomorrow's announcement (23 January)

Best Film - Phantom Thread

(Universal Pictures)

Only one Paul Thomas Anderson film has ever been nominated for Best Picture before (There Will Be Blood in 2008) and it's increasingly looking like his latest - romantic drama Phantom Thread, the supposed final screen appearance of Oscar heavyweight Daniel Day-Lewis - won't be added to that list. Key omissions from other award ceremonies - namely the Critics' Choice Awards - hasn't seen the film catch fire with voters in the way you'd expect. With a Best Actor nod for Day-Lewis on the cards, it's likely that'll be the film's nod in the main categories in an otherwise bustling list that could see surprise appearances for the deserving Get Out and The Florida Project.

Expect to see: Call Me by Your Name, Dunkirk, The Florida Project, Get Out, Lady Bird, The Post, The Shape of Water, Three Billboards

Best Actor - Tom Hanks - The Post

(Universal Pictures (Universal Pictures)

The Post failed to secure a single nomination at both the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards and BAFTAs which can't have helped but stung its Academy Award chances. Despite this, following journalist drama Spotlight's win in 2016, it's hard to see The Post failing to get included in the Best Picture list meaning a snub for one of its two stars, as well as director Steven Spielberg, is a strong likelihood. We're going for Tom Hanks who, while great, coasts through the film on autopilot. While Gary Oldman's performance as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour seems to have the category sewn up, expect a nomination for James Franco (The Disaster Artist) whose allegations of sexual misconduct broke just two days before voting closed.

Expect to see: Timothee Chalamet - Call Me by Your Name, Gary Oldman - Darkest Hour, James Franco - The Disaster Artist, Daniel Kaluuya - Get Out, Daniel Day-Lewis - Phantom Thread

Best Actress - Kristen Stewart - Personal Shopper

(Les Films du Losange (Les Films du Losange)

One casualty of Oscars timing was Kristen Stewart for Oliver Assayas' supernatural drama Personal Shopper, a film that would have undoubtedly been in the mix had it been released half a year earlier or later. Stewart turns in a nuanced turn officially cementing her as one of the best female actors around, enthrallingly leading viewers through an often challenging film with ease. She could have easily been mentioned alongside the below dead certs who comprise what's set to be the most impressive category of the year.

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Expect to see: Margot Robbie - I, Tonya, Saoirse Ronan - Lady Bird, Meryl Streep - The Post, Sally Hawkins - The Shape of Water, Frances McDormand - Three Billboards

Best Supporting Actor - Michael Stuhlbarg - Call Me by Your Name

(Sony Pictures Classic (Sony Pictures Classic)

A glaring omission in this year's awards circuit has been Michael Stuhlbarg's supporting role as the loving father in acclaimed drama Call Me by Your Name. His limited screentime and delicately-delivered climactic monologue is precisely the role the Academy would - and should - usually recognise but for some reason or another, it's not just happening for Stuhlbarg who also appears in contenders The Post and The Shape of Water. Perhaps he's been pushed off by Christopher Plummer's turnaround job replacing Kevin Spacey in All the Money in the World as well as Three Billboards star Sam Rockwell whose Golden Globe and SAG win has officiallty usurped Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project) as category frontrunner.

Expect to see: Christopher Plummer - All the Money in the World, Armie Hammer - Call Me by Your Name, Willem Dafoe - The Florida Project, Sam Rockwell - Three Billboards

Best Supporting Actress - Holly Hunter - The Big Sick

(Lionsgate (Lionsgate)

Holly Hunter's appearance in 2016's best comedy - The Big Sick - boosted an already-brilliant indie film to an unmissable status. While the category may feature a few surprises in the form of Tiffany Haddish's role in the popular comedy Girls Trip (Melissa McCarthy earned a nomination for Bridesmaids), it'll ultimately be Allison Janney (I, Tonya) and Lady Bird's Laurie Metcalf's trophy to win.

Expect to see: Tiffany Haddish, Girls Trip, Allison Janney - I, Tonya, Laurie Metcalf - Lady Bird, Mary J. Blige - Mudbound

Best Director - Jordan Peele - Get Out

(Rex (Rex)

This, of course, is going under the assumption the Academy will nominate Lady Bird director Greta Gerwig following a Golden Globes snub despite her film winning in the Comedy or Musical category. If this is the case, it would most likely mark a snub for the hugely deserving Peele whose nomination would see him become the fifth black person to be recognised in the category in Oscars history following John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood), Lee Daniels (Precious), Steve McQueen for 12 Years a Slave in 2013 and Moonlight filmmaker Barry Jenkins just last year.

Expect to see: Luca Guadagnino - Call Me by Your Name, Christopher Nolan - Dunkirk, Greta Gerwig - Lady Bird, Guillermo del Toro - The Shape of Water, Martin McDonagh - Three Billboards

The 2018 Oscar nominations are announced tomorrow (23 January) - you can stay up to date with all the nominations on our live blog here.

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Melania Trump found herself as the butt of one of Kristen Bell's jokes during an opening speech at this year's Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Bell dragged the First Lady of the United States by mocking her rather feeble efforts at an anti-cyberbullying initiative as she opened the annual ceremony.

The Frozen star said: "I never thought I'd grow up to be the First Lady, but you know what? I kinda like it. I think my first initiative as First Lady will be cyberbullying."

She added: "Because I have yet to see any progress made on that problem quite yet."

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Cyberbullying prevention was made one of Melania Trump's platforms when her husband, US President Donald Trump, first entered office.

She said of the initiative: "It is our responsibility to take the lead in teaching children the values of empathy and communication that are at the core of kindness, mindfulness, integrity, and leadership."

First Lady Trump was roundly mocked for this comment on her campaign in October last year, which came a day after her husband called a Congresswoman "wacky" on Twitter.

Trump is notorious for his volatile behaviour on social media, and has lashed out at many high profile figures including North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Meryl Streep, Barack Obama and Whoopi Goldberg. Favourite insults include "fool", "loser", "over-rated", "sad!" and "terrible".

Continuing her speech at the SAG Awards, Bell turned her attention to sexual assault, and told the Hollywood audience that the film industry was having a "watershed moment".

"Everyone's story deserves to be told, especially now," she said. "We are having a watershed moment and as we march forward with active momentum and open ears, let's make sure that we're leading the charge with empathy and with diligence because fear and anger never win the race."

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Todays animated Google Doodle marks what would have been the 120th birthday of Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948), a true giant of world cinema whose role in crafting the visual language of screen storytelling in the industrys earliest days proved pivotal and whose legacy continues to influence directors in the 21st century.

Born in what is now Riga, Latvia, Sergei studied architecture and engineering at the Petrograd Institute of Civil Engineering before joining the Red Army and taking part in the Bolshevik Revolution. His role in creating successful propaganda for the cause led to his being awarded a command position in Minsk, Belarus, before he arrived in Moscow in 1920 to transfer his artistic skills to the theatre.

Working initially as a director and designer, he became intensely interested in cultural theory and wrote the treatise Montage of Attractions in 1923. This led to his making his first film, Gulmovs Diary, the same year, an adaptation of one his own experimental theatre productions.

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Eisenstein remains best known for the silent montage films that followed - Strike (1925), the ground-breaking Battleship Potemkin (1925) and October (1928), commissioned to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution.

These films, concerning the power of the people to rise up, influenced contemporaries like Alexander Dovzhenko, Vsevolod Pudovkin and Dziga Vertov at a time when the progressive nature of Russian art left the world trailing in its wake. Only D.W. Griffith in the US and the likes of Fritz Lang, F.W. Murnau and Robert Wiene at Germanys UFA studios came close to producing work to match their extraordinary output.

The international acclaim with which Eisensteins films were greeted saw him permitted to tour the world in the early 1930s, visiting Europe, Japan, the US and Mexico. The director was particularly smitten with the latter country where he socialised with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera and commenced an ambitious chronicle of Mexican history entitled Que Viva Mexico! that sadly remains one of cinemas great uncompleted works. Eisensteins long sojourn in Mexico saw a worried Joseph Stalin send a telegram asking if he had deserted the Soviet Union.

Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin remains one of the most revered films of all time - not least for its famous Odessa steps sequence

However, it is arguably Eisensteins historical epics, Alexander Nevsky (1938) and the two-part Ivan The Terrible (1944 and 1958), that have left the most enduring impact on modern filmmaking. Both are vivid accounts of near-mythic men undertaken on a huge canvas, starring the great actor Nikolai Cherkasov and boasting scores composed by Sergei Prokofiev. As a marriage of music and action, the famous "Battle on the Ice" sequence from Alexander Nevsky, in particular, is once seen, never forgotten.

All of Eisensteins films were undertaken with political ends in mind, as the Kremlin approved all contemporary projects on the understanding that they would demonstrate to their own people and to the world at large the obvious supremacy of Communist art and the might of the USSR as a political force. Official approval nevertheless rarely prevented Eisenstein from falling foul of controversy.

Despite its being well received and Eisenstein awarded the Order of Lenin and Stalin Prize as a reward for his achievements, Alexander Nevsky had to be pulled from distribution following the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact in 1939, just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. Its tale of a heroic Russian knight seeing off Teutonic hordes could all-too-easily have been misconstrued as a mischievous allegory for the contemporary geopolitical situation.

Sergei Eisenstein behind the camera in 1926 (Rex)

It was Ivan The Terrible though that would prove to be Eisensteins downfall. Originally intended as a trilogy of films about the reign of Tsar Ivan IV (1530-1584), Part Two was met with disapproval and immediately banned in 1948, interpreted as a veiled critique of Stalin at one remove in its overt attack on tyrannical leadership. It would not see the light of day for another decade. Scenes already filmed from a planned Part Three were confiscated and destroyed and the great man was left in disgrace.

Eisenstein suffered a severe heart attack in 1946 and died of a second in his Moscow apartment on 11 February 1948. He was cremated and his ashes buried amid the snow of the capitals Novodevichy Cemetery.
Following last years Harvey Weinstein allegations, the Weinstein Company has been completely decimated, losing a CEO and forced to sell various movie rights  including Paddington 2.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, The company has since postponed a further three movie releases for an unknown period of time: The War with Grandpa, Mary Magdalene and The Upside.

Perhaps the most notable is The War With Grandpa, directed by Tim Hill and starring Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, and Uma Thurman.

Having originally been scheduled for release April 2017, the comedy was moved to October that year, eventually ending up with a 23 February 2018 date.

27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Show all 27 1 /27 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Black Panther Released: 12 February 12 February Director: Ryan Coogler Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Forest Whitaker, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 The Greatest Showman Released: 1 January 1 January Director: Michael Gracey Cast: Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Darkest Hour Released: 12 January 12 January Director: Joe Wright Cast: Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ben Mendelsohn 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri Released: 12 January Director: Martin McDonagh 12 JanuaryMartin McDonagh Cast: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Caleb Landry Jones > Twentieth Century Fox 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Coco Released: 19 January 19 January Director: Lee Unkrich ,p>Cast: Anthony Gonzalez, Gael Garcia Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Renee Victor 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Downsizing Released: 19 January 19 January Director: Alexander Payne Cast: Matt Damon, Christopher Waltz, Jong Chau, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Early Man Released: 26 January 26 January Director: Nick Park Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, Maisie Williams, Timothy Spall 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Fifty Shades Freed Released: 9 February 9 February Director: James Foley Cast: Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Kim Basinger 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Maze Runner: The Death Cure Released: 9 February 9 February Director: Wes Ball Cast: Dylan O'Brien, Thomas Brodie Sangster, Kaya Scodelario, Giancarlo Esposito, Aidan Gillen 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 The Shape of Water Released: 16 February 16 February Director: Guillermo del Toro Cast: Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon, Michael Stuhlbarg, Doug Jones 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Annihilation Released: 23 February 23 February Director: Alex Garland Cast: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Lee, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Oscar Isaac 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Dark River Released: 23 February 23 February Director: Clio Barnard Cast: Ruth Wilson, Mark Stanley, Sean Bean 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Red Sparrow Released: 2 March 2 March Director: Francis Lawrence Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Jeremy Irons 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Tomb Raider Released: 16 March 16 March Director: Roar Uthaug Cast: Alicia Vikander, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu, Dominic West, 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 A Wrinkle in Time Released: 23 March 23 March Director: Ava DuVernay Cast: Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Zach Galifianakis 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Pacific Rim: Uprising Released: 23 March 23 March Director: Steven S. DeKnight Cast: John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Roman J Israel, Esq Released: 23 March 23 March Director: Dan Gilroy Cast: Denzel Washington, Colin Farrell, Carmen Ejogo Columbia Pictures 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Isle of Dogs Released: 30 March 30 March Director: Wes Anderson Cast: Bill Murray, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Scarlett Johansson 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Ready Player One Released: 30 March 30 March Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Mark Rylance, Simon Pegg 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Avengers: Infinity War Released: 27 April 27 April Director: The Russo Brothers Cast: Robert Downey, Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Josh Brolin 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Untitled Han Solo Film Released: 25 May 25 May Director: Ron Howard Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson, Donald Glover 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Released: 8 June 8 June Director: J.A. Bayona Cast: Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pine, B.D. Wong, Toby Jones 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Deadpool 2 Released: 1 June Director: David Leitch 1 JuneDavid Leitch Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller, Zazie Beetz, Josh Brolin 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Ocean's 8 Released: 22 June 22 June Director: Gary Ross Cast: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Anne Hathaway, Olivia Munn, Helena Bonham Carter, Rihanna, Matt Damon 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Ant-Man and the Wasp Released: 29 June 29 June Director: Peyton Reed Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Soldado Released: 29 June 29 June Director: Stefano Sollima Cast: Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin, Jeffrey Donovan, Catherine Keener, Matthew Modine 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 The Incredibles 2 Released: 13 July 13 July Director: Brad Bird Cast: Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell, Samuel L. Jackson

Mary Magdalene  which has already received a trailer  features Rooney Mara, Joaquin Phoenix, and Chiwetel Ejiofor, with Lion director Garth Davis helming the picture. The movie was originally scheduled for 24 November 2017, before being pushed back to 30 March.

Finally, The Upside, an English-language remake of 2011 French hit comedy The Intouchables starring Nicole Kidman, Kevin Hart and Bryan Cranston, was due 9 March.

When exactly these movies will reach cinemas remains in question. Meanwhile, it recently emerged that Weinstein wanted a mysterious list of womens names deleted before the initial expose was published. Why these names were together  and why the disgraced producer wanted them deleted  has not been revealed.
A vet is on the cusp of discovering the cause of Alabama Rot disease, which can lead to the death of nine out of every 10 dogs affected.

Alabama Rot, otherwise known as CRGV (Cutaneous and Renal Glomerular Vasculopathy), is a disease which causes sores to appear on dogs skin and then consequently results in kidney failure.

There is currently no known cause or cure for the disease. However, a vet believes she may be on the verge of a breakthrough in the fight against Alabama Rot.

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Dr Fiona Macdonald is a vet from Ringwood in Hampshires New Forest and founder of Fish Treatment Ltd.

Dr Macdonald, who develops and supplies professional medicines for fish, thinks that she may have discovered a link between Alabama Rot and a bacteria found in fish.

So far, Dr Macdonald has tested around 27 dogs suffering from Alabama Rot symptoms with the help of funding from the New Forest Dog Owners Group.

However, she needs to test more dogs showing signs of Alabama Rot in order to attain more conclusive results.

Dr Macdonald first decided to investigate the root of the disease when she came across a paper written in 1995 in which an organism called Aeromonas hydrophila was associated with kidney failure in dogs.

Aeromonas hydrophila is a bacteria that has been known to affect fish, a subject that Dr Macdonald evidently knows a lot about.

Aeromonas hydrophila can be located in fresh and salty water. When it infects animals, it can lead to fatal toxins entering the body.

"So far we have found antibodies to this organism in over half of the 29 recovered/suspected cases examined, as well as recovering the actual organism from an active skin lesion," Dr Macdonald tells The Independent.

"Although these are only preliminary results from a relatively small number of cases, this is very encouraging."

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Dr Macdonald has theorised that dogs venturing into wet areas while on walks may have been infected by that particular strain of bacteria.

Once infected, dogs will likely then experience kidney failure shortly thereafter.

Alabama Rot was first discovered in the 1980s when a number of greyhounds were struck by the disease.

According to a report published in in November, 98 dogs in the UK had died from the disease since December 2012.
A woman was astounded when her new fridge-freezer was delivered from Argos, only to discover that it was mouldy and contained someone elses food.

Jacinta Forde, a 35-year-old mother living in Camden, paid 500 for a brand new Bush fridge-freezer.

However, when the appliance arrived at her home, it definitely didnt meet her expectations.

As she unwrapped her delivery, Forde was caught off guard by its terrible smell.

I cant even describe it, it was so pungent, Forde told The Sun Online.

For a second, it didnt even dawn on me that the smell was from the fridge-freezer, because as far as I was concerned, it was brand spanking new.

Forde realised that the fridge-freezer wasnt quite as spick and span as shed been expecting when she pressed the water dispenser and water gushed out.

She then opened the fridge-freezer door, whereupon she came across mould and used condiments on the shelves.

I opened the freezer door and there was mildew and mould inside it with a chip or something that someone had left inside, she said.

The whole thing was all mouldy and inside the fridge door were jars of used lemon curd and jam and a bottle of brown sauce.

Forde contacted customer services at Argos to complain, when she was reportedly laughed at by an employee over the phone.

After a number of attempts to call the retailer, eventually Argos agreed to collect the fridge-freezer and give Forde a refund.

However, Forde is still irate over the way the company dealt with the situation.

This is really unacceptable, she said.

If you buy a mattress, you wouldnt expect that it has gone to someone elses house, been returned and then sent to you.

An Argos spokesperson has provided The Independent with the following statement:

Were very sorry to hear about Ms Fordes experience.

We have fully refunded the total amount and arranged for collection of the faulty fridge to ensure we can thoroughly investigate the cause of what happened.

We have apologised for the inconvenience caused.
North Korea is trying to steal bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from holders, and could soon start targeting people all over the world, researchers have warned.

Cyber security experts have discovered a recent malware campaign that targeted cryptocurrency users and exchanges in South Korea.

They expect similar attacks to be used to steal cryptocurrencies from people in other countries in the near future, especially if South Korea introduces a ban on trading, as its government has threatened to do.

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

This late 2017 campaign is a continuation of North Koreas interest in cryptocurrency, which we now know encompasses a broad range of activities including mining, ransomware, and outright theft, said cyber security firm Recorded Future.

Outside of the May WannaCry attack, the majority of North Korean cryptocurrency operations have targeted South Korean users and exchanges, but we expect this trend to change in 2018.

The price of bitcoin and other digital currencies plummeted last week, after the South Korean government revealed that it was weighing up a complete ban on cryptocurrency trading.

If that was to happen, North Korean hackers would be forced to look further afield for targets.

As South Korean exchanges harden their networks and the government imposes stricter regulatory controls on cryptocurrencies, exchanges and users in other countries should be aware of the increased threat level from North Korean actors, Recorded Future added.

The company says that the malware campaign it spotted from late 2017 used several different lures, and targeted cryptocurrency users, the Coinlink exchange and cryptocurrency exchanges at large, which appear to be hiring.

One lure appeared to be designed to obtain the login details of Coinlink exchange users.

Two more appeared to be resumes stolen from two actual South Korean computer scientists, both with work experience at South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges, Recorded Future said.

Numerous recent reports have concluded that North Korean hackers are increasingly targeting cryptocurrency exchanges and investors, in order to raise funds under strict economic sanctions.

Its believed that such attacks will not only continue, but also spread.

We assess that as South Korea responds to these attempted thefts by increasing security (and possibly banning cryptocurrency trading) they will become harder targets, forcing North Korean actors to look to exchanges and users in other countries as well, Recorded Future warned.

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Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his Mongolian guest. (Photo: VNA)



He met on January 22nd with Chairman of the Parliament of Mongolia Miyegombo Enkhbold, who is on official visit to Vietnam. The guest earlier attended the 26th Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF-26).

Vietnam always pays due attention to bolstering cooperative ties with traditional friends, including Mongolia, said PM Phuc.

He stressed that both sides need to consolidate and develop cooperation in various fields based on their long-standing traditional friendship.

He noticed that Miyegombo Enkhbolds visit is a vivid illustration of the developing cooperative relations and traditional friendship between Vietnam and Mongolia.

He spoke highly of the central Asian country for creating favourable conditions for Vietnamese firms to do business there in the past years and said that Vietnam can provide its staples like coffee and seafood for Mongolia.

Vietnam is ready to share experience and cooperate with Mongolia in the fields of customs, education and networking activities among localities of both sides, he said, adding that the country is willing to send high-profile experts and engineers in civil, bridge and road construction and other fields to support Mongolia.

The Government leader said that the two countries should channel more efforts to increase bilateral trade to USD70 million by 2020.

Meanwhile, Miyegombo Enkhbold took the occasion to congratulate the Vietnamese National Assembly for successfully organising the APPF-26 while expressed his impression on the meeting with PM Phuc in Ulan Bator in 2016.

He stated that Vietnam is an important partner of Mongolia in the Southeast Asian region and his country always wants to boost cooperation with Vietnam.

Mongolia supports Vietnam to run for the position as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2020-2021 tenure and hopes that Vietnam continues to back it to join activities of the ASEAN Community, he said.

Due attention has been paid to the exchange of high-ranking delegations in these years, contributing to developing the win-win cooperation, he stressed, adding that the Vietnam-Mongolia Intergovernmental Committee has a crucial role in elevating the bilateral ties.

The two countries are pushing for the signing of agreements on justice and ratcheting up defence partnership, he noted.

In terms of trade and economy, he suggested that the two countries should enhance collaboration in the processing of frozen meat. Mongolia boasts huge potential to export mutton and goat meat to Vietnam while Vietnam holds strengths in chicken and meat.

Cooperative mechanisms in customs, tax, banking and finance should be set up to promote two-way trade cooperation, he recommended.

He wished that Vietnam would receive more Mongolian students and the two countries localities would launch cooperative activities to make it easier for the partnerships between their businesses and people./.
Claims that Samsung intentionally slows down older smartphones in order to induce customers to buy new models are being investigated in Italy.

The South Korean company is claimed to have used software updates to slow down mobile phones. Apple is facing the same allegations.

Italys antitrust body, the Autorita Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM), says both companies may have violated four articles of Italys Consumers Code.

iPhone X on sale across the world: in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 iPhone X on sale across the world: in pictures iPhone X on sale across the world: in pictures iPhone X Launch People try the Animoji feature on iPhone X during its launch at the Apple store in Singapore Reuters iPhone X on sale across the world: in pictures iPhone X Launch Apple staff congratulate customers as they are of the first to enter Apple's Regent Street store AFP/Getty Images iPhone X on sale across the world: in pictures iPhone X Launch People queue outside Apple's Regent Street store AFP/Getty Images iPhone X on sale across the world: in pictures iPhone X Launch The new iPhone X EPA iPhone X on sale across the world: in pictures iPhone X Launch Customers line up to buy the new iPhone X in Hong Kong AP iPhone X on sale across the world: in pictures iPhone X Launch Customers sleep, while in line, before purchasing the iphone X in Australia Rex Features iPhone X on sale across the world: in pictures iPhone X Launch People queue outside Apple's Regent Street store in central London AFP/Getty Images iPhone X on sale across the world: in pictures iPhone X Launch Customers queue at Dubai Mall EPA iPhone X on sale across the world: in pictures iPhone X Launch Customers wait in line in Tokyo Getty Images iPhone X on sale across the world: in pictures iPhone X Launch A man gestures as he holds an iPhone X in Sydney EPA iPhone X on sale across the world: in pictures iPhone X Launch Customers wait outside an Apple store at Dubai Mall EPA iPhone X on sale across the world: in pictures iPhone X Launch Customers queue outside an Apple store in Dubai EPA iPhone X on sale across the world: in pictures iPhone X Launch The first purchasers of the iPhone X show off their boxed phones in Sydney EPA iPhone X on sale across the world: in pictures iPhone X Launch Dozens of customers queue as they wait to buy the new iPhone X in Cologne EPA iPhone X on sale across the world: in pictures iPhone X Launch Customers queue at the Apple store Schildergasse in Cologne EPA

If theyre found guilty, the technology giants face multi-million euro fines.

Apple and Samsung have been accused of setting up a general commercial policy taking advantage of the lack of certain components to curb the performance times of their products and induce consumers to buy new versions, the AGCM says.

The companies also allegedly released software updates that would slow smartphones down without reporting the possible consequences of the same update and without providing sufficient information to maintain an adequate level of performance of such devices, the watchdog says.

Samsung has denied the allegations, and says it will cooperate with the investigation.

Samsung does not provide the software updates to reduce the product performance over the life cycle of the device, the company told Nikkei.

We will fully cooperate with Italian Authority for Market and Competitions investigation in Italy to clarify the facts.

Last month, Samsung released a statement saying, Product quality has been and will always be Samsung Mobiles top priority. We ensure extended battery life of Samsung mobile devices through multi-layer safety measures, which include software algorithms that govern the battery charging current and charging duration.

We do not reduce CPU performance through software updates over the lifecycles of the phone.

Apple, meanwhile, is facing multiple lawsuits after it emerged that the company had been limiting the performance of some older models of iPhone, without telling consumers.

It says the feature was intended as a way of stopping phones with degraded batteries from shutting down randomly, and not as a way of making people buy new iPhone models sooner.

Authorities in France have also opened an investigation into the issue under the countrys planned obsolescence laws.
The founder of drinks brand Innocent has launched a scathing attack on the Brexit-backing boss of Wetherspoon, accusing him of selling Britains economy out for cheap chardonnay.

Richard Reed told the Press Association that Tim Martin, chairman of the pubs chain, has helped to junk the UK economy.

As part of a stark warning on the impact that leaving the EU is having on business investment, he said: Brexit is unhelpful, no-one I know is saying its a good thing.

 Tim Martin says a lower pound is a good thing for Britain

That guy from Wetherspoon [Mr Martin] is talking about it means he can buy cheap chardonnay from the New World, but I dont think thats a reason to junk a countrys economy.

Its just not going to help anything, its not a good idea to anyone who uses logic, facts and reason.

As well as the collapse in the pound following the Brexit vote, the British economy has slowed considerably and is now being outpaced by the eurozone.

Undeterred, the Wetherspoon boss has been an outspoken proponent of Britains divorce from the EU, issuing countless stock exchange announcements extolling the virtues of Brexit.

Mr Martin is in favour of crashing out of the EU without a deal. He places faith in World Trade Organisation rules which would allow Britain to follow free trade champions like New Zealand, Australia.

In response to Mr Reeds remarks, Mr Marin said: Richard is being melodramatic. Wetherspoon will benefit from leaving the EU, but so will everyone else in the country.

He added: History shows that democracy and prosperity are closely aligned, and the EU is becoming more undemocratic.

But Mr Reed  who now runs investment firm JamJar with fellow Innocent co-founders  also warned that British firms are losing out on critical investment because of Brexit.

Ive seen three businesses that have had money pulled because of Brexit.

At JamJar, we are looking at businesses that are focused on the EU  you have to.

Do you want to be targeting a market of 60 million people or 500 million? The answer is 500 million.

JamJar invests in high-growth firms such as Graze and Deliveroo.

Mr Reed, also a member of pro-single market group Open Britain, sold Innocent to Coca-Cola in 2013 alongside co-founders Adam Balon and Jon Wright for a reported 320m.

He was speaking as part of his role as ambassador for the Plusnet Pioneers campaign, a programme aimed at helping startup business owners as they build and grow their companies.

The businessman, who offers advice on securing funding for smaller enterprises said: We need Plusnet Pioneers more than ever in Brexit Britain.

PA
More than 80 per cent of the all the wealth generated globally last year flowed into the coffers of the richest one per cent of the population, a new Oxfam report has revealed.

The research, published on Monday, also shows that the 3.7 billion individuals who make up the poorest half of the global population saw their wealth flatline in 2017  something that the group of charities describes as unacceptable and unsustainable.

Something is very wrong with a global economy that allows the 1 per cent to enjoy the lions share of increases in wealth while the poorest half of humanity miss out, said Mark Goldring, chief executive of Oxfam in the UK.

The concentration of extreme wealth at the top is not a sign of a thriving economy but a symptom of a system that is failing the millions of hard-working people on poverty wages who make our clothes and grow our food, he added.

Oxfam is calling for rethink of legal and business models that prioritise shareholder returns over broader social impact and said that the new figures underscore how the excessive corporate influence on policy-making, erosion of workers rights and relentless drive to minimise costs in order to maximise returns to investors all contribute to a widening gap between the super-rich and the rest.

Billionaire wealth rose by an average of 13 per cent annually between 2006 and 2015, which was six times faster than wages of average workers, according to Oxfam.

The group also said that it now takes just four days for the chief executive of one of the worlds five largest fashion retailers to earn as much as a Bangladeshi garment worker will earn in his or her whole lifetime.

Oxfam particularly raised concerns about the pay of women, saying that they consistently earn less than their male counterparts and often do the least secure forms of work.

At current rates of change, the group projects that it will take 217 years to close the global gap in pay and employment opportunities between women and men around the world.

The world has made huge strides forward in ending poverty but progress could be even faster if we did more to break down the barriers that are holding back the worlds poorest people, Mr Goldring said.

For work to be a genuine route out of poverty we need to ensure that ordinary workers receive a living wage and can insist on decent conditions, and that women are not discriminated against. If that means less for the already wealthy then that is a price that we  and they  should be willing to pay, he added.

Referencing data compiled by Swiss bank Credit Suisse, Oxfam said that 42 people now own the same wealth as the 3.7 billion who make up the poorest 50 per cent of individuals. As recently as 2009, the figure was 380.

Despite the fact that inequality appears to be getting worse, Oxfam also on Monday said that a survey of 70,000 people across the UK and nine other countries had recently found that nearly two-thirds of people say they want their government to urgently address the income gap.

In the UK, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and the High Pay Centre  an independent non-party think tank established to monitor pay at the top of the income distribution  published a report last August showing that the average chief executive of a FTSE 100 company earned 4.5m in the year to the end of March.

Based on those figures, it would take an average UK full-time worker 160 years to earn what an average FTSE 100 CEO can rake in during one year.

And data at the end of December compiled by Bloomberg showed that the richest people on the planet added $1 trillion to their collective wealth in 2017  more than four times the previous years gains  thanks to a surge in stock prices.

As of Friday, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos topped Bloombergs billionaire ranking with an estimated total net worth of $109bn, followed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and veteran financier Warren Buffett at $94bn and $91.7bn respectively.

The Oxfam research comes on the eve of the start of the World Economic Forum in Davos  an annual gathering of the worlds political and business elite in Switzerland. Wealth inequality regularly features as a prominent agenda item at the forum.
Trade unions representing Bangladeshi textile workers have reached a $2.3m (1.6m) settlement with a multinational fashion brand which was accused of postponing the process of fixing life-threatening hazards in factories.

The unnamed fashion brand will pay $2m to fix safety issues in more than 150 textile factories in Bangladesh and a further $300,000 towards improving pay and conditions for workers in global clothing supply chains.

The UNI Global Union and IndustriALL Global Union took two leading fashion brands to court in 2016 following the introduction of Bangladeshs Accord on Fire and Building Safety in 2013, a legally binding agreement under which the worlds largest fashion brands must shoulder the costs for improving health and safety in Bangladeshi factories.

Recommended How trading and small business has grown inside Rohingya refugee camps

The Accord came into effect after the fatal Rana Plaza factory disaster killed over a thousand people in 2013.

Marks & Spencer, Primark, Adidas, H&M, Top Shop and John Lewis are among 200 signatories of the accord, according to its website.

The two global trade unions already settled a case relating to factory conditions in Bangladesh at The Hagues Permanent Court of Arbitration in December, with another unnamed global brand.

The settlement makes real resources available to over 150 factories so they can finally make the necessary repairs that were needed years ago, said Christy Hoffman, UNI Global Unions deputy general secretary.

We will continue pushing to make sure that all brands contribute their fair share to make work safer in Bangladesh.

IndustriALLs general secretary Valter Sanches said the settlement shows that the Bangladesh Accord is proof that legally-binding mechanisms can hold multinational companies to account.

We are glad that the brand in question is now taking seriously its responsibility for the safety of its supplier factories in Bangladesh, said Mr Sanches.

A second accord with greater investment in health and safety checks will come into effect this year as the original one is due to expire in May.

The collapse of the eight-storey Rana Plaza factory in Bangladeshs capital city Dhaka was caused by four upper floors having been built without permission on unstable ground.

The disaster was one of the worlds worst industrial catastrophes in history leaving over 2,500 people injured and killing 1,135 workers.
The International Monetary Fund has downgraded its outlook for UK growth for 2019, the year of Brexit, while much of the rest of the G7 have been upgraded on the back of a strengthening global economy.

In its latest forecast, the IMF projects growth for Britain of 1.5 per cent next year, down from 1.6 per cent previously.

The UK is set to leave the European Union on 29 March 2019.

In contrast with the UK downgrade, the US outlook for 2019 is upgraded from 1.9 per cent to 2.5 per cent, Germany from 1.5 per cent to 2 per cent and Canada from 1.7 per cent to 2 per cent.

The IMFs UK forecast for 2018 is unchanged at 1.8 per cent.

But forecast growth for the US, Germany, France, Italy and Japan are all pushed upwards this year as global growth is seen hitting 3.9 per cent, the most rapid since the 4.2 per cent expansion in 2011.

The revision reflects increased global growth momentum and the expected impact of the recently approved US tax policy changes, the IMF says in its latest World Economic Outlook update, referencing the corporation tax cuts pushed through the US Congress late last year.

IMF

However, the IMF now expects UK GDP growth in 2017 to have come in at 1.7 per cent, slightly higher than the 1.6 per cent it pencilled in last month when it delivered its annual Article IV health check on the UK economy.

At that time the IMFs director general, Christine Lagarde, said that the UKs economic performance since the Brexit vote in June 2016 had vindicated her organisations pre-referendum warnings.

The Office for National Statistics will reveal its preliminary estimate for growth in the final quarter of 2017, and also the full calendar year, on Friday.

As the year 2018 begins, the world economy is gathering speed, wrote the IMFs chief economist, Maurice Obstfeld, in a blog on Monday.

This is good news. But political leaders and policy makers must stay mindful that the present economic momentum reflects a confluence of factors that is unlikely to last for long, he added, arguing that Donald Trumps tax cuts were likely to only provide a short-term boost to growth.

Without prompt action to address structural growth impediments, enhance the inclusiveness of growth, and build policy buffers and resilience, the next downturn will come sooner and be harder to fight ... Our view is that the current upturn, however welcome, is unlikely to become a new normal and faces medium-term downside hazards that likely will grow over time.
A groundbreaking new partnership has been launched between the Malala Fund and Apple to get at least 100,000 underprivileged girls into education.

In a world exclusive interview with The Independent, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Malala Yousafzai revealed that the tech giant would offer considerable funding and resources to the charity to help its goal of delivering education to girls in countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Turkey and Nigeria.

The wheels were set in motion for the partnership when the pair met in October last year at Oxford University and had a conversation about how technology could help get more disadvantaged girls into education.

"I really wanted us to work together because Apple has expertise: they are expert in tech, they have resources and they have amazing and incredible people," Malala said, while announcing the partnership alongside Cook in Beirut.

"Then the question was how can we use that? The Malala Fund is trying to reach out to girls, how can we bring these two together to reach more girls, as many as we can, to empower them through quality education. And that was my dream.

"So, things started happening and I just cant believe it has been a few months and now we are here in Lebanon and announcing our partnership for the coming years."

In real terms, the partnership will mean expanding the Malala Fund's work and doubling the number of countries with access to Gulmakai champions, who are local advocates and education activists whose job it is to support students.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. 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"Many of the champions who are supporting [the girls] are using technology and finding new ways to make it easier for girls to have access to education, whether its e-learning or getting STEM [science, technology, engineering and maths] skills," Malala added.

"So, I'm just really hopeful that we can reach as many young girls and as many young advocates as possible.

Mr Cook went on to explain that the partnership between Apple and the Nobel Peace Prize winner was in keeping with the vision held by the company's founder Steve Jobs.

"We have expertise in education," he said.

"You know, we've been serving the ed market for 40 years; for the length of time of the company. It was a key focus of Steves from the start and so weve built an expertise of what our products can do in a teaching environment and how they can fuel student achievement.

"Weve done that in many different settings from very underprivileged schools to the polar opposite. And we have touched a significant number of people with our coding initiative, using our retail stores working with many different groups that are touching girls' organisations and students in general, but very focused on girls as well.

"And so we bring all of that. Of course, we have an expertise in scaling and we have lots of people in different countries across the world. So, it seemed like the most important thing to me is always values and the vision. And those are the same and then when I thought through this, it seemed like we could bring a lot in support of Malala's vision."
Four per cent of UK drinkers who have the most harmful alcohol consumption habits account for a third of all the alcohol drunk in the country, public health chiefs have revealed.

The staggering statistic was revealed as part of evidence to MPs on the potential impact of a 50p minimum price per unit of alcohol in the England.

Doctors said the change would benefit the two million people in this group by making very strong alcohol less affordable.

Director of alcohol, drugs and tobacco at Public Health England (PHE), Rosanna OConnor said a minimum price police would exquisitely target the strongest, cheapest alcohol  typically high strength ciders  with negligible impact on moderate drinkers.

A staggeringly small group of people, about four per cent of the population, are drinking just under a third of the alcohol consumed in the country, about two million people.

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I thought wow, when that emerged from our evidence review, 4.4 per cent of people drink 32 per cent of the alcohol. Its a staggering figure.

This small group of people whose daily heavy drinking of these very cheap, strong alcohol  mostly ciders  is doing them so much harm.

MPs on the House of Commons Health and Home Affairs Committee, invited response on the question of Minimum Unit Price (MUP) legislation in England after a landmark ruling in Scotland.

It is set to become the first country in the world with a 50p MUP following the UK Supreme Courts rejection of a legal challenge by drinks manufacturers.

The Supreme Court said the Scottish Governments plan was a legitimate means of targeting problem drinkers and protecting human life and health.

Recommended Scotland to become first country with minimum price for alcohol sales

It also said that an excise duty or tax on alcohol manufacturers would not be as effective in this aim as it would increase the prices of all alcohol, including sales in pubs and clubs, and could be circumvented by bulk-buy deals.

The Committee heard that the impact of a MUP for wine would be felt on bottles that were around 4.60 or cheaper.

Liver specialist Professor Nick Sheron, head of clinical hepatology within medicine at the University of Southampton, said the impact of a 50p MUP would be about 1.26 a week for a wine drinker consuming 14 units a week  the recommended maximum.

But if you look at my patients with alcohol related cirrhosis, their median consumption is 120 units a week, and the mean (average) is higher, its 150, Professor Sheron said.

 Dry January: Kate Garraway suggests Brits have a problem with alcohol after giving up drinking for month

A typical Frosty Jacks drinker would be drinking 16 litres of that and paying 20 pounds for it, that would go up threefold, so instead of 20 theyd be paying 70.

He added that there is currently limited real world evidence of the impact of a 50p MUP, but the initiative will almost certainly have benefits which would become clear as Scotland moves ahead.

I would absolutely agree that, in terms of knowing the precise impact on economics, crime, and deaths, from minimum pricing, we dont know the answer. But is it going to reduce deaths and crime? Yes, its beyond doubt, the question is how well.

As more data comes in from the introduction in Scotland, we will see this fascination natural experiment.

Representatives from the National Police Chiefs Council also made the case for targeting cheap alcohol.

The trend of drinkers pre-loading on cheap alcohol at home before heading out was seen to be a significant contributor to public order offences, as well as putting vulnerable drinkers at risk.

Sergeant Mick Urwin, co-chair of the NPCCs licensing sub-unit said it also put officers at risk.

Forty per cent of officers have said they experienced sexual assault or harassment while dealing with alcohol related issues, certainly in the night-time economy.

Alcohol may be involved in a small proportion of all incidents we deal with, but the amount of time that takes up if youre dealing with someone who is drunk: you cant investigate the offence until eight to 12 hours later, thats staff time and space.

Sgt Urwin said he hoped for a host of alcohol control measures as part of a harm reduction toolbox, but MUP would be a preferred priority.
A jockey who beat testicular cancer and went on to win the Grand National is making an urgent appeal to fans after a major fire in a Liverpool car park destroyed a lifetime of his precious photographs.

Bob Champion's car was one of 1,600 vehicles destroyed in a massive blaze at a multi-storey car park next to the Liverpool Echo Arena on 31 December.

The 69-year-old had scores of photographs from throughout his career stored in his car as he was due to take them to his publisher for his forthcoming autobiography.

Mr Champion's story captivated the nation in the early 80s when he won the Aintree race on Aldaniti, just two years after being diagnosed with cancer.

He went on to launch The Bob Champion Cancer Trust, which has raised millions of pounds and gone on to fund two research laboratories at the Royal Marsden and Norwich Science Park.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 29 July 2021 Team GB's Mallory Franklin during the Womens Canoe Slalom Final on day six of the Tokyo Olympic Games. She went on to win the silver medal Getty UK news in pictures 28 July 2021 Canoers on Llyn Padarn lake in Snowdonia, Gwynedd. It was announced that the north-west Wales slate landscape has been granted UNESCO World Heritage Status PA UK news in pictures 27 July 2021 A view of one of two areas now being used at a warehouse facility in Dover, Kent, for boats used by people thought to be migrants. PA UK news in pictures 26 July 2021 A woman is helped by Border Force officers as a group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard a Border Force vessel, following a small boat incident in the Channel PA UK news in pictures 25 July 2021 Vehicles drive through deep water on a flooded road in Nine Elms, London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 24 July 2021 Utilities workers inspect a 15x20ft sinkhole on Green Lane, Liverpool, which is suspected to have been caused by ruptured water main PA UK news in pictures 23 July 2021 Children interact with Mega Please Draw Freely by artist Ei Arakawa inside the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London, part of UNIQLO Tate Play the gallery's new free programme of art-inspired activities for families PA UK news in pictures 22 July 2021 Festivalgoers in the campsite at the Latitude festival in Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk PA UK news in pictures 21 July 2021 A man walks past an artwork by Will Blood on the end of a property in Bedminster, Bristol, as the 75 murals project reaches the halfway point and various graffiti pieces are sprayed onto walls and buildings across the city over the Summer PA UK news in pictures 20 July 2021 People during morning prayer during Eid ul-Adha, or Festival of Sacrifice, in Southall Park, Uxbridge, London PA UK news in pictures 19 July 2021 Commuters, some not wearing facemasks, at Westminster Underground station, at 08:38 in London after the final legal Coronavirus restrictions were lifted in England PA UK news in pictures 18 July 2021 A view of spectators by the 2nd green during day four of The Open at The Royal St George's Golf Club in Sandwich, Kent PA UK news in pictures 17 July 2021 Cyclists ride over the Hammersmith Bridge in London. The bridge was closed last year after cracks in it worsened during a heatwave Getty UK news in pictures 16 July 2021 The sun rises behind the Sefton Park Palm House, in Sefton Park, Liverpool PA UK news in pictures 15 July 2021 Sir Nicholas Serota watches a short film about sea monsters as he opens a 7.6 million, 360 immersive dome at Devonport's Market Hall in Plymouth, which is the first of its type to be built in Europe PA UK news in pictures 14 July 2021 Heidi Street, playing a gothic character, looks at a brain suspended in glass at the worlds first attraction dedicated to the author of Frankenstein inside the Mary Shelleys House of Frankenstein experience, located in a Georgian terraced house in Bath, as it prepares to open to the public on 19 July PA UK news in pictures 13 July 2021 Rehearsals are held in a car park in Glasgow for a parade scene ahead of filming for what is thought to be the new Indiana Jones 5 movie starring Harrison Ford PA

The veteran jockey is now making an urgent appeal to fans to track down and replace some of the treasured photographs, including pictures with the late actor John Hurt, who played him in the film Champions, which was based on his life.

"I was at the Liverpool Show for the Shetland ponies Grand National for the Bob Champion Cancer Trust and I was going back to the publishers the next morning," he told the Racing Post.

"So all the the photos were in there  press cuttings and things I'd saved for years  they went up in smoke. It's devastating."

Anyone who can help Mr Champion replace his lost photos is asked to email bob@bobchampion.co.uk.

His autobiography is due for release on 13 April.
A Canadian man is believed to have become the seventh student at Bristol University to take their own life in just 18-months.

Justin Cheng, who was in the third year of his law degree, was found dead on 12 January, the university confirmed.

The police have told us they believe he took his own life, said Mark Ames, director of student services, in a statement.

Recommended Students wait up to four months for UK university mental health access

There were no suspicious circumstances and the coroner will hold an inquest in due course. Our thoughts and sympathies are with his family and friends.

Cheng is believed to be the seventh Bristol University student to have taken his own life since October 2016.

Inquests into the deaths have revealed no link between them.

Four months ago, the university announced a 1 million investment in its student support services.

We are seeing an increasing number of students who struggle with the transition to university life, and an increase in the number of students who have additional support needs, including mental health issues," Mr Ames said in September.

We are hoping to get on to the front foot and be much more proactive in our work with students.

A new Student Wellbeing Service  due to launch at the end of February  will be run by wellbeing advisers whose role will be to identify students who are struggling at an early stage and enable them to access support.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 29 July 2021 Team GB's Mallory Franklin during the Womens Canoe Slalom Final on day six of the Tokyo Olympic Games. She went on to win the silver medal Getty UK news in pictures 28 July 2021 Canoers on Llyn Padarn lake in Snowdonia, Gwynedd. It was announced that the north-west Wales slate landscape has been granted UNESCO World Heritage Status PA UK news in pictures 27 July 2021 A view of one of two areas now being used at a warehouse facility in Dover, Kent, for boats used by people thought to be migrants. PA UK news in pictures 26 July 2021 A woman is helped by Border Force officers as a group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard a Border Force vessel, following a small boat incident in the Channel PA UK news in pictures 25 July 2021 Vehicles drive through deep water on a flooded road in Nine Elms, London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 24 July 2021 Utilities workers inspect a 15x20ft sinkhole on Green Lane, Liverpool, which is suspected to have been caused by ruptured water main PA UK news in pictures 23 July 2021 Children interact with Mega Please Draw Freely by artist Ei Arakawa inside the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London, part of UNIQLO Tate Play the gallery's new free programme of art-inspired activities for families PA UK news in pictures 22 July 2021 Festivalgoers in the campsite at the Latitude festival in Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk PA UK news in pictures 21 July 2021 A man walks past an artwork by Will Blood on the end of a property in Bedminster, Bristol, as the 75 murals project reaches the halfway point and various graffiti pieces are sprayed onto walls and buildings across the city over the Summer PA UK news in pictures 20 July 2021 People during morning prayer during Eid ul-Adha, or Festival of Sacrifice, in Southall Park, Uxbridge, London PA UK news in pictures 19 July 2021 Commuters, some not wearing facemasks, at Westminster Underground station, at 08:38 in London after the final legal Coronavirus restrictions were lifted in England PA UK news in pictures 18 July 2021 A view of spectators by the 2nd green during day four of The Open at The Royal St George's Golf Club in Sandwich, Kent PA UK news in pictures 17 July 2021 Cyclists ride over the Hammersmith Bridge in London. The bridge was closed last year after cracks in it worsened during a heatwave Getty UK news in pictures 16 July 2021 The sun rises behind the Sefton Park Palm House, in Sefton Park, Liverpool PA UK news in pictures 15 July 2021 Sir Nicholas Serota watches a short film about sea monsters as he opens a 7.6 million, 360 immersive dome at Devonport's Market Hall in Plymouth, which is the first of its type to be built in Europe PA UK news in pictures 14 July 2021 Heidi Street, playing a gothic character, looks at a brain suspended in glass at the worlds first attraction dedicated to the author of Frankenstein inside the Mary Shelleys House of Frankenstein experience, located in a Georgian terraced house in Bath, as it prepares to open to the public on 19 July PA UK news in pictures 13 July 2021 Rehearsals are held in a car park in Glasgow for a parade scene ahead of filming for what is thought to be the new Indiana Jones 5 movie starring Harrison Ford PA

The investment followed a review of the university's support services begun in summer 2016 and carried out amid growing national concern regarding the wellbeing of students.

The number of university students with mental health problems is now at its highest level and is five times higher than a decade ago, according to a study by the The Institute for Public Policy Research think tank last year.

The same study found that university services are overwhelmed by the increase.

More recently, an investigation by The Independent found that students often have to wait more than four months for counselling and mental health support.

James Harris, associate director of communications at mental health charity Rethink Mental Illness, said: "We know that many people struggle with their mental health at university. It can be a stressful and disorientating time in a new environment away from usual support networks."

He added: "More needs to be done to make sure no students are falling through the cracks. We urge universities to ensure that they are providing accessible and good quality support so that young people are able to get the help they need before they reach crisis point."

The Samaritans offers support 24/7. Call them on 116 123 or visit their website.

South West News Service
Nguyen Dac Tai, Vice Chairman of the Khanh Hoa provincial Peoples Committee, receives the delegation from the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Belarus (Photo: cand.com.vn)

The goods, worth over USD163,787 including a power generator, 20 clothing tents, 1,000 blankets, 452 folding beds, 25,020 boxes of beef, 4,320 packets of buckwheat seeds, 3,780 packages of wheat seeds, and 2,010 child milk tins, was received by the Central Steering Committee on Natural Disaster Prevention and the Vietnam Disaster Management Authority under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, before being distributed to storm Damrey-affected people in Khanh Hoa, Phu Yen and Quang Nam provinces.

On behalf of the people, Nguyen Dac Tai, Vice Chairman of the Khanh Hoa provincial Peoples Committee, expressed his deep thanks for the special affection of the Belarusian Government and people./.
Britain risks being vulnerable to enemy action, including cyber attacks, unless adequate resources are urgently devoted to the nations defence, the head of the British Army will warn today in a keynote speech.

Pointing to conventional threats, General Sir Nick Carter will stress that Vladimir Putins Russia has built an aggressive military force which this country would struggle to match. He will describe how the Kremlin has been ready to use its advanced capabilities in conflicts in Syria and Ukraine.

At the same time, the Chief of General Staff will speak of clandestine cyber offensives from abroad which can affect not only public institutions, but the lives of ordinary people in this country.

General Carters address, at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) comes at a time when the Government has come under severe criticism from politicians and former senior military officers for cutting back on defence spending. At the same time Russia has been blamed for cyber warfare on the West with claims of the US and European elections, as well as the Brexit referendum being targeted.

The Kremlin has showed its military prowess in the battlefield with missile strikes 1500km away in Syria. At the same time, Gen Carter maintains it has kept up constant sabre-rattling in Europe with simulated attacks.

Our ability to pre-empt or respond to threats will be eroded if we dont keep up with our adversaries. State-based competition is now being employed in more novel and increasingly integrated ways and we must be ready to deal with them, Gen Carter will say.

General Sir Nick Carter says the UK is unprepared for modern warfare such as cyber attacks (PA)

The threats we face are not thousands of miles away but are now on Europes doorstep  we have seen how cyber warfare can be both waged on the battlefield and to disrupt normal peoples lives. We in the UK are not immune from that.

We must take notice of what is going on around us or our ability to take action will be massively constrained. Speed of decision-making, speed of deployment and modern capability are essential if we wish to provide a realistic deterrence. The time to address these threats is now  we cannot afford to sit back.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 29 July 2021 Team GB's Mallory Franklin during the Womens Canoe Slalom Final on day six of the Tokyo Olympic Games. She went on to win the silver medal Getty UK news in pictures 28 July 2021 Canoers on Llyn Padarn lake in Snowdonia, Gwynedd. It was announced that the north-west Wales slate landscape has been granted UNESCO World Heritage Status PA UK news in pictures 27 July 2021 A view of one of two areas now being used at a warehouse facility in Dover, Kent, for boats used by people thought to be migrants. PA UK news in pictures 26 July 2021 A woman is helped by Border Force officers as a group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard a Border Force vessel, following a small boat incident in the Channel PA UK news in pictures 25 July 2021 Vehicles drive through deep water on a flooded road in Nine Elms, London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 24 July 2021 Utilities workers inspect a 15x20ft sinkhole on Green Lane, Liverpool, which is suspected to have been caused by ruptured water main PA UK news in pictures 23 July 2021 Children interact with Mega Please Draw Freely by artist Ei Arakawa inside the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London, part of UNIQLO Tate Play the gallery's new free programme of art-inspired activities for families PA UK news in pictures 22 July 2021 Festivalgoers in the campsite at the Latitude festival in Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk PA UK news in pictures 21 July 2021 A man walks past an artwork by Will Blood on the end of a property in Bedminster, Bristol, as the 75 murals project reaches the halfway point and various graffiti pieces are sprayed onto walls and buildings across the city over the Summer PA UK news in pictures 20 July 2021 People during morning prayer during Eid ul-Adha, or Festival of Sacrifice, in Southall Park, Uxbridge, London PA UK news in pictures 19 July 2021 Commuters, some not wearing facemasks, at Westminster Underground station, at 08:38 in London after the final legal Coronavirus restrictions were lifted in England PA UK news in pictures 18 July 2021 A view of spectators by the 2nd green during day four of The Open at The Royal St George's Golf Club in Sandwich, Kent PA UK news in pictures 17 July 2021 Cyclists ride over the Hammersmith Bridge in London. The bridge was closed last year after cracks in it worsened during a heatwave Getty

Britain and the West also need to be aware that conventional threats are still very present. The traditional threat still remains and last year we saw Russia undertake simulated attacks across Northern Europe (from Kaliningrad to Lithuania), we must also look closely at how countries are now being more creative in how they exploit the seams between peace and war.

Last month the head of the Armed Forces, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach warned that Russia poses a threat to Britain's internet access and trade because undersea communication cables are vulnerable to the countrys navy. Russias modernised navy has the ability to disrupt the transcontinental cables and that the UK had to bolster its naval forces to counter the threat.

Defence analysts have pointed out that the UK currently has had no submarine-hunting maritime patrol aircraft since 2010 while ships and submarines which could also protect the cables have fallen too.

The Chief of the Defence Staff gave the speech only days after a think tank said an attack on the cables would deal a crippling blow to security and commerce and the threat is nothing short of existential.
Burns Night brings to mind forkfuls of peppery haggis and wee drams of whisky but the history of the festivities is often taken for granted.

The Burns Supper is a celebration of the life and legacy of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. While it was first organised by his close friends and family as a memorial dinner, the night has since morphed into an event for Scots at home and around the world.

It is celebrated with traditional Scottish fare, folk music and renditions of Burnss poetry  but this year many of the festivities will be virtual.

Who was Robert Burns?

Rabbie Burns penned more than 550 poems and songs before his death in 1796.

A massive source of inspiration to the founders of Liberalism and Socialism, the 18th-century writer is known for his astute social commentary and focus on all things political. Scotlands national poet is considered a revolutionary figure, both in his homeland and beyond.

Dubbed the greatest Scot of all time by STV in 2009, the writer from Ayrshire died of rheumatic fever at the age of just 37.

His funeral was held on the same day his son Maxwell was born. Burnss body was later transferred from a churchyard grave to a mausoleum in Dumfries, where his wife Jean Armour was also laid to rest after her death in 1834.

When is Burns Night?

Burns Night falls on 25 January every year.

The date was chosen to coincide with the poet's birthday, who was born on 25 January 1759.

The first Burns supper hosted by the Burns Club was held on 29 January 1802, on what was thought to be Burns' birthday.

However, the following year the discovery of parish records revealed that the late poet's birthday was actually four days prior.

How is it celebrated?

The main attraction of Burns Night is the Burns Supper. This traditionally involves participants donning tartan, listening to bagpipes, crooning Auld Lang Syne  also sung at New Years Eve  and reciting the great writers songs and poems.

Read more: How to make vegan haggis

The song Auld Lang Syne was derived from a poem penned by Burns in 1788, which he originally sent to the Scots Musical Museum.

Burns Night celebrations commonly incorporate the Saltire, the national flag of Scotland.

While the first Burns Supper was first held way back in 1801 and new rituals have since been appended, the crux of the celebration remains unchanged and revolves around paying tribute to Burns in whatever way feels most fitting.

Whats in the traditional dinner?

The jewel in the crown of any Burns Supper is always haggis, a savoury pudding containing minced sheeps heart, liver and lungs bound with onion, oatmeal, suet, stock and a selection of spices. It is traditionally bound in the animals stomach.

Burns describes haggis as the great chieftain o the puddin-race and a traditional Burns Night kicks off with a host reading his Address to a Haggis.

Read more: How to make classic haggis, neeps and tatties

Haggis is served with the classic side of mashed neeps and tatties (swedes and potatoes). The food is, of course, accompanied by the finest domestic whisky.

Vegetarians and pescetarians  or those who want to try something a little different  can choose haggis made without meat. Also popular is seafood dishes like Cullen Skink soup, made from smoked haddock.
Enemy states using hybrid weapons ranging from assassinations and cyber attacks to the use of fake news and corruption now pose a greater threat to the UK and the West than terrorism, the head of the British Army has warned.

Vladimir Putins Russia is the arch exponent of this form of clandestine combat and represents the most complex and capable state-based threat to our country since the end of the Cold War, said General Sir Nick Carter, adding that this was also the view of fellow commanders in the US, France and Germany.

The Chief of General Staff said he was not suggesting that hostilities were about to break out with Moscow. But he went on to say: Our generation has become used to wars of choice since the end of the Cold War. But we may not have a choice about conflict with Russia  and we should remember Trotskys advice that you may not be interested in war but war is interested in you.

The strategies used by the Kremlin have dramatically progressed since the days of the Cold War, with interference in Western elections, the Brexit referendum and the destabilisation of the Wests allies.

Since 2016 we have seen a marked shift to cyber, subversion and coercion, as well as sophisticated use of smear campaigns and fake news  for example, interference in the US democratic process and the attempted coup in Montenegro, said Gen Carter.

Gen Carters address at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) comes at a time when the Government is facing prolonged and severe criticism over defence cuts. It was sanctioned by the recently appointed Defence Secretary, Gavin Williamson, who has declared a mission of securing funding for the armed forces from the Chancellor, Philip Hammond.

Mr Williamson is also said to be keen to make his mark in the Conservative Party amid the swirling uncertainty about the future of Theresa May. But senior defence sources wanted to stress that the concerns expressed went far beyond the ambitions of a minister.

There is worry that the focus on the Islamic threat has meant that other challenges are not being adequately confronted.

Gen Carter reported significant progress has been made against Daesh [Isis] in Iraq and Syria, and the prospects of a Caliphate on the ground have been defeated. The threat from international terrorism, though, has diversified and is more dispersed, and we see the phenomenon that Daesh represents emerging in other parts of the world. And of course weve learned that anyone can become a terrorist these days  simply by renting a vehicle or wielding a machete.

But he pointed out: We would not define terrorism as an existential threat to our country  it is clearly a very significant threat but ... it is the rising threat from states and the consequences that stem from this for the military that I think is of more immediate concern.

We now live in a much more competitive, multi-polar world, and the complex nature of the global system has created the conditions in which states are able to compete in new ways short of what we would have defined as war in the past.

Worryingly, though, all of these states have become masters at exploiting the seams between peace and war. What constitutes a weapon in this grey area no longer has to go bang. Energy, cash [as bribes], corrupt business practices, cyber attacks, assassination, fake news, propaganda and military intimidation are all examples of the weapons used to gain advantage in this era of constant competition.

The rules-based international architecture that has assured our stability and prosperity since 1945 is therefore threatened. This is not a crisis, or series of crises, which we face. It is a strategic challenge. And it requires a strategic response.

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. 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Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. 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A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. 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The Russians, said Gen Carter, have adapted to this new scenario extremely well.

They have no single model for conflict with Nato, they use a multi-model approach, utilising conventional, unconventional and nuclear domains, a hybrid version that might involve little green men, big green tanks and huge green missiles.

Their thinking is very flexible, he said. Their general staff is able to change, evolve, learn lessons with agility  for example, they know that demography is not on their side  so they are developing capability that needs fewer men eg missiles, drones, two-man tanks.

He added: They have developed coherent concepts for equipment and training that are focused on our vulnerabilities  eg our dependency on communications and IT; our lack of massed fires; our lack of investment in AD. They apply a ruthless focus on defeating their opponents  not seizing ground for the sake of it, but making sure that our vital ground is denied to us.

To counter the threat, said Gen Carter, sanctions must be imposed, including on foreign wealth and on those carrying out destabilisation abroad. There should be realisation that the Kremlin respects those who stand up to it, and thus neighbouring states should be helped to withstand hybrid warfare while, at the same time, the UK must strengthen its own cyber defences.
A new report has found peoples trust in social media has declined as concerns that platforms are not sufficiently regulated have grown.

The 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer, the largest and longest-running study of trust in the world, found just under a quarter of the British population trusts social media.

The research found declining levels of faith in social media giants was triggered by Britons feeling firms were not doing enough to properly tackle imperative issues.

According to the study, around 70 per cent of Britons believe social media companies do not do enough to stop illegal or unethical behaviours from taking place on their platforms.

Whats more, another 70 per cent think firms do not do enough to stop extremist content from being shared. On top of this, 69 per cent think they do not make enough effort to tackle online bullying.

This might be linked to the slew of controversies that social media companies have found themselves ensnared in during the last year. Tech titans have found themselves accused of disseminating fake news, helping the work of extremists and overlooking child safety risks.

The research also examined how people thought social media had changed society at large. Despite the fact our networks of connections have arguably become wider with the advent of social media, it could be argued they have simultaneously grown shallower.

While over a third of Britons were found to deem social media as not being good for society, a whopping 57 per cent believe the platforms go so far as to monopolise and reap benefits from individuals loneliness.

Some 64 per cent of Britons believe social media companies are not sufficiently regulated, while 63 per cent believe they lack transparency and 62 per cent think they are flogging peoples data without their knowledge.

Ed Williams, CEO of Edelman UK, told The Independent: This is a classic boiling frog situation for social media companies. For at least a year, theres been growing public concern about their role in facilitating the spread of extremism, the pace in which theyve removed illegal content, the lack of action on cyber bullying and of course the rocket fuel theyve provided fake news.

These are issues that are now coming home to roost, and to get ahead of this might require a significant overcorrection, rather than incremental responses.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. 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The bridge was closed last year after cracks in it worsened during a heatwave Getty

The report found that as levels of trust in social media have plummeted, public support for and faith in both established news and online-only media has grown.

So-called traditional media, which is defined as broadcasters and publishers, gained a 13-point increase in this years report, reaching 61 per cent. This level has not been reached since 2012.

Online-only media  which includes The Independent  was the only other media source which saw a year-on-year boost. Online-only media gained a five-point increase to 45 per cent.

Despite this, it is worth noting increasing numbers of people are eschewing the headlines and trust in the media is at just 32 per cent. Moreover, a third of the entirety of the population confessed to consuming less news than they used to and one in five went so far as to admit they were avoiding the news altogether.

Arguably surprisingly, some of the most educated and best-paid Britons are the ones who are avoiding the news.

Mr Williams said: We are clearly seeing significant changes in peoples news-consumption habits. The breadth of information available on the internet is not resulting in the same depth we once saw.

As we look at some of the big problems we face in the 21st century, it should be of significant concern to us all that we are becoming a nation of news-skimmers and news-avoiders. Its frightening that the professional classes, the people we rely on to take an interest in social affairs and to hold politicians to account, are the most pronounced news avoiders.
Police shot dead an elderly, abandoned dog which was found tied to a telegraph pole in the cold.

Cleveland Police launched an appeal to find the owner of the German Shepherd, which officers described as "increasingly aggressive as time went on", after it was discovered in Hartlepool over the weekend.

"All attempts to calm the dog failed," a spokesperson for the force said. "Vets advised that they were unable to sedate the dog due to not being able to approach it and not having equipment to sedate from a distance.

"Unfortunately, veterinary professionals advised that the dog could not be re-homed due to its aggressive behaviour."

They said that the decision to shoot the creature had been taken "in conjunction with the RSPCA and veterinary professionals."

They added that "the kindest thing to do for the dog would be to destroy it."

It had "been a difficult decision and one that we had hoped we wouldn't have to make."

The decision to kill the dog has nonetheless sparked outrage online, with many disappointed with both the RSPCA and the vets for their part in sealing the dog's fate.

Commenting on Cleveland Police's Facebook page, one user Jill Clyburn said: "Vets and RSPCA should hang their heads in shame. They could have sedated the poor dog.

"The poor thing was surrounding by strangers so no doubt terrified."

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. 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PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 29 July 2021 Team GB's Mallory Franklin during the Womens Canoe Slalom Final on day six of the Tokyo Olympic Games. She went on to win the silver medal Getty UK news in pictures 28 July 2021 Canoers on Llyn Padarn lake in Snowdonia, Gwynedd. It was announced that the north-west Wales slate landscape has been granted UNESCO World Heritage Status PA UK news in pictures 27 July 2021 A view of one of two areas now being used at a warehouse facility in Dover, Kent, for boats used by people thought to be migrants. 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Another, Alison Lawton, wrote: "A dart gun to tranquillize the poor, frightened dog would have been more appropriate. Blood on your hands and shame on you!"

More than 5,000 people have since signed a petition seeking justice for the deceased dog.

A spokesman for the RSPCA told The Independent: This was a difficult and distressing police-led incident with an outcome which no one wanted. We attended to help the police and dog warden and sought independent vet advice to try and find a non-lethal solution.

The dog had been seen by someone from another charity and there was concern that if the dog escaped she could have hurt someone. The police informed us that using a tranquiliser dart on the dog was not an option.

The RSPCA believes that abandoning any dog is totally unacceptable and in this case had tragic consequences."
Britains strategy to tackle people smugglers sending migrants across the Mediterranean is doomed to fail, a new Cambridge University study has suggested.

Wiretapped telephone conversations between gangs show there are no kingpins who can be removed and that arrests only cause other groups to take control of the lucrative human market.

The study, entitled Out of Africa: The organisation of migrant smuggling across the Mediterranean, concluded that UK-supported sea operations to push refugee boats back to Libya will be ineffective.

The author, Dr Paolo Campana, said the crisis cannot be stopped without addressing the demand driven by conflict, instability and poverty in African countries.

Criminal justice responses require the adoption of coordinated tactics involving all countries along the route to target these localised clusters of offenders simultaneously, he warned.

This is a market driven by exponential demand, and it is that demand which should be targeted.

Land-based policies such as refugee resettlement schemes are politically difficult, but might ultimately prove more fruitful in stemming the smuggling tide than naval operations.

 Eight migrants die as 86 rescued from sinking boat off Libya

British forces have been training coastguard forces affiliated to the fragile Government of National Accord (GNA) to intercept dinghies launched from Libya, despite warnings that the operations violate international law by forcing refugees back to a country where they face torture and abuse.

The Independent revealed that some officials are taking bribes to free migrants from detention centres attempt the crossing again, with rape, forced labour and murder reported inside squalid prisons.

The UK and other European nations have been heavily criticised for failing to resettle refugees from Libya, despite their part in its continuing conflict, and instead bolstering sea operations aiming to stop the boats.

Dr Campana called for sea operations to be replaced with a wider set of policies to reduce the demand for smuggling services.

The adoption of schemes that resettle refugees directly from conflict zones would be a step in this direction, he added.

In July, the European Council extended its anti-smuggling naval operation until next December, with a mandate to disrupt migrant smugglers and human traffickers and training Libyan coastguard and navy forces.

Britain is among nations sending surveillance ships to the countrys coast to monitor criminal gangs deemed responsible for the refugee crisis, while Italian police have been arresting alleged traffickers rescued at sea.

But Dr Campana found that arresting any individual smuggler will only result in rivals immediately seizing their market share.

In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea Show all 7 1 /7 In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea A baby being taken on to MSF's Bourbon Argos ship from a boat carrying 130 migrants and refugees Lizzie Dearden In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea A refugee boat carrying 101 people being rescued by MSF's Bourbon Argos Lizzie Dearden In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea A refugee boat carrying 101 people being rescued by MSF's Bourbon Argos all images by Lizzie Dearden In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea A baby among refugees on a boat carrying 185 people off the coast of Libya Lizzie Dearden In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea Migrants and refugees sleeping after being rescued by MSF's Bourbon Argos ship Lizzie Dearden In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea A crew from MSF's Bourbon Argos ship rescuing a boat carrying 130 migrants and refugees off the coast of Libya, at sunrise Lizzie Dearden In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea A woman in a stretcher being lifted onto MSF's Bourbon Argos ship from a boat carrying 130 migrants and refugees off the coast of Libya Lizzie Dearden

The smuggling ring moving migrants from the Horn of Africa to Northern Europe via Libya does not appear to have the thread of any single organisation running through it, he said.

This is a far cry from how mafia-like organisations operate, and a major departure from media reports claiming that shadowy kingpins monopolise certain routes.

Widespread conflict and lawlessness since the UK-backed ousting of dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and the ensuing civil war have led to a thriving human trade culminating in open-air slave markets.

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Libyan gangs have linked up with groups in Niger, Chad and Sudan to the south to create trafficking networks stretching across Africa.

Dr Campanas study found that on the other side of the Mediterranean, they also extended to the UK, Germany, Scandinavia and countries including Israel, Canada and Turkey.

People specialise, he explained. There was a clear separation between those providing smuggling services, those kidnapping for ransom, and those, like the militias, governing spaces and supplying protection.

Dr Campana, of Cambridge University's Institute of Criminology, conducted the research using evidence from an 18-month investigation by Italian prosecutors following a shipwreck that killed 366 people off the coast of Lampedusa in 2013.

It included data from wiretapped telephone conversations between smugglers at all stages, migrants testimonies and interviews with police.

In May Libyan coastguard were accused of opening fire on a boat of refugees (Jugend Rettet)

The research, published in the European Journal of Criminology, found that each stage of transnational migration routes via Libya had independent and autonomous smugglers, militias and kidnappers competing over vulnerable migrants.

Of the 292-strong network linked to the Lampedusa disaster  the majority were active in and around Tripoli, followed by the Libyan desert, Sicily, Italy, the Horn of Africa and Nordic countries.

Dr Campana said there was a loose hierarchy between organisers who give orders to aides who make up the bulk of smuggling groups.

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Wiretaps and testimonies suggest that migrants have to pay separate vendors for each leg of the journey, frequently using the informal money transfer system of Hawala.

One couple were charged $3,600 (2,600) for a couple to cross the Mediterranean, while another recorded smuggler demanded 150 (130) per person for a car trip from Sicily to Rome.

Migrants interviewed by The Independent have described being conned by armed gangs, paying one smuggler for the whole journey to European shores only to find themselves charged again by a different group along the route.

Those unable to pay are frequently imprisoned and ordered to contact loved ones for more money, sometimes while being tortured or sexually abused, or forced into unpaid labour or prostitution to cover the supposed debt.

Sub-Saharan migrants sit at the Qanfouda detention centre, in the southern outskitrs of Benghazi (Getty)

Many of those reaching Italy did not intend to come to Europe but hoped to live and work in Libya, only to find themselves kidnapped and forced on dinghies across the Mediterranean.

According to the UN estimates, there are between 700,000 and 1 million migrants in Libya; more than 2,300 have crossed from the country to Italy so far this year.

The UN announced plans to fly 15,000 migrants to their home countries  mostly in sub-Saharan Africa  from detention centres in Libya last month as part of a voluntary programme.

But flights were suspended after deadly clashes between the GNAs Special Deterrence Force and an armed group closed the only functioning airport in Tripoli and damaged passenger jets earlier this month.

The treacherous passage across the Central Mediterranean has become the deadliest sea crossing in the world since the start of the refugee crisis, claiming almost 200 lives so far this year after around 3,000 men, women and children died in 2017.

While the number of migrants arriving in Europe from Libya and Greece has dropped, the Frontex border agency said an increasing number of people  22,900 in 2017  were reaching Spain via Morocco or Algeria.
The UK has already agreed in principle to a Norway-style Brexit transition period in which it accepts all EU rules with no power to shape them, a senior figure in Brussels has told The Independent.

A key member of the European Parliaments Brexit team said British negotiators raised no objections to the plans, which would mean accepting free movement and customs union rules, and falling under the European Courts jurisdiction.

The suggestion that Theresa Mays team has all but swallowed the transition proposal from Brussels will anger Conservative MPs, who believe it leaves Britain a vassal state for some two years after Brexit.

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Data from a survey of Tory MPs on Monday suggested three-quarters oppose a transition in which free movement for EU citizens continues.

A government source told The Independent that while Ms May has set out a desire to achieve a transition or implementation period on current terms, exactly how it will work has not been decided.

Belgian MEP Philippe Lamberts said that the UK is going along with proposals that mean after Brexit in March 2019, Britain will continue as a member of the EU in all but name until at least December 2020.

Brexit: the deciders Show all 8 1 /8 Brexit: the deciders Brexit: the deciders European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty Brexit: the deciders French President Emmanuel Macron Getty Brexit: the deciders German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters Brexit: the deciders Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA Brexit: the deciders The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty Brexit: the deciders Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images Brexit: the deciders Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA Brexit: the deciders After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA

During that period, the UK would have full access to the single market, adhere to free movement rules and those of the customs union and follow edicts from the European Court of Justice.

The UK would also continue to pay into the EU budget, but will not have any voting rights or a seat at the European Council  a situation akin to Norways current relationship with the EU.

Mr Lamberts, who sits on the cross-party Brexit steering group, said discussions about the transition deal had taken place and at no point in meetings he was in had British Government officials disputed proposals for the Norway-style transition.

During the transition period, the UK will be a member in all but name, but it will no longer sit at the two tables where decisions are made; parliament and council, Mr Lamberts told The Independent.

It has to be a Norwegian-style deal, it cannot be anything else and this has been agreed in principle.

He added: I heard no one disputing this from the UKs side.

 EU trade deal after Brexit like trying to blow up a bridge without bankrupting yourself, warns negotiator Cristophe Bondy

The six MEPs on the Brexit steering group coordinate and prepare the European Parliaments strategy on the UKs withdrawal, has regular meetings with chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier and has attended some meetings involving British officials.

Elmar Brok, who also sits on the group, echoed Mr Lamberts comments and described the transition period as being a Norwegian agreement for a limited time.

It has to be a Norwegian style deal, it cannot be anything else and this has been agreed in principle Belgian MEP Philippe Lamberts

Adding that the European Parliament would release a statement on it in March, he said: We are on the way to making the official proposal, it will outline that it should be like a Norway deal.

This is the position of all three institutions.

Gabriele Zimmer, a German MEP on the group, also said that during the transition period the UK was expected to fulfil all its obligations but would have no say in decision-making.

 EU preparations for a no deal Brexit are damaging UK interests, according to David Davis

She added that if the UK crashes out of Europe without a deal, there would be no transition period at all.

There is no guarantee there will be a transition period. I have the feeling that the British Government thinks it has more time to negotiate, but the transition is not guaranteed, Ms Zimmer told The Independent.

If we have no deal, there will be no transition period.

The length of the transition is still yet to be confirmed but, as the EU budgetary year is from January to December, unless Britain is willing to commit to payments for an entire year it is most likely it will come to an end in December of 2020.

Elmar Brok sits on the European Parliaments steering group (Getty)

Danuta Hubner, a Polish MEP on the steering group, confirmed the length of the transition is dependent on Britains financial contributions.

If Britain does not want to pay, then on 1 January 2021, they should be gone from the EU in the sense of benefiting from what transition gives, she told The Independent.

In her keynote speech in Florence, Ms May said that during the implementation period access to one anothers markets should continue on current terms and Britain also should continue to take part in existing security measures.

A government source said details of how the transition will operate including in relation to critical areas such as the customs union and immigration are still subject to negotiations.

A Brexit department spokesperson also echoed Ms Mays remarks in response to the MEPs comments, saying: The UK is looking to agree, by March, a time-limited implementation period on current terms, meaning there will be just one set of changes for businesses to manage.

 Brexit: Philip Hammond signals 'status quo' will remain two years after withdrawal

But we will no longer be an EU member state, the EU treaties will no longer apply and we will have left the single market and the customs union.

Yet despite the stated position, Chancellor Philip Hammond was attacked by Tory Brexiteers when he said in a speech last year that the UK was minded to go along with EU plans that would effectively replicate the current status quo.

At the time, Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg suggested the plans would end up with the UK effectively becoming a vassal state of the EU.

Former cabinet minister John Redwood MP told The Independent on Monday: You cant possibly agree anything until you know the whole thing  what you are transitioning to.

 David Davis: UK can have 'Canada plus plus plus' trade deal with the EU after Brexit

Theres no reason you should accept giving them all the money, accepting rules and courts unless theres something at the end that Britain wants.

Ipsos Mori interviewed 105 MPs in private, face to face, with the findings weighted to reflect the composition of the House of Commons.

No fewer than 74 per cent of Conservative MPs say they want an end to freedom of movement in March 2019, while 63 per cent oppose a continued remit for the European Court.
The German government has warned Britain that there are still leftovers from the previous phase of Brexit negotiations that must be dealt with if Theresa May wants a final deal.

Though EU and British negotiators inked a joint text in December on Northern Ireland, the divorce bill, and citizens rights, the agreement merely embodied sufficient progress to move to the next phase of talks and left a variety of loose ends.

Peter Ptassek, Germanys top diplomat in charge of Brexit said in a statement posted on social media that he had a friendly reminder for the UK negotiating team.

Sufficient progress in withdrawal questions meant: we are not there yet. More work to be done, he said.

Many Brexit leftovers will surface when EU-Commission starts drafting withdrawal agreement, e.g. text on Ireland! Point here is: Legal text has to be clear.

The statement was re-posted by Sabine Weyand, the European Commissions deputy chief negotiator and the second in command after Michel Barnier  suggesting Brussels is on the same page as Berlin.

The UK side is now keen to move on to talks about the transition period, which will be starting within weeks, and the future trade framework, which the EU says can begin in March. The deadline for a full withdrawal agreement is October, Brussels says, to give EU institutions time to scrutinise and ratify the plan.

The intervention is a reminder that UK negotiators could be left fighting a rear-guard action on issues already deemed to be put to bed, while they also attempt to negotiate trade and transition.

Potential loose ends include the exact right EU and British citizens currently living abroad will have after Brexit  as well as exactly how the problem of the Northern Irish border will be resolved.

The initial draft mostly consisted of a guarantee from the UK to avoid a hard border with the Irish Republic rather than an actual negotiated solution for the province  though Britain did suggest it would keep rules aligned across the UK with the EUs single market in the event of no other solution being found.

The EUs negotiating team has however told member states it consisted this backstop to be incompatible with the UKs stated policy of leaving the customs union and single market.

Brexit: the deciders Show all 8 1 /8 Brexit: the deciders Brexit: the deciders European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty Brexit: the deciders French President Emmanuel Macron Getty Brexit: the deciders German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters Brexit: the deciders Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA Brexit: the deciders The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty Brexit: the deciders Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images Brexit: the deciders Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA Brexit: the deciders After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA

Additional scrutiny was put on the withdrawal agreement in December after David Davis provoked an outcry across the channel by suggesting the deal was a mere statement of intent rather than a legally binding document. This led the EU negotiators to demand it be converted into legal text as soon as possible and led to a protracted and potentially embarrassing public climb-down for the Brexit Secretary.

The warning from Germany comes amid reports that the country's government wants the UK to contribute to the EU budget as a quid-pro-quo for the City still having access to EU financial markets as part of a trade deal.
Theresa May faces a clash with her own MPs over her planned transitional deal to cushion the impact of Brexit, after a poll found a majority are opposed.

No fewer than 74 per cent of Conservative MPs say they want an end to freedom of movement in March 2019, while 63 per cent oppose a continued remit for the European Court of Justice.

Yet the EU has made clear that both those conditions will be imposed in any transition deal, for around two years or longer  and the Prime Minister has signalled that she will accept them.

Furthermore, the study found that 65 per cent of Tory MPs favour crashing out of the EU rather than accepting a bad deal, more than the 60-80 previously thought.

The findings appear to increase the danger that Conservatives will refuse to accept the deal that Mrs May is expected to strike later this year, in time for a Commons vote in the autumn.

They also make it more likely that the Prime Minister will face a leadership challenge if she defies her party and attempts to force through a standstill transitional agreement.

Professor Tim Bale, from Queen Mary University of London, who helped conduct the survey, said: The sheer number of Tory MPs seemingly prepared to countenance crashing out of the EU without a deal is one of the most striking findings to emerge from this research.

Who knows, though, if push does come to shove, whether they really will refuse a compromise? If they do, then Theresa May could be in some serious parliamentary trouble later on this year.

And Professor Anand Menon, director of the UK in a Changing Europe think-tank, said: Brexit presents a stark challenge to the leaderships of both major political parties. Their views are at odds with those of their own MPs.

Brexit: the deciders Show all 8 1 /8 Brexit: the deciders Brexit: the deciders European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty Brexit: the deciders French President Emmanuel Macron Getty Brexit: the deciders German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters Brexit: the deciders Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA Brexit: the deciders The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty Brexit: the deciders Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images Brexit: the deciders Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA Brexit: the deciders After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA

The Prime Minister, in particular, might face considerable opposition from her own backbenchers when it comes to securing the kind of transitional deal she has indicated she wants.

Ipsos MORI interviewed 105 MPs in private, face to face, with the findings weighted to reflect the composition of the House of Commons.

The survey, for UK in a Changing Europe, also exposed the chasm between the expectations of Conservative and Labour MPs for a successful Brexit.

The Tories were upbeat for the economy, with 89 per cent believing it will get better over the next decade and 80 per cent in of favour leaving the single market and negotiating a bespoke trading deal with the EU.

In stark contrast, 44 per cent of Labour MPs believe the economy will get worse and 83 per cent fear that any future trade deals will leave Britain worse off.

For that reason, the poll also set out the growing pressure on Jeremy Corbyn to change course by pushing for the UK to stay in the single market and customs union permanently.

It found that 90 per cent of Labour MPs think staying in the single market is compatible with Brexit  something the Labour leader has insisted is impossible.
The European Commission has reacted dismissively to a suggestion by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson that a bridge should be built between Britain and France to complement the Channel Tunnel.

A spokesperson for the European Commission was asked on Monday about whether such a project would be applicable for EU funding.

I have the feeling that this project is not there, the spokesperson told reporters in Brussels, noting that it was not included on a list of priority trans-European networks drawn up by the commission.

Mr Johnson floated the idea last Thursday evening during a visit by Frances President Emmanuel Macron, arguing that it was ridiculous that the two economies were joined only by a railway line.

Downing Street also dismissed the project the following day, suggesting cooperation with France would be limited to a panel of experts who will look at major projects together including infrastructure.

The idea for a 22-mile bridge was in turn ridiculed by the UKs chamber of shipping, which warned that building a huge concrete structure in the middle of the worlds busiest shipping lane might come with some challenges.

The 31-mile Channel Tunnel, completed in 1994, runs from near Folkestone in Kent to Calais and carried a 160km/h high-speed rail link. Ten million people use the Eurostar high-speed train service a year to go under the Channel, while others use the shuttle service for cars.

Brexit: the deciders Show all 8 1 /8 Brexit: the deciders Brexit: the deciders European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty Brexit: the deciders French President Emmanuel Macron Getty Brexit: the deciders German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters Brexit: the deciders Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA Brexit: the deciders The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty Brexit: the deciders Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images Brexit: the deciders Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA Brexit: the deciders After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA

Rail freight also goes through the tunnel.

Direct high-speed rail destinations on the continent from London already include Paris, Brussels, Lille, Calais and Marseille, with limited services to Amsterdam and potential future expansion into Germany.
National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan (R) and Cambodias Senate Vice President Tep Ngorn (Source: VNA)



During a reception for Tep Ngorn in Hanoi on January 20th, who is attending the 26th Annual Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF-26), Ngan highlighted the development of the bilateral relations over the last five decades, which she said is the pride and a valuable asset of both nations.

The NA Chairwoman congratulated Cambodia on its achievements in national construction and development in recent years, expressing her belief that under the reign of King Norodom Sihamoni and the leadership of the Senate, National Assembly, and Government, Cambodia will reap greater achievements in the future.

The success of the communal council election in June last year will create foundation for Cambodia to successfully organise elections of the Senate and National Assembly in 2018, she noted.

For his part, Tep Ngorn praised Vietnams organisation of the APPF-26, adding that he appreciated the Vietnamese NA for sharing experience with Cambodia which will host APPF-27 next year.

He also thanked the Vietnamese Party, State and people for their support to help Cambodia escape and revive from Pol Pot's genocidal regime.

Host and guest spoke highly of efforts made by the two countries authorities to complete 84 percent of the border demarcation and marker planting along their shared land border line, expressing their belief that the two sides will fulfill the remaining as soon as possible.

Ngan took the occasion to ask the Cambodian side to accelerate the settlement of legal status for Cambodians of Vietnamese origin, thus further contributing to the development of Cambodia and the traditional friendship between the two countries./.
Labour has unveiled tougher rules to strip outsourced contracts from rogue suppliers following the Carillion scandal, if Jeremy Corbyn wins power.

Private firms with state contracts would be designated high risk if they fail to deliver on a range of behaviour from timely payment of suppliers and environmental standards, to pay ratios and tax compliance.

The contracts of those companies falling short would either be brought back in house, or they would be retendered to another firm, the party said.

The proposed crackdown follows last weeks collapse of Carillion, the construction and services giant, putting public services and tens of thousands of jobs in jeopardy.

A report by the UK's spending watchdog then revealed that the taxpayer faces a bill as high as 200bn for the legacy of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), under successive governments.

Meanwhile, The Independent revealed that outsourcing continues, with a 300m contract to pay private companies to arrest people for not settling court fines up for grabs.

Now Jon Trickett, Labours Shadow Cabinet Office minister, has insisted a Corbyn government would act swiftly to stop contracts being hoarded by companies engaged in risky behaviour

The Government is overseeing a race to the bottom in these firms standards, turning a blind eye to blacklisting, tax avoidance and a whole host of other questionable behaviours, he said.

Theresa May has said she is a customer of these huge companies, but shes actually the Prime Minister and should act accordingly.

Labour would act decisively, in contrast with the weakness of the current Government, and, if outsourcing firms cannot guarantee their business standards, we will take back control of contracts as soon as possible.

A firm would also be deemed high risk if it failed on providing proper equal opportunities, staff training or trade union recognition, Mr Trickett added.

The current criteria for action  including a falling credit rating, a profit warning, an authoritys investigation, or a breach of obligations to lenders  was too limited.

However, the policy appears to fall short of Mr Corbyns vow  at Prime Ministers Questions last week  that private firms running public services must be shown the door.

On that occasion, he told Mrs May: These corporations need to be shown the door. We need our public services provided by public employees with a public service ethos and a strong public oversight.

In that sense, it has echoes of last years row when John McDonnell, the Shadow Chancellor, vowed to scrap PFI and nationalise existing contracts.

A Labour briefing note quickly made clear that the party, in fact, planned a review  and would only take over outstanding contracts if necessary.

A string of inquiries has already been launched into the liquidation of Carillon with huge debts and liabilities, despite the firm being handed new public contracts even after issuing multiple profit warnings.

The National Audit Office that found 716 deals are currently operational under PFI and its successor PF2, with annual charges amounting to 10.3bn in 2016-17 - and due to stretch into the 2040s.
Margaret Thatcher believed South Africa should be a whites-only state, it has been reported.

The former head of the Diplomatic Service, Sir Patrick Wright, has made a number of explosive claims in his account of the former Prime Ministers time in office.

Sir Patrick also said that Ms Thatcher loathed Germans and wanted to push Vietnamese boat people into the sea.

 Gordon Brown: May's Britain to have more poverty than under Thatcher

Extracts from his diaries have been published in the Mail on Sunday and include claims that Ms Thatcher expressed a desire for a pre-1910 South Africa.

In the diary entry, Sir Patrick writes the conversation took place over a lunch he was invited to with Ms Thatcher. She opened the conversation by thrusting a newspaper cutting about Oliver Tambo [ANC president] in front of us, saying that it proved that we should not be talking to him She continued to express her views about a return to pre-1910 South Africa, with a white mini-state partitioned from their neighbouring black states.

When Sir Patrick questioned the desire and said it would be an extension of apartheid, he said "she barked: 'Do you have no concern for our strategic interests?'

Sir Patrick also claimed that Ms Thatcher was at her worst during the Vietnamese boat people crisis in 1989.

About 70,000 Indochinese boat people fled Vietnam after the Vietnam War and arrived in five Southeast Asian countries and Hong Kong.

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. 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Ms Thatcher apparently favoured a policy of pushing off Vietnamese boat people and refusing to allow them to land.

The diary extracts also talk of Ms Thatcher's "Germanophobia".

She seems to be obsessed by a feeling that German-speakers are going to dominate the community, Sir Patrick writes. Any talk of German reunification is anathema to her.

Ms Thatchers attitude on foreign matters reportedly led her foreign secretary Douglas Hurd to remark: Cabinet now consists of three items: parliamentary affairs; home affairs; and xenophobia, the diary says.
Conservative MPs have accused Theresa May of failing to act on the NHS and social care crisis, after she dismissed their concerns in a brief letter.

A former minister and the Health Committee chairwoman were among Tories who made their criticisms public  branding the response a disappointment and lacking ambition.

Another warned that the Government was heading for election defeat unless it changed course, highlighting a looming reality check at the ballot box.

The attacks came after 90 MPs of all parties, in November, called on the Prime Minister to agree to cross-party working, warning the gathering crisis was being kicked into the long grass.

But, in a three-paragraph response released on Sunday night, Ms May simply insisted her government recognises the challenges facing the NHS and care sector.

We are committed to ensuring the long-term sustainability of the NHS and adult social care, she wrote.

The letter added: We are committed to engaging with all parties on key issues and I have asked the Secretary of State for Health to write to you to outline our plans moving forward.

Sarah Wollaston, who heads the Commons Health Committee, tweeted her rebuke, saying: The response lacks ambition. We need a clear understanding from PM that NHS, public health and social care are inextricably linked and urgency of the need to review current and long term funding as a single system.

 Sarah Wollaston tears into Boris Johnson over 'disgraceful, entirely deliberate deception' on 350m NHS claim

Ms Wollaston raised the fear that, without a cross-party deal, action would be blocked in the hung Parliament  referring to the 2010 social care proposals killed by her own party.

Any measures that are proposed by a single political party will inevitably be trashed as death tax, dementia tax or whatever. What is needed is a grown up debate and action or we will get nowhere.

Nick Boles, the former housing minister who has survived two bouts of cancer, quickly echoed her criticism, saying he shared her disappointment and adding: This is not a time for business as usual on funding of NHS and social care.

A prominent backbencher, Heidi Allen, tweeted: Really? We have waited since 18 November for this reply? Not good enough. Our Prime Minister needs to prove she can deal with the biggest challenge of our time and now.

And a fourth Conservative MP, Johnny Mercer, said: A disappointing response to a letter I was pleased to sign.

This is THE ISSUE of our generation of politicians regardless of how it polls in focus groups. Like defence, there are some challenges government of the day must meet, or face reality check at the ballot box.

The letter was sent after the Government broke a promise to outline reform plans by the end of last year, shelving a consultation until next summer.

Social care policy has been frozen since Ms May was forced to axe her election plans to make homeowners pay more for their care, after they were dubbed a dementia tax.

Since then, she has been forced to apologise to the tens of thousands of patients who have had their operations cancelled this month, under an unprecedented order to local health chiefs.

The Prime Ministers claim that the NHS was better prepared than ever before for winter pressures was widely ridiculed.
Ministers face a parliamentary inquiry over the storing by police of 20 million mugshots  including of many people not convicted of any crime  after a senior MP warned the practice raises fundamental civil liberty issues.

A Commons committee is poised to launch the probe after running out of patience with the Government, which has failed to act on the controversy almost six years after it was ruled unlawful by the High Court.

The court warned of the risk of stigmatisation of those entitled to the presumption of innocence, adding that it would be particularly harmful in the cases of children.

Recommended Police measures at Notting Hill Carnival are an example of racial bias

But the Home Office urged forces to carry on retaining the facial images, promising new laws would follow. At least 20 million mugshots are stored  a staggering one-third of the UK population.

Meanwhile, a biometrics strategy has been delayed for five years, prompting a watchdogs warning that the number of retained images would rocket, breaching individual privacy.

Now Norman Lamb, the chairman of the Commons science and technology committee, has told The Independent that his committee is ready to step in and investigate.

Condemning the situation as intolerable, Mr Lamb said: There are no real rules surrounding this.

The police can store these facial images without any proper consideration of them, which raises fundamental and significant civil liberty issues about what they are retaining about us.

It includes people who have not been charged with any crime, or people who have been exonerated.

The Liberal Democrat MP said an additional worry was the disproportionate targeting of ethnic minorities, adding: There are also concerns about bias  and also about the accuracy of identification.

This is not to say the technology doesnt have it place, or potential value, but it needs to be operated within a clear legal and regulatory framework.

Mr Lamb said he would push for Baroness Williams, the Home Office minister responsible for biometrics, to be hauled before his committee, when it discusses the controversy on Tuesday.

If the minister failed to provide satisfactory answers  which she failed to do in a letter sent before Christmas, he said  a full inquiry by the committee would follow.

Concern has grown about the mugshots database as police have developed the ability to capture images using cameras in public places, as well as of people arrested or questioned.

Around 16 million mugshots are thought to be held on IT systems that can be searched using facial recognition software, allowing new images to be checked against those existing records. And a further four million, which are also stored, are not searchable using that software.

Police say officers use the technology to identify suspects, offenders and witnesses and to help with searching for unidentified suspects, such as those spotted on CCTV.

The practice provoked controversy at last years Notting Hill carnival, when police used facial recognition software to scan the faces of revellers, despite protests that it was unlawful and institutionally racist.

In 2012, the High Court ruled that retaining the images of people not convicted of any crime for six years, before police decided whether to delete them, was not proportionate.

Last year, the Home Office announced a review but said the police would still not have to reconsider retention until after six years  and after 10 years for more serious alleged offences.

The only response to the court ruling was that people would be able to apply to the police to have their images deleted at the end of any proceedings.

There would be a presumption in favour of deletion, but the police would be entitled to refuse such an application.

Professor Paul Wiles, the independent Biometrics Commissioner who warned the database was set to grow and grow, has suggested this would not survive a further legal challenge.

He pointed out that just 1,003 of the 896,209 people arrested in 2015-16 had applied to have their records deleted, under separate rules  and only 233 of those requests were accepted by the police.

Professor Giles warned of the danger of losing public confidence, saying last year: The review leaves the governance and decision-making of this new process entirely in the hands of the police.

Mr Lamb has also raised the alarm that the review, in the absence of a wider strategy, dealt only with image retention and not uncertainty about how facial images are captured and used.

In fact, Baroness Williams had stated the use of images is an operational matter for the police, without any apparent guidance having been issued to forces.

Mr Lamb has demanded to know whether the strategy will consider the proper and appropriate use of images  as well as when it will be published. Baroness Williams has said only that it will appear sometime in 2018.

In contrast, many DNA and fingerprint records have been deleted under legislation brought in by the coalition government, which promised to roll back the database state.

Ministers have argued mugshots are less intrusive because peoples faces are on public display, but Professor Giles said: I disagree with that assertion.

In fact, for that reason, the use of facial images is more intrusive because image capture can be done using cameras in public places and searched against government databases without the subject being aware.

Facial images are no longer only used solely for custody purpose, and image capture and facial searching capabilities have and are being used by the police in public places.

The Home Office was asked to respond to Mr Lambs criticisms and the likely inquiry, but declined to do so.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has underlined how the White House continues to treasure links with the UK, following a difficult period for relations between Theresa May and Donald Trump.

Mr Tillerson said Washington does see its connection with London as a special relationship, adding that sometimes the two sides forget its importance.

It comes days before Ms May was meant to meet Mr Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos, for what some have claimed would be a clear the air meeting, though the appointment is now in doubt.

Recommended Five things to look out for in Davos this week

The two leaders have taken conspicuously different positions on major issues recently including Mr Trumps decision to relocate the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, while they also clashed after the President promoted online anti-Islamic material from a British far-right group.

Speaking after he had met Ms May and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Mr Tillerson said: "We also view this as the special relationship. It has been and will be.

"We spend a lot of time talking about the world's problems. Sometimes we forget about the importance of our own relationship.

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

"We treasure this relationship. I treasure Boris's relationship with me personally."

Mr Johnson echoed Mr Tillerson's support for the special relationship, saying: "It is always worth saying that the relationship between the US and the UK is absolutely fundamental to our diplomacy but also to our economy.

Their meeting takes place amid reports that the President is unhappy after the Prime Minister publicly criticised him last year for retweeting inflammatory videos posted by the far-right Britain First group.

Mr Trump unexpectedly announced that he would not be travelling to London for the opening of the new US Embassy building in February.

Ms May was expected to meet Mr Trump in Switzerland this week, but the White House said the whole trip may have to be cancelled as the President is fighting to pass a critical domestic funding measure through Congress.

Both Mr Johnson and Mr Tillerson called for restraint on all sides following the incursion by Turkish forces into northern Syria, where they are attacking Kurdish fighters supported by Britain and the US.

 Donald Trump's major u-turns since becoming President

A Downing Street spokesman said: "The Prime Minister attended a part of the National Security Adviser's meeting with the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at 10 Downing Street today.

"They discussed the continuing depth and breadth of the special relationship.

"They agreed on the importance of the international community coming together to counter Iran's destabilising regional activity, and the Prime Minister reiterated the UK's commitment to the Iran nuclear deal."
 Close Henry Bolton refuses to resign as UKIP party leader after vote of no confidence

Ukip was hit with fresh turmoil after leader Henry Bolton refused to quit, despite mass resignations and a vote of no confidence from his partys governing body.

Mr Bolton - who has led the party since October - has been in the spotlight due to his relationship with Jo Marney, who allegedly sent a string of racist texts about Meghan Markle.

Theresa May also came under intense criticism from her backbenchers over her slow response to a cross-party proposals on the future of NHS and social care spending.

The Prime Ministers delayed response to the letter from 90 cross-party MPs was criticised as disappointing by one Tory MP, while another added: This response lacks ambition.

See below for the latest updates:
In a Senate-floor speech Saturday, Senator Tammy Duckworth (Democrat-Illinois), blasted President Donald Trump as a five-deferment draft dodger and accused him of trying to bait North Korea into a war, putting both the military and the national security of the United States at risk.

It was a moment of fire for Duckworth, a veteran who lost both of her legs in 2004 while serving in the Iraq War, and who has advocated for military and disability issues since she was elected to national public office in 2012.

Duckworth said Saturday her speech was prompted by a tweet Trump had posted on Saturday morning accusing Democrats of holding our Military hostage to have unchecked illegal immigration. The tweet was just one of many partisan attacks Trump launched over the weekend trying to blame Democrats for a congressional budget stalemate that had led to a shutdown of the federal government.

Recommended Donald Trump facing second book exposing White House chaos

That Trump would accuse Democrats - like herself - of not caring about the military was galling, Duckworth said.

Does he even know that there are service members who are in harm's way right now, watching him, looking for their commander in chief to show leadership, rather than to try to deflect blame? Duckworth said. Or that his own Pentagon says that the short-term funding plans he seems intent on pushing is actually harmful to not just the military, but to our national security?

The junior senator from Illinois said Trump's attempts to pin the shutdown on Democrats, especially by using the military, were examples of the president failing to take responsibility.

I spent my entire adult life looking out for the well-being, the training, the equipping of the troops for whom I was responsible, Duckworth continued. Sadly, this is something the current occupant of the Oval Office does not seem to care to do - and I will not be lectured about what our military needs by a five-deferment draft dodger.

Duckworth saved her zinger for the end, a dig at the medical reason Trump has claimed was why he was able to avoid military service for the fifth time.

And I have a message for 'Cadet Bone Spurs,' Duckworth said. If you cared about our military, you'd stop baiting Kim Jong-un into a war that could put 85,000 American troops, and millions of innocent civilians, in danger.

Since Trump took office, he and Kim have repeatedly exchanged threats - and outright insults, at times - about each other's nuclear arsenal. Trump has called Kim Little Rocket Man and a madman. In return, Kim has called Trump a deranged US dotard and, most recently, a lunatic and a loser.

But the escalating rhetoric has also led many lawmakers and civilians to worry about the possibility of a war with North Korea. Last August, Trump issued an ultimatum to Pyongyang, saying North Korea would face fire and fury like the world has never seen if the country did not curb its threats to the United States. (The fire and fury phrase would later become the title of much-talked about book by author Michael Wolff allegedly exposing the inner workings of Trump's White House.)

In all, North Korea launched 18 missile tests last year, and its continued defiance prompted the UN Security Council to impose strict sanctions on the country in December. Undeterred, North Korea said it would simply bolster its nuclear force and declared the UN sanctions an act of war.

On New Year's Day, Kim bragged that he could attack the United States at any time using a nuclear button on his desk, but promised not to do so unless North Korea was threatened. In return, Trump tweeted that his Nuclear Button was much bigger & more powerful than Kim's.

Perhaps nowhere have these heightened tensions played out more clearly than in Hawaii, where late last year state emergency officials reinstated its Cold War-era nuclear warning sirens amid growing fears of an attack by North Korea. Those fears spilled over last weekend when a state employee accidentally sent an alert to scores of Hawaii residents and tourists on their cellphones warning of a ballistic missile threat inbound.

The false warning sparked a wave of panic as thousands of people, many assuming they had only minutes to live, scrambled to seek shelter and say their final goodbyes to loved ones. The situation was exacerbated by a 38-minute gap between the initial alert and a subsequent wireless alert stating the missile warning was a mistake.

Though the false alarm was determined to be the result of human error, several lawmakers used the incident to highlight the situation with North Korea - and the consequences American citizens would face if not resolved. Representative Tulsi Gabbard, Democrat-Hawaii, criticised Trump for not taking the threat of nuclear war seriously enough and urged him to engage North Korean leaders in serious negotiations to denuclearise.

Two days after the false alarm, fresh off a visit to South Korea and Japan, Duckworth also tweeted a warning against war, saying one in the Korean Peninsula would be catastrophic.

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

Duckworth's Senate floor speech came nearly a year to the day after she spoke to a fired-up crowd at the Women's March on Washington last January. She had showed up to the march wearing her Don't F with me leather jacket, she said, and also brought along her then-two-year-old daughter.

Yesterday, I gotta tell ya, I was pretty depressed, Duckworth said at last year's Women's March, of the inauguration that had taken place the day before. This is about our country. I didn't shed blood to defend this nation [and] I didn't give up literally parts of my body to have the Constitution trampled on... to have them roll back our rights.

The Washington Post
A manhunt is under way after two pipe bombs exploded at a shopping centre, police in Florida said.

No one was hurt and no shoppers were near the devices when they detonated at the Eagle Ridge Mall in Lake Wales, around 30 miles east of Tampa.

The mall was evacuated following the explosions, which went off at around 5.30pm in a small corridor which is off limits to the public.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 29 July 2021 Team GB's Mallory Franklin during the Womens Canoe Slalom Final on day six of the Tokyo Olympic Games. She went on to win the silver medal Getty UK news in pictures 28 July 2021 Canoers on Llyn Padarn lake in Snowdonia, Gwynedd. It was announced that the north-west Wales slate landscape has been granted UNESCO World Heritage Status PA UK news in pictures 27 July 2021 A view of one of two areas now being used at a warehouse facility in Dover, Kent, for boats used by people thought to be migrants. 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Lakes Wales Deputy Police Chief Troy Schulze told reporters: Its very concerning to us.

Were a family-orientated community. This is a family-oriented mall. When this started, my son was actually working here at this mall

People [were] here shopping, just enjoying a Sunday afternoon or evening with their families, and literally, boom.

Recommended Police are still hunting for the motive behind the attempted New York

He said around 100 people were in the shopping centre at the time and that it was fortunate no one was close to the explosions, which caused a small fire.

He added that the incident was not being treated as terrorism at this time, and said witnesses had reported seeing a stocky, white middle-aged man running from the scene, who was being sought as a person of interest.
Not many people have heard of Jackman, a small Maine town of fewer than 1,000 people not far from the Canadian border.

That was until this week, when media outlets began publishing stories about Jackman's town manager, a 37-year-old transplant from Arizona who seemed unequivocal about his views that Islam has no place in the Western world and, as he told The Bangor Daily News, that Americans would be better off if people of different races voluntarily separate.

Tom Kawczynski told the Bangor paper that he's against bringing people from other countries and cultures to the United States. He also said he is not racist and argued that one can be pro-white without harbouring hate against people of other races. After he moved to Maine a year ago, he started a group called New Albion, which, according to its website, promotes traditional western values emphasising the positive aspects of our European heritage and uniquely American identity.

Kawczynski's views have since been met with backlash. In a statement posted on Facebook on Saturday, the Jackman-Moose River Region Chamber of Commerce called the town manager's views shocking and offensive and said employees like Kawczynski are not asked about their religion or views on race and politics during job interviews.

The Jackman, Maine community do not share his views and call on the town selectmen to do what is needed, the Chamber of Commerce said, referring to Jackman's town officials.

Kawczynski declined to be interviewed on Sunday, but in posts on his website and on Gab, a social media network that is used by right-wing figures, he defended his views and free-speech rights. He railed against political correctness and the media, which he accused of publishing skewed versions of his views and falsely painting him as a racist and a bigot.

Take five things you say that sound terrible, remove them from context as much as possible, and paint a picture of a person's life designed to make people hate and defame you. That's what was done to me personally today and to New Albion as a whole, Kawczynski wrote on his website on Friday. I separate my personal cultural ambitions from my professional career, but some people are trying to use my efforts to promote certain ideas to destroy my ability to provide for myself and my wife.

His mistake, he said, was saying that white people should be proud of their heritage - and because of that, there are those who would destroy me.

Never mind the inconvenient fact that I've never said a cross word about any minority, and I think ALL people should be proud of their heritage and backgrounds, he wrote. That wasn't fit to print.

In another post about his comments on the voluntary separation of races, Kawczynski argued that modern-day examples of segregation are viewed as acceptable by the political left. One example he cited are historically black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, institutions that were created at a time of immense segregation in the country, when black students were largely denied admission to traditionally white schools.

Kawczynski argued that HBCUs give special consideration to one minority group at the expense of the majority. If you tried to have white only universities, it would be considered apostasy, yet there that right only is reserved for some minorities, he wrote.

HBCUs, though, are not black-only schools. Although they were created for the education of black people, non-black students accounted for 22 percent of enrolment at HBCUs in 2015 - up from 15 percent in 1976, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That includes white students. Take Howard University in Washington, DC, for example.

In one post on Gab, Kawczynski seems to be already anticipating losing his job as a result of the backlash and said he had set up a GoFundMe page to temporarily support him and his wife. He also told The Portland Press Herald that he has no plans to resign from his job.

Town officials in Jackman, where nearly all residents are white, have yet to make any public statements about Kawczynski, but some have told local media outlets that they have contacted the town's attorney to figure out the next steps.

The Washington Post was unable to reach Warren Shay, the town attorney, on Sunday, but he told the Associated Press that town leaders will meet with Kawczynski on Tuesday to discuss the comments he made to media outlets.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. 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In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. 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Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. 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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 beliefs reflected in those comments are not shared by any of the select persons or the Town of Jackman, Shay said.

Kawczynski doesn't consider himself a Republican or a Democrat, he told The Portland Press Herald, although he said he voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

The Washington Post
A Michigan doctor who has been living in the US for nearly 40 years has been detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The family of Lukasz Niec, who came from Poland to America when he was just five years old, are now concerned he will be deported back to Poland.

Mr Niecs sister said the family has no idea when her brother, who is currently being held at Calhoun County Jail, will be released from prison.

Until this gets heard, which could be up to six months, he could be stuck in a prison cell and not helping and being with his family, Iwona Niec-Villaire, who is a lawyer, told Wood-TV.

In 1979, my parents were both doctors, left Poland and took two suitcases and two small children, my brother was five and I was six and they came here for a better life for their kids.

The siblings, who are now in their mid-40s, have been living in the US for decades on a permanent green card.

He doesnt even speak Polish, his sister added.

According to the news outlet, Mr Niec was convicted when he was 17 on one charge of destruction of property less than $100 and receiving and concealing stolen goods.

Mr Niec reportedly pleaded guilty to the charges under the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act, which helps young first-time offenders keep charges off of a criminal record, but US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does not honour the state plea agreement.

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

These misdemeanours were just an adolescent making mistakes and learning from them, she said.

Mr Niec was having a day off with his daughters at his home near Kalamazzo when three ICE officers arrived at his home and told him he was being taken to prison.

The question I get asked all the time is Why do you think this happened? I just really dont know, Ms Niec-Villaire said.

Since Donald Trump became president ICE has been engaged in a crackdown on immigration. The agency recently raided 7-Eleven shops across the country, leading to 21 arrests.

Last week, a Detroit father of two, who had no criminal records, was deported back to Mexico despite having lived in America for 30 years.

On the national stage, Democrats and Republicans have been debating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme.

In September, Mr Trump decided to rescind DACA, a programme which protected children brought to the US illegally by their parents from deportation. He set a deadline of March for Congress to establish a legislative solution.

The programme was first started in 2012 by President Barack Obama and has given young immigrants the opportunity to pursue higher education, start businesses, and pursue legal careers in the US.

Senate Republicans and Democrats triggered a government shutdown by failing on Friday to hit a midnight deadline to fund the government. A majority of Democrats voted against the Republican funding measure because it did not include an extension or viable alternative for the Obama era policy.
It is not a bad thing for us, that the route known as the Goldene Strae or the Golden Road as we will get to know it- has escaped the attention of so many. It has been spared being overrun by hordes of tourists and as you will discover
The parents accused of shackling and torturing their 13 children, left their former home "waist-deep in filth" and strewn with the bodies of dead dogs and cats, a former neighbour has revealed.

David and Louise Turpin were arrested at their home in Perris, California when their 17-year-old daughter escaped from a window and called the police.

Investigators found a number of the children shackled to beds with chains and padlocks.

It has since emerged that the couple moved to California in 2011, from the Texan city Rio Vista, where they lived in a four bedroom house on a 36 acre property.

They lived there from 2000 until the house was foreclosed 11 years later.

Neighbour Ricky Vinyard said he walked through a double-wide trailer on the property, which the family is believed to have moved into after trashing the main house which he said was "waist-deep in filth".

"There were dead dogs and cats in there," he told the Los Angeles Times.

He added that he found two Chihuahuas on the property which had survived by eating waste from discarded soiled nappies heaped in the family's Ford F-150 truck.

"It seemed like that's all they ate," he said, adding that the living room in the main house that had been fashioned into a makeshift classroom and was covered in faeces and excrement.

"Everything had locks on it: The closet had locks, the toy chest, the refrigerator," he added."There were no beds, just mattresses. There wasn't a place in that house that wasn't filthy."

Mr Vinyard also said that the Turpins kept the lights on and the blinds drawn at all hours at the home, adding that one Christmas they bought eight new children's bicycles but left them outside, unused, until they became sun bleached.

It has also emerged that after the family arrived in 2000, one of the older girls tried to escape but was eventually returned by a local resident.

A deputy was called to the house in 2001 when the Turpins' then four-year-old daughter was bitten in the face by the family dog, which led to the girl receiving stitches in hospital and the dog being taken to a veterinarian to be put down, according to police reports.

Mr Vinyard's uncle also called the sheriff when three pigs belonging to the Turpins got loose in 2002, but Mr Vinyard said that he and his wife decided not to alert authorities about their suspicions of abuse.

Turpin family: 13 siblings who were held captive by their parents Show all 15 1 /15 Turpin family: 13 siblings who were held captive by their parents Turpin family: 13 siblings who were held captive by their parents David and Louise Turpin with their 13 children who were being held captive by their parents in the family home in Perris, California. Facebook Turpin family: 13 siblings who were held captive by their parents Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin speaks during a press conference announcing charges against David Turpin and Louise Turpin in relation to their 13 malnourished children found chained in their home, in Riverside. The two parents were charged with multiple counts of Child abuse, torture, abuse of dependent adults and false imprisonment and could face close to 100 years to life in prison if convicted. EPA Turpin family: 13 siblings who were held captive by their parents The home of David Allen and Louise Anna Turpin, where some of their children were bound with chains and padlocks. Reuters Turpin family: 13 siblings who were held captive by their parents David Allen Turpin poses for a mugshot after being arrested. Riverside County Sheriffs Department via Getty Turpin family: 13 siblings who were held captive by their parents One of the captives, a 17-year-old girl, escaped over the weekend and notified the Riverside Sheriffs Department. Facebook/David-Louise Turpin Turpin family: 13 siblings who were held captive by their parents Perris residents watch as media gather in front of Turpin family home. The Sheriff's deparmtent said "the parents were unable to immediately provide a logical reason why their children were restrained in that manner." AFP/Getty Turpin family: 13 siblings who were held captive by their parents The children were found in dark and foul-smelling surroundings and "The victims appeared to be malnourished and very dirty, the department said. Facebook/David-Louise Turpin Turpin family: 13 siblings who were held captive by their parents Neighbours stand outside the home. Getty Turpin family: 13 siblings who were held captive by their parents Louise Anna Turpin poses for a mugshot after being arrested. Not all of their victims were children: of the 13 victims, seven were between the age of 18 and 29, according to the Sheriff's Department. Riverside County Sheriffs Department via Getty Turpin family: 13 siblings who were held captive by their parents David and Louise Turpin in 2015. Authorities arrested them on torture and child endangerment charges, setting bail at $9m (6.5m) apiece. Facebook/David-Louise Turpin Turpin family: 13 siblings who were held captive by their parents David Turpin and Louise Turpin appear in court for their arraignment in Riverside Reuters Turpin family: 13 siblings who were held captive by their parents David Allen Turpin and his wife, Louise Anna Turpin celebrate a renewal of their wedding vows with Elvis impersonator Kent Ripley in Las Vegas in 2011 A Elvis Chapel via AP Turpin family: 13 siblings who were held captive by their parents David Allen Turpin appears in court for his arraignment in Riverside. Prosecutors filed 12 counts of torture, seven counts of dependent adult abuse, six counts of child abuse and 12 counts of false imprisonment against Turpin and his wife, Louise Anna Turpin. The Press-Enterprise via AP Turpin family: 13 siblings who were held captive by their parents Neighbour Liza Tozier, and her son, Avery Sanchez, 6, drop off his large "Teddy" as a gift for the children. AP Turpin family: 13 siblings who were held captive by their parents Louise Turpin appears in court for her arraignment in Riverside. Authorities say the abuse left the children malnourished, undersized and with cognitive impairments. Reuters

"We discussed it and we didn't want to have repercussions with them," Mr Vinyard said, citing that he would often see David Turpin in his driveway shooting cans with a pistol, aiming towards the road. I feel really guilty we didn't."

Before moving to Rio Vista, records show the family lived 50 miles away in Fort Worth, Texas, between 1990 and 1999.

However, Patrick Crimmins, of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, said that his agency had no record of investigations concerning the Turpins.

After the Turpins left and the house was foreclosed, it was bought by Billy Baldwin and his mother as a rental property.

Mr Baldwin told ABC Ne.ws the condition of the house was "just nasty" with "all kinds of stuff" over the walls and carpet, with the bathroom floor "totally rotted out".

The trailer that Mr Vinyard described had been removed by the time Mr Baldwin purchased the property.

The Turpins have pleaded not guilty in Riverside County, , to multiple counts of torture, child abuse, abuse of dependent adults and false imprisonment after their children, aged two to 29, were rescued from their home in .

David Turpin, 56, has also been charged with one count of a lewd act on a child by force.

If convicted, he and his wife Louise, 49, face up to 94 years to life in prison. They are being held on bail of $12m (8.6m) each and are due back in court on 23 February.

The children were exclusively home-schooled, except for the eldest, meaning that there did not need to be any outside contact with them under Californian law.

As more details about the case have emerged, Californian politician Jose Medina has begun drafting legislation to give greater oversight of home-schooled children to prevent anything like this from happening again.

"What happened in the city of Perris was tragic and it was horrific," he told The Telegraph. "And I would like to try to do everything I can to ensure that it doesn't happen again.

"One of the reasons this went undetected was because the parents could keep the children hidden from the public."
President Donald Trump may not attend the annual Davos World Economic Forum if the federal government is still shut down.

Asked if the President would still make the trip to Switzerland this week, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders indicated that the prospects were increasingly slim.

I dont know that thats very likely. I wouldnt imagine it is, Ms Sanders said. Our priority is making sure that the government reopened and we start having the conversations that need to take place over the next couple of weeks.

Mr Trump is slated to speak at the economic forum later this week, and aides have noted that he may still make it over there but the ongoing disagreements over federal funding in Washington could scrap those plans.

The American government has seen non-essential services shuttered since Friday night, when Congress failed to reach an agreement. It is the first time that the US government has seen a shutdown since 2013, when far right politicians like Senator Ted Cruz led an effort to try and force Democrats to defund Obamacare  and failed 17 days later.

This time, Democrats and Republicans have reached a standstill on several issues, including funding to protect the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. That programs future was thrust into uncertainty last year when Mr Trump announced that he would end the program, saying that Congress should act if it wants to maintain those protections for 700,000 young people who have benefited from them.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Mr Trumps decision to attend the Davos forum  which is known for featuring A-list celebrities, billionaire bankers, and the worlds wealthy elite  was something of a surprise to begin with. Mr Trump ran a campaign in 2016 portraying himself as a populist champion wiling to stand up to the worlds wealth elite establishment, promising to help blue collar workers in America to regain financial footing.
Donald Trump reportedly fakes an Indian accent when he repeats comments made to him by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Mr Trump and Mr Modi are said to have a warm relationship, something that has been helped by the Indian leader being invited to the Oval Office on several occasions and the Trump administrations recent criticism of India neighbour, Pakistan.

But in a development that could cause tension between the two countries, a new report claims Mr Trump, who earlier this month triggered controversy when it was reported he used the phrase s***hole countries when referring to Haiti and African nations, reportedly imitates the Indian leaders accent.

The Washington Post reported Mr Trumps behaviour in the context of the USs provision of additional troops to Afghanistan, where it is supposed to have adopted a non-combat role.

It said Mr Trump imitated the accent of Mr Modi, who can speak and understand English but prefers to converse in his native Hindi, and claimed that he said to him: Never has a country given so much away for so little in return - as the United States in Afghanistan.

Mr Trump claimed the Indian leaders comment was was proof the rest of the world viewed the United States as being taken advantage of in Afghanistan.

Narendra Modi bolsters Indo-US ties with Washington visit

Both the White House and State Department failed to respond to questions about the claim. Indian officials in Washington also did not immediately respond.

If true, it would not be the first time Mr Trump had adopted a fake Indian accent. In the spring of 2016, during the election campaign, Mr Trump used a such a voice to mock a call centre representative in India.

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 New York billionaire claimed he called up his credit card company to find out whether their customer support is based in the US or overseas.

Guess what, youre talking to a person from India. How the hell does that work? he told his supporters in Delaware.

So I called up, under the guise Im checking on my card, I said, Where are you from?

We are from India, said Mr Trump, impersonating the response he claimed to have received. Oh great, that's wonderful. India is great place. I am not upset with other leaders. I am upset with our leaders for being so stupid.

Mr Modi and Mr Trump may be set for a potentially awkward meeting this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The forum will open on Tuesday with a speech by Mr Modi and end on Friday, when Mr Trump is due to address the large auditorium where Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke last year.
Congress has delayed the vote on re-opening the government until Monday at noon local time as Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer said Senate Democrats, Republicans, and the White House "have yet to reach a path forward" to resolve the government shutdown.

The vote to reopen the government would extend funding until 8 February, allowing immigration bills to be brought to the floor of the Senate to be voted upon before 5 March, when Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) participants lose their legal status.

Immigration and border security funding continue to be sticking points.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham had said that he expected a "breakthrough" on the US government shutdown vote on Sunday but that "as long as [White House aide] Stephen Miller is in charge of negotiating on immigration, we're going nowhere."

"He's been an outlier for years," said Mr Graham, about Mr Miller who has been known for his anti-immigration and staunch conservative views. He was once a staffer to current Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

"Every time we have a proposal it is only yanked back by staff members," Mr Graham lamented, adding that though he does "enjoy working with them," White House staff like Mr Miller are "making it very difficult."

Congress is attempting to strike a bipartisan deal to reopen the government, now in its second day of being closed affecting pay for agencies' staff and negatively impacting tourism to federally controlled tourist attractions.

 This is the moment the US government went into shutdown

US President Donald Trump, who just hit his first full year in office, is said to have spent the first day of the shutdown not at an event celebrating the anniversary, but watching clips of him blaming his predecessor President Barack Obama for a failure of leadership when the government had shut down in 2013.

Mr Trump blamed Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer for being unwilling to compromise, but Mr Schumer had reportedly offered to increase funding for Mr Trump's US-Mexico border wall project should terms be agreed on immigration.

The President's wide-ranging immigration plan, authored by Mr Miller, made the wall funding as well as a US Department of Justice crackdown on US cities unwilling to assist federal authorities in rounding up undocumented immigrants - known as sanctuary cities - as non-negotiable parts of the deal.

Mr Trump repeatedly claimed on the campaign trail and throughout his first year in office that Mexico would bear the costs of the approximately 2,000-mile border wall. Cost estimates are still murky however as the amount of labour, materials to match the various types terrain, and property disputes are still being worked out.

The sticking point has been on the DACA programme, which allows people brought to the US as undocumented immigrants when they were minors to remain in the US legally and avoid deportation.

There are approximately 800,000 people - so-called 'Dreamers' - who have benefited from DACA in the US since its beginning in 2012 under the Obama administration. Potential participants had have been brought into the US before 15 June 2007 before they reached the age of 16.

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 programme allows Dreamers to obtain work permits as well.

Dreamers are in legal limbo and those hoping to enter the DACA programme may not due to mistrust of or lack of clarity on the policies of the Trump administration.

The Migration Policy Institute estimates that the number of people eligible for DACA is nearly 1.9 million, out of approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US.

Many Democrats have said rescinding protection from Dreamers is not only against the principal of a diverse and welcoming country but also does not make economic sense, especially with Mr Trump's 'America First' doctrine towards American jobs and manufacturing.

Approximately 90 per cent of current DACA recipients are employed according to a survey by the Center for American Progress, with an average wage of $17.46 (13.50) per hour.

These employed DACA recipients also pay federal and state taxes where applicable, as well as regular payments into the country's social security programme.

Approximately 72 per cent of Dreamers are enrolled in higher education institutions as well.

Mr Graham said he had spoken with the President on the matter and "his heart is right on the issue."

"God help us if we can't do something to help them," Mr Graham said.

The Senator was confident however that "there is a deal to be had."
A Trump administration report that claimed three-quarters of those convicted of international terrorism-related charges were foreign born, was reportedly created without the input of Department of Homeland Security specialists and many experts believe it is misleading.

Last week, the DHS issued the 11-page report which claimed to have examined the details of 549 individuals convicted of offences between September 11 2001 and December 31 2016.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen called the findings of the report chilling, while President Donald Trump tweeted about its findings.

New report from DOJ & DHS shows that nearly 3 in 4 individuals convicted of terrorism-related charges are foreign-born, he said.

We have submitted to Congress a list of resources and reforms....we need to keep America safe, including moving away from a random chain migration and lottery system, to one that is merit-based.

But a new media report claims the analysis was not carried out by the DHS and its experts did not contribute to the report. Rather, the material was collated under the charge of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who then sent it to Ms Nielsen for her sign-off after it was completed.

 Senator Tammy Duckworth calls Donald Trump a 'five-time draft dodger'

The Trump administration is trying to turn counterterrorism into an immigration issue, said Charles Kurzman of the University of North Carolina, where he tracks Muslim-American involvement in terrorism.

The report by the Daily Beast said career analysts at the DHS told the Department of Justice the data sought for the report simply did not exist within their department. It said the DHS does not track or correlate international terrorism data by citizenship or country of origin.

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 Daily Beast said some within the DHS, believe the Trump administration used the Department to conflate immigrants with terrorists in support of the Mr Trumps immigration crackdown.

This kind of bureaucratic manipulation of what should be objective, professional analysis is what undermines confidence in these institutions, said Michael German, a former FBI special agent now with New York Universitys Brennan Centre for Justice.

Ms Nielsen told politicians on Capitol Hill the report was likely just the tip of the iceberg. She referred to a diversity visa lottery recipient from Uzbekistan who pleaded guilty to conspiring to support ISIS in 2015 after posting a threat against President Barack Obama online.

The White House wants to stop immigrants coming to the US based on family connections through so-called chain migration and end the diversity immigrant visa programme. But the DHS analysis provides no firm figures on how many of the 549 individuals at issue entered the US through those programnes, only providing eight illustrative examples.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice said the Daily Beast report was an incredibly silly and inaccurate story

For those of us who were actually involved, this story is as bizarre as it is fictional. DHS drafted the report and ran the entire roll out for the report (including breaking it on CBS that morning with their secretary who then opened her testimony with it,) said the spokeswoman.

DOJ certainly provided our thoughts/edits when DHS provided us their draft about a month ago and we had someone from DOJ on their calls for the roll out to media and the Hill in case there were DOJ-related questions, but the narrative here is pretty much a 180 from what actually happened.

A spokesman for the DHS said: The story as reported is categorically false. The Department of Homeland Security worked jointly with DOJ for months on the Section 11 report, and multiple components and offices across DHS were involved in the writing, analysis, and production.

Furthermore, most if not all of the data in the report either came from DHS or was DOJ data analyzed with the help of DHS professionals.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has turned on Donald Trump's administration, blaming senior White House adviser Stephen Miller for the lack of progress towards ending the ongoing government shutdown.

Mr Graham said late on Sunday that he expected a "breakthrough" on the shutdown vote, but that "as long as Stephen Miller is in charge of negotiating on immigration, we're going nowhere."

"He's been an outlier for years," he said of Mr Miller.

The senior Trump adviser was once a staffer to current Attorney General Jeff Sessions and is known for his anti-immigration and staunch conservative views.

"Every time we have a proposal it is only yanked back by staff members," Mr Graham lamented, adding that though he does "enjoy working with them", White House staff like Mr Miller are "making it very difficult."

The President's wide-ranging immigration plan, authored by Mr Miller, made funding for both the President's proposed US-Mexico border wall and a crackdown on US cities unwilling to assist federal authorities in rounding up undocumented immigrants - known as sanctuary cities - non-negotiable parts of the deal.

Mr Graham's attack on Mr Miller comes just weeks after he defended the President from media criticism, telling CNN in December: "What concerns me about the American press is this endless, endless attempt to label the guy as some kind of kook not fit to be president.

The senator had refused to support Mr Trump's presidential campaign in 2016, labelling the candidate a "kook" who was "unfit for office".

He later heavily criticised the President's response to the racially motivated protests in Charlottesville last summer, accusing him of stoking tensions.

As the shutdown extends into the working week, thousands of f ederal employees were being told on Monday to stay at home or work without pay.

Senators negotiated late into Sunday night in a bid to reach an agreement that would have reopened federal agencies before Monday morning, but failed to reach a deal.

Immigration and border security funding continue to be the primary sticking points preventing progress towards ending the shutdown.

The key policies at stake are Mr Trump's proposed border wall with Mexico and the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme, which allows people brought to the US as undocumented immigrants when they were minors to remain in the US legally and avoid deportation.

Democratic Senator and minority senate leader Chuck Schumer blamed Mr Trump for the shutdown, claiming the President had walked away from not one, but two bipartisan deals.

If he had been willing to accept any one of these deals we wouldnt be where we are today, he said.

Americans know why the dysfunction is occurring: a dysfunctional president. Hence, we are in a Trump shutdown.

He had harsh words for other Republicans too, whom he accused of causing chaos and gridlock.

Some Republicans have forgotten the lessons of the founding fathers and shown they don't know how to compromise," Mr Schumer said.

"Not only do they not consult us, they can't even get on the same page as their president - the president from their own party."

Mr Schumer, one of the most powerful Democrats in Washington, has been one of the most vocal opponents of the President in the last three days after a meeting between the two men on Friday failed to end the deadlock.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the senators memory of the meeting  in which Mr Schumer claims Mr Trump showed a willingness to compromise but later failed to press his party to accept it  is hazy and his recollection false.

Some Republicans have pinned the blame for the shutdown on Mr Schumer, spreading the hashtag Schumer Shutdown on social media.

He is accused of being captive to liberals and advocacy groups who are pushing for a solution for immigrants currently protected under the DACA programme.

There are approximately 800,000 people - so-called 'Dreamers' - who have benefited from DACA in the US since its beginning in 2012 under the Obama administration. Potential participants had to have been brought into the US before 15 June 2007 and be younger than 16 when they arrived.

Many Democrats have said rescinding protection from Dreamers is not only against the principal of a diverse and welcoming country but also does not make economic sense, especially with Mr Trump's 'America First' policy on American jobs and manufacturing.

A vote on re-opening the government will be held on Monday at noon local time (5pm UK time). If it passes, the government will extend funding until 8 February, allowing immigration bills to be brought to the floor of the Senate to be voted upon before 5 March, when DACA participants lose their legal status.

AP
A government shutdown drew to a close after three days as Democrats backed a stopgap agreement to continue unsettled negotiations over an immigration programme.

After having blocked a short-term funding deal, rejecting it on the grounds that it did not address an expired program protecting young immigrants from deportation, Democrats lent the votes necessary to advance out of the Senate a measure that offered no concrete immigration concessions. The House quickly approved the compromise.

The measure does include six years of funding for a lapsed childrens health insurance programme. It will financially sustain the federal government for another three weeks, a window during which Congress will try again to reach a broader immigration compromise.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he was trusting the pledge of his Republican counterpart, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, to allow a free and open debate on immigration.

Democrats who voted against the bill and members of the partys liberal base lambasted the agreement, saying Mr Schumer and others had caved without securing any real concessions.

Members of both parties, including the President, had spent days trading blame for the shutdown.

Donald Trump on Monday accused Democrats of prioritizing services and security for noncitizens over U.S. citizens. "Not good," his first tweet said. In a second tweet, he said, "Democrats have shut down our government in the interests of their far left base. They don't want to do it but are powerless!"
A motorcycle bomb exploded in a market in Thailands southern Yala province on Monday, killing three people and wounding 22, a spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) said, the first such attack in the region in months.

The mostly Muslim provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala in Thailands far south are home to a long-running insurgency by ethnic Malay Muslims fighting for autonomy, in which more than 6,000 people have been killed since 2004.

The criminals put a bomb in a motorcycle and placed it next to a market cart. The force of the explosion caused three people to lose their lives, said ISOC spokesman Pramote Prom-in. The ISOC is a government security force that operates in the region.

No group claimed immediate responsibility for the attack on Monday, which took place at a morning market.

Police said the motorcycle was placed near a stall selling pork, which is strictly forbidden for Muslims under Islamic law.

It was not immediately clear whether the bomb was placed at the pork stall in a deliberate attempt to target Thai Buddhists.

The stalls female owner and a male customer were among the three people killed, police said. The bomb blew off chunks of the markets corrugated tin roof and wrecked nearby stalls.

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 southern provinces have seen hundreds of attacks since 2004, many of them deadly, but there have been fewer violent incidents of late.

Analysts who monitor the conflict say violence from the insurgency fell to an historic low in 2017, despite the fact that talks aimed at bringing peace gained little traction.

Thailands military government has tried to revive talks with rebel groups initiated by the previous civilian government, but they have gone almost nowhere.

Resistance to Buddhist rule from Bangkok has existed for decades in the predominantly Muslim southern provinces, waning briefly in the 1990s before resurfacing violently in 2004.

Reuters

Danger zone: the Foreign Office warns against all but essential travel to the area in orange (Foreign Office)

Tourists warned about insurgency

By Simon Calder

Terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in Thailand, the Foreign Office has long warned.

The travel advice continues: There were explosions in Bangkok in April and May 2017, and there were multiple explosions and incidents in tourist areas across Thailand in August 2016.

The latest attack in Yala in the far south of Thailand, which left three dead and 22 injured, must now be added to that list.

The bombing is the latest bloody twist in the Islamist insurgency in the far south of the country, where martial law still prevails.

The Foreign Office says: Since 2004, there have been almost daily attacks in Thailands deep south, including arson, bombings and shootings.

Recommended Thailand bans smoking on tourist beaches

Targets have included civilians and members of the security forces, government offices, tourist hotels, discos, bars, shops, marketplaces, supermarkets, schools, transport infrastructure and trains.

Over 7,000 people have been killed and several thousand more injured.

Unsurprisingly, the Foreign Office warns against travel to the region, comprising the provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and Songkhla.

The US State Department says citizens are at risk of death or injury due to the possibility of indiscriminate attacks in public places in those provinces, and notes: US government employees must obtain special authorisation to travel to these provinces.

The main rail and road link between Thailand and Malaysia passes just to the west of the area, and has a heavy security presence.

Australias official travel advice says: Public order and security incidents, including terror attacks, continue to pose risks to travellers throughout Thailand.

Exercise a high degree of caution in Thailand due to the possibility of civil unrest and the threat of terrorist attack, including in Bangkok and Phuket. Pay close attention to your personal security at all times.
At least 15 people were injured on Monday when a train crashed into a barrier in the northwest of Sydney, Australia's largest city, and were being treated by emergency services personnel, an ambulance spokesman said.

Television pictures showed the train had run into buffers at the end of the railway line at Richmond, about 65 km (40 miles)northwest of central Sydney. The injured were being carried on stretchers into waiting ambulances.

"It's everything from walking patients with minor injuries to patients that will require hospital transport," Ambulance NSW spokesman Chris Bray said.

He said five people would require hospital treatment and 10 others had suffered less serious injuries, although it was likely those numbers would rise.

Train operator NSW Trains said on Twitter the train had hit a buffer at the end of the line. Television footage showed that it was still upright on the tracks and that its carriages did not appear to be crumpled.

Bray said the apparent accident happened shortly before 10 a.m. local time (2300 GMT Sunday) and that 10 ambulance crews were sent to the scene.

Reuters
Swiss authorities have barred protests outside the World Economic Forum where a number of world leaders, include President Donald Trump, will convene this week.

Citing heavy snowfall, officials in Davos said in a statement to the Associated Press that the extremely tight space situation due to the enormous amount of new snow doesnt allow for a rally in the coming days.

Left-wing groups had sought permission to protest outside the annual conclave of world powerbrokers, which will be guarded by thousands of Swiss troops.

Tamara Funiciello of Switzerlands Young Socialists called the governments denial of protests scandalous, telling the AP it was a way of hiding behind the power of global elites.

While Mr Trump intended to attend the summit, a government shutdown that has summoned politicians back to Capitol Hill has thrown that plan into uncertainty.

Cabinet members delayed their departure on Monday, and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the Presidents plans for Davos would cement as the day goes on and as we see how the next couple of hours go.

Davos 2015 in numbers Show all 9 1 /9 Davos 2015 in numbers Davos 2015 in numbers Davos 2015 in numbers 1560m The Swiss resort is the highest town in Europe. Getty Davos 2015 in numbers Davos 2015 in numbers 11,211 The permanent population of Davos. AFP/Getty Davos 2015 in numbers Davos 2015 in numbers 1971 The year the annual forum was founded by Klaus Schwab, a German-born business professor at the University of Geneva (pictured speaking). It was initially named the European Management Forum. World Economic Forum/Wikimedia Commons Davos 2015 in numbers Davos 2015 in numbers 1987 The year the annual forum changed its name to the World Economic Forum. Davos 2015 in numbers Davos 2015 in numbers 1,700 The number of private jets expected to enter Swiss airspace to fly billionaires and government leaders to Davos. Getty Davos 2015 in numbers Davos 2015 in numbers 2,500 The number of participants attending the World Economic Forum. AFP/Getty Davos 2015 in numbers Davos 2015 in numbers 100 Participants will represent more than 100 countries around the world. Rex Davos 2015 in numbers Davos 2015 in numbers 40 The number of heads of state and government in attendance. Pictured is Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. Rex Davos 2015 in numbers Davos 2015 in numbers 17% Women are far outnumbered by men at the World Economic Forum, representing less than a fifth of all participants. Pictured is Queen Mathilde of Belgium. Rex

Members of Congress were continuing to work on a deal to reopen government functions as the shutdown stretched into a third day.

The President and leaders of both parties spent the weekend trading blame for the lack of a funding deal, which Democrats want to address a lapsed program that shielded hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation.
The fugitive and self-exiled Catalan politician Carles Puigdemont has been formally proposed as the leader of a new government by the speaker of the Catalan parliament.

The latest move in the would-be breakaway regions legislature comes as Mr Puigdemont called the bluff of Spanish authorities and travelled to Denmark despite the threat of arrest.

He has been residing in Belgium, where he is avoiding arrest for charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds related to Catalonias independence referendum and declaration last year.

It is unclear whether Mr Puigdemont will be able to form a government because his opponents say he must attend a sitting of the parliament in person to become leader. He has said he will not return to Catalonia until he has been given guarantees that he will not be arrested.

Recommended Spanish supreme court refuses to release jailed Catalan politician

Catalan parliament speaker Roger Torrent says that Mr Puigdemont is the only candidate with enough backing to attempt to form a government, however.

On Monday, the would-be president travelled to Copenhagen, his first visit outside Belgium since his self-imposed exile began, to speak at a university lecture.

The Spanish state prosecution service had said they would try and seek Mr Puigdemonts arrest if he travelled to Denmark to host the talk.

The Spanish Supreme Court had previously issued a European Arrest Warrant for the politician when he was in Belgium, but withdrew it in December to avoid the risk of the Belgian government granting him asylum. Mr Puigdemont and the Catalan independence movement in general have allies in Belgium, where some political parties support the the secession of Flanders.

But on Monday the Supreme Court said it would not re-activate the arrest warrant for the visit to Denmark, making his detention unlikely.

Yellow ribbons marking the seats of Catalan parliamentarians who could not attend the opening session of the body because they are in jail in Madrid (AP)

During the debate in Copenhagen, the politician announced that he would address the media on Tuesday, declining to answer questions about the current situation in the Catalan parliament.

If I say something about the news in Catalonia in relation with the decision of the parliament or the decision of the Spanish Supreme Court, I think nothing of what was discussed today will appear in the media, Mr Puigdemont said when asked at the University of Copenhagen.

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 Spanish government late last year dissolved the Catalan home rule administration and imposed direct rule from Madrid on the province after moves towards independence by its separatist government.

Following new elections in December, an alliance of pro-independence parties won a majority again  albeit a narrower one than before.
The EU remains committed to seeing Jerusalem as the shared capital of Israel and a proposed future Palestinian state, the bloc's foreign policy chief has told the visiting Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, despite Donald Trump's shift of US policy on the city.

Federica Mogherini said leaders needed to "speak and act wisely", and with a sense of responsibility, when discussing the Middle East peace process, and told Abbas the EU still believes that a two-state solution is the only viable way to meet both sides' interests.

Last year, the US President announced that the US would recognise Jerusalem, as a whole, as the capital of Israel, and moved forward plans to relocate the US embassy to the city from Tel Aviv.

At the time, Ms Mogherini issued a statement on behalf of the EU expressing "serious concern" about the American decision and "the repercussions this may have on the prospect of peace".

Mr Abbas on Monday repeated his call for East Jerusalem as capital as he urged the EU member nations to recognise a state of Palestine immediately, arguing that this would not disrupt negotiations with Israel on a peace settlement for the region.

He made no reference to Mr Trump's move on Jerusalem or to comments on the issue made, also on Monday, in Jerusalem by US Vice President Mike Pence.

Additional reporting by Reuters
Survivors of the Taliban attack on Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel recounted on Monday the ordeal of the deadly, 13-hours-long weekend standoff that claimed 18 lives, including 14 foreigners.

The siege ended on Sunday with Afghan security forces saying they had killed the last of six Taliban militants who stormed the hotel in suicide vests late the previous night, looking for foreigners and Afghan officials to kill.

More than 150 people were rescued or managed to escape, including 41 foreigners. Eleven of the 14 foreigners killed were pilots and employees of KamAir, a private Afghan airline. A statement by KamAir later said some of its flights were disrupted because of the attack.

Six Ukrainians, two Venezuelan pilots for KamAir and a citizen from Kazakhstan were among the those killed in the attack on the hotel,

Mohammad Humayun Shams, the telecommunications director of eastern Laghman province who was visiting Kabul and staying at the hotel, said he was able to escape by jumping into a tree form a hotel window as the attackers roamed the hallways, killing people.

It was the worst night of my life, Shams said, adding that as he ran, he didn't know who were the police and who were the Taliban - they all had the same type of uniforms.

Afghan authorities have not confirmed the attackers wore police uniforms. Security officials said 34 provincial officials were at the hotel for a conference organised by the Telecommunication Ministry.

On Monday, Afghan security forces remained positioned on all the roads leading to the hotel, barring everyone from access to the area.

Jawad Zia, the director at the Kabul Intercontinental, which is not part of the InterContinental chain, said dozens of the hotel rooms were damaged in the attack.

We have damaged rooms in each floor of the hotel, he told the Associated Press over the phone.

Among Afghans killed in the attack was a telecommunications official from western Farah province; Waheed Poyan, Afghanistan's newly appointed consul general to the Pakistani city of Karachi; and Ahmad Farzan, an employee of the High Peace Council, a commission created to facilitate peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban and other opposition groups.

Along with Shams, five other hotel guests, including a foreigner, managed to jump into the tree. From there, they climbed down to the ground and Shams called the police with his mobile.

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

They were told to stay put until the police came to take them away, hours later.

I am still in shock... in fact can't believe I am alive he added.

AP
A press organisation in Israel has accused the authorities of ethnic profiling after a female Finnish journalist whose father is Palestinian, was told she had to undergo a strip search if she wanted to cover an event that was part of the visit of US Vice President Mike Pence.

The Foreign Press Association (FPA) in Israel said the journalist from Finlands state broadcaster, who is accredited by the government press office, was taken behind a curtain at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus office, where she said she was questioned, patted down, and then asked to remove her bra for an inspection.

She reportedly refused to do and was prevented from covering the event.

Unfortunately, this was just the latest instance of journalists being needlessly hassled by Israeli security in what we believe is clear ethnic profiling, the FPA said in a statement.

The repugnant practice of strip searching journalists puts Israel in a category all of its own and is a mark of shame for a country that boasts of its democratic credentials.

The organisation, who represents around 400 journalists working for international media in Israel and the Palestinian territories, said it had repeatedly expressed its understanding of Israels unique security needs.

 Mr Ali Abunimah, a Palestinian American journalist, predicts Israel will be treated like a 'pariah state' in 2018

But given all of the technology and intelligence at Israels fingertips, we fail to see any good reason for the continued humiliation of professional accredited journalists and can only conclude that this only-in-Israel practice is aimed at making people feel unwelcome and keeping them away, it added.

The alleged incident is said to have taken place as Mr Pence told Israels parliament that the US Embassy will move to Jerusalem by the end of 2019, an announcement that earned him a rousing ovation,

The plan to accelerate the move of the embassy, announced in the first address of a sitting American vice president to the Knesset, marked the highlight of Mr Pences three-day visit to Israel celebrating President Donald Trumps decision last month to recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital.

The United States has chosen fact over fiction - and fact is the only true foundation for a just and lasting peace, said Mr Pence, according to the Associated Press.

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

Jerusalem is Israels capital and as such President Trump has directed the State Department to immediately begin preparations to move the United States embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Mr Pences speech drew an angry denunciation from the Palestinians, with chief negotiator Saeb Erekat saying it has proven that the U.S. administration is part of the problem rather than the solution. The Palestinian leadership had boycotted the visit and declined to meet with Mr Pence.

Mr Pence later told the AP he hoped the Palestinians would re-enter negotiations.

Our message to President [Mahmoud] Abbas and the Palestinian Authority is the doors open. The doors open, he said.

President Trump is absolutely committed to doing everything the United States can to achieve a peace agreement that brings an end to decades of conflict.

There was no immediate response from the Israeli authorities.
US Vice President Mike Pence has told Israels parliament that the US embassy in the country will move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by the end of 2019.

He sparked fresh anger during the visit to when he said it was an honour to be in Israels capital, Jerusalem. President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as the Israeli capital at the end of last year, turning his back on decades of US foreign policy and sparking protests across the region.

The announcement by Mr Pence, who also met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, involves a shorter timeframe than had been previously highlighted by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who said it would likely take three years for the move to happen.

The United States has chosen fact over fiction  and fact is the only true foundation for a just and lasting peace, Mr Pence said, using similar strength of language to that of Mr Trump when he initially announced the move  language which has drawn international condemnation.

Recommended Palestinian leaders call on PLO to suspend recognition of Israel

Jerusalem is Israels capital, and as such President Trump has directed the State Department to immediately begin preparations to move the United States embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, he said.

In the weeks ahead, our administration will advance its plan to open the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem  and that United States embassy will open before the end of next year, he added.

Mr Pences speech drew an angry denunciation from the Palestinians, with chief negotiator Saeb Erekat saying it has proven that the US administration is part of the problem rather than the solution.

The messianic discourse of Pence is a gift to extremists, Mr Erekat wrote on Twitter. His message to the rest of the world is clear: violate international law and resolutions and the US will reward you.

Palestinians seek East Jerusalem, including the walled Old City, as the capital of their own future state. Israel, which annexed East Jerusalem after capturing it in 1967, believes the city is its eternal and indivisible capital.

A group of Palestinians in the West Bank town of Bethlehem protested Mr Pences arrival by burning posters with his image.

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 Pence delivered a speech to the Israeli Knesset after his meeting with Mr Netanyahu  with the Israeli Prime Minister saying he was the first US vice president to be afforded the honour.

Israeli Arab parliamentarians protested against Mr Pences speech by standing and holding signs in Arabic and English saying, Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine, before being swiftly ejected from the session.

The Knesset, which is accustomed to such high-profile visits, had added a new layer of security ahead of Mr Pences appearance.

Before the protest, Ayman Odeh, leader of the Joint List, a political alliance of four Arab-dominated parties, said the group will not provide a silent backdrop to a man he called a dangerous racist.

That was in stark contrast to the Israeli Prime Minister, who told Mr Pence it was the first time a visiting dignitary could use the word capital in regards to Jerusalem and thanked Mr Pence for Mr Trumps historic recognition of the city.

Mr Netanyahu also praised the American-Israeli alliance, saying it had never been stronger.

Mr Pence was greeted with the American national anthem and he spoke briefly with Israeli soldiers before beginning his meeting with Mr Netanyahu.

He said he was grateful to be representing the US President and that his decision to designate Jerusalem as the Israeli capital would create an opportunity to move on in good faith negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

He added that he hoped we are at the dawn of a new era of renewed discussions to achieve a peaceful resolution to a decades-long conflict.

But Palestinian leaders have so far sought not to engage with US officials following the move by Mr Trump.

After Mr Trumps initial Jerusalem announcement, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he would not meet Trump administration officials and called off a meeting with Mr Pence. Mr Abbas overlapped with Mr Pence in Jordan from Saturday evening to midday on Sunday  with Mr Pence having visited Egypt and Jordan before Israel  but was instead heading to Brussels to meet European Union officials.

In a sign of the discord that Mr Trumps decision has created, the EUs foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, assured Mr Abbas on Monday that the EU supported his ambition to have East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state.

Ms Mogherini, the subject of her words seemingly clear, called on those involved in the process to speak and act wisely, with a sense of responsibility.

I want to reassure President Abbas of the firm commitment of the European Union to the two-state solution, with Jerusalem as the shared capital of the two states, Ms Mogherini said.

Before Mr Abbass arrival, she was was less veiled, saying: Clearly there is a problem with Jerusalem. That is a very diplomatic euphemism, in reference to Mr Trumps position.

However, as with Mr Pence, Ms Mogherini said she still wanted to work with the United States on Middle East peace talks and had discussed ways to restart them late last year with Mr Pence and Mr Tillerson.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, an adviser to Mr Abbas, reiterated that the United States is no longer acceptable as a mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Agencies contributed to this report
US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis has admitted that Turkey warned Washington it was going to carry out air strikes against Kurdish militia which are backed by his country.

Washington remained in discussions with Ankara, he said, without disclosing his government's reaction to the attacks.

Turkey was candid," he said. "They warned us before they launched the aircraft they were going to do it, in consultation with us.

Recommended Turkish assault on Kurds threatens to open new phase of Syrian war

And we are working now on the way ahead. Well work this out.

Mr Mattis said Turkeys military informed Washington of its air operation in a phone call to high levels of the US military. He said none of his country's forces were currently at risk from the Turkish operations.

Asked whether he was concerned about the situation, Mr Mattis said: We are very alert to it. Our top levels are engaged ... And were working through it.

The air strikes in Syrias Afrin province open a new phase of the countrys seven-year war.

It pits the country against a Kurdish group known as the YPG, who form part of a US backed alliance battling Isis fighters in the region.

Turkey regards the group as terrorists and has claimed it is linked to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which it has banned.

The group has carried out a deadly, three-decade insurgency in Turkeys mainly Kurdish southeast and the US's support for the group in Syria has angered it.

Mr Mattis acknowledged that Turkey had "legitimate security concerns" and noted that it was the only member of Nato with an active insurgency inside its borders.

He said that the US military was deployed in Syria in a way that meant it could ensure its weaponry was being used to battle insurgents, not Turkish forces. "That support has allowed the US-led coalition to crush Isis," he added.

The Kurdish and other US-backed fighters "have proven their effectiveness, he said adding that it had "cost them thousands of casualties."

Turkey's operation nonetheless comes at a time when ties between Ankara and Washington appear strained.

Inside Syria's obliterated capital of the revolution Show all 10 1 /10 Inside Syria's obliterated capital of the revolution Inside Syria's obliterated capital of the revolution The reconstructed Khaled Bin al-Waleed Mosque is framed by a damaged building, in the old city of Homs AP Inside Syria's obliterated capital of the revolution Sumaya Bairuty, 38, an English-language teacher who works in the capital Damascus, speaks with The Associated Press while as she walks to her parents house in the war-damaged Bab Dreib neighborhood of Homs AP Inside Syria's obliterated capital of the revolution Bairuty walks to her parents house AP Inside Syria's obliterated capital of the revolution A family that returned to live in their apartment inside a heavily damaged building hang their carpets in the sun AP Inside Syria's obliterated capital of the revolution A car drives through a devastated part of the old city AP Inside Syria's obliterated capital of the revolution A pigeon keeper watches his pigeons fly from the roof of his home AP Inside Syria's obliterated capital of the revolution Two people carry goods on a bicycle in the war-damaged neighborhood AP Inside Syria's obliterated capital of the revolution Children play football in the street AP Inside Syria's obliterated capital of the revolution It has been almost four years since the last rebels and civilians withdrew from the remaining strongholds in the ancient heart of Homs in Syria AP Inside Syria's obliterated capital of the revolution A man rides his bicycle past a banner showing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad AP

Relations between the countries are particularly crucial given their key roles in the coalition against Isis and in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato).

Turkey's foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu held a phonecall over the weekend with his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian.

The French foreign ministry later said France had called a United Nations Security Council emergency meeting over the situation in Syria that will meet this week.

Mr Cavusoglu was later reported to have said anyone who opposed his country's Afrin operation will have taken the side of terrorists.

Ankara expected France to support Turkey, he added.

Reuters contributed to this report
With their horses and carts and beaten-up cars, the refugees of Gazas Beach camp arrived early on Monday for their quarterly food boxes, given out on a rota system by UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees.

Some had come several days before their designated pick-up day, fearing that soon the free flour, lentils, sardines and oil on which their lives depend, would be gone.

Trump  he wants us to die, they cried angrily, as huge flour sacks thumped on the ground. They were talking of the US Presidents shock decision last week to slash US funding to UNRWA by more than half, a move which threatens food aid to Palestinian refugees not only in Gaza but in camps in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan  where five million refugees rely on UNRWA for basic services, including health and education.

They have tried with the bombs and now they want us to starve, said Rihab Abu Sharifa, a 45-year-old widow, who shares her breeze block and asbestos home with 18 others, including her 12 grandchildren.

Anger about Mr Trumps cuts to UNRWA spilled out in Gaza on the same day as Mike Pence, the US Vice President, held talks in Jerusalem with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, about a new peace plan.

US Vice President Mike Pence visits Jerusalem's Western Wall on 23 January, 2018 (AFP/Getty Images)

But Mr Pence only stoked fresh outrage among Palestinians as he confirmed the US plan to move its embassy to Jerusalem. He also declared the city Israels capital, despite Palestinian claims that East Jerusalem  illegally annexed by Israel  should be the capital of a future Palestine.

At the same time 2,000 miles away, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was urging European leaders to recognise the state of Palestine, and being told in return that the EU remains critical of the American approach and committed to a two-state solution with Jerusalem as a shared capital.

While Jerusalem hit the headlines, however, the most serious threat to any new peace plan came with Americas announcement of cuts to UNRWAs aid budgets, to which the US is the largest donor. A promised initial payment from the US  more than $195m (140m) for the first quarter of 2018  was slashed without warning to $60m, triggering fears that food aid, as well as schooling and medical aid, would all be hit.

Fears about what this might mean were already clear to see on the faces of the absolute and abject poor of Gazas Beach camp, as they grabbed their UNRWA food boxes and made for home. UNRWA officials  normally a cautious breed  predicted a catastrophe if the boxes are not there when the refugees return for their next three-month supply.

Such warnings in Gaza are not unusual. Many predicted a new intifada following the last Israeli bombardment of 2014, and again after the recent US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital, but the Palestinians  too disillusioned with failed peace efforts, and divided amongst themselves  have largely stayed calm.

Yet the situation unfolding now is unprecedented, observers here said. The people of Gaza have lived through several cycles of war, and suffered under a 10-year blockade imposed by Israel. They have seen the peace efforts fall apart and their own leadership divided. But nobody has ever taken away their bread and that is precisely due to UNRWAs presence in all Palestinian camps, said senior UN officials here.

Moreover, there is every reason to fear that the US cut to UNRWAs budget has a political agenda and will be followed by a decision to remove the Palestinian refugees right of return home from any future deal. The right to return has been a core Palestinian claim, enshrined in UN resolutions, since the Arab-Israeli war of 1948 when the refugees were driven out of their homes in what is now Israel and have never been allowed back.

A refugee helper at the Beach Camp food aid centre on Monday (Sarah Helm)

Such fears have been further fuelled by reports that America wants to limit the number of Palestinians defined as refugees by all but the first generation, who are fast dying out.

Just as President Trump has taken Jerusalem off the table so he seems to want to take refugees off the table,  said Matthias Schmale, director of UNRWA in Gaza.

For now, however, the immediate concern is calming fears of hunger in the camps.

While Gazas main streets present a veneer of energy, with shops apparently well stocked, few are buying even in the affluent areas. Minutes away, in the alleys of refugee camps where more than one million depend on UNRWA food aid, a more depressing story unfolds. 

Stories of domestic abuse, theft, violence and suicide spill out of nearly every household. Unemployment in the camps is as high as 70 per cent, and again and again, the main fear is that food aid will stop.

Riba Abu Sharifa takes us into the ground floor of her tiny breeze block house where amid piles of unwashed clothes and detritus she shares a room with two unmarried sons.

Behind towels strung up for doors, her two jobless sons live with their wives and children, five each, in two single rooms. Electricity is on for just a few hours a day and sanitation is near collapse as raw sewage pours into the sea nearby.

The cuts to UNRWA will affect not only food aid, but end the already slow post-war reconstruction programme and lead to cuts to UNRWA jobs, thereby further undermining the Gaza economy. Equally dangerous, say officials, will be cuts to the UNRWA school budget, pushing children onto the streets instead of into classes.

Aid workers here hold out hope that the EU, UNRWAs second biggest donor, as well as Arab countries, will fill the budget cuts made by the US. There is also speculation that Israel itself will call on the US to reverse the cuts, in the knowledge that a humanitarian disaster on its doorstep could destabilise Israel itself and the whole region.

In UNRWAs Gaza offices, however, they know that if Israel sees a chance to remove the refugees right of return, with US backing, it will seize it. One official commented: We hope the money will be forthcoming but we are planning for chaos.
An hour into his long and uncomfortable journey, Chris Grayling said plaintively: By now we were meant to be most of the way to Cardiff, and were not.

The beleaguered Transport Secretary was talking about the lamentable delays and cost overruns for electrification of the Great Western Railway. But the 4.45pm Transport Select Committee was not, from Mr Grayling's point of view, making great progress either.

The Transport Secretary had been summoned to explain himself about a sudden change of track on electrification.

There are a lot of communities right around the country that feel very aggrieved by the decision you have taken, said Labours Luke Pollard. They feel very betrayed and let down.

Passengers from Leicester, Derby, Nottingham and all stations to Sheffield want to know why plans for electrification from London St Pancras to Sheffield had been abandoned less than halfway, at Kettering. (As Mr Graylings misfortune would have it, the committee is chaired by Labours Lilian Greenwood, whose Nottingham South constituents were rather looking forward to faster, cleaner trains to London.)

Travellers west of Cardiff, too, were keen to hear why the wires from London Paddington will stop at the Welsh capital rather than continuing to Swansea as originally planned.

The Transport Secretary said: We tried to do too much electrification in one go. He has decided to save money and trouble by the use of bi-mode  a mirror image of the Toyota Prius principle. Perfectly good electric trains are fitted with diesel motors and filled with fuel. This cargo is then carted around the country at 125mph, coming into its own only when the overhead wires run out.

The worst of every world, Labours Daniel Zeichner called the concept.

Bi-mode trains are heavier, which hampers performance and increases damage to the tracks. Maintenance is twice as expensive. The operational cost to the traveller and the taxpayer is alarming: on the Midland main line alone between London and Sheffield, the extra expense is 63,000 a day.

Bi for now: an InterCity Express Train on a test run at London Paddington, running on diesel and electricity

But Mr Grayling was unrepentant: My job is to try to maximise the value to passengers of the investments that we make. And spending a billion pounds shaving a minute off the journey time to Sheffield at a time when there are capacity constraints elsewhere on the network still to be tackled, didnt seem to be the best use of money.

Ive not taken away any passenger benefits anywhere. These changes do not affect the passenger.

They do, though, affect the environment. At a time when the Government is urging motorists to switch from diesel to electric cars, on the rails it is heading in the opposite direction.

As the 4.45pm from Paddington to Cardiff was approaching the Severn Tunnel, Ms Greenwood wondered why, if bi-mode was such as great idea, the underwater link between England and Wales had been closed for six weeks in 2016 for electrification.

Previous decisions had been flawed. The whole project, said Mr Grayling, was over budget and late.

But he hinted that long closures could affect passengers across the Pennines as the east-west route was improved: If we could set up a plan to close that route for a month one summer and divert those trains elsewhere, we could do a whole lot of extra work.

The Complete Guide: to luxury trains Show all 2 1 /2 The Complete Guide: to luxury trains The Complete Guide: to luxury trains The Complete Guide: to luxury trains

Something untoward in the Severn Tunnel disrupted the 4.45pm departure from Paddington. As a result, the 4.45pm Transport Select Committee hit the buffers a few minutes before the train reached Cardiff.

Thank you, Secretary of State, for your time today, said the committee chair.

Youre welcome, said Mr Grayling, with the weary look of a commuter at the end of an unexpectedly protracted two-hour journey, and who knew he would have to travel this way again.
Terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in Thailand, the Foreign Office has long warned.

The travel advice continues: There were explosions in Bangkok in April and May 2017, and there were multiple explosions and incidents in tourist areas across Thailand in August 2016.

The latest attack at Yala in the far south of Thailand, which left three dead and 22 injured, must now be added to that list.

The bombing is the latest bloody twist in the Islamist insurgency in the far south of the country, where martial law still prevails.

The Foreign Office says: Since 2004, there have been almost daily attacks in Thailands deep south, including arson, bombings and shootings.

Targets have included civilians and members of the security forces, government offices, tourist hotels, discos, bars, shops, marketplaces, supermarkets, schools, transport infrastructure and trains.

Over 7,000 people have been killed and several thousand more injured.

Danger zone: the Foreign Office warns against all but essential travel to the area in orange (Foreign Office)

Unsurprisingly, the Foreign Office warns against travel to the region, comprising the provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and Songkhla.

The US State Department says citizens are at risk of death or injury due to the possibility of indiscriminate attacks in public places in those provinces, and notes: US government employees must obtain special authorization to travel to these provinces.

The main rail and road link between Thailand and Malaysia passes just to the west of the area, and has a heavy security presence.

Australias official travel advice says: Public order and security incidents, including terror attacks, continue to pose risks to travellers throughout Thailand.

Exercise a high degree of caution in Thailand due to the possibility of civil unrest and the threat of terrorist attack, including in Bangkok and Phuket. Pay close attention to your personal security at all times.
A group of Japanese students were left shocked when a Venice restaurant charged them 970 for a meal.

The group of four students, who are studying in Bologna, had eaten at Osteria de Luca restaurant close to St Marks Square when they were presented with the eyebrow-raising bill for three steaks, fried fish and mineral water.

The stunned group then went to local police to report the restaurant.

 British tourists charged 526 for lunch in Venice

A spokesman for Gruppo 25, a Venice civil rights organisation, told Venice Today about the escalation in the number of cases involving tourists being ripped off.

This is just the latest case of many of this kind. The young people, who are university students in Bologna, made a formal denunciation to the local police station as soon as they got off the train.

The restaurant has a 1.5 (out of 5) rating on Tripadvisor, with 83 per cent of visitors labelling it Terrible.

One user complained: Just got done eating at this place and the food was very average, wasnt going to leave a review at all until I got the bill! They added on almost 50 in taxes and tip, these are the hidden fees that they dont tell you and the service wasnt that good! I feel scammed.

Another visitor, who posted a review in December 2017, wrote: A coke costs 7.50, the lasagne is just a blob of mince sauce and a lettuce leaf, the pizzas are defrosted bases probably supermarket purchased, strong smell of the toilet at our table, the bill was extremely expensive and we highly regret not checking Tripadvisor before entering this restaurant.

Huge tourist numbers in Venice mean prices in restaurants can be high (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

There have been a number of incidents involving tourists alleging that they were ripped off at Venice restaurants in recent months.

In November 2017, a British tourist dubbed a Venice restaurant horrible and disgusting after being charged 526 (463) for lunch for three. The tourist from Birmingham ate with his parents at Trattoria Casanova in the central San Marco district, ordering a spread of food and sharing it between them. Italian restaurants often charge by weight rather than portion, and the restaurant denied any wrongdoing.

Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro introduced fines last year to dissuade tourists from littering, walking around topless and other acts deemed inappropriate, but also said tourists need to shell out a bit when eating in the city, following criticisms of extortionate bills at restaurants.
Gloria Allred, the feminist power-lawyer and my personal hero, echoed many womens views when she recently told a Financial Times reporter that we have reached the tipping point in the #MeToo campaign.

Many are asking, now what? The next stage is to bring about awareness, raise funds and bring legal justice for victims  we can fundamentally change the way we deal with discrimination in our culture. That, to a certain extent, is happening behind the scenes already.

At least for a few months, we have seen the domino effect where powerful men are now vulnerable.

Brave women came forward, and gave space and confidence for other women to do the same. Their stories wont guarantee justice  after all, so far in the #MeToo campaign, no alleged perpetrator has faced criminal charges. But the role of social media, crowdfunding and other digital interfaces has created solidarity and helped tip the balance back to women. It also gives them hope, and for survivors, that is incredibly powerful.

The law has an important role to play. First, we need to educate women about their rights. Second, we can help enforce those rights  which can be complex and expensive in practice. Third, and perhaps most importantly, we can protect women who speak out about unacceptable, discriminatory conduct that may not clear the bar of illegality by making sure that they cant be silenced by powerful men and organisations.

 Blogger Constance Hall shares her #MeToo rape story in viral Facebook post

Online, everyone who believes in a society thats safe and respectful can come together to achieve these goals.

This week on CrowdJustice, the platform I founded which enables people to come together to access the law, we saw the launch of a case, brought by the Centre for Womens Justice and a leading feminist lawyer, to challenge the parole boards decision to allow the early release of serial rapist John Worboys. The crowdfunding campaign allows people to come together to fund action to stop his release but it could also change the rules, which currently prevent the reasons behind the parole boards decision from being published. This is important because if the lawyers can get access to these reasons they can explore grounds for challenging the decision.

There are other fundraising and awareness campaigns surrounding discrimination which deserve attention for the bravery of the women involved in using the law. They include women in the music industry speaking out about the harassment they faced from a powerful man, who tried to silence them with a defamation suit.

They include more than 200 victims of police spying, most of them women, who were duped into sexual relationships with officers during an undercover investigation, and the women in Northern Ireland who are fighting for their reproductive rights. They also include a group of inspirational women who are fighting against the impact of changes to the State Pension Age, and the women leading the fight to recall Californian judge Aaron Persky, the man who sentenced rapist Brock Turner to just three months.

Every woman to make sexual assault claims against Donald Trump Show all 16 1 /16 Every woman to make sexual assault claims against Donald Trump Every woman to make sexual assault claims against Donald Trump E Jean Carroll Author Carroll alleges that Trump pinned her against a wall and forced himself upon her in the changing rooms of a Manhattan department store in the mid-90s Getty Every woman to make sexual assault claims against Donald Trump Kristin Anderson Anderson alleges that Mr Trump touched her genitals while at a club in the early 1990s Every woman to make sexual assault claims against Donald Trump Jessica Leeds Leeds told the New York Times that Mr Trump groped her on an airplane in the 1980s BBC Every woman to make sexual assault claims against Donald Trump Natasha Stoynoff Stoynoff alleged that Mr Trump forcefully kissed her before an interview at his Mar-A-Lago estate in 2005 Everipedia Every woman to make sexual assault claims against Donald Trump Karena Virginia Virginia alleges Mr Trump groped her in 1998 outside of the US Open tennis tournament BBC News Every woman to make sexual assault claims against Donald Trump Temple Taggart Taggart claims Mr Trump gave her a kiss without consent during a rehearsal for a 1997 Miss USA pageant Every woman to make sexual assault claims against Donald Trump Summer Zervos The former Apprentice contestant alleged that Mr Trump kissed and groped her at a Beverly Hills hotel in 2007 Every woman to make sexual assault claims against Donald Trump Alva Johnson A former staffer for Trump's campaign, Johnson alleges that Trump forcibly tried to kiss her after a rally in August 2016 MSNBC Every woman to make sexual assault claims against Donald Trump Jennifer Murphy The former Apprentice contestant said Mr Trump "surprise kissed" her - but she said it did not bother her Every woman to make sexual assault claims against Donald Trump Jill Harth The makeup artist accused Mr Trump of "attempted rape" while in his daughter's room in 1997 Every woman to make sexual assault claims against Donald Trump Mindy McGillivray McGillivray alleges Mr Trump groped her at Mar-A-Lago in 2013 AP Every woman to make sexual assault claims against Donald Trump Rachel Crooks Crooks says that kissed her on the cheeks and mouth when she introduced herself to him in 2005 Every woman to make sexual assault claims against Donald Trump Mindy McGillivray McGillivray claims that Trump grabbed her backside at Mar-a-Lago in 2006 CNN Every woman to make sexual assault claims against Donald Trump Cassandra Searles The former Miss Washington alleges that Trump repeatedly grabbed her backside and invited her to his hotel room Getty Every woman to make sexual assault claims against Donald Trump Jessica Drake Drake claims that when she and two other women arrived to Trump's hotel room at his invitation, he arrived at the door in pyjamas and tightly hugged and kissed each of the woman without permission Getty Every woman to make sexual assault claims against Donald Trump Ninni Laaksonen The former Miss Finland claims that Trump squeezed her behind before they appeared together on the Late Show with David Letterman in 2006 EPA

There are no shortage of stories of women who have faced discrimination, from everyday sexism to profound injustices, and more and more of them are fighting back. My hope is that cases like these provide an example to other women and girls that the law can be used to challenge the status quo, or to protect rights that exist in principle but should exist in practice, too. My hope is that it wont just be prominent campaigners like Gloria Allred, but every woman, who can stand up for womens rights and have a voice in the legal system.

Thanks to women coming together online to bring about positive change, there are many people to talk to these days. More and more of us are in the fighting spirit.

Julia Salasky is the CEO of CrowdJustice
Jagdish Lal Ahuja has been serving langar for over 30 years. In spite of a cancer diagnosis, he still serves food to the poor and hungry every evening. (IANS photo)
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Operatives of the Rapid Response Squad of the Lagos State Police Command has arrested some suspected armed robber for allegedly stealing foreign and local currencies, among other valuables estimated at N1m, from a woman on New Years Eve.

The suspects, who also collected the victims American visa card, gold trinkets, phone, were said to have called her husband on the telephone afterwards, demanding N25,000 to release the valuables to her.

The case was reported at the Ketu Police Station and was referred to operatives of the RRS, who arrested the suspects.

The 58-year-old woman, identified only as Alhaja, allegedly told the police in her statement that she was robbed at Ketu bus stop, Ketu, around 9pm on December 31, 2017.

She said, I was going to my house in Ikorodu after visiting my children on New Years Eve when I boarded a tricycle heading for Ketu bus stop.

I alighted close to the Ketu bridge on Ikorodu Road around 9pm. I was the only one, as other passengers had dropped off before reaching the bus stop.

Immediately I alighted, I was surrounded by five young men, who wielded knives and daggers. They collected my phone and a hand bag containing $800 (N288,000), 400 Qatari Riyal (N39,548), N45,000, an American visa card, a pouch containing gold trinkets and a purse with unspecified amount of money.

After collecting all I had on me, they let me go. They then started using my phone to call my husband that I should bring N25,000 to collect my phone and all they took from me. When the harassment became unbearable, I decided to block the line.

She said she reported the matter at the Ketu Police Station from where it was referred to the RRS.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
The Deputy PRO of the Lagos State Police Command, Iheanachor Omuta is advising all Lagosians to call him directly if they ever encounter a corrupt Lagos police officer who attempts to extort money from them.

The police officer made the announcement in a tweet, where he wrote;

08036994334. I don talk am before, I wan talk am again. My country people abeg if any police wan harass una, make una no gree give anybody any money until una call me because dis tin don too much @segalink @RuggedyBaba helep me tell them too.

He added;

No police officer has any right to harass, assault or brutalize any one.

My thoughts:

Imagine our dear Nigeria rated the safest and best policed country. Its doable with the right reforms, effective implementations and public-private partnership (community policing). We actually can Claim the 21st Century.

Follow us, support us and share information with the Lagos State Police Command on our social media platforms. @policenglagos on twitter, instagram and facebook

Clear pictures of the individual(s) without putting yourself at risk, proper description of the individual(s), help a lot on our end in identifying policemen that harass Lagosians.

Never agree to give any policeman any money on the streets of Lagos. #seesomethingsaysomething.

-Gistreel
A video of a marriage proposal which turned sour went viral on social media last week. This video sparked a lot of controversies on social media. For those who didnt see the video, this is the gist.

A young lady proposed to her boyfriend at Ikeja shopping mall but the boyfriend rejected her marriage proposal and the lady became hysterical.

However, let us hear what Joromi and Kamilu have to say about this issue. They have been at each others throat over this discussion for days now and I am really helpless.

Joromi: That girl fall my hand no be small oh! How can she be desperate to ask a man to marry her?

Kamilu: Desperate? She asked her man to marry her and you call her desperate? Why should she wait for him to propose, after all you are into a relationship with the intention of getting married? So whoever is ready should ask.

Joromi: Kamilu! Kamilu!! Kamilu!!! How many times did I call you?

Kamilu: Please stop screaming in my ears! You called me three times.

Joromi: It is people like you who want to spoil the world. It is very wrong for a woman to propose to a man.

Kamilu: A woman waiting for a man to propose is patriarchy bullshit. It is sexism, double standards, implicit bias and unfair burden placed on the shoulder of women. How do you leave the fate of women in the hands of men?

Joromi: Kamilu! Stop all the grammar and face the reality. A man should propose to a woman and not the other way around. That is our tradition. It is very unromantic for a woman to do so.

Kamilu: Oh! Tradition is now romantic, sebi? You make me laugh. Joromi the only difference between a person who is on his knees is the genitals. Nothing more. It makes little difference if it is a man or a woman. They are both in love and either of them should be able to make a choice. Let us make tradition a choice and not a mandate joor!

Joromi: Aside from the fact that marriage is Gods idea and you dont tamper with Gods order. Men are naturally born to pursue and conquer. It is so sweet to see a guy so smitten that he asks for marriage but for a woman? Oh! Where is the bin? I wanna puke!

Kamilu: So, you have moved from tradition now into religion. I wont stay here and discuss religion with you. Religion proves nothing! I want facts.

Joromi: Fact kor, fanta ni! What about scientific researches? Go on google and find the facts yourself. There are many studies that have proven that women prefer men to go on their knees and ask for their hand in marriage.

Kamilu: To an extent I agree. Sadly, many of these women shouting gender equality and feminism are always ecstatic with joy when they are being proposed to. A woman must always wait for a man to make a decision about her life. When a man wants to marry a woman he goes to ask her father. When she is walking down the aisle on her wedding day, she walks down with her father. So a womans life revolves around men. The fate of every woman is in the hands of men. Oh! How annoying!

Joromi: I dont care how you feel about these things but people like me wont allow your western ideas to succeed here in our country. It is an abomination for a woman to ask a man for marriage. Moreover, gender equality is much deeper than a marriage proposal.

Kamilu: If women and men are equal then a woman should be able to make a marriage proposal. The fate of women shouldnt be in the hands of men, it should be in their own hands. Shikena!

Joromi: Thats very myopic. And you make a noble movement laughable with your sentiments. I think the core aspect of gender equality should be on educating the girl child, eradication of any form of discrimination against the girl child and women. Empowering women and girls, expansion of womens access to justice by improving their psychological well being. Combating gender based violence and the eradication of child marriage in our country.

But we forget all these problems and we prefer to act out the non consequential ones. Such as a marriage proposal! Tueh!

Kamilu: You are not getting my point here. For instance passing on some part of history that strengthens our bonds together is a good tradition. But what I dislike are traditions that subjugate women because I am worried about the long term implications of holding up some archaic practices that undermine the female gender.

Joromi: And you think a woman asking a man to marry him will be the solution to all these problems I mentioned? You better go and purge your head from brain constipation that is worrying you. When you pick up ideas and you dont sift it, this is what happens to you. The same thing happened to that girl. She got carried away and believe me no matter how liberal a Nigerian man is, locked inside of him is a man with core traditional values.

Kamilu: No way! There is a model I will call the new Nigerian men, they are Nigerian men who are unlearning many of these barbaric cultures and traditions.

Joromi: Hian! Like the ones on social media abi? Are they for real? They are the ones confusing these young girls and after these girls have swallowed everything hook, line and sinker, they try it out and get heartbroken. Kamilu, Nigerian men are not ready for marriage proposal from women. Not now! Not in the next twenty years! It is a culture shock.

Kamilu: Wait a second. It is a gradual process and I know we cant get an instant result but someday we will get there. Martin Luther King had a dream many years ago and I have a dream!

Joromi: Shut up! Joseph the dreamer. A lot of women cannot handle rejection and so that lady took it badly. Men handle rejection better because they have been wired like that.

Kamilu: Are you telling me that gender equality for women only applies to things that are not difficult?

Joromi: Do you have cotton buds there, Kamilu?

Joromi: No, why?

Kamilu: If you dont then, I may have to call in the laundry service to come clean your ears. I never said or implied that in my argument. Women should take charge of their lives but they should leave the marriage proposals to men.

Kamilu: Times have changed Joromi. Women should pop the questions to their significant others. Many women have done that in the western world and are happily married.

Joromi: Keep dreaming. When you are done with building an icy castle in the thin air in dreamland, then you will wake up to our reality. This is Naija!!!

Well as for me, I think men should take charge of the proposals. I cant just deal with planning a proposal, buying a ring, being sweaty, the fear of rejection and excitement in a roll. I think I would prefer being asked and having the choice to say a no or yes, is more like having super powers.

Moreover, I think it is more magical when a man asks the woman of his dreams to marry him. I would rather deal with the butterflies fluttering in my tummy than going down on my knees. Or what do you think? Should women make marriage proposals?

*********************

Credits: Bolatito on Sunday by The Sun.
2018 is looking very promising for popular Nigerian journalist, Ms Kemi Omololu Olunloyo after the legal case that saw her spend most part of last year (2017) in delapidated Nigerian prisons got squashed in court today after the plaintiff, Pastor David Ibiyeomie decided not to purse the case any further and drop all charges against Kemi Olunloyo. Coincidentally, the journalist has also turned a fresh page in her life after confessing to being born again and having found Jesus Christ in her plaintiffs church earlier last week, a news that took her followers by surprise and alot of them even went as far as accusing her of taking hush money in return for her freedom and silence, well the good news is Ms. Kemi has been discharged today and she is free to pursue her other goals and dreams without any harassment from Nigerian authorities  Before she left for jail in June last year, she had declared her intention to become the first female governor in Nigeria, by contesting in the Oyo state gubernatorial elections, we at Naijapals wonder if that will be back on track now that she is free again!
The Senior Pastor of Salvation Ministries, Port Harcourt, David Ibiyeomie, has dropped all charges of defamation against controversial blogger, Kemi Olunloyo.

The excited daughter of a former governor of Oyo State quickly took to her Instagram page to announce her freedom.

She wrote, My charges of #criminaldefamation has been dropped by Nigerian police and plaintiff Pastor David Ibiyeomie. I am now FREE!!

Thank you to my loyal fans, my lawyers Kayode Ajulo and Eugene Meabe of Castle Law firm, Justice Oshomah at Federal High Court and Justice Fubara in magistrate court. PRAISE GOD!!

I will apply to pick up my travel passport that was seized by the Federal Government as part of my bail conditions. God is good!! 

Kemi Olunloyo, a few days ago, testified that she had given her life to Christ and had become a member of Pastors Ibiyeomies church.

She was arrested in March 2017 after publishing a story that the pastor was having an affair with Nollywood actress, Iyabo Ojo.

She was detained at the Port-Harcourt prisons until her eventual release.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
We brought you a report yesterday on Ghanaian actor John Dumelo being engaged after he shared a post on Instagram that led the media to believe that he had just proposed to his mystery girlfriend who said YES!

He shared a photo of a ladys hands with an engagement ring and simply captioned it, She said YES.

True story is the actor actually took the shine off his friends proposal to his girlfriend with the post.

It was his best friend, Fred Nuamah (Chief Executive of Ghana Movie Awards) who proposed to his girlfriend of many years, Martekor aboard a flight to Liberia where they were all headed to attend the inauguration ceremony of President elect, George Weah.

Below is a video from the proposal 35,000 feet above sea level.

-Gistreel
Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, has told Serikin Fulani in the state, Muhammed Abashe, that he will be held responsible for any further attack in the state.

The governor, who was furious about the recent killing of a Tiv woman in Orin Ekiti by people suspected to be Fulani herders, said Abashe had failed in providing leadership by not stopping his kinsmen from destroying farms and attacking residents under any slightest provocation.

Fayose said this at separate peace meetings held on Friday and Saturday nights with Fulani herdsmen under the aegis of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, farmers, hunters, security agencies and representatives of the Tiv community in Ado Ekiti.

He said, If you (Fulani herders) still want to stay among us, you must accept the responsibility to ensure that none of our peoples farms is destroyed by herdsmen any longer. None of our people must be killed by your men, either they are strangers or those herdsmen living among us.

If any killing or destruction of farms of our people occurs again in that area, I will ensure that I use the law to fight you, their leader, on it. This is the last warning I am giving you, he said.

The governor said the activities of the Fulani herders had continued to stain the names of President Muhammadu Buhari and other notable Fulani leaders in the country.

Henceforth, he said Fulani herders must register with N5,000 in their host communities for identity and location.

He said, This killing is giving Fulani people a bad name. If there are no good people among them, how would General Buhari rise to be President? There are doctors, lawyers, engineers and other notable professionals among you. This is denting their names. The greatest of men are the peace makers.

Even though President Buhari does not send people to kill, it is spoiling his name. We are to make sure the killing stops.

The governor said he would not compromise his efforts to shield the state from the menace of the herders.

He added, Im calling on the Federal Government to be firm, when actions are taken against these mindless individuals, these killings will stop.

It is because they are taking it like a family affair; this is not in the interest of Nigeria. Ordinary Nigerians cant carry AK47 or pump action guns.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
Adam Beckerink

In Chicago, Adam Beckerink and Jonathan Welbel have become partners in the tax practice. Within the same practice, Andrew OBrien-Penney has become the director of economics and Ivan Tsios is now the director of economics and valuation services.

Beckerink advises multinational corporations and high-net-worth individuals on a range of tax issues, tax controversies and litigation, including multistate and federal tax planning and the tax aspects of mergers and acquisitions. He represents clients on state tax matters before administrative appeal boards, tax tribunals and courts in Illinois and other US states.

Welbel advises multinational corporations on transfer pricing and other international tax issues with a focus on US federal tax controversy. He helps clients navigate the audits, appeals and litigation process, and he has extensive experience working with tax court practice and procedure.

OBrien-Penney provides clients with economic analyses and valuations to assist them in planning and supporting business reorganisations, new transfer pricing policies, transitioning to principal company structures and implementing cost sharing arrangements. He also advises on audit and dispute resolution situations, supply chain restructuring, planning, advance pricing agreements (APAs) and intellectual property migration opportunities.

Tsios provides comprehensive economic and valuation services related to transfer pricing issues and other tax matters. He assists clients with planning inter-company pricing, US and foreign documentation, negotiating APAs, restructuring inter-company arrangements, intellectual property transfers and dispute resolution. Tsios also works in the preparation valuations of businesses, intangible property and damages in mergers, acquisitions and other transactions, corporate tax planning, corporate reorganisations, antitrust and competition, and debt and equity valuation.

In New York, Paul DePasquale and Tatyana Johnson are now partners in the tax practice, and Joshua Nixt has been appointed as the director of economics.

DePasquale advises high-net-worth individuals and families on a range of matters, including cross-border investments, real estate investments, income tax and transfer tax planning, trust and estate planning and business succession, among others. He also advises multinational corporations and investment funds on US inbound and outbound international tax issues, as well as financial institutions on FATCA, CRS, withholding taxes and information reporting.

Johnson focuses her practice on US federal income taxation of corporations, with an emphasis on international tax planning. She advises clients on international mergers, acquisitions, post-acquisition and pre-disposition restructuring, spin-offs, supply chain restructuring, and other tax-related matters, including outbound and inbound tax planning, income tax treaties, efficient repatriation and intangible property migration.

In his role as director of economics, Nixt advises multinational companies across a variety of industries on transfer pricing and tax-related engagements, including planning of inter-company transactions, preparing US and foreign documentation, valuation and audit defence. His practice focuses on IP and other intangibles, and he has managed several analyses related to licensing, IP migration, and cost sharing.

In Mexico City, Victor Morales-Chavez has become a partner in the tax practice and Allan Pasalagua-Ayala is counsel.

Morales-Chavez's practice focuses on corporate taxes, non-resident taxation, international tax treaties and general tax planning. He advises multinational companies on projects related to M&A, corporate restructuring and due diligence.

Pasalagua-Ayala advises clients on transfer pricing matters, with an emphasis on economic analysis, including planning, compliance, valuations, APAs and audits in Mexico. He counsels companies from different industrial sectors on local transfer pricing matters, but has also been involved in global and regional documentation projects. He also has experience advising on business and intangible assets valuations.

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January 22, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) The Critical Investor profiles a base metal developer with a project in British Columbia that recently signed a major funding agreement with Wheaton Precious Metals.



Kutcho project

1. Introduction

Very rarely I come across a junior that simply seems to tick almost all boxes, and it looks like new sponsor Kutcho Copper Corp. (KC:TSX.V) is doing just that. From project profitability to management, from financials to geology, from location to metal prices, it comes across as a genuine display of quality and excellence. CEO Vince Sorace certainly made the most of Capstone Mining's strategy change a few years ago not to develop relatively smaller, non-core assets, and now looking to divest assets to clean up their troubled balance sheet.

In an impressive stream/convertible debt/equity deal with Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (WPM:TSX; WPM:NYSE) to the tune of C$120M, Sorace managed to buy the Kutcho Copper Project outright in C$28.8M all cash plus an equity interest in the new to be formed company from Capstone, when Kutcho Copper still was predecessor Desert Star Resources, with a market cap of only C$10M at the time. As a consequence, the company is also fully financed to the FS under the current mine plan. I can't recall (I'm in this industry since 2010) ever having seen deals being done that are so much bigger than the involved junior itself, and are so well structured, with such a quality asset, so as far as I am concerned this should be a prime candidate for deal of the year for 2017.

Although Sorace would certainly deserve all the acclaim for this deal he could possibly get, the main purpose of this article is of course providing an outlook on upside potential for investors. When management would decide to just advance the project, which already boasts an excellent 2017 Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS), to Feasibility Study (FS) stage and having it fully permitted, there is already realistic potential for a double at current strong (and expected to go higher) base metal prices. But there is more. The company has several possibilities to include considerably more resources into the mine plan, which could increase the Net Present Value (NPV) of Kutcho Copper significantly. In this analysis I will discuss this potential, compare the company with peers, and indicate valuation upside.

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. Company

Kutcho Copper Corp. is a Canadian resource development company focused on expanding and developing the Kutcho high grade copper-zinc VMS project in northern British Columbia. The project is located nearby the richly mineralized Golden Triangle Zone, in hilly/moderately mountainous terrain. As can be seen below by the number of projects and mines, British Columbia is a familiar mining jurisdiction, and has a solid ranking on the Policy Perception Index according to the last Fraser Survey of Mining Companies, coming in at #41 out of 104 jurisdictions worldwide.

Location map: Kutcho Copper: Kutcho project

The company signed a definitive agreement with Capstone Mining to acquire the Kutcho high grade copper-zinc-gold-silver project for C$28.8M and a 9.9% equity interest in Kutcho Copper, and at the same time released an updated PFS on June 15, 2017, which showed excellent figures. Seeing this being done at the same time is pretty unusual as well, but definitely confirms the can-do mentality of Sorace and his team for me. The base case scenario generates an after-tax NPV8 (8% discount) of C$265M and an after-tax IRR of 27.6%, using metal prices of US$2.75/lb copper, US$1.10/lb zinc, US$17.00/oz silver and US$1,250/oz gold and a currency exchange rate of 0.75 USD/CAD. This is all based on a modest initial capex of C$220.7M which is well below base case NPV, which is a strong feat for a base metal project in general. With current (much higher) metal prices this already proves to be a conservative PFS, and there is much more upside. More on this later.

Kutcho Copper could buy this asset as it made an impressive set of deals with Wheaton Precious Metals, formerly known as Silver Wheaton, and raised cash in the market. Besides the streaming deal which will provide US$65M for FS, permitting and early construction, a combination of a C$20M convertible debt loan and a C$4M equity financing with Wheaton, plus a mostly brokered C$14.7M equity financing (the aforementioned C$4M Wheaton equity was included here) provided for the C$28.8M cash component in order to acquire the Kutcho project from Capstone. I followed it closely and was amazed at the achievements, as I know how hard it can be for juniors to just raise a few million dollars. The Wheaton deal obviously opened many doors.

After closing the acquisition on December 15, 2017, which happened just a week after raising the C$14.7M, Kutcho Copper commenced trading on December 21, 2017, at the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker KC.V.

As of January 16, 2017, Kutcho Copper has a share price of C$0.76 and a market cap of $36.82M, with only a very tight 48.45M shares outstanding (fully diluted 70.42M, all options and warrants out of the money at C$1.00, expiry in 3 years). The average volume since trading on December 21 is a pretty liquid 475,000 shares.

Share price over 1 year period

As soon as the trading halt was lifted, the markets showed a lot of interest, and as fundamentals and future potential seem to be excellent, I see Kutcho Copper shaping up as one of the go-to base metal projects for the coming years.

Kutcho Copper has an estimated $4M in cash at the moment, and C$20M in debt. Management and Board controls 10% of shares, which is good to see; Wheaton Precious Metals holds 13% and Capstone Mining is the largest shareholder with 16%. There are 17.65M warrants, of which 6.37M are in the money and 3.4M of those will expire before the end of August. The balance has an expiry in 3 years @ C$1.00. The options have an average life of 4.25 years with a weighted average price of $0.62.

The management team and the board of directors consist of some very experienced quality people. For starters there is President and CEO Vince Sorace, who has been around for 25 years in the mining business, having raised over C$200M and founded various private and public resource companies. He managed to attract a few very interesting names to his team, as there are two key people from former high flyer Kaminak Gold: VP Community & Environment Allison Rippin Armstrong, and VP Exploration Rory Kutluoglu. COO Rob Duncan is also a household name in mining, having done a lot of exploration for majors including Rio Tinto and Inmet, with a lot of specific VMS experience. Eva Nakano does Corporate Development, and it's the first time I see this job being done by someone who is a Professional Geologist with an MBA.

Recent additions are Len Holland and Angus Christie, no newcomers either in the mining industry. Holland led the re-commissioning of Trevali's Caribou project, consults to Glencore, SNC Lavalin and First Quantum Minerals among others, and will lead the optimization of metallurgical processes. Christie, who led the Feasibility Studies by JDS for Sabina Gold & Silver and Kaminak Gold, will oversee the Feasibility Study process for the company. These two experts further complete and solidify one of the best technical teams possible.

The Board of Directors consists among others out of Stephen Quin, the current CEO of Midas Gold (who is also the former President and COO of Capstone Mining, and former President and CEO of Sherwood Copper, which amalgamated into Capstone during his tenure), Bill Bennet, former BC mines Minister for 3 periods, helped launch BC's First Nations mine revenue sharing program, and Brad Mercer, who leads exploration at Capstone Mining, who also managed the Kutcho field program in 2010 that contributed to the 2011 PFS for Capstone at the time.

The Advisory Board has also three notable and very experienced names on board, as there are Peter Meredith, former CFO and Deputy Chairman of Ivanhoe Mines, Rob Carpenter, co-founder and long time President and CEO of Kaminak Gold, and Tookie Angus, current Chairman of Nevsun Resources and former Managing Director of Mergers & Acquisitions for Endeavour Financial, and former Head of the Global Mining Group for Fasken Martineau. With Sorace having arranged all financings necessary to complete the feasibility study under the current mine plan, I can't think of a better team to handle exploration, project development and permitting.

I guess by now it becomes clear why I am pretty enthusiastic about Kutcho Copper, but first I will discuss the basics like the deals and main metals copper and zinc, before I delve into project, project economics and potential upside.

3. The Deal and the Financings

The acquisition of the Kutcho project by predecessor Desert Star Resources was a relatively straightforward deal, as the majority was cash, as can be seen in the summarized terms of the agreement as per the news release of June 15, 2017:

Desert Star to acquire 100% interest in Capstones wholly-owned subsidiary Kutcho Copper Corp. which holds 100% interest in the Kutcho project

Desert Star to pay Capstone C$28.8 million cash upon closing

Capstone to become 9.9% shareholder of Desert Star at the completion of the Acquisition

The shares issued to Capstone, will be restricted from sale for a period of two years from the date of issuance. Upon termination of the pooling restrictions, Capstone must give the Company written notice of its intention to sell any of the Purchased Shares, and Desert Star will have a 10-day right to designate the purchaser of such shares.

For so long as Capstone holds at least 5% of the issued and outstanding shares of the company, Capstone will retain the right to:

- Appoint one director to Desert Star's board; and

- Participate in any subsequent security offerings on a pro-rata basis in proportion to Capstones beneficial ownership interest in the Company's outstanding shares immediately prior to such offering



- Appoint one director to Desert Star's board; and - Participate in any subsequent security offerings on a pro-rata basis in proportion to Capstones beneficial ownership interest in the Company's outstanding shares immediately prior to such offering If the closing of the acquisition has not occurred on or before August 31, 2017, either Capstone or the Company may elect to terminate the Agreement

The C$28.8M cash component was puzzling to me when I first read about the intended acquisition, as normally it would be extremely difficult for an almost inactive C$10M market cap junior to raise that kind of money, not even taking into account the resulting amount of dilution. Therefore, the involvement of Wheaton two months later was quite a surprise.

The 9.9% stake of Capstone and a Board seat reinforces the relationship between the two companies, as director Quin was the former President and COO of Capstone, and already had the Kutcho project under his supervision as the CEO of Sherwood before it amalgamated with Capstone. VP Exploration of Capstone Brad Mercer is the representative for the 9.9% interest of Capstone in Kutcho Copper.

The last highlighted term turned out to be a formality, when the C$65M streaming deal with Wheaton was announced, Capstone was more than happy to initially extend the deadline to September 30, 2017, and extended this further into December later on, as CEO Sorace provided enough convincing arguments to do so.

The first streaming deal with Wheaton was already impressive, as Wheaton has the reputation of doing thorough due diligence. Here are the highlights:

These terms are not too different compared to other deals. For example, the ongoing cash payments for silver come in at 20% at the Glencore-Wheaton deal (US$900M upfront cash).

In addition to this, Wheaton also agreed to participate in up to 14% of a proposed equity financing to a maximum of C$4M, proceeds to be used for the acquisition of the Kutcho project. This, and the US$7M upfront for FS expenditures were quite important in my view to convince participants in the pivotal C$14.6M round later on.

Another agreement very important for this round was the C$20M convertible debt loan with Wheaton, announced on October 31, 2017, which was fully backstopped by Wheaton, second lien to the US$65M stream and bears 10% interest per annum. This provided for the majority of the C$28.8M acquisition price for Kutcho in cash. The conversion price is a 25% to 30% premium to the price of any concurrent equity financing.

This equity financing was the C$14.6M round as mentioned before, priced at C$0.65 with half a warrant (@C$1.00, 3 years expiry). The money was raised by a syndicate lead by Macquarie, consisting of BMO, Haywood and PI Financial, and was the biggest risk in my opinion as everything else depended on it. CEO Sorace came through with flying colors, the acquisition of the Kutcho copper-zinc-silver-gold project could be finalized and Kutcho Copper was born.

Because of this deal, Kutcho Copper doesn't have to finance US$57M of capex by itself anymore (US$65M Wheaton stream minus US$8M of FS expenditures), which according to rules of thumb of 2/3 debt-1/3 equity would save the company about US$20M in dilution (which is about C$25M) in the long run.

An old, still existing back-in right of Royal Gold for 50% for 300% of eligible expenditures triggered at the FS isn't likely to be executed anytime soon. First, the back-in right is not on the entire deposit; it is only on a portion of the deposit. Royal Golds 50% of that portion amounts to 24% of the project. At the moment, the eligible expenditures are sitting at $50M and this will be increasing with another estimated C$12-15M. Therefore, their back-in payment would be at least C$150M and likely up to C$195M. If Royal Gold choses to back-in, they would additionally be responsible for their 24% of initial capex, so on a C$220.7M capex that is an additional C$53M, resulting in C$203-248M payments.

On a $265M NPV it doesnt make much sense for Royal Gold to pay that kind of cash for only 24%, which is just C$63.6M. Even at an NPV of about C$800-1000M it would mean just break even for Royal Gold, but capex increases with the expanded scenario which would be needed for these kind of NPV numbers, so the needed NPV needs to be significantly higher before they would be interested. According to my modeling later on in this article, an NPV of C$800M comes close to the best scenario at C$3.75/lb copper, so never say never but it seems like this could only become a realistic scenario at C$5.00-5.50/lb copper.

Talking about copper, let's have a look at the main metals of the Kutcho project.

4. The Metals: Copper and Zinc

The primary revenue generator of the Kutcho project is copper, followed by zinc, both accounting for about 92% of total revenues. According to the 2017 PFS, the majority (about 66%) of copper-zinc revenues for the Kutcho project is generated by copper at a US$2.75/lb copper price and a US$1.10/lb zinc price.

Copper

Copper is a well-known metal as it is used for many purposes (electronic devices, power cables, cars, plumbing, dynamo's, building parts, etc.). Copper is deeply tied to the Chinese economy, which uses about 40% of global supply. The trading and pricing of copper has become an indication of the overall health of the Chinese economy. Before that, it more or less did the same for the world economy, hence the name "Dr. Copper."



Copper; ready to be shipped

Since 2001, the price of copper increased dramatically, following the development and growth of China. However, this growth path didn't appear to be sustainable for the long term, and China is currently switching from an exporting producer to a consumer oriented economy.



Copper price history

Since copper has been or is still used (little do we know) as collateral in many financings in China, it could very well be that large, hidden stockpiles still exist. A side effect of this function as collateral is that the perception of "Dr. Copper" changed, and cannot be used anymore to simply gauge the state of the Chinese economy, let alone the world economy. It becomes more of an indication of speculation on copper.

Notwithstanding this, as the Chinese economy and the world economy in general are doing well and keep improving, overall demand for copper seems to have picked up again since the beginning of last year. This has been fueled by several events and developments, as there were strikes at some of the largest mines, Indonesia temporarily halting exports of concentrate, improving Chinese growth figures, Trump's tax cut plans, Chinese efforts on limiting pollution affecting smelter operations and the ongoing paradigm shift towards electrification of society (electric vehicles, solar, wind, grid storage, batteries, etc.), which will involve a significant increase in copper demand.

At a longer timeframe it is well known that the average grade of existing operations and their reserves keep dropping, impacting output. Besides this, it is also a problem that new projects aren't discovered fast enough to keep up with ever rising demand. Codelco, one of the biggest copper producers globally, is currently investing up to $25B in its existing mines just to keep production levels intact. Another development is the increasing time from discovery to production, due to needed increasing size of projects, as lower grades result in increasing need for economies of scale, and this in turn leads to huge projects that are hard to develop, permit, finance and construct, especially since many jurisdictions hosting large copper resources are becoming more hesitant on increasing environmental concerns. This is all believed by analysts to lead towards a supply crunch for copper in a few years, widening to a massive 7-8Mt deficit by 2030:



Copper supply/demand; Rio Tinto presentation, source: Wood Mackenzie Q3 2017

2030 is a long way out from today of course, and part of the copper price is speculation, but it does look like Kutcho Copper is positioned well when aiming for a production decision in 2-3 years.

Zinc

A chronic shortage of supply of zinc is well underway now. The coincidental closure of major zinc mines (Brunswick, Perseverance, Century, Lisheen, Skorpion) through depletion during 2016, taking 500kt per annum off the table, resulting in a widening supply/demand deficit and lowering LME stocks to critical levels, and coupled with new capacity not coming online before the end of 2018, the outlook for the zinc price in 2018 looks strong. The price of zinc already ran up from US$0.67 to a recent US$1.53/lb, and is forecasted to go up even more this year, possibly even to US$2/lb:

The zinc market has been in deficit for a long time (since 2012), but only since the end of 2015 did the zinc price start to appreciate, probably due to covert Chinese stockpiles which finally seemed to be depleted by then. Chinese stockpiles are always a possibility with any Chinese supply and/or demand dominated commodity.

Here is a chart from Kitco.com, indicating long term weakness in LME inventories, but only since the end of 2015 coinciding with factors like production going offline:

It seems like the stocks are heading for new lows, and recently broke through the 200,000t levels, and dropped below the 10-day supply threshold that is deemed to be critical. China has also been shutting down numerous mines due to safety and environmental concerns. However, there are developments going on which could balance the current supply/demand deficit in a few years. Glencore is bringing back online a staged annual 130,000t of production at its Lady Loretta mine located in Australia, commencing in Q4, 2018 and at full production at the end of 2019.

Another mine is the Dugald River mine, owned by Chinese giant MMG, which would add 170,000t annually, also located in Australia. Notable operators looking to expand existing mines are Teck and Hindustan Zinc, adding another estimated 170,000t. This is also planned for late 2018 or the beginning of 2019. As total zinc production is about 14Mt per year, adding 470,000t doesn't sound much but the earlier cutback of 500,000t was able to send the zinc market in a serious deficit. Big question will be what (Chinese) demand will look like when new supply starts to come online. As zinc is primary used for galvanizing steel, its demand is tied to general economic growth. At current growth rates, which aren't accelerating yet and are modest, I see the zinc price coming down again after a peak somewhere this year, but could probably hold on to levels above US$1.10-1.20/lb for the longer term, as I don't view the forecasted additional production coming online capable of creating a big surplus.

As the majority of revenues is generated by copper, the outlook for the long-term economics of this project is strong in my view.

5. Project

The Kutcho project is located in northern British Columbia, approximately 100 kilometres east of Dease Lake and Highway 37, and consists of one mining lease and 46 mineral exploration claims encompassing 17,060 Hectares. The site is accessible via a 900-meter long gravel airstrip located 10 km from the deposit and a 100 km long seasonal road from Dease Lake suitable all year for tracked and low-impact vehicles, and trucks in the winter period. The road and airstrip obviously have to be upgraded for a mining operation, and this is taken into consideration in the 2017 PFS, which will be briefly discussed later on.

I wondered what exactly the need is to upgrade the airstrip in BC which has some remote areas but isn't exactly the middle of nowhere, and management had this to say: "It is very inexpensive to upgrade the airstrip such that it can be used for efficient mining crew rotations. That way scheduled flight service can pick workers up in towns far away such as Smithers, Terrace, and even Vancouver and a crew change out can still be completed in one day. The second, and very important, reason for the airstrip is that it provides a rapid way to get medical aid in and out if there is a serious incident on site. Lastly, it means less traffic on the haul road." Fair enough.

Questions on a potential impact of a winter break were also quickly answered by management. They have planned the scale of the program such that they can achieve all the technical data collection for the feasibility in one field season. Allison Armstrong is also completing a Gap analysis going back from 2017 to 2011 for environmental permitting requirements, and all of that data can also be collected in 12 months. There isn't really a winter break although the easy field season up there is May 21 to October 31. Outside this window, things are not impossible, just more expensive. Environmental monitoring occurs year-round with data downloads and monitoring monthly. These are simple skidoo or helicopter trips in the winter months.

Management will complete all drilling requirements June 1st to Sept 30th with up to four drill rigs. Therefore, Kutcho has some safety margin before things become more expensive.

The project has a long history, as mineralization was discovered back in 1968, and Sumitomo and Esso started developing the project from 1972 to 1989. From then onwards, Kutcho sees a number of different owners, where it always had a non-core position, or metal prices didn't justify further development. The last owner Capstone didn't develop it further after a positive 2011 PFS as it changed up its strategy towards larger projects, buying for example Santa Domingo and Pinto Valley, and shelving Kutcho. A few years ago, balance sheet issues emerged, and eventually forced Capstone into recently selling the project.

Mineralization at Kutcho comprises three known "Kuroko-type" volcanic massive sulfide ("VMS") deposits aligned in a westerly plunging linear trend. VMS deposits are sought after as they usually occur in groups, close to each other. Features of the Kutcho deposits suggest that they formed at or near the water-seafloor interface in a structurally controlled depression.

The red sulphide horizons in the right diagram host the mineralization for Kutcho. The chemical composition of the alteration around the Kutcho deposits is well zoned around the hydrothermal vent areas. For readers with geological knowledge: mineralization consists of a pyritic footwall with zoned copper and zinc towards a sharp hanging wall contact.

The largest deposit, Main, comes to surface at the east end of the trend, with Sumac followed by Esso down plunge to the west.

Although Main dips to about 250m below surface, the operation will be largely an underground mine, with only in the first year a starter pit. The proposed mine only handles the Main and Esso deposits, as Sumac hasn't been sufficiently delineated (just Inferred). The Esso deposit is located about 2km on strike from Main, and a possible upgrading and including Sumac into the mine plan could result in some likely development cost savings at Sumac.

The Kutcho project has a decent resource estimate, completed in 2017, and although the pounds of copper don't exceed the 1B pounds (for comparison majors are looking for 5-10B pound deposits), the grade is pretty high. According to this now relatively outdated information from 2015, the global head grade could be ranging between 0.8-0.9% at the moment, and global reserve grade below 0.5% even, so Kutcho's average 2% grade is either way impressive. The by-products improve this to an excellent 2.92% copper equivalent grade:

Management has outlined plans to increase production, and has to increase Reserves for this. The main strategy for this is to use a lower cut-off grade in order to increase Reserves, and as indicated earlier is looking into upgrading Sumac by infill drilling. More on this later, let's have a brief look at the 2017 PFS first.

The results of this study, more in particular the stellar after-tax IRR of 27.6%, was the reason I was fascinated straightaway when I heard about the acquisition. Usually a copper dominated project has a capex well over US$1B and has IRRs below 20% @US$3.00/lb copper, but this one came in at a 53% higher IRR using US$2.75/lb copper as a base case, which is conservative at current copper prices of US$3.25/lb, and indicates healthy margins. A major threshold for me was also the capex of C$220.7M being lower than the after-tax NPV8 of C$265M, as I consider the capex being equal to NPV a solid starting point. As an aside: for megaprojects capex could be bigger to the tune of even two times before financiers/buyers lose interest, and IRRs could sink to 14-15% in that case as well.

The PFS used a 2,500 tpd underground mining scenario with a starter pit, with a life of mine (LOM) of 12 years. This results in a C$88k capex/tpd ratio which seems fairly conservative as I will show in a minute. An interesting feature is the limiting of a tailings pond, which is beneficial to permitting this part, as relatively recent failures (2015: Mount Polley, Samarco) have increased scrutiny. The tailings will be sent to a paste backfill plant to produce a cemented paste, half of which will be used for backfill while the other half will be sent to the surface tailings disposal.

This sounds good, but as permitting in BC isn't always easy, I still wondered why management opted for a small 1y starter pit, as open pits create more surface disturbance, which generates more issues for permitting. According to management, the reason they retained the small year one open pit rather than having a 100% underground mine is that the hanging wall rocks from that pit are acid neutral or acid consuming and will be used as construction material for site roads and pads for infrastructure. They would have to dig a small pit for those materials anyway so the idea to have one dual purpose pit where they also get to extract ore from makes sense, at least to me.

Besides this, I suggested dry stack tailings as another option to minimize environmental impact and permitting risks. According to management, dry stack tailings versus paste tailings and a cover over them is something the company and JDS, the engineering firm responsible for the PFS, will indeed study in detail in the upcoming FS. However, at the moment the engineers at JDS favor the paste tailing facility due to factors surrounding climate and precipitation levels. If this remains the safest way to store the surface tailings, the company will be responsible for all interested parties, communities and First Nations understanding that.

CEO Sorace is very aware of the importance of including First Nations in the environmental process, and already struck a Communications Agreement with the Tahltan Central Government on October 26, 2017, creating the framework for strong engagement. Management has also taken initial steps to establish a relationship with the Kaska Dena Government. Typically an Impact Benefit Agreement is signed closer to the completion of a Feasibility or further along the process.

It is refreshing to see the First Nations having a prominent place early on in the process, and by hiring an expert like Alison Rippin Armstrong things seem to be in very good hands.

After this little intermezzo, let's continue with the PFS. Recoveries will be 84.7% for copper and 75.7% for zinc, which indicates an opportunity to optimize the metallurgy according to management. The average annual production will be 33M lbs copper and 46M lbs zinc. The payback period will be 3.5 years after-tax.

Although the company completed a PFS last year, and it isn't easy to find comparable peers, I wanted to have some idea of metrics for underground copper projects:

As mentioned, it can be seen that capex for Kutcho seems low in absolute terms, but in relative terms it is at least twice as expensive compared to peers. This has a lot to do with infrastructure, but probably also with economies of scale, as you can see at the different throughput rates. I also included the monster project of NGex Resources, Los Helados, to show what scale can ultimately do for capex/tpd. This is one of the reasons that management is aiming at a 4,500tpd scenario. Sustaining capital seems low as well vs capex, compared to its U.S. peers, especially for an underground operation. Management had this to say about it: it all depends how companies have distributed initial capex vs sustaining capex. The Kutcho initial capex includes items like full plant construction, road and full 1 year of underground development, therefore sustaining capital is low and primarily consists of underground development. I guess I would have to compare the studies more in-depth to fully understand the differences here.

The Nevada Copper IRR seems to look good on a conservative US$2.77/lb copper price, but looks can be somewhat deceiving. In reality their project has already benefitted from a huge US$220M in sunk costs. A significant part of it has been used for drilling, engineering, studies, permits etc, and also construction of part of the open pit component, but my guess is 35-50% was used for the underground project, more specific for engineering, surface infrastructure and facilities, headframe/hoist installation, warehouse, a 630m deep and 8m diameter production shaft and over 200m of lateral underground development.

Compared to the relatively high capex, Kutcho EPCM seemed low at first sight, but when I looked at Nevada Copper and Highland Copper, it turned out to be quite average for such North American relatively small-scale copper operations. As can be seen, copper recoveries for Kutcho are below those of its peers, and this is another target of management, especially zinc recoveries, which shouldn't be too hard to get to 80% in my view.

When discussing the project, a number of options for further improvement of economics have been identified. Here is a brief overview, and other options as well:

1. Lowering the cut-off from 1.5% to 1% for the Main zone:

This could add 5Mt to the mine plan pretty easily, still maintaining most of the average grades for the various metals, and even more important the orebody looks much more continuous which could prevent dilution of ore with waste, so it wouldn't surprise me if the actual head grade would be relatively higher versus the reserve grade in that case.

2. The same goes for Sumac, as this would add 4Mt. As Sumac is Inferred, more infill drilling is needed to convert this into Measured and Indicated and eventually into Reserves, needed for the upcoming Feasibility Study. The FS is planned for Q2 2019, as can be seen here:

3. The 3 deposits are all open down dip, so there is another possibility to add resources. According to management, 1.3-3.6Mt isn't unrealistic at all. So Kutcho could be looking at 23-24Mt total tonnage potential.

4. There are many other drill targets identified on the property, more specific VMS sulphide horizons like the ones hosting the Kutcho deposits. To gain useful mineralization from these targets on a short term looks a bit like a long shot, as historic drill results were low grade, short intercepts that indicates lots of newly required drilling, but more importantly there is no time to possibly convert these targets from greenfield to eventual reserves before the end of Q4, 2018, when all drilling must be finished according to plan.

5. Improving recovery rates for copper and especially zinc, as according to the PFS: "Recoveries and reagent usage may be improved by further metallurgical test work, particularly zinc, which was not optimized during the latest round of metallurgical testing."

6. The exchange rate of the Canadian Dollar versus the US Dollar is improving (PFS rate was 1.33, now 1.25)

7. Metal prices are significantly higher at the moment compared to the period when the PFS was completed (summer of 2017), management could hold on to these PFS price decks in order to be conservative, but in case of copper it doesn't seem to be a long-term risk to use a slightly higher price. For zinc it looks like the current US$1.10/lb is just fine for the long term.

8. When the current Reserve would go from 10,44Mt to an estimated 20Mt (as you have to take into account some dilution) if everything works out as intended, the possibility for a 4,500tpd operation becomes a reality. When using a bit lower capex/tpd figure because of economies of scale (down from C$88,280 to C$75,000), initial capex is estimated at C$337.5M (coming from C$220.7M). Lowering opex from C$73.72 to C$65 seems realistic too.

When I would use a 20Mt scenario, an 80% Zn recovery rate, a 1.25 exchange rate, a US$3.00 base case copper price and a fixed US$1.10 Zn price, a 2,500tpd throughput scenario for a LOM of 22 years, and a 4,500tpd throughput scenario for a LOM of 12 years, this would be the resulting hypothetical sensitivity table:

Although the average grade goes down a bit on the expansion scenarios, the advantage of adding tonnage is obvious. The 4,500tpd 12-year scenario avoids the increasing discount over the years as is the case with the 2,500tpd 22-year scenario, and would result in a higher NPV and slightly better IRR. The ideal scenario would be, in my view at least, developing the 4,500tpd scenario, followed by potential delineation of more reserves for a longer LOM through exploration, as the geologists have identified many VMS targets in the area:

COO and geologist Rob Duncan explained to me why the not-too-interestingly looking drill results provide enough material to see exploration potential. According to him, in VMS systems, the most important thing to understand is the volcanic stratigraphy (layering) and the position of the geological time breaks where massive sulphides (from black smoker chimneys etc.) can accumulate on the sea floor or in the near subsurface.

The exploration results, simply because numerous assays do contain mineralization, however in short intercepts, indicate that the correct position has been found and that the semi massive or massive sulphides found there do contain economic metal minerals. In other words, they are not completely barren.

None of those results are near economic, however, Duncan has seen several examples where economic intersections can occur only 50m along strike from results like these. This is possible due to how dynamic the volcanic environment was at the time of formation. Just 50m away a different volcanic unit could very well provide the boundary for a sub basin that thicker accumulations if sulphides can get trapped in. Another frequent case is that in combination with the above, a secondary structure could appear, along which new volcanic units erupt from and/or higher heat flow channels the mineralized fluids through. So far drilling has resulted in economic grades, assumed to be in the vicinity of hopefully something bigger, by only the current anomalous results.

According to the opinion of Duncan, none of the exploration intersections (other than immediately west of Esso) represent targets from which to build resources from for now, but are highly encouraging from a pure exploration discovery point of view. Looking at the anomalous, non-economic results, versus the advanced stage of the existing deposits, I can only agree with this as it is too early stage to be included in the upcoming FS. However, this exploration potential could prove to be very interesting later on, as all intercepts are located within a 10km radius from the Main deposit, providing for good trucking options if economic mineralization might be discovered.

If this is the case, and tonnage could be added in order to increase LOM, this will have an impact on NPV and probably valuation as well in the future. In order to get an idea about valuation of Kutcho Copper, I will discuss this subject in the next paragraph.

6. Valuation

As I usually do, a peer comparison often comes in handy when it's about time to say something about valuations. Not so this time, as my tables just indicate that for copper projects there is incredible variation in typical metrics, notwithstanding stage or jurisdiction:

And:

As is always the case with peer comparisons, every company has its own story with very specific details, causing valuations the way they are, therefore making it impossible to take comparison results at face value. A few remarks: for Nevada Copper I used the combined PFS this time, indicating economics for the total project, which are less positive than just the earlier mentioned underground scenario. This causes Nevada Copper to trade more or less as a leveraged play on copper, especially with a capex still much higher than NPV. Western Copper & Gold applied fairly high metal prices besides copper, for example, US$1400/oz for gold which is 35-40% of revenues. A somewhat more industry-standard US$1250/oz would have taken down the IRR to about 19%. Additional issue here is a big capex, also 37% larger than NPV. Besides this, because it is a large open-pit operation and permitting in the Yukon isn't easy, the permitting takes a long time.

Although it isn't a bad project, this causes the P/NAV to be very low, actually the lowest in my table. Entree is actually a very different situation, with the Oyu Tolgoi 20% JV, where it is taken to production by Rio Tinto. I just included it to more or less show the valuation of a developer under construction. As Entree has more projects at Oyu Tolgoi, and the recently published PEA results include them all, my figures aren't very straightforward, but I chose to use the most advanced, smaller part.

Maybe the best peer to look at is Highland Copper, although this one also has another, earlier stage project (White Pine) besides its flagship project, Copperwood. It has been sitting on a 2012 FS for a very long time, actually during the full bear market, and will come with an updated FS in Q2, 2018. The grade, size and economics of their Copperwood project are more or less comparable, and Michigan, U.S. is a solid mining jurisdiction. It appears that Highland already has all major permits in place. The company has top notch shareholders (Greenstone 17%, Osisko Royalties 15%, Orion Mine Finance 14% and also 24% institutional shareholders), and management and directors hold 7% as well, which is all pretty impressive. There are a few differences of course: the share structure is very much diluted with 467.5M O/S and 617.8M F/D, and I am not aware of any financial packages like Kutcho Copper has arranged. Notwithstanding this, I consider Highland Copper an interesting copper play, worth further due diligence, as I don't own it yet. This all results in a P/NAV for Highland of 0.30, which is 130% higher compared to the current figure for Kutcho Copper, which indicates re-rating potential.

When we would look at the P/NAV of smaller producers like Nevsun, Sierra Metals and others, we see an average P/NAV of 0.6-0.7, and considering the size of the Kutcho deposits so far, this category is the direction Kutcho Copper will be going.

It is very hard to pinpoint towards a value of a developer before it is fully financed and ideally built and commencing production, but in my view the Highland Copper P/NAV of 0.3 provides us with a realistic and conservative guidance at FS/permitted stage. With the current base case NPV8 of C$265M @US$2.75/lb Cu, this would result in an estimated market cap of C$79.5M, and a hypothetical F/D share price of C$1.14. As management isn't going to sit on their hands, assuming they can in fact prove up 20Mt in Reserves, the 4,500tpd scenario would generate an estimated NPV8 @US$3.00 of C$584M, which would result in a hypothetical F/D share price of C$2.50 in 2 years from now, if all goes as planned. Also keep in mind that the Kutcho economics are excellent for a base metal project, and excellent economics usually get a premium in the market.

When the company achieves capex financing and successful construction afterwards, the P/NAV of 0.6-0.7 comes on the radar, with hypothetical targets of C$4 in sight, including new dilution as any package would probably contain some new equity. And this is all still at C$3.00/lb copper and C$1.10/lb zinc, which could prove to be conservative in a few years from now.

For this year, all efforts are geared towards increasing and upgrading the reserves/resources by lots of drilling, optimizing metallurgy, doing baseline studies and environmental assessment/permitting work. This will result in two major catalysts in the first half of next year: the updated resource estimate in Q1 2019, and the FS in Q2 2019. I asked management if they would be open to provide an updated PFS somewhere halfway (Q3 2018), based on already converted resources and optimizations until that point, and it seems a possibility in order to avoid a 2-year timeframe between the PFS and FS.

7. Conclusion

The longer I look at Kutcho Copper, the more I realize this is a very rare junior. It isn't ten-bagger material in 2 years, but in my view this could be one of the most compelling and low risk triples over that same time frame that I know of.

Management is top notch, the project has excellent economics and lots of upside potential, backers are top quality with Wheaton Precious Metals, and main metal copper is forecasted to go into long-term deficits, which could create higher metal prices. Dilution will be limited to an absolute minimum as everything up to the start of construction barring unexpected events is accounted for financially, and the share structure is already very tight.

All fundamentals appear to check out for this junior, and it seems only a matter of time before Kutcho Copper enjoys even further enhanced project economics, visualized by key catalysts, hopefully causing a significant re-rating. In my view, Kutcho Copper could very well be on its way to establish itself as one of the go-to base metal juniors of 2018 and beyond.

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 on my website www.criticalinvestor.eu, and follow me on Seekingalpha.com, 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, currently has a long position in this stock, and Kutcho Copper is a sponsoring company. All facts are to be checked by the reader. For more information go to www.kutcho.ca and read the companys profile and official documents on www.sedar.com, 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.



Exploration camp used by Kutcho Copper

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Vancouver, British Columbia - January 22, 2018 (Newsfile Corp.) (Investorideas.com Newswire) ePower Metals Inc. (TSXV: EPWR) (the "Company" or "ePower") announces results of its fall exploration program at Panther Creek Cobalt Project located in the Idaho Cobalt Belt in Lemhi County, Idaho. Assays for 14 rock samples range from trace to 0.37% Co, and 0.014 to 19.3 g/T Au. 797 soil samples range from 4.7 to 355 ppm Co and have been received and highlights are reported below.

Highlights include:

Cobalt oxide and gold in outcrop (Figure 1 below) 0.37% Co, 3.10 g/T Au and 1.75% Cu over 5' (1.5m) chip/channel sample quartzite, 0.27% Co, 19.3 g/T Au and 2.4% Cu over 1' (0.3m) in oxidized quartz vein/gossan 0.23% Co, 0.22 g/T Au and 0.70% Cu over 2' (0.6m) in biotite rich quartzite 0.002% Co, 4.15 g/t Au and 0.29 % Cu over 3' (0.9m) in oxide stained quartz veining 0.002% Co, 5.95 g/t Au and 0.35% Cu over 3' (0.9m) in oxide stained quartz veining with biotite

Delineation of two parallel soil anomalies which, (Figure 2 below) intersect historic working on Long Dyke and Sweet Repose and trend towards the Blackbird mine to the west along the Panther Creek trend

Reconnaissance mapping confirmed the presence of widespread cobalt-copper mineralization including erythrite in stratiform and vein-type occurrences

Michael Collins, President & CEO stated "These results demonstrate the robust nature of the mineralization on the Panther Creek trend and confirm our geological and exploration models as we search for the next cobalt deposit in the Idaho Cobalt Belt. The high gold grades in outcrop are also seen in the Ram and Blackbird deposits and indicates we are on the right track to discovery."

"ePower is committed to creating significant shareholder value by putting together a high-quality property portfolio of cobalt projects that the Company believes are undervalued, strategically positioned and have the potential to provide future supply to the growing rechargeable battery sector."

Winter Program

ePower is permitting a sampling and structural mapping program for both the Sweet Repose Adit, and Long Dyke Adit. Given the high grade gold values returned from outcrop samples, the pulp splits from the fall soil sampling program have been sent for gold assay. This work will help define drill targets below the two adits and will refine our exploration model for the Panther Creek Trend. Additional soil and outcrop sampling is planned to fully cover the Panther Creek project as soon as weather permits. This information will be integrated with the results presented here and used for targeting geophysical surveys and drilling.

The Panther Creek claims are contiguous with eCobalt Solution Inc.'s Ram deposit where a recently completed feasibility study outlined a Measured and Indicated Resource of 3.44 million tonnes grading 0.59% cobalt and 0.73% copper, (http://www.ecobalt.com/project/technical-reports).

The Panther Creek Cobalt Property

ePower has earned a 50% interest in the Panther Creek Cobalt Property and has the right to earn up to a 100% interest. The property comprises 156-lode mining claims totalling 3,060 acres and a 41.297 -acre mining lease located in the heart of the Idaho Cobalt Belt. For full details on the property transaction please see the Company's news release dated October 24, 2017 or ePower's website at www.epowermetals.com.

Located in the Blackbird Mining district Lemhi County Idaho, the property is contiguous with the claims of eCobalt Solution's ("eCobalt") and their Ram cobalt-copper-gold mine. There are several historic mine workings both on the Long Dike patent claims and around the Sweet Repose Adit which form a linear trend that ends at the historic Blackbird Mine. A historic mine adit on the property was channel sampled by US Geological Survey and returned 1.04% cobalt and 4.14% copper across 10 feet or 3.04 metres (US Geol. Survey, Open File Report 98-478).

Surface sampling on the property by Utah Mineral Resources LLC returned values from trace to 0.91% cobalt and 3.63% copper and 0.74% cobalt and 0.27% copper. The cobalt-copper mineralization is hosted in the micaceous quartzites of the Apple Creek Formation which is a similar geological setting as the historic Blackbird Mine as well as eCobalt's Ram Mine.

Idaho Cobalt Belt

The Idaho Cobalt Belt trends northwest-southeast for nearly 37 miles in east-central Idaho. Included within this belt are numerous historic mines and prospects of the centrally located Blackbird district and deposits of the Iron Creek area at the southeast end (U.S. Geological Survey, 2010). The Idaho Cobalt Belt contains the largest known cobalt resources in the United States and is important because it represents a stable and environmentally sustainable source of cobalt. eCobalt is developing the Idaho Cobalt Project, located to the west of the Panther Creek Cobalt Project in the Blackbird district. eCobalt has just completed a Feasibility Study with a Measured and Indicated Resource of 3.44 million tonnes grading 0.59% cobalt and 0.73% copper, (http://www.ecobalt.com/project/technical-reports).

The Company's fall exploration program was conducted under contract by Brewer Exploration and Geological Services, Inc. of Salmon, Idaho and was conducted by, or under the direct supervision of Brian Brewer, Certified Professional Geologist and a Qualified Person, as defined by NI 43-101. The soil and rock samples were delivered under chain of custody to the ALS Laboratory in Reno Nevada. As an early stage exploration program, the company has relied on internal ALS laboratory standards and blanks for QA/QC. Samples were processed and analyzed for cobalt, copper and 46 other elements using the 4-acid digestion and ICP analytical procedure, (ICP AES with Au 30g gravimetric finish for over limits).

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Michael Collins

President and CEO

For further information, please contact:

ePower Metals Inc.

Suite 501 - 525 Seymour Street

Vancouver, BC, Canada V6B 3H7

Telephone: (604) 764-7094

Website: www.epowermetals.com

Figure 1 Rock Samples with cobalt and gold assays

Figure 2 Panther Creek soil sample locations with cobalt contour values

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The Ames Main Street Farmers Market is a local market that has been a staple of downtown Ames for the past eight years. The market 
With technology and a new approach to making better use of unused spaces, Dublin start up Parkpnp is aiming to shake up the parking industry in Europe, writes Trish Dromey.

Co founder and CEO Garret Flower says the original aim was to create an Airbnb parking equivalent by devising a system which allows residential parking spaces to be rented out, but then I discovered that that most unused and under-used spaces were in the commercial sector, he said explaining that the company has devised a platform that can be used to maximize usage of spaces in schools, offices, hotel car parks and peoples front driveways, as well as in existing car parks.

We have 8,000 car parking spaces in Dublin and, since launching at the end of the year, 200-plus in Cork and 100-plus in Galway. We are now launching in three cities in the Netherlands: Amsterdam, Rotterdam and the Hague, said Mr Flower.

Employing a staff of 15, the company is raising 3m in funding, with a view to moving in to Belgium and Portugal by the end of the year.

Our unique selling point is that we have created the first market place which allows you to park in any space."

The idea for the company was sparked by Mr Flowers frustrated search for a parking space in Dublin in 2015. He eventually solved the dilemma by knocking at a womans door and offering her 10 to park in her driveway. Prior to this, he co-founded Krust Bakery, the first company in Ireland to make cronuts, a mix of a doughnut and a croissant.

Later in 2015, he met entrepreneur and software developer, Daniel Paul at a Startup event in Dublin. 1Together they set up Parkpnp, using their own funding and recruiting staff who initially worked without pay, but later received shares in the company. Mr Paul, the companys chief technical officer, developed a minimum viable product, which they were ready to demonstrate at the end of 2016. On foot of this, they raised 500,000 from Powerscourt Capital and Enterprise Ireland, which identified Parkpnp as a high-potential start-up.

Using the funding to recruit staff, they located the company in Dublin city centre and completed the development of the technology, including an app, which lists available spaces and allows users to pay by phone. The company also devised hardware for commercial customers, which controls access to parking areas. They also needed to identify unused and under-used spaces and to get people used to the idea of renting out residential spaces.

We knocked on a lot of doors, handed out leaflets and explained to people that they could earn revenue from unused spaces. Its common business sense to think you can make money from something not being used, said Mr Flower.

They launched in April 2017 with 300 spaces, but have now grown this to 8,000, of which 80% are commercial. Customers include Euro carparks, the Crowne Plaza hotel and Parkrite. A Dutch company Mr Flower met at the web summit last year has now licensed the technology from Parkpnp. Working jointly with the Dutch company, Parkpnp has launched in the Netherlands.

We expect to have 5,000 spaces there by the end of the first quarter, said Mr Flower, explaining that Parkpnp raised 400,000 for this project in late 2017. He says that in its first year of operation, Parkpnp provided parking for 40,000 cars and earned revenue of 250,000. This year, he has set a turnover target of 2m. The 3m being raised by the company will be used to roll out the Parkpnp platform in Europe this year. It aims to be operating in six European cities by the end of the year. Mr Flower says priority will be given to expanding the team.

We have just moved into a larger office near Pearse Street, D2, and expect to increase the total staff size to 30 by the end of the year. This will include 20 in Dublin and 10 in the Netherlands.